Thinknavi display 7" DVB-T Navigation systems.

ThinkNavi from Korea have been producing SatNav devices for some time now, and this year they were showing a whooping great 7" system. The picture on the screen was amazing. I can see this being a big seller in niche markets such as RVs and Motor Homes as well as the "White Van Man". In fact any vehicle that requires the driver to position the SatNav some distance away from the driver is a prime candidate for a larger screen. The incorporation of digital TV into the device means that while waiting for the next delivery or while parked up in a camp site you can watch your favorite TV shows without straining your eyes.

I was talking to Jennie the Chief Marketing Manager for Europe who was telling me that ThinkNavi are looking to expand operations in both Europe and the USA and were setting up marketing operations in both regions.

Thinknavi is a big brand in the far east but has yet to make a significant impact in the west.

ThinkNavi were also displaying Come together Friends this is a Location aware community product that allows your friends to locate you, or you can broadcast your location to a closed user group etc.

Article by Mike Barrett on Friday, February 15 @ 18:28:31 GMT

Gigabyte showcase a range of GSmart GPS enabled Windows Mobile phones

Gigabyte is a well known Taiwanese brand, but it is well known in the PC Motherboard area. At WMC 2008 they launched a range of GPS Enabled phones with the Garmin Mobile XT pre-installed. Branded as GSmart the range has 5 phones, but only 2 with GPS inside. For some strange reason the Gigabyte phones were specified on the stand to be running Windows Mobile 6 Professional but the website and the devices were Windows Mobile 5.

Dr. Stanley Jenq, Chief Executive Officer of GIGA-BYTE Communications said, “We are offering GSmart devices with Garmin not only because Garmin is the world’s leading brand in professional navigation systems, but also because its powerful map engine and user-friendliness has made it popular among users.”

Article by Mike Barrett on Friday, February 15 @ 17:55:45 GMT

AvMap show the connected PND with Digital TV the Geosat 6

AvMap are a Tele Atlas partner and are always found on the Tele Atlas stand showing off the latest innovations from the company. This time they had the new Geosat 6. This is an interesting device as it is a hybrid system in more ways than one. Firstly it has a sim card slot which means it can connect to the internet and download services and data. Secondly apart from the normal media player functionality there is also a Digital TV. I am not convinced about the practicality of the Digital TV in a navigation device for everyday use, but when resting in a service area, or in the evening at a hotel I can see its worth.

AvMap have ensured that the TV cannot be activated while the navigation application is running ensuring the safety of the car. I have experienced Taxi drivers in Asia driving whilst watching TV, a truly frightening experience, so it is good to have that disabled as much as possible.

The connectivity side of the device allows access to dynamic data such as weather, traffic, and dynamic POIs. There is also a feature allowing the download of local petrol prices.

The design of the SatNav is good, even down to small details such as the automatic selection of portrait or landscape modes dependant on the orientation in the mount, as well as the automatic illumination of the blue AvMap text. The best design feature is the actual mount itself. The SatNav can be positioned in one of 2 positions and is held solidly but magnets.

Article by Mike Barrett on Friday, February 15 @ 17:07:02 GMT

Out to lunch... Anyone seen Magellan??

On the Navteq stand there were a number of Navteq partners. A conspicuous absentee was Magellan. I visited the stand on the first day and there was no one there, same was true for the second day. On the third day things had changed a bit and there was a note there saying "Out for lunch back later". I was chatting to David Quin from CoPilot on the next stand for some time and saw a number of people turn up and take pictures of the note.

I don't know what actually happened there, obviously some kind of miscommunication. Maybe I will find out at CeBIT, assuming I don't turn up at lunchtime.

Article by Mike Barrett on Friday, February 15 @ 15:39:27 GMT

Want more connectivity on the move? Take a look at WiMax

At the Mobile Focus press event and subsequently on the Intel stand there was a lot of talk and demos of WiMax. This is a wireless technology that enable WiFi type of connections to the internet with an wide range similar to that of mobile phones.

They chose some interesting vehicles to demonstrate the technology, which looks like it may be ideal for the road warrior with a lot of data to transfer. In the Mobile Focus event there was a Segway with a tablet PC strapped to the handlebar, whilst on the Intel stand itself was a rather cool custom motorbike with a customised PC attached to the handlebars... I wonder what the legal position is on the use of these devices whilst travelling?

This is interesting technology, but will require quite an investment in infrastructure so it may be a business only service for some time. I would like to see this sort of technology become ubiquitous across our cities and major road networks freeing us up for true wireless broadband connectivity.

Article by Mike Barrett on Friday, February 15 @ 15:32:23 GMT

Nokia launch 4 GPS enabled phones plus software services to support them

Michael Halbherr Vice President of Location Based Services for Nokia was a key speaker in the Mobile World Congress "Location, Location, Location" session. Michael presented a view where we have a device which has the capability to do local search, mapping, navigation, social networking, pictures, video etc all geo-referenced or located. It gave the impression that each of these devices would handle all of these functions. The reality is somewhat different as when talking to the product specialists the new devices are still segmented with, apparently, little or no crossover between the functional groups: Imaging, Navigation, and Social Networking. Why cant my Navigator take Geo-referenced pictures and then publish them to Flikr?

Nokia launched 4 new GPS phones. The N78, N96, 6220 Classic and 6210 Navigator, each of these phones are targeted to a different use model. The N78 is a replacement for the N73 (a phone I use a lot), the N96 is a high end device replacing the N95, whilst the 6220 Classic is an Imaging device with a 5Mp camera built in, and the 6220 Navigator is a navigation system.

