TamsWMS – the Windows Mobile Smartphone Blog

Our recent HARO-query was not too successful – we got but three answers. The first has already been published; and the second one is below.

Sean M Westcott, author of a book on taking control of technology, states the following:

I think the new Windows phone OS looks to be a winner. I have (and love) my Zune HD and have taken a stab at XNA(used for making games on the Zune and Zune HD and rumored to work on the new 7) coding. I use my WinMo 6.1 phone for business, but the Zune is my entertainment device of choice. My wife uses WinMo 6.5 but I am glad that I waited for this new phone OS. It gives the business user the Windows programs for serious business use but brings a much more pleasurable UI so I can carry a phone that combines beautifully form and function. It means I can carry one less device in my pocket—which alone is a huge improvement.

One final opinion coming soon – stay tuned!

Please tell us more about yourself and your role at Microsoft’s
I’m a Technical Evangelist for Windows Mobile & Windows Embedded at Microsoft Germany. My audience is the mobile & embedded developer & professional community, technical decision makers, OEMs, and the press.

Do you consider the claims of the xda-developer – hosted cracker ChainFire legit? After all, he claims to have broken advanced protection within 2 hours.
We understand that as long as there is a financial incentive for pirating software, there will be criminals working to circumvent anti-piracy protection. All protection is designed to be a deterrent, but none can offer a guarantee against piracy. The advanced solution we delivered in November is as strong or stronger than what is available on other app sites and we will continue to work with ISVs to take steps to help preserve intellectual property – it’s an ongoing process.

Looking at the past “crack” of the standard, CAB-based protection. Have you seen sales increase or decrease after it went public?
We do not have any sales specifics to share at this time.

Does Microsoft plan to introduce some sort of ‘developer-server-based’ unlock code generation, where developers can generate unlock codes with their own algorithms on their servers?
There are no plans to support 3rd party unlock codes in Marketplace.

In general, do you consider piracy an issue in mobile? If yes, to what extent?
Yes, software piracy of any kind is an industry-wide problem and affects all (mobile) platforms. Microsoft is working along with industry partners to make consumers aware of the increasing risks associated with acquiring and installing counterfeit software such as exposure to critical issues and identify theft.

Not wanting to give the cracker a legitimate, public stage – but his question was interesting. Does Microsoft plan to deliver its own ‘for-pay’ WM applications?
To give you an example, Microsoft is offering Office Mobile for purchase from Marketplace for Mobile today.

Any sales figures for the Marketplace so far?
We do not have any sales specifics to share at this time.

Do you think that classic ESDs still have a place in today’s mobile market?
Please elaborate on what is meant by ESD.

I know that it is a bit rude to ask this so early – but should we expect our wm6 apps to run on wm7?
We do not have any details to share at this time.

Anything you would like to add?
We understand the importance of preserving intellectual property to deliver a great end user experience and evaluate each act of piracy on a case-by-case basis to determine how best to respond.

It’s important to remember that Microsoft as a company has heavily invested in combating piracy through engineering, education and law enforcement – a holistic approach that we believe reduces both the supply and the demand side of the equation.

Hutchison Austria’s CEO Berthold Thoma is known to be extremely talkative when faced with journalists – the interview below has him talking about a few interesting things.

Before diving into the (translated) interview, let me give you some background information from other sources: this carrier has always invested heavily into smartphones due to their multimedia features. Originally being deep in Microsoft’s camp, they have since moved over to the S60 camp (which makes up for about 30% of the offered handset models). The carrier is known for its great service at affordable prices – here we go:

The Hutchison Group was the first to offer free roaming all over its network. Why that?
At Hutchison’s, we are convinced that having cheap data access all over the world is an integral part of information society. We have realized thiis vision inside our group via the 3LikeHome service.

Of course, there is a business plan behind all of that. Our research has shown that cheap roaming is in demand. Lowering prices causes usage to explode: in the first year, voice usage in 3likehome networks increased by 427 percent, with data usage being multiplied by a factor of 90.

Do you think that we will see further carrier mergers?
The trend has already started. Three of the four Austrian carrieirs are already in international networks, which will consolidate even more on a long term.

