Paul Poutanen

One of the difficulties re mobile testing is trying to determine what a handset can do.

The people at WURFL (the Wireless Universal Resource File) have compiled an amazing database of handsets from around the world. (from their main page)

The main scope of the file is to collect as much information as we can about all the existing mobile devices that access WAP pages so that developers will be able to build better applications and better services for the users.

This project is open-source and is intended for developers working with the WAP and Wireless. All the information listed here has been collected by many different people from many different countries. You are allowed to use WURFL in any of your applications, free or commercial. The only thing required is to make any modification to this file public, following the original spirit and idea of the creators of this project. This will help WURFL to grow better and better every day.

Mob4hire is a proud contributor of data to add to the database. We have already found multiple examples of new handsets that we have added to the database.

We are using the WURFL database to identify handsets and will be using the database for the beta version of Mob4Hire which will be ready soon.

I salute the people and contributers to WURFL!

If you are a mobile application developer, please check it out.

As i predicted, Google will bid on the 700 Mhz spectrum through the FCC.

More here and here

This is an important move for google. They will have competitors such as Verizon in the bid but I think the carriers must be shaking in their boots.

I have this feeling they will bid in Canada as well.

With the Android project, Google is aiming to be come the big player in the mobile space. It will be hard and they will have to be hardcore because the carriers will be cut throat to try to stop them.

I predict that a numbers of carriers will group together to try to beat off Google in this bidding.

Look for more consolidation. 

Well it is in directly from the official government website  Canada is going to allow 40 MHz of bandwidth to be picked up other than the 3 major carriers in Canada. (Rogers, Telus or Bell Mobility)

From the Canadian Press 

In its submission to the industry department, MTS Allstream noted that Canadians pay up to 79 per cent more for wireless services than Americans, a key reason they say that cellphone usage in Canada lags far below that in the U.S. or Europe.

Foreign corporations by themselves will not be able to pick up the bandwidth.  They will have to joint partner with a Canadian Company.

HMMMM

I have a Canadian company…. If you want to partner up, Google, I have a company. I do not have the capital to bid on this spectrum but you do. yah… I’d like that…. Let’s talk.

Boy Howdy! Things are moving fast.

Just in from the Globe and Mail

All eyes will be on whether Ottawa intervenes in what would otherwise be a free-market auction by preventing the big players — Bell, Telus and Rogers — from bidding on part of the spectrum.

Mr. Prentice has so far been mum on whether Ottawa will set aside part of the frequencies up for auction in order to allow new entrants to bid on these without competition from Bell, Rogers or Telus.

Such a move would be contrary to pure free market principles but would be in keeping with the Conservative government’s avowedly populist approach and its focus on consumers. Finance Minister Jim Flaherty, for instance, has pressed banks to cut automated banking machine fees and has lobbied retailers to cut prices to reflect the strengthened Canadian dollar.

A potential block of bidding on new spectrum from the big guys!….. Stay tuned….

More here 

Testing of handsets to make sure they make the grade can be tricky and political.

From business week this morning..

For starters, Verizon Wireless will need to test any new device model before letting it connect to its network. The degree of openness will hinge on how difficult Verizon Wireless makes it for products to get a green light. Columbia University law professor Tim Wu, a leading proponent of wireless open access, points out that the old Ma Bell-era phone companies often used testing requirements as a way to control their networks. “There’s testing requirements and there’s testing requirements,” says Wu. “One is routine—and there’s another thing of deciding what products they don’t want on their network. It can become a black hole from which products never emerge.”

Developers have to have a clear picture of what will be accepted and what will not be accepted. If a developer spends 6 months on a project and then finds out a carrier blocks them on a technicality because it does not meet their business needs, this will further close the whole system.

Further more if the delay in testing handsets amounts to months, the same objective has been fullfilled. 

Openness is like being pregnant. There is no half being pregnant.

Verizon is following the open source mantra and will allow the option of connecting hardware and software not sold by the company to its network. This is going to be available by the end of next year.

End of next year? That is a bit long. What is going to happen in the next year…..

ZDnet thinks it is a bit sinister as it is basically a hedge against the iPhone….
Verizon Wireless to be as open as the iPhone

As well Verizon says the handsets and or software must still meet their technical standards…

I think some of this will not be as easy as you think…. The carriers are public companies that need to show quarterly results…

But it is good to see a company like Verizon making this move…Who will be next?

