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Thursday, May 17, 2007

Why the RAZR is killing Motorola !!!

 Motorola RAZR V3

A great article from Mobile Gazette, for my readers:

It's one of the most iconic phones on the market, and something that redefined the way that consumers look at mobile phones. But the Motorola RAZR V3 has turned from a thing of beauty into something more sinister.. because the RAZR is slowly killing Motorola.

Motorola's sales are slumping and the handset division is making a significant loss. Major shareholders are unhappy and want something to be done urgently. However, it seems that the once successful RAZR has become a millstone around Motorola's neck.

Motorola RAZR V3

To understand how the RAZR became such a menace we need to go back a few years. The original RAZR V3 was launched in mid-2004 and at the time there was nothing at all like it on the market. An very striking handset to look at, the RAZR was much thinner than anything else on the market and its sleek metallic look and futuristic keypad were particularly distinctive. True.. it looked slightly odd because it was also much wider than contemporary phone, but it is easy to forget that the RAZR was a real head-turner when it came out.

At launch, this was a premium handset with a premium price tag and a healthy profit margin for Motorola. In early 2005 the original silver edition of the RAZR was joined by a very limited edition black version given to guests at the Oscars. This cemented the RAZR's reputation as a desirable and distinctive phone.

Sales of the RAZR boomed, and as it did the price inevitably started to drop.. but the increased volume made up for Motorola's loss of margin and business boomed.

There were problems though - although the RAZR looked high-tech on the outside, the handset's specification was a straight copy of the V500 series and V600 which had been around since 2003. So it wasn't a very new phone underneath, even though it was still quite competitive. However other features proved to be a disappointment, such as the pretty-but-difficult keypad and the poor user interface. The RAZR also lacked an MP3 player, expandable memory or a decent camera which became more marked as the competition evolved.. and the RAZR did not.

 Motorola MPx The RAZR succeeds.. others fail.

Already by the time the RAZR was launched, Motorola was struggling with other phones in its portfolio. The clever Windows-based Motorola MPx (pictured left) was a high-profile failure, the MPx220 was running late and was panned at launch due to poor performance, the MPx100 had been cancelled and various other phones were either incredibly late to market or were not making much of an impact. The MPx series in particular was hampered by Motorola's lack of ability to get the handsets working properly - but most observers would probably agree that they were ahead of their time.

 Motorola E1120 3GSM World Congress 2005

Buoyed by the success of the RAZR, Motorola went into the 3GSM World Congress in Cannes at the beginning of 2005 with a range of different phones under its belt.

These included the 3G E1120 (pictured right), the E1060 music phone, the A1010 smartphone - significant phones because they were extremely advanced in terms of specifications. The E1120 had a QVGA screen, 3 megapixel camera, GPS, expandable memory, and MP3 player, 3D audio and Bluetooth.. and this was back in 2005. It was also an attractive phone with a style quite unlike the RAZR. The E1060 shared similar styling while the A1010 was an advanced 3G Symbian device.

All three handsets were quietly cancelled. At a stroke, Motorola lost three of the most promising phones in their range. The E1120 in particular would still be a great phone today and it certainly looks more stylish than most.

 Motorola RAZR V3x The RAZR V3x and V3i are launched

By late 2005 things were looking desperate for Motorola. The aging RAZR had been re-released in a variety of colours including black, blue and a fairly hideous pink. The Unrath & Strano edition took this to extremes. Yes, the RAZR was still selling briskly, but at very little profit to Motorola, and it had long ago lost its "exclusive" status.

In spring 2005 Motorola had announced their first RAZR clone, the V1150 which was later rebranded as the RAZR V3x (pictured left). The V3x was a fundamentally different device to the V3 - a fully featured 3G phone with expandable memory, a 2 megapixel camera, QVGA screen and video calling, it knocked the V3 into a cocked hat.

 Motorola RAZR V3i Again, Motorola hit a problem with the V3x.. at launch time the 3G market was still tiny and the V3x was substantially larger and heavier than the original RAZR. Here was a phone with features that the general public didn't yet want, and the device itself lacked the "wow" factor of the V3. Despite this, the V3x sold reasonably well in its small market niche.

By late 2005 Motorola had come out with the V3i (pictured right) - a substantially improved device with a multimedia player, better camera and expandable memory. While not as advanced as the V3x, it made the platform more competitive with the competition. The V3i sold well, often alongside the original (much cheaper) V3 in the shop.

 Motorola ROKR E1 More disasters for Motorola

Around the same time that the RAZR V3i was launched, Motorola again found itself in difficulties. Non-RAZR phones were not selling in any numbers, upcoming handsets were late and frankly uninspiring. The SLVR (a monoblock version of the RAZR) was enjoying a modest success, but Motorola really needed something else.

