 Loads of Symbian headlines came out of Wireless 2004. Here's a snapshot of news announcements affecting the Symbian ecosystem made at CTIA Wireless 2004.
Topping the news in the Symbian world was the announcement that LG Electronics has licensed www.lge.com
Partners… Nokia and Sun Microsystems announced the upcoming release of SNAP mobile, an online multi-player gaming solution for Java games. SNAP mobile is expected to be available as part of a tools environment based on Sun’s Wireless Toolkit in Q3 2004.
 Nokia promotes LifeBlog - Lifeblog automatically organizes their photos, videos, text messages, and multimedia messages into a beautiful chronology they can easily browse, search, and save. Designed to complement the 7610 megapixel imaging device, Nokia Lifeblog will be available with the Nokia 7610 imaging device and also as a separate download from the Lifeblog website, starting summer of 2004 - more details are available at http://www.nokia.com/lifeblog
New Devices
Nokia was showing off the new 9500 Communicator for the first time in the US. Recall this device. Recall this device is tailored to the enterprise user and features office tool support, advanced security features, Bluetooth connectivity, and provides wide-area EDGE and Wi-Fi connectivity.
Also making its debut was the Nokia 7610. This device features an integrated 1 mega pixel digital camera, MP3 player, FM radio, streaming video capabilities and more. These features are also integrated into the latest CDMA phone from Nokia as well, the 6255.
Symbian & Series60 – The numbers speak for themselves!
Conference sessions and presentations are always great places for hearing stats and numbers. Here’s a rundown of numbers that relate to Series60 & the Symbian OS:
- 5 licensees have already announced series 60 devices
- 100 operators globally are selling devices based on Series 60
- Smart phone shipments are expected to realize 100% growth in 2004
- 10 million Symbian devices shipped globally as of December 2003
- there are now 7 Series 60 licensees – LG Electronics and Lenova being the latest to sign on
- 1400+ Series 60 based applications available in Nokia sales channels alone
- 2100 Symbian based applications on the market
- 460,000 tools and documents are downloaded each month from Forum.Nokia alone
- 7 million Symbian devices sold in 2003
- 17 million symbian handsets expected to ship in 2004
- there are currently 40 Symbian OS devices
- Coming later this year… Series 60 will support CDMA!
The Buzz on the floor… reinforced by a feature in the Show Daily publication, it appears that Ericsson will increase its ownership stake in Symbian by exercising its right to purchase more shares – recall Psion divested itself from it’s interests in the company earlier this year. The deal is not expected to be finalized until June. If every stake holder
was to increase its current ownership proportionately by acquiring its allowable share of the Psion stock, Nokia would wind up with a 46% stake rather than the 63.2% they would have by purchasing all of Psion’s equity as previously expected.
Symbian related Press announcements
Clearsky announced their Snap-n-Print solution which lets device users send pictures through Clearsky’s centralized routing platform, creating postcards, coffee mugs, mouse pads, and key chains. Post cards will cost $1.99 to be printed and delivered. See www.clearskymobilemedia.com. Note, Clearsky has also introduced a mobile download kiosk offering mobile users a chance to purchase and download greeting cards, ringtones, coupons, MP3s, games, and more.
Telphia releases report on Online Gamers and Game usage. According to the report, two thirds of teens currently use data services. Virtually all expressed interest in them. The online gamer exhibit some unique qualities which are attractive to marketers. These include highly robust usage patters, tendency to own more expensive devices, and higher satisfaction with their current device. The report shows that 8% of mobile teens engage in online gaming with usage diminishing as they get older, however, 41% express interest in having online gaming capabilities on their next handset. The report is available from
www.telephia.com
Game developer Mobliss launched NYT Crossword for mobile phones. Carriers offering the game service provide their customers with the ability to download a daily puzzle to their handset for a small monthly fee. See www.mobliss.com
The Global Wireless Education Consortium (GWEC) announced that they are now accepting nominations for the second annual wireless educator of the year awards. The award is given to 2 academic instructors from all levels of post-secondary education in
recognition of contributions to the area of wireless engineering, communications, systems and/or technology integration. See www.gwec.org
nReach announced it will partner with SmartServ Online Inc to provide self-serve mobile content vending machines. Look for nReach to position these machines in wireless retailers, airports, train stations, and restaurants throughout the US. See www.smartserv.com
Mobile Application Developers @ Wireless 2004
Forum.Nokia showcased a number of application developers at their mobile application showcase. The following companies and applications were on hand.
Bachmann Software & Services LLC (www.bachmannsoftware.com)
Printboy for series 60 – wirelessly print documents from your device.
MemAlert – ensures you always have enough memory available on your series 60 device.
Celesta (www.celesta.com)
CELESTA mBusiness gateway offers enterprise back-end system integration services. Their CELESTA mBuilder is a rapid application development tool for creating apps.
FusionOne (www.fusionone.com)
MightyBackup- wireless application that provides backup and restore functionality to your device. MightyPhone sync service enables users to automatically update their phone with data and tasks from their PC or web-based apps.
iGo (www.mobl.com)
QuickOffice Premier Series 60 enables users to open, edit, and save MS Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files on a series 60 device.
J2X Technologies (www.j2x.ca)
J-Pod multi-player gaming enables just that! Their Mobile Professional Center provides real-time two-way sync between a mobile device and a personal website.
NewBay Software (www.newbay.com)
FoneBlog is a full mobile blogging solution enabling mobile device users to easily create, manage, and update a website from their handset. Their Holiday Blog has been developed specifically for building a website of your vacation.
Rapix (www.rapix.com)
Rapix is a solution used to access and manage files and documents on a remote computer from their wireless device. Enables emailing of file attachments, convert to PDF and send to email, print to public printer, print to Bluetooth printer.
Reqwireless (www.rewwireless.com)
WebViewer is their HTMl browser for Java-enabled devices. EmailViewer is a rich email client for J2ME devices. HotViewer is their mobile solution for deice users with Hotmail accounts.
Smartner (www.smartner.com)
Duality Always-On Mail extends access to MS Outlook and Lotus Notes to wireless devices. Duality PE is the complete solution for the professional market.
Ulead Systems Inc. (www.ulead.com)
Ulead VideoStudio M-Style is a solution for editing videos directly on your mobile device. Replace audio with music or a custom message. Ulead Photo Express M-Style lets users share pictures using a camera enabled mobile device. Users can send messages that include images, props, and emoticons.
Wayfinder Systems AB (www.wayfinder.com)
WayFinder Mobile Navigator turns a Symbian device into a GPS navigation system with voice instructions, pictures, and maps.
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