AllThingsD » phones

More on Windows on ARM: Highlights From Sinofsky's 8,600-Word Opus

Ina Fried — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 18:27:22 +0000

We’ve already covered the highlights of Microsoft’s Windows-on-ARM news Thursday, namely that it will have a desktop mode, but only for Office, Internet Explorer and Windows itself.

However, there are some other interesting nuggets amid Steven Sinofsky’s epic blog post, which just posted.

There won’t be an “off” button for Windows-on-ARM (WOA), nor will there be various sleep modes.

One of the new aspects of WOA you will notice is that you don’t turn off a WOA PC. WOA PCs will not have the traditional hibernate and sleep options with which we are familiar. Instead, WOA PCs always operate in the newly designed Connected Standby power mode, similar to the way you use a mobile phone today. When the screen is on, you have access to the full power and capabilities of the WOA PC. When the screen goes dark (by pressing the power button or timer), the PC enters a new, very low-power mode that enables the battery to last for weeks.

Microsoft wants a say in how the Windows-on-ARM hardware works, much as it does with Windows Phone.

To those familiar with the Windows Phone 7 approach, the chassis specification, WOA shares some of those elements. The specifications being implemented for WOA allow for more diversity across many dimensions, combined with the same commitment to engineering and product excellence—all while running the same OS binaries across WOA PCs.

In order to test Windows-on-ARM, Microsoft first had to do so on phones, since no ARM tablets yet existed.

Early in the development of WOA, the only hardware we had were existing ARM devices such as phones (ARM tablets didn’t yet exist). We just thought you would enjoy a few fairly early photos I captured of debug WOA all loaded in RAM (unretouched). Note: This is not a product plan or even a hint at a product.

Sinofsky defends Microsoft’s decision not to let more existing Windows programs run in the Windows desktop.

If we enabled the broad porting of existing code we would fail to deliver on our commitment to longer battery life, predictable performance, and especially a reliable experience over time. The conventions used by today’s Windows apps do not necessarily provide this, whether it is background processes, polling loops, timers, system hooks, startup programs, registry changes, kernel mode code, admin rights, unsigned drivers, add-ins, or a host of other common techniques.

Microsoft is making some test Windows-on-ARM machines available to developers, but they don’t give much of an idea what real ARM-based Windows devices will look like.

To run this release, a low volume of test PCs specifically designed for WOA will be made available starting around the next Windows 8 milestone. These devices are for developers and hardware partners, and do not represent consumer form factors, by any stretch of the imagination. They have diagnostic tools and ports. They are designed to be opened and debugged. They do not have the final components or firmware (or power or thermal management) that a commercially available device will use. They are made of low-cost plastic. You might have seen devices similar to these on display at CES or demonstrated there, and all of our previous demonstrations have used some form of these test PCs. These PCs do represent WOA and the experience—but they no more represent the final experience than does the current state of x86/64 Windows 8. They will be running the same branch of Windows that will be made available to x86/64 testers at our forthcoming development milestone.

EU Opens Antitrust Probe Against Samsung Over Patents

Frances Robinson — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 14:00:01 +0000

The European Commission has opened a formal investigation into technology giant Samsung Electronics to see whether it is using specially protected patents, known as “standards-essential,” to distort the market for mobile devices such as phones and tablets in Europe.

The case hinges on standards-essential patents, patents which cover an area that is crucial to compliance with an industry standard, such as 3G or Wi-Fi.

Read the rest of this post on the original site »

China's ZTE Quietly Becoming a Force in Global, U.S. Smartphone Markets

Ina Fried — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 13:00:25 +0000

While most of the world’s largest cellphone makers are household names, there’s a pretty good chance that you have never heard of the company at No. 4 on the list.

In part, that’s because ZTE is best known for the phones it sells in China, its home market. In recent years, though, ZTE has begun to make inroads in the U.S. Its progress, however, has been largely invisible to consumers.

ZTE’s phones and hotspots tend to bear the brand of the carriers selling them, rather than its own, but the company said that, in time, it expects to see its name out there more.

“We understand the U.S. market is primarily a market driven by the carriers,” ZTE U.S. CEO Lixin Cheng said in an interview at last week’s Consumer Electronics Show. “Compared with some of our competitors, we are more willing to customize our product.”

In 2011, the company debuted a number of new products, including the Chorus phone for Cricket, and the Android-based Avail smartphone for AT&T.

So far this year, ZTE has introduced just one product — a hotspot for Verizon. In the coming months, though, ZTE plans a number of products for the U.S., including several for fast new LTE data networks.

“We will launch an LTE smartphone, tablet and mobile hotspot, and other data products in the United States,” Cheng said. “That’s our strategy this year.”

The company also plans to support both Android and Windows Phone smartphones, with plans on tap to launch a Microsoft-powered smartphone in the U.S. this year.

“We will make sure we have a wide competence in-house to support both operating systems,” said Cheng, who noted that Microsoft is a key partner for his company for its current “Mango” version of Windows Phone, as well as for its upcoming “Tango” low-end effort. ZTE is also interested in what Microsoft has in store with Windows 8.

ZTE began life in 1998 as an effort to bring telephony to more of rural China.

Cheng said the company sees a similar opportunity in the U.S., where smartphones are still either pricey or tied to expensive contracts.

As has been a challenge for fellow Chinese networking-device maker Huawei, some have raised questions over whether ZTE’s products — particularly networking gear — pose security risks.

Cheng rebuffs such concerns, noting that the company is publicly traded, with a largely independent board. And as for the security of its networks, Cheng notes that ZTE is already the key infrastructure provider behind Gogo’s inflight Wi-Fi.

“Our company’s values (are) very comparable with America’s values,” he said.

Intel Shows Just How It Plans to Get Into Phones (Video)

Ina Fried — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 01:00:34 +0000

For years, Intel has talked about using its chips to power smartphones. Now it actually has something in its hands.

