Fixing Nokia

Reproduced from a Forbes article by Lionel Laurent:http://www.forbes.com/2009/07/27/nokia-mobile-motorola-intelligent-technology-nokia_print.html

No one at Nokia is sleeping easily these days.

While reporting a second-quarter sales drop of 25% and a profit dive of 66% earlier this month, the mobile phone giant admitted that it had to "develop new skill sets." And how.

Despite its weak quarter, the Finnish company is still at the top of the sales charts, moving 100 million units on a quarterly basis. Industry watchers are worried that it is starting to look a lot like Motorola in the mid-1990s--a mighty incumbent losing its edge to rival upstarts. There's concern that Nokia is a hardware whiz living in a world increasingly dominated by software; and despite its forays into online services and application stores, it needs a big refresh to catch up.

So, what should Nokia do?

Improving its user interface for handsets would be a good start. Nokia's Symbian operating system is still widely used, but the "S60" interface is showing its age. Gartner Research analyst Carolina Milanesi says that while Apple's rival iPhone interface is very smooth and "horizontal," requiring only one or two steps from the start menu to perform a function, S60 takes the user "deeper and deeper" into a Web of choices and processes. The problem is exacerbated by Nokia's attempts to shoehorn S60 into new touch-screen phones, whereas Apple's system used touch-screen technology from the beginning.

A better interface would also help Nokia close the gap between its online services, which offer everything from applications to music, and its technology-rich handsets. For instance, Nokia's high-end handset, N97, has a more powerful camera, better map navigation and wider multimedia capabilities than the latest iPhone. But N97's less sophisticated interface limits the user's ability or desire to connect with Nokia's services, giving Apple a clear advantage.
DnB Nor analyst Fredrik Thoresen says the gap makes it nearly impossible for users to access Nokia's online services. "It's a hassle. I've never done it," he says.

It's surprising that Nokia has fallen behind, given that it first announced its foray into online services back in 2007 with an app store it would call Ovi. Indeed, the company appeared ahead of the game in controlling the end-to-end chain from hardware to software. But integrating these services has proven difficult, partly due to resistance from network operators--fearful that Nokia is stealing their thunder--and also because Nokia's user base is so broad that even something as simple as a one-stop online shop threatens to become an unwieldy behemoth.

But if Nokia can keep hammering away at Ovi, which launched in May, giving it mass-market appeal with an improved and easy-to-use handset interface, all the company would need to add is a killer touch-screen design. Oppenheim analyst Nicolas von Stackelberg thinks Nokia should use capacitive touch technology, a la iPhone, which responds more accurately to the finger's electrical conductivity.

In terms of Nokia phones' display screens, MKM Partners analyst Tero Kuittinen says the ideal size is 3.5-inches, which would make playing games and browsing the Internet a lot easier. He also believes Nokia should release more touch phones at $200 and below, like the music-oriented 5800 and upcoming 5530, to gobble up users in low-end emerging markets before Apple and BlackBerry maker Research In Motion get there.

"The game of migrating new features into cheapie phones is the one that turned Nokia into a behemoth in 1997 to 2007," says Kuittinen. "That is the game that must be the core of the comeback plan in 2010 and beyond."

And a comeback is exactly what Nokia should be planning. For the past two years, the company has rested on its laurels in the face of Apple's success. By admitting it has new skill sets to learn, perhaps Nokia is ready to fix its problems, catch up to Apple and maybe even surpass it in the software and design arenas.

Let's hope Nokia can silence, once and for all, its comparisons to Motorola.

Yahoo: The road forward?

A new era at Yahoo began the minute when Carol Bartz signed the agreement with Microsoft, giving the right to conduct searches on Yahoo’s huge network of Web sites to Microsoft in exchange for 88 percent of the revenue generated by Microsoft’s Bing. Having finally offloaded its search business to Microsoft; all Yahoo has to do is figure out what comes next.
Yahoo is first and foremost a media company and is in the business of attracting as many people to its properties in hopes of selling lucrative ad deals on those pages. While Google is has the best combined relevant search results and efficient advertising, the ads on pages model has not always worked on the internet.
The tie up with Microsoft Yahoo seems to signal that Yahoo doesn’t have the ability or the will to take on Google directly. Carol Bartz has been arguing that the company should focus on what it does best and leave the technology to others.”We’re not a search company,” Bartz had said earlier, discussing how Yahoo is a different company than Google or Microsoft. Now that she’s made that distinction official, what is Yahoo?

