Everything and the Mobile Software Universe…

If anyone doubted Texas Instruments’ sincerity in taking the mobile projection world by storm, now would probably be a good time to start boiling some crow. Making good on its wishes to cram DLP into even the most minuscule of locations, the company will be demonstrating its newfangled DLP pico-projector to select media groups…

TI showcases diminutive DLP pico-projector – Engadget Mobile

Check Texas Instrument DLP web site for more information about the technology.

So here we go: this little baby is named or branded OMAP also (I desperately wait for an OMAP car, kitchen sink or coffee machine). Anyway the concept seems great to share your latest desperate housewives show with your subway buddies .

Stop kidding, here are some data (in French from Clubic):

Doté de trois lasers, et nécessitant pour l’instant une alimentation externe, le micro-projecteur présenté par Texas-Instruments, qui rappelons-le est à l’état de prototype, affiche une image de la taille d’une feuille de papier A4 en 640×240. Pour l’heure, Texas Instruments n’a annoncé aucune date de disponibilité pour ce nouveau dispositif qui promet d’équiper de futurs téléphones portables.

Téléphone mobile projecteur par Texas Instruments

Short translation :

• 3lasers,
• external power supply,
• prototype onlmy
• resolution : 640*240, for a projection the size of a A4 paper sheet.

So yes, it will perhaps come one day, and may offer good virtual screens, so matching movies on the plane, or showing of some PPT, demos, etc, or playing games may really have a “fun” and productivity boost.

Even if you will always need a hardware screen on your phone for your “phones” activities, or “on the move” ones.

Wait and see, btu THIS IS innovation….

As seen on TrustedReviews:

Today the company announced it has signed licensing and ODM (Original Developer Manufacturer) agreements with bargain basement favourite Sagem. The deal will cover the development of entry level GSM, GPRS and EDGE mobile phones. As part of the deal, Sagem Communication will license certain hardware and software technologies to Sony Erickson and provide Sony Erickson with a number of Sony Erickson branded mobile phones.

trusted reviews – Salem To Make Entry Level Sony Erickson Handsets

So first it was Erickson, a big Swedish glory … and here comes the first unpredictable wedding: The raising samurai Sony  is now associated to the viking champion.

But now Sagem, once rumored to be bought by Motorola and expanding to China (or…migrating to China?) with its Bird Ningbo Joint Venture will do the SE entry phones! (so the Moto buyout rumors were, well just  rumors). Competitors one day may become partner the same day.

Anyway It is really good news for Sagem, with its talented team to have this design win! But really nothing can surprise me now, everyone can work/buy/trash anyone else, some may be willing to stop in-house production and design of low cost phones (like SE) or other to focus on it, like Moto.

This is consolidation area, difficult to really predict anything by now

On Device Portals, or the new magic Eldorado? If you are not familiar with the term (I think it is an ArcChart one, but not sure) , an On device Portal is a way to access quickly and easily your services and data on your phone: to provide a good user experience to the user when consumming services and contents.

This is a generic term that can be applied (at least according to me ) in more or less extent to many industry actors:

• Home Screen providers (like Abaxia, the guys behind the Orange Home screen or others)
• Widgets Framework Providers (Opera goes here, or mobease…)
• some actors like Macromedia Flash Cast
• …and, looking at recent developments, service provider seeking desperatly to find their way on mobile phones: Google, Microsoft and Yahoo.

To promote their services they are in fact trying to replace as much as possible the traditional ways services are, poorly, presented to the end user today by mass market phones.

They are already fighting each other (see this yahoo mobile vs google mobile comparison at Yahoo) , this comparison between Google Maps and MS Maps (mobile) : There is something big here, and Carrier have long understood that the Home Screen is a key part to drive th euser behaviours and services use, because everything is one click away. Bringing big added value services to a one click access in a phone seems to be the new holly grail (see this example for GPS at TomSoft but it is one of many many)….

And again who are on their ways? : Carriers that are trying to do the same thing, alongside big brand OEM (above all Nokia and SE).

