Hard Knocks   Mobile Marketing   Analyst Comments   GSM Highlights   Mobile Market Trends	MOBILE MARKET DEVELOPMENTS : INNOVATIVE MOBILE MARKETING   ARCHIVES : 2004-2007 2007   2006   2005   2004     2005 May 19, 2005 – “ Wireless Continues Record Worldwide Growth Rate: Study,” Mobile Pipeline There will be more than 2.1 billion wireless subscribers worldwide by the end of 2005, 350 million of whom will have subscribed for the first time this year, according to a study released Wednesday by U.K. market research firm Informa. While wireless penetration is extremely high in Europe, North America and parts of Asia, growth in the number of wireless subscribers in those countries is flat or declining. By contrast, most of the global growth is coming from emerging markets, the study said. That's particularly true in emerging markets in which subscriber costs have been going down, such as Mexico and Nigeria, the study said. Subscriber growth in China will be 65 percent by the end of 2010 according to the report. The study said that the global penetration rate is 28 percent, even though it is near or even exceeding 100 percent in some mature markets. That means there is plenty of room for growth, the study concluded.   May 17, 2005 - “BlackBerry maker aims for China entry this year,” Doug Young, Reuters RIM signed a memorandum of understanding with China Mobile to offer its trademark BlackBerry service in China, the world's biggest cellular market with nearly 350 million subscribers. Co-chief executive Jim Balsillie said RIM was close to offering service in South Korea, Asia's third-biggest economy after China and Japan. RIM’s Asia expansion comes amid an aggressive worldwide campaign that saw its subscriber base more than double to 2.51 million from a year earlier in its latest reporting quarter that ended in February.   May 15, 2005 – “Philly's Controversial Wi-Fi Plan,” Mark Rockwell, WirelessWeek In April 2005, the city of Philadelphia began searching for a contractor to build the $10 million network that will cover all 135 square miles of the city with broadband Wi-Fi coverage ith a project start date of Aug. 8, 2005. The aim of the project is to provide low-cost, high-bandwidth connections for all Philadelphia residents for about $16 to $20 a month. The city created a nonprofit corporation, dubbed "Wireless Philadelphia," to handle technical design, and predicts it will sign up around 94,000 subscribers in the first year of service, reaching 162,000 within five years.   May 15, 2005 – “PDAs Hit High Note,” WirelessWeek Worldwide personal digital assistant (PDA) shipments totaled 3.4 million units in the first quarter of 2005, a 25-percent increase from the same period last year, according to Gartner. The average selling price (ASP) of PDAs increased 15 percent in the first quarter of 2005 compared with the first quarter of 2004. The ASP was $406, which is the highest since Gartner began ASP estimates in 2000. Gartner analysts attribute the increased prices to the popularity of high-end wireless models. PDAs with integrated WLAN or cellular capabilities accounted for about 55 percent of all PDAs shipped in the first quarter of 2005.   May 15, 2005 - “Surprise! Only 23% Own Cameraphones,” WirelessWeek In its first-quarter 2005 "Online Channel Effectiveness" study, Compete found that only 23 percent of the 1,333 people it surveyed owned a cameraphone. 84 percent of the respondents had purchased a new wireless device in the last 24 months – a time during which cameraphones began to saturate the handset world and were available either for free or at low price points.   May 12, 2005 – “Gates says mobile phones will overtake iPods,” Reuters Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates sees mobile phones overtaking standalone MP3 players and views the raging popularity of Apple Computer's iPod player as unsustainable, he said in an interview. Apple has around two-thirds of the global market for MP3 music players, which store thousands of songs on pocket-sized disk drives or smaller flash memory chips. Apple sold more than 5 million iPods in the last quarter. Microsoft is working with partners such as Samsung to provide its Windows Mobile smart phone software to nearly 70 handset makers. In the United States, however, Microsoft smart phones have been overshadowed by Research In Motion's BlackBerry wireless e-mail device, which has sold 3 million so far.   