It’s where people find relevant and contextual information.”It’s news, it’s sports…home page, mail. It’s a fabulous place.” (The definition thus being very diffused). That’s a content company, turning the focus to how Yahoo should produce the kind of content and services that will keep existing users coming back for more and attract new ones to the site. One wonders if Yahoo just turned itself into a bigger version of AOL.
On the services side, some areas, like Yahoo Mail, Flickr, and Messenger, are clearly where Yahoo is unlikely to take its foot off the gas pedal. Same for Yahoo’s mobile strategy, a part of the Internet that is very much up for grabs, unlike the more mature PC-oriented Internet experience.
So Yahoo isn’t getting out of the technology business entirely. Yahoo will continue to need ways to keep its new home page hooked into the wider world of social networking, real-time communication, and things not even thought of yet, and that will require smart, savvy engineering.On the content side, Yahoo will have to figure out whether it needs to expand its current offerings, pare down some of the less frequently used products, or tap the outsourcing strategy in this area as well. There’s been quite a lot of turnover in recent years at Yahoo, but there are probably enough people left who remember that the last time Yahoo tried to play a prominent role in designing its own content, it didn’t end well.
Is Yahoo on a path to becoming the world’s biggest content aggregation site?There’s enough guaranteed revenue in the deal to keep things quiet for a while, but it’s going to take two years–at minimum–for it to substantially shape the company. What will Yahoo look like then?
Ref: http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10299313-2.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20

Heres looking at you: HTML5.0

Continued from earlier posts
http://technologyandtelecom.blogspot.com/2009/08/heres-looking-at-you-html5.html
http://technologyandtelecom.blogspot.com/2009/08/heres-looking-at-you-html50.html
The Pressing Need for HTML5 is More Features

HTML5 needs to move past simply providing geo-location and offline storage and into more of the device characteristics. The Palm Pre’s WebOS had to forge forward in defining its own APIs for accessing things like the address book, camera, and accelerometer.
This problem is only going to continue to become more pressing. People are clamoring to develop mobile applications that take full advantage of the capabilities of devices.

Smart Phones Do Not Equal All Phones

It is important to note that while HTML5 will be very important for smart phones, it won’t reach feature phones for sometime. Therefore, content publishers should continue to work with device databases for content adaptation.
Again, web application developers can make different choices and tradeoffs than content publishers. If one is building an application that combines cameras with geo-location information, one has already narrowed which handsets you support.

Features will Drive HTML5 Adoption

One can take a learning from moving users from HTML working drafts to HTML 3.2.A large part of it is due to the fact that you could do things in HTML3.2 that you couldn’t do in previous versions.
That’s not to say that recent web standards like XHTML haven’t provided new features, but that none of the new features were game changers. Geo-Location is a feature that can create businesses. The same is true of access to other device characteristics.
For this reason, web developers who start looking at mobile development will not shy away from building using HTML5 even if it limits their audience.

The Mobile Perspective on HTML5

From a mobile perspective—and perhaps from the perspective of web applications generally—HTML5 cannot come quickly enough.
As Vic Gundotra, Google Engineering vice president and developer evangelist, recently pointed out, not many companies are rich enough to develop native applications for all mobile platforms.
The mobile web provides are the best hope for building a cross-device mobile ecosystem. HTML5 is a critical piece for the mobile web.

Here's looking at you: HTML5

Continued from earlier post: http://ronnie05.wordpress.com/2009/08/03/vvlj/

Lack of Extensibility

One of the new things HTML 5 sets out to do is to provide web developers with a standardized set of semantic page layout structures. However, the new elements may not be entirely forward-compatible, as they are constrained to today’s understanding of what makes up a page. An extensible mechanism, although less straightforward, would offer more room to grow as the web evolves.HTML5 does add new elements like header, nav, article, section, aside, and footer which expand the structural definition of a page, but does not provide the level of extensibility that people have been seeking.

Documents versus Applications:

From a future perspective, HTML5 is seen as a document publishing, however, in its present avatar it is painfully evident that it lacks the tools it needs to describe the documents sufficiently.

There is also a burning need to address the short-comings of HTML for web applications —especially when it comes to being able to build rich web applications for mobile devices.

While most of the smartphones in the world use the Webkit in some form or the other and HTML 5 will have to build upon this platform as a base, it is worth bringing to notice that Webkit Does Not Equal HTML5 Support… Yet

To be clear, just because a device uses webkit does not mean that it has the latest version of Webkit and can use HTML5. Recognizing the market share of Webkit is important solely as an indicator that a significant portion of smart phones will have access to HTML5 sometime in the near future.

There is great incentive for mobile operating system vendors to upgrade to the latest versions of Webkit. They see the success that the iPhone has had and the fact that one of the main contributors to that success was the browsing experience. They understand that not many companies can afford to develop native applications for all of the various platforms which makes the features of HTML5 attractive.

Because of this, expect browser improvements are a high priority for mobile operating systems.

Here's looking at you: HTML5.0

World Wide Web Consortium’s decision to not renew the XHTML 2 Working Group charter effectively means that XHTML 2 (as a web standard) is effectively dead. In its place as the future of web development stands HTML5.

