Archive for 'mobile' Category
All Touch + Windows 8 SmartPhones – Last 2 Options for Nokia from going Bankrupt
Beleaguered SmartPhone giant is at the mercy of Microsoft now. The last two options for the Handset giant are – All Touch SmartPhones and Windows 8 Phones launching in October this year. We do not expect WP7.5 to drive significant sales of Nokia’s Lumia range.
Nokia – All-touch feature phone Strategy
Nokia’s success in all touch feature phone platform which will be determined by the following three factors,
Clean User Interface: Nokia needs to deliver an easy to use and compelling user interface.
Price: a discount of perhaps 25% to 33% seems necessary to differentiate from low end Android
Ecosystem: broad application availability that matches comparable Android phones
Nokia appear to have abandoned their internal efforts on the UI front in November 2011 by buying Smartphone – a small company specialized in all touch feature phone UIs Channel checks in Taiwan and China with component vendors that indicate that Nokia is transitioning to a new hardware platform this quarter.
Comparable devices (1GHz phones with multi touch support) in the market seem priced at $150 or more. Given this, we believe Read the rest of this entry »
Mobile QoS – Airtel Gains Steeply – Idea Falls to Worst – RCom Struggles with Customers
TRAI conducts independent ground survey and research on QoS of Mobile Service Providers. Here is the outcome of the latest Research across all the Telecom Circles in India.
Airtel:Bharti Airtel has been has been able to significantly arrest the issue of weak QoS scores, mainly on account of lower-than benchmark performance on the customer support quality matrix. Airtel managed to improve score from 2 (second worst) to score 5 (best). We would also like to highlight that Airtel’s performance is below the benchmark in only 3 instances across 22 circles and 16 parameters. Airtel appears to have sorted out its back-end chastened by recurring market share losses to Idea and Vodafone.
Idea Falls to Worst Idea has now fallen to the worst position. The main parameter driving its scores down is below-benchmark performance in customer support quality in 12 circles, forming a part of 16 circles from metro, category ‘A” and ‘B’ circles. Inability to operationally keep up with above-average subscriber additions over the last six months could have led to Idea’s deterioration customer support quality.
Vodafone India Vodafone’s QoS scores have shown improvement. It increased from score 3 in June 2011 to score 5 (best) in September and score 4 (second best) in December 2011. Over the period, Vodafone has improved its billing and customer support Read the rest of this entry »
Mobile Spectrum Allocation – Auction Only + Defends Recommendations – Tells Data is the Way to Go
Mr. J. S. Sarma, Chairman of the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of India [TRAI] addressed Investors across the World just a while ago on the Recommendations of TRAI on Telecom Spectrum Auction in India. Here are the key points on which Dr. Sharma touched upon,
- As regards the issue of post-January 2008 licencees not getting spectrum owing to the possibility of being outbid by financially stronger operators, Mr Sharma said this is the result of any auction, as the principle of the highest bidder winning applies.
- On the issue of whether reserve prices for various spectrum bands were too high, Mr Sarma said the auction process would eventually decide this
- Mr Sarma said the proper price of spectrum must be discovered and all interested stakeholders may not necessarily agree with TRAI’s price.
- Mr. Sharma was posed with the Question – What if their are No Bidders due to High reserve Prices ? Mr Sarma said this is hypothetical and the bridge will be crossed once they get to it.
- TRAI followed a detailed and proper process before it came out with its recommendations, including Read the rest of this entry »
Mobile Advertising / Monetization on Ringtones – RingAd Android App
This morning I bumped into RingAd a ringtone based advertisement on the Android Platform. This is currently a small opportunity like the reCaptcha Display Brand Building Ad Network but very innovative idea in the Mobile Advertising Space where both the consumers and brand owners benefit.
What is RingAd Android Advertising App ?
To being with you will need to goto the Android AppStore, search for RingAd Free ReCharge download and install RingAd App on your Android SmartPhone. From now on, ringAd will takeover your Ringtones.