Where do you see Windows Mobile in two years?
We currently sell three Windows Mobile handsets. Our business customers love the Exchange integration, and Microsoft furthermore does a great job integrating Live into the OS.

I predict that WM’s market share will raise over the next two years. The main risk IMHO is Android…if it continues to fare as well as it did, it could become a significant competitor.

What do you think about S60
S60 has had some problems staying in line with other OS’s, especially when apps and the web browser are concerned. I wonder which future updates Nokia will deploy in order to remain competitive…

The iPhone is said to dominate the handset market. Do you think that Apple can keep this position?
Apple has caused movement in the handset market, but has since maxed out at a 13 percent smartphone market share…which is not something I call dominance.
Nevertheless: customers benefit from every movement on the market which leads to better handsets.

What do you think about picocells?
In general, these do not pay off financially. However, I can envision them being deployed to cover hot spots like shopping centres….

Will VoIP replace classic voice calls?
VoIP definitely is interesting, especially for customers who are into international calls. Teens furthermore love Skype. Unlike most other carriers, we want to help our customers realize the benefits of these services and thus provide pre-bundled Skype with some of our handsets.

As for VoIP replacing classic calls: unlikely.

Opera ASA, the manufacturer of various mobile browsers, has managed to gain a cult following on almost all platforms: Windows Mobile heads love the superb rendering engine, Symbian heads used to love the tabs and Palm OS and BlackBerry heads used Opera Mini to replace their crappy default browsers.

I recently had the opportunity to chat with Thomas Ford from Opera Mini on various topics ranging from tab-capable Opera Mini builds to Opera Turbo and Opera for S60 – read on for the full scoop..

Please tell us more about yourself and your company
My name is Thomas Ford. I’m a communications manager for Opera. I started working for Opera in 2005, so I’ve been pretty lucky to watch some of our more recent history unfold.

Opera is the only company in the world that makes Web browsers for all devices. So whether you have a PC, high-end smartphone, Web-enabled TV, or even a Ford F150, you could have an Opera browser there as well.

Despite what some people believe, Opera isn’t a small company. We have more than 700 employees working in our offices around the globe. I think what impresses me the most is how passionate everyone is about the business of building Web browsers. You could look, but I am confident you would not find another company of its kind anywhere.

As it stands now, mobile devices get more and more powerful by the minute. This makes native browsers more and more competitive. Don’t you think that this will squeeze OPM out of the market?
I think despite the advances in native browsers there will still be plenty of room for Opera. Native browsers are really improving on only one type of device: smartphones.

On those higher-end phones we still offer plenty of advantages to consumers, operators and phone manufacturers. For one, we offer Opera Mini and Opera Turbo to help ease the bandwidth constraints on today’s mobile networks. Creating a browser is hard work and we have the experience to make great mobile browsers that consumers enjoy using.

We’ve been doing it for 10 years and that experience gives us the ability to do things faster and more cost effectively for our partners.

At the same time, smartphones comprise less than 15% of the total phone market. By far, more phones are sold without high-end browsers natively. For these phones, Opera Mini is the ideal solution. Operators love it because a better browser translates to more data revenues, so we actively work with operators to offer the same Web browsing experience throughout their device portfolio.

Opera Mini shines on devices where the integrated browser sucks (think Palm OS Treos). As mobile web browsers get better, don’t you think that Opera Mini will fade away?
Rather than fade away, Opera Mini will continue to evolve. Consumers demand a better mobile Web experience, but not all OEMs and operators want to put their resources into making a Web browser, particularly as consumer expectations increase. We can offer Opera Mini very easily to operators they know it will work on almost all their phones, with minimal effort on their part. At the same time, it makes surfing on these phones enjoyable, so more consumers actually use it. This translates into greater revenues for operators while at the same time consumers have a good experience. By addressing both what operators and OEMs need, as well as what consumers want, I think Opera Mini will have a bright future.

