Stefan Constantinescu has loved technology since as far back as he can remember. It started with computers, but in the past few years his passion has turned to mobile devices.
He has been blogging since 2006 and joined IntoMobile in the summer of 2007, then got a job at Nokia in March of 2008, but has now rejoined the IntoMobile team as of June 2009. He is currently based out of Finland.
Stefan is a mobile phone enthusiast who lives and breathes devices that connect to the internet and he knows that there are others like him out there. He is strongly opinionated and enjoys a good debate so leave comments in his posts and he’ll get back to you!
MediaTek makes chips for various devices including DVD players and televisions, but they’re most known for their mobile phone chips that go into the millions of Chinese made handsets that never leave the country. The Nokla clones we make fun of all the time, those are made with MediaTek chips inside. Those dual SIM, triple SIM, and other insanely unique devices, again, they all use MediaTek. Sure they’re not the fastest chips around, nor the most power efficient, but their purpose is to serve the needs of the people who are not satisfied with what the top 5 mobile phone vendors are putting out.
How much longer until the number one mobile phone maker in China is a local Chinese player instead of Nokia (NYSE: NOK) is too difficult to really say, but it’s going to be a hell of a lot easier now that MediaTek has access to some of Qualcomm’s WCDMA, known by most folks as 3G, patents. MediaTek has yet to release any chips that support 3G, which can be either be blamed on the Chinese operators taking too long to get 3G off the ground, or the fact that building a 3G chipset isn’t the easiest of things to do. Either way, expect to see the clones out of China get even more interesting, and you may even see some fresh handset designs you wish were available in your country.
Nokia (NYSE: NOK) just issued a press release announcing a 2% reduction in research and development staff located in Oulu, Finland and Copenhagen, Denmark:
Espoo, Finland — Nokia plans to align its research and development (R&D) operations in Finland and Denmark to be in line with the company’s focused portfolio of future products. The planned changes are expected to affect up to 230 employees at Nokia’s Oulu site in Finland and approximately 100 employees at Nokia’s Copenhagen site. The total number would represent approximately 2 % of Nokia’s R&D personnel globally.
Nokia aims to support the employees with alternative solutions, such as finding new positions within the company for as many employees as possible. Nokia will begin consultations with employee representatives about these plans where voluntary severance packages among other topics will be discussed.
Nokia maintains a strong R&D presence in both sites; the company has over 2 000 employees in Oulu and over 1 000 employees in Copenhagen. Overall, Nokia has more than 17 000 people employed in its research and development activities.
That’s pretty sad considering that now more than ever Nokia needs to innovate. Then again as a former employee I think the actual problem is not the amount of research being done, but the difficulty of getting said research to market. Finding someone to fund your idea, and then bring it up to higher management, all before the next yearly reorganization, is not an easy thing to do.
[Photo above is of the Toripolliisi (English: The Bobby at the Market Place) statue located in Oulu]
This week in Paris at the Cartes exhibition, Visa was showing off what they’re working on for mobile payments. They demos a native iPhone application, along with a Visa application that is embedded on a SIM card. The most exciting stuff, NFC, is shown off on a shipping Nokia (NYSE: NOK) device. Payments under 20 EUR are just tap and go, useful when you’re in a crowded bar and don’t want to fiddle with credit cards or hard currency, while payments over 20 EUR require a tap, a PIN code, and then another tap to confirm. The sad thing about all of this is that we’re unlikely to see it for at least another year or two. That’s just enough time for Nokia to start rolling out Nokia Money to customers and operators around the world. Here is hoping that rumour of the next iPhone having NFC is true. I’m tired of having to sign little pieces of paper.
I just finished watching Google (NSDQ: GOOG)’s live webcast announcement of Google Chrome OS and besides being let down that we, as in general consumers, are not going to be able to play with it for a year, I was stunned to hear Google admit that they’re going to be creating reference hardware. Google will not only be building the software for Google Chrome OS, but they’ll be handpicking, and optimizing software for, the hardware that will be under that thin Chinese plastic case we call an exterior. This is big stuff.
Why would Google want to do such a thing?
Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT)’s Windows operating system runs on over 90% of the computers on the market today. It wasn’t easy getting 90% market share, they had to make sure Windows ran on every type of hardware configuration known to man. Most people who experience Windows crashes are not actually experiencing Microsoft Windows crashing, they’re experiencing faulty drivers written by 3rd parties crashing and in turn bringing down the whole operating system. Google is going to hand pick which configurations they’re going to support and then tell the people in China and Taiwan who build netbooks to use said specified components. Doing this will let Google worry less about driver support, and pour more resources into optimizing their software.
What about Google’s Android operating system?
It would not be a stretch to say that Google could start doing the same thing for Andoird. As versatile as Android is today, supporting multiple processors, screen resolutions, and input methods, what is to stop Google from saying something along the lines of “we’re going to optimize Android 3.0 for the Qualcomm (NSDQ: QCOM) Snapdragon, so if you want to be first to market with an Android 3.0 device we advise you to call Qualcomm.”
I’ve been teasing Michael Arrington from TechCrunch, telling him he is totally wrong about Google making a Google Android phone. Well maybe he is partially right. Google isn’t exactly making a phone, but they could be telling OEMs that they’ll be optimizing Android to run on a tightly knitted set of specifications.
