eComm2008: Emerging Communications Conference

Tracked on Facebook. The "trillion dollar telecommunications industry..."

eComm2008: Emerging Communications Conference: "The trillion dollar telecommunications industry has already started down the path that the homebrew computer took three decades ago. Democratized computation gave birth to the computer industry. eComm tracks, highlights and promotes both the people and the technologies driving the democratization of communications.

Helge: We're going to get more advanced smart phones -> the almost microcomputers

eComm™ brings out the visionaries, bleeding-edge technologies, real-world startups, cutting-edge academic projects, views from the incumbent telecom players; garage based hacks and stirs required policy debates to create the only telecommunications forum to embrace and promote the radical change."

Remote Visual Collaboration

I sketched ideas about remote visual collaboration while we traveled in Italy in the spring 2006.

Mobile file distribution was becoming possible but the roaming costs in Europe restricted intelligent use of mobile devices.

Today, your virtual office moves with you in the pocket. There are tons of things you can do efficiently with smart phones.

I'm in the process of figuring out new ways of doing on-site reporting and collaboration with mobile tools. I think mobility, flexibility and agility will have a tremendeous impact of the effectiveness of an organization after the recession.

Some bullet points from that time:

• get active
• do stuff on the road
• visual file distribution isn't expensive anymore
  
• remote team management is easier than ever
  
• podcasting and webcasting while on the move is possible
  

The Future Internet November 2006

"Internet has been extraordinarily successful and is now a critical part of our economy’s infrastructure. However its limitations due to the design made in the seventies start hampering its potential," I wrote 11/27/06.

Evolutionary improvements to the current network will help sustaining up to a point the growth of the Internet, but are not seen as being enough to face the deep rooted weaknesses of Internet as regards mobility, scalability, wireless generalization and security.

• Connecting people
• Connecting devices
• Connecting objects
  
• The user generated content revolution
• Information day about the future Internet
  

Indeed the Future Internet should be able to sustain by one or many orders of magnitude higher the number of people, devices and objects connected (billions—perhaps even hundreds of billions of users, sensors, tags, processes, micro controllers, etc. ), ensure efficiency, security and trust in transaction for new services, incorporate mobility and universal connectivity in its conception, include the technical features for easy operations and management including guarantees for privacy, multi party governance and delivery of new services .

• ICT in FP7
• The first call will be early 2007
  

The Future Internet research activity in ICT in FP7 is part of challenge 1 and the first call will be early 2007.

Given that the limitations of the Internet are deeply rooted in the architectural design and its protocols and mechanisms, the expected work aims at revisiting the network science foundations of the Internet,

• not only in its novel system components like wireless or sensors networks ,
• but aiming at advanced approaches to architectures and protocols,
  
• driven by the need for general mobility, scalability, new forms of routing, c
• onnectivity in a generalised wireless environment,
• to be coupled later with their validation in large scale testing and interconnected environment.
  

The work of exploratory nature will address how various classes of new requirements constrain the foreseeable evolution of the internet and identify the corresponding long term solutions.

The objective of this information day is to present and discuss views and understandings of which and how long term research could address the challenges for Europe.

SmartPhoneToday: News: SAP Is Wooing the BlackBerry CRM Crowd

SmartPhoneToday: News: SAP Is Wooing the BlackBerry CRM Crowd: "SAP Is Wooing the BlackBerry CRM Crowd. By Richard Adhikari May 6, 2008. In a move that might herald sweeping changes for the mobile workforce, SAP has natively integrated its customer relationship management (CRM) application into the Research In Motion BlackBerry hand-held device. This will give the mobile workforce full access to all of SAP CRM's functionalities, which will be pushed out to them over the BlackBerry. BlackBerries with SAP CRM natively integrated will be generally available within the next few months, and SAP will natively integrate the rest of its business applications into the BlackBerry."

I wrote a story in Finnish today about a Estonian - Finnish joint venture leading to a CRM-tool for Nokia Symbian 60 mobile smart phones. I still have to check how the pilot projects have proceeded since 2006.

News - Flander Oy

News - Flander Oy: "Flander opens a new office in Malmö, Sweden - 16.04.2008. Strategic expansion in Sweden continues.