May 11, 2005 – “Study Sees PDAs Falling, Converged Devices Soaring,” Mobile Pipeline IDC released a study showing that PDAs sales slumped for the fifth consecutive quarter while sales of converged devices are soaring. Shipments of PDAs declined 12.1 percent in the first quarter of 2005 compared to the same quarter the year before, according to the study. Total PDA shipments were 1.9 million units, according to the study. By contrast, sales of converged devices such as smartphones increased 135 percent in the quarter to more than 8.4 million units. "The handheld device market is facing stiff competition in saturated markets, while the converged mobile device market offers opportunities for new growth to handheld device and mobile phone vendors alike," David Linsalata, a research analyst for IDC, said in a statement. "Unless handheld device vendors can successfully extend the meaningful use of handheld devices beyond PIM, the opportunity for future growth will remain firmly in the converged mobile device segment of the market." The study found that palmOne had a 32.6 percent market share worldwide for PDAs, a decrease from 37.5 percent a year ago. Hewlett-Packard was in second place with a 26.2 percent market share, about the same as it had a year ago. Dell was in third place with 11.4 percent. Among vendors of converged devices, Nokia was the overwhelming worldwide leader with a 64.5 percent market share with Research In Motion in second place with a 9.2 percent share. Fujitsu was in third place and palmOne was in fourth place with a 4.6 market share. Symbian, which provides the platform for Nokia devices, reported this week that shipments of devices using that platform increased 180 percent worldwide.   May 10, 2005 – “American MVNO market to reach US$10.7 Billion by 2010,” Cellular News The Yankee Group has announced that the mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) market in the USA will reach US$10.7 billion in service revenue by 2010. Most of that revenue will be dominated by large Tier 1 MVNOs. By 2010, the MVNO market will be comprised of three subscriber tiers totaling 29 million customers. Several large MVNOs will make up the first-tier accounting for 24 million subscribers. The second tier will be comprised of medium MVNOs, accounting for 2.5 million subscribers. Finally, a dozen small MVNOs will make up the third market segment, accounting for 2.5 million subscribers. "The growth of the MVNO market has great potential to influence the long-term viability of the wireless industry," said Marina Amoroso, Yankee Group research analyst in the Wireless/Mobile United States (WMUS) Decision Service.   May 10, 2005 – “New subscribers to telecom services continues growing in 2005,” Cellular News Continuing consolidation in the US telecommunications industry is creating winners and losers in the service provider segments, but the industry continues to add new subscribers, says a new report from Insight Research. According to the study, the wireless segment is the clearest winner. According to the report, US network operators are expected to add subscribers at a compounded rate of 2.9% between 2005 and 2010.   May 10, 2005 – “Over 100 Million Cellular / VoWi-Fi Phones in 2010 - report,” Cellular News According to a new study from ABI Research, annual global sales of "dual-mode" mobile phones -- which can connect to either a conventional cellular service or a Wi-Fi network -- are likely to exceed 100 million during the final year of this decade. But according to ABI Research senior analyst Philip Solis, some of the giants of global telecommunications -- notably British Telecom and Korea Telecom -- plan to offer dual-mode services by the end of 2005. "The advantages of dual mode handsets and services, when they arrive, can be summed up in two words: seamless and economical," he said.   May 9, 2005 – “Study: Virtual mobile carriers on the upswing,” Dinesh C. Sharma, CNET News The market for mobile virtual network operators will generate service revenue of $10.7 billion by 2010, the Yankee Group projected. Also by 2010, the research company predicted, the field will have a subscriber base of 29 million. The market will be dominated by large operators, which as a group are likely to have 24 million subscribers in their fold, the Yankee Group said. A mobile virtual network operator, or MVNO, offers mobile phone services without actually owning a network. Such companies resell calling minutes bought from major carriers. Virgin Mobile USA, an early player in the MVNO market, has a subscriber base of 3 million.   May 9, 2005 – “Cell phones to ring in slight growth,” CNET News While global shipments of cell phones in 2004 grew 34 percent to 692 million, 2005 will see an increase of just 20 million units, the IDC predicted. According to IDC, the boom in 2004 was driven by strong sales of cell phones, with features like cameras and color displays. "Strong demand from emerging markets, the attraction of color displays and camera-enabled mobile phones and delays in 3G network availability made 2004 a banner year for 2.5G mobile phone shipments," David Linsalata, an IDC analyst for mobile devices, said in a statement. The market will continue to expand through 2009, he said, albeit slowly. IDC expects that by the end of 2005, the world's cell phone subscribers will total 1.7 billion.   May 9, 2005 – “US mobile download revenues jump in last quarter,” Cellular News IDC research found that total revenues from paid downloads by USA wireless subscribers approached US$250 million in the fourth quarter of 2004, on volume of almost 100 million units.   