2009 - Happy New Year from ME

2008 has been a rather memorable and at the same time turbulent one. The biggest story of the year was the announcement of Microsoft's intent to acquire Yahoo. It would had been a great deal for Yahoo's shareholders but instead the offer was turned down with Yahoo deciding to go on their own. 

It didnt take too long before the Yahoo guys realised that they had rejected a deal that they will kick themselves forever. The financial crisis that had started in the mid of 2008 had almost turned any potential deals down the drain. Lehman's sudden demise had sent the global financial market into total chaos with Iceland, Belarus and Ukraine crawling to IMF for financial support. 

More than 19 US banks had collapsed since the beginning of the financial crisis with the US government having to step in to save AIG and recently approved an astronomical $700 billion to bail out troubled financial institutions so as to prevent further meltdown. Even the top 3 largest auto manufacturers in the US are forced to seek financial support from the government with the initial request being turned down at the House of Senate. 

2009 will surely be a difficult year as we now have to face the effect of the aftermath. None of us could predict the outcome of 2009 but one thing for sure, we will definitely head into 2009 with lots of optimism and just like in any bad times, they are going to be alot of losers among us and at the same time, they are going to be winners too. The trick is not to stay sideline and wait for recovery but to continue looking for what works regardless of whether its good or bad times. 

Happy New Year to all of us and may your coming year be nothing short of great. I wish you all the best and I would like to end the year with a special new year video clip below from Apple below. 

The Apple's Evolution

This three-minute video outlining the evolution of Apple over the years provides geeks with nostalgic materials.

Strap up when you are playing with your Nintendo Wii

There must be a reason why you are advised to strap up when playing with the Wii. I dont think you want to end up with a broken TV screen like that guy on the video. 

JibJab - 2008 Year In Review

Internet Overtakes Newspapers as News Source for the 1st time

The internet, which emerged this year as a leading source for campaign news, has now surpassed all other media except television as a main source for national and international news. Currently, 40% say they get most of their news about national and international issues from the internet, up from just 24% in September 2007. 

For the first time in a Pew survey, more people say they rely mostly on the internet for news than cite newspapers (35%). Television continues to be cited most frequently as a main source for national and international news, at 70% but I m sure this is not going to be the case for a long time.

For young people, however, the internet now rivals television as a main source of national and international news. Nearly six-in-ten Americans younger than 30 (59%) say they get most of their national and international news online; an identical percentage cites television. In September 2007, twice as many young people said they relied mostly on television for news than mentioned the internet (68% vs. 34%).

The percentage of people younger than 30 citing television as a main news source has declined from 68% in September 2007 to 59% currently. This mirrors a trend seen earlier this year in campaign news consumption. 

As mobile devices become data-enabled, more and more people will be accessing news from their mobile terminals and soon we will reach a point where almost all news are consumed online. Its really not too far away from where we are now. I have for a long time not made any purchases on newspapers and its only a matter of time where i will soon get quality live streaming of mainstream news on my mobile. 

Happy Holidays from ME

To all my loyal readers out there,

Merry Xmas and a Happy New Year. Best Wishes for 2009....

Mobile-originated IDD calls to overtake fixed line by 2009

International voice traffic will grow an estimated 12.2% to 385 billion minutes in 2008, driven mainly by mobile, according to TeleGeography. It forecasts that the number of mobile-originated IDD calls will overtake international fixed-line calls by 2009. Nearly one-third of international calls were placed from mobile phones in 2007, while 45% were mobile-terminated.

It used to be only a fraction of that back in 1997. It wont be long where most calls will be made out of mobile only network. It said mobile's growing share of international traffic was a result of subscriber growth in developing countries and the emergence of low-cost IDD calling plans.

Using sex to sell Jeans

You must had thought that they were about to get on with it right? The tv commercial ends up being about something other than the alluded first sexual experience, yet which still involves unbuttoning your jeans. Brilliant execution.

Indian Top Mobile Operators' TV Ads

Good mobile tv ads from India. 

via Gomo News.

Google Maps for mobile expands to S60 and Window Mobile Phones

Google announced the launch of Google Maps for mobile 2.3 with Street View on Nokia S60 and Windows Mobile smartphones, expanding the application beyond its existing releases for the Android, BlackBerry, and iPhone platforms.

Street View offers users ground-level panoramic images and directions to help them better establish their location in an unfamiliar neighborhood. Check out this Google Maps for mobile demo video below.

China confirms 3G license awards timetable

China has finally confirmed it will award 3G licenses to the country's three mobile operators early next year according to the Financial Times. Li Yizhong, China's minister for Industry and Information Technology, confirmed that market-leader China Mobile will receive a license based on TD-SCDMA, the country's homegrown 3G standard, second-placed China Unicom will receive a WCDMA license, and new mobile player China Telecom will be given a 3G license using CDMA2000 1xEV-DO technology. 

The licenses which will be awarded will surely billion of dollars in investments from the three operators and help stimulate the Chinese economy.  

The three operators had also reached an agreement on infrastructure sharing. The frame agreement is to be followed by provincial level agreements for leasing radio and core networks and sharing the cost of new network construction. The network-sharing policy to enforce so-called 'asymmetric regulation' was designed to allow China Unicom and China Telecom to compete more effectively with China Mobile, which currently controls around 70 percent of the market. 

According to the FT, the three operators have budgeted CNY297 billion (US$43.4 billion) in 3G-related capex over the next three years. The report noted that China Mobile was set to account for the biggest share of total investments with local equipment vendors such as Huawei and ZTE likely to secure the majority of the contracts. 