Flanders announced this a few days ago. Whos is Flander Oy? I got my eyes on this company by accident. I guess that's about the only way to learn about innovative SME's. Some of them are highly specialized and their marketing is B-to-B at most. SME's don't spend time, money and effort to build brand images. What did I learn?

"Flander is one of the leading service providers in software testing and development for mobile, embedded and complex systems in the world. Flander customers include top-tier mobile handset manufacturers, independent software vendors, industrial sector, operators and service providers. With a track record of more than 10 years in the business, it has offices and testing facilities in eight locations across Finland, Sweden and China, employing over 370 software development and testing professionals. Profitable from day one, Flander has earned an AAA rating by Dun & Bradstreet and has certified ISO 9000 and CMMi level 3 processes. Flander customer satisfaction has been above industry average for several years. Website: http://www.flander.com."

Their press release tells more...

Helsinki, Finland and Stockholm, Sweden – April 16, 2008 – Software testing and development services provider Flander announced today the opening of an office in Malmö, Sweden. Headquartered in Finland, Flander now has offices and testing facilities in eight locations across Finland, Sweden and China.

Mobile services to Nokia and Sony Ericsson I guess...

“The Öresund region is an important hub for high-tech companies and research organisations. As one of Europe’s fastest expanding regions, there is a strong demand for an experienced software testing company.” said Sam Olnén, Managing Director of Flander Sweden. Apart from the new office in Malmö, Flander has an office in Stockholm since 2007.

Copenhagen is close. Danes are strong on Internet services...

With a decade of experience in software testing Flander has a strong position in the market. Flander offers a full range of testing services covering the entire mobile handset and application software lifecycle – from early R&D phase system test activities to field trials and final acceptance. Flander services have expanded in the last few years also to cover embedded and complex systems development and testing.

Testing, embedded services...

The new Flander office will be headed by Mr. Magnus Fogelström. He joins Flander from Atos Origin, where he held the position of Sales Manager for outsourcing services in Sweden..."

More news about the company on their home page.This was for my own information.

Where do Innovations come From?

I wrote this 11/28/06: "Where do innovations come from? Where are the innovators of the future located? What is the value of User Generated Innovations? The SMS is a good example of UGI. More and more innovations are coming from outside, from new sources. Internal and external collaboration is becoming essential."

• New products and services
• Differentiate Incremental and / or radical change
• Business model, organizational, process model, products and services innovations
• Innovations are not easy: now we are moving into and open source environment
• Innovation is a real challenge, how to make it happen
• Innovations can't be studied, they are made
  

EUROPA - Rapid - Press Releases

EUROPA - Rapid - Press Releases: "The European Commission today introduced rules to harmonise conditions for the take-off of pan-European mobile communication services on aircraft. These services will allow businesspeople and consumers to receive and make calls and messages safely with their own mobile phones while flying all over Europe. This means that the 90% of European air passengers that already carry mobile phones on-board aircraft can remain contactable during flights.

'Pan-European telecom services, such as in-flight mobile telephony, need a regulatory 'one-stop shop' to operate throughout Europe and this is why the Commission has acted today. One regulatory decision for all European airspace was required for this new service to come into being,' said Viviane Reding, the EU's Telecoms Commissioner.

'Now we expect operators to be transparent and innovative in their price offerings. In-flight mobile phone services can be a very interesting new service especially for those business travellers who need to be ready to communicate wherever they are, wherever they go. However, if consumers receive shock phone bills, the service will not take-off. I also call on airlines and operators to create the right conditions on board aircraft to ensure that those who want to use in-flight communication services do not disturb other passengers."

Indian Company to Sell $20 Cell Phone - Science News | Science & Technology | Technology News

FOXNews.com - Indian Company to Sell $20 Cell Phone - Science News | Science & Technology | Technology News: "MUMBAI, India — India has already built the world's cheapest car — the $2,500 Tata Nano — and now the country has unveiled the telecommunications equivalent: the $20 'people's phone.'

