Google TV has a new interface and new hardware partners

Google has announced that it has brought new hardware manufacturers on board as partners for its IPTV service Google TV.

LG is the biggest name to join the Google TV ecosystem this year and will unveil a new line of Google TV sets running on its own L9 chipset at CES in Las Vegas next week.

“Through Google TV, LG has merged Google’s established Android operating system with LG’s proven 3D and Smart TV technologies, offering consumers a new and enthralling TV experience,” said Havis Kwon, president and CEO of LG.

Chip makers Marvell, from the US, and MediaTek, from Taiwan, have also announced their partnerships with Google and their hardware will power Google TV devices over the coming year. They join Samsung, Sony and Vizio, which will bring Google-TV powered devices to market in 2012.

“Google TV is about bringing new entertainment and innovation from the web to TV and our team along with our partners are pleased to bring more Google TV powered products to more people, across more devices in more countries in 2012,” said Mickey Kim from Google TV’s partnership management team.

Last October, Google launched an update to its Google TV service, which includes a simpler interface and a more “TV-like YouTube experience”, as well as Android Market.

The company claims that since launching the update, it has seen activation rates more than double and it now has more than 150 apps which developers have specifically built for TV.

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The LG Revolution is the third LTE enabled smartphone on Verizon Wireless

The limited roster of LTE enabled smartphones worldwide was boosted yesterday by the arrival of the LG Revolution on Verizon Wireless in the US. The operator said that the device, which is now available online and in stores, will deliver download speeds between 5 and 12Mbps and upload speeds of 2 to 5Mbps, in areas covered by its LTE network.

The lack of LTE enabled smartphones was one of the key concerns for the industry raised at the recent LTE World Summit, so the arrival of a new device, the first from LG, should be viewed as welcome news.

The device runs on Android 2.2, features a 4.3in 800 x 480 capacitance touch screen and is powered by a 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor.

One of the key uses for the phone on the LTE network will be for viewing video content and the LG Revolution is the first device to have the Netflix movie service pre-installed. This is made possible by a custom design of the Qualcomm chipset which supports DRM in order to appease piracy fears from the movie industry. The device can be connected up via HDMI however for viewing content on a larger screen. In another win for Microsoft, the phone comes preloaded with Microsoft’s Bing Search and Maps.

Other highlights include a rear facing five megapixel camera that’s capable of 720p video recording. It integrates wifi b/g/n and can be used as a mobile hotspot to connect up to five other devices to take advantage of the LTE service. Verizon said this feature will only be available as a no-cost option for a limited time.

The phones costs $249 with a two-year contract and an unlimited data package is $29.99.

Other LTE smartphones on Verizon Wireless are the recently released Samsung Droid Charge and the HTC Thunderbolt. The Samsung Droid Charge recently won the Best LTE handset award at the Informa LTE Awards 2011.

The fourth annual LTE North America Conference takes place in Texas, US, November 8-9

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LG has announced plans to develop its own smartphone processors

Embattled South Korean OEM LG has announced that it’s working on developing its own smartphone chips in a bid to boost its flagging handset business. Although LG is the world’s third-largest mobile phone manufacturer, the company has reported losses for three quarters in a row and is under increasing pressure from rivals HTC and Samsung.

By making its own chips, LG would be joining a very small club in the mobile world: currently, only Apple and Samsung design and build their own chips for their devices. In doing so, they are able to save costs and reduce time to market with new handsets and devices – an advantage that LG is no doubt keen to gain over its rivals.

To date, LG has used chips from Qualcomm, Texas Instruments and Nvidia in its smartphones. With plans for a new smartphone range that includes the Optimus 3D, an Android-based model capable of recording 3D images, the company is increasing its R&D staff complement by 15 per cent. In December last year, the company announced that it would spend 70 per cent of a planned $17bn investment strategy on new technology in a bid to regain lost ground. So far, LG has declined to go into detail regarding the proposed chips.

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Android's popularity among a range of vendors helped it to its lead

The Google-backed Android operating system overtook Nokia’s Symbian during the fourth quarter of 2010 to become the leading platform in the smartphone segment according to market analyst firm Canalys. Shipments of Android devices reached 32.9 million by Canalys’ estimation, with Symbian trailing on 31.0 million. Symbian’s performance keeps Nokia in first position among the vendors, however, with 28 per cent market share in the top tier, the analyst said.