At the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Intel is showing a working reference design that it is offering to any phone maker that wants to use its chips. The phone itself packs a 1.6GHz single-core Atom chip along with an array of sensors and radios.

“The sample platform we have is fully buzzword compliant,” General Manager Mike Bell said in an interview.

The company has been testing thousands of phones internally and says the performance is top of class, with battery life at least as good as most Android devices.

“We are not the best at power, but we are definitely very, very competitive,” Bell said.

Compatibility is another issue that Bell said he is asked about a lot. Nearly all Java-based Android apps should run, as well as a good number of those designed specifically for chips based on cores from rival ARM.

“We think that gets rid of the last argument people have,” Bell said.

Of course, Intel faces plenty of competition in the phone chip space, including existing Android chip providers Qualcomm, Nvidia, Texas Instruments and other challengers, such as Broadcom.

Intel is announcing two phone customers running its chips — a Lenovo phone for China slated to be released in the first half of the year and a multi-year, multi-device alliance with Motorola Mobility that will begin with a phone in the second half of the year.

Although Intel announced only the two customers, Bell indicated more names will be coming soon. (Think next month’s Mobile World Congress for an update.)

“You can imagine our business is all about scale,” he said, declining to say how many phone designs are being built around its chips, or how many customers it has.

In a roundtable with reporters, Motorola CEO Sanjay Jha said he was attracted to the chipmaker by both its roadmap and its approach, which focuses as much on running multiple instructions on a single chip core as it does on packing in as many cores as possible.

“What they have done is multithreading vs. multicore,” Jha said, noting there is a big debate in computer science as to which is better. Jha said that, along with other innovations like three-dimensional transistors, this will be important as the laws of physics prevent rapid performance gains just by shrinking the size of transistors.

Intel has focused its phone efforts entirely on Android for now, noting that it believes it has more people working on Android than Google does.

[ See post to watch video ]

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One Start-Up's Adventure in Figuring Out the Price of a Used Chair

Tricia Duryee — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 14:00:25 +0000

Priceonomics, a small company that aspires to be the Kelley Blue Book for everything, tells the tale of how it sold four used Aeron chairs to another tech start-up, for a profit of $300.

The Priceonomics Web site, which officially launched on Dec. 21, is aimed at helping sellers and buyers determine the best price for used bikes, cars, phones, TVs and other items, so no one gets ripped off.

But rather than explaining what it does in a press release, Priceonomics wrote an entertaining blog post, entitled “Adventures in Aeron Chair Arbitrage,” detailing its experiments with selling the expensive Herman Miller office furniture in San Francisco.

Trials included finding buyers among its start-up incubator classmates, finding the chairs on Craigslist, borrowing a girlfriend’s car to get them, negotiating a lower price, lugging the chairs back to the office, and then almost losing the sale in the end, when the seller’s $1,800 check didn’t go through.

Priceonomics concludes that a business based on hauling used furniture around won’t scale but that there is a need for a centralized location for pricing information.

From its blog post:

“It’s unlikely Priceonomics could build a massively successful business arbitraging used goods if we have to take possession of them. However, it was clear that having our price guides were really helpful for identifying what were the good deals on Craigslist and how much to pay for them. So for now, we’ll just stick to building better price guides to help other people buy things on Craiglist, eBay, and other emerging marketplaces like Zaarly and TaskRabbit.”

Priceonomics may be on to something here.

Not too long ago, one way to determine the fair value of an item on the Internet was through an online auction. EBay became wildly popular as an easy way for total strangers to agree on a price for an item. More recently, auctions have become less relevant, and even eBay is decreasing the alliance of used items on its site.

That’s due in large part to today’s free flow of information on the Internet, which makes pricing more transparent. After all, you can just Google it.

Still, determining the price of an item can be time-consuming. To get a good sense of the fair value, you have to cross-check prices on a handful of sites — if not a dozen.

Priceonomics’ price guide promises to help users easily find out if they are getting a good deal, by comparing items across eBay, Craigslist and even full-priced retailers that might be offering a deal.

So, how much is a second-hand Aeron chair worth?

In the end, Priceonomics says, the chairs resell for $400 to $600 in San Francisco. The company was able to acquire four, for $375 each; it then turned around and unloaded them for $1,800, representing a $300 profit.

Motorola Mobility Shareholders Approve Acquisition by Google

Ina Fried — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 01:38:06 +0000

Motorola Mobility said late on Thursday that 99 percent of shares, voting at a special meeting earlier in the day, were in favor of the company’s deal to be acquired by Google.

The company said it is working quickly to complete the deal but, given regulatory filings and other approvals still needed, it will probably be early 2012 before the deal can close. Motorola had said earlier that the deal should close late this year or early next year.

Google is paying $40 per share, or a total of $12.5 billion, for the company.

“We are pleased and gratified by the strong support we have received from our stockholders, with more than 99 percent of the voting shares voting in support of the transaction,” CEO Sanjay Jha said in a statement. “We look forward to working with Google to realize the significant value this combination will bring to our stockholders and all the new opportunities it will provide our dedicated employees, customers, and partners.”

Last month, the company said in a filing that it was cutting 5 percent of its workforce.

Ballmer Didn't Necessarily Say Full Windows Is Coming to Phones, but Might It?

Ina Fried — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 20:11:03 +0000

Much is being made over Steve Ballmer’s statements Tuesday at Microsoft’s annual shareholder meeting, which some have taken to indicate that Microsoft plans to bring Windows 8 to the phone.

While answering a question about whether or not we are in a post-PC era, Microsoft’s CEO insisted that Windows would continue to be at the center of things.

“We are in the Windows era,” Ballmer said. “We were, we are and we always will be. That’s kind of what we get paid to do.”

Here’s where things get a little tricky. During the next part, Ballmer talked about several initiatives that the company has going on around Windows and makes some comments that at least one reporter took to mean that Windows 8 is coming to the phone.

