Blockbuster has embedded the software to get its On Demand movie service (the one that used to be Movielink) onto an HTC HD2 phone. Now we can’t imagine that this will run over a 3G network, more than likely just over wi-fi, but we’ll find out those details from T-Mobile USA when it launches the device this Spring. Must say the screen is plenty good enough on the HD2 to watch movies.
The Korean Valups whose Tivit device converts ATSC M/H to a wi-fi video stream for the iPhone, is taking a trip to Europe where the same technology will be used to intercept DVB-T signals and send these as wi-fi. Valups is partnering with Turkish software firm Axel Technologies, and the target once again are Apple devices – iPhones, iPod Touch and the new iPad. This device is being called the T1000. It will need a lot of battery power of its own because signals in Europe are designed to hit a 10 meter high, 3 foot antenna, so expect little and you won’t be disappointed.
At Mobile World Congress Vodafone really flexed its muscles as a phone supplier, coming up with own brand phones for poorer parts of the world, priced below $15 and $20 and dubbed the Vodafone 150 and 250. The phones will be sold in India and 6 markets in Africa ‘ the Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, Mozambique, Qatar, South Africa and Tanzania. Vodafone will have to work really hard in terms of building sales and support infrastructure, but reckons it can reach 60% of Indians with the devices. The 250 has a slightly larger color screen and an FM radio, but they are otherwise identical. The phones are made by TCL
Vodafone has also announced that its M-PESA mobile money scheme is being extended to South Africa, through Vodacom and a South African banking partner. There are 26 million people in South Africa with no bank accounts and M-PESA designed in Kenya with Safaricom and also deployed in Tanzania and Roshan, it allows money to be sent to any other phone and redeemed at supermarkets or used for bill payments.
So goodbye Veoh Networks, founded in 2005 with money from ex-Disney CEO Michael Eisner, Adobe and Time Warner, it has gone bust and into Chapter 7 bankruptcy. Veoh aimed to deliver long form video over the web, but ended up in legal battles over uploaded video, in a similar way to YouTube, except it just didn’t have the money to fight it. It raised a total of $70 million, which will now all be lost. It had signed some deals with broadcasters and said it had 28 million users, but UMG took umbrage over music rights and though Veoh seemed to be winning the case, it ran out of money.
UK IPTV set top company Amino has won a major Costa Rican contract to provide set-tops for a major IPTV rollout by the Costa Rican Electricity Institute. The operator plans to launch before the Summer aiming at 100,000 homes across the country. Amino will provide 38,000 set tops, in three different models over the next two years.
Swiss conditional access firm Nagravision said this week it has been chosen to help migrate a standard definition system to high definition for Korean pay TV provider SkyLife, which has 2.4 million subscribers.
Alongside the introduction of HD, Nagravision will also help with a hybrid satellite/IPTV offer and 3D.
Sony Ericsson surprised the Mobile World Congress with a flurry of new phones, including a credit card side slider, the Xperia X10 Mini Pro to go with the X10 Mini (minus slider keyboard). Both have 5mp camera, use Android 1.6, have a 600Mhz Qualcomm processor, 128mb of internal storage and weigh just 120grams.
There were only handfuls of handsets launched at this year’s MWC and Samsung released its new Wave smartphone which runs its new bada software platform. It sports a 3.3-inch touchscreen with super-AMOLED technology, the third version of Samsung’s TouchWiz user interface, integrating messaging, contacts and calendar events. Bada is, initially at least, tightly bound in with the TouchWiz interface. Samsung also said that its Samsung Apps marketplace, already live in the UK, France, Italy, Singapore, Germany, Brazil and China, will expand to more than 50 countries over the course of 2010.
Canada’s Rogers Communications said that against a tough economic backdrop, its results showed growth, cost control, reduced churn and a
double-digit increase in cash flow generation. Rogers is one of the few companies anywhere that has a fully fledged quadruple play with packages using all four main services. Highlights for its fourth quarter
include 7% growth in wireless and cable, with wireless data revenues up 45% and postpaid subscriber additions of 109,000. Wireless data revenue now makes up 24% of Wireless revenue. It activated a total of 400,000 iPhones, BlackBerry and Android devices. The company had slower TV subscriber growth than in previous years.
US Cable operator Cox said that it has tested LTE wireless technology in its AWS and 700 MHz spectrum in Phoenix and San Diego, and has recorded peak speeds in the range of 25 Mbps. The company said that it would never replace its wired infrastructure but it will rapidly become “complimentary” to its wired network. Alcatel-Lucent and Huawei provided the LTE equipment and the speeds of around 25 Mbps were produced with 2×2 MIMO technology over a 2×5 MHz channel in the carrier’s AWS spectrum.
AT&T has taken its first Android phone the Motorola Backflip which will be available March 7 for $100 with a two-year contract, after a $100 mail-in rebate. AT&T said last month it would launch at least four Android phones in the first half of the year, but it is a big win for Motorola.