ITV

Category: Hardware

  • O2 launches two new Xda devices in India

    O2 launches two new Xda devices in India

    MUMBAI: O2 has announced the launch of its latest additions to its Xda range of devices into India. The official release claims that the new Xda Atom Exec is the company’s latest PDA-phone geared toward meeting the needs of rising professionals and high-flyers in the business world, while the Xda Stealth is designed with the multi-tasker in mind, offering the ease of use of a mobile phone with the full functionality of a PDA device.

    O2 Asia Pacific CEO Mark Billington is quoted in the official release, “It is important to always focus on customer needs, which is why O2 continually strives to design and develop devices that offer compelling solutions combined with sexy silhouettes. We are always on the lookout for gaps in the market and how we can fill those gaps.”

    The Xda Atom Exec has been targeted at solutions-driven executives who need a “true mobile office” that pushes the standards of design, technology and usability. Packed under its matte “gun metal”-coloured casing are core functions of the Xda Atom, with upgraded software and enhancements to features and overall performance.

    Besides its compact size and sleek design, the Xda Atom Exec is equipped with a host of productivity and connectivity features – including Wireless LAN, Bluetooth? and a sleek Infrared keyboard – it’s a mobile office that doesn’t look like an office.

    Operating on the Microsoft Windows MobileÔ 5.0 platform with Messaging and Security Feature Pack, the Xda Atom Exec gives the convenience of direct push technology with real-time access to corporate email anywhere. It has an Intel 520MHz processor and 192MB of on-board memory.

    Xda Atom Exec comes with many O2-exclusive applications like O2 AutoInstall, O2 Plus, O2 MediaPlus, O2 PhonePlus and O2 SMS Plus to help manage communication and entertainment needs and has an in-built FM radio and a 2.0 mega pixel camera with flash.

    The Xda Stealth is the first device created by O2 in a new product category they have termed “hybrid”. Billington envisions this will be the first in a long line of devices from O2 that merge the best capabilities and sensibilities of different mobile platforms to better engage customers whose needs are not met by standalone PDA-phones, Smartphones or mobile phones.

    One can access MSN Messenger, SMS and email capabilities by using the slide-out 12-key alphanumeric keypad with one hand or by tapping the 2.4-inch QVGA TFT-LCD touchscreen if you prefer. An intuitive eZiText function of touchscreen with a virtual alphanumeric keypad for texters and customers who want the convenience of a full-fledged PDA but do not want to lose the way they currently use their phones.

    The Xda Stealth is powered by an Intel Xscale PXA 272 Processor at 416MHz and comes with 192MB Flash ROM of onboard memory. It operates on the Windows Mobile 5.0 platform with messaging and security feature pack, and comes with the latest editions of Microsoft Office programmes for Windows Mobile (including Pocket Outlook, Word Mobile, Excel Mobile and PowerPoint Viewer) and ActiveSync. Connectivity options include Wireless LAN 802.11b+g and Bluetooth.

    The Xda Atom Exec is retailing at Rs 41,990 (MRP), while the Xda Stealth will retail at Rs 32,990 (MRP), starting third week of December through Brightpoint India outlets in Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Bangalore,Ahmedabad, Pune & Chandigarh. Prices include GST (octroi is extra as applicable) and a one-year local warranty.

  • Philips launches Ambilight Full Surround TV

    Philips launches Ambilight Full Surround TV

    BANGALORE: Philips Electronics India (PEIL) announced the launch of their Ambilight Full Surround TV in Bangalore today, along with updates on their Portable digital audio players or MP3 players in common parlance.

    Ambilight is a proprietary technology, a Philips invention that makes the viewing experience intense and immersive by throwing a soft glow on the wall behind the screen to enhance perceived brightness, contrast and colour accuracy, the company said. Ambilight Surround TVs are made in Philips Belgium plant.

    The ad campaign for promoting this new offering commenced on December 15 and will run till the end of January next year. Around Rs 90 million has been earmarked for promoting Philips overall, of which more than half or around Rs 50 million has been allocated for the Ambilight campaign. Excluding the Ambilight campaign, Philips has spent around Rs 130 million during this calendar year towards product promotion and marketing.

    The Ambilight campaign comprises of a ‘Hulk’ TVC, ads in magazines and outdoor. Philips is targeting the A and A+ cities initially and expects to garner about 10-15 per cent (around 50,000 units in absolute numbers) of the estimated 400,000 high end TV market in India. Currently Philips has a 6 per cent piece of the overall Indian TV market pie, with their current brand and Ambilght campaigns want to ramp this to 10 per cent.

