12/26/2005 06:04:00 PM|W|P|Tanguy De Lestré|W|P|Well a lot of predictions are to be found on the web. It seems as a turn of the year its a good way to reflext on the previous hypes, and see what is really happening.
This French article is looking at 2006 and predicting that MVNO's will finally set of
http://www.journaldunet.com/0512/051220bilanmobile.shtml
From my perspective, I found following elements striking for 2005:
- Hotspots and WIFI business model: somehow some business models are appearing as to how to create a business model around WIFI access. One of the most striking is the one from Google that wants to link local WIFI access points with localised advertising;
- Widespread types of GPS localisation tools especially in road navigation
- Free VOIP calls, business model; it seems that Skype companyhas found a good business model as it has been bought by company ebay; further than that my crystal ball should have known that these two companies would come toghether; indeed when I created my Skype account I used the same nickname as my ebay account, a nickname I nver used for any other service I was connected too.
- As networks become more reliable, one finds striking examples of straigh through processing form the vendor at a customer site, to the ordering , billing and delivery departments.
- The mobile phone continues to grow worldwide in Africa and other places where one would not have imagined it to grow.
To 2006, one would find the emergence of new networked tools:
- the connected rabit (http://www.nabaztag.com/vl/FR/index.jsp) is an example of a future networked (home) environment. One can imagine soon that from a webpage I will select the stream of webradios I want to hear, and that these will appear in a separate connected wifi box somewhere in my living room.
- no one size fits all, but a lot of niche markets in all variety. The thing is to find a right matching tool between these niches in demand and offer. http://longtail.typepad.com it explains that mass market is dead and that it is possible to make a living out of small niche markets: from 20 euro phone to 600 euro or more for example with barebone features or a multimedia swiss knife mobile phone.
- and we'll see!|W|P|113561679016439242|W|P|2005 in review, forecast to 2006|W|P|tanguy.delestre@gmail.com12/19/2005 08:40:00 AM|W|P|Tanguy De Lestré|W|P|The news this week came from the two leading commercial TV stations in Belgium, VTM and RTL.
Both television chains announced (with massive advertising) that their prime time news would be available in a download version for the PSP (the small portable playstation) The only thing to do is download a PC program on the PC, which will than manage the synchronisation with the PSP. thourhg a simple USB cable. A smart DRM scheme has been developped to protect the content; the previous news is overridden by a new version.
The service is for the moment victim of its own succes: there are upgrades foreseen for the webservers and connection in order to keep up with the download requests.
On following VTM (Dutch) link there is more info
http://www.vtm.be/nieuws/index_psp.htm
http://www.pspsync.net/
The link to the advertisment of the PSP news:
http://www.vtm.be/asx/vtmnieuws/psp_trailer.asx
The news on Belgian RTL-TVI
http://www.rtl.be/Site/index.aspx?PageID=901
Well, at least the screen is big. Looking forward to emulation of this new TV channel|W|P|113493917039918671|W|P|Mobile TV news on new PSP game console|W|P|tanguy.delestre@gmail.com12/05/2005 07:18:00 AM|W|P|Tanguy De Lestré|W|P|The sports channel Eurosport can be viewed on the 3G handsets from Vodafone life partner Proximus , this means that there are now 14 available channels: : RTL-TVI, Canal Z, Télé Bruxelles, EuroNews (French and English), VTM, JIM, Vitaya, Kanaal Z, Fashion TV, CNN, Trace TV and Eurosport (French and Dutch).|W|P|113377432775209430|W|P|Mobile TV : increase of mobile channels on Vodafone Life|W|P|tanguy.delestre@gmail.com12/09/2005 05:50:00 PM|W|P| Tanguy De Lestré|W|P|A Vodafone press release informs us the launch - also in Belgium through Proximus- of its global Mobile TV channels featuring an exciting mix of world-class TV brands, pan-European sports coverage and leading entertainment and documentary programmes. Vodafone's global Mobile TV channels will be widely available across Vodafone markets from this month.
Mobile TV will consist of a variety of formats, highlights of which include:
"Sex and the City"and"Six Feet Under"from HBO , Eurosport , MTV ,Specially edited for mobile, Seasons 1-4 of "24",UEFA Champions League ,Discovery.
Vodafone mentions that the launch of these global Mobile TV channels, as well as their availability, packaging and programming, will vary according to market. So to be seen at which exact date this will be launched in Belgium.
Source:
http://www.vodafone.com12/02/2005 12:42:00 PM|W|P|Tanguy De Lestré|W|P|The three mobile operators in Belgium have over the past months come up with a low cost no frills offer for voice-sms mobile telephony. You find more information on following links underneath:
www.basicbymobistar.be
www.ugglyduck.be
www.simyo.be
These offers, quite inspired by examples from Denmark (TDC), are offereing a webbased interface and a few basic services; much support is not foreseen.
On following link from Astel you find a comparison of the different mobile offers.
http://www.astel.be/Les-formules-GSM-low-cost|W|P|113352387697489707|W|P|Low cost mobile offers|W|P|tanguy.delestre@gmail.com
Tanguy De Lestré|W|P|A Vodafone press release informs us the launch - also in Belgium through Proximus- of its global Mobile TV channels featuring an exciting mix of world-class TV brands, pan-European sports coverage and leading entertainment and documentary programmes. Vodafone's global Mobile TV channels will be widely available across Vodafone markets from this month.