The mobile handset, developed by Spice, the Indian telecoms group that is listed in Bombay and worth $2 billion, is angled at the very lowest end of the market. This means the phone has jettisoned all 'non-essential' features — such as a screen.

'It is just a phone,' said Bhupendra Kumar Modi, the Spice chairman, who hopes to sell about 10 million of the low-cost phones in the next year. Mobile phones priced under about $40 account for only about a fifth of the global market.

However, with half the world's population yet to make a phone call and Western markets becoming saturated — there are more mobile phones than people in the U.K. — companies see massive potential in budget devices aimed at the developing world."

Mippin - Home Mobile Mobizines optimizes website content

Mippin - Home: About Mippin. I learned about this service through Jaiku and decided to blog about it. Mippin is new for me. Did you ever hear about it? It's a mobile service...

Moi Helge, James Whatley has posted a comment to Chibbi's presence update "I am waking up on thd wrong side of the web...": Don't be a muppet - [mipp it](http://www.mippin.com)

Mippin is the revolutionary new service from Refresh Mobile - innovators of the award-winning Mobizines.

Mippin optimises the latest content from websites into the perfect format for mobile phone screens. It provides users with instant and convenient access to the most up-to-date news, blogs and other business and lifestyle information.

Mippin also brings direct benefit to online publishers and advertisers. It allows them to effortlessly distribute their web content and targeted branding messages to mobile audiences.

Mobile broadband to dominate in 2011 | The Register

Mobile broadband to dominate in 2011 | The Register: "Mobile broadband is expected to become the dominant broadband platform worldwide in 2011, according to a new report.

The research, which was carried out by Informa Telecoms & Media, indicates there will be more than one billion broadband subscribers worldwide in 2011, with the majority using mobile rather than fixed systems.

Increased adoption will also lead to bigger revenues, with Informa estimating that more than $400bn in service revenues will be generated by mobile broadband in 2012. HSDPA (High-Speed Downlink Packet Access) is expected to be the leading mobile broadband technology by then in terms of number of subscribers, followed by EV-DO and mobile WiMAX.

EV-DO ('Evolution, Data Only' or 'Evolution, Data Optimised' as it's also known) an alternative third generation standard backed by mobile operators such as Sprint in the US, is expected to have the most subscribers globally by the end of 2007.

However, it is expected to be surpassed by HSDPA, the mobile broadband technology currently favoured by mobile operators in Ireland, in 2009."

According to the study, by June 2007 there were already more than 200 commercial mobile broadband networks worldwide with more than 50 million subscribers using hundreds of different mobile, portable and fixed devices to generate billions of dollars in service revenues.

"Mobile broadband is already a significant market but will explode in the next five years as networks, devices and services mature and spark mass-market adoption," said Roberts.

Mozilla Plans Firefox Browser For Mobile Devices -- Mobile Web -- InformationWeek

Helge: There's plenty of new activity around Mobile now days. Google buying Jaiku is just on of the things showing that the mobile sphare is changing. Web 2.0 companies are moving towards mobile and Nokia is navigating into Internet with Navteq.


Mozilla Plans Firefox Browser For Mobile Devices -- Mobile Web -- InformationWeek: "Mozilla Plans Firefox Browser For Mobile Devices Mobile Firefox aims to bridge the desktop and mobile browsing experiences by allowing bookmarks, history, extensions, and other Firefox capabilities to work just as well on mobile devices.

By Elena Malykhina InformationWeek lokakuu 10, 2007 04:45 PM

There isn't a perfect mobile browser and there is plenty of room for competition in the space, which is why Mozilla is stepping up its efforts to improve the browsing experience on mobile phones, the company said this week. 'People ask us all the time about what Mozilla's going to do about the mobile Web, and I'm very excited to announce that we plan to rock it.

We are serious about bringing the Firefox experience and technology to mobile devices,' wrote Mike Schroepfer, Mozilla's VP of engineering, in his blog on Tuesday. Mozilla's plans include adding mobile devices to the first class/tier-1 platform set for Mozilla 2, the company's all-in-one open source Internet application suite that comes with a Web browser, e-mail, and newsgroup client. The move will make mobile devices part of Mozilla's core platform, Schroepfer said."

