iPhone killers are lifesavers for display demand

EL SEGUNDO, USA: The new generation of so-called “iPhone killers” is set to drive demand and increase sales of displays commonly used in smartphones in 2009, despite an expected decline in the overall mobile-phone display market this year, according to iSuppli Corp.

Worldwide shipments of mobile-phone LCD displays between 2.5-inches and 4.9- inches in size diagonally, and with pixel formats of QVGA and higher, are projected to rise to 149.9 million units in 2009, up an impressive 22.1 percent from 122.8 million in 2008. In contrast, overall shipments of all mobile phone displays are expected to decline by 11 percent for the year.

The figure presents iSuppli’s worldwide shipment for LCD displays sized between 2.5-inches and 4.9 inches diagonally, and with pixel formats of QVGA and higher.

iSuppli: Global Forecast of Unit Shipments of Displays From 2.5-Inches to 4.9-Inches in Size with Pixel Formats QVGA and Higher (Thousands of Units)Source: iSuppli, Aug. 2009

While a large number of smart phones use smaller displays and LCDs with other pixel formats, these displays are most likely to be used in high-end, feature-rich products. Thus, their growth provides an accurate picture of growth in smartphone display demand.

“The continued success of Apple Inc.’s iPhone is driving market demand for competitive products,” said Vinita Jakhanwal, principal analyst for small and medium displays at iSuppli.

“Companies are rolling out a range of iPhone killers, including new products based on Google’s Android operating system. To this end, many OEMs are introducing higher-end, multimedia-enabled phones that include larger displays with superior resolutions.”

The rising demand for smart-phone-oriented displays and the continued strength in demand from the Chinese mobile phone makers are helping propel a recovery in the mobile phone display market, with sequential growth starting in the second quarter, after two consecutive quarter of decline.

Normal seasonal factors, combined with the continued economic downturn and large inventories, caused overall shipments to decline sequentially by 17.4 percent in the fourth quarter of 2008 and by 8.5 percent in the first quarter of 2009.

In the second quarter, shipments actually slowed in May compared to April due to a shortage of components such as driver ICs and LCD glass. However, most of this shortage, particularly for driver ICs, was resolved by June, allowing mobile-phone display shipments to rise by 4.6 percent in the second quarter.

“Early indicators from the Taiwanese small/medium suppliers are pointing to a strong third-quarter performance,” Jakhanwal said.

“The Taiwanese vendors are significant suppliers to the Chinese mobile phone makers for both the branded and clone markets. Incentives from the Chinese government have helped boost demand for consumer electronics, including cell phones, in rural China. The government is looking at expanding this program further.”

The third quarter is usually the strongest period of the year, as panels are shipped to meet the end-year holiday demand for electronic devices. Strong demand is expected from Tier-1 handset OEMs in this quarter, too. However, uncertainty in consumer demand persists. If mobile-phone sales fail to pick up the fourth quarter, oversupply in the mobile phone display market could build up.

Octopus brings streaming stereo music to iPhone

UK: The Version 3 iPhone software, officially released last week by Apple, enables users to stream music to Bluetooth devices in stereo (via A2DP).

This is great news for users of Tattu Mobile’s Octopus stereo Bluetooth adapter –- now they can stream music on their iPhone to an iPod docking station, whilst continuing to use the iPhone in their hand.

Uniquely, the Octopus has an iPod docking station adapter, enabling iPhone users to listen to their favourite tracks whilst still surfing the net, looking at pictures or playing games. The iPhone does not need to be attached to the dock to stream music.

Andy Press, Chief Operating Officer for Tattu Mobile said: “The release of the new iPhone software means that for the first time, iPhone users can stream their music in stereo by Bluetooth. By linking the iPhone and Octopus, users can listen to music without having to leave their phone on their iPod docking station, so they can continue to use their phone and listen to music in stereo at the same time.”

iPhone users can also now also transform their iPod dock into a speaker phone by connecting their iPhone to Octopus and streaming their calls to the iPod dock.

Octopus boasts outstanding call quality and music streaming and is simple to set up and use. It can be charged on any iPod docking station or directly with the charger in the box. With a battery life of six hours of continuous music, Octopus has enough power for users to enjoy their music wherever they want.

The Octopus Bluetooth adapter comes from Tattu Mobile, an innovative UK company that provides enhanced experiences for mobile users. It is available now from Tattu Mobile’s web site.

Apple intros Mac OS X Server Snow Leopard

SAN FRANCISCO, USA: Appleunveiled a Developer Preview of Mac OS(R) X Server Snow Leopard(TM), the next major release of the world's easiest to use server operating system.

Snow Leopard Server is a full 64-bit UNIX server operating system based on open standards that is up to twice as fast as its predecessor.* Snow Leopard Server includes innovative new features such as Podcast Producer 2, for automating the creation and publishing of podcasts, and Mobile Access Server with secure access to firewall-protected network services for iPhone and Mac. Snow Leopard Server is priced more affordably than ever at $499 with unlimited client licenses and will ship in September 2009.

"Snow Leopard Server is our best and fastest server operating system ever, and unlimited client licenses make it an incredible value for any size business," said Bertrand Serlet, Apple's senior vice president of Software Engineering. "With easy to use new features like Podcast Producer 2 and Mobile Access Server, anyone can set up and manage its powerful services with just a few clicks."

