LG Goes Android For A Day

One week after announcing 3 new Windows based mobiles, LG have announced their first Android mobile, the LG-GW620. It now appears that the manufacturers are spread betting on which operating system is going prevail with even the likes of Nokia backing multiple horses.

The LG-GW620 looks an intresting contender with full touch-screen, a sliding QWERTY keypad enabling rapid web-browsing, SMS creation and a easier user interface. The screen is 3” inches in size and the phone has 3G capability and the usual LG style.

The LG GW620 will be launching in Europe in the 4th Quarter of this year. So the big question is Android, versus Palm, versus Apple, versus Windows, versus Symbian, versus Linux, versus RIM. Who has the iconic device? Who will have the best apps? Who will have the best carrier or have a carrier independent approach? What is clear is that devices are two a penny. Tethered carrier deals aren’t consumer friendly and unless you can run multiple concurrent apps then the single app mindset of Apple can wear thin. We have the challenge as our contract expires soon and its coming close to decision time!

A Year is a Long Time in Today’s Technology World

We now see the inevitable division of content delivery focus, with Google going for the online reading route, others sticking to the offline reading route and Amazon probably trying to cover every conceivable option.

We are already in the device battles with eInk versus the rest. Mobiles versus ereaders and ereaders versus netbooks, laptops etc. We are just starting to see the app battles with Apple versus Andriod, versus Blackberry, versus Symbian versus Microsoft. What is certain is that whatever device you use today it will not be the device you will use, or want to use, in a couple of years.

So where would we place our bets today?

Will the ereaders survive as a one dimensional product, or will we look back fondly at them in a few years time as some quaint Delorean car, a great looking prototype that had to evolve. We hear lots about colour eInk but the demand is today not necessarily tomorrow. What is clear, is that we will see many more eink ‘lookie likies’ some merely rebadged, some exclusive, some heavily financed and some not. The price today is too high, the technology to restrictive and the concept of carrying a library around with you at all time ludicrous in the extreme. Only when we view this technology as throwaway and transient commodity will it change its appeal. This can happen as a result of adoption by a WalMart, Tesco etc or like MP3 it just becomes cheap commodity.

We also still have formats to sort out. Many may man the barricades and demand an epub world as others before them demanded an SGML or an OEB world. The truth is today the best format for most will remain the PDF in the Adobe eBook form, which contrary to popular urban myth works perfectly well on devices such as the Sony Reader. Many feared that reflow was essential and that epub gave us the answer, that the reality is now different. Don’t get us wrong we welcome epub, but it no longer is this issue as times move on.

Will DRM (Digital Rights Management) still be with us in say three years time and if so how will it work is another interesting challenge? We have seen only one aggregator switch to-date, but it gave us an insight to a potential risk. Technology may be replicable moving forward but the encrypted licences needed may be dependant on the original server or service being in place or under contract. Adobe have started to minimise this exposure but it still exists for many who have not opted for a neutral licence service. Watermarking has still to make its mark, but will it coexist with DRM, replace it, or be a nice to have?

We believe the biggest technology choice remains online versus offline. Google have clearly placed their bets online while may others scramble around trying to develop to perfect offline experience. There is no reason why eink should work with online. The issue is the mindset that says we have to own a library and we need to carry it around with us just in case we want to read another book! Is the book market the only one facing this question? We only need to look at Spotify and music, TV and the iPlayer and Hulu, games and even news and magazines. What and how we consume on the move is different to what and how we consume when not on the move. We access and use media and information differently according to the role we are playing at the time and what we want from it and yet we appear to be wanting to shoehorn a one size fits all technology approach into the market.

The one thing that is certain about tomorrow is that it will be different to today.

Nokia launch Ovi App Store

Nokia the number one mobile player has finally launched its Ovi Store. The service will rival BlackBerry, Android and of course Apple’s app stores and will be available to 50 million Nokia users worldwide, allowing them to install software and games directly on to their handsets. Nokia intend to follow others by retaining 30% of apps sales revenues onsite.

Apple’s iTunes App Store has lead the field, with customers downloading more than a billion apps in the nine months since the service launched. It is expected that Microsoft will also launch its own mobile app store with the release of its new Windows Phone operating system later this year.

The list of Ovi compatible handsets is limited to 50 although Nokia's supports 125 mobiles . Interestingly operator billing is supported in the, which may result in micropayment, try before you buy apps and free minimum model opportunities.

Palm and Apple Will Contest June

June looks to be the ‘mobile month’ with the much awaited launch of the Palm Pre in the US on the 6th June and whatever Apple are going to announce two days later on the 8th.

We can only speculate on the Apple moves but we can clearly state the Palm Pre ones. The device announced as the ‘iPhone killer’ finally arrives albeit in the US only and also only on the Sprint network. No launch date has bee announced for the UK. The much-anticipated handset will cost $199.99 (£129), after a rebate, and buyers must take out a two-year contract when signing.

One of the most appealing features of the Pre is webOS, the operating system that combines a variety of online services into a finger-friendly user interface. The phone automatically recognises when owners connect to social or e-mail services and builds up a global list of contacts and login details as it is used. Unlike many other phones, the handset also allows owners to have several different applications running at the same time.

The large touch screen, Wi-Fi, 3G, GPS, 8 GB of storage, and Bluetooth, all stack up well against rivals like the iPhone 3G, BlackBerry Storm, and the T-Mobile (Android) G1.

Palm will also be launching the Touchstone charging kit June 6. This puck-sized device can charge the handset wirelessly. The Touchstone charging kit will be sold for $69.99. Palm is also investing in an iPhone-style software development kit for third-party developers to create applications for WebOS called theMojo SDK.

The Pre's release date could be a gamble coming two days before Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference and theBlackberry Storm, was also billed as the iPhone killer.

No More A Roaming We Will Go?

Vodafone has become the first mobile phone operator to abolish roaming charges, meaning its customers will pay the same price abroad as they do at home. From June 1, Vodafone’s 18 million UK passport customers will be able to call and text phones in Britain from 35 European countries for the same price that they would be charged in Britain. This is initially on offer until the end of August. It is this move could be followed by other mobile operators as caps on roaming fees are due to come into force on July 1.

Viviane Reding, the EU Telecoms Commissioner has targeted the charges a “roaming rip-off”, with a two-year plan to cut charges by an average of 60%.The price of a roaming for a British customer in Europe could be cut from an average 25p to a maximum of 10p and the cost of downloading a megabyte of information will cost no more than 92p if consumers pay standard rates. The current cap of 41p per minute for a call made to Britain from another EU country will drop to 31p by July 2011.

Vodafone has also announced plans to launch a mobile application store for their 290 million worldwide customers, following similar announcements from others such as RIM, Nokia, and Microsoft. Software developers will be able to use to store as a single point of access to Vodafone’s global customer base. Developers will be able to use Vodafone’s billing system to charge for apps with a share of their profit going directly to Vodafone.