Motorola has unveiled a PDA-phone based on the Windows operating system, giving the company a product range that now spans three major smart phone platforms. Based on Microsoft’s Smartphone 2002 software, joins other recently-launched Motorola phones using the rival Linux and Symbian operating systems. For now the phone will only be available in Hong Kong, according to a Motorola spokesman.
This month marks the 10th anniversary of the Personal Digital Assistant and a decade of Enfour developing software for mobile platforms. That’s right, Enfour was the first company to develop commerical software for PDAs (back then the Newton) but now for all platforms. In fact, Enfour, Inc. was spun-off from Enfour Media Laboratory specifically to pursue development of software for handheld computers.
We spent an afternoon at the Symbian Workshop in Tokyo recently and chatted with Nokia’s Gerard Bruen, Director of Series 60 and Alliance Partners. Tune in for a surprisingly candid discussion about what the big push was for this event.. “the Japanese market is sophisticated, the developers have a good understanding, there is a good eco-system already built around financially stable developers and content owners and we should utilize that.. Nokia has the reach to go global, and to take them global”. A must see interview for wireless developers everywhere who are planning their mobile business strategy.
Samsung Electronics launched a wireless handheld device in South Korea Monday that combines a phone, a TV, a camera, and a camcorder in what is the beginning of a line of feature-packed gadgets that the company plans to roll out this year.
Heikki Tenhunen President of Nokia Japan states, “Nokia welcomes Enfour joining Nokia’s developers’ community with its “UniFEP for Communicator” for Nokia 9210i Communicator. This kind of activity really proves its openness of Symbian technology bringing exciting business opportunities for independent software developers.
Fujitsu Limited and Nokia today announced that they will cooperatively develop and provide end-to-end mobile solutions and services for enterprises utilizing Nokia’s range of business terminals and platforms and Fujitsu’s wide range of capabilities in consulting, systems integration and managed services. The companies will provide secure, easy-to-use horizontal and customized vertical mobility solutions and services for companies that want to take advantage of mobility to increase efficiency, reduce costs and improve business processes. Initial rollouts will start immediately in the Nordic region and the UK, with expansion into selected regions of EMEA and Asia Pacific anticipated in the early part of 2004.
Tokyo’s HI Corp. has developed a 3D-graphics rendering engine that was first deployed by J-Phone/Vodafone in 2001. The software allows a cell phone to display very cool 3-D images that can be rotated, spun around, and otherwise manipulated. Now NTT DoCoMo and KDDI have adopted HI’s technology, and the company is keen to boost 3D imaging into markets elsewhere. Unfortunately, Sony, Sharp, and other heavyweights have taken notice. In the cut-throat, mobile technology ocean, will HI Corp. end up as one more little fish eaten by the big fish? Today’s program features Tokyo’s HI Corp., a 10-year-old software house founded by a bunch of students that has created some very cool technology.
In Japan, phones and PDAs are viewed within the industry as separate vertical markets. DoCoMo and other carriers – who control the development and sale of cellular devices – have not seen fit to create a hybrid phone/PDA. Is it fear of loss of control over the subscriber billing relationship? Fear of allowing foreign makers – like Nokia – into the market? Is it the lack of Japanese third-party developers who have worked with overseas platforms (like Symbian)? Today’s program looks at a company helping to stir up a market that needs some stirring.