Mobile revenue to hit $1 trillion in 2013

According to Informa Telecoms & Media, the global mobile subscriber base will surpass five billion in 21011 with a revenue hitting the $1 trillion mark by 2013. It took over 20 years to reach the three billion subscriber mark, with the next 1.9 billion net additions forecast in just six years. 

As such, total annual revenues derived from mobile operators will grow by over a third from $769 billion in 2007 to $1.03 trillion by 2013. Can you imagine by then we can almost reach anybody by the just 1 click. There was never a device in the history of mankind that had so much intimate and personal connection to us and it only took less than 20 years for more than half of the population on earth to have one. Pretty amazing huh...

Top 10 mobile brands ranked by value, China Mobile is No 1

China Mobile is the most valuable mobile operator brand in the industry with a worth of $30.79bn, according to new research published in the Mobile Communications International. Vodafone placed second, with a brand value of $22.13bn, while US carrier Verizon ranked third with $20.38bn. 

Homosexual Datevertising

Björn Borg’s ‘Love for All’, an online dating service, campaign is sure to cause a wee bit of controversy.

Could 2009 be the year for ANDROID

Google's foray into the mobile space is picking up significant traction and it looks like 2009 could be the year for Android. 

Late Tuesday, the Open Handset Alliance (OHA) announced the additional membership of 14 more companies: AKM Semiconductor, ARM, ASUSTek, Atheros Communications, Borqs, Ericsson, Garmin International, Huawei, Omron Software, Softbank Mobile, Sony Ericsson, Teleca, Toshiba and Vodafone.

With one Android device already available, and a second announced for January, the portfolio of Android-based handsets looks set to swell its ranks from early next year. In 2009, we can expect Android devices from HTC, Kogan, Motorola, Sony Ericsson, Kyocera, Asus, Garmin, Huawei, LG, Samsung and Toshiba.

With mobile broadband adoption exploding, and big screen handsets becoming popular, Google has also tweaked its mobile advertising options to better support the newest breed of mobile phone operating systems.

Gartner: Smartphone growth outlook declines

New Gartner figures published this week reveal that the global smartphone market recorded its weakest year-on-year growth in the third-quarter since the research firm began tracking the industry. The study found that worldwide sales reached 36.5 million units in the quarter, an 11.5 percent increase over the same period in 2007. Nokia retained its market-leading position with a 42.4 percent market share but saw sales decline 3 percent over the year. 

In the smartphone operating system (OS) market, Symbian commanded 49.8 percent of global sales to end users in the third quarter, the first time its market share has fallen below 50 percent. 

The study also found that strong sales of Apple's iPhone 3G in the quarter meant that its operating platform, Mac OS X, overtook Microsoft's Windows Mobile for the first time to claim the number three position in the global OS rankings (behind Symbian and RIM). It took Apple less than 2 years what Microsoft has been trying to do forever with Window's Mobile. Ever wonder why Microsoft is still in the mobile business?

China Mobile developing its own proprietary operating system

According to Xinhua News Agency, China Mobile is working on its own proprietary mobile operating system known as the 'Ophone'. The Ophone is described as a deeply customised product that will embed a series of China Mobile subscriber services. The move is considered a strategy that will enhance China Mobile's standing in the mobile handset market and allow it to compete with existing handset manufacturers that focus on mobile Internet services. 

During his keynote session at this year's GSMA Mobile Asia Congress, Wang Jianzhou, chairman and chief executive officer of China Mobile, hinted that the operator is also looking at setting up its own application store in a similar vein to Apple's AppStore and China Mobile will be encouraging content providers to offer their own apps via their shop. 

Looks like most of the handset manufacturers can kiss their app store strategy good bye for the chinese market. 

10,000 App Store apps released to date

Over 10,000 iPhone applications have been released on Apple's US content store. Two services that track the App Store, AppShopper and 148Apps say the store is dominated by games and that the majority of services are free. 

Highlight findings include:

- Games are the leading category, accounting for one in four apps.

- $0.99 is the most common price point.

- One in four applications are free.

- The most expensive app is iRa by Lextech Labs for $899.99. It's a CCTV surveillance system.

- It would cost just over $30,000 to buy everything on the App Store catalogue.

Demo on Video of Nokia's new N97

Finnish handset vendor Nokia took the fight to Apple with the unveiling of its latest flagship touchscreen device, the N97 which will be released next year.

Packing a 3.5" full touchscreen display and a slide out QWERTY keyboard, Nokia's latest offering seeks to outdo the iPhone with an arsenal of hardware.

The N97 features 32GB of on board memory, which is further expandable with a 16GB microSD card. The camera is 5 megapixels, fitted with Carl Zeiss optics, while the display can handle 16:9 widescreen media and DVD quality video capture.

The internet and multimedia are the focus of the software package, which naturally features Nokia's Ovi platform for content sharing, a full fledged music and media player including support for the Nokia Music Store and Adobe Flash player.

Connectivity is via HSDPA and wifi, with integrated A-GPS offering 'social location' ('So-Lo') functionality for social networking.

The N97 is expected to begin shipping in the first half of 2009 at an estimated retail price of Euro 550 before taxes or subsidies.

Another crazy Japanese Show

The idea is simple, try not to laugh.... believe me its hard as this guy is really super hilarious. 

Android is in hot demand

Taiwanese handset manufacturer HTC (High Tech Computer) has almost doubled its projected shipments for its G1's handset Android-based operating system. By the end of 2008,  HTC expects to shift 1 million units of the G1, available on T-Mobile networks in the US and Europe. This is up from earlier projections of 600,000.