I should also point out that there are approximately 1.6 billion people on the Web, but that anywhere from 50 to 60 percent of the world’s citizens have a mobile phone connection. Over the coming years more people will get online with a mobile device than ever did with a PC. I think that trend will continue to ensure both Opera Mobile and Opera Mini remain vibrant products.

What about the future features of Opera Mini? Will it ever get tab support, for instance (the beta was available some time ago).
Tab support is definitely one of the most requested features for Opera Mini. I can tell you that we listen loud and clear to the feedback we receive. Opera Mini 5, when released, will be a major step forward for Opera Mini. I think you and your readers will be quite excited.

The native version of Opera is under pressure as OS vendors improve their browsers (think IE6 mobile). Where do you see Opera Mobile two years from now, and now will it remain competitive?
I think Opera Mobile will support more platforms and will include even more server-side technologies to improve browsing on mobile devices. Due to the sheer size of the required investment, newer mobile broadband technologies are not rolling out as quickly as the newest, most advanced handsets. Opera Mobile will help bridge that gap.

I also think in general you will see more operators and OEMs looking for a single, unified browsing solution across their product portfolio. Opera is the only company that will work with operators and OEMs to create a browser that can work on all their devices. We can even include widgets, for eaiser access to Web-based applications. Our work with T-Mobile on their web’n'walk platform speaks to what we can accomplish when we collaborate with world-class operators.

A version of Opera Mobile which uses the 3d chip of some phones for scrolling has been announced some time ago. Why isnt it available for purchase yet?
Actually, we just announced a beta of Opera Mobile 9.7. It supports some of the hardware acceleration you mentioned. If you have a Windows Mobile phone, visit http://www.opera.com/mobile/download/ to give it a spin.

What about Opera for Symbian? We have heard of licensing troubles with the Flash player in the past…
Clearly consumers now more than ever want Flash on their handsets, primarily to access the wealth of Flash-based video content on the Web. Adobe understands this and we are actively working with them to find a solution.

As far as a browser for Symbian, our current focus is on the widget platform for Series 60. Expect to see news on the browser front sometime this year.

Opera’s accelerator proxy looked very promising in the demo video. When will it become available to end users, and at what price?
Right now Opera Turbo is available for free in the new Opera Mobile 9.7 and Opera 10 desktop versions. All those servers and all that bandwidth comes at a price though, so we are still studying how this affects our business model.

I suspect by the time Opera 10 reaches its final release, we will have our business model in place for Opera Turbo.

When will Opera be available for the BlackBerry?
As a BlackBerry user myself, I would be lost without Opera Mini. If you’re looking for Opera Mobile on BlackBerry that may take some time, so Opera Mini is still your best choice.

Only good things will come from more people using Opera Mini on BlackBerries. For instance, with more people testing and identifying issues, we can fix them faster. Maybe a large user base on BlackBerry will also help us in the same way that it worked for Virgin Mobile. They found a lot of their customers were using Opera Mini, so they reached out to us and we worked with them to perfect our browser on their phones.

Anything you would like to add?
Thanks for the chat. Using our browser is one way to support our goal of making the Web an open resource for everyone. I hope more people discover the mobile Web through Opera Mini.

Mobile content providers have always made me wonder about the economies of mobile computing – they run extremely expensive ads, sell very bad programs and yet don’t die off.

I recently had a cup of tea with somebody from this industry who wants to remain anonymous but nevertheless wanted to talk…here’s what our buddy had to say:

Do you sell subscriptions only?
We advertise subscriptions only. However, individual downloads can also be bought via the web sites.

Does the heavy MTV, etc advertising pay?
Well…first of all you must look at it this way. We buy huge amounts of airtime…so our total cost is much lower than what you see on the rate cards.

On average, well, we pay a few hundred thousand euros a month…and it obviously pays out for us.

What’s your average user?
Dumbphone user – no heavy-duty smartphones in here. Age ranges from 13 to about 19…and the users arent too smart. This actually makes our life easier, as piracy becomes a non-issue.

One more facet you will likely be interested in is that we have over 90 percent female users for some love or partnership related fun apps…

How long, on average, does a customer stay bound?
I don’t want to say more here as this would give my identity away…but it’s about four and a half months for all of the industry.

