Mobile phone subscribers to reach 440 mln in 2006

BEIJING, Jan. 30 (Xinhuanet) -- Number of mobile phone subscribers in China is expected to reach 440 million in 2006 with 48 million expected to be newly added this year, according to a prediction by the Information Industry Ministry.

The constant expansion of mobile phone subscribers has always been the major income source of the communication business, which is expected to reach 700 billion yuan (87.5 billion US dollars) in2006, up 10 percent over 2005, according to the ministry.

China increased 58.604 million new mobile phone subscribers in 2005, with monthly growth approaching 5 million.

More and more Chinese people begin to use mobile phones. The Information Industry Ministry predicted that 33 percent of the total population will possess mobile phones in 2006. China will firmly hold its first position in the world in terms of its scale of mobile phone subscribers.

www.chinaview.cn 2006/01/30 20:56:48

Criado telemóvel feminino em forma de SERPENTE
A Product Visionaires desenvolveu um telemóvel pensado para as mulheres que se adapta como uma bracelete.

A Product Visionaires, empresa de design e investigação da Siemens, desenvolveu, para a multinacional alemã, um telemóvel direccionado ao público feminino. Denominado “Snaked” o equipamento tem, como o próprio nome indica, o formato de uma serpente. Totalmente desenhado a pensar nas mulheres, este modelo pode ser usado, como uma bracelete, no braço, no pulso ou no tornozelo. Com as suas formas sinuosas, tem a capacidade de, facilmente, se adaptar ao corpo feminino.

De acordo com a empresa fabricante, para além das habituais funções de telemóvel e leitor de MP3, o “Snaked” possui uma funcionalidade que lhe permite controlar a performance da utilizadora, durante um exercício físico. Uma vez que este modelo é ainda um protótipo, não há quaisquer previsões relativamente à sua chegada ao mercado. No entanto, tendo em conta o design atractivo e elegante e as funcionalidades inovadoras, é quase certo que, assim que chegue às lojas, seja alvo de um consumo impulsivo por parte do público feminino mais arrojado.


Jornaldiario.com, 2006-01-30 09:37:59

Mobile users can't keep hands off handsets

MOBILE phone users can feel stressed and anxious if separated from their handsets for long periods, a new survey reveals.
The survey of 2000 people showed that 90 per cent were "obsessed" with checking their phone at least once an hour.

Four out of five respondents felt uneasy if their phone was out of reach for a prolonged period of time, while 84 per cent said they never let their handsets out of sight. And one in seven users admitted suffering anxiety if separated from their mobile.

Losing a mobile phone is worse than losing a wallet or house keys, according to 60 per cent of respondents.

David Nott, addiction treatment manager at the Priory Hospital Marchwood in Southampton, was consulted by Virgin Mobile about the study. He said people entering the private hospital for treatment were asked to switch their mobiles off between 9am and 5pm. "People are beginning to treat their mobiles as human beings because they symbolise contact, friendship and attention," he said.
"This leads to people relying on them for affection and feeling needed - classic separation anxiety, akin to when a child is separated from its mother." Virgin Mobile spokeswoman Alison Bonny said checking mobile phones had become an addiction for some users. "The mobile phone has become so important that many of us have a compulsion to check our mobiles as soon as we leave a meeting or get off a plane," she said.

This article: http://news.scotsman.com/uk.cfm?id=129682006
Last updated: 26-Jan-06 11:35 GMT

Mobile TV em Portugal

São 14 canais transmitidos em 3G. A RTP é o primeiro dos generalistas a ser disponibilizado. O serviço dá pelo nome de Mobile TV e é a mais recente novidade da Vodafone na área dos telemóveis de Terceira Geração (3G ou UMTS).
O novo serviço vai dispor de duas modalidades de subscrição: uma mensal, no valor de 7,50 euros, e outra de 24 horas, no valor de 1,50 euros.
A estes valores pode acrescer uma taxa adicional para canais Premium. Até ao próximo dia 28 de Fevereiro a subscrição mensal dos canais genéricos é gratuita.
A Vodafone lembra que o Mobile TV está disponível para todos os subscritores com telemóveis 3G. Obviamente, a transmissão dos canais de TV só será possível nos locais cobertos pela rede UMTS da Vodafone.
Segundo comunicado da Vodafone, os 14 canais de TV vão ser disponibilizados em directo e em diferido, sendo que esta última modalidade incide especialmente nos noticiários.

No caso da RTP, será possível aceder, entre segunda e sexta-feira e das 7h00 às 21h00, à emissão que é captada pelos diversos televisores do País. Entre as 21h00 e as 7h00, terá lugar a transmissão do Telejornal em regime contínuo e diferido. Aos sábados e domingos, a transmissão simultânea deverá ocorrer entre as 7h00 e as 14h00 e entre as 20h00 e as 21h00. As restantes horas terão a já referida emissão de noticiários em diferido. Os horários das emissões em simultâneo e em diferido vão variar conforme os canais: além dos noticiários em simultâneo da SIC e da TVI, a Vodafone vai também “difundir” os canais MTV Tracks, MTV Snacks, Eurosport, Chili TV, Fashion TV, 24 (Fox), Discovery Mobile, UEFA Champions League, Playboy TV (Premium) e Blue (Premium).