That something else was the disastrous Motorola ROKR E1 (pictured left). Launched in September 2005, the ROKR E1 was a warmed over E398 from 18 months previously and that was a rehash of the cancelled E390 announced in late 2003. When the ROKR came to market, most of the underlying technology was two years old. All of this was made much worse by a crippled implementation of iTunes which limited the number of songs that could be stored.

Many people assumed that the ROKR would be the "iPhone".. but it wasn't. The ROKR E1 was severely criticised in the press and proved to be immensely damaging for Motorola.

Although the significantly better ROKR E2 was announced a few months later, non-RAZR handset sales slumped and the ROKR label was badly tarnished. The ROKR E2 never even made it to most major markets. And then for the first half of 2006, Motorola basically shut down and announced no significant handsets at all, just a couple of RAZR clones including the W220 and W375.

 Motorola RAZR MAXX Motorola takes stock - and goes RAZR mad

We believe that the failure of the ROKR shook Motorola very badly. At this point almost all non-RAZR projects were canned (including the very late-but-promising E1120). By the second half of 2006, Motorola had a new range of phones.. almost all of which borrowed heavily from the RAZR's design.

In short succession, Motorola came out with the RIZR Z3, RAZR MAXX (pictured right), RAZR XX, V1100, K1 and FONE F3 all of which were based on the RAZR or SLVR styling to a large extent. This first batch of Motorolas had no less than three HSDPA (3.5G) RAZRs.

Then followed the ROKR Z6, KRZR K3, MOTO Z8, SLVR L9 and a whole host of RAZR clones such as the fairly redundant W510. All of these handsets were very different, but had one thing in common.. styling. Although many of these handsets have not made it to market yet, it became immediately obvious that the market reaction was cool at best and hostile at worst.

 LG Shine The curse of fashion

The original RAZR was a fashion phone, perhaps the first fashion phone (also Motorola's old StarTac also vies for that honour). It could be argued that Motorola created the current fashion phone market with the original V3, and it is certainly widely considered to be a design icon.

At present there are very few handsets in Motorola's range that do not borrow from the RAZR in styling - but the problem is that the RAZR is strictly last season's fashion. While newcomers such as LG have come up with the Chocolate and Shine devices, Motorola continues to bring out RAZRs in an effort to rekindle success.

Other competitors don't compete in the same way - Sony Ericsson phones are more understated when it comes to design and don't fall into the fashion phone category, and Nokia like to design every phone to look a little different from the rest which keeps their range looking fresh.

Desperate times for Motorola.. but they make the same old mistakes

 Motorola RAZR2 It is now getting on for the middle of 2007 and Motorola are in an awful mess. Sales have slumped and the Motorola board are under threat from angry investors. Without doubt Motorola needed to take a new direction in order to revive sales.

The simple truth that Motorola goes not understand is this - the RAZR has had its day. This particular design is no longer of interest to most customers, regardless of how clever the phones are technically. Fashion-savvy customers in mature markets are mightily bored of the overall design. When people wander into a shop they don't see the technology underneath - the first thing they see is yet another RAZR design.. at first glance not so different from the phone they have already. That's the thjng about fashion phones.

And yet Motorola's response to slumping RAZR sales is.. the RAZR2 (pictured right). From what we can tell, the RAZR2 V8 and RAZR2 V9 are two very promising phones.. but they have utterly wasted their time because all the clever new features in these handsets have been squeezed into the same tired old form factor that has been around for year.

Yes, technically savvy customers (such as Mobile Gazette readers) may be interested in the RAZR2 lineup because of features such as the clever external screen and HSDPA support, but both phones are saddled with the same old looks and nasty keypad of the original RAZR. And believe it or not, most retail customers look at looks first - and there RAZR2 looks just like a V3i with an oversized external display.

Motorola must do better

We are sometimes accused of being anti-Motorola at Mobile Gazette, but that simply isn't true. We believe that competition is good and a strong Motorola will benefit all consumers in the long run.. after 3GSM 2005 Motorola really looked like a company that could reach the number one spot. But Motorola's fixation on the RAZR design may well prove its undoing.

The elegant E1120 demonstrated the Motorola knows how to design attractive phones other than the RAZR. The capable MOTO Z8 shows that Motorola can write the clever software that's needed in a modern handset.

It is time for Motorola to take its considerable (but underused) talents and put them to good use by creating a new design icon which will finally make us all go "wow" again.

Wednesday, May 16, 2007

Halo 3 will be out on September 25

GAME fans should circle September 25 on their calendars.

It is the release date for one of the most anticipated games ever – Halo 3.