Bill Perry, Senior Services Marketing Manager for Forum Nokia (NYSE: NOK), posted some statistics from the Ovi Store which has now been open for 5 months. The Ovi Store is available on over 100 devices, with users from over 180 different countries, and developers from 65 countries. There are 8 countries that have an Ovi Store in their native language and support operator billing: UK, Spain, France, Germany, Singapore, Australia, Italy and Russia. By the end of Q1 2010, that number should rise to over 20 countries. The top 10 countries accessing the Ovi Store are Egypt, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Spain, Saudi Arabia, Thailand, Russia and the UK. In most of those countries the top 2 devices used to get to the Ovi Store are either the Nokia 5800 or N97. Each registered user downloads an average of 8 pieces of content, and the number of downloads in October compared to September is up by 70%.
Couple that data above with the information Nokia CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo gave during the Q3 2009 financial results conference call held on the 15th of October, where he said:
We grew our active users from 46 million to 61 million.
61 million users x average of 8 pieces of content per user = 488 million downloads?
Why isn’t Bill Perry providing any figures such as number of applications? The media would take that number and compare it to the massive 100,000+ applications in Apple (NSDQ: AAPL)’s App Store and claim Nokia is failing.
Why isn’t Bill Perry providing any figures for the number of downloads? Same reason as above.
The most visited technology blog, Engadget, recently changed their design. People appear to have mixed feelings about the new look, and I could personally care less since I read Engadget via RSS. That being said, I think I speak for everyone at IntoMobile when I say that Engadget was what inspired us to start blogging in the first place, and eventually, one by one, come together to form IntoMobile. Engadget has done, and continues to do, a fantastic job at throwing fuel on to the fire known as techno-lust that is deep inside our cores. That being said, their RSS feed has changed, subtly, for the worse.
When Engadget, and many other technology blogs, cover a story, there is almost always a source that is attributed. At IntoMobile we usually have a link at the bottom of our stories with pointing people to where we got our information. The text reads: [Via: NAME_OF_SOURCE]. Engadget does the same thing, and with the redesign they’ve made that source link stand out. Look at the bottom left:
This information is no longer present in the RSS feed however. As a reader I have to go to the page that has the article I’m interested in to locate the source of information. Here is a screenshot of the item above as it appears in my RSS reader, Google (NSDQ: GOOG) Reader:
Why did you do this? You’re better than this and you know it.
Please consider fixing the “issue” or at least walk us through the decision to make your RSS feed the way it is now.
Update: And before anyone asks, there is another site that does this: Slashdot. Their RSS feed removes links that point to the sources of information used to write their articles. They’ve been doing it for a while now. I hate it, but they have not changed their ways.
Update: Looks like someone at Engadget has read this post (or at least my ego would like to think that) since I just saw this in my RSS reader. Notice the scrunch up text that says SOURCE? I’m assuming they’re working on fixing that bug, but at least they’ve started listing sources now!
AT&T made the commercial below to get back at Verizon (NYSE: VZ) Wireless for airing commercials that point out AT&T’s lacking 3G coverage. Not only is AT&T’s commercial stupid, but the money they spent hiring some actor who has a rather familiar face, sadly his name escapes me at the moment, plus production costs, could have instead been poured into something more useful such as improving the actual network Verizon is mocking. Don’t forget to add the court fees as well. AT&T is acting like a silly little teenage bitch, almost as bad as that (ultra potty word removed) from “My Super Sweet 16″ who said her mother ruined her life by buying her a Lexus.
Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) announced Office Mobile 2010 Beta today, which we’ll cover in a later post, and on their very own “Top Ten Benefits of Office Mobile 2010” page they’ve accidently included the screenshot you see above. The design language matches the leaks we saw last month. Apologies for enlarging the image, but the original was only 174 x 227 pixels.
Last night in London there was an official Nokia N900 meetup. Several members from The Really Mobile Project were in attendance and have learned, from Maemo’s Marketing Team, that by 2012 there will no longer be any Nseries devices powered by the Symbian operating system. They’ve also learned that there are no plans to bring Maemo to Nokia (NYSE: NOK)’s Eseries lineup.
The Nseries lineup, for those unfamiliar with Nokia’s portfolio, is composed of devices that have the highest specifications and the “best” technology that Nokia has to offer. The most famous Nseris device, the one that made the world fall in love with Nokia all over again, was the N95. The most damaging Nseries device, the one that made the world think Nokia employees have their head shoved up their asses, was the N97. The Eseries lineup is supposed to be for enterprise customers, but just about everyone and their mother has a Nokia E71 where I live (Helsinki, Finland) since it’s recognized as the last great device to come out of Nokia.
Last night Michael Arrington from TechCrunch posted an article claiming that he has some magical inside knowledge about an upcoming Google Android phone. He believes that Google (NSDQ: GOOG) will make their own mobile device, with their own Google branding, but that it will be built either by Samsung or LG. Google will then sell this device as something they’ve created. When is this mythical creature supposed to be announced? January.
The same incorrect information was released by Ashok Kumar, an analyst with Northeast Securities, and published by Scott Moritz from The Street, almost a month ago. I had this to say about the Google phone rumour:
“Google would never, ever, make an Android device. That would hurt their relationships with current vendors, it requires a completely different skill set than what any Google employee currently has, and most importantly it would tarnish the image of Android since all other devices would be compared to Google’s hypothetical ultimate smartphone.”
A few days after that article on The Street hit the net, Tom Krazit from C|Net had a chance to speak to Andy Rubin, Vice President of Engineering for Android at Google. He confirmed my sneaking suspicion that Google would never hurt their partners:
“We’re not making hardware, we’re enabling other people to build hardware.”
And he later added Google does not want to “compete with its customers”.
So I’m sorry Michael Arrington, but you’re wrong.
Update: Michael responded to this article on TechCrunch. He says that it’s possible the Google phone is IP only and will work via voice over IP. I still don’t buy it.