Here’s what Ballmer said (I’ve used ellipses to mark where there are brief pauses):

“We’ve got broad Windows initiatives … driving Windows down to the phone … with Windows 8 … you’ll see incredible new form factors powered by Windows from tablets, small, large, pens, smaller, bigger, room-size displays. We are in an era in which the range of smart devices is continuing to expand. That’s a fantastic thing for Microsoft. That is a real opportunity.”

So the question is, in which phrase was he referring to Windows 8? From listening to the audio — I wasn’t in the room — it’s tough to tell whether the Windows 8 piece is part of the sentence about the phone or part of the next one. (I recommend listening to it for yourself. It’s at about 47:30 into the webcast, which is available from Microsoft’s investor relations site.)

But here’s what we do know. Microsoft is moving its phone and desktop operating systems closer together.

Things are furthest along in the look and feel department, where Windows 8’s new look bears a striking resemblance to Windows Phone 7. The Metro look that pervades the phone operating system is at the heart of the new start menu for Windows 8 that Microsoft first showed off at our D9 conference in June.

What has yet to happen is the opportunity for developers to write code once and have it run seamlessly on phones, PCs and tablets. Likewise, consumers can’t buy software that runs on all three devices.

Microsoft has made moves to separate the tools developers use to write their programs from the underlying hardware, be it PCs or phones. With Windows Phone, developers are writing their applications in either Silverlight or XNA — the tools first used to develop for the Xbox. With new-style Windows 8 apps, developers are writing in various Web languages, including HTML5 and Javascript. Microsoft is using this approach, among other things, to expand Windows to run on both traditional PC processors and those using the ARM core found in smartphones and tablets.

That leaves the door open for Redmond to make any number of changes, including moving the phone and PC to a more common architecture, without necessarily forcing developers to do another rewrite.

HP Has Meeting to Say It Still Doesn't Know What to Do With webOS

Ina Fried — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 01:00:42 +0000

It looks like employees of the webOS unit are in for another season of “The Waiting Game.”

Hewlett-Packard called an all-hands meeting Tuesday to tell the unit’s workers that it still doesn’t know what it is going to do with webOS, a source told AllThingsD.

According to The Verge, HP CEO Meg Whitman told employees that a decision is still some three to four weeks away.

“It’s really important to me to make the right decision, not the fast decision,” Whitman said, according to The Verge. “If HP decides to do this (keep webOS), we’re going to do it in a very significant way, over a multiyear period.”

An HP representative told AllThingsD the company had nothing to announce.

As we’ve noted, the company doesn’t really have any easy answers. Most of the would-be buyers have said privately or publicly (and presumably to HP, as well) that they are not interested. The OS, though praised for its interface, has suffered from neglect under current and past management, while rivals like Apple, Google and even Microsoft are moving full speed ahead.

Previous CEO Léo Apotheker had made the call to ax the webOS hardware, pursue strategic alternatives for the software and sell the PC business. Last month, Whitman said HP would keep the PC business, but also said the company had yet to finalize its plans for webOS.

HP acquired the unit with its billion-dollar-plus acquisition of Palm and at one point talked of putting the OS on every PC and on many of the printers it sells, not to mention cellphones and tablets.

I’m checking in with sources, and hope to have a bit more soon, though clearly there isn’t much new to say here.

Trial in Oracle-Google Lawsuit Over Android Delayed

Arik Hesseldahl — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 12:45:20 +0000

The judge overseeing the Google-Oracle patent infringement lawsuit says the trial in the case won’t happen this year.

In a filing yesterday (see below), Judge William Alsup proposed a trial plan to lawyers for both sides, stating that the trial “will not be in 2011.” Alsup said he expects a long trial that will likely be considered a hardship by people selected to sit on the jury. “Although the trial will not be in 2011, the Court needs some lead time to pre-clear a venire for hardship for a long trial,” Alsup wrote in the filing. The word “venire” refers to the jury selection process. Alsup didn’t hint when he expects the trial to begin.

Court-mandated face-to-face talks between Oracle CEO Larry Ellison and Google CEO Larry Page failed last month. The trial had been expected sometime this month.

Oracle has claimed that Google owes it more than $6 billion for parts of its Java software that were used in the Android mobile operating system, which Oracle took over after it acquired Sun Microsystems last year. Google has argued that Oracle’s claims for damages are flawed.

Goog Orcl Delay

Kazuo Hirai: Highlights From AsiaD (Video)

John Paczkowski — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 05:30:14 +0000

With the PlayStation, Sony once dominated the console gaming market. With the Trinitron and the Walkman, it did the same to the TV and portable music player markets. These days, however, it’s struggling to hold its own in all three, competing with a host of formidable new rivals.

As the guy who’s responsible for every single Sony product a consumer can pick up, Kazuo Hirai, the company’s executive deputy president, talked during a wide-ranging interview at AsiaD today about the company’s new tablets, game players and efforts to regain market share. He would not, however, talk about whether Sony is interested in buying out Ericsson in its Sony Ericsson joint venture. Below, video highlights of the session:

[ See post to watch video ]

Sony's Kazuo Hirai on 3-D, Phones and Tablets, at AsiaD

Ina Fried — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 23:51:37 +0000

Sony, a pioneer in consumer electronics, is looking to regain lost ground with its latest generation of tablets and game players.

One of the key players in that effort is Kazuo Hirai, a longtime game unit executive who is now widely seen as second in command of the entire company behind CEO Howard Stringer.

The company continues to have challenges, though, with its next-generation Vita game player delayed until next year and its first Android tablets just now making their way into the global market.

8:07 am: Just getting started here on the final day of AsiaD.

On his role: If it is a product that is being picked up by a consumer and it’s got the Sony name on it, it’s under my name.

8:09 am: Talking about the TV business.