What happens if users are on prepaid and run out of cash?
We try to bill his card for about two months…and then give up eventually… . Our company is not too big on lawsuits…they don’t pay out for us…

Do you do native S60 or PPC apps?
Hell gee, mate. Covering all S60 boxen gets you 20 percent of the market at best. J2ME is king here…and also keep in mind that most of the sales come from music or photos.

How can an ISV do business with you?
Not at all – find an aggregator.

You have to think of it this way: we sell hundred thousand and more positions. For us, 60 items is nothing…we usually wont even negotiate with you.

Why not offer individual apps as subscriptions?
Please don’t say that I sound haughty if I say that all business models possible have been tested. The current model works best – believe me on this one.

Did the German Jamba lawsuit affect your ability to do business with minors?
I have to say that this is largely irrelevant to us, as it was limited to a single county of Germany. We sit in a different county…so no impact here.

After that, my informer was picked up by a mate…so the story ends here. Nevertheless, much of this was new to me, and hopefully was interesting!

What do you think?

SPB recently sent me a flurry of releases relating to a product called SPB OnLine. As I never quite got the idea behind it, I decided to sit down with an SPB official and figure out what its all about.

Even though I didn’t manage to whip out 10 questions like I usually do, the answers below should answer most(all) open questions:

Please tell us more about yourself?
A bit official here: Spb is the global leader in the design of Windows Mobile applications. An international company, with offices in Hong Kong, Russia and Thailand, Spb combines a unique line of popular consumer products and cooperation with the world’s leading OEMs and carriers.

The popularity of Spb’s products is founded on their relevance to real customer needs and smartphone use cases, supported by superior technical implementation, stability, and quality graphic design.

Spb has recently launched a mobile entertainment division, targeted at helping mobile network operators reinvigorate subscriber enthusiasm for mobile entertainment and data, through delivering improved mobile content experiences on handsets.

SPB OnLine has been a bit of a mystery to me. Could you give me an elevator pitch describing what it does?
In short, the main goal of Spb Online is to do the same thing with online services, as what Safari did with mobile web. Popularize, make it usable!

As the product clearly is targeted at operators, why sell it to end customers? After all, it essentially is a glorified app store…
Working directly with end users was always the strategy of Spb, and even when we go to OEMs and MOs, one of the main reasons they work with us – is because we know how to make software and services that end users love. So all of our products always go to the consumers

I would also disagree that Spb Online is an app store. The store is only one of the 6 services in the package: mobile TV, radio, news, weather, online games, all of when have nothing to do with the store.

For sure, we are working on getting more channels in, and on organizing sms payment for content in the store, and many other things, to make the online suite irresistible for end-users.

Do you plan to sell third-party programs via the portal?< ?i>
We already do.

Looking at multiplayer games: how do you want to ensure that a minimal amount of users is always available?
Each days we have thousands of online game sessions played. Hundreds of new users join each day, and at any given moment about 20-30 people are playing online.

Our online games are a uniting factor. We think that it is awesome that people can share a game, regardless of what plan they are signed up for, with which operator, in what part of the world, or what language they speak. It makes no difference, you can still enjoy this service, connect with people in other countries, and just play.

Could you give us a hint in what way the program will evolve?
Our next step will be to provide access to more TV channels. right now we are working on a premium subscription that will give access to premium TV channels.

Microsoft obviously plans an App Store of its own. Do you think that your interests are threatened in any way by this announcement?
The reason we have included an App Store in Spb Online is because nowadays there is no good solution for WM to distribute software. And it harms both the end-users, who do not know where to get software and easily to buy/install it, and it harms the software developers/mobile operators, who cannot get additional income by providing good programs to end-users.

So we have developed a client that functions as a sort of a meeting place but if a similar, functional client comes preinstalled in the next version of WM platform – well then this problem is solved, it will be better for all of us, will finally be able to reach many new users out there.

As an ISV, will we will be the first who will benefit from that.

Editors add due to overwhelming interest: in order to understand Rudolf’s position, please look at this article before reading the interview. It looks at HP’s strategy in some detail!