May 9, 2005 – “The Only Exciting Thing In Tech?” Lisa DiCarlo, Forbes Pacific Crest estimates that today U.S.-based carriers generate less than 5% of revenue from data services, mainly simple text messaging. Game publisher THQ, the largest developer of games for mobile devices, and may be the only American videogame maker to establish a division specifically for cell phone games. THQ Wireless is expected to turn in $25 million in sales this year, up from just $7 million last year. Sales of cell phones capable of downloading and playing digital music are expected to account for 20% of cell phone shipments this year.   May 6, 2005 – “New Players In Wireless Service Target Niche Markets,” Cellular News "As the wireless industry is eking toward maturity, it becomes more and more important to get away from the one-size-fits-all service that has served carriers well," said Roger Entner, an analyst for independent research firm Ovum. The MVNO market is currently worth roughly $2 billion in annual service revenue, and has about 5.5 million subscribers, according to Entner. In five years, the MVNO market could be worth $10 billion to $11 billion in annual service revenue. By then, 25 million customers could be subscribing to an MVNO, he said.   May 6, 2005 – “ European mobile usage expected to reach 100%,“ Cellular-News Active mobile penetration in Western Europe is expected to continue to grow strongly despite having reached 90% at the end of 2004, according to a new report from Analysys Research. Growth in penetration has shown no signs of abating in several markets. In Italy, Sweden and the UK penetration rose from 93%, 93% and 89%, respectively, in 2003 to 104%, 103% and 101% in 2004. This increase is explained by customers buying multiple phones and/or SIM cards, particularly in conjunction with the launch of 3G, and is expected to occur elsewhere, resulting in a penetration in excess of 100% for Western Europe as a whole by 2007.   May 5, 2005 – “PDA shipments rise steadily in 2005,” Dinesh C. Sharma, CNET News According to market researcher Gartner, in the January to March period, global shipments of PDAs hit 3.4 million units, a rise of 25 percent over the same period last year. The average selling price also rose by 15 percent in this period compared with the first quarter of 2004. At $406, the average price was the highest since 2000, when Gartner began releasing price information. Research In Motion emerged as the top vendor; shipments of its BlackBerry handheld grew 75.6 percent in the first quarter. PalmOne shipments dropped 26.3 percent, and its market share fell to 18 percent. This was the lowest PalmOne has seen since it entered the market in 1996. Nokia, which re-entered the wireless PDA market with its 9300 and 9500 models, moved up to fourth place. Hewlett-Packard came in third in terms of market share, but its shipments grew only 4.4 percent. "PDAs with integrated wireless local area network or cellular capabilities accounted for approximately 55 percent of all PDAs shipped in the first quarter of 2005," Todd Kort, principal analyst of computing devices at Gartner, said in a statement. "This increase is primarily the result of the growing popularity of wireless e-mail, with users favoring larger displays and Qwerty keyboards that are operated with both hands." Microsoft's Windows CE replaced Palm OS as the top operating systems in PDAs, grabbing 46 percent market share in 2005. RIM came in second, while the Palm OS was relegated to the third spot.   May 1, 2005 - “Survey: TV for Mobile Phones Set to Reach Masses,” Reuters About 125 million consumers will be watching television on their mobile phone in five years from now, a new survey found. Handset makers will sell 130,000 TV phones this year, rising to 83.5 million by 2010, research group Informa said.   May 1, 2005 – “The PDA's Future: Where Art Thou?” Karen Brown, WirelessWeek Gartner Research projects that next-generation, phone-centric smartphones are expected to boom, hitting 20 million units in 2006 even as PDA sales remain flat at fewer than 13 million units. April 27, 2005 – “Cell phone fervor slows,” Ben Charny, CNET News Slow cell phone subscriber growth, particularly in emerging markets in the Americas and Asia, has diminished worldwide demand for wireless handsets, analysts at Strategy Analytics reported Wednesday. Report author Neil Mawston said the slowdown is due in part to less robust economic conditions worldwide. During the first three months of the year, Strategy Analytics reported, 172 million handsets shipped. While that's a 10 percent increase from the previous quarter, the sales increase during the same period last year was 44 percent. The world's leading cell phone manufacturer remained Finnish giant Nokia during the first quarter, but its share of the market slipped about 2 percent to about 31.3 percent. Making gains on Nokia's still considerable lead were No. 2 handset maker Motorola and, most notably, Samsung, which exploited its strength in Asia to jump from a 10 percent to 14 percent share, the analysts said.   