The device, which is a showcase for Google's Open Handset Alliance (OHA) mobile operating platform, only launched in the US in late October, and hitting the other markets in early 2009. 

I have the opportunity to be playing around with the G1 recently and I must admit the phone is very responsive and has a reasonably good UI. All you need is a Google account to sync and you are ready to go. One problem though, a little bulky and the phone is definitely not stylish. 

The New BlackBerry Storm Ad

Judging by the consistent buzz that the BlackBerry Storm has been receiving for the past couple of months, RIM might just have a big winner on its hands. Take a look at the new Storm Ad and see how it reduces the complexities of smart phones keeping it simple and ease of use of the new Storm phone.

Perhaps this new model will give some competition to the super successful iPhone. 

Atlantic Records digital revenues surpass CDs

More than half of Atlantic Records music sales in the U.S. now derive from digital products including iTunes downloads and ringtones, the first time a major label's digital revenues have surpassed traditional media formats. 

Atlantic, a unit of Warner Music Group reports digital sales now account for 51 percent of revenues. Despite Atlantic's digital surge, the music industry has largely given up on hopes that digital revenues would eventually offset the declining sales of physical media. Market analysis firm Forrester Research estimates music sales in the U.S. will slump to $9.2 billion in 2013 from $10.1 billion this year. Its tough time ahead for the record labels and gone were the rosy days when they were making heaps of money. 

Facebook acquiring Twitter?

More crazy money talk was going around in the world of social networking recently as it rumored that Facebook has been eyeing up Twitter as a potential acquisition.

What crazy money are we talking about? Anything up to $500m according to some reports. Around this time last year, Facebook was apparently valued at around $15bn, after Microsoft paid out $240m for a 1.6 per cent stake in the site. But the problem with these valuations is that there is little substance to them, as well as the fact they are tied to services that don't make any money yet and this is certainly not a good time for talking about crazy money acquisition when the whole US banking systems are in such a big mess. Just because both are hot web 2.0 companies doesn't mean they have to go to bed together. Frankly i dont think how they will fit. What do you think?

Nokia to become a Mobile Virtual Network Operator in Japan in 2009

According to a Japanese daily Yomiuri Shimbun recently, Nokia plans to launch a mobile phone service in Japan next spring. Nokia is expected to use lines owned by Japan's biggest mobile phone carrier, NTT Docomo, under an arrangement called mobile virtual network operator, the paper said.

According to Yomiuri, Nokia will first offer the service with high-end models like the N96 to establish a strong brand. 

With 1% market share in Japan and a competitive Japanese market, I m not sure what is Nokia strategy behind becoming a MVNO. I m sure the intent is to sell handsets and capturing a bigger market share but do you need to become a provider to sell more handsets? With so many MVNO faltering every where in the world, Nokia is certainly diving into an area with much complexities. 

Another Funny Japanese Game Show

Orchestra playing with empty Beer Bottles

Check out this group of orchestra whose instruments are non other than empty beer bottles. This is a bold and creative ad for Australian beer Victoria Bitter (VB) showcases the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and Orchestra Victoria playing VB’s commercial theme song with empty beer bottles.

Opera browser surges in Asia Pac

The mobile web is replacing the wired web in South East Asia. Opera latest State of the Mobile Web report reveals that in many Southeast Asian countries the mobile Web exists not because it complements wired access, but replaces it. Page views grew more than 1120 per cent in the Philippines this year, while there was 330 per cent user growth and 827 per cent page view growth in 2008 in Indonesia.

There is an incredible appetite in Southeast Asia for the mobile Web and many are relying on Opera to browse the mobile internet including myself. The user experience is the closest that you can get to the Safari browser on the iPhone. 

Make yourself heard with SMS

The Samsung Propel’s primary feature is its slide-out QWERTY keyboard, perfect for avid text messagers, as the commercial shows. Scenes from a day in Ozzy Osbourne’s life are filmed in which Osbourne needs to send a text message in order to be understood. With the tagline, “Make yourself heard,” the ad brings the SMS-centric message home. 

iPhone users do more than make calls

Ninety-eight percent of iPhone subscribers use at least one mobile data service according to market research firm The Nielsen Company's Q3 2008 U.S. iPhone Executive Overview.

 

70% of iPhone users listen to audio tracks on their device, with 39% downloading music directly to the handset, 66% of users download software and applications, and 35% screen video content, which Nielsen says makes them seven times as likely as the typical mobile subscriber. Of course, if 98% of iPhone users have embraced mobile data services, that means 2% of the iPhone subscriber population does nothing more than make voice calls on the device.

Nielsen reports 43% of iPhone users rack up a monthly bill in excess of $100, compared to 20% of the total mobile subscriber population, 13% of iPhone users look to their employers to pay their wireless bill, compared to 7% of all subscribers. 

Among consumers who purchased a new handset between January and September, 11% considered an iPhone, and 21% of them made the leap to the Apple device. As of the third quarter, 89% of consumers who acquired an iPhone within the previous six months were highly satisfied with their purchase, compared to an industry average of 71 percent of new handset owners.

In all there are now 3.6 million mobile subscribers ages 13 and up actively using the iPhone, Nielsen notes. Adults ages 35 to 54 make up the majority of iPhone users at 34%, while Hispanic subscribers represent a larger portion of the iPhone audience (21%) than of the total U.S. subscriber audience (13%). In addition, 44% of iPhone subscribers report a household income in excess of $100,000, compared to 22% of the overall subscriber population.

