last100 » RIM

7digital launches in the US, BlackBerry music download store provides the splash

Steve O'Hear — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 13:00:23 +0000

Like many British acts, UK-based music download service 7digital is hoping to conquer America. Today the company announced that its 6 million plus strong MP3 music store has opened its doors in the US, with tracked offered from Universal Music Group, Warner, EMI, Sony and an array independent labels.

To coincide and spearhead 7digital’s US launch, the company has also released the BlackBerry MP3 Music Store application for RIM’s latest range of smartphones (BlackBerry Bold, BlackBerry Curve 8900, BlackBerry Tour, BlackBerry Curve 8520 and BlackBerry Storm).

Tracks can be downloaded over over a cellular connection (GPRS, EDGE or 3G) in the lower 64kbs bit-rate MP3 format, for faster download and “instant” listening, and then when/if a Wi-Fi connection becomes available, the app automatically upgrades each track to a higher-quality 320kbps MP3.

The BlackBerry app is also able to access a 7digital user’s “digital locker” so that any previously purchased tracks can be re-downloaded when needed.

7digital has long been a proponent of DRM-free music, with CEO Ben Drury campaigning for and rightfully predicting the demise of copy protection in the download-to-own digital music space, while the US launch provides consumers across the pond with yet another DRM-free music option, with Apple’s iTunes, Amazon MP3, Napster, Best Buy, and others already operating in a very crowded market.

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Adobe Flash seen running on Palm Pre – Netbooks, MIDs, and other smartphones also set to win (iPhone aside)

Steve O'Hear — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 13:30:12 +0000

Adobe has long talked up its ambition to have Flash running on all manner of screens, not just the humble PC, and today the company got a lot closer to walking the walk not just talking.

Through the Open Screen Project, Adobe was already known to be working with smartphone platforms from Palm (WebOS), Nokia (Symbian) and Microsoft (Windows Mobile), along with a raft of content providers, chip makers and consumer electronics companies. Today, the company added Google and Research In Motion to the list, with relation to Android and Blackberry-powered smartphones respectively, leaving Apple’s iPhone as the odd one out regarding planned support for full Flash (or any Flash support at all).

Historically, Apple has always defended iPhone’s lack of Flash support by arguing that it’s too processor and power intensive, and that the cut down mobile version of Flash (Flash Lite) just isn’t up to the job. With Moore’s Law kicking in (faster smartphone processors) and Adobe working hard to optimize Flash for the latest mobile chips, this argument is holding less and less water. In the video demo below, we can see Flash performing pretty well on Palm’s Pre smartphone, a device that shares much under the hood with the latest iPhone 3GS.

Instead, as I’ve argued previously, Apple has a very different motive for keeping Adobe Flash away from the iPhone.

… as we all should know by now, the real reason why Apple doesn’t want to embrace Adobe’s Flash is that it would offer third-party developers an alternative “runtime” on which to develop and, perhaps more importantly, distribute apps for the iPhone, bypassing Apple’s control (and that of its partner carriers) and the iTunes App Store itself. And we can’t have that, can we?

The other big win for the Open Screen Project are the latest Netbooks and future MIDS (Mobile Internet Devices) or so-called smartbooks, reports Engadget. “Flash 10.1 will take advantage of GPU acceleration on a number of key mobile platforms, including both nVidia’s Tegra and Qualcomm’s Snapdragon alongside ION for smooth (well, theoretically smooth) 720p and 1080p video on the latest generation of netbooks and smartbooks.”

Where all of this leaves Microsoft’s own Flash competitor Silverlight on mobile is anybody’s guess, although probably not in the best of shape. While Nokia is partnering with Redmond to bring Silverlight support to Symbian, Microsoft itself is simultaneously supporting Flash for Windows Mobile, such is the anbundance of exciting Flash-powered content on the Web.