Now Is Gone » Mobile Social Media and Other Future Technologies

Now Is Gone » Mobile Social Media and Other Future Technologies: "At a TIE-DC event this week, I watched a Microsoft employee compare it’s mobile platform to Apple’s.

Pretty crazy, huh? But it just goes to show you how important mobile is becoming to the Internet and social media. More and more social networks and internet services are creating mobile versions.

Consider m.twitter.com, mobile Facebook, and mobile Google. As a former wireless reporter and someone who has published an analyst report on the diffusion of wireless Internet technologies, I cannot tell you how thrilling this is.

The dream of broadband mobile environment is within our finger tips. I know what an explosive catalyst this technology will be for our world. Recently on Facebook, I asked some of my friends which technologies they thought would impact us most. Many thought mobile broadband was key."

THE PHONE is one of the most important social media tools.

Future of Blogging

French popular blogger Loic LeMeur has moved over to the States. Blogging isn't that old phenomenon yet. It might be to early to declare the death of blogging. The Cisco CEO Chambers stated recently that the Web 2.0 is doing well and he expects to see growth in the use of video on the net.

Nokia's CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo said yesterday, "We want to have a leading position in the field of Mobile Internet." Nokia wants to strengthen its Internet presence and content services in cooperation with the Carriers. The mobile giant don't want to step on their toes.

loiclemeur people saying blogging is dead with social software growth are totally wrong. I'm reading amazing blog posts you don't find in the press

Sprint to Develop Mobile Internet Portal With Google - New York Times

Sprint to Develop Mobile Internet Portal With Google - New York Times: "NEW YORK (Reuters) - Google Inc. has made its biggest move yet on the U.S. mobile Web market by signing a deal with Sprint Nextel Corp. that positions the Internet company to build services to run on Sprint's planned WiMAX high-speed wireless network.

The two companies said on Thursday that Google will provide its Internet search service for a Web portal that Sprint is developing for the new WiMAX network. The gateway to various Web services will be ready in April 2008. The deal is Google's closest alliance with a major U.S. mobile service provider.

While Google is the world's leading provider of Web search and has agreements with large mobile providers in Asia and Europe, analysts say it has lagged Yahoo Inc. in the U.S. wireless market."


Helge: They are all going for the wireless, Google, Yahoo, Apple, Microsoft.

Is Apple making us more mobile?

THE MOBILE BUZZ AND THE FUTURE OF MOBILITY

The wireless industry has been around 20 years, and people have found the industry to be somewhat complex. A recent article in the Harvard Business Review said, “In the consumer electronics category, customers of mobile phone services were among the most dissatisfied. Pricing plans and services were too confusing. Contracts were restrictive. Service among some carriers was unpredictable. Early attempts to offer video proved more frustrating than compelling.”

Carriers didn’t make it easy in the past. This will change. Consumers can’t wait to get their hands on devices and applications that make it easy to surf, listen and watch media. The future phone will be lesser of a phone in the future; smart phones are growing into mobile devices that let us do things that still are keeping us at our office desks. The post-PC era is looming behind the corner.

The promise of smarter mobility has been around for three to five years (3G), but the real move is starting to happen now (Web 2.0 convergence). We can build a team come to talks with the carriers from a different perspective. Finland is a mobile super power. Apple is in the headlines for some times to come, but there is plenty of undone work waiting for us.

DESIGN, MULTITOUCH AND MEDIA

The upcoming Apple iPhone will certainly have a huge impact on cell phone design. Experts are betting it will affect the future of mobile video even more. Will the combination of YouTube and the iPhone stifle video development?

I’ve been following the media and blogosphere buzz around iPhone for a year. The Nokia N95 is a great smart phone with more advanced alternatives and features for the user. Apple plays another game. They are introducing an easy to use smart phone to the US market and their message is reaching the consumers. There hasn’t been a product launch like this in the world before.

The iPhone launch is a show case of attention and experience economy roll-out that mobilizes traditional media and the blogosphere to spread the word around the world. The iPhone will debut on June 29^th. Its smooth operation and glossy touch screen will certainly have a deep impact on future cell phone and smart phone design.