Hirai says the jury is still out on 3-D, but there is a chicken-and-egg problem.

“It really is dependent on how much good content there is.”

One of the driving factors is probably going to be gaming, he said, because it appeals to a younger set. And, because it is not tied to live content, it is easier to tweak 3-D to make it a good experience.

“Gamers are willing to try new things.”

8:12 am: What about Internet-connected TVs? Those also haven’t taken off all that well, Walt says.

Hirai: “I think that it is a function of several things. Again, it’s a bit of a chicken-and-egg.”

8:16 am: On Google TV and Apple TV: Everyone is looking for a prominent space in the living room.

“It’s a very competitive market,” Hirai said.

If it is a fight for the living room, the TV is a natural way to get into that space.

Game consoles are another way, as Sony has done with PlayStation 3.

“That’s another way to make sure we have a place in the living room.”

8:20 am: Walt: Where do things stand with the competition with Xbox?

Hirai: We have a much larger install base in Japan. We were neck and neck in Europe.

In the U.S., though, Xbox has a larger install base.

Hirai says they expect a 10-year lifespan for the PS3, and see it eventually having a greater install base than any console.

8:21 am: What about the impact on handheld gaming of Apple and smartphone apps? How much of a challenge is that to the traditional structure of gaming?

Hirai: Whether we are talking about iPods, iPads or any Android, they’ve had an impact on the traditional videogame business, no question about it.

Not all negative impact, though. It has also introduced new customers to gaming.

Hirai notes that Sony is bringing PlayStation games to Android, and is now opening it up to some other PlayStation developers.

As much as those casual games are fun to play, they’re not the same as a dedicated player like Sony’s forthcoming PlayStation Vita portable videogame device. It’s coming to Japan in December, and to the rest of the world early next year, Hirai said.

It’s optimized for gaming with physical buttons, Hirai said, and allows for input on the back. It can also play HD movies and do other things.

Walt tries putting it in his pocket. Hirai quips that Walt has a stash of devices backstage. “They should have a metal detector.”

It has a 3G card for cellular connectivity (for data). In the U.S., it will cost $299 for the 3G model and $249 for the Wi-Fi-only model.

Walt: Who is the target market?

Hirai: Same people who have bought PSP and PlayStation 3, as well as those who have gotten into gaming from phones and tablets and iPod touch devices.

“If we can convert even a small percentage of those players … then we have also gained.”

8:31 am: Hirai notes that the company just started preorders in Japan, and there were people lining up at stores just to order one.

8:31 am: On to phones — is Sony interested in buying out Ericsson in its Sony Ericsson joint venture?

Hirai: I’m not going to comment on the speculation. After April, when Sony made its latest reorganization, one of the things I’ve done with Sony’s CEO and Sony Ericsson’s CEO is recognize that Sony Ericsson is an important part of Sony’s overall strategy, and that the two are in lockstep, whether it is a joint venture or not. That’s one of the things we are embarking on.

“Those are the kinds of things we need to work on to make sure it is a seamless experience.”

8:38 am: Why did you sell your camera sensors to Apple?

Hirai: Can you really define who your competitors are, these days?

We sell to Apple. We buy from Samsung. We sell to Samsung.

8:42 am: Walt: You are not in the top tier of smartphones.

Hirai: In certain regions, you are right.

Walt: So, are you going to buy out Ericsson in the cellphone space?

Again, Hirai says he won’t comment on speculation. The most important thing is that we are able to work a lot closer with the folks at Sony Ericsson.

Hirai is now showing Sony’s clamshell Android tablet — the Tablet P. Walt notes that when you open it up, you have a tablet with a big black bar in the middle.

Sony also has the slate-shaped Tablet S, which acts as a remote control, and which is already on sale in most markets.

8:48 am: Q&A: What is Sony doing to reinvigorate the videogame business?

Hirai notes that this question comes up every time the industry is in midcycle, and there are lots of sequels.

When we launch PlayStation Vita, we will have new titles.

Next question is on why there are only three PlayStation-certified Android devices — the Xperia Play phone and Sony’s two tablets. Will this expand to non-Sony devices?

Hirai: This is not a case where we want to keep it in the Sony family. We are in discussions with non-Sony makers. We’ll make the announcements as the time comes to go public. “This is not just for Sony devices.”

8:52 am: On cameras, Hirai said that there are continued innovations coming in the point-and-shoot business, despite the rise of camera phones.

“Stay tuned.”

Walt: Are you actually optimistic about that business?

Hirai: “It’s not a growing business. I get that. The numbers speak for themselves.”

8:54 am: Last question, from Joanna Stern of the Verge. What are Sony’s plans to make all the devices work better together? Where are you guys going with that? It seems like that is a software challenge — an area where you have struggled.

Hirai: The point you made is a very good one. He notes there is a new group looking at cross-device strategy, particularly among networked devices.

“I don’t know about clock radios.”

Unfortunately, because this is a hardware business, I’d like to think we can change everything overnight, but we can’t.

Kazuo Hirai Session Photos

Nokia Aims Software At Low-End Phones

Christopher Lawton — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 07:00:53 +0000

Nokia Corp., having abandoned its ambition to develop a high-end operating system, is shifting its programming efforts toward creating software for its low-end phones, according to people familiar with the matter.

The project is a Linux-based operating system code-named Meltemi, the Greek word for dry summer winds that blow across the Aegean Sea from the north. It is being led by Mary McDowell, the handset maker’s executive vice president in charge of mobile phones, these people say.

A spokesman for Nokia, Doug Dawson, declined to comment on the Finland-based company’s future products or technologies.

Nokia’s attempt to build its own software is another sign that the value in the technology industry is shifting from hardware to software. In the past year, Google Inc.’s Android software has dominated the midrange smartphone market while Apple Inc.’s iPhone, which runs Apple’s iOS software, has captured the high end.