April 21, 2005 – “ 3 billion cellphone users by 2010,” Cellular News Gartner estimates there will be 3 billion mobile subscribers in the world by 2010, a doubling of current subscriber levels. The largest proportion of growth will come from the Asia/Pacific region, whose subscriber base will characteristically have lower incomes and demand cheaper handsets. Gartner predicts that by 2009, 20% of enterprise buyers will source fixed mobile convergence instead of buying communications services separately. Nick Jones, Research VP and Gartner Fellow, offers the following words of cautionary advise to CIO's, "The emergence of operator convergence and bundling strategies will undoubtedly offer opportunities for enterprises to save money. However, CIOs should not be fooled into being locked into one operator or indeed being tempted into subscribing to bundled services they do not need, just because the price seems attractive." Nearly two thirds of the 1400 CIOs surveyed expect mobile workforce spending to grow faster than overall IT budgets. In addition, a predicted 50 percent of non-manual workers in FTSE 1000 organisations will be using applications over wide area networks by 2010. Gartner predicts that through 2006, 70 percent of mobile workstations and devices used outside the office will not be backed up sufficiently to restore users to full operability in less than one week.   April 19, 2005 – “3G Adoption and Faster Handset Replacement in Asia-Pacific Are Inevitable,” Cellular News For mobile handset vendors, Asia-Pacific is the largest regional market in the world and holds the greatest potential according to Yankee Group. The region currently accounts for more than 40% of global handset sales and mobile users. From 249 million units in 2004, Yankee expects handset sales in Asia-Pacific to peak in 2006 at 265 million before slowly declining to 237 million in 2009. Annual net additions in the region are already in decline: from 158 million in 2004, we expect only 100 million net new users in 2005. Although mobile penetration remains below 25% across the region, most Asian markets will reach saturation at a much earlier stage compared to Japan or Western Europe due to relatively low incomes. This is particularly true of China, India and Indonesia, which collectively account for more than 70% of the region's inhabitants. However, average mobile penetration in these three markets is only 17% and will remain below 35% during the next 5 years. Between 2005 and 2009, 1.26 billion mobile phones will be sold in Asia-Pacific. China will account for the bulk of the region's sales with 557 million units, followed by Japan with 252 million units and India with 138 million units. Consumers will buy more WCDMA devices during the next 5 years than any other technology. Combined with GSM/GPRS/EDGE devices, total sales will reach almost 900 million units during the forecast period. The CDMA technology family (cdmaOne, CDMA2000 1xRTT, EV-DO) will account for 567 million, with the remainder composed of PDC, PHS, TDMA and a small number of analog devices.   April 19, 2005 – “ Rapid growth for mobile TV forecast,” Cellular News IDC anticipates that by 2009, over 30 million U.S. wireless subscribers will be consuming commercial video/TV content and services over their wireless devices. "Although there are substantial challenges facing the commercial video and television marketplace from a network, handset, and content perspective, which will serve to keep penetration levels relatively low, IDC anticipates that annual revenue will still top the $3 billion mark by 2009," said Lewis Ward, senior research analyst in IDC's Wireless and Mobile Communications program. IDC anticipates the total volume of minutes consumed will rise into the tens of billions by the end of the forecast period.   April 18, 2005 – “The Sporting News,” Investors Business Daily eMarketer reports that mobile sports services, including text-based sports bulletins, video clips and game highlights, will grow sharply this year. The newsletter quotes Juniper Research, which expects worldwide revenue in wireless sports services to double this year to $1.3 billion. By 2009, North America will account for 26% of worldwide mobile sports revenue compared with just 1% last year. According to a poll by M:Metrics, sports scores and sports news are the second most popular type of information content accessed by U.S. mobile subscribers. Weather reports are the most popular form of content. "Sports services -- even news alerts -- are a comparatively recent phenomenon in the U.S.," said Juniper's Windsor Holden. "However, operators are rapidly building up extensive portfolios of sports services. Verizon now offers content from Fox and ESPN, Sprint from CBS, Sports Illustrated and MLB." Of the 210 million mobile sports users worldwide projected by Juniper for 2009, more than half -- 120 million -- will be in Asia.   