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Palm Pre aiming to be THE Facebook phone – social networking still mobile’s killer app

Steve O'Hear — Wed, 06 May 2009 13:47:31 +0000

(Credit: Jamie Gonzalez via twitpic)

I’ve written many times before that social networking, and Facebook in particular, is the killer application for mobile phones. It’s what’s driving take up of mobile data and the adoption of higher end so-called smartphones. The mobile networks have taken notice and jumped on the social networking bandwagon, heavily promoting access to Facebook as a key feature, and handset makers are doing the same.

RIM has been targeting consumers with an ad campaign that features the Blackberry’s Facebook application.

Ditto Apple with the iPhone.

And there’s INQ, a new entrant whose first device, the INQ1, has been dubbed ‘the Facebook phone‘ based on its deep integration with the social networking site.

Heck, even Nokia, despite creating its own competing social networking offerings, is starting to embrace Facebook through a prominent widget on the home screen of its upcoming flagship device, the N97.

The Palm Pre, however, looks to have taken Facebook support to the next level with its ‘Synergy’ feature, which builds the phone’s address book and messaging functionality, in part, around the social networking site (along with other third-party web services).

On that note, a leaked photo taken of the set for an upcoming Facebook television ad campaign puts Facebook at center stage – literally – signaling that the handset maker is going to market the Pre as the Facebook phone, perhaps by claiming that it has out innovated its rivals in terms of support for the near-ubiquitous SNS.

(via CNet)

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BlackBerry App World launches as RIM’s consumer push continues

Steve O'Hear — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 15:39:32 +0000

Already entrenched in the corporate world, it’s no secret that Canadian handset maker RIM harbors serious consumer ambitions, an area it sees as most likely to produce future growth. Case in point is the company’s recently released ‘BlackBerry Storm’, an all touch screen affair that arguably puts video playback and other consumer features ahead of ‘corporate’ email, which has long been RIM’s ‘bread and butter’.

Today’s launch of ‘BlackBerry App World‘, the company’s answer to the iPhone’s App Store, provides even greater evidence of a consumer push, with apps for Facebook, MySpace and Instant Messaging, currently dominating the “featured apps” list.

Even though I’ve not yet had a chance put to ‘BlackBerry App World’ through its paces – I don’t own a BB or have one on loan right now – going by the tech blogosphere and the screen shots I’ve seen, it looks like RIM have done a pretty decent job, although the use of PayPal to process payments hasn’t gone down well with everybody (RIM says they are working on providing alternative billing options).

One thing worth noting, however, is that right now very few of the store’s offerings are in fact new. Instead, it’s the aggregation of existing RIM and third-party apps into a single store, and one that’s being promoted by the handset maker itself and will, presumably, come pre-installed on future BlackBerrys, which is a big deal. That together with the more generous revenue share that RIM is offering – a 80/20 split in favor of developers compared to 70/30 on the iPhone, which should see plenty of new third-party apps appear in the future.

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Internet TV news: BlackBerry, Blockbuster and TiVo, Netflix on PS3?

Steve O'Hear — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 16:22:37 +0000

A few Internet TV-related stories have been doing the rounds over the last few days that I’ve not yet had a chance to comment on. Here’s a quick catch-up.

BlackBerry to launch video download service

Research In Motion is close to launching a a full-episode television service for the company’s line of BlackBerry smartphones. An official announcement could come as early as next week at CTIA, reports NewTeeVee. Interesting tidbits include:

It will be an unlimited monthly subscription service for a fee
Once a user orders a program, the content will be downloaded in the background over Wi-Fi
Multiple broadcast and cable networks have licensed content for the service

As NTV notes, utilizing WiFi rather than 3G to deliver episodes to the phone enables RIM to bypass carriers, while at the same avoiding the inconvenience of side-loading content via a PC (iTunes style). Obviously it would be preferable to offer both options – WiFi and 3G – but that would likely mean sharing revenue, something that RIM, like Apple, is keen to avoid. As it stands, any direct paid-for content offering from RIM won’t sit well with carriers who still insist on owning the customer.