Read the rest of this post on the original site »

Avaya Plans to Go Public

Dana Cimilluca and Anupreeta Das — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 15:27:11 +0000

Avaya Inc., a big maker of phones and other telecommunications gear, plans to file for a $1 billion initial public offering as early as this week, according to people familiar with the matter, making it the latest technology company seeking to tap into a resurgent IPO market.

The offering could value Avaya, which was taken private by buyout firms Silver Lake and TPG Capital in 2007, at $5 billion or more, the people said. The exact numbers–and indeed whether the private-equity firms can pull off the IPO–will depend on market sentiment at the time of the offering. Typically, there is a lag of two months or more between the filing of an IPO and its trading debut.

Read the rest of this post on the original site »

American Express Continues Push Into Mobile Payments With Investment in Payfone

Tricia Duryee — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 00:00:31 +0000

Two weeks after launching an all-new digital payments platform called Serve, American Express is doubling its efforts in the emerging space with an investment in Payfone, a mobile-payments provider.

Payfone has raised $19 million in a third round of funding. In addition to American Express, Verizon Investments and Rogers Communications is also participating, along with existing investors Opus Capital, BlackBerry Partners Fund and RRE Ventures.

As part of the investment, American Express will integrate Payfone’s mobile payments service into Serve.

Serve is American Express’s new digital payments initiative, which lets consumers make purchases, take cash withdrawals from ATMs and make person-to-person payments from their computer or their phone. Serve is currently like PayPal, but aspires to be something much broader that integrates mobile payments, loyalty programs and other social and connected services.

Right now, most the services revolve around plastic cards and mobile applications.

But together, the companies said Serve will be able to offer consumers the ability to make purchases online using their mobile phone number at checkout. To do so, a consumer would link their mobile numbers to a variety of payment methods, including their wireless bill or their Serve account.

Many other venture-based companies are meddling in mobile payments, but it has been slow to take off since the fees carriers charge can be prohibitively high for merchants. Instead of taking a couple of percentage points, like Visa or MasterCard, carriers can charge up to 40 percent of each transaction.

Other startups in the space include Zong, Boku, BilltoMobile and mopay.

So far, high fees have mostly limited payments to high margin items, such as virtual goods. While we’ve reported that’s changing, and digital and physical goods are becoming more of a reality, Payfone believes it has a faster way to market.

The explanation is a bit complex and the details are caught up in the deep recesses of the network. But at a very high level, Payfone is trying to build a system that relies on the same standards used by carriers that give permission for a subscriber to roam from one network to another.

When a subscriber roams today, it requires two carriers to communicate to ensure that a subscriber is in good standing and will be able to pay the roaming fees–and to do that as fast as it takes to make a phone call.

In the same way, Payfone says it can determine if a consumer has the funds or the credit worthiness to make a purchase. By checking with the carrier upfront, it also claims to dramatically reduce fraud charge-backs and identity theft–which makes it feasible to reduce the fees in the system.

Payfone said it will use the fresh round of capital to continue expanding across North America, Europe, Latin America and Asia.

While American Express’s participation in Payfone signals the company’s interest in the category, it pales in comparison to the $300 million acquisition of Revolution Money, which makes up the basis for the Serve platform today.

CTIA Notebook: While Most Phones are Getting Smarter, Snapfon Aims for Simplicity (Video)

Ina Fried — Thu, 24 Mar 2011 23:20:02 +0000

While there were plenty of smartphones on display at CTIA, the Snapfon is decidedly at the other end of the spectrum–and proudly so.

Like the better known Jitterbug, the Snapfon prides itself on big buttons and simplicity, aiming at the growing market for seniors.

“Not everyone wants a smartphone,” said Snapfon Sales Manager Adrienne Powell. “You sell an inferior product, on purpose.”

Even the Web site boasts that the Snapfon is just a phone, not a BlackBerry or an iPhone.

The phone has been on the market for about a year and the seven-person Chatanooga, Tennessee, company has sold about 6,000, Powell said. In addition to the big buttons on the front, the phone has an LED flashlight and a large SOS button on the back that can make calls and send text messages to several preprogrammed numbers in the event of an emergency. The phone can also speak out numbers as they are dialed so those with limited vision can make sure they have dialed correctly.

The company sells the device and resells basic phone and text service from a small cellular carrier called PureTalk USA.

Phil Sieg, one of Snapfon’s founders, said he knows the industrial design of the initial model leaves a little something to be desired. However, he said there are newer models in the works that he thinks could pass testing for a big carrier.

“I’d love to be able to sell to them,” he said.

One of the interesting things is that while 80 percent of those using a Snapfon are between 70 and 90 years old, the vast majority of buyers are between 25 and 60.

“They are buying them for mom or grandma,” Sieg said.

[ See post to watch video ]

ComScore: Mobile Internet Traffic in Japan Spikes After Quake, Tsunami

Ina Fried — Wed, 16 Mar 2011 20:57:33 +0000

Already big users of the mobile Web, Japanese citizens have relied on their cell phone Internet connections in the wake of last week’s massive earthquake and tsunami.

In a blog post, comScore noted that just after the March 11 earthquake, there was a spike in traffic from both PCs and mobile users, but that over the next few days, the increase shifted mainly to mobile devices. Japan, it notes, is the country with the highest rate of mobile media use, with three-quarters of cell phone owners using various mobile media.

“In the wake of the disaster, with those who were stranded unable to use computers to get information or rely on landlines to communicate with loved ones, mobile media use in Japan saw an increase,” comScore said in a blog post.

Mobile traffic was up even when taking into account typical weekend usage patterns and the fact that some cellular services were interrupted following the quake.

HP's Move Could Give webOS Needed Scale, Help Its PCs Stand Out

Ina Fried — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 20:05:13 +0000

Among the nuggets in Leo Apotheker’s chat with Bloomberg Businessweek was the fact that HP plans to include Palm’s webOS on all PCs starting next year.