RingAd will download some Ads to your phone using GPRS or 3G Data Connection, whichever you have. So every time you receive a call a new RingAd Ad will play as Ringtone and you get compensated for the same by means of points being accumulated in your account which can be exchanged for free ReCharge currently, but in future they may tie up with other vendors to redeem your points. Read the rest of this entry »
Google Cuts Android Deal in India with Reliance – Free RCom Connection + 1 GB of 3G Data
In the past Airtel, Aircel and Vodafone have chosen Apple Inc’s iPhone one of them most expensive pieces of consumer durables in India and a Pathetic Business Strategy by these companies, I’d say. The real need for India is an affordable yet SmartPhone which is only possible by the Android Eco-System where Google leads the initiative and has commoditized the manufacturing of Smart-Phone as most of the features of Android are innovated and engineered by Google 
Google Inc the creators of Android Mobile Platform have cut a deal with India’s Second Largest [in Subscriber Numbers] Wireless Carrier Reliance Communications where every Android SmartPhone sold in India will come with a Reliance 3G Connection as well as Free 3G data of 1GB for 1 month from the date of activation. Google and RCom have signed the deal which will be valid for 24 Months and is valid across all the Android Device Manufacturers HTC, Samsung, Motorola, LG etc.
Does this Mean Customers are locked to Reliance 3G Network ?
Well, the Indian Government under Dr. Singh may have failed in Governance, but an institution called Competition Commission of India [CCI] Read the rest of this entry »
When will SmartPhones become Really Smart to Solve Mobile Traffic Jams ?
Mobile traffic growth will outstrip the ability of carriers to monetize it. Carriers are expected to respond by offloading an increasing proportion of data traffic to Wi-Fi or 700 MHz LTE Network, but this points to (costly) construction of expansive networks.
Can the Smart Phones Do it ?
One possibility that has received very little attention is that smartphones themselves will become data-smart, transmitting data more efficiently and helping to shift traffic to non-peak hours or Wi-Fi networks. So far, there has been no reason for smartphone vendors to focus on network efficiency. The smartphone market has been a land grab focused on higher spending customers.
How can SmartPhones be Data Efficient ?
Smartphone Mobile operating systems and applications will become smarter in their usage of network capacity. We are referring to both raw efficiency (bits it takes to load a web page or an image) and the efficient Read the rest of this entry »
Who is Powering Your SmartPhone Mobile / Tablet Processors ?
Most of the Android phones looked the same. In fact, phones from Huawei and ZTE were comparable with devices from the Tier 1 guys. Almost every OEM introduced a phone using quad-core. So let us look at which company’s processors are powering your smartphones.
Broadcom was very confident about its positioning in mobile wifi versus Qualcomm. The company indicated that they believed they were securing 70% of the connectivity sockets in phones powered by Qualcomm’s 8960 chip. However, broadcom has lost some market with HTC. This is how the following HTC Models are powered – One X (Tegra 3 + TI connectivity), One XL – (MSM8960 + QCOM connectivity), One S – (MSM8960a + QCOM connectivity); One V (MSM8255 + BRCM connectivity). We believe that only one of the four models is using Broadcom’s connectivity. In prior models, we believe Broadcom had close to 80% share. Broadcom remains solidly positioned at Samsung and Apple. Broadcom is likely to gain market share at Nokia and possibly RIM and it would be an uphill task for Qualcomm to penetrate this market.
Qualcomm – Windows on ARM (WoA) is one of Qualcomm’s bigger projects. The company is working on thin, light, always-on and always- connected devices using metro applications. Microsoft’s announcement around WoA timing being consistent with Windows 8 was a big deal, according to Qualcomm, because it illustrated strong support for the WoA architecture.
Qualcomm’s processor will be based on 28nm, versus NVIDIA’s Tegra 3 on 40nm, and TI just started sampling 28nm OMAP5. There are Read the rest of this entry »
Mobile Tariff War Timeline – The Big Fall and Small Rise
We would like to show you how the Big Telecom Tariff war in the Indian Wireless Industry shaped between 2008 and 2011 when the rates fell drastically as a matter of intense competition and they made a small rise later.
- Reliance CDMA launched all local calls at Rs 1 / Minute in Jan-2008
- Reliance GSM Mobile launched with STD Tariffs at Rs 1 / Minute Dec-2008 in line with OneIndia Plan of BSNL launched in 2007
- Tata DoCoMo launches the most innovative mobile tariff plan in the World – 1 Paise / Second Billing – Jan-2009
- Reliance Introduces Flat Rate Calling of 50 Paise / Minute to Any Phone Across India. BSNL Follows.
- Uninor Cuts into Tata DoCoMo and launches 39 Paise / Minute Calling Plan – Dec-09
- Videocon launches STD at 25 Paise / Minute