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January 17, 2012

Some reports are circulating that Apple is supposed to have started the production on its third-generation tablet about two weeks ago. If that's true, the iPad 3 could be on store shelves as early as March.

Production of the iPad 3 apparently started at the beginning of January and will reach full volume some time in February.

And Apple enthusiasts have a few good reasons to be excited. The iPad 3 should take the center stage once it's out in the open, most wireless industry observers are predicting.

And here are some very good reasons:

The new iPad 3 will be faster than ever. Three separate anonymous sources said to be familiar with the product also say that the new tablet will use a quad-core processor, giving the iPad increased multi-tasking power.

LTE technology will be available on the new iPad 3, sources say. Before 4G LTE comes to the iPhone, it’s coming to the iPad 3 which will get LTE (long-term-evolution) network support.

The new iPad will look better than ever. The display will be higher resolution than past models, adding pixels and graphics power. The third generation iPad is rumored to have more pixels on its screen than some high-definition televisions.

The iPad 3's graphics processor is also more powerful over previous models, rendering video faster and clearer than ever before.

The timing of the iPad 3 release coincides with the Nokia Lumia 900 release in March. So far, 2012 is once again shaping up to be the year of the iPad, not the year of the tablet as most tablet buzz continues to surround Apple’s products.

It will be interesting to see all the new buzz that will be generated in the blogosphere between now and the March release of the iPad 3. As usual, Wireless Industry News will keep you posted.

In other mobile news

Various email messages that suddenly arrived in the in-boxes of an unspecified number of Virgin Media customers on Jan. 13 and that promised much faster internet broadband services for less were embarrassingly and quickly removed by Virgin just a few hours later. Needless to day, the messages were a major snafu for Virgin's public relations department.

Virgin Media had initially sent a message boasting about Virgin Media Tickles, which apparently the company gives to "people we know and like: our customers". The overly generous memo pledged to boost connection speeds from 100 Mbps to 120 Mbps even though it was sent to customers on packages below 100 Mbit/s.

The email messages started by saying: "You're already getting the U.K.'s fastest widely available broadband, and starting this summer we'll be starting the roll-out to boost your speeds from up to 100 Mb to up to 120 Mb. We'll also be lowering the price of your broadband package in April to match the price of our 50 Mb Broadband XXL packages."

Virgin then said it would be doubling many of its customers' broadband speeds with the promised upgrade this summer. It said customers wouldn't have to lift a finger to take advantage of the upgrade of up to 120 Mbit/s that would apparently come with a discount.

Virgin Media then signed off by proclaiming: "We'll be in touch in a few weeks with more details about your price reduction, so there's no need to call us, or do any thing, except keep enjoying what is already the U.K.'s fastest broadband internet service."

However, just a few hours later it was a very different story: "Hello there. Oops! That last email, 100 Mbit/s Broadband Announcement, was sent in error! Please ignore this, we apologize for sending it in error, and rest assured that current Virgin Media Cable Broadband customers will be receiving some good news about their broadband in the next two weeks."

VM also posted an explanation about what had gone wrong on its customer support forum, blaming "gremlins in our email system" for the hiccup."

When contacted for additional comments, Virgin Media told us: "The email was correct, just that it was accidentally sent to more than just 100 Mbit/s customers when only they should have received it."

Subsequently, Virgin Media representatives have been back in touch to clarify matters, saying: "Following our announcement last week that we are doubling the broadband speeds our cable customers receive, we’ve started to write to let them know how it will work and what to expect. Our first email, intended for our 100 Mb customers, was accidentally sent to some customers on other tiers which may have led to some confusion."

It added: "We’re sorry for any misunderstanding and will be writing to customers again soon to clarify how the upgrade will affect them. In the meantime, as part of our double speed program, we are delighted to confirm that 50 Mb customers will actually be upgraded to 120 Mb, meaning even more Virgin Media customers will be able to take advantage of the fastest broadband speeds in the United Kingdom."

Some 50 Mb/s customers will see an initial rise to 100 Mb/s before moving up to the full implementation of the 120Mb/s service, VM spokespersons added.

In other mobile news

Even with today's challenging economic climate across the globe, and a threat of further recession in the business segment, new numbers recently published by Juniper Research reveal that mobile banking users will reach 530 million globally by 2013, up from about 301 million last year.