HP had already said it would put webOS on Windows PCs, but Apotheker’s comments give a time frame and make clear the depth of the commitment.

Including it on all PCs, along with many of HP’s printers, should help give the operating system some scale that the company would have a tough time getting in the short run by including it just on phones and tablets.

At the same time, if people take to webOS, it could help HP’s line of computers stand out from their Windows competition in a tough commodity market.

What’s more, the move sends a strong signal to developers that HP is serious about webOS. That’s important given the competing demands on mobile developers’ time. Programming for iPhone and Android are givens for most mobile shops, but HP needs to battle hard if it wants to compete with Research In Motion and Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 for that spot as “next most important mobile OS.”

That said, the HP move isn’t a panacea for the company’s developer challenges with webOS. It won’t be enough to just throw the operating system onto PCs and printers. It will have to make sure there is a compelling case for using webOS on such devices.

RIM Launches Test of BlackBerry Protect Service

Ina Fried — Sat, 05 Mar 2011 22:00:28 +0000

Research In Motion said on Saturday that it has launched a public test, or beta, of its BlackBerry Protect service, which lets users wireless backup, locate and restore a device, as well as remotely lock or wipe a lost device.

The BlackBerry Protect application is free and available in North America as well as Latin America, RIM said. Similar services are available on a number of other platforms, although costs and features vary somewhat.

Survey Finds Video Game Usage on Phones Tops Consoles, Computers

Tricia Duryee — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 04:59:10 +0000

Seattle-based PopCap has commissioned a study that doesn’t necessarily support the bulk of its business to date — making games for consoles and computers. The pre-IPO casual-game maker of Bejeweled said the survey, conducted by Information Solutions Group, found that among mobile phone gamers in the U.S. and UK, 44 percent say the phone is the primary gaming device of choice, leapfrogging video game consoles (21 percent) and personal computers (30 percent) since a similar survey was last conducted in 2009.

Broadcom CEO on Low-cost Android Phones, Free Tablets and the Promise of Russian Satellites

Ina Fried — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 14:00:55 +0000

If the headline doesn’t make it clear, I covered a lot of ground in a chat I had here in Barcelona with Scott McGregor, CEO of chipmaker Broadcom.

For those who don’t know Broadcom, it is an Orange County, Calif.-based company that makes chips that go into all kinds of communications gear, from cable modems to cellphones to set-top boxes. It has steadily expanded its range through a steady stream of acquisitions.

Just at this week’s Mobile World Congress alone, the company announced plans for a whole range of new chips, including a processor that the company said should help Google in its goal of driving Android down into lower price points.

“The chips we’ve announced allow for Android phones to cover the gamut,” McGregor told Mobilized. While rivals such as Nvidia and Qualcomm plan ever more powerful chips for the high end of the phone and tablet markets, Broadcom is looking to crack into the Android processor market by driving down cost.

The key, he said, is that its processors, while perhaps not yet competitive at the ultra-high end of the smartphone market, integrate more functions than do rival chips. More stuff on a single chip means lower prices, and with Broadcom’s latest chip, Android devices should be able to stretch all the way down to the middle of the feature phone market.

Touring the company’s booth, McGregor pointed to a number of other interesting projects the company has going on in the wireless realm. For instance, the company is working on chips that expand the potential for location-based services by tapping more types of satellites. While GPS uses only American whirlybirds, data is also available now from Russian, Japanese and European satellites. The company is also working on technologies to improve location data inside buildings where satellites typically are of no help.

Another interesting area is in tablets. While much of the attention is on the iPad or its would-be rivals, McGregor said there is an emerging market for lower-end home units that can be given away by service providers like Comcast as another screen for users to consume content. While free tablets haven’t hit the U.S., McGregor said British Telecom and Japan’s NTT DoCoMo are among those offering such products.

Sony Ericsson Aims to Play Its Way Back Into Android Smartphone Lead

Ina Fried — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 17:35:45 +0000

Sony Ericsson is counting on its new Xperia Play phone to be more than just a novelty.

The cellphone maker is hoping that its PlayStation phone, combined with several other new smartphones, will help lift the company to the top of the Android race as opposed to being just one of the pack.

In an interview at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Sony Ericsson CTO Jan Uddenfeldt told Mobilized that the company intends to capitalize on Sony technologies beyond gaming, particularly in the areas of screens and cameras.

“We think we have a really competitive edge,” said Uddenfeldt. The Xperia Arc, for example, uses the Bravia Engine that comes from Sony’s television heritage. “We will introduce 3-D technology and that will come from Sony, of course.

Uddenfeldt said that the company is now leading on Android as well, being the first company outside of Google itself to release a Gingerbread-based phone, with its Arc that was announced at CES. At Mobile World Congress, it announced the Xperia Play and two other phones.

“From being a little bit of a laggard when it comes to Android releases, we are now the leader,” he said. “We intend to really stay that way. Our intention is to be the number one player in this Android world.”

First and foremost, Uddenfeldt said the company has to be a leader when it comes to using both the latest version of Android and the newest chips and other hardware. “It is a technology race, so it is very important to be on the latest technology,” he said.

With Xperia Play, Uddenfeldt said, the company has something that takes advantage of the latest and greatest version of Android but also does something unique.

“We don’t see anyone else doing this in the near future,” he said. In addition to being PlayStation certified, it will also work with a lot of Android games, including many customized just for the Play.

“Most of the games that we will launch are actually non-Sony-based games, Android games,” he said, referring to deals with Gameloft and EA Sports to create Xperia Play-optimized titles. “There’s going to be like 50 games when we launch the product in March or April.”

Though most Americans wouldn’t know it, Sony Ericsson is a top-three global player in Android phones, with about 20 percent market share, he said. Until recently, Uddenfeldt said, the company would tend to introduce phones first in Europe and Asia, bringing them to the U.S. several months later–and that, he said, “was absolutely not the right strategy.”