The increasing popularity of smartphones saw segment shipments grow by 89 per cent to 101.2 million units for the quarter, pushing the number for 2010 as a whole to just shy of 300 million units.

Android has benefited from the allegiance of a number of key vendors, LG, Samsung, Acer and HTC chief among them, Canalys said. Shipments for these four players were up 4,127 per cent, 1,474 per cent, 709 per cent and 371 per cent respectively year on year, with HTC and Samsung responsible for almost 45 per cent of Android shipments for the quarter.

“2010 has been a fantastic year for the smart phone market. After a difficult 2009, the speed with which the market has recovered has required real commitment and innovation from vendors and they have risen to the challenge,” said Canalys VP and principal analyst Chris Jones. “But vendors cannot afford to be complacent. 2011 is set to be a highly competitive year with vendors looking to use new technology, such as dual-core processors, NFC and 3D displays, to differentiate their products and maintain value.”

Android could be set to enjoy a further boost this year if a widely anticipated shift in OS strategy from Nokia comes to pass. New CEO Stephen Elop, a software specialist by trade, is expected to soon put his stamp on company direction, with the company’s long term fidelity to Symbian likely to be brought to an end.

Nokia will hold a strategy and financial day in London on February 11^th, where Elop is expected to announce the firm’s new directions. At the release of its most recent financial results late last month, Elop said: “Nokia faces some significant challenges in our competitiveness and our execution. In short, the industry changed, and now it’s time for Nokia to change faster.” He added: “In addition to great device experiences we must build, capitalise and/or join a competitive ecosystem. The ecosystem approach we select must be comprehensive and cover a wide range of utilities and services that customers expect today and anticipate in the future.

While the momentum that Android already enjoys would make it a likely choice for Nokia, Elop’s familiarity with Microsoft could see the Finnish vendor adopt WP7 as well, or instead of, the Google-backed OS.

Apple sold 14.1 million iPhones during the third quarter

Strong sales of Apple’s iPhone during the third quarter have propelled the Californian vendor to fourth place in the global handset vendor rankings, according to data from IDC. While Apple has had a strong position in the smartphone segment since the launch of the first iPhone, this is the first time that it has made the top five in terms of overall shipments.

Apple saw an improvement of more than 90 per cent year on year for third quarter sales, shipping 14.1 million units. The leap in sales enabled the firm to overtake Sony Ericsson and Blackberry vendor Research In Motion to assume fourth place, behind Nokia, Samsung and LG.

RIM showed strong growth as well, improving its shipment volumes by 45.9 per cent year on year to 12.4 million. Samsung improved by 18.6 per cent to shift 71.4 million devices, while Nokia managed only a slight improvement in shipment numbers to 110.4 million, and continued to lose market share, dropping from 36.5 per cent for Q3 last year to 32.4 per cent in 2010.

LG was the only vendor in the top five to post a reduction in shipments, dropping ten per cent from 31.6 million to 28.4 million units. The downturn cost the Korean vendor 2.3 per cent market share, although it remains a significant distance ahead of Apple, with more than twice as many units shipped in the quarter.

IDC noted that there are now two smartphone-only vendors in the top five handset vendor table, highlighting the importance of the high end device segment in the overall market.

“The entrance of Apple to the top 5 vendor ranking underscores the increased importance of smartphones to the overall market. Moreover, the mobile phone makers that are delivering popular smartphone models are among the fastest growing firms,” said Kevin Restivo, senior research analyst at IDC. “Vendors that aren’t developing a strong portfolio of smartphones will be challenged to maintain and grow market share in the future.”

The firm said that Q3 2010 was the first quarter in which Sony Ericsson dropped out of the top five since it began tracking the market in 2004. The Swedish-Japanese goint venture shipped 10.4 million units.

Top five mobile phone vendors, shipments and market share Q3 2010 (units millions)

Source: IDC Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker, October 28, 2010

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, unveiled Windows Phone 7

So Windows Phone 7 is out there and pretty slick it looks too. Even Stephen Fry, a long time critic of Microsoft’s mobile strategy was present at the launch event in London to say, ”Microsoft finally gets it”.

There will be a handful of devices available in the UK from October 21, with HTC, as you might expect, leading the charge. LG, Samsung and Dell were also present in the lineup. By the time the platform launches in the US in November there will be nine devices in total.

