Just after we have received Sony Ericsson’s press release we received another one from the Open Handset Alliance. Next to Sony Ericsson, 13 other companies made the same move: AKM Semiconductor Inc., ARM, ASUSTek Computer Inc., Atheros Communications, Borqs, Ericsson, Garmin International Inc., Huawei Technologies, Omron Software Co. Ltd, Softbank Mobile Corporation, Teleca AB, Toshiba Corporation and Vodafone.

 

New members will either deploy compatible Android devices, contribute significant code to the Android Open Source Project, or support the ecosystem through products and services that will accelerate the availability of Android-based devices. With these commitments, the Open Handset Alliance will continue to drive greater and faster innovation for the benefit of mobile users and everyone in the industry.

 

Is this relevant for CAT-iq. Yes in my mind it is. A platform like Android (and Symbian, Windows Mobile and don't forget Apple iPhone) could be used for CAT-iq products as well. Realize what that would help application developers. They can develop the same applications for mobile and other ce/ict products and CAT-iq products.

Mobile chip vendor Broadcom has launched a new combination mobile chip that integrates Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and FM connectivity. The chip - the BCM4329 - is the vendor's first embedded chip to support the 802.11n WLAN standard. Broadcom said that 802.11n connectivity would allow mobile devices to offer speeds of around 50Mb/s making it ideal for multimedia phones. The firm pointed to an ABI Research study that claims that combination chips will account for almost a third of all mobile connectivity solutions shipped by 2012. Broadcom said recently it is planning to introduce a new combination chip every 60 days over the coming months.

 

Speaking to Mobile Business Briefing, Chris Bergey, director of Broadcom's Embedded Wireless business unit, said that the new chip was a natural migration path for customers using Broadcom's BCM4325, its flagship combination chip launched at GSMA Mobile World Congress in February 2007. Bergey added that the lowering cost of combination chips is allowing an increasing number of mobile devices to offer Wi-Fi connectivity. He noted that the Bill of Materials (BOM) cost for supporting Wi-Fi connectivity in mobile handsets had dropped to around US$3 and that Wi-Fi was now less of a "power-hog" on a handset's battery life than 3G. He said the new chip was suitable for media-centric "feature phones" as well as smartphones and products such as netbooks. In a statement, Broadcom said the BCM4329 is scheduled for "significant production quantities" in 2009.

 

Chipvendors, when will the first combined CAT-iq / DECT / Wi-FI etc. etc. chip see the light?

 

 

The Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG) is planning to release a new version of Bluetooth in mid-2009. As expected, Bluetooth 2.2 will deliver transfer rates at higher speeds than previous versions.

 

The idea of the new High Speed Bluetooth specification is to work with WLAN or USB for improved data rates, and will be known as Bluetooth 10x and Bluetooth 100x, respectively. For this to work, a mobile phone will need to be equipped with WLAN or UWB radio. Hence Bluetooth 10x will be used first, since many of the newer handsets already have WiFi capabilities built-in.

 

Unfortunately, we don’t know which of the existing devices will be upgradable to the new Bluetooth specification. The way I see it, smartphones should stand first in the line for any upgrades, although some of the modern WiFi-enabled feature phones could also see such an update. Naturally, we’ll get back to you as soon as we hear something new on the subject.

 

orignal source Cnet

 

DECT handset maker predicts 3G gateways will lose the 'fight for the living room'; says 25% of mobile infrastructure market will be WiMAX in five years.
Gigaset said Thursday that femtocell technology lacks any kind of viable business model, and will fail to gain any meaningful traction in the consumer market. 

The DECT handset maker, which was spun off from Siemens at the beginning of October, said the only realistic application for femtocells is in an office environment.

 

"Femtocells will die after a short while because there isn't a business case," said José Costa e Silva, CEO of Gigaset. Speaking to Total Telecom, he said that only "hardcore" mobile phone users will be prepared to pay for femtocells. "They make more sense in offices and high rise buildings where coverage is poor and people are using mobile phones for work, but not in the home," he said. Costa e Silva said he expects consumers will be sceptical of having what is essentially a mini base station in their houses.

 

read the rest of the article in Total Telecom

 

Berne, Switzerland, December 3, 2008. The DECT Forum, the worldwide association of the home communication industry, and Jakajima are pleased to announce the winners of the International CAT-iq Student Design Competition.

 

With the CAT-iq Design Competition 2008 the DECT Forum inspired design students from all over the world to create out of the box products and exciting services for the next generation of home communication. The jury of international experts has made the decision for the first three prizes. Winners will be invited to the DECT CAT-iq Conference 2009 in Amsterdam; the awarded design studies will be presented during the conference (February 3-4, 2008) to industry experts.

Erich Kamperschroer, Chairman of the DECT Forum, is pleased to disclose the three winners of the CAT-iq Design Competition 2008:

 

The quality of the submitted designs was high but very diverse. The winning concepts were distinctive and well presented. The final decision on the runner up prize was not so easy as there were several ideas that made the choice difficult.

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First prize (10.000 €) goes to: Jelly Web, by Conrad Kroencke, University of Applied Arts, Vienna, Austria

Comment of the jury for First prize:
Innovation level was very high and a good approach to embed CAT-iq in home entertainment equipment. The idea has a distinctive design language and very good graphic presentation and is a completely thought through concept.

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Second prize (5.000 €) goes to: Spectrum, by Werner Helmich, Twente University, Department Industrial Design Engineering, Enschede, The Netherlands

Comment of the jury for Second prize:
High level of innovation and a great design. Interesting new attempt for sound/voice communication. 

