In this issue

• CES attendance falls but prospects look up
• Devices at CES
• Masthead

CES attendance falls but prospects look up

In spite of the fact that attendance at the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) this year (110k) was down 20% from last year, the mood was generally upbeat and positive. Show sponsor CEA’s lead statisticians, Steve Koenig, director of industry analysis, and Shawn DuBravac,  CEA economist, reported that 10% of tech insiders polled said that tightening credit had a severe negative impact on their business while another 37% indicated at least a moderate negative impact.

While 2009 will remain a challenging year, with consumer spending in the negative percentile, the second and third quarters will likely see a spending lift driven by government stimuli.  And some of the beneficiaries of the lift, DuBravac added, would likely be the following CE growth categories, including: OLED display products (up 149 percent); e-readers (up 110 percent);  HD flash camcorders (up 106 percent); netbooks/subnotebooks (80 percent); communicating thermostats (up 71 percent);  next-gen DVD players (up 62 percent);  120Hz LCD TVs (up 57 percent);  traffic-compatible portable navigation (up 52 percent); MP3 players with wireless connectivity (up 41 percent); and combination home-theater-in-a-box/Blu-ray systems (up 30 percent). The 2009 CE sales outlook in unit growth for four categories in particular was in the positive ranks: digital displays (5.8 percent); wireless handsets (2.6 percent); PCs (5.1 percent); and game consoles (2.8 percent). http://tinyurl.com/gomo11a

While the global handset market went into a tailspin in the fourth quarter of ’08 resulting in a 5% year-over-year reduction in total shipments, analysts see that the losses are now being felt in 2G shipments while 3G handsets continue to show strong growth. “The number of WCDMA and CDMA2000 mobile handsets sold (currently 39% of the total) is expected to exceed 50% in 2009,” says ABI Research Asia-Pacific vice president Jake Saunders. “Much of the brunt of the economic downturn will be experienced in the 2G categories. WCDMA handset shipments are projected to grow from 258 million in 2008 to 725 million in 2009. By 2013, more than 67% of all handsets shipped will be 3G/3G+ capable.”

“Another robust segment is smartphones,” adds practice director Kevin Burden. “Smartphones captured 14% of the 2008 market and are expected to grow throughout the challenging period of 2009 and comprise 31% of the market by 2013.” Smartphones are among the most coveted pieces of prosumer electronics. http://tinyurl.com/gomo11b

Devices at CES

CES is always a great place to show off new devices, and Palm captured the imagination of everyone with their demonstration of the upcoming Palm Pre device and WebOS software. After demonstrating the device to a packed house, Palm’s stock vaulted upward 35%. The device is slated to launch on Sprint Nextel in the first half of ’09, which may impact Sprint’s numbers as well. The enthusiasm has not abated with Palm stock up since the announcement from $3.36 on Wednesday to $5.91 on Monday.

“Palm is differentiating itself by building a product that aggregates disparate information sources from all over the Web,” Avi Greengart at Current Analysis said. “It provides a unified calendar, unified contacts and unified instant messaging. It simplifies a Web-based life on a mobile OS.”

“There’s no question that a unified, integrated approach to Web applications is something consumers will want,” Greengart continued. “And that’s something that competitors ought to be doing. With Android, competitors might do this for themselves. But Palm will certainly hit the market first.” Despite “bits and pieces” of this approach offered by competitors, no one else “combines the integration not just of social networking but Exchange e-mail contacts as well, with a user interface that was clearly designed from the outset for a capacitive-touchscreen device,” Greengart said. “Some gestures enabled by WebOS are unique and some are familiar, such as pinch, zoom and swipe.” “The hardware is great,” Greengart added. “It feels wonderful in your hand. And when you slide out the QWERTY keyboard, it slides out and tilts up — that’s great, too. The keyboard, however, is not the best QWERTY keyboard I’ve used.” http://tinyurl.com/gomo11c Demo at: http://tinyurl.com/gomo11d

LG Shows off 'Dick Tracy' Wristwatch Phone

LG Electronics has shown off the first watch-style mobile phone that also comes with 3G Video Telephony service. This wearable phone is a follow-up to the prototype that LG introduced at CES 2008 and includes a number of upgrades, including a full touchscreen interface, 3G capabilities and video calling. Significantly, this watch phone will actually be available for purchase.