ATT has already talked about open standards for the iPhone…..

Any Canadian carriers thinking this way? I would doubt Bell Mobility as they are in a hiring freeze right now held up by the Ontario Teachers Pension.

My guess is Rogers…GSM handsets are better and there are more of them worldwide….

The problem with too many choices is sometimes you do not make any.

Take the existing mobile marketplace right now.

Do you want a smart handset?

Do you want a cheap handset?

Do you want emails on your  handset?

Do you want music on your handset?

Do you want to go to websites?

Do you want to only make calls?

Then what combos of the above do you want? How much are you willing to spend?

Then put yourself in the world of the mobile developer. They have to decide what the market will buy and choose as to what has been given to them. If they are selling to Verizon, the code better be in Brew, at Sprint J2ME.

If you are a Nokia handset you will likely need to crank out Symbian. Every type of handset is different.

Here is a synopsis of what is available

XHTML/Wap family
the iPhone mobile browsing family with native and objective C
Symbian
Windows Mobile
FlashLite
J2ME

Google has just announced Android While some people are heralding the
new SDK, others are not so sure.

One thing we know for sure right now, is it will take years to hit any kind of critical mass. There are too many manufacturers and software developers with their own special interests to make this happen too soon.

However do not underestimate Google. They have cash and they have power. What they do not want however is to be bullied by carriers….They want to be the carrier. They know the frustrations of the average user. And they want advertisements on the phone.

The Android Developer Challengeis interesting as it is a good way to jumpstart some developers. I think the more seasoned professional developers will wait until wait a while until there are more developments in the mobile space before proceeding. $10 million is a start but not enough to stop a paying gig. I think $100 million would have made a major splash.

Below are the categories that Google is suggesting…

Social networking
Media consumption, management, editing, or sharing, e.g., photos
Productivity and collaboration such as email, IM, calendar, etc.
Gaming
News and information
Rethinking of traditional user interfaces
Use of mash-up functionality
Use of location-based services
Humanitarian benefits
Applications in service of global economic development

One thing is for sure, things are not getting easier in the mobile space… They are getting more complicated.

Looks like the carriers in Canada may be getting a little scared about competition.

Google?

Got back from the Wireless Connections conference in Banff and I was very glad to go.

Good to get the contacts back up and see people I had not seen for a while.

 I was called into a panel discussion when a speaker cancelled. The discussion was on the difficulties mobile application developers have getting into carriers ie becoming commerical.

I was on the panel with Robert Davies P.Eng.  Senior Scientist at TRLABS (www.trlabs.ca) and ajunct professor at the University of Calgary and James Maynard, President of Wavefront (www.wavefrontac.com).   Duane Sniezek, P.Eng. Director Operations, TRLabs Calgary and COO of NEWT (www.newt.trlabs.ca) moderated the discussion.

The discussion moved to the future mobile space.

I put out my future gazing and speculation. I see Google buying Sprint not for subscribers but for the tower agreements. Google is looking to buy the 700 MHz sprectrum and they need to deploy somehow. The FCC has mandated this should be open.

TRLabs creates innovative technologies and trains students to enhance ICT expertise and improve Canada’s global competitiveness. Five labs across the prairie provinces employ university professors, graduate students, industrial partners, and staff researchers.

Wavefront is the commercialization bridge between the wireless developer community in British Columbia and the mobile operators, government and large enterprises that are deploying new wireless products and services. In collaboration with its established partners, wavefront provides the developer community with neutral, independent test services and the market knowledge to enable rapid commercialization.

NEWT, the Network for Emerging Wireless Technologies, is a wireless development centre providing hardware and software design, implementation and test support to developers of wireless products and services. The technical staff, industry network, lab facilities and test environments reduce product development costs, shorten product development time, increase technical knowledge and gain competitive advantage through accelerated creation and adoption of wireless technology.

I am off to the Wireless connections conference in Banff.

Looks like an interesting agenda…. http://www.wirelessconnections.ca/wc2007/documents/WC07Program.pdf

I will comment more tomorrow.

Networking opportunities are always important.