Created by Bungie Studios exclusively for the Xbox 360, Halo 3 is the concluding chapter of one of the most successful game franchises in history.

Halo 2, when it was released in November 2004, generated around $150m in worldwide sales in its first 24 hours of release.

To this day Halo 2 remains the most played Xbox game online with more than a billion hours logged.

Halo 3, which follows the adventures of Master Chief, a super soldier battling to save mankind, will take advantage of the high-powered Xbox 360 system and expected to set a new standard in high definition gaming.

"Halo 3 is much more than a video game release, it's potentially the biggest entertainment event of the year," says Nick Segger, Microsoft group product marketing manager.

"For the fans though it's the chance to revisit the Halo legend and finish the fight in stunning high definition."

Gamers can get a taste of what to expect from Halo 3 with the release of an online multiplayer beta with specially marked copies of Xbox 360 game Crackdown giving players access to it from today.

Tuesday, May 15, 2007

First Look : Moto Razr 2


Motorola has today officially unveiled the successor to one of the most iconic mobiles ever made, the RAZR 2. Available in 3.6Mbps HSDPA, EV-DO, and GSM / EDGE variants as the V9, V9m, and V8 respectively, the GSM and CDMA versions of the device comes in 2 millimeters slimmer than its predecessor and -- on some versions, anyway -- will be the second to use Motorola's new Linux-based platform (the first being the Z6).

It includes something Moto is calling "Crystal Talk" technology that automatically adjusts volume and tone based on ambient noise. Other features include external music controls, haptics (read: vibration) for tactile feedback when external touchscreen keys are pressed, a full HTML browser, 2 megapixel cam, the full suite of Bluetooth profiles, Windows Media Player sync, a 2-inch QVGA external display, 2.2-inch QVGA internal display, and twice the screen resolution of the original RAZR. GSM versions start shipping in early July, with CDMA following up later in the summer.

from engadget

Monday, May 14, 2007

Is Halo 3 Microsoft's trump card?

Microsoft gave a sneak peek at its “Halo 3” game, saying the next chapter of the fast-paced shooter trilogy will help it fend off competition from Sony and Nintendo.

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Gamers at the invitation-only preview gave mixed reviews.

“The graphics can use some work ...They’re not much different than the previous Halo,” said Nicholas Puleo, editor of gaming news Web site Evilavatar.com. “They’ve got five, six months until release, so they’ll add some polish ...When I compare it to other things in the platform, it’s not standout.”

Microsoft staged previews in New York and San Francisco in advance of the public test, or “beta,” of the game, which goes live next Wednesday. A public beta is unusual for a console game, and the one for the flagship title for Microsoft’s Xbox 360 is being closely watched by gamers eager to know how it looks and plays, and whether it will live up to the considerable buzz.

“I definitely believe that ‘Halo 3’ is going to be bigger than ‘Halo 2’. Retailers know what ‘Halo 2’ did and they are not going to want to be caught out of stock,” Shane Kim, head of Microsoft Game Studios, told Reuters.

The first “Halo” helped the original Xbox gain a foothold in the highly competitive video-game market, while the second installment became the top-selling game ever for the system, with sales of $125 million —roughly 2.5 million copies — in its first 24 hours of availability.

Microsoft plans to launch “Halo 3” in the autumn, Kim said. The first two games were released in November of 2001 and 2004 ahead of the year-end holiday season.

LG.Philips unleashes world's first "paper-thin" color display

LG.Philips unleashes world's first

LG.Philips LCD, one of the world's top producers of thin-film transistor liquid crystal displays (TFT-LCDs), announced on Sunday that it has developed the world's first 14.1-inch electronic paper (e-paper) display that is as flexible as paper, a second breakthrough in e-paper for the company, which introduced the world's first 14.1-inch black and white flexible e-paper display in May 2006.

The e-paper, which measures 14.1 inches (35.9 centimetres) across its diagonal and is just 300 micrometres (0.3 millimetres) thin, is being touted as the next generation in display technology.

The paper-thin and bendable viewing panel can display up to 4,096 colours by using an electronic ink from US-based E Ink, and can be viewed from a full 180 degrees, the world's second largest liquid crystal display maker said in a statement.

Instead of glass, the display uses electronic circuits formed on a thin metal panel, and can be bended or even rolled up like paper. Like the black and white flexible display, the color version uses a substrate that arranges Thin-Film Transistors (TFT) on metal foil rather than glass, allowing it to recover its basic shape after being bent.

The screen does not disappear even when the power is off, the company said.

"We've paved the way in leading the flexible display market by developing the world's fist colored e-paper," Chung In-jae, chief technology officer and executive vice-president, said in the statement. "This represents the next generation in display technology."