“The iPhone is revolutionary; it’s flawed. It’s substance; it’s style. It does things no phone has ever done before; it lacks features found even on the most basic phones,” writes the New York Times blogger David Pogue. It isn’t the final solution but it certainly opens up numerous new avenues for those who like to build a perfect mobile communications world.

The mobile 2.0 job isn’t over. Jobs started a few important developments. Customers are getting more in the focus and “the media becomes a message” in smart phones. Nevertheless, this is just the beginning. The best way to make it more valuable is to encourage outside developers to create new uses for it, and Apple has indicated that they are welcoming Web-based applications geared to their new device.

Nokia has announced its new corporate values. Great news, in my opinion, the mobile industry is opening up at many fronts at the same time. There is a lot of work waiting for those able to go for it. All the companies have entered into a new race for the global mobile 2.0. Steven Jobs did call it the post-PC era at the Wall Street Journal “All things digital” conference.

THE TRADITIONAL ENGINEERING APPROACH

There are great mobile phone designers and producers from Finland to South Korea, China to India. USA has been much more Internet centric. Motorola is in trouble. The Silicon Valley start-ups have been designing Web 2.0 and Social Media applications and platforms. Mobility hasn’t been a big issue on the new continent. Things are about to change.

Apple announced June 21 that the iPhone would offer easy access to YouTube videos, thanks to a dedicated YouTube button on the phone's home screen. The YouTube button will take users to a custom page where they can save their favorite videos and presumably search for other videos that interest them. Software enabled mobile add-ons, applications and services are becoming a growth industry.

Mobile video, particularly, has largely been behind a wall. We are now experiencing the first attempts to tear down that wall. The limited and clumsy accesses most consumers have to news, sports and entertainment on traditional cell phones want change over night, but there is a clear shift towards a new attitude in the industry.

Visual Radio and Mobile TV are predicted future growth areas for mobile phones. This development is stronger in Asia, Japan, China and India than in Europe. Europe being strong in 3G network development, but I think that the convergence of Internet and Mobility will be a huge challenge for mobile software developers and new application designers in the coming years.

CONVERGENCE OF MOBILE AND WEB 2.0 LEADS TO POST-PC ERA

My guess is there will not be a separate Mobile Internet. Instead, we can expect intelligent combinations of mobility and web 2.0 applications. The iPhone OS X isn’t open for outside software developers. However, independent developers can use Ajax to create add-ons to the iPhone.

Nokia’s position as the leading global mobile phone’s manufacturer isn’t challenged yet by Apple’s iPhone. The goal for one per cent of the market isn’t a big deal. The traditional players can stay calm until the iPhone frenzy becomes a global phenomenon. That will not happen over night. It will take years. Will it ever happen?

There are soon three billion mobile phones on the earth and even 10 million Apple smart phones will not make a big difference. However, we will see impacts on future design and software development. Steven Jobs predicted the beginning of the post-PC era with the introduction of iPhone and future smart phones. This race has started. Destination defined, speed unknown.

The PC will not drop dead in front of us in the beginning of July 2007. However, more and more services that we used to see on the Internet only are rolling over to mobile devices. I can foresee a strong evolution of software enabled mobile services. The needs are all around us. I certainly have ideas about how to make my mobility smarter.

AT&T's data plans for the iPhone are announced at the June 29th launch. It remains to be seen if a data plan will be required for basic phone use. The iPhone will have built-in Wi-Fi, but most industry experts are betting that the phone will require a data plan.

MEDIA IS THE MESSAGE

Steven P. Jobs, the chief executive of Apple, is already changing the perception of the mobile phone, from a quick way to call a friend to a hip, media-friendly device. In doing so, he has forced mobile phone and Hollywood executives to react by chasing hungrily after the newest thing. The content producers are finally waking-up. Consumers are willing to spend money when the use is getting easier, faster and smarter.

Wireless carriers now seem more willing to listen to their mobile phone partners’ advice. For years, mobile phone carriers like AT&T, Verizon Wireless and Sprint have closely controlled what cellphone users’ watch, when they watch it, and on what kind of screen they watch it. They are figuring out that it is better to have them online.

