Samsung may launch Omnia Pro in July

According to rumors flying around, Samsung is preparing a new phone to add to its Omnia family, called the Omnia Pro. This new phone will have a full QWERTY slider behind the touchscreen Omnia. It will also include a 5Mpxl camera with autofocus, flash, image stabilizer and video recording and will operate on Windows Mobile 6.1 upgradable to 6.5. The phone is expected to retail for €500 ($662) and expected to launch in July.

What is your mobile platform strategy?

In the beginning there was the PalmOS mobile platform, and then there was Symbian, then Windows Mobile and RIM’s Blackberry OS. Then came the juggernaut iPhone OS from Apple. That was followed by Android from Google. Soon Palm will launch another mobile platform called the WebOS. All these different platforms lead to a question: How many mobile platforms can your company support?

 

That is just the operating systems. Already the mobile industry is fragmented with dozens of smartphone manufacturers.  Add in the different features of the handsets themselves, like accelerometer, GPS, camera, etc, and you have a whole matrix of feature sets that need to be accounted for. 

 

It is amazing how often entrepreneurs and product managers at smaller companies have said to me that this is their strategy. Then I ask them how soon they will be on all these platforms and I get a vague answer of as soon as we can. Given this situation, how long can companies justify developing products for all platforms?

 

Companies really need to evaluate their strategy against their resources. Building and supporting products on multiple platforms is costly and labor intensive process, just ask all those who build and support PC and Mac products. The complexity increases multiple-fold in the smartphone space. As an entrepreneur or product manager, you don’t have the time to wait until the product has been tested on all the platforms. You need to be out in the market before your competition.

 

Considering the limited funding and resources, you have to decide on one or two “hero” platforms as Tim Westergren, founder of the popular Pandora music service calls them. He has decided that iPhone is the “hero” platform they will focus on and when WebOS from Palm is available, that will be its second “hero” platform.

 

There are definite benefits in this strategy: You can develop a product that leverages the various features of that platform. You are able to conserve your resources by developing on few platforms. You can become the “best-in-class” on the specific platforms.

 

On the flip side, though, you have to weigh how successful are your target platforms going to be. iPhone has done phenomenally well and therefore could be a no-brainer for a lot of us. However, if you were targeting say Android or even the much-anticipated WebOS from Palm, you just have to look back at all those folks who jumped on the PalmOS bandwagon and decide if the rewards outweigh the risk and what is the likelihood of the platform surviving a few years.

 

Once you have decided on the platforms, like all good strategists, keep evaluating them and your strategy. Tim Westergren did not embark on his strategy right from the get-go. In fact, for two years Pandora was available on AT&T and Verizon Wireless’ application stores where it languished. Only when iPhone came along and Tim decided to launch his product on that platform did he found success.

Toshiba TG01 gets reviewed on video

Remember the Toshiba TG01 I mentioned some time back. Yeah, the one with huge 4.1 inches screen running Windows Mobile with custom Toshiba UI, all bundled in a sleek 9mm thin package. Well, UnwiredView got a  chance to review it  at MWC in Barcelona and he has put a video of the review along with some photos which you can view here.

Mobile World Congress Day 1 recap: Nokia Ovi Store, LG GD900, Arena, Windows Mobile 6.5, Samsung OmniaHD

Here is a recap of the top news story on this the first day of Mobile World Congress in Barcelona:

Nokia announced 4 new phones and the Ovi App store which will be available in March for publishers to upload content and on the N97 when it comes out in June. There are two new E-series devices: Nokia E75 and Nokia E55 with revamped email interface. The Navigator series got two more devices too: Nokia 6710 Navigator, and the Nokia 6720 classic. As the name suggest the 6710 Navigator is GPS centric device while the 6720 classic has advanced noice cancellation and form factor designed to fit around the face. Nokia, in an unusual move, announced its N86 phone far from the action in Singapore. This 8Mpxl camera phone is an update to the to-be-launched N97 with similar form factor and dual-sliders.