    The Ambilight Hulk TVC has been created globally by DDB (India-Mudra) and the media buying is by Carat. The TVC media plan includes primetime Hindi channels, news channesl and the Tamil, Kannada and Bengali channels. Philips have chalked out plans to have new TV product launches every two to three months and will be finalizing the spends for each campaign ‘wave’.

    Also on the anvil are marketing campaigns for their MP3 players which have been launched so far in 10 cities in India.

  • Harris achieves $100 mn order for commercial satellite antennas during 2006

    Harris achieves $100 mn order for commercial satellite antennas during 2006

    MUMBAI: International communications and information technology company Harris has reached the $100 million mark in unfurlable antenna orders for commercial satellites during calendar year 2006.

    The unfurlable mesh antennas have been ordered by satellite manufacturers in both the US and Europe and are used on satellites to transmit voice, radio and television broadcasts worldwide.

    Harris says that this milestone marks an important achievement as it continues to lead the market in developing and deploying these highly specialized antennas that enable high-speed communications via commercial satellites.

    The Harris antennas feature a reflective, gold mesh surface and are stowed much like an umbrella for launch. In orbit, they deploy to form a large aperture with adequate surface area to enable communications with even the smallest of handsets. The antennas cover L-Band and S-Band frequencies, depending on the mission, and range in size from 5 to 25 meters in diameter.

    Harris has a team of more than 200 engineers dedicated to supporting its spaceborne unfurlable mesh antenna programmes, and has high-bay buildings with clean rooms to support the design, manufacture, integration and testing of these structures at its facilities in the US.

  • Huawei Technologies opens new facility in India

    Huawei Technologies opens new facility in India

    MUMBAI: Huawei Technologies India, the Indian arm of the global next generation telecommunications network solutions provider Huawei Technologies, has opened a new facility in Bangalore, to develop optical network products and wireless LAN solutions.

    In particular, the new center will work on Huawei’s new generation Optix series of intelligent optical network products based on cutting edge optical technologies. Huawei’s optical solutions are widely deployed by major service providers for providing IPTV services, Triple Play (high speed Internet, television and voice) services, mobile services and leased line services to their customers, states an official release.

    “Huawei Technologies India has been involved in key technology development, and this expansion will broaden our portfolio with the addition of new domains such as optical solutions and wireless LAN,” says Huawei Technologies India Embedded Solution VP & head Virendra Gupta.

    The new facility to accommodate 180 software engineers will also house team working on Wireless LAN domain related software development catering to the Wireless Switch and Wireless Access Points products, the release adds.

    “Huawei India provides its staff opportunity to work on development of cutting edge technologies, and the new facility will be engaged in the development of cutting edge products/components in wireless LAN domain and Optical domain,” says the company’s COO George Huang.

  • Woosh in internet television deal with Sky TV

    Woosh in internet television deal with Sky TV

    MUMBAI: New Zealand based wireless telecommunications operator Woosh has enterted into a deal with New Zealand’s main pay-television operator Sky Television to deliver channels straight to subscribers online.

    As part of the deal, Woosh has secured rights over 2.3GHz spectrum owned by Sky. The two companies have combined the spectrum rights they own to provide TV, voice and broadband over the airwaves.

    Commenting on the deal, Woosh chairman Rod Inglis says, “This is the next step in our evolving business strategy as Woosh moves to being a fully convergent kiwi telecommunications services company. Wimax will inevitably be part of any full service telecommunications business. Securing Sky as our pay TV content partner is a major boost for Woosh especially as we start to move towards Internet Television or IPTV.”

    Woosh already has spectrum rights and arrangements with other rights holders to give it the capacity to deliver the fast evolving full suite of Wimax services, according to an official release.

    Inglis says “You need at least 50MHz of spectrum to be confident you can match up to the future demands that will emerge with Wimax deployment in New Zealand.”

    Wimax is a broadband wireless standard, often called Wifi on Steroids, initially promoted by Intel and now adopted by many of the worlds’ leading wireless technology vendors.

    Sky Television chief executive John Fellet says, “Sky believes there is an exciting future in delivering content services over Wimax. Woosh has emerged as one the nation’s leaders in broadband wireless and we look forward to working together. We support Woosh’s view that normal spectrum renewal rights be granted to enable rapid deployment of Wimax services.’

    Inglis advises that Woosh investors are committed to a substantial build out using the spectrum.

