Chipset Supporting 3G WCDMA Selected by LG Electronics

Wireless : Ringtones and Logos will be non-existent in 2005

Many people only associate the market for premium mobile services with ringtones and logos, believing that there is little else out there that is making any money on mobile services for content owners. While this was true a year or two ago, as premium mobile services were introduced around Europe, that picture is changing dramatically. What is happening on the mobile services market in Europe today and how it will develop in the coming years is described in detail in Strand Consults latest report: “How to make money on mobile services” a picture of the current & future Market for Mobile Services in Europe.

According to the report which is based on today’s actual traffic figures from operators and content owners in Europe, ringtones and logos account for 39% of the total value of the market for mobile services and will turnover Euro 638 million in 2002. The total market value for all mobile services in

Europe in 2002 will be 1.65 billion Euro. But the 39% share of the market in 2002 will drop to a share of only 2.7% in 2005, as the many other services already available today – together with new services using new technologies like MMS and Java are introduced in the coming years.

However, we have a lot to thank ringtones and logos for and indeed, some countries that are still in the early stages of offering their first premium mobile services have an extremely well proven business case that simply kick-starts the mobile services market and shows mobile consumers how they can buy mobile services and use them on their mobile phone.

If the mobile operators and content owners only had the results from the launch of mobile services on WAP to go by, the market for mobile services could have been set back by years. This partly due to the lack of revenue sharing models from the operators for WAP services, taking any initiative from content owners to create innovative WAP services, but also due to the actual WAP experience compared to the expectations that the mobile users had been bombarded with.

Premium SMS services all have revenue sharing models, so that the content owners and the mobile operators have agreed on a split of the income that the services are generating. The revenue sharing models are the main reason for so much other premium SMS content being offered today. Although there is not one “killer application” that stands out today, our new report goes through the content areas that will be biggest in 2005, where 5 areas stand out as the big money making services. They will boost the value of the market for premium mobile services to a staggering Euro 23 billion – thereby bringing the European non-voice average revenue pr. user (ARPU) – including person to person messaging - in 2005 to 32%, up from 14% in 2002. The more advanced markets will of course have the highest ARPU – with Norway again among the leaders, as they were when they first proved that there was a market for premium SMS services at the turn of the century.

All the prerequisites for achieving this market growth in the coming years are explained in detail in Strand Consults new report “How to make money on mobile services” a picture of the current & future Market for Mobile Services in Europe. Although some of them are not yet in place, there is so much money to be made – money that neither the operators nor the content owners can do without – that we are confident that the remaining challenges will be solved in the near future.

Although almost non-existent in 2005 – many will have much to thank ringtones and logos for. They have shown the content owners, the mobile operators and of course the mobile customers that there are other things than just talking that you can use your mobile phone for – and those other things cost money!

TODAY'S PRESS RELEASES

This deployment means Telecom One now has the largest operator independent WAP gateway operating in the UK. This additional capacity will enable Telecom One to distribute mobile content on a mass market scale.

Cambridge Silicon Radio ( CSR ) has announced a further device in its BlueCore2 series of single-chip Bluetooth(TM) solutions for low cost, high-volume applications.

Aspiro has signed an agreement with the British based mobile operator mmO2 to supply 41mobile applications to all markets served by O2, including more than 18 million subscribers.

For the first time UK consumers can purchase news and entertainment streaming video for their mobiles Oplayo launched the first ever network independent consumer-facing mobile video service

LG Electronics is increasing its stature in the Asian mobile handset market with products that deliver the entire core cutting-edge functionalities including color screen, camera, and streaming video capabilities.

These new capabilities enable the ASB to serve as the Application Server for 3G mobile networks, enabling cost-effective, efficient deployment of IP multimedia services over both mobile as well as fixed-line networks.

DoCoMo Systems based in Tokyo Japan has launched a 3G FOMA driven remote monitoring system. The system is likely to be branded mWatch and allows users to view and control video cameras from their 3G enabled mobile phones.

Texas Instruments and MontaVista Software announced that they will work together to provide an embedded Linux platform for OMAP application processors to target 2.5G and 3G handsets

The Modular Cell 4.0 is the highest-capacity base station ever introduced by Lucent, and more than 70 percent of its hardware is common to Lucent's 3G UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System) base stations.

Private Media Group Inc. a worldwide leader in premium-quality adult entertainment products, services and Internet content, is pleased to announce the upcoming worldwide release of its adult content chip for Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs).

Recent surveyed telecom experts predict that new products and services that evolve from e-mail, messaging, and voice applications will drive 2003 mobile Internet growth in the United States

Spectrian announced that it has received purchase orders from Samsung for two products, valued at approximately $8.5 million.

Siemens mobile will be the sole provider for the 3rd generation (3G) mobile network in Luxembourg.

Symbian Ltd announces that its licensee Fujitsu has completed development of a Symbian OS smartphone for NTT DoCoMo's FOMA 3G network. Fujitsu will begin volume shipments to NTT DoCoMo shortly.

Hutchison 3G UK unveiled details of its forthcoming products and services to be marketed under the 3 brand, including details of special discounts and an outline of pricing options

NTT DoCoMo announced that it will introduce three new 3G mobile phones featuring continuous dynamic stand-by of approximately 170-180 hours or 230-250 hours of static stand-by time, approximately 3.3 times longer than the original FOMA models.

The convergence of powerful next- generation networks, faster and smarter devices, and superior applications positions the emerging North American mobile Internet access market on the threshold of rapid future adoption and growth.

The mobile version of Space Invaders is a faithful recreation of the original arcade game, featuring full sound, advanced scoring systems, and a unique use of the phone's vibrate function.

Hutchison Whampoa is approaching the moment of truth for its multi-billion dollar gamble on third-generation mobile telecoms, with many investors betting on a rare failure for Asia's richest tycoon Li Ka-shing.

Interfacing to wireless testers, combined with Palladium's hardware/software co-verification capability, provides complete system-level verification for the latest 2.5G and 3G handset and base station development, and local-area network (LAN) 802.11 wireless applications.

Superscape's Swerve technology is highly regarded in the wireless sector as a robust, flexible and generic solution capable of delivering a wide range of applications to 2.5 and 3G handsets.

onim's Instant Communications Platform allows the deployment of presence-enabled, instant voice messaging services, such as Push-To-Talk, over wireless data networks.

The combined number of subscriptions of mobile phone handsets with a built-in camera from J-Phone Group, KDDI Corp., and NTT DoCoMo, Inc. topped 10 million as of October 2002.

Third-generation (3G) mobile phone services, not yet warmly embraced by Japan's some 77.4 million mobile phone users, are going to boom here in the next two or three years, analysts say.

Vodafone today announced that it will be the first mobile operator to
empower end users to author, manage and send their own personal multimedia
messages (MMS) using the revolutionary Memphis platform from Alatto
Technologies.

TV quality streamed video will be available in early 2003 to the new generation of video-enabled mobile telephones and PDAs over existing GPRS (2.5G) networks without the need for special chips using technology from Mobile Video Imaging.

The field trials were carried out using Radiolinja's "pre commercial" WCDMA network and achieved good results in accurately determining a user's position within the
range of a single network cell.