Tiny MTV
Posted on 04.25.06 by Nikhil @ 4:46 pm

This is a first. MTV Networks is launching a new television show - on the small screen. The show, Barrio 19, started airing on cellphones on April 24 in Europe. The show will hit cable TV on May 7th. MTV has been moving into mobile content recently and now offers 12 mobile TV channels across brands in 10 European countries. You can read more about this at C21 Media.


Filed under: Applications and News
Comments: None

Sharp Move in Japan
Posted on 04.25.06 by Nikhil @ 4:32 pm

Some interesting news out today. Sharp has apparently taken the number one spot in Japan ans the country’s largest maker of cell phones. It has more phones sold now than NEC and Matsushita which previously were the two biggest, according to MM Research Institute. Sharp has come quickly from nowhere. Just three years ago, the company was a small player. But after winning a contract to supply phones to NTT DoCoMo, consumers have been buying Sharp’s phone. Sharp’s success is due in part to advanced features such as LCD screens and camera phones.


Filed under: Miscellaneous and News
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Chuck D Brings Mobile Power To The People
Posted on 04.19.06 by Nikhil @ 1:20 pm

Chuck D, one of the earliest hip-hop artists and the founder of the group Public Enemy, in 1987, is onto something new. The godfather of hip-hop, as he is known, has started a mobile-content aggregation company to bring music and videos to cell phones.

His service is called Chuck D Mobile, and it was launched at the Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Wireless Show in Las Vegas earlier this month. I got an offer to meet Chuck D at the CTIA Show. At first I thought the meeting would be about the musician releasing ring tones from some songs in albums such as Yo! Bum Rush the Show and It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back. But Chuck D is onto much more than that. Read the rest of this story in my column at Forbes.com


Filed under: Applications and Cutting Edge
Comments: 1 Comment

GOOGLE’S WIRELESS PLANS
Posted on 04.16.06 by Nikhil @ 8:00 am

Google just won a patent for its voice interface for search engines. This means that in the future, it’s possible that you will be able to use voice commands to search for information over mobile devices, such as your phones. It seems a little far – off, given how clunky voice recognition technology is today, but perhaps Google can do it. Read more in Information Week.


Filed under: Applications and Cutting Edge and News
Comments: 2 Comments

INTERACTIVE TV FROM VERIZON WIRELESS
Posted on 04.15.06 by Nikhil @ 2:02 pm

Verizon Wireless has signed a deal with Turner Broadcasting System. The idea: users of its V CAST feature will be able to get content from the Cartoon Network, Adult Swim, and Turner Classic Movies on their cell phones. Verizon is also launching a new interactive mobile series based on Fox’s “The O.C.” Read more in Multichannel News.


Filed under: Stock Watch and Applications and News
Comments: None

ANYONE ACTUALLY WANT MULTIMEDIA PHONES?
Posted on 04.15.06 by Nikhil @ 8:21 am

It’s easy to get overwhelmed at the CTIA show by all the new products and services coming to mobile. So its rather sobering when a study is released that shows little enthusiasm for the stuff. Personally, I do think there is great opportunity for television and other services over your phone. And often, consumers don’t really know what they need. Whoever thought email would become as pervasive as it has? Or that so many of us would be snapping pictures with our cell phones? Still, the study makes for an interesting read and brings some perspective to the hype. It says that only 9% of the people it surveyed wanted phones that play digital music, and most surveyed said they would not pay $15 a month for handset multimedia services. You can read more about the survey’s results in Cellular News.


Filed under: Applications and Miscellaneous
Comments: None

ZTE and HUAWEI TARGET THE USA
Posted on 04.14.06 by Nikhil @ 9:01 pm

Chinese vendors ZTE and Huawei both had a big presence at the CTIA Show. ZTE, for its part, is getting ready to make a move into the U.S. market. So far, the company has been on a mission in Europe, establishing deals for its handsets and its equipment throughout the continent. Now, along with Huawei, the U.S. is the target market. At the show, both companies introduced infrastructure equipment for the CDMA market, an area dominated by Nortel and Lucent. But as Verizon and Sprint upgrade their EV-DO networks, these Chinese companies hope to get a piece of the action. For more on ZTE’s move into the U.S., read this article from the newspaper, China Daily.


Filed under: Stock Watch and News and Mergers/Acquisitions
Comments: None

CTIA SHOW REVEALED NEW TRENDS
Posted on 04.13.06 by Nikhil @ 1:07 pm

Now that the show is over, I can sum it up by saying that it was a big success this year. Companies are coming up with new ways to make money and build their businesses using 3G technologies. The fact is, very soon, you’ll wonder how you ever managed to get by without some of the mobile services that are coming our way. Among the key trends: services that will let you keep track of your children no matter where they are while also allowing you to manage their use of their cell phones. Television programming that will be coming to your cellphones from companies such as MobiTV and Qualcomm. And musicians in search of new distribution channels will also make their music available via cellphones which means that you will get access to music that you could not easily find to before. Perhaps more controversial is the pick-up in interest this year from wireless service providers, that are coming up with new ways to send you mobile advertisements. While that may not sound so great, it could be a way to keep down the monthly cost of service.

I’ll be releasing my next issue of Forbes Wireless Stock Watch in the coming days. In this special issue, I’ll further discuss the trends that came from the CTIA Wireless Show. I will also be highlighting four or five interesting companies that I met with at the show. For each company, I’ll let you know what my conversations revealed, what the company’s strategy is, and whether I think investors should buy shares – or steer clear. I’ll also be discussing my overall conclusions and I’ll let you know the key trends that emerged.


Filed under: Stock Watch and Applications and Miscellaneous
Comments: None

TEXAS INSTRUMENTS 3G CHIPS
Posted on 04.13.06 by Nikhil @ 1:01 pm

Texas Instruments is in talks with Japanese companies Matsushita and NEC to set up a joint venture to develop chips for 3G phones. The companies plan to set up a joint venture in Japan with the goal of developing chips for 3G cell phones. This is a fast growing market for Japan as more people use 3G to watch video clips and download music files. Read more in the Seattle-Post Intelligencer.


Filed under: Stock Watch and News and Mergers/Acquisitions
Comments: None

MOTOROLA BRINGS DVR TO MOBILE PHONES
Posted on 04.12.06 by Nikhil @ 12:59 pm

Motorola introduced an interesting new product for mobile service which underscores the new applications that are heading to wireless. The company unveiled its DVR-to-Mobile service which lets you transfer recorded TV shows from DVRs to mobile phones using a special cradle. We don’t even have television on mobile phones yet, but we already have a way to record them and transfer them! Read more at CNet.com.


Filed under: Stock Watch and Applications
Comments: None

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I'm Nikhil Hutheesing, and WirelessNik is my personal blog. A senior editor at Forbes, I am also the editor of the newsletter, Forbes Wireless Stock Watch. Here, you'll find my take on the latest breakthroughs in wireless technologies as well as ways to profit from wireless in the stock market.


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