    Partnerships with third party platform providers such as Woosh form an integral part of Sky’s strategy to deliver to consumers “what they want, when they want it, on any device.

    In the United States, satellite TV operator DirecTV has announced US$2B to support a broadband wireless rollout offering phone, broadband and pay TV services. This follows similar major announcements by SprintNextel and Clearwire in the USA totalling billions of dollars. Intel, Motorola and Craig McCraw, a billionaire wireless pioneer, are funding the Clearwire deployment.

    In Australia, the satellite TV operator Austar has announced a widespread WiMax rollout to complement its pay TV services and a similar offering from Unwired in Australia’s urban areas.

    Under New Zealand’s progressive spectrum management regime Woosh has been able to conclude deals with Telecom and Sky; spectrum in the 2.3 GHz band (a Wimax standard) has been consolidated and reconfigured so that it can provide broadband services using the Wimax technology that is now becoming available.

    Woosh intends continuing with its current UMTS standard TDD network which operates in the 2.0 GHz band. WiMax will be an overlay in the network, as said in the press statement.

  • Portable MP3 player ownership reaches new high in the US

    Portable MP3 player ownership reaches new high in the US

    MUMBAI: A new study by global market research firm Ipsos indicates that as many as one in five Americans over the age of 12 now own portable MP3 Players and one in 20 own more than one.

    And interest in viewing music videos, photos, TV shows and even full-length movies from these devices is especially strong among younger consumers who have experience downloading music.

    New findings released today from Tempo, the company’s quarterly study of digital music behaviours, show that 20 per cent of Americans aged 12 and older now own a portable MP3 player. This marks a significant increase over ownership levels found one year ago (15 per cent), and nearly double the proportion of owners found in April 2003 (11 per cent). And in a sign that not only new buyers are driving this trend, 6 per cent of Americans own more than one portable MP3 player.

    Total headphone-MP3 sales reached $4.23 billion in 2005, according to the Consumer Electronics Association. These popular devices accounted for 85 percent of all factory-level portable audio sales last year, CEA statistics showed.

    Recent Tempo research also revealed some interesting demographic and diagnostic trends surrounding the use of Portable MP3 players.

  • D-Cinema Summit discusses investment, content and technology

    D-Cinema Summit discusses investment, content and technology

    SINGAPORE: The second session at the Asian D-Cinema Summit, at the Broadcast Asia summit 2006, was all about taking stock of the Asian scenario in the digital age. In some ways, the conference did touch upon interactive possibilities, along with new ways of storytelling in the digital age.

    However, the main focus was to critically take stock of Digital Cinema, in terms of investment, content and technology; apart from offering a brief update on the regional scenario.

    Starting of the discussion on the Asian scenario, Mediacorp Technologies CEO Mock Pak said, “It looks like a rather positive scenario in the Asian region, with most of the countries racing ahead in the digital race. Korea, China and India, with its vibrant Bollywood industry, will definitely lead the way further. In percentage terms, more than 44 per cent of the digital films are from Asia.”

    Quoting from her presentation on the Thailand Update, Golden Duck International Thailand’s Yupayong Liewluck said, “Thailand has moved from 29 digital screens to more than 500 screens. In the future, the audience will have to pay more to enjoy the hi-end movie watching experience and from the exhibitors point of view it’s going to be a more high investment proposition.”

    Liewluck was of the opinion that though going digital is a high investment proposition, it’s still not known what the business model will be like in the days to come. Also, what’s the reliability of the final product and what will justify the cost of the digital cinema.

    So, the moot question is how digital cinema will justify the high investment though in terms of distribution it provides an excellent platform to keep the films running.

    Moving on to the Japan update, the presentation took off from the example of Narnia which featured 2k digital cinema projectors. Media Networking Laboratory executive manager Tetsuro Fujii said, “In Japan, more than 50 screens have gone digital and more than 30 screens are DCI complaint with 2K digital cinema.

    The country is going at a very high speed to comply with Digital Cinema Initiative, while maintaining the highest standards of 4k digital cinema which has been a rule in the country. Now, the second phase has seen the likes of 4k cinema as the country is almost ready with its broadband network technologies.”

    The Chinese film industry, on its part, continues to grow by leaps and bounds but steps are yet to be taken for a speedier development of digital cinema. Offering a slightly different perspective to the entire scenario, China Film Group chief engineer Chen Fei said the effort is really to maintain a cultural identity in the race to go digital. “After all, technology can sometimes destroy what culture has brought in.”

