The European Telecommunications Standards Institute has adopted the technical standards governing Mobile Near Field Communications (NFC) services supported by the Association and its members. The completion of the core of the technical standards removes a potential obstacle, enabling mobile operators to prepare for the rollout of contactless payment services and other applications that make use of this flexible short-range radio technology.
Mobile Phone Industry Expected to Resist Economic Downturn as Majority of Growth Will Come From Emerging Markets. Worldwide sales of mobile phones to end users surpassed 1.15 billion units in 2007, a 16 per cent increase from 2006 sales of 990.9 million, according to Gartner, Inc. Mobile phone sales at the end of the year were consistent with the yearly trend, as fourth quarter sales reached 330 million units.
Today's active social networking members represent more than one-third of the total worldwide Internet user base, for a figure of 530 million members worldwide. Looking ahead, Pyramid Research expects social networking sites to gain prominence as sites add increased functionality and more people are introduced to them by friends and acquaintances. By the end of 2012, there will be 950 million users accessing social networking sites via their mobile devices.
Priceline.com announced the launch of a suite of mobile services that enable travelers with Web-enabled wireless devices to search hotel inventories, pricing and availability in real-time, book rooms, check the status of their flights, and see recommended restaurants and local attraction reviews from Zagat Survey.
The Chinese smartphone market grew by 37.7% in 2007, with total shipments of 14.4 million. The introduction of feature-rich mobile Internet service and GPS-based services will fuel the market over the next several years.
Sprint announced it will launch a US unlimited pricing plan that gives customers unlimited voice, data, text, e-mail, Web-surfing, Sprint TVSM, Sprint Music, GPS Navigation, Direct Connect and Group Connect for $99.99 a month.
Parks Associates report finds mobile game revenue generated through carrier decks will decrease from 90% of the total U.S. mobile gaming revenue to 72% in the next five years. By 2012, off-deck channels and ad-supported or subsidized mobile gaming will account for 28% of the market.
Vodafone UK and Telmap, the world leader in advanced mobile mapping and navigation solutions, are introducing Vodafone Sat Nav– an operator branded mobile navigation solution available for the UK consumer market.
midomi mobile allows users to search for music by singing, humming or even whistling into their mobile devices. The application accesses midomi’s online user-generated database of songs and uses MELODIS’ patented Multimodal Adaptive Recognition System (MARS) to identify what users are searching for.
LocaModa introduced breakthrough social connectivity to its interactive Out-of-Home platform. LocaModa 3.0 enables mobile consumers to control and interact with social media around them using any mobile phone on any network.
Juniper Research reports global ringtone revenues heading for a decline while the global mobile music market is expected to continue to rise. The total value of the global mobile music market is expected to rise to more than $17.5bn by 2012, driven by rental music services and full-track downloads.
Report Buyer, has added a new report which finds that the number of mobile subscribers in China will reach 738 million in 2010.
Combining the design concept of Panasonic large-screen flat-panel TV 'VIERA' and its high-quality picture technologies, the P905iTV is a sliding handset featuring "One-segment" mobile TV.
Morph is a concept that demonstrates how future mobile devices might bestretchable and flexible, allowing the user to transform their mobiledevice into radically different shapes. It demonstrates the ultimatefunctionality that nanotechnology might be capable of delivering: flexiblematerials, transparent electronics and self-cleaning surfaces.