Blockbuster downloads coming to TiVo

Blockbuster’s On Demand movie rental service is coming to TiVo in the second half of this year, the two companies have announced. As part of the deal, TiVo set-top boxes will be sold at Blockbuster stores and via the video rental chain’s own website. This despite the fact that TiVo is fast becoming video download store agnostic, with Blockbuster joining existing services, Netflix, Jaman, Amazon and CinemaNow. The TiVo partnership is the latest evidence of Blockbuster playing catch-up in its move to expand into digital, following the lackluster launch of its own set-top box, and the more promising recent announcement that it is partnering with Sonic Solutions to reach portable media players, Blu-ray Disc players, personal video recorders (PVRs), set-top boxes, mobile phones and Web-connected television sets.

Netflix on PS3?

Despite having a close and successful relationship with Microsoft’s XBox 360, it looks like Netflix is still exploring customer demand to bring its ‘Watch Instantly’ streaming service to Sony’s PS3 games console. A recent customer survey talks up the possibility of purchasing a $9.99 Netflix disc for the PS3 to unlock access to ‘Watch Instantly’, presuming that you’re an existing subscriber of course. Were this to ever come to market it’s unclear if Netflix would need Sony’s approval – although I suspect they would – and it would also mean an end to XBox 360 exclusivity, something that Microsoft wouldn’t be too keen on. A lot of ifs and buts then, so we’ll see.

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If buggy smartphones are the “new reality”, here’s some free advice for handset makers

Steve O'Hear — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 16:17:14 +0000

It’s an honest yet unwelcome admission: rushing devices to market with buggy and unfinished software is the “new reality” in the smartphone space, RIM’s co-Chief Executive Jim Balsillie tells the Wall Street Journal. When the company released its iPhone competitor, the Blackberry Storm, it met its Black Friday deadline by “the skin of their teeth”, only for the device to be widely slammed by critics for its many software glitches, most of which, RIM claims, have now been addressed by a firmware update.

RIM’s story isn’t an isolated one. The majority of smartphones that I’ve tested over the last year, admittedly some were “pre-production” models, had issues with the software on which they run on. The problem should be addressed in a forthcoming software update, I’m almost always told, and more often than not it is.

Eventually.

And there lies the biggest problem.

While “release early and release often” might be the new smartphone reality, timing is everything. Here’s some free advice for smartphone makers…

By all means send clearly marked “pre-production” review units to the press (this blogger included) but do follow up with the finished device. That way you (and us) can remain credible e.g. bug number one has, as promised, been addressed in time for public release.

Make sure that all features “just work” - even if that means cutting features from the 1.0 release. The first iPhone lacked a number of software features – it still does – many of which, although not all, were added through subsequent and free software updates. It’s no good throwing in everything including the kitchen sink if the experience is miserable due to buggy or incomplete software.

Address critical bugs ASAP. If for whatever reason you haven’t met rule number two, get that software update out as soon as possible. The last thing you want to do is saddle an early adopter with a crippled device for any longer than is absolutely neccessry (which is no time at all).

Communicate. Acknowledge bugs and publish a timeline of when they will be addressed. This is best done through social media such as the company blog. It’s best to be open but make sure you stick to what you say (see number 3).

Over-the-air updates. This one is so crucial. I cringe every time I have to plug my phone into my PC to check for a software update, and it’s my job to do so. This is something that shouldn’t be asked of mainstream users. It’s 2009 not 1999. And this should also happen automatically: my phone goes out and checks for updates on a scheduled basis and just does it. Otherwise, many, many users will never upgrade their phone’s system software and instead will be saddled with whatever buggy version shipped with the device, which may have sat in an operator’s warehouse for a number of weeks.

Keep the operators out of the way and think global. This is where the iPhone has led the way. Software updates come straight from Apple and are the same no matter what network you use or which part of the world you reside in.