A Vodafone informa ainda que o Portal Vodafone Live! foi alvo de uma remodelação gráfica, com o objectivo de tornar a utilização cada vez mais similar à de um portal utilizado por computadores.

O novo grafismo do portal divide-se agora em quatro separadores: “destaques”; “canais da Vodafone live!”; “subscrições e downloads”; e “pesquisa”.

Exame Informática Portugal 18-01-2006

Número de Celulares no Brasil chega a 86,2 milhões

Agencia Estado

19/01/2006

O número de celulares no Brasil já passou de 86 milhões. Somente no

ano passado, foram registrados 20,6 milhões de novos aparelhos móveis. As vendas de Natal também bateram recordes, com 3,85 milhões de novas linhas. Os dados fazem parte do balanço de 2005 da telefonia celular divulgado hoje (16) pela Agência Nacional de Telecomunicações (Anatel). O número de celulares alcançado no ano passado supera em muito as previsões para o setor feitas pela própria Anatel em 2000. Naquela época, previu-se que o setor teria 58 milhões de celulares em 2005, bem abaixo dos 86,2 milhões verificados.Apesar do elevado número de celulares, a população está cautelosa e limita seus gastos com telefonia.

A Anatel apurou que, do total de aparelhos, 80,81% estão no sistema pré-pago, que utiliza créditos para as chamadas. Apenas 19,19% dos clientes da telefonia móvel estão na modalidade pós-paga, pagando as ligações por conta de telefone.

Em todo o Brasil, há cerca de 46 celulares para cada grupo de 100 habitantes.A "teledensidade" (número de celulares por habitantes) cresceu 27,16% este ano. O Distrito Federal (DF) continua liderando, e desde o ano passado já existe mais de um telefone celular por habitante. O Rio Grande do Sul tem a segunda melhor densidade, com 64,41 celulares por cem habitantes, seguido do Rio de Janeiro (62,47) e de Mato Grosso do Sul (62,2). São Paulo ocupa a oitava posição, com 52,4 celulares em cada grupo de cem habitantes, atrás de Santa Catarina (55,6), Goiás (55,38) e Mato Grosso (53,81).

Google disponibiliza página pessoal para telemóveis

A ideia é permitir aos utilizadores a realização de buscas, consulta de notícias e acesso ao G-mail a partir do terminal do seu telemóvel. Tudo isto concentrado num página inicial única, que cada um poderá configurar à medida das suas necessidades e interesses.
Os utilizadores que já possuam no PC a sua página personalizada através do Google poderão agora transportá-la directamente para o seu telemóvel, bastando para isso aceder à área “Personalised Home Page” do motor de busca.
Por enquanto este serviço apenas está disponível para os Estados Unidos e em equipamentos móveis que integrem um browser com tecnologia XHTML, uma versão do código HTML usado para criar páginas na web. http://exameinformatica.clix.pt/noticias/internet/212747.html

Mobile TV is not a turn-on, BT trial finds · Phone users prefer to listen to digital radio· Results of survey likely to disappoint operators

Richard WrayFriday

January 13, 2006

The Guardian

Mobile phone users are more interested in listening to digital radio through their handsets than watching mobile television services, according to research unveiled yesterday, and are only willing to pay about £5 a month for the privilege of catching up with their favourite shows on a phone's small screen.

The first major British trial of real broadcast mobile television was carried out by BT and Virgin Mobile among 1,000 users within London's M25 motorway. The results showed that while 59% rated mobile television as appealing or very appealing by the end of a six-month test, 65% said the same about digital radio. In terms of actual viewing and listening time, users watched an average of 66 minutes of television a week on their phone but listened to 95 minutes of radio.
Mobile telephone operators, desperate to make more money from their customers and having so far failed to persuade them to do more than talk and text, are clutching at mobile television as a potential money-spinner. The research, however, shows that most people would be willing to pay only about £5 for the service - half of what many in the industry were hoping.

While companies such as Vodafone and 3 are already offering mobile television, it uses up space on their expensive 3G networks and if 3G became very popular it could quickly clog up the airwaves, potentially leaving callers without a signal. The service that BT has developed, and which it hopes to sell to mobile phone companies across the world, uses a portion of the digital radio spectrum. So as well as live television stations revamped for mobile TV, handsets with the right receiver can also get digital radio stations.

As a result, the service may provide a new lease of life to radio companies as broadcasts over mobile phones also introduces the potential for interaction. Listeners would be able to press the equivalent of their TV's red button on their phone to get involved in radio quizzes and polls or to download music tracks.
"I would characterise it as radio [being] even more attractive than TV in the trial," said Emma Lloyd, managing director of BT's Movio business, which plans to offer a wholesale TV service to mobile phone companies from this summer. "We will be able to piggy-back on the attractiveness of digital radio and I don't think that is a negative thing; I see it as a positive thing because the UK leads the world in digital radio."

