World's Wireless Industry Heads To Spain For 3GSM Conference
BARCELONA (AP)--The wireless industry began meeting this week with a bevy of flashy new cellphones, faster networks and more entertainment geared for the small screen taking center stage at the 3GSM World Congress.
The four-day event, which started Monday, is expected to draw more than 50,000 industry officials from major cellphone makers such as Finland's Nokia and US company Motorola, as well as South Korean Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics.
Microsoft Corp. Monday unveiled its next step in mobile computing, Windows Mobile 6. The operating system, which is used on smart phones - the handheld gadgets that marry the functions of personal digital assistants with full-featured cellphones - sports a Vista-like design.
It also connects more completely with PCs that are running the new OS, particularly in email accessibility and speed, along with easier editing of Office documents, a frequent target of criticism from previous Mobile Windows efforts.
Other companies plan to introduce new models of phones from devices that are set to be on the market within weeks, to the dream designs that are still in the planning stage.
Looming over 3GSM like a cloud, albeit perhaps one with a silver lining, will be Apple's already announced iPhone.
Last week Samsung Electronics showed off its Ultra Smart F700, which is expected to take center stage in Barcelona.
Mobile phone makers have been scrambling to match the iPhone, unveiled last month by Apple CEO Steve Jobs. The device, which will be available starting in June, marks the iPod and Macintosh computer maker's entry into the mobile phone business.
The ultra-thin iPhone is controlled by touching a large touch screen, plays music, surfs the Internet, and runs a version of the Mac OS X operating system, among other functions.
Last month Samsung rival LG Electronics unveiled its own touch-screen mobile phone, the KE850 Prada.
Omnifone, a British mobile music company, brought out a new music service that will let cellphone users download songs on the go and over the air without a connection to a PC.
The company said its new MusicStation will be an "all you can eat" service that will let users - in Europe first but with plans to expand elsewhere - download new songs from dozens of major music labels for a weekly cost of 1.99 pounds, or about $3.88.
"MusicStation will give users of any music-capable mobile phone the ability to legally access, download and enjoy an unlimited amount of music, from a global music catalog supported by the music industry, all for a small weekly fee, wherever they are," Omnifone CEO Rob Lewis said.
But phones are just one element of the event, said John Strand, of Copenhagen, Denmark-based Strand Consulting.
"One could call it the world's largest trade-related 'networking party' with the sole purpose of stimulating the mobile development that has over the past years changed billions of people's daily lives," he said.
This year the issue of bringing more content - music, movies and television - to tiny screens is expected to be the biggest draw.
"The biggest hype this year will probably be mobile TV, IMS (instant messaging services), mobile VoIP (voice over Internet protocol), as well as user generated content," Strand said.
Much of the content will come from familiar brands, such as The Cartoon Network, as well as new initiatives to bring the wildly popular feel of "Bollywood" films to the super-small screen.
News broadcaster CNN International said it plans to do its first global TV broadcast from a mobile phone from the conference.
The conference is also a chance for the industry's major technology suppliers - Nokia and Siemens, Sweden's Ericsson, France's Alcatel-Lucent, Canada's Nortel Networks and U.S. company Qualcomm, among others - to talk directly to their corporate customers about what is upcoming and, more importantly, what can be implemented quickly.
Strand, however, said it would be more important to see what the newer, less established firms will offer up, at least in terms of the wireless industry's infrastructure needs.
"The mobile industry is developing in the same way as the pharmaceutical industry, which...is consolidating into a few large players, and it is not these big old players who are delivering the innovation anymore," he said.
"Innovation is something you purchase from smaller companies. We believe that the exiting news this year will come from the smaller and medium-sized players, who only have their unique products to profile themselves on, against the big boy's PR machines."
(END) Dow Jones Newswires"
Posted to the site on 12th February 2007