2-D barcode mobile boarding pass

American Airlines had just announced that travelers departing from selected airports may now receive boarding passes on their mobile phones or PDAs instead of the regular paper boarding pass at check-in. The Airline is rolling out the program in partnership with the United States Transportation Security Administration, and it will extend the initiative to more U.S. airports if the trial proves successful.

To use the mobile boarding pass option, customers must have an active email address where their boarding pass will be sent to their web-enabled mobile device. Boarding time will be alot faster and efficient in the future. 

iPhone Firmware 2.2 Jailbroken

Once again, the brand-new iPhone's firmware 2.2 has been jailbroken. QuickPwn had just released its latest version that should take care of everything.

via iPhone Dev

The INQ1 Facebook Phone

The new INQ1 Facebook phone,available from 3 in the UK, has been designed specifically around the functionality of Facebook, and gives users direct access to their social networking circle at the touch of a button. The phone has been optimized for use with the site so users can poke friends straight from the home screen.

While the iPhone and the new Google G1 phone target professional users with costly handsets and sophisticated technology, the Facebook phone, while retaining email and web functionality has a much cheaper price and talk plan, and will appeal to larger audience of younger users to whom the iPhone is prohibitively expensive. The phone also comes optimized for Skype, MSN Messenger and Last.fm.

12 year-old Boy Scouts offering free breast exams

Have a good laugh and thanks to the team at The Onion News. These boys are no perverts as they are part of a gag show. 

This is a real Internet Addict

Nokia's future mobile phone design

Start trek mobile phone design by heikki juvonen

Interactive Virtual Auditions - Zon Multimedia Mobile Campaign

This is a very innovative campaign from Zon Multimedia to promote a new cell phone network, where you take part in a virtual audition for an opera show and you use your cellphone to interact with a web page. The campaign begins by asking you to enter your name and phone number. Then a movie starts where the casting director explains you that you can be a star, you just have to answer your phone and sing.

A few seconds afterward, your phone actually starts to ring and when you answer, the director tells you that the casting has started and you must sing. You can then edit your voice with some cool effects in real time and send it to your friends.

Its a pretty cool interaction between a ‘normal’ website and the consumer and how mobile takes the engagement offline. 

15 million using Facebook Mobile

Mobile social networking is definitely going to be huge. Social networking giant Facebook announced its mobile userbase has expanded from 5 million to 15 million since the beginning of 2008. Writing on The Facebook Blog, Facebook mobile team engineer Wayne Chang adds that in the 24 hours after the site began allowing subscribers to comment on their friends' status updates to the Facebook mobile site, users posted close to a million status comments. Chang adds that Facebook is in the process of expanding its mobile staff, and promises new improvements are forthcoming.

I m definitely looking forward to the new improvements as i have been on Facebook Mobile from day one when it was launched. Its certainly one of the best way to update your status. If you are constantly on mobile and have a data plan in place, go check out Facebook Mobile.

via Facebook Blog

Geotagged Documentaries - A Virtual Trip to South Africa with ‘Mobikasi’

Mobikasi is a mobile documentary about youth culture in the township of Soweto, South Africa. All the clips are geo-tagged to a location so you can explore real places in Soweto via your phone.

Mobikasi can be accessed through a SA mobile social network called The Grid.

The content features interesting people, spaces, culture and social issues that the Sowetan youth encounter. For example, one of the groups interviewed are the Smarteez, a fashion crew that design their own clothes, dress up, and battle other fashion posses. In a recent competition, they were named the best dressed crew in Johannesburg.

Informa - Handset vendors must include software and services for future growth

According to Informa, global revenues from mobile phone sales are expected to increase 6.8% between 2007 and 2013, topping $200bn by the end of 2013. Emerging markets, including Brazil, Russia, India, China (BRIC) and Africa, will make up the majority of the global handset market value, with 60 per cent share in 2013.

In developed markets, growth is forecast to slow significantly and will not exceed 2% and could even turn negative after 2009 if the downturn continues acoording to Informa.

With revenue growth from mobile phone sales expected to hit just 2% in Western Europe, 1% in North America, and less than 0.5% in Japan between 2010 and 2013, smartphones are predicted to represent the major growth area. Informa reckons revenues from smartphone sales will represent more than 55% of total handset market value in North America, Western Europe, and Japan, but this phenomenon will only slightly offset the sharp decline of non-smartphone market value.

Furthermore, the ongoing price war between the handset players will only intensify with new entrants such as Apple and Google increasing their pressure on competitors to reduce prices on smartphones. With commoditized chipsets, off the shelf platforms and the use of open source licensing models will mean handset players will find it hard to maintain margins in the future.

It is becoming clear that handset vendors can no longer rely on mobile phone sales to sustain growth. They will have to look at other opportunities, for example getting involved in content creation and service offering according Informa, a trend which is being tested by Nokia, Apple, and Sony Ericsson hoping to create ecosystems linking their devices to the services they offer. Nokia's Ovi is a clear example but whether such initiatives will be successful is still unknown. 

The value of the global smartphone market will set to grow from almost $39bn in 2007 to more than $95bn or 47 per cent of the total handset market value in 2013, and many vendors are increasing their involvement in open mobile terminal software including the Symbian Foundation, the Open Handset Alliance (OHA), and the Linux in Mobile foundation (LiMo). Virtually all handset players and leading operators are actively working within these organisations and preparing themselves to compete strongly in this market segment.

This development clearly indicates the industry is entering a new era where product differentiation will increasingly shift from hardware to software. While the recipe of success is still unknown and many of such initiatives are not proven, players who have prepared themselves for this radical change will find themselves in a better position than those who continue to differentiate their products on the basis of hardware. 