This Christmas, for instance, digital radios were again one of the top sellers among electrical goods. Part of the attraction of radio over mobile TV is also, she admitted, that "there are a lot of times in your daily life when it is not practical to look at a TV screen".

Participants in the trial were offered three channels a week from a selection including Sky News, Sky Sports News, E4, ITV2 and the Blaze music channel. The trial showed that while some viewers liked to dip in and out of the rolling news channels, many people used it to watch their favourite shows on ITV and E4 when out of the house.
While at home, participants used mobile television to continue watching when away from the set elsewhere in the house, while children used it to watch television in their bedrooms. Users preferred to watch whole programmes or news bulletins rather than specially prepared highlight channels. Mobile television was particularly popular with rail commuters with usage peaking in the mornings and evenings.
Backstory
Mobile television in Britain is available from Orange, Vodafone and 3, which all charge about £10 a month. All three use the firms' 3G networks, which cost billions to build but have so far given little return on investment. Streaming TV content over a mobile phone signal may be a quick way to make a return but it risks clogging up the network.

In contrast, BT's Movio's service uses a broadcast signal rather than a mobile phone network. It even works in areas without mobile phone coverage. It uses internet technology and part of the digital radio spectrum owned by Digital One, the national digital radio broadcaster controlled by GCap, to simulcast live TV channels to mobile phones fitted with a receiver.

The technology, called DAB-IP, works like a traditional TV and the first commercially available handset, made by Taiwan's HTC, is already rolling off the production line. As well as TV, the handsets can receive digital radio.
Virgin Mobile is angling for a period of exclusivity for the technology in Britain and will offer several channels in the summer. While mobile TV over 3G is available in several countries, Virgin Mobile looks set to be the first to offer real broadcast TV over DAB-IP.
Next week, O2 will announce results of a trial of another rival technology it has been testing in Oxford. Its service, which uses a Nokia-backed standard called DVB-H, relies on radio spectrum that will not be available in Britain until the analogue television signal is switched off in 2012.

It's a mobile phone SIM, but not as you know it

By Bridie Smith, The Age, January 6, 2006

Having a camera on your mobile phone is so 2005. These days it's fingerprint recognition and wireless technology that's considered cutting edge.

If phone manufacturers have their way, it won't be long before the mobile phone takes on the ubiquitous iPod, and also makes the digital camera redundant.
"The mobile will become, and is increasingly becoming, the alternative to the digital camera as the capacity of cameras on mobile phones improves," Telstra spokesman Warwick Ponder said.He said Australia could look to Japan — where the market penetration of mobiles is almost 100 per cent — to get an idea of the role mobile phones will play in the future. In Japan, where mobiles and SIM cards can be activated by fingerprints instead of PINs, mobiles are replacing credit cards and being used as electronic passes by employees to gain access to the office.

They can also be used to scan the bar codes of products in supermarkets, and then connect to a website to access product information."In Japan, you can't really call these things phones any more," Mr Ponder said. "It's just as much an internet device, a games device, a music device, a personal organiser and camera."

This week South Korea's second-largest mobile phone manufacturer, Pantech, unveiled its latest handset — a mobile phone that can send and receive calls and SMS messages while operating as a portable TV.

Samsung Australia has released its E530 handset, hoping to corner the female market. The pink phone can count calories, measure body fat and store the weekly shopping list. It can even be programmed to tell a woman when she is ovulating. And yes, it has a camera and MP3 music player.

Nokia spokeswoman Louise Ingram said 2006 would be the year for music, with the company working to increase memory capacity in a bid to gain a greater share of the MP3 market.

Of the 40 new Nokia models released this year, half will have an integrated music player. In 2004, Nokia shipped more than 10 million phones with an integrated music player.

"There will be a real focus, by the entire mobile industry, on music," she said.
Meanwhile, Optus is banking on photo messaging and video calling as high-growth areas, as more consumers change to the 3G network.
"Customers will be able to quickly download new film clips, music and live TV to their handset," an Optus representative said. "3G, in essence, will provide customers with an immediate, broadband-like experience on their mobile phone."

Ben Sivarajan, 32, Carlton Mr Sivarajan said he was considering getting a new mobile phone — mainly for voice calls and text messaging initially, but he would be interested in having internet access and TV by request in the future. "If I had it, I'd definitely use it. It would be very convenient to check things or contact people," he said.

Tessa Peterson, 16, and Ruth Evans, 48, South Australia Looking to upgrade to get an in-built camera and a flip-lid, Tessa would also be interested in the video-calling function. Her mother, Ruth Evans, said the idea of seeing Tessa when she was talking to her on the phone was a plus.

Ivan Murray, 51, St Kilda Mr Murray said he decided to upgrade his phone so that he could have internet access. He said the idea of keeping up to date with sport, news and music was the main attraction — particularly the cricket during summer.