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Nokia and Google slug it out on the GeoWeb

May 21st, 2009 7:12am
by Richard Waters

It is going to take hundreds of millions of euros (or dollars) to build and maintain a Web platform to support the wide range of internet services that will come to rely on a user’s location, or the location of other objects. Ultimately, probably only Google and Nokia are going to have the staying power to make that investment.

That was the contention of Michael Halbherr, who runs Nokia’s maps platform, when I caught up with him in California for the O’Reilly Where 2.0 conference this week.

Yahoo! and Microsoft, among others, might have something to say about that, and in a key area like geo-data its hard to see the Web ending up with only two platform providers. But to judge by the scale of Nokia’s own investment, Halbherr might at least be directionally right. Continue reading "Nokia and Google slug it out on the GeoWeb"

May 21st, 2009 7:12am in Mobile | Permalink | Comment

techfile 16.04.09

April 16th, 2009 6:00am
by morning call

April 16th, 2009 6:00am in Techfile | Permalink | Comment

More app stores in store as Nokia preps Ovi

April 2nd, 2009 5:56am
by Chris Nuttall

As if there weren’t enough iPhone apps, now we have too many App Stores from which to choose.

Research in Motion on Wednesday became the latest company to launch one, with its unveiling of App World for its BlackBerry phones at the CTIA wireless telecoms conference in Las Vegas. Continue reading "More app stores in store as Nokia preps Ovi"

April 2nd, 2009 5:56am in Digital media, Internet, Mobile, Software | Permalink | Comment

Nokia sends $70m mobile payment to Obopay

March 25th, 2009 11:00am
by Chris Nuttall

There are signs the mobile payments market is really taking off at last with Nokia announcing a substantial investment in service provider Obopay today.

The amount, understood to be in the region of $70m, is being put in by Nokia itself rather than its venture arm and gives it a minority stake in the Silicon Valley company. Continue reading "Nokia sends $70m mobile payment to Obopay"

March 25th, 2009 11:00am in Mobile, Tech | Permalink | Comment

techfile 18.3.09

March 18th, 2009 6:00am
by morning call

  • Apple introduced new software for the iPhone, fixing many of the most commonly complained about deficiencies. The 3.0 software allows for copying and pasting, multimedia text messages, and search in mail, calendar and phone.
  • Discovery Communications, owner of the Discovery Channel and Animal Planet TV networks, sued Amazon, saying that the Kindle e-reader violates Discovery patents. Discovery says the patent covers the security of e-book files.
  • With mobile phone sales plummeting due to the recession, Nokia, the world’s largest handset maker, is laying off 1,700 workers as demand for its products continues to sag.
  • Slumping cell phone sales won’t, however, deter HTC from launching at least three new phones supporting Google’s Android software this year.

March 18th, 2009 6:00am in Techfile | Permalink | Comment

What do mobile developers really want?

October 22nd, 2008 5:56pm
by Rob Minto

LeeWilliamsThe news from the Symbian smartphone show in the UK was that Lee Williams (pictured) was announced as the new head of the Symbian Foundation, the provider of the mobile software platform supported by many industry players.

But the recent annoucement of iPhone App store rivals by RIM and Google makes the European side of the mobile platform market seem a little behind the curve. While the US is making a marketplace for developers, questions over the Foundation’s independence are still being raised.

Williams is from Nokia, the company which of course bought Symbian with the grand gesture of turning Symbian OS and S60 open source. So let the conspiracy nudge-nudge wink-wink suggestions start: is he too close to the mothership? And is Nokia really going to make this open?

The question of independence was raised at the press conference by Nomura’s mobile analyst Richard Windsor, and Williams took it in his stride, saying he had given up any equity or interests in Nokia and had always operated independently. Later when I spoke to him, he put it rather more prosaically:

“I was only at Nokia for two years. I haven’t been drinking the Kool-Aid for that long.”

One analyst said to me that the question of where Williams was from would be forgotten in a few months. The key question is when and to what degree will an open operating system be released. And on that question, Williams was unequivocal: first half of 2009.

But questions over whether being open source is more of a marketing badge or a means of differentiating your platform to Windows, Apple et al, is irrelevant to many developers. Open or not, they just want the tools to get their application to market. And on that front, Symbian has its work cut out. Every developer I spoke to said developing for Symbian was harder. “Challenging” was a word frequently used. Another word was “money”, highlighting the obvious attraction of the iPhone app store as well as the new marketplaces from RIM and Google.

According to Williams, “challenging” goes hand in hand with capability and an appreciation for complexity. But he admits that “serving both the developers who want to create a full-blown office-type app and those looking to create a quick widget is the conundrum”. He hasn’t got long to solve it.

October 22nd, 2008 5:56pm in Europe, Mobile | Permalink | Comment

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