Given the emergence of "mobile internet" as the next revolution in internet medium, HTML5 is going to big a deal and it will be relevant much sooner than people think. Adoption of HTML5 will be driven by the needs of mobile, not the needs of desktop developers.

When Can We Use HTML5?
HTML5 did not really matter until IE supported whatever new standard for mobiles or IE no longer has the majority of the market share.

Given the fact that IE doesnot have a mobile bias, the smartphone growth will drive HTML5 adoption. The iPhone, Google Android, Nokia, and the Palm Pre are all based on the open source Webkit browser engine. Those phones represent somewhere around 65% of smart phones sold.If you look past mobile phones to other mobile devices like the iPod Touch, Nokia’s internet devices, and the upcoming Google Chrome, you see that Webkit is even more broadly distributed.

The two major platforms not using Webkit are Windows Mobile and Blackberry. Some of the capabilities of HTML5 are available to Windows Mobile users via the Google Gears plugin.
Blackberry has its own specialized browser not built on any of the major browser engines. It only recently started handling html, css and javascript reasonably well, but still is insufficient and buggy compared to other browsers.

Fortunately, for both Windows Mobile and Blackberry, Opera’s browser is both available and popular. It is consistently one of the top if not the top download on mobile applications sites. And Opera is one of the leading developers of HTML5.

HTML5 for Mobile
HTML5 is a critical step for mobile web application development. Some of the key elements that it provides are:

1. Offline Support — The AppCache and Database make it possible for mobile developers to store thing locally on the device and now that interruptions in connectivity will not affect the ability for someone to get their work done.


2. Canvas and Video — These two features are designed to make it easy to add graphics and video to a page without worrying about plugins. When supported by the phone’s hardware, as is the case with the iPhone, they provide a powerful ways to get media into a page.


3. GeoLocation API — This is actually not part of HTML5, but is a separate specification. That said, it is often bundled together because the mobile phones that are including HTML5 are generally supporting the GeoLocation API.


4. Advanced Forms — Even simple things like the improvements in HTML5 for forms could make life easier for mobile applications. Fields that can be validated by the browser are improvements for mobile devices. The more that can be handled by the browser means less time downloading javascript code and less round trips to the server if validation can be found before the form is posted.


5. Most importantly, nearly all of the hybrid applications frameworks—Phone Gap, QuickConnect, RhoMobile, Titanium Mobile, and others—rely on HTML5 features to provide a rich application experience.

Anticipation @ Apple: iTouch takes the digital connect further

Digital content has been available for years, but the right vehicle to consume the content has been lacking. Will Apple bridge this gap with the iTouch (iTablet in a first few posts)

In March, Reuters reported that Apple had ordered a substantial batch of 10 inch touch-screens from Taiwan to be delivered in Q3 of 2009. In April, the Wall Street Journal reported that Steve Jobs was actively involved in the development of the Tablet. In July, the China Times reported that Apple will debut their new product in October for $800 after agreeing to production deals with Foxconn, Wintek, and Dynapack. TheStreet.com is reporting that Apple will release a subsidized Tablet through Verizon. In the July earnings call, Apple management went out of their way to trash the netbook space but they refused to deny the coming Tablet, saying they will only release products that are ‘innovative and that they are proud of’. These are all reputable sources that seem to unveil the secrecy surrounding the pending product. Will the tablet have a substantial impact on Apple’s core business? This device is taking its place at the high end of the iPod family; it will be a larger version of the iPod Touch. This product won’t fall quietly into place however. The iTouch Tablet launch is primed to be the most significant in the history of Apple.

1) Apple Finally has an App Machine. Steve Jobs has mentioned that he has never seen anything like success of the App Store in his career. If he is saying that, then I’m saying that this 9.7 inch iTouch that has been designed to optimally utilize the apps will become the flagship Apple product. We are witnessing a transition in the way the Internet is used. Mobile content requires a tailor made user experience that is not efficiently delivered by the traditional website model. Although we have grown accustomed to navigating the Web by browsing websites on our PC, consumers are showing an affinity for the App Store model. Mobile Apps are designed for usability and the 1.5 billion downloads thus far from Apple’s App Store clearly demonstrate a user experience in high demand. The trend is in place that shows consumers will desire an app rather than visit a website. Perhaps we will one day see that apps are more popular than actual websites. The unspoken secret about the iPhone is that it wasn’t designed to become the ultimate App Store device. The screen is too small. The order of operations for the iPhone are phone first, iPod second, Apps third, and Internet browser fourth. This new iTouch is principally designed to take advantage of the App Store gaming, books, news, entertainment, social networking, etc…