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Report: HTC’s Android-powered “Google phone” may be delayed after all

Daniel Langendorf — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 03:08:23 +0000

I hate to say I told you so, but I told you so. Developing a phone — even if it is just an operating system — is not something you do overnight with a bunch of cajoled software developers.

Just a week after High Tech Computer (HTC) said it was on schedule to deliver Android-powered cell phones by the 4Q of 2008, another report surfaces Thursday that says HTC is “having structural problems to incorporate Google’s demand feature set” and “demanding a guaranteed minimum revenue surety from Google,” according to Barron’s Tech Trader Daily.

Barron’s picked up a research note from Trip Chowdhry of Global Equities Research saying his “contacts” contend that HTC’s Android handset — the so-called Google phone — will be delayed until the first quarter of 2009.

Additionally, Chowdhry’s “contacts” tell him that another problem Google is having is attracting software developers to the platform. They’re too busy writing code for Windows Mobile, Nokia (Symbian), Research in Motion (BlackBerry), and Apple’s iPhone.

That’s no surprise. These guys actually have phones, real working phones, to develop for and test.

And while we’re on the subject of handset manufacturers, where’s mention of everybody else besides HTC? HTC, the world’s leading maker of smart phones as an ODM, has publicly stated it plans to come out in 2008 with an Android phone. Google swears there will be Android this year.

But what about Samsung? Or Motorola? Or LG? They’re supposedly going to deliver Google phones in 2009, but how’s that going? Sony Ericsson has fallen on hard times lately, so it’s conceivable that it’s worrying about its own problems, not the Gphone.

And let’s not forget that, while Apple has received mostly praise for the iPhone 3G, the iPhone 2.0 software update, the grand opening of the Apps Store, and the arrival of third-party applications for the platform, there’s still a lot of complaints about the OS crashing and buggy first-gen apps. It hasn’t been a super-smooth road for Apple, either.

So why do we think that HTC — or anybody else for that matter — is going to introduce an Android-powered phone in the 4Q of 2008? If someone does, chances are it will be a Gphone, loaded with Google apps, because from what we see there’s not even a hint of an Apps Store-like place for users to buy third-party applications written for the platform.

It’s not that I’m against a Google phone. Far from it. The cell phone world, especially in the U.S., needs Google, and Apple. These two can challenge other manufacturers to develop innovative new phones and together (hopefully) they can knock the siloed, we-don’t-really-want-openness-and-change carriers on their keisters.

Google should have developed its own damn phone. And even then, there’s no guarantee it would be ready for 4Q 2008.

Illustration credit: Android wallpaper, samuraispy on flickr

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@Supernova: Evidence developers are just as interested in Blackberry as they are iPhone, Android

Daniel Langendorf — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 16:56:20 +0000

While the Supernova conference is mostly about the future of the network, a part of that network is mobile. And if you listen to most attendees, the two most important mobile players right now are Apple and the iPhone and Google and Android.

Oddly, it’s as if two other established players — Nokia and Research in Motion — have been relegated to the sideline as also-rans. One conference attendee even asked during a discussion about the future of mobile, “Is Blackberry dead?”

Hardly.

At least judging by the activity and logic of a few developers attending Supernova. They were invited not to show off their products as much as their ideas, and these are being developed just as much for the Blackberry and Nokia as they are for the iPhone and Android.

“There used to be a saying that nobody was going to be fired for buying IBM, at least in software,” said Peter Nofelt, one of the developers of the zombie-themed, social game MobileDead.

“It’s the same thing for the Blackberry. It’s a system that works great. People who aren’t even very technically inclined like partners in law firms and financial institutions that are 40 years old, you see them on the subway or in the streets using their Blackberries. They may not use the whole feature set but it fulfills their needs and they are comfortable with it.”

Nofelt and his fellow developer Mark Wyszomierski are in their 20s and work in New York City, home to a few cell phone users. To these guys “the cell phone world is quite fractured and not easy to develop for.”