The interface marks “a renewed focus on the consumer” and is a pleasant detraction from previous versions of Windows Mobile, finally doing away with the stylus and the need to drill down through several layers of menus. In fact, with its ‘Live Tiles’ feature, Microsoft has gone one better than the rash of icon-based interfaces, pulling out contextual information from apps and displaying it on the home screen. Naturally, there is direct integration with the Xbox Live and Zune services, as well as social network streams such as Facebook and twitter.

All the devices unveiled at the launch borrowed the now familiar ‘glass slab’ form factor, and it has been noted that Microsoft has clearly borrowed a lot from Apple’s smartphone toolbox by tying the device and its user experience to some tempting content and application proposition, especially the long-awaited tie up with Xbox Live. “This should mark out Windows Phone 7 devices as favourites for committed gamers, although there’s also plenty here for media hungry and web savvy users,” said Ovum principal analyst Tony Cripps. But “If Microsoft does fail to make the headway we’d expect with Windows Phone 7, it may decide that it’s not worth the time, expense and uncertainty of heading back to the drawing board again.”

Yes, there’s a huge amount resting on the launch of Windows Phone 7 and if it fails to claw back market share lost to iPhone and Android, then this may well mark the point at which Microsoft turns its back on smartphones forever. But, said Cripps: “If Windows Phone 7 devices sell in large numbers, Microsoft will rightfully be able to congratulate itself for starting with a clean sheet of paper in its efforts to return to the smartphone top table – a strategy launched by CEO Steve Ballmer in early 2009.”

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But the Informer wasn’t quite so dismayed at Vanjoki’s departure, again not because of a lack of any personal compassion for the man, but because the BBC had kindly solved the problem of remembering how to spell his name. It was a brief solution but one none the less, when Auntie referred to the departing exec as Anssi Vanjokia, the man from Nokia. The Informer snapped some proof of the rhyming gaffe before it was corrected.

Anssi Vanjokia, the man from Nokia

Vanjoki, as he should be known, has more than 20 years at Nokia under his belt and took on his new responsibilities on July 1st this year. He marked the occasion with a gung-ho blog post about his intentions to steer Nokia back to the top of the smartphone business claiming to be “obsessed” with the task of getting Nokia back to being number one in high-end devices.

It seems to have been a short lived obsession, and while at the time Vanjoki acknowledged that the task was no mean feat, his decision to quit has raised concerns that the mountain he was faced with may just be too big to climb. But there is also the possibility that there are compatibility issues with the incoming CEO Stephen Elop, currently head Microsoft’s Business division.

Analysts have raised questions about Elop’s ability to take the firm forward. His software expertise and prior roles with Macromedia/Adobe demonstrate the direction Nokia’s board feels the company needs to follow, but the handset business must be maintained. And this is an area in which he has little experience. “Balancing this requirement with the need to move Nokia forward in new areas may prove a difficult challenge to manage effectively,” said Tony Cripps, principal analyst at Ovum.

Vanjoki’s announcement was ill timed for the firm, with the London Nokia World event taking place at the same time. The message was “keep calm and carry on” as the Finnish firm unveiled a trio of high end devices built on the new version of the Symbian platform, Symbian ^3, which together with the flagship N8 will form the first wave of Nokia’s renewed assault on the smartphone sector. The E7 is the new offering for the corporate sector, the C7 is pitched at social network users while the C6 is a scaled down unit aimed at users who want less bulk.

“Today our fight back to smartphone leadership shifts into high gear,” said an enthusiastically optimistic Niklas Savander, executive vice president, Markets, Nokia. “Based on the level of consumer interest and the highest online pre-orders in Nokia history, we expect big things from the Nokia N8,” he said.

Much has been made of the pressure Nokia finds itself under in the high end, with Android handsets gaining popularity and the bespoke players like RIM and Apple gaining serious ground. RIM in particular posted some timely results this week, reporting that second quarter revenue grew 31 per cent over the same quarter last year to $4.62bn, while earnings increased 76 per cent year on year to $796m. BlackBerry shipments grew more than 45 per cent to 12.1 million and the company’s subscriber base grew approximately 56 per cent over the prior year to over 50 million.

