Expectation
that mobile location services could probe to be WAP’s 'killer application' are
unlikely to be fulfilled, according to a new report entitled ‘Mobile Location
Services and Technologies’ from British telecoms market researchers, Analysys.
Julie Robson, lead author of the report, says, "Mobile operators and
service providers must learn lessons from the poor acceptance of WAP, and ensure
a friendly user-interface meets customers' expectations." The global
subscriber base for mobile location services is forecast to exceed 680 million
users by the end of 2006, which represents half of all mobile subscribers and
over 70 per cent of mobile Internet users. Analysys forecasts that location
services revenues will grow from just over US $2 billion by Q1 2003 to over US
$8.5 billion by Q1 2007. Forecasts suggest 31 per cent will be generated in
Western Europe and 22 per cent in the USA. The consumer market will account for
77 per cent of total revenues.
BSkyB has chosen to Peramon's WAP gateway to build its new
Sky Text service. The service is now available free to over4 million Sky digital subscribers and thus becomes one ofthe largest communities of WAP users. Sky Text service features on-screen
interactive betting plus over 1,200 pages of news, sport, andentertainment. Peramon claims this marks the first significant use of WAP
outside of mobile Internet environment. BSkyB has built access to online
services the integrated modem in its set-top-box via a WML based browser
software and information is downloaded on-demand by satellite.
Digital Mobility facilitates real-time
share trading by WAP
Banking
and stock broking customers of Thomson Financial, the financial information
provider, now have the ability to trade their stocks securely via mobile phone.
This development is the result of a partnership between Digital Mobility, the
wireless solutions developer, and Thomson Financial Solutions (TFSolutions).
TFSolutions has extended its existing distribution platform to enable secure,
real-time wireless trading of European equities. Digital Mobility's
standard-independent solution currently uses WAP over GSM, but is ready for
other mobile standards such as GPRS, i-mode, EDGE and UMTS.
The deal therefore gives WAP users access to the most time-sensitive financial
information from GlobalTOPIC, Extel, First Call, Worldscope, and Datastream.www.digimob.com
NEC
picks Psion Bluetooth
Psion Connect has announced an agreement to supply NEC Computers
International Group divisions, NEC Online for commercial market and Packard Bell
for consumer market with a range of Bluetooth connectivity solutions. Psion
Connect will initially supply NEC Computers International with Bluetooth PC
Cards and USB adaptors for sale during Q2 CY 2001. “The combination of our Bluetooth Manager user interface with other
innovative features such as our retractable antenna PC Card design allows
Bluetooth users to be instantly productive,” said Lionel Wolovitz, chief
technology officer with Psion Connect.
Ericsson
and IBM have joined forces to help financial houses deliver their services via
the mobile Internet. The two companies are developing a solution that will
combine’sEricsson Mobile
Internet enabling tools such as Ericsson Mobile e-Pay, Safetrader and WAP
Gateway with the IBM WebSphere infrastructure family of products. The latter
includes the WebSphere Everyplace Suite, and the IBM eServer range. IBM Global
Services will provide business innovation consulting and IT integration
services. The pair are targeting high-value, high-volume business-to-client
services providers of applications such as wealth management, account
aggregation, mobile trading, plus credit card and payment alerts. Researcher, Datamonitor, says that such mobile services are going
to be critical for banks in the next two to three years.
Ericsson is to open a 3G interoperability test centre in Guildford, Englandfor 3G/UMTS Interoperability Testing (IOT). The new centre will allow all
other vendors to bring their products to be tested against Ericsson ' s complete
system.Other Ericsson
Interoperability centres will open in Stockholm and Madrid www.ericsson.com
…
According to the Butler
Group, Nokia sold 128 million phones in 2000. That compares to around 78.5
million in 1999 and is a rise of 64 per cent. With a market share of 31 per
cent, that equates to a global market of circa 412 million phones. It expects to
take 35 per cent market share in 2001, which equals 192 million phones out of a
total of 550 million phones .. .
Some 3.7 million SMS messages passed
through the M1 network in Singapore on Valentine's Day (February 14th). The number
beats its previous highest on the Lunar New Year's Eve when M1 recorded 3.3
million messages. 3.7 million equates to almost 1.2 messages per
Singaporean citizen or about 4.6 messages per M1 customer. The
GSM Association says that a record 15 billion SMS messages were sent over GSM
networks during December 2000 . . . www.gsmassociation.org
Wcities
has launched its Geo-Coded Location Information Service for wireless network
operators. Its content about the cities of the world is location specific and
can be sent to an individual's cell phone, Palm Pilot, Psion, Handspring Visor,
Cassiopeia or other PDA but not WAP? It uses GPS (Global Positioning System) and
MPS (Mobile Positioning System) …www.wcities.com
WAP Site of the Week
(By Geoff Dennis)
This week’s theme is . . . free logos
We've located a site where such a service isn't just 'coming' or 'on hold':
- Boltblue. You must register on the fixed web site (www.boltblue.com), from where you
will be sent a TIN number via a message to your phone. Use this number to complete
registration. You can then select free logos to download from the Fun&Games section, either from the main site or from the
WAP site http://wap.boltblue.com