It’s perhaps why Google is working on its own phone, and how amazed I was when I read this:

A job posting on Google web site is being taken by many as proof that Google is developing some kind of wireless device that can use its web services.

The job posting in question says:

Google organizes information and makes it accessible and useful. To improve accessibility, Google is experimenting with a few wireless communications systems including some completely novel concepts. We are building a small team of top-notch Logic Designers and Analog Designers aimed at nothing less than making the entire world’s information accessible from anywhere for free. Are you in?

The posting goes on to say that a qualified applicant needs to have an Electrical Engineering or related technical degree, extensive circuit modeling and analysis experience, and excellent programming skills.

Job Posting Sets Off New Round of Google Phone Rumors

(see also here :

Simeon Simeonov is in the news for his story on the Google phone! Simeon Simeonov is in the news for his story on the Google phone!

Simeon Simeonov is in the news for his story on the Google phone! )

They are hiring HARDWARE engineers! wow this is a blast as it is for sure not their core business nor competency, and they prefer to do that instead of speaking with the today chipset vendors (Texas Instrument, NXP (ex Philips Semi), Infineon, ADI, Broadcomm…). I really don’t know where they are going or what is this strange strategy: but they made the point clear: they want to control the whole experience…exciting!

What do you think?

In its last blog entry, surfing one the wave of  button less iPhone clones, C. Enrique Ortiz  states the following,

Pictured above are the LG Prada, the Apple iPhone, the “Google Phone”, and the Meizu M8. Will Palm follow the same trend?

…

Yes, that’s right. Think about this shift from hardware to software design; the way of the future in handset design. The handset itself becomes pretty much a “generic” apparatus: connected or network-aware, with high-quality sound, and high-quality LCD with touch-screen, and totally software driven – the look and feel, the user experience, and all or most of user interactions.

C. Enrique Ortiz Mobility Weblog: The future of handset design: from hardware to software

While, as a software developer I may look at this kind of vision with envy, but intuition … and practice lead me to really challenge this view where the hardware would be completely commoditized to allow full software creativity.

Be prepared to that mobile software vendors: in real life (at least in Europe) a phone is first chosen because it is sexy/good looking! See the success of the LG Chocolate (and its Samsung carbon copy, the E900) , or the upcoming Shine or Prada phone: they are simply handsome, and my wife doesn’t bother about the so-so and flacky UI and usability flows of her E900 (ok to be honest now she has one for a few weeks, she IS complaining…but the buy decision was based on hardware look only). Do yourself a favor and check this really funny Guardian Article about the E900 and its glorified unusable UI and touch sensitive buttons (found via the always refreshingly cynical Techype)

So yes hardware design matters, that’s a fact, and am I the only one to loooove hardware buttons? I’m a long time Palm fan, used to stylus, touchscreen and so on, but to be honest, on my treo 650, I only use the keyboard and nav pad, I’ve even lost the stylus and really I don’t need it. Did you ever tried a remote control for your TV based on a touchscreen (like Phillips did some time ago)? wow, awkward, no tactile feedback, the screen is collecting all what your fingers are collecting…really poor design.

But the worst aspect of the “all touchscreen” aspect in that you always needs your two hands to do anything, even answering a call! and this is killer for me, really, cause doing every operation with one hand is something I’m now so accustomed to.

So yes the iPhone and its clones may lead to new user experience studies, but I really think that to bring a really good user experience you need to master the whole design process, from hardware to software … to network services. For sure today it is more the hardware design that leads the pack, software vendors trying to bring something new (see the last Vision Mobile Article on this one) …and Operator continuing adding some, hum, crap to the user experience (look for Orange Home Screen in google … and oh joy the first answer are “help me to get ride of the Orange Home screen” ).

So yes software vendor may have more room to innovate, but phone makers are learning fast:

• Palm is getting its software back, so under control
• SE bought UIQ…for the same reason
• Nokia has S60 and Maemo
• Moto is pushing its Linux Platform

If this is not a sign ….

What do you think?

Thomas