How All Commercials Should Be

With DVR, downloads and online v,ideos people aren’t watching commercials like they used to. But something tells us that if all commercials were more like this one, maybe people will spend a little more time watching them. haha...

Obama Mania - The Real American Dream

$585 Billion to stimulate the Chinese economy

China has announced a $585 billion economic stimulus plan to help it counteract the worldwide financial crisis. Innovating through crisis is critical, and precisely what China intends to do with this spending. The country is already feeling an impact on its export as the reality of the economic recession hits more countries, and they want to stop before it gets worse.

China’s plan is to invest the nearly $600 billion economic stimulus plan over the next two years on social welfare, such as low income housing and rural infrastructure to fend off financial crisis. Post-Sichuan earthquake reconstruction is a major part of that investment, as is public transit, health care, education and the environment.

Its going to be interesting to see how the stimulus package is going to keep China growing and maintain at least an 8 percent growth for the next 3 years. China is surely is a good position to weather the current global financial storm of the century.

Google launches video chat for Gmail

Google is finally rolling out video and voice capabilities for the chat function that is embedded in the Gmail interface. It's a bare-bones voice and video-conferencing service, but it's simple to install and use and is a very good addition to Gmail. Its no where near skype though and currently do not provide connection to the outside network. 

The voice and video quality on the service are decently good taking into consideration i m connected to the Hotel's ADSL network in Manila. Unlike many current video chat products, Gmail Video and Voice uses a proprietary plug-in, not Flash. The small (2MB) download supports Firefox, IE, and Chrome on the PC, and Firefox on the Mac. 

Gmail Video and Voice will be made available to all Gmail users starting Tuesday at noon PST. global rollout should be complete by the end of the day. It works, it's easy, and if you're a Gmail user, the service is just what you would had been waiting for.

See this all in action in the video below:

iPhone 3G - the top selling handset in the US market in the 3rd Quarter

Apple's iPhone was the top-selling handset in the United States in the third quarter, according to new data from NPD Group. The long reign of Motorola's Razr handset three straight years is over and has slipped to the No. 2 position.

RIM's BlackBerry Curve garnered the No. 3 spot, followed by LG’s Rumor and Env2.

Four of the five best-selling handsets in the third quarter were optimized for messaging and other advanced Internet features.

When it comes to the specific features that motivated U.S. consumers to purchase their handsets, 43 percent of handset buyers cited the need for a camera and 36 percent noted the ability to send and receive text messages. Mobile phones with a QWERTY keyboard experienced the greatest year-over-year rise in sales; 30 percent of handsets were sold with this feature in Q3 2008, versus just 11 percent the year prior. Also this quarter 83 percent of phones purchased were Bluetooth enabled (versus 72 percent last year), and 68 percent of phones purchased in Q3 were music enabled (versus 49 percent last year).

In the smartphone category, however, RIM continued to be the top U.S. market share holder with 40% in October. Carrier subsidies appeared to be helping as more than half of the BlackBerrys on the market were subsidized to $100 or less.

Apple's iPhone outsells BlackBerry

Apple's iPhone outsold rival RIM's BlackBerry in the latest quarter, according to a technology analysis firm, confirming to the recent boast by Steve Jobs. Jobs took a shot at RIM during a conference call announcing Apple beating RIM in their fiscal fourth-quarter results.

U.K.-based Canalys confirmed Jobs' claims on Thursday in a report on the global smartphone market. Apple shipped more than 6.8 million iPhones during the third quarter of 2008 to give it a market share of 17.3 per cent. RIM shipped just over six million BlackBerry phones in the quarter for a 15.2-per-cent share of a market that saw more than 39 million phones shipped overall.

Apple leapfrogged both RIM and Motorola from a year ago to take the number two spot, behind Nokia Corp. Nokia shipped more than 15.4 million smartphones in the quarter for a market share of 38.9 per cent, but saw its leadership position take a big dip from 51.4 per cent a year ago.

Apple's growth over the past year has been staggering. The company shipped only 1.1 million iPhones during the third quarter of 2007, giving it a growth rate of more than 500 per cent this year.

Touch screens are definitely proven to be the secret sauce for Apple considering the future mobile usage of applications such as playing music, maps and web browsing. 

Canalys also looked at the operating systems running on smartphones. About 46.6 per cent of smartphones shipped during the quarter ran Nokia's Symbian, followed by Apple's own operating system at 17.3 per cent. RIM came in third with 15.2 per cent, followed by Microsoft Corp.'s Windows Mobile at 13.6 per cent and Linux open-source software at 5.1 per cent.

Samsung bumped Motorola out of No 1 in the US

Another smack in the face for Motorola as Samsung has ousted the American handset maker from its number one position in the US market. Research firm Strategy Analytics reports that the Korean electronics maker edged ahead in the third quarter taking 22.4 percent of the US handset market, compared with Motorola which had a 21.1 percent share. Samsung shipped 47 million handsets in the 3rd quarter. 

The US, the world's single largest handset market has been Motorola's traditional stronghold, where it accounts for half of the company's total sales of mobile devices, about $1.55 billion in Q3.

Korean rival LG has a 20.5 percent share, giving it the third biggest share of the market. I dont see how Motorola can stop LG overtaking them in the next quarter. RIM is in No. 4 with 10.2 percent and struggling Nokia has an 8.4 percent share of the market, putting it in 5th position. Apple is rising fast with 5.7 percent share of the market putting it in sixth position. 