There’s the iPhone, but it hasn’t reached critical mass or the installed base of the Blackberry. Also, Apple is tightly controlling third-party applications through its distribution point, iTunes. A mobile social game that’s part Facebook, part phone, and part George Romero’s “Night of the Living Dead” may not get Apple’s blessing to sell on iTunes or promotional backing.

There’s Android, but there are not any Android-powered phones available and there won’t be until the end of 2008 and into 2009. Even when there are, Nofelt and Wyszomierski note, developers don’t know how their programs will work on real phones from different manufacturers.

“Android is a great platform to prototype ideas on,” Wyszomierski said. “But you cannot put all your time and effort into it as the platform will not be ready until 2009.”

And there’s Nokia, the number one handset maker in the world. However, Nokia’s availability and presence in the U.S. is fragmented. Nokia also sells expensive high-end phones like the N95 that will run $500-$600 after signing up for a subsidized contract. In their informal research, Nofelt and Wyszomierski are seeing younger people go for the coolness of the iPhone or the value of the Blackberry.

(For the record, Nofelt and Wyszomierski did not mention developing their application for phones that run the Windows Mobile operating system, which is on hundreds of handsets worldwide.)

“The Blackberry is a mid-level smartphone right now,” Nofelt said. “We know with the UI stuff we have to do a lot of legwork, but it’s a solid system. It is very strong.”

To hedge their bets, Nofelt and Wyszomierski and other mobile developers are putting as much of their code — if applicable — on the server side and then writing a “presentation layer” for each phone. This way, they do not have to write their programs from scratch for each operating system.

“It’s the only way to do it now, otherwise you will drive yourself insane,” Wyszomierski said.

What’s interesting about Nofelt and Wyszomierki developing for the Blackberry is that it is mostly considered a corporate device — and how many day traders and lawyers are going to play a zombie/social mobile game? Even so, while Apple is going after RIM’s corporate business, so too is a more consumer-friendly Blackberry (like the Pearl) taking on the iPhone.

“We are about what people actually have in their hands right now that we can get out there and show that our ideas can fly,” he said.

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Mobile OS wars heat up as Verizon joins LiMo Foundation, a Google-Android rival

Daniel Langendorf — Thu, 15 May 2008 04:37:48 +0000

Here’s an interesting jab at Google and its mobile operating system Android: Verizon, the No. 2 U.S. carrier, is joining the LiMo Foundation because it has software and phones available, Google does not.

The LiMo Foundation, representing Linux Mobile, is the lesser known of the mobile operating systems. There’s Microsoft’s Windows Mobile, supplying many makers of smart phones; Symbian, supplier mostly to Nokia; Qualcomm, supplier mostly to Verizon; upstart Google, and Apple. Then there’s Linux Mobile, slowly creeping along by adding devices mostly in Europe and Asia.

The LiMo (Linux Mobile) Foundation is a consortium of companies well vested in the mobile industry: Motorola, Samsung, LG Electronics, Vodaphone, NTT DoCoMo, and many others. Verizon is the first U.S. carrier to join the LiMo initiative, which now has 40 members worldwide.

The idea behind LiMo is to build a standardized, Linux-based mobile platform, which members can customize to meet their needs. For the most part, Linux Mobile is a competitor to Android, which is not yet available on any handsets. Linux Mobile is showing up on phones from Motorola, NEC, Panasonic, Samsung, and LG.

Kyle Malady, vice president of network for Verizon, said in a conference call today that he expects Verizon to sell both regular devices and smart phones using mobile Linux next year.

“We expect that Linux Mobile will rapidly become our preferred operating system,” Malady said to The Associated Press [via The New York Times] . “As the development community looks at how best to bring new applications to the marketplace, they should check out LiMo and Linux Mobile first.”

Verizon’s move isn’t so much a slap in the face as a poke in the side to Google, which has somewhat of a rocky relationship with Verizon. The two companies were locked in a bidding war for the 700 MHz spectrum recently auction in the U.S.