HP’s mobile strategy has recently left a few open questions in some analyst’s heads. As TamsPPC has had an excellent relationship with HP ever since we debuted on a rx4240, we proudly present you this interview with Rudolf Gruber.

Rudolf Gruber is the sales manager for mobile devices for HP Austria – he sat down with us for a no-holds-barred interview looking at topics like custom UI’s, PDAs, the future of touchscreen devices and Windows Mobile 6.1 upgrades.

A big thank-you goes out to him for taking the time!

Please tell us a bit more about yourself! (translated by editor)
I am at HPO since 1982. When HP was merged with Compaq in 2002, I became responsible for marketing the business line of mobile computing devices for the Austrian market. This means that I am responsible for iPaqs and business notebooks alike, and hope to be able to answer your questions well!

Let’s dive in head first: the 21x is a great PDA hampered by the lack of a Windows Mobile 6.1 upgrade. Readers are unhappy, as HP once was considered a “future-safe” investment. Could you shed some light on why there are no upgrades available?
HP is evaluating for all iPAQ platforms, what are the Pro & Cons for the customer to move to a new Windows Mobile version.

Taking Windows Mobile 6.1, the key improvements were rather relevant for the Smartphones (eg. UI, OTA device management), which are not of big value for pen/based PDAs. On top of that the 21x platform is mainly selling into Enterprise and MidMarket, where long life cycles and ROM stability are key influencers.

A big part of HPs enterprise customers are running their own applications on our pen/based products. Thats the reason why their are expecting platform stability for at least 2yrs.

In two years from now, do you still see HP producing PDA’s?
HP still has a very strong position in the PDA market, and even if this market is declining with almost 50% market share in EMEA thats definitely a business we will not step out shortterm. Nevertheless the focus for HP is clearly in the converged space.

Palm has enjoyed huge success with its ultra-cheap handhelds. Do you plan to do something similar / can something similar even be done with Windows Mobile?
Portfolio bandwidth including affordable price bands are major influencers in the Smart Mobile Device Market.

HP has launched two new smartphones on Oct 21 to expand the portfolio with a 20Key voice-centric smartphone and a large display slider device. With those new platforms we are covering multiple form factors for different customer segments also looking for different pricepoints.

(images added by editor)

HP’s phone products are notorious for their QVGA screens. Why doesn’t HP deploy higher-res screens?
HP is always evaluating new technologies. This also includes the evaluation of new screen technologies and new User Interfaces. Form factors are pretty much influencing the decision for a specific screensize.

For small screen sizes below 2.8″ only a limited number of customers are looking for high res screens, thats was the outcome of multiple focus groups we did.

Nevertheless for larger screens the future is highres, touchscreen and improved UI. HP is investing a lot in R&D for those areas to develop products, which are time to market in terms of latest technology, securing a superior user experience.

Looking at Windows Mobile: are you happy with the way the platform is developing currently?
The WM platform has massively evolved over the last couple of years and brings huge benefits in terms of end/to/end user experience for multiple target segments, not only for enterprise and midmarket customers.

Microsoft has put a lot of efforts to into the overall Messaging capabilities and integration into Microsoft backend systems.

Most manufacturers add a huge bunch of UI apps to their devices. HP does not – why?
HP is evaluating new user interfaces with a higher integration compared to what we do see today in the market. The benefit of a more graphical user interface is obvious, but it only makes sense, if such a user interface is fully embedded into the ROM and the key applications.

Where do you see WM two years from now? Do you think that the touchscreen-less WMS will survive?
Touchscreen based products are a big trend today and many new products came up and will come up in the future. This will surely be a growing market.

Nevertheless there is a big variety of form factor preferences in the market, which will also keep opportunities for non touchscreens.

How do you think that th mobile OS landscape will look in two years from now? In five?
For the evolution of mobile OS platforms, there are multiple influencers, GTM strategy, customer focus, ISVs, VARs, devices supporting those OS platforms etc.

As the Smart Mobile Device Market is still one of the fastest growing markets, there are a lot of new opportunities.