The Carnival of the Mobilists no. 59 Is Here

Photo by Rick Takagi Some rights reserved

Hi everyone,

Welcome to the 59th edition of the Carnival of the Mobilists! Sit comfortably and get ready for a blast of the best mobile writing of the week :)

Mobile Content and Services

As part of the interviews with leading research companies dedicated to the telecoms industry (previous guests were Strategy Analytics, Wireless World Forum), Michele MacKenzie of Ovum visits Xellular Identity and shares Ovum's Forecasts and insights regarding the mobile content market.

Justin Oberman covers the launch of the New York City Mobile Trial sponsored by Nokia, Citibank, Mastercard and Cingular and shares his experience with the Nokia 6126 with the NFC chip (Cingular branded) mobile phone.

Dennis of the Wap Review covers Mobitopia, a del.icio.us clone for mobile links only.

Following his very interesting post “Understanding Mobile 2.0” Rudy De Waele created a wiki space to start categorizing the so-called Mobile 2.0 companies and invites you to add your own information and keep it updated.

The Mobile Diva, Darla Mack, raises her thumbs up on the threaded SMS Idea. Hey, when you're talking to someone via sms you're having a conversation... so why not display it as such? :)

The iPhone

The buzz around the iPhone is still humming!

Krisse from All About Symbian joined the fun and picks the 'best post of the week' title with 'why $50 phones are revolutionary while $500 ones aren't'; and here's a quote I really liked:

"The talk of a "revolution" sounds especially hollow because it completely misrepresents what a revolution is: something that touches the lives of as many people as possible as profoundly as possible. Technologically cutting edge gadgets like the Apple iPhone or Nokia N95 are going in completely the opposite direction to a revolution, and by concentrating on them their manufacturers are deliberately restricting the breadth and depth of their products' influence."

David Beers hopes that the closed-platform iPhone could spur on a new era of open-platform handheld tablets which he calls "PDA 2.0" :)

On the same subject, Michael Mace proposes an alternative explanation to the previous answers provided to "why can't you add software to the iPhone?" - because of Windows.

Patrick Altoft tries to help understand the complexities of the speculations related to the Apple vs. Cisco iPhone trademark dispute and brings Eric Ramage's expert opinions as a Trademark Attorney.

C. Enrique Ortiz responds to a previous post by Christian Lindholm and shares his views on the subject of iPhone's new user interface.

Jason Delport agrees that Apple has raised the bar on the mobile user interface.

Kiran Bellubbi covers the inventory, production and distribution strategies between MoTo, Nokia and Apple and concludes that clearly Apple has won this battle.

Bill Day sums up some of early reports on iPhone while laying out three key issues identified during the first week: the lack of 3G, the lack of proper imaging capabilities and the lack of developer support.

Mobile OS

Anders Borg brings a section-by-section analysis of the MIDP 3.0 draft spec. I just learnt that MIDP 3.0 “is the new, yet unfinished, version of MIDP. CLDC/MIDP is the most popular mobile phone application platform…" Also Anders states (smiling) that this post is “not for the faint of heart” :)

Andreas Constantinou clarifies the mobile Linux landscape today and explains how there are five different types of offerings: from Linux support packages (the Lego bricks) all the way to complete products (the castles). He essentially maps Linux vendors and offers insight into how these vendors are like and unlike.

Thomas Menguy asks whether software or OS vendors have to define the user experience.

Mobile HS reviews

Welcome to Ricky Cadden, a new contributor to the CotM, with a reach review of the Nokia N75 (Cingular branded) mobile handset.

Also Chris Johnson reviews the Blackberry Pearl.

Other Mobile Related

VoIP Lowdown reviews Skype’s plans to enter the mobile market with Wi-Fi phones and dual-mode cordless handsets among the company’s new range of products scheduled to debut this year.

Leonard Low lists ten good reasons why mobile devices are important for education.

Just before saying goodbye:

• You're all invited to the second annual MobileSunday. It's "an unofficial, informal and generally cool and funky gathering of mobile bloggers and their chums-that will be taking place in Barcelona on the eve of this year's 3GSM World" organized by Rudy De Waele. For more information - visit this page.
• Don't forget the MoMo Global Peer Awards 2007 in Barcelona during 3GSM (February 12th starting at 3PM) including the "Host of the Year Award" by Carnival of the Mobilists. The winning blogger will receive a complimentary trip to Helsinki for the MobileMonday Global Summit in May!

Have a great week and hope to catch up next week at Mobbu or in Barcelona :)