"Our new 3G Touch Watch Phone is stylish, sophisticated and the height of technology, but it’s also undeniably fun. How else can you reenact those scenes from your favorite sci-fi or spy movie?" said Dr. Skott Ahn, President and CEO of LG Electronics Mobile Communications Company. "The Watch Phone also demonstrates LG's technological leadership, proving that we can bring all the components in today's most advanced mobile phones down to a very small scale." The Watch Phone is the first touch watch phone in the world to feature 7.2 Mbps 3G HSDPA compatibility, enabling high-speed data transmission and video phone calls using the built-in camera. http://tinyurl.com/gomo11e

Another Walkman Phone from Sony Ericsson

­Another Walkman branded phone from Sony Ericsson - the W508, which comes with the trademark features such as Shake and Gesture control. The W508 also includes popular Walkman features such as SensMe, for matching your mood to the music and touch keys on top to play, stop and skip tracks. A 3.2 megapixel camera, HSDPA and 1GB M2 card completes the W508 offering. http://tinyurl.com/gomo11f

­Sony Ericsson also showed a new Cybershot mobile phone - the C510 Cyber-shot, its most affordable Cyber-shot phone to date, and an application upgrade to the C905 Cyber-shot phone. The C510 Cyber-shot comes with a 3.2 megapixel camera (described as "reliable", as if previous models were not?) along with Smile Shutter - a technology that detects a person's smile and immediately takes the photo. http://tinyurl.com/gomo120

HTC Brings S740 Smartphone To U.S.

With a svelte size and slide-out keyboard, this Windows Mobile smartphone is aimed at the message-heavy user. While touch-screen smartphones like Apple's iPhone 3G and Research In Motion's BlackBerry Storm are popular, many business users just want a slim handset that makes typing out messages easy and quick. With this is in mind, HTC is bringing its S740 smartphone to the United States, and its small size and powerful features could make it attractive for mobile professionals. Physically, the S740 bears a slight resemblance to the HTC Touch Pro, but the S740 isn't as wide and doesn't have a touch screen. At about 1.7 inches, the smartphone looks like a skinny remote control. The handset does have a bit of bulk to make room for the slide-out, four-row keyboard, but at 4.9 ounces it's not too heavy.

Powered by Windows Mobile 6.1, the handset is capable of receiving push corporate e-mail and instant messaging on the go. The S740 comes preloaded with Pocket Office, so users can view Word, Excel, Outlook, and PDF files on the handset. Even with its svelte size, the handset manages to pack in a 2.4-inch QVGA screen that has a 240-by-320 resolution. While not a media powerhouse, the S740 can play multiple audio and video formats. The handset also comes with a 3.2-megapixel camera that can be used to capture video. HTC did not say how much the handset would cost or if it would be subsidized by a carrier. It will be launched by the end of the first quarter through various retailers. http://tinyurl.com/gomo121

AT&T Mobility, Motorola launch Motorola Tundra VA76r - Quick Facts

Tuesday, AT&T Mobility LLC and Motorola Inc. introduced Motorola Tundra VA76r, a rugged 3G clamshell device with a tough exterior that can withstand harsh environments. AT&T Mobility is the wholly owned wireless subsidiary of AT&T Inc. According to the company, Tundra combines uncompromised call quality, optional workforce management tools, navigation capabilities, access to the web on 3G network and AT&T Mobility's Push To Talk service. The company noted that Tundra is designed to withstand the most strenuous conditions, meeting U.S. 810F Military Specifications for drop, dust, vibration, humidity, severe temperatures and rain. Further, Tundra features easy access to AT&T Navigator and enables advanced location and optional add- on enterprise tracking services such as TeleNav Track and Xora Mobile Workforce Management tools. http://tinyurl.com/gomo122

