Nokia has cut a music deal that on the surface appears to be identical to the one that Universal Music Group (UMG) did with the Microsoft Zune, where music comes free for a year with Nokia handsets, direct from its Music Store. The unlimited downloads give the operator data usage charges, and Nokia is paying something to UMG, perhaps a percentage of device revenues, for all its ‘Comes with Music,’ phones. Music can be stored on one PC as well, and extra revenues will come from buying burn rights to CDs. Will other labels follow? What happens when the one year subscription is up? Well you get to keep the music you have downloaded, but there are no prices yet on buying a second year.
Nokia has also announced an internet radio service, that can be listened to on its cellular handsets, again something that might stimulate data revenues for operators. It comes as a downloadable application and will be embedded in future Series 60 devices. Radio browsing can be based on station name, genre, country or language and popularity and comes with a favorites list. Audio quality adjusts to the local connectivity and it is available on the N82, N91 and N95.
Sprint Nextel has let it be known that it turned down a $5 billion investment from South Korea Telecom and Providence Equity Partners which would have placed former Nextel CEO, Tim Donahue as the CEO of the group. It is Nextel customers that appear to be deserting Sprint after the merger, due to support levels being cut.
According to reports in TV Week AOL has dropped its video download service, AOL Video Store, after running it for just a year, and is now conducting video searches that end up at Amazon’s Unbox video service. AOL will get a kickback for bringing the customer there, and later AOL will introduce a free advertising supported video store.
Microsoft has given all of its Xbox 360 customers a new free software upgrade, and one of the key changes is that the Xbox will now play back video in AVI and MPEG-4 Advanced Simple Profile formats. That latter format is the same format that DivX works with, so DivX encoded content should play back on an Xbox now. Early DivX codecs were free, and were used to encode a great percentage of pirated content. The Xbox LIVE Marketplace has also had a facelift, with more video and a new downloadable games section. There is also a new version of Messenger for Xbox.
TUS Telekom in Slovenia will launch IPTV based on Sweden’s Dreampark’s Dreamgallery middleware. Dreamgallery customers are mostly in Scandinavia and include Canal Digital, Comvie, Dansk Bredb’nd, FastTV, iVisjon, Smile Content and ViaSat. TUS Telecom is the largest alternative provider of services in the Slovenian market and says it is the first to offer quadruple play services there. Slovenia has a tiny population of just 2 million.
Broadcom said this week that it will collaborate with Chinese tech company RaisingSun Digital Video Technology so that the Broadcom TV on a chip will work with RaisingSun’s iTVware middleware, which in turn works with the new Chinese digital TV standard DTMB as well a DVB and ATSC based standards that have been used there. Presumably that does not include the air interface (radio and tuner) for the Chinese standard, but just the playout. Looks like Broadcom is already positioning itself for China’s digital switchover in 2015.
UK regulator Ofcom this week said that it would auction slices of 10 GHz, 28 GHz, 32 GHz and 40 GHz for direct line of site wireless broadband ‘ effectively Microwave technology. It says they can do line of sight up to 12 kilometers on the power parameters that Ofcom has imposed, and they are suitable for high-capacity broadband, for instance intercompany communications across nearby locations. You might also daisy chain cellular or Wi-Fi or WiMAX backhaul that way. Bids must be in by January 16th 2008.
Broadcom has also announced a new single-channel, multi-format high definition (HD) satellite receiver chip, the BCM7325, which is for low cost HD satellite set-top boxes. The new chip is built in 65nm process and offers tuner/demodulator, supports multiple video formats, reduces power consumption by 50% and Broadcom claims it lowers the system bill of materials (BOM)
Forbes raised the rumor this week of Dell getting into the smartphone business, with a device that include video, an MP3 player and Internet access. It is supposed to launch early next year and rely on partnership with the Taiwanese contract manufacturer Quanta. Dell played with the PDA format in the past and was singularly unsuccessful. The piece also says that Dell is about to make a few acquisitions, speculating that Asustek or the contract manufacturer Quanta may be the targets.