Juniper adds that mobile services are becoming a fundamental component of banks' business strategies as they respond to the current financial crisis, and most banks are now fully aware of the importance of its customers to access their accounts from their smartphones, BlackBerries and tablets.

The report also found that as banks migrate from traditional bricks-and-mortar approaches and seek competitive differentiation, mobile banking apps offer an opportunity for all financial institutions to improve operational efficiencies and customer retention rates as a cost-effective communication channel.

Juniper underscores that as consumer smartphone adoption becomes more prevalent, mobile banking will gain traction, particularly in Western markets, with consumers seeking tighter control on finances given uncertain economic conditions.

Juniper also observes that banks are anticipating consumer demand by developing native smartphone and tablet applications for iPhones, iPads and Android devices. But the report also cautions that the most successful deployments today are already adopting a triple-play solution utilizing not only mBanking apps, but SMS and browser-based delivery channels as well.

According to report author Sonia Lalli-- "Overall, mobile banking services will be one of the greatest success stories of the mobile commerce industry over the next five years, as consumers and business users observe the benefits of accessing banking services on the move."

Lalli's report added that "As customers become comfortable with undertaking basic banking functions on their mobiles, an increasing number will adopt transactional-based banking services enabled by the enhanced functionality afforded by smart devices, exposed to an all-immersive consumer experience."

Other key findings from the Juniper report include:

MNOs and banks have a mutually beneficial opportunity to collaborate to improve customer acquisition and retention, while at the same time reducing operational costs.

Transactional mBanking usage will reflect similarly aggressive growth rates to SMS with over 550 million subscribers globally by the end of 2016.

Overall, the developed markets of North America, Western Europe, the Middle East and China will have the highest penetration of users in 2016.

The Mobile Banking whitepaper is available to download from the Juniper website together with further details of the full study.

In other mobile news

Intellectual property and patent licensing firm Sisvel has acquired 450 patents from Nokia, 350 of which are essential for mobile and wireless communications.

Sisvel emphasizes the term 'essential' since it is impossible to build mobile phones conforming to 2G, 3G and/or 4G/LTE telephony standards without infringing the patents.

But as such, they are also subject to Fair, Reasonable and Non-Discriminatory (FRAND) licensing-– hardly the sort of thing a patent firm would be interested in.

And the confusion is a bit understandable. It also fits with the perception of Nokia as a bit of a desperate company, prepared to raise money selling patents to an IP firm. But then again, Nokia received $1 billion from Microsoft, but that was almost a year ago, so maybe that one billion is gone already...

At any rate, Sisvel is a patent-licensing company which doesn't make anything, so it can look like a temporary recipient acquiring patents with the sole objective of pursuing unwary infringers.

The company did send local police on exhibitors at CeBIT and IFA back about four years ago for infringing MP3 patents it administers on behalf of Philips.

Sisvel is actually concerned with the creation of patent pools, dealing with fields where the myriad of patent-holders makes getting individual licences next to impossible, and the mobile segment happens to be one of them. In such fields, some sort of aggregator is not only necessary, but desirable.

So if you're planning to make a DVB-T set-top box, then you can go along to Sisvel and get yourself a complete licence package which Sisvel has negotiated with all the various intellectual property holders. The same thing applies to DECT, H.264 SVC and MPEG audio, to name just a few.

In many cases, you don't even have to go to Sisvel for those licences-– you can still strike deals with the individual patent owners if you so choose.

The Nokia patents which Sisvel has now acquired already have numerous licensees, and those deals remain in place along with Nokia's own licence to continue using the patents.

Sisvel has been trying, in competition with Via Licensing and the MPEG LA, to put together a comprehensive IP licensing pool covering all the essential parts of the preferred 4G telephony standard, LTE (long term evolution).

4G and LTE technology is more efficient than 3G and actually saves wireless spectrum utilization when compared to 2G and 3G.

However, this is a significant step in that direction and good news for Sisvel, but if the company is a troll then it's maybe a 'friendlier troll' offering FRAND licences to mobile segment companies who need one.

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Source: ADNT.

    This article was featured on Business 5.0 and on Tech Blog.