    Shaw Organisation Singapore senior manager Mark Shaw said, “More than 26 screens here have digital screens.” What came across from the discussion was that Singapore is soon emerging as a hub in providing the support system for many Asian countries in going digital.” Said Shaw, “The Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA) and the Media Development Authority of Singapore (MDA) are collaborating to develop the digital cinema industry in Singapore, riding on the combined strengths of both agencies. The IDA’s efforts are also in the direction of helping out other countries to comply with the digital norms.”

  • Yankee Group survey reveals barriers to the adoption of mobile value-added services

    Yankee Group survey reveals barriers to the adoption of mobile value-added services

    MUMBAI: The Boston-headquartered global market research firm Yankee Group has announced the results of its 2006 European Mobile Multimedia Survey, an examination of European mobile multimedia trends providing valuable insight into current consumer behavior.

    Some of the major highlights include:

    — User demand for mobile TV is modest. Only 11 per cent of respondents said they are very interested in the service. Once confronted with the reality of how much the TV service is likely to cost (i.e., EUR 15 or US $19 per month), 85 per cent of respondents said they are less interested in the service.

    — Full-track music downloads continue to dominate the headlines, while in reality user interest remains low. Only 5% of respondents are prepared to pay more than a 20% premium for full-track downloads. However, the typical premium today is 100%. Alternative music-related services are more interesting to the user and more likely to generate revenue in the short term.

    — The industry must do more to convince users that browsing and downloading is safe and affordable. Almost 40% of respondents said fears over price dissuade them from downloading more ringtones.

    However, mobile operators are overcoming the technical barriers to delivering many of their services. Picture messaging–which in the past was dogged by unreliability and poor ease-of-use–seems to have solved those problems. Respondents’ main barriers to using picture messaging are the price and they do not see any need to send pictures, states an official release.

    “The survey results illustrate that mobile operators have some pretty substantial barriers to overcome to drive growth in value-added services,” says Yankee Group Wireless/Mobile Europe senior analyst Matt Hatton. “Operators are pinning their hopes on advanced applications such as music and TV to drive revenue growth, but they still have a lot of technical, pricing and marketing issues to overcome to drive adoption. They’ll get there, but maybe not through the services they think.”

    This survey enables service providers, device manufacturers, content providers and infrastructure vendors to understand the status of mobile multimedia services in Europe today, and to identify the barriers limiting consumer adoption. It analyses customer opinions about current and forthcoming services such as mobile music (including ringtones, ringback tones and full-track downloads), video/TV, gaming, video telephony, MMS and mobile browsing, adds the release.

     

  • China Mobile buys 19.9% of Phoenix from Star Group

    China Mobile buys 19.9% of Phoenix from Star Group

    MUMBAI: China Mobile (Hong Kong) Group Limited has purchased a 19.9 per cent interest in Phoenix from Star Group Limited. After the transaction, Star will continue to hold 17.6 per cent of Phoenix.

    China Mobile and Phoenix Satellite Television Holdings Limited have also reached a strategic alliance to jointly develop, market and distribute wireless content, products, services and new media applications.

    Under the strategic alliance agreement, China Mobile and Phoenix will jointly develop products and services relating to the wireless delivery of media content. In exchange for direct access to China Mobile’s network and customer base on favourable terms, China Mobile will have preferential access to Phoenix’s news and selected programs. 

    The deal will complement China Mobile’s 3G strategies by widening its service offerings and providing enhanced media content to its mobile subscribers, and will broaden Phoenix’s new media content’s access to China mobile’s customer base, informs an official release.

    China Mobile chairman and CEO Wang Jianzhou says, “Phoenix offers a unique set of content to the Chinese community globally. By leveraging Phoenix’s media content via our mobile platform, China Mobile will be well positioned to provide wireless multimedia services to our customers.”

    Phoenix chairman and CEO Liu Changle adds, “The establishment of this new strategic alliance will provide an excellent opportunity for the further development of Phoenix’s new media business, and should have a very positive impact on Phoenix’s long-term commercial prospects, enabling Phoenix to distribute its content through China Mobile’s wireless platform and reach a broader market.”

    Star Group CEO Michelle Guthrie says, “We believe that bringing in China Mobile as a shareholder and strategic partner will create incredible growth opportunities for Phoenix in the future. We look forward to our continued involvement in Phoenix as the company extends its content to the largest wireless customer base in the world.”

    Goldman Sachs is acting as financial advisor to China Mobile. Merrill Lynch is acting as financial advisor to Star, according to the news release.