The so called e-paper panel is designed to be energy-efficient, only using power when the image changes on the display. Images when viewed on this paper-thin panel always appear to be sharp, even when the display is bent.

The color version's potential applications are fabulous and will enable “our customers to create new products that are not only convenient to use but also save natural resources", Chung In-Jae added.

Several other companies in Korea and abroad have been working in this field. Prime View International (PVI), a Taiwan-based small- to medium-size panel maker, last week introduced Vizplex, a new electronic paper (e-paper) technology co-developed with E Ink and said it is ready to produce products using the technology.

PVI said it will provide the wider applications with 1.9-, 5-, 6-, 8- and 9.7-inch e-paper displays, which are scheduled to debut in the summer of 2007.

Applications that PVI will offer include handheld devices such as mobile phones, digital music players, as well as computer peripherals, bulletin boards and electronic dictionaries, the maker said.

Japan’s Seiko Epson, last year in June, announced the development of 0.47-millimeter-thick, A6-size (7.1-inch) sheet of e-paper that sports an impressive 2,048 x 1,536 pixels (QXGA) and a maximum drive voltage of six volts.

The screen that was announced at the Society for Information Display's (SID) 2006 international symposium in San Francisco, is approximately the same size as an A6 piece of paper (105 millimeters by 148mm) and uses SUFTLA (surface-free technology by laser annealing) technique, combined with electrophoretic technology from E-Ink.

LG.Philips said it developed the world's first 25.65cm flexible black-and-white e-paper in October 2005 and a 35.8cm follow-up in May 2006, which matches the most common copy size.

LG.Philips LCD Co., Ltd. is a leading manufacturer and supplier of thin-film transistor liquid crystal display (TFT-LCD) panels. The Company manufactures TFT-LCD panels in a wide range of sizes and specifications for use in TVs, monitors, notebook PCs, and various applications.

With approximately 23,000 employees globally, LG.Philips LCD currently operates seven fabrication facilities and four back-end assembly facilities in Korea, China and Poland. It also has representative offices in ten countries.

According to a forecast by market researcher Displaybank, the market for flexible displays will grow to US$5.9 billion by 2010.

Friday, May 11, 2007

Web 2.0 for my readers

I thought it would be a good idea to enlighten my readers with the concept of Web 2.0, since we're all such an integral part of it. Surprised? Read on...

What Is Web 2.0?


The bursting of the dot-com bubble in the fall of 2001 marked a turning point for the web. Many people concluded that the web was overhyped, when in fact bubbles and consequent shakeouts appear to be a common feature of all technological revolutions. Shakeouts typically mark the point at which an ascendant technology is ready to take its place at center stage. The pretenders are given the bum's rush, the real success stories show their strength, and there begins to be an understanding of what separates one from the other.

The concept of "Web 2.0" began with a conference brainstorming session between O'Reilly and MediaLive International. Dale Dougherty, web pioneer and O'Reilly VP, noted that far from having "crashed", the web was more important than ever, with exciting new applications and sites popping up with surprising regularity. What's more, the companies that had survived the collapse seemed to have some things in common. Could it be that the dot-com collapse marked some kind of turning point for the web, such that a call to action such as "Web 2.0" might make sense? We agreed that it did, and so the Web 2.0 Conference was born.

In the year and a half since, the term "Web 2.0" has clearly taken hold, with more than 9.5 million citations in Google. But there's still a huge amount of disagreement about just what Web 2.0 means, with some people decrying it as a meaningless marketing buzzword, and others accepting it as the new conventional wisdom.

This article is an attempt to clarify just what we mean by Web 2.0.

In our initial brainstorming, we formulated our sense of Web 2.0 by example:

Web 1.0 Web 2.0
DoubleClick --> Google AdSense
Ofoto --> Flickr
Akamai --> BitTorrent
mp3.com --> Napster
Britannica Online --> Wikipedia
personal websites --> blogging
evite --> upcoming.org and EVDB
domain name speculation --> search engine optimization
page views --> cost per click
screen scraping --> web services
publishing --> participation
content management systems --> wikis
directories (taxonomy) --> tagging ("folksonomy")
stickiness --> syndication

The list went on and on. But what was it that made us identify one application or approach as "Web 1.0" and another as "Web 2.0"? (The question is particularly urgent because the Web 2.0 meme has become so widespread that companies are now pasting it on as a marketing buzzword, with no real understanding of just what it means. The question is particularly difficult because many of those buzzword-addicted startups are definitely not Web 2.0, while some of the applications we identified as Web 2.0, like Napster and BitTorrent, are not even properly web applications!) We began trying to tease out the principles that are demonstrated in one way or another by the success stories of web 1.0 and by the most interesting of the new applications.