But Nokia and RIM’s Korean rival, LG, which currently holds third place in the handset manufacturer rankings, was also having a crisis of confidence at leadership level. LG CEO Nam Yong has handed in his resignation after the firm posted a record loss at the flagship handset business. Nam will be replaced on October 1^st by Koo Bon Joon, who just happens to be LG Group chairman Koo Bon Moo’s younger brother, and a grandson of LG Group founder Koo In Hwoi. Nothing like keeping it in the family, eh? Still, the Informer would never go into business with his own relations.

Back to Nokia World now where Vodafone CEO Vittorio Colao caused a bit of a stir with the warning that we would all be in tiers before long. During his keynote presentation, Colao said that the end of the culture of “free-ism” was approaching and data pricing had to adjust accordingly. The Vodafone chief said that streaming music and video were the biggest contributors to data traffic on his company’s network and suggested that every class of service must have its own price – a hint at the more varied and sophisticated pricing strategies expected to come.

In June, Vodafone UK scrapped the fair usage policy on its 500MB Flexi or Value Pack offerings, introducing out of bundle charging for pay monthly customers that go over the 500MB limit. The carrier also introduced a real-time notification service to alert its customers to their usage patterns in an attempt to be completely transparent about these charges and to “protect [its] network from data abuse”. Vodafone’s German operation has already said that it will cap its LTE pricing plans based on speed when it launches them before year end.

The Big V is also expected to shed more weight following a reorganisation of its structure late last week, in which certain assets were left out of new portfolios, with management given a remit to “maximise shareholder value” from them. The company recently divested its 3.2 per cent stake in China Mobile and it is thought to have placed a £7bn ($10.78bn) price tag on its 44 per cent stake in French mobile carrier SFR. Polish carrier Polkomtel, Indian player Bharti and the much-discussed stake in US player Verizon Wireless joined SFR on the ‘get rid’ list.

Denmark’s TDC was in a similar mood, announcing a deal to sell its Swiss subsidiary, Sunrise Communications for CHF3.3bn ($3.27bn) to private equity firm CVC. Still, the move was second choice for TDC after ComCo, the Swiss Competition Commission ruled back in April that a proposed merger of France Telecom’s Orange Switzerland with Sunrise would not be allowed to go ahead.

Still, $3.27bn ain’t a bad haul and as Thorton Wilder said: “Money is like manure; it’s not worth a thing unless it’s spread around encouraging young things to grow.” Which is exactly what newly resurgent handset vendor Motorola was up to, when it announced the acquisition of a privately held developer of location based software known as Aloqa. Naturally, the transaction was FAUD (for an undisclosed sum).

The handset vendor owes much of its success to the adoption of the Android platform and has been expanding its development ecosystem, most recently with the acquisition of 280 North. Aloqa distributes its platform as a mobile application for smartphone operating systems including Android, with an end user base of more than one million. Motorola said it will use Aloqa’s expertise to enhance its MotoBlur UI to connect users and publishers of location-aware content in real-time.

Speaking of which, social networking monster Facebook has launched its Places feature in the UK, following the launch in the US last month and Japan earlier this week.

Places is a location-enabled service element that lets smartphone (iPhone only) users publicise their whereabouts through the site. Users can also tag friends who are with them, and locate other friends that may be nearby. The service chimes with many of the location-based service concepts touted within the mobile industry when LBS first rose to prominence a decade or more ago.

Of course, privacy has been one of biggest negative issues surrounding Facebook and its user base. And the company is already moving to neutralise concerns over the prospect of third parties publicising a user’s location, regardless of whether they have ‘friend’ status or not.

Just because you’re paranoid, doesn’t mean they’re not after you.

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The MotoRoi

As Android continues to gather momentum across a broad spectrum of the devices space, handset vendors reveal their high hopes for the platform.

Korean vendor LG Electronics, which currently holds third position in the global handset vendor rankings, said that more than half of its smartphones to be released in 2010 will be based on Android. LG will unveil about 20 smartphones based on operating systems including Android, Windows Mobile and Linux this year.

The company aims to shift a total of 140 million units in 2010 – a 20 per cent increase year on year – in a bid to become one of the top two mobile device manufacturers by 2012. The company plans to do this with a strong push into the Korean and North American markets where it wants to be recognised as a provider of customised smartphones.