April 8, 2005 – “Philadelphia plans first U.S. citywide Wi-Fi network City to become biggest U.S. Internet 'hot spot',” John Hurdle, ComputerWorld The city of Philadelphia will become the largest U.S. Internet "hot spot" next year under a plan to offer wireless access at about half the cost charged by commercial operators, city officials said. The "Wireless Philadelphia" network will cover the 135-square-mile area, marking a U.S. first. The network, based on devices attached to city streetlight poles, is expected to cost the city $15 million to set up. The service will cost subscribers from $16 to $20 a month and will be available through a device that costs about $80, city CIO Dianah Neff said. The city hopes the plan will get 80% of Philadelphia households connected to the Internet within five years, up from the current level of 58%.   April 6, 2005 – “ Mobile Messaging in Europe to grow by 92% over 5 years,” Cellular News Forrester says that it predicts that total traffic from all mobile messaging types will grow by 92% over the next five years in Europe. Revenues from SMS, mobile multimedia messaging service (MMS), video messaging, instant messaging presence services (IMPS), and mobile email will only grow by 10% - to US$27 billion by the end of 2010 - as unit prices drop. Michelle de Lussanet, Principal Analyst, Telecom Markets at Forrester says: "This year, the average European mobile subscriber will send 40 messages (of any type) per month. This number will nearly double in five years, to 72 per month. By then, Europeans will collectively exchange more than 23 billion mobile messages each month. SMS will remain the biggest traffic driver. Much of the growth will come from youngsters - 10- to 15-year-olds - who increasingly own mobile phones and almost 80% of whom use SMS. No other messaging service will beat SMS's combination of low price, simplicity, accessibility, and usability." Although mobile messaging traffic will almost double over the next five years, revenues will only rise 10% - from US$24.4 billion in 2005 to US$27 billion in 2010. Pan-European MMS revenues, however, will grow strongly - and explode ninefold in the next five years, to more than US$6.4 billion per year by 2010. Video messaging uptake will be slow due to its high cost; but even if each person sends just two per month in 2010, they will generate almost US$1.3 billion - 56 times as much as today. IMPS revenues will grow the fastest, accounting for 8% of total mobile messaging revenues in 2010 - more than either mobile email or video messaging.   April 5, 2005 – “18-34 year olds lead the charge for richer content,” Cellular News Enpocket, a global mobile media company, has unveiled first quarter findings from its flagship survey, the Mobile Media Monitor. Almost three quarters of 18-24 year olds (72%) and over half of 25-34 year olds (55%) used a camera phone in the last 3 months, compared with 35% of the total base of users. Increased penetration of camera usage correlates strongly with an increase in the sending and receiving of MMS messages. Although overall usage has grown slowly from Q4 04 to Q1 05, it has grown by 30% and 17% for 18-24's and 25-34's respectively. March 28, 2005 - “BlackBerry Jam,” Victoria Murphy, Forbes RIM has sold more than 2 million BlackBerrys, and they now handle half of all wireless business e-mails. RIM's annual revenue should surpass $1.3 billion when it's announced in April, making the BlackBerry as big a phenomenon as Apple's iPod. However, Microsoft is competing with RIM's e-mail software with its own free version and has joined forces with Flextronics, one of the world's largest phone manufacturers, to build phones running Windows Mobile software. Microsoft scored a big coup in February, when it announced that Nokia, a longtime foe in mobile operating systems, would begin incorporating Microsoft's e-mail push technology into its phones. One million PalmOne Treos have been sold since its launch in October 2003. A mobile e-mail software startup called Good Technology has signed up 4,000 corporate customers, including Wal-Mart and Dell, by letting companies pick which hardware they want to use. RIM is still on track to grow more than 50% this year, but that rate is slowing and the market has reacted harshly   March 17, 2005 - “Attack of the BlackBerry killers?” The Economist 70% of RIM's revenue comes from the sale of BlackBerry devices, and the rest from software and services. Brian Bogosian of Visto, another software firm that hopes to dethrone RIM, claims that mobile operators, like handset-makers, are also ambivalent about the BlackBerry. Visto offers “white label” software that runs on almost any device, and can be offered by operators under their own brands.   