Nokia says that its new Ovi Maps, which offers free step by step navigation on about 20 million Nokia phones, has already resulted in the software being downloaded 1.4 million times in the last week. That’s almost certainly 1.4 million people who will never go out and buy a Personal Navigation Device. That’s a download each second. As the number of phones that Nokia allows this software to run on increases, and as new phones are sold with GPS capabilities, this number is likely to go up considerably. Nokia thinks that developers will now flock to its Ovi portal to add applications that rely on Maps.
European smartcard and digital security group Gemalto this week acquired Valimo a Finnish company that offers mobile authentication and signature technologies. Financial terms were not disclosed. Valimo supports digital signing of documents on a phone, including legally binding transactions, using key phrases and PIN codes.
Nokia has cut prices on its mass market phones and plans heavy advertising behind key media devices like the latest X6 music handset, in what is seen as a price war with Samsung, LG and Sony Ericsson. It has cut prices across its portfolio with the effect of making its 5230, the cheapest Symbian device on the market. Nokia generally reduces prices across its range a few times a year as it introduces new models and adjusts to changes in demand, but this was particularly stringent, with the prices slashed by as much as 10% across the range.
Two reports this week on Telecom Italia, the first that it is up for sale, published in the Italian paper La Repubblica, saying that Spain’s Telefonica is buying out the other interests. This was followed by a denial issued same day to Italian News sources, saying that it was not the case. Investors thought it would be good for TI, since the shares went up on the first rumor and down on the denial.
Pace Networks, the networking division of UK TV technologist Pace plc, says it has signed Brazil’s Visionbyte as its first Networks Approved Partner in the Latin American market. This is the partner program to roll out its MultiDweller distribution platform to smaller towns and cities across Brazil. The system converts existing co-axial cable, common in most high rise blocks, into high-speed, triple-play, bi-directional networks, without any new cabling.
Buried in the Harris results which came out just after we published last week was the news that its Broadcast Communications segment had orders of $139 million in the latest quarter, significantly up compared with its previous quarter when orders were $124 million. Part of this was due to coverage of the Winter Games in Vancouver next month.
Internet TV service aggregator Roku has told Bloomberg that it plans to raise $30 million in private funding this quarter and is on track to go public by 2011. Bloomberg reported that it has already signed up Menlo Ventures, an earlier backer, for the next round. The company has sold 500,000 of its Roku Digital Video Player set-top boxes, and revenue is closing in on $75 million, the company said. It sells subscriptions to Netflix and Amazon internet TV services on its set tops, which can now cost as little as $79.
US researcher DisplaySearch says that the LED backlight market will continue to grow for the next five years. And says that LED will overtake traditional CCFL/EEFL backlights in large-area LCD panels by 2011, and achieve 74% penetration in 2013. Large-area LED backlight demand for all applications will grow from 114 million units in 2009 to 770 million units in 2015.
Perhaps because Apple needs to open the doors for app developers to turn its iPad into a phone, Apple has just lifted restrictions on not allowing developers to create VoIP apps for the App Store and its iPhone and iPod Touch, which will enable Internet-based calls over a 3G network. This is of course partly because AT&T has now said it no longer minds VoIP going over its cellular data channels and Apple is upgrading its software development kit accordingly. iCall and Fring are supposed to be racing to onto the App Store with one first.
Technicolor, the Thomson subsidiary has cut a long term deal with Warner Brothers to offer it replication and distribution services for DVD and Blu-ray disks. The deal should begin bringing in revenue in the third quarter.
Motorola’s results show that its Home & Networks Mobility unit has shipped 3.4 million digital entertainment devices (set tops) in the quarter, as the Motorola division did $2 billion of sales down 24% on this time last year. Earnings were $91 million, compared to $257 million in the year-ago quarter, but Motorola wanted to celebrate by saying it has now shipped 100 million digital entertainment devices
US researcher In-Stat says that MPEG integrated circuits should reach 2 billion units by 2013, as the mobile industry drives up acceptance and more handsets are video capable. In-Stat says that currently Qualcomm is the leader for providing these chips to phones, but that smaller US specialist Zoran leads in other mobile applications, followed by Samsung. The rest of the MPEG ICs go into devices like set tops, TVs, and DVD players, from suppliers like Broadcom, MediaTek, NXP, Sigma Designs and STMicroelectronics.
US home network researcher Parks Associates says that only 6 million US homes would consider canceling pay-TV service in favor of online video. This number is going down, not up and Parks concludes that online video is not yet a threat to existing Pay TV services. This represents under 8% of US broadband homes, whereas in 2008 the number was 11%, and an earlier survey in 2009 concluded 10%. ‘The threat of cannibalization is real, but misunderstood,’ said John Barrett, director of research at Parks. ‘Nobody is going to rely on online video alone.’ Well it’s early days John.
Icomera the Swedish wi-fi specialist that puts wi-fi on trains and buses, has now added advertising to those mobile hotspots. MoovManage Ads, an optional component of Icomera’s MoovManage web-based hotspot management service, allows operators to create and manage advertising campaigns and track their success. Advertisements are presented to hotspot users during their online session.