“The U.S. is now the leading market,” he said. “The U.S. is the country where the most advanced products are being launched first. That was not the case two or three years ago.”

Sony Ericsson is realizing this and is changing, he said, noting that Verizon will be among the first carriers to offer the Play. “We will work very closely with AT&T in launching different products as well,” he added.

The company is also shifting more of its design and engineering to the U.S., Uddenfeldt said, noting that the Redwood Shores, Calif., office where he works, established just two years ago, now has about 300 workers doing everything from product design and engineering to business development.

“It’s the right place to be,” he said. “We have Android there. We have Facebook.”

Uddenfeldt has a unique perspective, having been with Sony Ericsson for only six months but at the same time being a 30-year Ericsson veteran and being based in Silicon Valley for the past several years. He’s also not afraid to admit that the company has made mistakes, including in the past year as it tried to move from proprietary Walkman and Cybershot phones to a fully Android-based lineup.

“I don’t think Sony Ericsson fully understood the importance of being on the latest Android release,” he said. “That kind of hindered a little bit the growth of the company during last year.”

However, he said, with the move to Android, the company has stemmed its losses and has now had four profitable quarters. This year, he said, it is time for growth.

It's Hard to Cut the Charging Cords

Katherine Boehret — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 00:24:07 +0000

What if there was a product that made it easy to charge all your household mobile devices and it used just a single cord to do it?

Charging pads are designed to do just that. The WildCharge Pad from PureEnergy Solutions Inc., one of the first charging pads, seemed revolutionary when it came out three years ago. It’s a small, thin pad covered in panels that conduct electricity. It plugs into the wall, and devices can be casually dropped onto it so they can start juicing up.

[ See post to watch video ]

Yet, here we are still fumbling around to find the right charging cord to plug into our phones, iPads, digital cameras and portable music players. This week, I decided to investigate why charging pads haven’t caught on with consumers.

One reason is that people may not want to buy a charging accessory when gadgets come with their own cords. Also, for devices to work with these charging surfaces, they must have special backs or cases that correspond with the pad. These can change the look of a device, making them bulky.

However, manufacturers of smart phones and other gadgets are starting to incorporate the technology behind charging pads at the design level so they aren’t so obtuse. Palm Inc., now a subsidiary of Hewlett-Packard, designed a $20 (after instant rebate) accessory called the Touchstone that works as a magnetic charging dock for its Pre smart phones. A special backing still must be swapped out for the Pre’s regular back, but this looks just like the phone’s regular backing. And last week, when H-P unveiled its TouchPad tablet, due out this summer, the company confirmed this device would also work with a Touchstone charger.

Energizer’s Inductive Charger

But why isn’t there one charging pad that works with several different gadgets and doesn’t require an unattractive sleeve? Of the different charging technologies, there isn’t one that has gained a toehold.

A group called the Wireless Power Consortium—which includes a host of different companies like smart-phone makers, wireless carriers and TV makers—created what it intends to be an international standard for interoperable wireless charging, called Qi (pronounced “chee”). The WPC hopes manufacturers will eventually make devices that are Qi compliant so they all work with the same charging pad and don’t require a sleeve, since the technology would be built in. Products using this charging standard would have a Qi logo on their packaging. Compared with the current situation of using different chargers for each device, Qi sounds heavenly.

Though the WPC includes members like Samsung, LG Electronics, Verizon Wireless and Motorola, none of the companies has introduced a Qi-compliant product. When I asked a Motorola spokeswoman if it had plans to use the Qi standard in its products, she would only say that the company is evaluating the technology for future devices. Likewise for BlackBerry-maker Research In Motion Ltd., a WPC member. A spokeswoman said she couldn’t comment on future product plans.

In September, another trade group, the Consumer Electronics Association, created a panel to sort through various opinions on wireless power technical standards. The sole aim of the group is to collect and share information with manufacturers. This group is examining five issues that include: nomenclature; safety; radio-frequency emissions and efficiency; and standby measurement. A CEA spokeswoman said the panel and the WPC share many of the same members and that the panel plans to share information on a charging standard.

Duracell’s myGrid charging pad, which uses the conductive charging technology.

There are two types of charging technology and it isn’t clear yet which one will become the standard. The Qi standard involves a technology called inductive charging, while other companies, like PureEnergy Solutions, use a conductive charging technology.

One big difference is that inductive chargers don’t require metal-on-metal connections to charge a device like conductive chargers do. This means inductive charging will work through lots of different materials, including wood, plastic or leather. This could allow pads to be built into different surfaces, such as airplane trays and office furniture. Late last year, the first Qi-enabled wireless charging station was installed at Windsor International Airport in Ontario.

One product that is Qi compliant is Energizer’s $89 Inductive Charger (http://energizer.com/inductive), but this still requires sleeves for devices. The sleeves cost $35 each and are available for BlackBerrys, the iPhone 3G or 3GS and iPhone 4. Late this summer, Energizer will introduce a universal adapter with micro- and mini-USB compatibility.

Powermat USA’s $60 Wireless Charging System for the iPhone 4 (powermat.com) uses a slightly different technology that requires devices to rest on charging pads in specific positions.

On the conductive front, PureEnergy Solutions has licensed its WildCharge Technology to other companies. All licensees feature a WildCharge Mark of Interoperability on their products so consumers know which products are compatible with the WildCharge charging pad.

Duracell uses this technology in its MyGrid line of products (http://3.ly/A7Yh), including the $85 iPhone Starter Kit and a $90 cellphone starter kit. RadioShack will use WildCharge Technology in its $50 Enercell Charging Pad (http://3.ly/6gcY), which will be available in June, and skins for devices that charge on these pads will cost about $30 each.

In the future, hopefully, one of these committees will figure out which technology is best to establish one standard that saves people from using a rat’s nest of power cords.