March 17, 2005 - “Mobility: What Do Businesses Want?” Richard March, Mobile Pipeline A Business Mobility study by NOP World Technology, which surveyed IT and telecommunications decision-makers who are members of the online NOP World IT Panel revealed that more than 70 percent of companies use cell phones, more than half use notebooks/ultralites, and more than 40 percent use PDAs/pocket PCs. Sixty percent of large organizations (1,000-plus employees) use BlackBerrys or similar devices, while 38 percent of midsize companies (100 to 999 employees) and 13 percent of small businesses (fewer than 100 employees) use these tools. More than one-third of large companies use smart phones, followed by 18 percent of midsize organizations and 17 percent of small companies. For 2005, U.S. businesses forecast an average increase in spending on wireless data of 36%, but fewer than 42% of businesses want to use one wireless device for voice and data. About two-thirds of large businesses use or plan to use wireless for productivity applications and access to company databases and files. About half of small businesses want the same application for wireless data.     March 16, 2005 - “Overworked -- and angry about it: Technology Keeps Employees Tethered, Report Finds,” Nicole C. Wong , San Jose Mercury News The Families and Work Institute released results in a study based on phone interviews with 1,003 U.S. wage and salaried employees on the adverse effects technology has had on workers: 1 in 3 American employees report being chronically overworked due to technology. Two in five work while on vacation on their mobile devices.   March 15, 2005 - “U.S. cell phone firms allow cross-carrier photo swaps,” Ben Charny, CNET News.com Cingular Wireless and Verizone Wireless together account for 93 million of the 180 million U.S. cell phone subscribers, who have agreed to let subscribers swap photo mails and other mixed media messages. Despite interoperability difficulties, camera phones are credited with the surging use of wireless data services in the United States, with some wireless operators saying their data revenues have doubled in the past two years. In 2004, 180 million camera phones were sold worldwide, a 130 percent increase over 2003. Most analysts believe the growth will continue, with some predicting about 280 million camera phones will be sold by the end of the year. There may be 1 billion camera phones in circulation by year's end.   March 15, 2005 - “Cell phone makers to adopt Internet calling,” Ben Charny, CNet News Cell phone heavyweights Qualcomm, Texas Instruments, Nortel Networks and others are incorporating VoIP into the cell phones, chips and wireless network equipment they manufacture or design, executives said here at CTIA Wireless 2005.   March 15, 2005 - “Wireless Content Hype Hides Dark Clouds,” David Haskin, Mobile Pipeline Mobile Pipeline's David Haskin states that wireless operators will lose voice minutes to wireless VoIP which will dramatically re-shape the wireless industry over the next few years and how every consumer and enterprise accesses both voice and data services.   March 14, 2005 - “Nokia, Virgin Mobile USA Unveil ‘Shorty’," Susan Rush, Device News Nokia and Virgin Mobile USA unveiled a jointly developed easy-to-use handset targeting the youth market dubbed "Shorty," featuring changeable Xpress-on color covers, downloadable polyphonic ringtones, a flashlight, text messaging, a wireless WAP 1.1 browser, voice dialing and commands and voice memo recording, and will retail for under $60.   March 14, 2005 - “AT&T to Test WiMax High-Speed Wireless Technology,” Reuters AT&T Chief Technical Officer Hossein Eslambolchi said it could be used as early as 2006 to replace traditional data lines with high-speed WiMax to “lower your cost structure, but most importantly be able to generate new services and new capabilities.” Eslambolchi said AT&T will target data speeds of up to six megabits per second for each user, over a distance of two to five miles.   March 14, 2005 - “Souped-up cellphones like tiny PCs,” Tricia Duryee, The Seattle Times A shift into data transmission via mobile handheld devices is due to so many cellphone subscribers in the United States,176 million today and an estimated 236 million by 2010, companies that provide service are facing diminishing growth in new users and are looking for more innovative ways to make money.   March 14, 2005 - “The Next Generation Gap,” Jason Ankeny, Telephony Online Visant Strategies' recent study “The Road to 4G and NGN: Wireless IP Migration Paths,” the 4G market will begin taking off in the next 12 to 24 months, totaling 113 million global users by 2010.   March 12, 2005 - “Don't forget that it's all a numbers game; Beware, users of cellphones: Memory can't replace memorizing,” Rachel Metz, The New York Times A recent study conducted by Dallas-based Intervoice in Britain found that 29 percent of those surveyed worried that if they lost their phones they would also lose contact with friends, colleagues and business associates whose numbers were in their phones. Seventeen percent said their phone was the only place they kept such numbers.   March 9, 2005 - “Wireless Security,” CeBit More than a third of companies in the City are leaving their corporate networks open to exploitation and attack, according to the fourth annual Wireless Security Survey of London. The research shows that wireless security has worsened in the past year, with 36 per cent of firms failing to protect themselves from drive-by hackers.   