Once a reserve was met in the auction, an open network clause was triggered, and Google ended its bidding. Verizon was left holding the goods, so to speak. The winner must build a new network open to any device and any application. Verizon has whined publicly that maybe Google didn’t play fair.

Verizon’s involvement with the LiMo Foundation does not preclude it from joining Google’s Open Handset Alliance and supplying Android phones in the future — it most likely will. But Verizon is sending a message that Google’s mobile OS isn’t ready and won’t be until devices start showing up at the end of 2008 and into 2009. Verizon isn’t going to be waiting around, twiddling its thumbs.

Maneuverings like Verizon joining LiMo never register on the consumer mobile radar because, after all, they’ve been buying phones mostly on size and looks for years.

But with the success of the iPhone and BlackBerry products and the coming of the smart information device, mobile operating systems are becoming more important and a hotly contested battleground.

[For more information on LiMo, see GigaOm’s recent coverage.]

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The mobile web isn’t dead. It’s just starting.

Daniel Langendorf — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 03:04:53 +0000

The mobile Web is dead! The mobile Web is dead! The mobile Web is dead!

Or says Chicken Little, aka Russell Beattie, the founder of Mowser, a Menlo Park, Calif., startup focused on mobile Web browsing. Beattie delivered the news Monday that Mowser “is at the end of its life in its current form.”

For that, I am truly sorry. Beattie, who has invested everything he has in Mowser for the past year, is a gutsy entrepreneur who knows a little something about mobile. From November 2004 to September 2006, Beattie worked at Yahoo! creating mobile products and content.

Beattie left to launch Mowser, a Web site focused on content adaption for mobile phones. You can read about his experiences on his blog, but what it all comes down to after a year of intense work is that “I don’t actually believe in the ‘Mobile Web’ anymore” and the market “is limited at best, and dying at worst.”

Beattie got caught up in the mobile hype of the past few years, hype he no doubt contributed to creating. As he notes, the argument for mobile went something like this: three billion phones in operation, when they get on the Internet, their numbers will vastly outweigh PCs and the market will tilt toward mobile.

“The problem is that these billions of users *haven’t* gotten on the Internet,” he wrote.

Of course they haven’t. Those three billion phones were mostly crap for mobile Web browsing, especially in the United States, which sports a vastly different mobile mentality than, say, South Korea or the rest of the world.

When so-called smart phones came along (think devices using the Microsoft Windows Mobile operating system or Research in Motion BlackBerry products), mobile Web browsing was supposed to drastically improve and the market would skyrocket. Never mind the fact that the experience, overall, was still crap, the devices were more enterprise than consumer, and they cost a boatload of money.

Of course, the iPhone came along last June — talk about bad timing for Mowser — and everything changed. The future isn’t in companies and initiatives like Mowser any more. It’s in the iPhone SDK, the devices being made by Nokia, and in the promise of Android, Google’s open-source mobile operating system. It’s in the new networks that the carriers, especially in the U.S., are beginning to build.

Whether Apple, Nokia, the G-phone manufacturers, and the carriers deliver, well that remains to be seen. One thing is for sure, though: The mobile Web is not dead. It’s just starting.

Beattie, and those who have eulogized the eventual passing of Mowser, note in passing — like it’s an after thought — that the mobile Web won’t happen until there are “better devices” and “full browsers.”

No kidding. The technology is just getting here that will make mobile Web browsing actually feasible — larger, crisper screens; faster processors; improved memory; a mix of connectivity; the right size; faster and more reliable data networks, and so on.

Next up are better user interfaces (like “full” browsers) and applications that are actually worth using — ones that can access our information no matter where it resides (the desktop or the Web). In the labs are networks that we, as cell phone users, can’t even begin to fathom — ad hoc social networks, location-based mobile services, proximity and awareness, and so on.

No, the mobile Web isn’t dead. It’s just starting.

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