In 2009 LG established a smartphone-focused business division and boosted its smartphone R&D workforce by 30 per cent. “Hopes are especially high for Android phones, which, with their user-friendly and open-access OS, are expected to make up more than half of all LG’s new smartphone releases. In the first half of 2010, LG will focus on producing easy-to-use smartphones aimed squarely at first-time owners before moving into premium handsets with cutting-edge designs later in the year,” the company said.

But LG may face competition from a resurgent Motorola in its home market, with the US firm on Monday unveiling the first smartphone in Korea to be powered by Android version 2.0.

The MotoRoi is offered in partnership with SK Telecom and boasts a full touch screen with a 3.7” high definition WVGA (480X854) display, wifi, an eight megapixel camera with Xenon flash and a 720p HD camcorder, HDMI capabilities, 8GB of storage and a UI that offers five different virtual input methods including a 3X4 keypad, full QWERTY, half QWERTY, hand writing and writing pad.

The device also features the expected bundle of Google services pre installed, including Google Maps, Gmail, YouTube, and Google Talk.

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The LG GW990

As Las Vegas gadget show CES wound up at the end of last week, Intel announced that it too would be going after a slice of the app store action.

Intel president and CEO Paul Otellini unveiled a beta version of the Intel AppUp center, targeted at netbook devices. The storefront is being supported by devices manufacturers Acer, Asus, Dell and Samsung and will support Intel-based devices, which will presumably run on Intel’s homebrew Linux-based operating system, Moblin, unless the company starts supporting Android on the Atom that is.

Otellini was also showing off the LG GW990 smartphone, based on ‘Moorestown,’ Intel’s next-generation platform for handhelds and smartphones. The GW990 is based on Moblin and boasts a sizeable 4.8” display, making it a little more than pocket sized. With a touchscreen, five megapixel camera, 16GB of storage, HD video, wifi and HSDPA, the device may give a glimpse of mobile form factors to come.

“Computing is no longer confined to your computer – it’s everywhere,” Otellini said. “Advances in connectivity, intuitive user interfaces, immersive content and computer chip performance have allowed computing to move into new areas. Computing moving into all manner of devices and experiences all around us improves our personal productivity and enjoyment.” Examples cited by Otellini include infotainment systems for cars, digital interactive signs, shopping kiosks and medical devices.

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The traditional market leaders are under threat from manufacturers with shiny, new devices

In the mobile handset space, volume market leaders like Nokia, Samsung, LG, Motorola and Sony Ericsson are being challenged by RIM, Apple, HTC and Palm, which are significantly eroding their market share with an assault in the smartphone market.

These challengers will continue to steal market share in 2010, with figures released Wednesday predicting that the market share of the four underdogs will jump to 35 per cent of all smartphones sold in 2009 from 32 per cent in 2008 and just 24 per cent in 2007.

It’s no secret that while sales in the mobile handset space in general are in decline, the smartphone segment is actually growing and has turned into the most profitable segment of the mobile handset market. Informa Telecoms & Media forecasts that volume sales of smartphones are to grow by 33.5 per cent year on year in 2009 and by 36 per cent in 2010 to account for 27 per cent of the total number of handsets sold in 2010.

Incidentally, smartphones will also represent over half (55 per cent) of the value of the total mobile handset market and almost two thirds (64 per cent) in terms of profitability.

“As demand for mid-tier handsets declines, competition in the smartphone segment is set to intensify which is forcing manufacturers to innovate and differentiate their products in terms of hardware, software and content,” said Malik Kamal-Saadi, principal analyst at Informa.

Kamal-Saadi said that key to the success of these new entrants and smaller players is the adoption of new operating systems that have been built from scratch and better reflect the realities of modern mobile device requirements. In addition, they are not burdened with the support of a long legacy of devices and content already in market.

However, the analyst notes that the challenge for these players is to keep pace with innovation rather than getting trapped in the progressive OS upgrade cycles.

Get more information on the Future Mobile Handsets report.

“Volume market leaders have responded, with a multitude of me-too iPhones offering multi-touch and an enhanced internet experience but true innovation is still lacking from many incumbent OEMs’ portfolios,” Kamal-Saadi said. “Some players (Motorola, Sony-Ericsson, and Samsung) have responded by opting for Google’s Android as key OS to bring innovation to their smartphone portfolios.  These changes will completely transform the smartphone market landscape and could potentially lead to the emergence of new leaders in the mobile handsets market,” Kamal-Saadi added.

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