LG and Microsoft announced a partnership wherein LG will launch 50 new Windows Mobile based phones by 2012. I am sure a lot of these phones will see the S-Class treatment which we saw in LG Arena (also announced today with March availability in Europe). LG also announced the GD900 which has a transparent keypad slider with a very thin, 13.4″ thick casing, and have 7.2 Mbps HSDPA.

Speaking of Microsoft, it also announced the availability of Windows Mobile 6.5 with its honeycomb home screen; MyPhone, its cloud-based backup solution; Recite, the voice memo organization tool; and its own marketplace called Windows Marketplace for Mobile, which will be available on all phones running WinMo 6.5 and above.

Finally, Samsung had the best news of all: the new OmniaHD (review here), its Symbian S60 OS-based,12.7mm thin beauty with a huge 3.7″ glass AMOLED touchscreen display, an 8 Mpxl camera that shoots 720p video, HD video out, video calling, Wi-Fi, GPS and 8 to 16GB internal storage plus microSDHC support with aluminum body. It also announced the BeatDJ (see video review) with Bang & Olufson audio, 3 megapixel camera, DivX support, a 2.8″ AMOLED touchscreen and DJ features which allows the user to record tracks, scratch and add effects.

[Via Boy Genius Report, Engadget Mobile, Mobile Review, UnwiredView]

Toshiba to launch the slimmest, largest touchscreen phone in Barcelona

Toshiba is set to announce the launch of its new TG01 phone based on the new Qualcomm Snapdragon 1GHz chip. This phone is 9mm thick and has a 4.1 inches touchscreen, more than 3mm thinner than iPhone and a whole inch bigger than the iPhone. It runs Windows Mobile with Toshiba’s custom, striped Tosh GUI and comes with Office, Internet Explorer 6 and DivX support. The phone will launch in two weeks at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona and will be available sometime in summer. No pricing has been announced yet.  Here are some pictures of this hotness.

You can see more pictures at ElectricPig and Pocket-Lint.

[Via EngadgetMobile]

Dell eyeing the smartphone market

Wall Street Journal, yesterday, reported that Dell is set to enter the smartphone market (subscription required).  Dell has been making prototypes based on Android and Windows Mobile platforms for more than a year.  The plans are still up in the air and Dell could decide not to enter the market after all. If it does go ahead, the announcement likely to come at the Mobile World Congress next month.

If Delll does decide to enter the market, in my opinion, it should stay for the long haul and innovate to make money.It should also look at some of the Japanese manufacturers, not just look at Apple, as the report suggests.  Being just another cell phone provider will not cut it, as Motorola and Palm can attest. Based on Dell’s track record, it will have to be head and shoulders better than in the PC business to survive.

T-Mobile to get New Year’s gifts from HTC

Rumor has it that T-Mobile is getting two very good gifts from HTC in the new year. HTC is working on G2, a follow-up to its popular, Android-based G1, code-named, Sapphire. Another device is code-named Rhodium, which is the follow-up to the Wing, a Windows Mobile based phone with a full QWERTY keyboard. There is not much else that is known about these phones yet except for these images.

[Via Engadget Mobile]

Apple, RIM win smartphone marketshare from Nokia

According to a report published by Canalys, a market research company, Apple and RIM are winning market share in the smartphone category from Nokia. By Q3 2008, 40 million smartphones were sold worldwide. This represents a 28% growth YoY compared to 3% growth for the larger mobile phone market.

Nokia lost significant ground YoY in Q3 down from 51.4% in 2007 to 38.9% in 2008. Nokia uses the Symbian platform which as a result also lost significant ground. Here are the top 4 smartphone platforms and their market share:

• Symbian 46.6% down from 68.1% in Q3 2007
• Apple 17.3%
• RIM 15.2%
• Microsoft 13.6%

Since the bottom three vendors are so close, there is going to be continued fight for the second spot. It is likely that RIM might overtake Apple in Q4 with its upcoming release of Blackberry Storm and also the recent release of Blackberry Bold.