Fake Naughty - Beate Uhse TV Ads for Parental Controls and Supervision

This cheeky commercial for Beate Uhse TV, the parental controls for erotic TV viewing in Germany, is a sure attention-grabber. No wonder it took a Gold award at the 2008 New York Festivals Advertising Awards and was a winner at The Cresta Awards 2008.

Shakira - The Best 4 Year Old Salsa Dancer

Mobile ad awareness soars in US

Mobile advertising awareness grew by a third in the US over the last nine months.

Research by mobile social network Limbo and research firm GfK concludes that the economic slowdown is promoting brands to divert budgets to cost-effective direct marketing channels and that mobile media is benefiting from this.

The key findings were:

· Nearly four out of ten Americans with a phone (104 million) recall seeing advertising on their device between July and September 2008.
· The most commonly viewed ads were in text messages -- 60 million consumers recalled seeing text message-based ads -- an increase of 42 per cent in nine months.
· 31 million people recalling seeing mobile web ads, 57 per cent of them male, and 43 per cent female

This is good news for the mobile marketing industry. This means that people are already realizing the value of SMS Ads and that they have control over the ads that they are receiving by opting in/ opt out. This study shows that mobile marketing is being used as an effective medium to reach the consumers directly. 

Photographing Ads With Mobile Phones

Sony Ericsson is claiming the first ever advertising campaign shot entirely via a mobile phone camera with the new ad campaign for the Sony Ericsson C905 Cyber-shot phone.

The unique technique emphasizes the selling point of the C905 handset, its powerful camera. The phone’s camera is put to the test by letting a professional fashion photographer use it under professional lighting, models, hair and make-up.

Handset's cameras are getting so good that soon we may not even need a separate camera anymore. In fact i had already dumped my camera long time ago since having my N95. This new handset from Sony Ericsson is definitely raising the bar once again. It wont be for long when other handset manufacturers will retaliate with a much better camera phone. 

New Ferrari Phones from Nokia

If you have £3000 to spare, perhaps you may want to get your hands on a Nokia Vertu Ferrari Ascent Ti.  The phone is made of titanium, forged at 850˚C, has a sapphire crystal mix covering the camera lens, flash and screen and has a battery cover in the shape of a Ferrari hood.

However, even though this phone is likely to cost more than £3,000, you still only get basic handset features under that expensive hood. It will come with 4GB of internal memory and is backed up by a measly 3MP camera, integrated flash, with 3G connectivity is included.

But why would you worry about all those boring specs when there's a leather cover with the Prancing Horse logo stitched right in, AND you get Ferrari-themed wallpapers and ringtones to boot. This is as close as you can get to owning a Ferrari. 

Handset growth rate falls in Q3, weakest quarter since 2002

303 million mobile devices shipped in Q3, according to Strategy Analytics. The figure is down a little on the previous quarter, and marks the industry’s weakest growth rate since 2002. Sales were up five per cent year on year.

In the past typical growth rates have been nearer 20 per cent. It’s alarming because Q3 is normally a strong quarter. Slowdown in the emerging markets was mostly to be blamed for the decline.

Apple and Samsung performed best, with annual growth rates of 516 per cent and 22 per cent respectively. Sales of Sony Ericsson, Motorola and LG handsets fell and Nokia remained top with a nearly 40 per cent share. 

Just check out how fast Apple is catching with just one iPhone and the iPhone craze only started last year.

3Q2008 (m) 3Q2007 (m) Mkt share (%)

Nokia 117.8 111.7 38.9
Samsung 51.8 42.6 17.1
Sony Ericsson 25.7 25.9 8.5
Motorola 25.4 37.2 8.4
LG 23.0 21.9 7.6
Apple 6.9 1.1 2.3
Others 52.1 46.9 17.2
Total 302.7 287.3 100

Motorola sank to No. 4

As expected Motorola had sank to fourth place among the top five global handset vendors for the quarter having shipped 25.4 million units, below Nokia Corp. (118 million units), Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. (52 million units) and Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications (25.7 million units). LG Electronics Co. held fifth place with 23 million units.

Motorola lost $397 million on $7.5 billion in revenue across all its businesses in the third quarter and it would delay its plan to spinoff its handset division until sometime after 2009. Sales in the company’s flagship device business reached $3.1 billion, down 31% from the year-ago quarter. The handset business lost a whopping $840 million, more than three times the loss in the year-ago quarter!

Motorola will be phasing out use of the Symbian operating system and focus on Linux-based Android and Microsoft Corp.’s Windows Mobile for its smartphone efforts. Motorola will also cut off business with semiconductor supplier Freescale and use Qualcomm Inc. for low-cost 3G phones and Texas Instruments Inc. for higher-end devices.

About 2,000 jobs from its mobile-devices business will be affected as sales will continue to shrink and Motorola is expected to sink to No. 5 in the coming quarter and really have to cut off its mobile division fast as its bleeding the company's overall performance and worst of all affecting the profitable enterprise, government and video divisions of the group. Nobody is sure when is the exact date but the longer they hang onto the mobile-device business, the bigger the liabilities it will become until such time that when Motorola is ready to spin it off, they will realize they wont have much to spin. The outlook for Motorola is nothing but bleak.

Spending my virtual weekend with my Dad & youngest Bro

You can feel young and crazy at any age. Just because you are 60 years old doesn't mean you are too old to be young and crazy. Of course i m not 60 years old to be advising you this. This advise is coming straight from my dad's t-shirt, a gift from my mom to him. 

My dad, Robert is a living proof of person who is forever young at heart. Not only that, he is crazy enough to learn how to blog at 60 at robertfoo.blogspot.com. Pretty good writings on his experience on business, selling, women and sex too. It has been an adventure riding out with my dad and you can read more about his adventures on his blog.