Snow Leopard Server is a full 64-bit operating system designed to take advantage of multi-core processors and address massive amounts of memory, while remaining fully compatible with 32-bit applications. Up to twice as fast as its predecessor, Snow Leopard Server easily handles the most demanding server operations including web and application hosting, file sharing and mail.

Podcast Producer 2 includes the new Podcast Composer application, which automates the entire production process, making it easy to create podcasts with a customized, consistent look and feel. With just a few clicks, Podcast Composer creates a workflow to add titles, transitions and effects, save to a desired format and share to wikis, blogs, iTunes, iTunes U, Final Cut Server or the new Podcast Library.

The new Mobile Access Server is a convenient, easy way for iPhone and Mac users to access secured network services, including corporate websites, online business applications, email, calendars and contacts. Without requiring additional software, Mobile Access Server provides strong encryption and authentication between the user's iPhone or Mac and a private network.

PM-ABC: World's first PMP audio book for iPhone users

TAIPEI, TAIWAN: As the global audience of iPhone/iPod embracing this handheld internet-connected multimedia player and smartphone gadget, the Project Management Advanced Business Consulting Inc. (PM-ABC.com), a registered education provider of Project Management Institute, who boosted the growing rate of Certified Project Managers in Taiwan to the world’s fastest one in the past three years, has developed the world’s first Project Management audio book.

This audio book integrates learning activities with the versatileness and mobility of iPhone/iPod, where a joint force of playing and learning, project management and entertainment, has made a great manifestation on this 21th-century magic device.

iPhone and iPod are the most fantastic 3G products developed and marketed by Apple Inc. Not only have they re-defined the mobile phone and MP3 player, but their 3×5 inches multi-touch screen has become a fantastic stage for the display of the most advanced wireless technologies.

The versatility of the device includes a GPS that supports global map searching, Internet connection that supports emailing, web browsing, video-audio viewing, and an exclusive online shopping platform specially developed by Apple. Anything you can imagine in terms of internet and mobile phone can be realized within this palm-sized touch screen. Besides, it also allows to play games or do learning activities.

As a matter of fact, if you look at the number of the games and learning software on the Apple’s iTune platform, and their purchase rate, you will soon realize, many of this little, fancy and miscellaneous software have infiltrated every aspects of people’s life. Their function can no longer be described as “time killing.”

PM-ABC sees the versatileness and beauty of iPhone/iPod, and attempts to test the possibility of delivering quality management knowledge through this gadget. After successfully developed a world-leading project management professional (PMP) exam simulation system three years ago, PM-ABC continues to develop new learning products that can fit in with modern people’s fragmented learning life. In this sense, Apple’s iPhone and iPod prove to be a very ideal media.

This end of May, PM-ABC successfully delivered the world’s first PMP audio book, in which the Nine Knowledge Areas of Project Management are provided.

The first episode of the audio books is free for download, the second episode is divided into three parts, and each one costs $1.99. Every user is entitled a free access to the exam simulation of 200 questions provided by PMSuccess for 7 days. All the 3C lovers are welcome to test on the learning software; you may find something beyond expectation!

Free Download link
http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=316708567&mt=8

Test mobile Web sites on iPhone, Android, BlackBerry and Win Mobile smartphones

LEXINGTON, USA: Gomez Inc., a leader in Web application experience management, has introduced the industry's first solution that can automatically test how entire mobile Web sites render on iPhone, Google Android, BlackBerry, and Windows Mobile 6.1 and 5-based smartphones.

The service is part of Gomez's "One Web" performance testing and monitoring capabilities that help developers and IT operations teams find, diagnose and fix application performance issues whether they are mobile-specific, Web-specific or both.

Completely automated, self-service and on-demand, Gomez's cross-browser and device testing solution saves mobile developers time and money by enabling them to visually test complete mobile Web sites significantly faster than traditional manual testing processes.

By simply entering a starting URL and selecting which smartphones to test, the service rapidly crawls through the entire mobile Web site and returns volumes of screen captures showing how each Web page appears on each smartphone selected.

Automating the process means developers can more swiftly find and correct content rendering issues like missing or misplaced graphics, buttons and text, prior to launch. It also reduces the need for in-house testing labs which can be expensive and time-consuming to build and maintain.

As smartphone sales increase (more than 36.4 million units were sold in Q1 2009, a 12.7 percent increase from the same period last year, according to Gartner, Inc., so does consumer and enterprise mobile Web usage fueled by the full HTML browsers found in these devices. Consequently, more businesses are developing mobile Web sites and applications to ensure that their brands and services are available to increasing numbers of smartphone owners.

However, much like on the traditional Web, the multiplicity of mobile browsers and devices affects the way content appears and functions from smartphone to smartphone which can negatively impact the end-user's mobile Web experience.

"First impressions count, especially for smartphone owners who have high expectations for a rich mobile Web experience," said Imad Mouline, CTO of Gomez. "Any organization that is building a mobile presence needs to be sure that their content renders as intended across all the devices their customers use -- or risk jeopardizing brand and customer satisfaction. Gomez's cross-mobile web browser testing transforms a process that was once manual and cumbersome to one that is speedy and cost-efficient."

In addition to visually testing mobile Web sites, Gomez's cross-browser and device testing solution also checks how traditional Web applications appear and function in more than 500 combinations of browsers, operating systems and screen sizes. It is available now on an annual subscription basis.