[Via Reuters]

Motorola to hitch its fortune to Android

In a major change in strategy, Wall Street Journal is reporting that Motorola’s new CEO Shanjay Jha has decided that going forward it will streamline on three OSs for its phones. He will announce these changes as early as today during the earnings call. Motorola will use Google’s Android platform for its consumer targeted smartphones, ditching Symbian OS. It will uses its own P2K OS for feature phones and for the business focused phones, it will use Microsoft Windows Mobile platform.  Also, Motorola is looking to outsource some of its Window Mobile based phone production to third parties. Motorola is expected to release its first Android-based, social networking focused smartphone in Q2, 2009.

Let’s hope the struggling Motorola can find its mojo with these changes. However, I am not optimistic about their chances. As I recently wrote, the mobile industry is starting to face some headwinds which are expected to get stronger in 2009. Just today, BusinessWeek reported that according to a survey by mobile application portal GetJar, 76% of users globally are actively looking to reduce their wireless bills and 78% are delaying their new phone purchase.

[Via UnwiredView]

Why RIM needs Blackberry Storm to succeed.

RIM is busy working on its highly anticipated launch of the Blackberry Storm next month. There are high expectations of this phone from not only Verizon Wireless and early adopters, but also from analysts. I would expect RIM has a lot riding on this too. Let’s take a look why:

– Expectations: RIM had indicated when it released the Q2 financial statements, that it expects Q3 revenue to be between $2.9-$3.1 billion. That was with the assumption that it would launch the Blackberry Bold early in the quarter and follow it up with the Blackberry Storm release. With delayed release of the Blackberry Bold, it has a lot of ground to make up in the last month to meet those expectations.

– Competition: Apple has been eating RIM’s lunch since it launched its iPhone 3G, as evidenced by the stellar performance at both Apple and AT&T (even with the high cost of iPhone). Also, Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple has clearly indicated that he has RIM in his crosshair. RIM has to respond to this challenge. With iPhone 3G, Apple has tried to move into RIM’s enterprise turf. RIM is countering that with its Blackberry Bold (when it launches) and is hoping to fight the battle on Apple’s prosumer turf with the launch of Blackberry Storm. In addition, Google’s Android and Microsoft’s Windows Mobile based touchscreen phones are also going to give RIM a headache.

– Economic Condition: Given the current economic climate, RIM has a lot to worry as enterprise customers, which make up almost 40% of its revenue, try to reduce spending. RIM is hoping that Blackberry Storm, Curve, Pearl and other prosumer targeted devices with touchscreen that it plans on releasing next year will help it offset the losses in the enterprise market.

– Investor Pressure: RIM management will be on short leash here given the economic jitters and constant bearish sentiment from the analysts. If the Blackberry Storm does not succeed, investors might push the co-CEOs out or worse look to sell it. The co-CEOs own 12% of the company and as such might not be easily pushed out, but they will have incredible pressure from institutional investors to change course. Also, the constant rumor of Microsoft being interested in buying RIM has to play a role in this. Note that when the rumor surfaced around October 13th, it was said that Microsoft had a standing offer to buy RIM at $50 a share. At that time, RIM’s stock price was at $61. Today, it is at $44. So, does that offer look good or what? However, I think it might be a smart move for Apple to make an offer. Steve Jobs wants to be successful in the enterprise market and if the iPhone starts losing its lustre, Apple will start looking like a one-trick pony, which I am sure Jobs and company will want to avoid. Also it would seriously challenge Microsoft in the mobile market. Though, from a cultural sense, I don’t know if RIM and Apple would be a good fit.

For all these reasons and more, RIM needs Blackberry Storm to succeed. It is doing everything it can to make it happen. Last few days has seen a flurry of activity including release of Blackberry Web Signals Technology and  Blackberry Application Store; Blackberry Developer Conference and subsequent courting of the developer community; and massive marketing with Verizon Wireless and Vodafone. Now, like the US electorate, all RIM can do is wait for November and let the market decide.