Write to Katherine Boehret at mossbergsolution@wsj.com

HTC's One-Button Facebook Phones Headed to ATT

Ina Fried — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 16:08:40 +0000

AT&T said on Tuesday it will have HTC phones later this year that include the Facebook button the Taiwanese cellphone maker showed off here in Barcelona.

The phones may not be the exact Cha Cha and Salsa models that were unveiled at HTC’s press conference, but the devices will have similar abilities, including a context-aware Facebook button that allows photos and links to automatically be shared and lights up when such an option is available.

“In the U.S., AT&T and HTC are exclusively bringing this unique user experience to the market later this year,” an AT&T representative told Mobilized. However, the carrier said that full device plans have not been finalized.

AT&T has said it plans to offer at least a dozen Android devices this year as part of a major push to feature devices with Google’s operating system. Products announced so far include phones from Samsung and HTC, Motorola’s Xoom tablet and its Atrix smartphone, which can act as a laptop when plugged into a custom dock.

“It goes without saying this is part of our commitment to have the industry’s best Android portfolio this year,” the AT&T spokesman said.

HTC and AT&T aren’t the only ones at Mobile World Congress looking to harness the power of Facebook. INQ Mobile is showing off its cloud line of Android phones, which feature heavy Facebook integration, while Gemalto has a SIM card that features built-in Facebook support.

RIM Buys Contact Manager Gist

Liz Gannes — Mon, 14 Feb 2011 17:57:29 +0000

RIM has bought the contact management start-up Gist in a deal that was first reported by GigaOM late last year. The Seattle-based company raised approximately $11 million from investors including Foundry Group and Vulcan Capital. Through various Web plug-ins and mobile apps, Gist helps users generate a united living contact list from email, social networks and mobile phones. It’s one of those things that’s hard to describe but much loved by avid users.

Twitter CEO Dick Costolo Says Company Needs to Unify Its Experience Across Devices

Ina Fried — Mon, 14 Feb 2011 16:28:40 +0000

Twitter CEO Dick Costolo said on Monday that although the service is available on nearly every phone, the company has a long way to go to make the product consistent across devices.

“The experience has to be the same,” Costolo said during an afternoon keynote speech at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. “I shouldn’t have to think how to use Twitter.”

About 40 percent of tweets come from a mobile device, while half of all active users are active on more than one device, he said.

Until not that long ago, Twitter built only the product for the Web and let third parties handle phones and other devices. In recent months, though, it has scooped up various app makers and now offers official apps for the major smartphones. However, given that those official apps stem from different acquisitions, they often work in different ways.

Costolo said the company also wants to make sure that one doesn’t have to sign up and follow lots of people to get something out of the service.

“We want Twitter to be instantly useful,” he said.

With Twitter for Windows Phone 7, the company introduced the notion, already present on the Web, that one shouldn’t have to be an active user to have Twitter on their phone.

His talk is still ongoing and I’ll update things as it continues.

5:32 pm: Costolo said the company will begin offering crowdsourced translations of the service into Russian, Turkish and Indonesian and, later this year, will have its own translation to Portuguese.

5:33 pm: Some stats from Super Bowl, this year.

4,000 tweets per second at the end of the game and 3,000 tweets per second during the game. That was 27 tweets per second in 2008.

The overall record is New Year’s Eve in Japan (the country has a single time zone) and the prior sporting event record was from last year’s World Cup.

5:34 pm: Twitter is actually bringing things back to live TV and away from the DVR.

“That’s not just happening with live sporting events,” Costolo said. He cites game shows in the U.K.

5:36 pm: “Glee,” for example, has 30 times the number of tweets about it when the show is on.

Takeaway: the long-talked about second screen of interactive TV is here and it is Twitter.

5:38 pm: About Twitter as a business: The short answer is we are already making money, Costolo said. The really good thing, he said, is that businesses can use the service in the same way as others–building community around shared interest.

5:41 pm: A viral campaign of note. Al-Jazeera highlighting its coverage of the events in the Middle East and North Africa with the hashtag #demandaljazeera to get its programming on U.S. cable systems.

5:44 pm: Costolo, on the role of Twitter and Facebook in recent events there:

“I think that takes away from what these people have accomplished,” he said. “We are probably a very small piece of the puzzle.”

5:47 pm: On to Q&A. Battery is running low, but hoping to make it through the question period.

First question came in over Twitter and asks what is the company’s biggest fear.

“Twitter’s biggest fear is lack of execution,” Costolo said, saying he tries to convince workers not to focus on competitors. “If we execute on what we are trying to do we will be successful.”

5:48 pm: A couple of questions on local trends and translations. Costolo said that crowdsourcing offers a way to do more translations quickly, while the trends piece requires more work on Twitter’s part, some of which should be done this year.

5:53 pm: What is the biggest mistake Twitter has made?

Costolo said company’s founders would say they shot themselves in the foot, head and everywhere else not hiring or scaling fast enough.

“I think we are out of the woods on that one,” Costolo said.

Next question is on what Twitter is doing in response to its pivotal role in Arabic-speaking countries right now. Costolo noted that Twitter doesn’t yet support right-to-left languages.

On being blocked, Costolo said Twitter is only a 350-person company and doesn’t have the resources of some larger companies. “We try to just leverage our own platform to plead for help,” he said.

5:58 pm: Costolo is asked if there is a need for Twitter-branded smartphones.

“No,” Costolo said. “I believe there is a need for Twitter in the existing platforms.”

Earlier in his keynote, Costolo said he wants deep integration so that when a user takes a picture they don’t have to open a separate app to tweet out that picture.

6:03 pm: As for rumors that Google might be willing to pay $10 billion for the company.

“I don’t know where these things come from,” Costolo said. “It’s just a rumor.”

6:03 pm: End of keynote. (just as my battery was on its last sliver of red, too!