Check out my youngest brother's new look. Caldwin had finally shaved off his old messy heavy metal looking hair look, a look that has been a constant discomfort for all of us at home. I m sure he will start to get into real action with this new look and of course find a new girlfriend. Well done and all the best bro.

Wassup - Budweiser Endorses Obama

After 8 years, the Budweiser boys of “Wassup” fame are back, and they’ve reunited for an Obama campaign commercial. The video has the men in a much unhappier state than when they were last seen. There’s no beer, football game or pizza. Now they’re jobless, homeless, fighting in Iraq, experiencing the economic crisis, and unable to afford medical treatment. Really hilarious.

Dress Made of Water

This amazing 30 second ad features a woman clad in a water dress that moves fluidly as she walks. The Mattoni ad shows top model Hana Soukupová showing off clothes made from water with the help of clever trick photography.

Gmail on Android looks hot

Check out this video below from the Google team (and the post here) — it gives a super overview about the capabilities of the Gmail app on the Android mobile operating system.

What is the best selling phone in US?

Believe or not, the Motorola RAZR V3 is still the best-selling phone in the US.
Despite widespread reports of Moto’s painful death, it seems the US device maker’s iconic clamshell still the American consumer best choice. NPD Group says the RAZR outsold iPhone 3G, BlackBerry Curve, LG Chocolate and BlackBerry Pearl in the top five. 

Quite unbelievable right, US is the ONLY country where RAZR V3 tops. Perhaps the main factor being that the phone is sold everywhere, often free on a contract

Sadly for Moto, it makes little revenue from each sale, and has yet to follow up with a similarly sexy model.

New "Get a Mac" advertising

Check out this new ad from Apple. Its so simple and effective and I m sure Apple is spending almost next to nothing to produce it in comparison to Microsoft $300 million budget for Vista. Microsoft doesnt seem to get it and Apple is having all the fun poking at Microsoft's poor advertising. 

Morse code vs. SMS

Which is faster, Morse code or SMSing? 

Nokia's Product Placement in Britney Spears’ Womanizer

Nokia has scored the ultimate product placement for its Nokia 5800 XpressMusic touch-phone in Womanizer, the highly anticipated new music video from Superstar Britney Spears.

Featuring Britney Spears in many disguises, one of which is naked in a sauna room, Womanizer prominently incorporates the Nokia phone twice into the plot of the music video.

Nokia seems determined to take on the iPhone, and it doesn’t get any bigger than the highly celebrated Britney Spears comeback to push its first ever touch-phone.

Apple is positioned to ride economic storm with iPhone recording the best quarter sales

Apple sold 6.9 million iPhones in Q3 2008, and earned a net profit of $1.4 billion – up 26% from the previous quarter. Profits beat analysts’ expectations, despite lower than expected sales of $7.9 billion.

Last year Apple earned $9.6 billion in the same quarter. Analysts had been expecting profits of over $10 billion this year.

As Steve Jobs pointed out though, Apple is in an enviable position. He was quoted in the Financial Times saying, “We don’t yet know how this economic downturn will affect Apple, but we’re armed with the strongest product line in our history ... and $25 billion of cash safely in the bank with zero debt.”

And it looks like Apple will hit its target of shipping 10 million iPhones this year too.

Steve Jobs personally delivered the earnings call, and told investors that with $4.6 billion in iPhone sales the company is now the third biggest mobile phone manufacturer in the world.

Apple outsold Ericsson, LG, Motorola and Research in Motion (RIM), Jobs said, and was beaten only by Nokia and Samsung.

Apple has sold more than 13 million iPhones this year.

via Apple PR

Mobile Operator Globalive to adopt mobile advertising business model

Canadian mobile operator Globalive Communications is to use mobile advertising in an effort to keep consumer tariffs low and differentiate itself from incumbent operators Rogers Wireless, Bell Mobility and Telus. The newcomer has signed a deal with mobile marketing and advertising vendor MyScreen that will see Globalive's customers compensated for allowing targeted rich, full-screen advertisements placed on their mobile device at the end of a call or SMS. MyScreen has recently partnered with marketing agency Omnicom, which represents some of the world's major brands. UK MVNO Blyk, which itself this week announced an advertising deal with MTV is regarded as a pioneer in this space, and has already signed up over 200,000 customers.

Backed by Middle East giant Orascom Telecom, Globalive plans to launch services in the second half of next year and is targeting 1.5 million subscribers in the first three years. The move to a mobile advertising-based business model is the latest effort by the operator to position itself as a consumer-focused mobile company, following the launch of an online 'soapbox' forum last month which will gather consumers' opinions about what they seek in a mobile provider. 

Its great news for the mobile ad industry to see Operators like Globalive and Blyk taking their chance with such business model. There isnt a real success story yet but Blyk certainly are making good progress and while i doubt that complete ad supported advertising business model will work for the mobile operator business, I do believe that there is model for partial support as I m pretty sure they are segments of subscribers who are willing to pay for less for looking at ads revelant to them.  

Sony Ericsson's Q3 is in the red

Sony Ericsson  reported a net loss of €Euro 25 million (US$33.8 million) for the quarter, down from a profit of €267 million in the same period a year ago, while sales dropped 9.7 percent to €2.81 billion. However, the results were not as bad as many analysts had feared as analysts had predicted a loss of €141 million on sales of €2.74 billion. 

The vendor is currently in the process of implementing a cost cutting programme that will see it eliminate 2,000 jobs globally, and is targeting savings of €300 million a year by the second half of next year. 