The networks did the same with television before new technologies loosened their grip. Consumers demand more and better access to media and care less about how they get it. Many in Hollywood and Silicon Valley hope the iPhone’s multimedia features will make it easier for any mobile-crazed consumer to do the same things they do on the Web: watch their favorite television shows, download maps, send e-mail messages to friends and swap videos.

APPLICATIONS ON THE MOVE - WI-FI, WIMAX, 3G, MOBILE TV

In what is the beginning of many attempts to make the cellphone more Internet-friendly, Apple has designed its own application so consumers can receive YouTube videos through a Wi-Fi network.

Any device that replicates the Web experience online is good for the entire industry. It will help content producers and suppliers (Hollywood, YouTube, Networks, Disney, Sony, etc.) reach a mass audience. Communications companies know they have to adapt or risk missing the moving train.

All the competitors, who are quick to point out that the iPhone has limitations, might agree that it will nudge resistant wireless carriers to pay more attention to their customers’ wishes. A booming flow of customer oriented content will require new applications on top of the closed operating systems.

Filmmakers are not going to be happy having their films downloaded to cell phones with poor quality. The beauty of iPhone, it’s simple and it looks good. Half the people who have these fancy cell phones don’t know how to use them.

According to test reports, “iPhone e-mail is fantastic. Incoming messages are fully formatted, complete with graphics; you can even open (but not edit) Word, Excel and PDF documents. The Web browser, though, is the real dazzler. This isn’t some stripped-down, claustrophobic My First Cellphone Browser; you get full Web layouts, fonts and all, shrunk to fit the screen. You scroll with a fingertip — much faster than scroll bars. You can double-tap to enlarge a block of text for reading, or rotate the screen 90 degrees, which rotates and magnifies the image to fill the wider view.”

What does this mean for Finnish software designers? I don’t think we need to run for these features and copy them, but it will be so much easier to sit down and discuss with operators (carriers) about future applications and services. The carriers and the mobile industry are more willing to listen.

Innovators, designers and trend setters are well received by those who want to make money with mobile 2.0. I’ve been looking and reading the weak signals of mobility change and the buzz of web 2.0 and social media since the emergence. There was a time when I felt sceptic about the mobile future. The outlook was that the Internet becomes mobile and smart phones will be marginal devices that we use while not really connected to the Internet. This is changing now and the speed is more rapid than I expected only a few months ago.

The iPhone is also an iPod; it digests in music, videos and photos from a Mac or Windows PC. They say that Photos, movies and even YouTube videos look spectacular on the bright 3.5-inch very-high-resolution screen. The resolution is twice compared to a computer display, I got somewhere.

The Google Maps module lets you view street maps or aerial photos for any address. It can provide driving directions, too. It’s not real GPS. “The iPhone is amazing. But no, it’s not perfect.” The media says. The security of the iPhone e-mail format is alarming; there is no built-in firewall either.

WHAT DID IT COST TO DEVELOP THE IPHONE?

The iPhone R&D cost is estimated to100 million dollars. They started from scratch at Apple. American News reports are expecting that the iPhone will finally bring the much anticipated mobile revolution to the U.S. Apple is already working hard at improving this first version of the iPhone. Motorola announced some time ago (2006) that they will overtake Nokia in 1 000 days. The challenge from US didn’t come from a traditional phone maker, Motorola. It was someone from nowhere, unfamiliar to the leading mobile phone manufacturers, not unknown as a company or a brand but as a smart phone producer.

The Google Maps program shows, the results of a separate client application created for the iPhone can be spectacular. Apple also is taking the unusual accounting step of not logging the revenues of iPhones all at once, but taking it over the length of the contract: it says this will enable it to keep improving the software and adding new applications. So the iPhone you buy now may have many more features and services by the end of your contract. This means continuous product development.

The challenge is to make Mobile 2.0 attractive on a global scale. There are plenty of partners around the globe.

I’m not ignoring all the other great developments in the field of mobility, but Apple is the Buzz of the day. Apple Computer Finland was my first market research assignment 1981 when we started CIS – Corporate Information Systems. We used to work with Apple Computers until 1995 and even had a NeXT computer in France and switched to PC’s 1995.

