The 3GSM World Congress (exhibitors and speakers), starts today in Barcelona, reports C/Net, PC Magazine, and Cellular News. The four-day event held is expected to draw more than 50,000 industry officials from major cellphone makers such as Finland’s Nokia, as well as South Korean Samsung and LG Electronics and US-based Motorola.
Entertainment groups such as Yahoo, MTV and Warner Music have a hall to themselves for the first time.
Samsung’s Ultra Smart F700 and LG’s KE850 Prada are expected to rival Apple’s iPhone while Microsoft announced their Windows Mobile 6, the operating system, used on an increasing number of smart phones like HP’s VOIP-enabled dual-band (WiFi/Cellular) smartphone.
The Neonode N2 phone (above) is a GSM Quadband phone with MP3 Player (MP3, WMA, Wav), Calendar and Address book synchronized using ActiveSync.
Omnifone, a British mobile music company, brought out a new music service that will let cellphone users download songs over the air. Their MusicStation will be an “all you can eat” service that will let users – in Europe first but with plans to expand elsewhere. It is billing the MusicStation as the mobile industry’s answer to the iPhone, allowing you to download new songs from dozens of major music labels for a weekly cost of 1.99 pounds, or about $3.88.
Samsung and other Sprint-Nextel 4G vendors, will conduct live demonstrations of Mobile WiMAX, including applications such as push-to-all technology. Samsung’s new Mobile WiMAX devices, the SPH-P9000 and the SPH-M8100, will be used at the demonstration, allowing visitors to personally experience Mobile WiMAX technology. The P9000 is a true Mobile WiMAX convergence device, which enables wireless broadband access and voice communications, while the M8100 is the first commercially available Mobile WiMAX PDA device.
The SPH-P9000 is a Windows XP device with a large 30GB hard disk, 256MB RAM, a 1GHz CPU, WiMAX, CDMA EV-DO, and a 1.3 megapixel camera into a compact 143 x 94 x 29.7 mm size with a 5” display while weighing only 583g. The P9000 comes with a full QWERTY keyboard, an MP3 player, VOD, and camera functions.
The M8100 (photo gallery), is the world’s first Mobile WiMAX PDA phone. The Windows Mobile 5 device allows users to conduct video conferences as well as watch television (via T-DMB). The slider phone features a 2.8”, 65k color touch screen display, a TV-out, an MMC card slot, and 2 cameras: a 2 megapixel camera, and a VGA camera for video calls, Bluetooth ® with A2DP, a 128ROM/64MB RAM memory, and the Microsoft view and edit function.
Other 3GSM World Congress announcements (Google News) include:
- AT&T Has Picked MediaFlo for mobile entertainment services. MediaFLO will also feature multicast video clip distribution; a datacasting application for realtime information and entertainment; and audio services. Verizon announced they’d use it more than a year ago. Sprint’s “Vue” — so far unannounced — is also rumored to use the Qualcomm service. It’s a setback for DVB-H in the United States. That standard is used by Medio (at 1.7 GHz) and Charles Townsend’s HiWire (on channels 54 & 59). AT&T expects to deliver their mobile tv service in the second half of 2007.
- Nokia announced their N77, the latest integrated DVB-H device in the Nokia Nseries. It’s designed to work on 3G (WCDMA 2100 MHz), EDGE and GSM (900/1800/1900 MHz) networks. The Nokia Web Browser with Mini Map finds videos in websites such as the YouTube Mobile while the new Nokia Video Center offers mobile video RSS feeds and video on demand. Too bad Cingular announced support for MediaFLO, a competing proprietary standard.
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Boingo Mobile can be used for making VoIP calls or surfing the Internet for $7.95 per month. Boingo will connect Dual-mode handsets on their worldwide Wi-Fi network. - Craig Wireless Deploys Nortel Craig Wireless will use Nortel WiMAX with MIMO to deliver cheap wireless broadband to underserved rural markets across Greece
- EMAX Uses Navini EMAX launches pre-mobile WiMax network in Peru with Navini
- Udcast, Newtec Partner – UDcast and Newtec to launch satellite distribution system for mobile TV via DVB-H
- Vodafone, Google Partner – Vodafone Live! will offer Google Maps for mobile alongside Google search
- Yahoo today launched its mobile display advertising platform on the company’s Yahoo! Mobile Web service (m.yahoo.com) in 19 countries across Europe, Asia and the Americas instantly enabling advertisers to reach consumers around the globe on their mobile phones.
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HP’s iPaq 500, unveiled today, is a smart phone for business users, with voice-command software and IT management features. The VOIP-enabled smartphone runs Windows Mobile 6 and includes Wi-Fi, GSM/EDGE, and Bluetooth connectivity options. - Fujitsu Demos at 3GSM – Fujitsu is exhibiting its WiMax devices, demonstrating its WiMax solutions and unveiling its WiMax SOC roadmap at 3GSM
- The Wi-Fi Alliance says nearly 100 handsets have been Wi-Fi Certified since 2004, 82 of which have been dual mode. ABI Research forecasts there will be 325 million converged wi-fi/cellular phones by 2011.