March 8, 2005 - “Wearable Computers You Can Slip Into,” Olga Kharif, BusinessWeek Online Unit shipments of wearable computers -- purses, watches, shirts - - should rise from 261,000 last year to 1.39 million in 2008, according to the tech research firm IDC. February 2005 - “Cell phones: Best choices,” ConsumerReports.org Since November 2003, when the Federal Communications Commission allowed consumers to keep a wireless phone number if they switch carriers, some 8.5 million people have “ported” their numbers.   February 28, 2005 - “No Strings Attached,” George Hulme V and Rick Whiting, InformationWeek “Whenever we see business value in wireless technology, we'll strongly consider its adoption,” says John Killeen, director of global network systems for UPS. Pitney Bowes Inc. estimates that a system connecting 2,000 field-service representatives using notebook PCs and handhelds to a real-time scheduling, maintenance, and parts-information application has boosted productivity by 8% and reduced last-minute orders for emergency parts by 20% to 25%. Pitney Bowes invested about $20 million to build the system, which incorporates Siebel Systems Inc. field-service applications and Antenna Software Inc.'s Antenna A3 for Siebel wireless technology. Pitney Bowes estimates it can cut $100 million in costs over the next decade through more efficient management of service calls and spare parts. United Parcel Service Inc.,the $37 billion-a-year package-delivery company, is building one of the largest Wi-Fi networks in the world, which, when finished next year, will constitute 15,000 wireless-access points at 1,700 warehouse facilities around the globe. UPS is rolling out the fourth generation of its electronic clipboard equipped with Bluetooth and 802.11 Wi-Fi connectivity. The latter will enable last-minute delivery changes to be sent directly to a driver's clipboard, Killeen says. January, 2005 - “Usable web pages for mobile devices” Susan Shek, User Vision Mobile devices have smaller displays yet have a wide variety of display sizes. Current mobile devices with color displays support either 4,096 (12-bit) or 65,536 (16-bit) colors while some PCs are able to display over 16 million colors (32-bit).   January 1, 2005 - “A Big Opportunity for the Smallest Screen,” Jason Ankeny, Wireless Review The problem with mobile video is that its frame rates are at most six to 10 frames per second, far off the pace of the 10 to 15 frames-per-second rate generally considered the bare minimum necessary to create the illusion of motion. Few experts believe that wireless subscribers will ever desire to download video content that is as long as the average sitcom, let alone a feature-length film. In the span of about a month late last year, Qualcomm said it would build an $800 million nationwide mobile video and multimedia multicasting network, called MediaFLO, scheduled to go live in late 2006 According to consulting firm A.T. Kearney, that opportunity portends annual revenues of $30 billion in the U.S., with consumer spending in excess of $20 per month. A survey conducted in Germany by Vodafone and Nokia reported that 80% of consumers want TV on their wireless phones and would pay in excess of 12 euros (roughly $15 U.S.) per month for the privilege. Similar studies spearheaded by Sony Ericsson indicate interest from about 40% of subscribers. The question is whether U.S. consumers will follow suit. Respondents to a recent Yankee Group survey placed mobile video low on their wish list of wireless applications. 2004 Visiongain study, Wireless for Seniors 2004 With targeted marketing programmes, Visiongain believes that the revenues created by the Seniors market will rise from €4.7 billion in Western Europe in 2003 to €17.7 billion in 2008. If this market was left un-nurtured, it would only rise to €5.8 billion in the same period. After conducting a survey amongst respondents in the 55+ market, Visiongain found that of those who did not own a mobile 13 per cent stated that the cost of ownership was too high, whilst 27 per cent said they didn't want one.   “Wireless Phones Evolve,” Reuters According to a Reuters report, in coming years, the least important function of a wireless phone may be the ability to place a call. Wireless networks and wireless phones are becoming multimedia tools capable of playing music, video and other functions that were unimaginable just a few years ago. Manufacturers and content companies believe it is inevitable that a new class of devices will emerge that focus on media and data first.	Today, mobile communication is moving "from the business of ears to the business of eyes." "The Mobile Revolution" is the first comprehensive account of the explosion of mobile services (rich voice, internet, messaging, content). The book tells the story of these services in the pioneering markets of Europe, the United States and Asia-Pacific.   >>More About the Book   >>Dan Steinbock Bio
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