 Sony Ericsson's unit sales fell to 25.7 million from 25.9 million a year earlier, beating the analyst estimate of 24.3 million units. The average selling price for its phones in the quarter was €109, down from €116 in the previous quarter and from €120 a year ago.

With more depressing times ahead, the future for Sony Ericsson isnt going to be easy one. Unless with better range of products, Sony Ericsson isnt expected to challenge or eat into the market share of its leading competitors. 

Tech firms dominate top brands

2008 Interbrand survey sees technology companies occupy 22 out of 100 places. Technology brands dominated this year's Interbrand Best Global Brands index, with IBM, Microsoft and Nokia dominating the top five.

The index, which continued to be headed up Coca-Cola at $66.67bn (£36.42bn) saw Microsoft and IBM change places.

Microsoft saw its brand value grow by one per cent over the past year to $59bn (£32.23bn), but failed to hold off IBM, which saw its value shoot up by three per cent in the same period to $59.03bn (£32.24bn), leaving Microsoft in third place.

Nokia and Intel retained their positions in the top ten at fifth and seventh respectively.

However, the top ten saw a new entrant in the form of Google, but its value was still far behind that of Intel and Nokia and more than half that of Microsoft and IBM's at $25.59bn (£13.98bn) – a jump in value of 43 per cent.

Elsewhere, HP came in 12th, while Cisco, Samsung and Oracle ranked at 17th, 21st and 23rd respectively. The firm that saw the second largest climb in its brand value after Google was Apple at a 24 per cent rise over its value in 2007. Its jump from 33rd to 24th means it has leapfrogged both Dell (32nd) and Sony (24th), as well as software vendor SAP (31st).

Canon (36th) remained stationary, while Nintendo saw a climb of four places to 40th. Other names in the list included Philips (43rd), Xerox (59th), BlackBerry (73rd), Panasonic (78th) and Motorola (87th).

Google Strong Q3 beating Wall Street expectations

Google beat Wall Street expectations for its third quarter, reporting net income of $1.35 billion, up from $1.25 billion. Revenue was $5.54 billion, up from $5.37 billion a year ago.

Google-owned sites generated revenue of $3.67 billion, or 67% of total revenue, in the third quarter, up 34% from a year ago. Google’s partner sites generated $1.68 billion, a 30% increase from a year ago.

Perhaps most importantly, capital expenditures finally dropped sequentially, so free cash flow was very strong ($1.7 billion). That's almost a $7 billion free cash flow run-rate. With an enterprise value of about $100 billion, the stock is trading at only 15X cash flow.  Google is certainly in great shape to weather through the global economic depression and in great good position to pick up some good tech companies along the way. 

7 Ways to Help Yourself Recognize Opportunity

One of most powerful ways to change your life and the lives of others is by spotting opportunities for improvement. Opportunity is in front of your eyes – right now – and you don’t see it. So how do you open your eyes wider? How do you see the hidden opportunity that exists everywhere in your environment?

1. Develop relationships with highly creative people – Creative people see opportunity everywhere and their insight will rub off on you. The best way to learn to see a world of possibilities is to hang out with people that spend most of their time actively creating things. People who create art, literature, businesses, graphics, websites, ideas, music, markets, products, or anything else constructive. Find ways to spend your days and nights talking about creative ideas and thinking about possibilities. With Web 2.0 and social media your opportunity to meet other creative people and share ideas is greater than ever before in human history. No matter where you are, if you can connect to the internet, you can meet and hobnob with creative people from every corner of the globe. What an amazing possibility this is. Think of the endless opportunity our connectedness provides.

2. Write down everything that surprises you – Many great opportunities are fueled by surprises. Surprises are usually funny, amazing, and insightful. Carry a small notebook and digital camera everywhere and document everything that surprises you. You will find endless opportunity to create things from your surprises.

3. Journal about problems – Some people say there is no such thing as a problem; there are only opportunities. I concede they may be right. For every problem there is a solution and that solution will have value to others. Documenting obstacles and problems and the solutions you use to overcome them is an opportunity for you to bring value to others.

4. Journal about possibilities – Imagine grand possibilities and write them down. Imagine inexpensive limitless clean energy. What would it look like? How would we use it? Imagine yourself being the greatest possible person you can be. What would you be? Imagine your dream business. Imagine the future you would create if you could create any possible future. What would it look like? Write it down. Find the opportunities hidden inside your imagination.

5. Be open to unorthodox ideas – If your first reaction to an idea is defensive, stop yourself and think “Wait, listen, let them finish. Listen to the entire idea and then imagine the possibility of the idea.” Don’t shoot down an idea just because it sounds far out or strange. Give it a moment, wait for your defensiveness to pass and then look at it again. Sleep on it or wait several days to get your prejudices out of the way. It has taken years of persistence for me to accept several unorthodox ideas that have proven valuable.

6. Eliminate limiting beliefs and mindsets – Are you one of those people that say “I’m just not that creative.” Do you think playing with gadgets is frivolous? Are you a bit too serious? Are you easily offended? Are you willing to indulge your curiosity or are you afraid of looking foolish? Do feel a need to follow the rules without question? All these things come from limiting beliefs and mindsets which will limit your ability to sense opportunities. Identify and smash your limiting beliefs.

7. Be grateful –Being grateful is the antidote to resentment and complacency. Resentment and complacency block your ability to see clearly. The best way to clear resentment and complacency from your mind is to be grateful for where you are right now. Be grateful for your gifts and your weaknesses. Be grateful for your success and your setbacks. If you are grateful for all things, including those that appear to go wrong, you will be able to see them for the opportunities they are.