Apple, Siemens, Hewlett-Packard, Nokia…are all great companies. I’ve been working with these companies at different stages of my working history. They have different corporate cultures and management styles. Those big companies are just a few of the future mobile R&D partners. The post-PC movement will take us to a long journey towards a new mobile fantasy world where computing is easy and low-cost everywhere.

Celtel is a big player in Africa

Celtel is an African success story. I get this information from their home page: "We began in our mobile phone operations in 1998, and since then we have built networks in 15 African countries, under licences that cover more than a third of the population of Africa.

Our original holding company, MSI Cellular Investments, changed its name to Celtel International in January 2004. Commercially, we have a strong record of investment and growth. Culturally, we operate to the highest standards of professional and corporate ethics.

Celtel has invested more than $750 million in Africa. Our goal is to build and operate world-class networks that will keep pace technologically with networks in Europe and North America."

SUDANESE MOHAMED IBRAHIM

Celtel, founded by Sudanese Mohamed Ibrahim has grown to become one of Africa’s biggest mobile phone players. With the launching of their “One Network” in September, they have created the world’s first borderless mobile phone network - that allows customers to move freely across geographic borders without roaming call surcharges and without having to pay to receive incoming calls.

Safaricom feeling the heat, has also just announced its plans to go regional. I have a feeling we’re about to see a lot of interesting things happening in the very near future. Can anyone say ka-ching-ching!

HOW BIG IS THE MOBILE MARKET?

Market estimate by dkfaktor. One look at the statistics is enough to tell you just how much money there is to be made in the African cellular market which is largely untapped:

• Global Mobile Users – 2 Billion
• African Mobile Users – 83 Million (4%)
• Expected 2006 Growth in Africa – 48 Million new subscribers (2006 Stats)

"AFRICA and the Middle East are the two big new markets being targeted by the world’s cellular operators. Both are largely untapped, so cellular operators are prepared to pay over the odds for a foothold. This was evident in MTN’s past decision to pay a staggering $5,5bn to buy pan-African and Middle East player Investcom, while Celtel bid $1bn bid for a majority stake in Nigeria’s V-Mobile – Business Day (SA). The race is definitely on." Writes dkfaktor in an informative blog.

The Google No Phone story

At least one Wall Street analyst this morning [Bullet Points March 22, 2007] is telling its clients — although as usual, Google isn’t saying much — that the search giant is in fact probably not working on its own brand of mobile phone, but instead is developing mobile software.

• Software sounds as a great idea
• There are enough phones and more are introduced on a weekly basis
• The Mobile 2.0 needs more content and compelling services
  

New Mobile Venture

We're working with a new venture around user generated content production. A collaborative team is evolving within Presso at Kauppalehti, the Finnish Business Daily. I'll write more about this.

• Microbränding
• Click the face and get a service
  

Nokia wants to become a MC company

Nokia has been defined as a mobile phone company. The management would like to change this image. Nokia is certainly looking for a PC and MC converging future with some Web 2.0 glue in between.

• MC = mobile computing
• PC = personal computer
• WEb 2.0 = something we think we understand (2 years learning curve)
  

Apple Computer dropped the Computer from its name. Nokia want to drop the mobile from its name. Nokia hopes to be come a MC company. I guess MC = mobile computing.

Time will show what these companies will become in the future. The history of Nokia includes a long time as a conglomerate. It has been a forestry company making toilet papers, tires, cables and aluminium profiles, televisions and whatever. The present Mobile destination has been around from the beginning of the 80´s. The big change happened 1992/3 when Jorma Ollila became the president of the company.

The ability for Nokia to change over time is remarkable.

Winodows Mobile 6

Windows Mobile OS — Windows Mobile 6 — which is being launched today in a substantial number of new smartphones, some of which are available here in the US and others of which are only available in other parts of the world. Read more about Windows Mobile.

• Image Gallery: Peek inside Windows Mobile 6 Pro
• Microsoft boosts mobile services
• HP expands Windows Mobile line
• 3GSM: Wireless sharpens its edge in Barcelona