CES has never been the forum for Motorola to fully shine. The company often saves its big guns for larger wireless trade shows CTIA and GSMA Mobile World Congress. But in recent months, the company has cut a number of phones in development, and the showing at CES may be an indication of the scant number of products available through the first half of the year. For CES, Motorola unveiled the W233, a phone designed to attract the environmentally conscious. The device is made up of plastics made from recycled water bottles, and Motorola offset the energy used to manufacture, distribute and operate the phone by planting trees and investing in renewable energy sources. Deutsche Telekom AG's (DT) T-Mobile USA will sell the phone in later this quarter. The company used its experience making Nextel phones to create the Tundra for AT&T Inc. (T). The device is geared towards workers who need a durable phone and walkie-talkie function, and will compete against the core Nextel customer. It will retail for $200 with a two-year contract. The company does have one smartphone offering, a touchscreen device called Motosurf. The device uses Windows Mobile and can be controlled by a finger, stylus or track ball. Motorola said the device will hit the market later this quarter in multiple regions, including Asia and Latin America. The U.S., however, wasn't one mentioned. http://tinyurl.com/gomo123

Nokia releases three new phones to U.S. market

Nokia and T-Mobile announced three models for the U.S. market, including the 7510s, E63 and Nokia 1006. The Nokia 7510S weighs 124 grams, equipped with 2.2-inch 16.7 million color QVGA TFT display and a two megapixel camera. The device is based on the S40 platform with support for audio and video file playback, built-in FM radio, 27MB memory and supports 8GB of microSD card expansion. The E63 configuration of 2.4-inch QVGA screen with 16 million color display has Symbian 9.2 operating system and software platform for S60 V3.1, Business function is still relatively complete, and has a newly added a 3.5mm standard headphone jack. Nokia 1006 is a low-end CDMA mobile phones, used simple straight design, using 128 × 160 pixel screen with built-in FM radio function. http://tinyurl.com/gomo124

Samsung announces new devices

Samsung and T-Mobile are teaming up to offer a T-Mobile exclusive handset called the Samsung Behold. The handset is a touch screen device that offers premium multimedia features. The handset comes in brushed espresso or light rose finishes. Features include Samsung TouchWiz technology, a full HTML web browser, on-screen QWERTY keyboard, 5MP camera with video recording capability, 1GB of storage expandable to 16GB and Bluetooth. The screen is 3-inches and provides clear images. The handset weighs 4 ounces and measures 4.12" x 2.10" x 0.5". http://tinyurl.com/gomo125

Samsung also confirmed it is working on an Android handset for 2009. A glut of new companies have signed up to the Open Handset alliance, most wasting no time in getting new product out there. Samsung has confirmed it is working hard at developing an Android handset for a launch around June 2009. Right now, it's only been confirmed for a US network launch (Sprint and possibly T-Mobile), with a team of 80 developers working frantically to get the phone finished on time. The phone itself doesn't look too inspiring so far, said to be a new, but sleeker take on the existing Omnia. http://tinyurl.com/gomo126

HTC deals with leak of entire 2009 design line-up

This from www.wmexperts.com this morning: “Well this is going to take the wind out of HTC's sails a bit for whatever they were going to unveil at Mobile World Congress in a couple months.  See, images marked "DIYPDA.com" have cropped up – a full twenty five photos of upcoming HTC devices. We have the full gamut here, from the HTC Iolite (previously seen) to stuff we've been waiting for quite awhile, like the above HTC Mable, which looks to be the long-awaited 3G update to the Excalibur/T-Mobile Dash.  We have the Twin, Topaz, Rhodium, quite a lot.  There's everything from WinMo Standard Messaging devices to black slabs to sliders, and they all look good.  Darn near every carrier is represented too.” http://tinyurl.com/gomo127

Masthead

This is issue #49 of Going Mobile. The stories that I refer to are all among the 300+ publicly published articles I scan each week, but the commentary is entirely my own and does not represent the views, opinions, or official position of Microsoft, the Windows Mobile management team, or any of the fine companies and news services mentioned herein. You can refer stories to me or make other comments below.