Entertainment security specialist Irdeto has acquired Canadian software company Cloakware, which makes security systems which are designed to protect software applications. Cloakware has been used on enterprise applications and databases, and it says it can work on MP3 players and other entertainment systems. Cloakware comes with some security patents in what it calls layered and compliance-driven approaches to software self-protection, and fits in well with Irdeto’s gradual shift to software only conditional access and DRM.
Screen Digest has a report out which suggests that most cellular operators will not make any money from mobile TV, but that they MUST go ahead and offer it in order to remain competitive. The report says that operators which don’t offer mobile TV will lose subscribers and that the lion’s share of income from mobile TV will be shared between handset manufacturers, software companies, content creators and network owners.
Germany’s consumer electronics association (ZVEI) says that there are 18 million set tops installed across Germany with 11 million of them satellite receivers, 5.5 million digital terrestrial TV receivers and 1.5 million cable tuners. That sounds a little distorted since there are a lot more cable subscribers than that in Germany, certainly over 10 million.
AT&T has let the cat out of the bag on the 3G version of the iPhone, with CEO Randall Stephenson saying in public that it would be out next year. This comes as little to no surprise given that there are core technology platforms that Apple could take on from a variety of Chinese manufacturers, and it is perhaps only CEO Steve Job’s insistence that battery life would be too low at present. Funny that none of the 3G capable iPhones-alikes from other manufacturers have a major issue with battery.
Deutsche Telekom’s T-Com has launched an IPTV service in Montenegro, the former Yugoslav republic, called Extra TV based on Microsoft Mediaroom software, and offering 60 TV channels, and a VoD service. The system has a network PVR function, and additional services such as stock listings on screen, a phonebook, weather forecasts and betting, will all be offered in the near future. Montenegro has just 684,000 people. T-Com has just 11,266 ADSL customers but this is more than double what it had 12 months ago.
The US Patent and Trademark Office has confirmed TiVo’s Multimedia Timewarping System patent, and this can now no longer be appealed by EchoStar, the US satellite operator which TiVo is suing for patent infringement. This brings TiVo one step closer to actually collecting the $74 million damages (or more) it was awarded in a Jury trial in 2006. It may then change its business model from a service operator to an intellectual property business, something we said it should have aimed for years back. EchoStar said it was disappointed but it still has an appeal to go through yet.
National Grid Wireless, one of the UK’s two terrestrial television network operators, has selected Rohde & Schwarz transmitters to use as part of the UK’s digital switchover program throughout the UK, beginning now and lasting through 2012.
Ericsson’s Tandberg Television, said this week that KordiaT and TVWorks have selected its digital terrestrial television (DTT) head-end system for the delivery of a DVB-T Freeview service in New Zealand. It will use MPGE 4 AVC (H.264) and reach around 75% of New Zealand with a new HDTV service, as well as SD programming. Trials will start this year and the service will launch early next. The existing Freeview service uses SD programming in MPEG-2 via satellite direct to home (DTH). The new system will use the iSIS 8000 IP head-end.
US TV network NBC Universal has partnered Netflix, the inventor of online DVD rentals, to make available downloads of current episodes of Heroes to Netflix subscribers. This is pretty much how most online DVD rental companies work with online services, using them as a reward for membership, rather than as a genuine revenue streams.
Nokia said it will invest $75 million in its manufacturing plant in Sriperumbudur, Chennai, India, during 2008, improving capacity for India and other emerging markets. The manufacturing plant currently employs approximately 6000 people and is one of Nokia’s fastest ramp ups globally.
Germany got its first mobile WiMAX network this week through VSE Net in the Saarland region. VSE NET is working with Inquam Broadband, a nationwide license holder, and telecommunication supplier Alcatel-Lucent. The network will begin operating from January 2008 and is based on the IEEE 802.16e-2005 WiMAX standard.
Ultra Wideband (UWB) pioneer Pulse~Link said this week that its CWave HDMI-Over-Coax and Wireless HDMI reference designs are now being issued to CE device manufacturers. The transmit and receive units are low cost, small form factor, production ready reference designs offering real-time lossless wired and wireless streaming of high quality video using the same chip and working with the JPEG2000 lossless video codec, the same codec used by movie theaters for “Digital Cinema.” Pulse~Link chips work at around 1 Gps.