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Runner up price (1.000 €) goes to: Follow Me Phones by Joris Zaalberg, University of Technology, Department Industrial Design, Eindhoven, The Netherlands

Comment of the jury for Runner up prize:
Using special awareness to move in and out of conversational areas is very innovative and offers new ways of communication amongst people.

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“I would like to congratulate the winners of the CAT-iq Design competition on behalf of the home communications industry. The jury was very impressed with the creativity and innovative quality of the entries and it was difficult to choose the winners. I would like to thank students from all over the world for their participation”, says Erich Kamperschroer. 

About DECT Forum and Jakajima:
The DECT Forum is the international industry association of the home communication industry. With more than 670 million devices sold and growing to more than 100 million devices per year, DECT, DECT 6.0 and CAT-iq are worldwide-adopted technologies with high relevance for cordless voice and broadband home communication. The DECT Forum is located in Berne, Switzerland. Full members of the DECT Forum are currently: American Telecom, Ascom, Avaya, AVM, Binatone, CCT, DSP Group, Gigaset Communications, GN Netcom, Infineon, Kirk, Panasonic, Philips, Plantronics, RTX, Sagem, SiTel, SGW Electronics, Telematrix, Thomson, Topcom, Unical, Uniden, VTech. For more information please visit us at: www.dect.org  www.cat-iq.org www.catiqdesigncompetition.org

Jakajima is an independent market intelligence and innovation company for the telecom, ICT, and consumer-electronics trade chain. Jakajima is based in Nuenen, Netherlands. Please read more at www.jakajima.eu.

An ABI Research study on residential gateways forecasts home networking consumer premises equipment and aggregation devices will deliver at least $1.8 billion in annual revenues by the end of 2013.

 

A separate, second ABI study says shipments of four classes of wireless audio and video connectivity products for the home (150 million this year) will increase to nearly 700 million units worldwide by the end of 2013.

 

Bluetooth, WiFi, UWB and 60GHz (for in-home wireless distribution of HD video.) will coexist and become closely integrated according to their strengths and specialties. Analysts say once UWB begins to hit its stride around 2010, it will show the highest Y-to-Y growth rate of any of the four technologies.

 

Femtocells can deliver a significant increase in mobile network capacity and play a key role in increasing mobile data speeds

 

The Femto Forum announced the results of its femtocell radio study.  The study found that femtocells have the potential to deliver an order of magnitude more capacity than the macro network alone when used in dense deployments, even when occupying the same radio channel as the macrocells. It also identified numerous technological solutions that mitigate potential interference with the macro network to remove barriers to wide-scale deployment and maximize the capacity benefits.

 

The research assessed the impact of femtocells on a mobile network in a wide range of deployment scenarios in order to explore co-existence issues including interference.

 

CREATING AN Internet Protocol TV (IPTV) service is looking like a more likely strategy for telcos wanting to branch out to the stream of customers dumping their fixed lines.

 

Ofcom's International Communications Market 2008 report highlights how 15 percent of homes were mobile-only last year, which is up two percent on the year before.

 

With the current economic woes – which you may not have heard about – Ofcom recons the number of homes ditching their landlines will steadily increase.

 

read the full article.

 

Nokia announced it is developing a smart home platform, Nokia Home Control Center. The platform is opening a new era for networked home services and solutions. Nokia's Home Control Center will be the basis for next generation security, smart home solutions and household energy management systems.
 

The platform is open allowing third parties to integrate their own smart home solutions and services; its core consumer value is the plug and play experience across all solution areas with high security levels built in. All solutions based on the platform can be used through a smart phone or PC locally or remotely. Consumers can monitor and control their electricity usage, switch devices on and off, and monitor different objects, such as temperature, camera, and motion. In future, entire systems within the home can be connected to the Nokia platform, including security, heating, and ventilation systems.
 

"We see there is growth potential in the smart home market", said Teppo Paavola, Vice President, Head of Corporate Business Development, Nokia. "The home of today has intelligence everywhere, but to date there has not been a solution that is interoperable with wide range of home systems that can easily be controlled. We want to create an open solution where external partners can develop their own solutions and services on top of our platform. We believe that the mobile device is an ideal interface to control home intelligence, especially when the user is not at home."
 

Nokia today also announced a partnership with one of Europe's biggest energy companies, RWE. The co-operation aims at developing a comprehensive solution for managing energy consumption and CO2 footage at home. This cooperation combines RWE's energy competence with Nokia's technological know-how.

 

Read the complete news article

Strong growth will result in 57 million IPTV homes by 2013 – or triple the end-2008 figure, according to a new report from Informa Telecoms & Media. Despite this acceleration, only 4% of the world’s TV households are forecast to subscribe to IPTV platforms by 2013. In fact, IPTV: A Global Analysis – 4th Edition states that only 14 countries will have more than 1 million IPTV subs.

 

Report author Simon Murray said: “This fairly limited penetration comes from having to migrate subscribers away from long-established cable and DTH services, as well as the impact of DTT to a lesser extent. However, there are examples of IPTV gaining a foothold even in the most competitive markets.”

 

In the short term, Informa Telecoms & Media forecasts 18.6 million IPTV households by the end of 2008, up 8 million in the year. Asia Pacific and Western Europe are each responsible for nearly 3 million of the additions, with North America adding 1.7 million. However, the global figure represents just 2% of TV households.

 

Much of the future growth is expected to be in Asia Pacific. It will become the largest region by 2010. By 2013, Asia Pacific will contribute 22.2 million of the 57.0 million global total. China alone will have crossed the 10 million mark.

 

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