2) Mobile High Speed Connectivity. Until now, a truly portable Internet device hasn’t been possible because of the scarce network availability. Verizon’s new Mi-Fi technology appears to be changing the landscape as it enables a Wi-Fi connection anytime and anywhere. It’s looking like this iTouch will mark the beginning of a relationship between Verizon and Apple. The anytime and anywhere connection will allow this product to serve as an up to the moment e-reader. By next year, we will all be wondering how the newspaper industry survived as long as it did with its outdated paper delivery model. The iTouch will replace newspapers, magazines, and books. Imagine a college student not having to lug around his $600 worth of textbooks each semester. Imagine not having to load up on magazines at the airport. The digitization of education and media has arrived. This is the first device that caters to digital readers on the go. Amazon’s Kindle was such a poor attempt that it’s not even worth analyzing. Same goes for the netbook fad.

3) Free Communication. Why do I think the iTouch will be more significant than the iPhone? Because the trend of communication technology is being routed away from wireless cellphone carriers and towards the Internet. Through the use of Skype you can make phone calls over an Internet connection and through the use of Apple’s iChat you can communicate by video for free. There are no overage charges, there are no hidden fees, you just pay for your Internet connection and communicate at will. The rumors are swirling that the next generation iTouch will include a camera and a microphone thereby making this capability a reality for Apple customers.

4) No Carrier Exclusivity. There is no doubt that iPhone sales have suffered because of the exclusivity agreement between Apple and its carriers. In the United States there are millions of Verizon and Sprint customers who would love to have the iPhone but don’t want to switch to AT&T . It appears that the iTouch will be openly available. All those people who wanted an iPhone but couldn’t make the carrier switch will flock to the iTouch Tablet. Apple will struggle to produce enough of these to meet the demand.

Being a member of the iPod family means that this new iTouch will be announced at the typical iPod refresh event during the first full week of September. The euphoria of Steve Jobs being back on stage introducing a revolutionary new product will cause the stock to surge ahead of the unveiling. Seeing adults stand in line while wearing their pajamas in the early morning hours to purchase the first iTouch Tablet will cause the stock to react again in October. The conclusion is simple. Apple owns the tech revolution. The rise of the dot-coms got out of control at the beginning of the decade for all the right reasons but the infrastructure wasn’t ready to justify the digital transition. Now that the infrastructure is ready, society will embrace the iTouch Tablet in a way that might even surprise the visionary himself.

http://seekingalpha.com/article/151137-why-apple-s-itouch-tablet-will-become-its-flagship-product?source=yahoo

Mobile Cloud Computing: The next big Mobile Innovation

Apple’s iPhone has sparked a new consumer interest in mobile applications. The number of mobile app stores and application offerings are growing rapidly.However, limited processing power, battery life, and data storage will limit mobile application growth in the mass market, even among smartphones. This is one of the key findings of a study by ABIresearch. These would thus be limiting factors to user experience on a mobile phone. http://www.abiresearch.com/research/1003385

Device fragmentation and memory currently limit the level of sophistication developers can deliver through mobile apps. By contrast, running mobile applications in the cloud will free up mobile processors while also enabling developers to create just one version of their application.That is where applications that connect to cloud resources are much more likely to be successful than those that run only on the mobile device.

Mobile application developers today face the challenge of multiple mobile operating systems.Either they must write for just one OS, or create many versions of the same application. More sophisticated apps require significant processing power and memory in the handset. Using Web development, applications can run on servers instead of locally, so handset requirements can be greatly reduced and developers can create just one version of an application. This trend is in its infancy today, but ABI Research believes that eventually it will become the prevailing model for mobile applications.

Cloud computing will bring unprecedented sophistication to mobile applications.To mention just a few examples, business users will benefit from collaboration and data sharing apps. Personal users will gain from remote access apps allowing them to monitor home security systems, PCs or DVRs, and from social networking mashups that let them share photos and video or incorporate their phone address books and calendars.

Thus, Mobile cloud sync is emerging as a major new category of wireless services. Apple, Google, Nokia, Microsoft, Palm, and others recently introduced mobile cloud sync services and all mobile operators and ISPs are racing to keep up. While current solutions are fairly basic, open source is enabling more flexibility and innovation among these folks because it is so easy to adapt.

ABI Research has predicted that the ‘cloud computing’ model will soon catch up and by the end of 2014 it will be delivering annual revenues to the tune of $20 billion.

However, intermittent network availability could pose a big challenge for the adoption of the ‘cloud computing’ model. A cloud-based application stops working if you lose your connection. New programming languages such as HTML 5 could come to the rescue as they can enable data caching on the handset, allowing work to continue until cellular signal is restored.
Ref: http://ipcommunications.tmcnet.com/topics/ip-communications/articles/59519-abi-research-mobile-cloud-computing-next-big-thing.htm;
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13846_3-10300564-62.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20