Although all devices have the capability to perform all the location specific functions they have been packaged for specialist areas. The 6210 Navigator is of most interest to us as this one is the GPS mapping system. Nokia have learnt from their experiences with the 6110 Navigator and have now included both an electronic compass and accelerometer into the phone. What does this mean? Well in urban areas like Barcelona there are a lot of streets with poor satellite reception the combination of a compass and accelerometer means that the phone knows where it is even when the satellite signal has failed. This is useful for 2 reasons it means that pedestrian navigation can continue with low or no signal, and GPS is less reliable at reporting direction and movement when walking. The new 6210 Navigator cures that issue.

As last year Nokia had arranged a NaviTour around the city. This consisted demonstrating the Nokia Maps 2.0 application in action both in car and walking around the tourist areas. Bearing in mind that these devices were still under development and the Nokia Maps was a new beta there were a few glitches in the demo, but the 6210 Navigator certainly seemed to work well in a pedestrian environment.

Article by Mike Barrett on Friday, February 15 @ 15:01:13 GMT

Navigon announce the Navigon 8110 PND

On the first day of Mobile world Congress Navigon announced the Navigon 8110 in Hamburg. Though not a connected device one of the guys at the Navigon booth here just happened to have one which he showed me.

The first thing you notice about it is the looks. there seems to have been some design style features carried over from the Porsche Design version, and the front of the SatNav is made from brushed steel. This has a nice feel and looks very attractive.

Navigon software is not known for being fast, but there have obviously been a number of improvements made in this area as it seemed to be a lot quicker and more responsive than previous versions.

I was only shown a subset of the functionality (apparently there is more that will be announced at CeBIT) but one of the things I really liked was the intelligent data entry system. When you type only valid keys are enabled. Even better is the fact that you can enter a couple of letters then a space then some more and the system does a search based on your entries.

I was impressed by both lane assist and Reality View, both of which have been brought across into this device. I cant wait to get my hands on a sample for testing...

Click here for more details and the Navigon Press release.

Article by Mike Barrett on Wednesday, February 13 @ 10:07:02 GMT

Sony-Ericsson announce XPERIA X1 a GPS Windows Mobile phone

Sony-Ericsson have moved away from the propriety phone operating system and have entered the World of Windows Mobile. The XPERIA X1 was announced on the eve of the Mobile World Congress and represents a significant move into the WM space enabling the quick and easy deployment of many LBS and Navigation solutions available on the WM platform.

Click here for more details including the Sony-Ericsson press release.

Article by Mike Barrett on Wednesday, February 13 @ 09:30:47 GMT

The EMEA Navteq LBS Challenge results.

Every year Navteq hold a Location Based Service Challenge competition with the European final taking place at 3GSM/MWC in Barcelona. Previously the competition rules have allowed a very wide range of applications to be eligible. This year the rules were quite tight and the solution had to be implemented on a Nokia n95 phone. Of course the n95 is a powerful device with integrated GPS making it an ideal platform.

There were 12 finalist from which there were 3 runners up and one winner selected by a panel of judges. For the full list of finalists Click here. There was very strong emphasis on social networking in the applications making it through to the final. This was represented in the winning entries.

The winning application was UbiEst with an application called UbiSafe, a tracking/locating application for a closed usergroup (normally a family) send your kids out into the world with the confidence that you will be able to find them if they are late or missing.

The runners up were: GyPSii a geo-location social networking platform for mobile, web and set-top box devices that allows users to share their real-life experiences in the virtual world. Senda with
Chronomove this manages your travel time in real time and allows you to communicate ETA to persons waiting for arrival. Oxford Softworks Ltd with nearme this searches local Points of Interest (POIs) across multiple categories and delivers advanced POI data to your mobile phone.

Talking to the organisers and the judge "minders" the standard of the entries is improving and year on year, with the emphasis switching from navigation to geo-based social networking (one application entry was a GPS version of Tag in real life).

Article by Mike Barrett on Wednesday, February 13 @ 09:02:14 GMT

NavTeq Display Two New Traffic Enhancements for Europe

NavTeq have announced two new traffic enhancements for their mapping data in Europe. Real-Time NavTeq Traffic and NavTeq Traffic Patterns. Real-Time Traffic aims to provide the actual speed at any given location at any time while NavTeq Traffic Patterns provide historical data on road speeds at particular times of the day.

Mike Barrett is currently at the GSMA Mobile World Congress where he will be seeing NavTeq to get more inside information about these two new products.

In the mean-time click here to read more and to discuss...

Article by maft on Tuesday, February 12 @ 09:01:43 GMT

The Mobile Focus press event: Our first look at the Garmin Nuvifone

This evening a good number of the press corps decamped from the joys of fighting through crowds at the expo to a hotel in the centre of Barcelona. The first challenge was finding a taxi. The queue outside the fairgrounds was really long so I walked a couple of blocks and flagged on down in the street, it always amazes me that more people don't try that.

Once again at the press event there was a lot of social networking software and applications on display. These were complemented by more business centric data storage systems. We also had (as you would expect) a number of BT headsets and cellphone accessories, but the star of the evening was the Garmin Nuvifone.

Garmin had a number of prototype systems available to handle, but the only working device was protected by a glass dome. I must say that the unit I handled felt good. The system is designed to work in landscape mode and the mount again is a typical Nuvi style and from the looks carries the same renowned build quality. I think this is going to be a connected device that all die hard Garmin fans will want.

Click here for more details on the Nuvifone.

Article by Mike Barrett on Tuesday, February 12 @ 01:04:15 GMT

I wish I had made the Nokia conference and an afternoon of social networking

Well it was just my luck to miss the Nokia press conference only to find out that it was packed full of GPS related goodies. There was the launch of the phones: Nokia N96, Nokia N78, Nokia 6220 classic and Nokia 6210 Navigator. An impressive feature of the 6210 was an electronic compass allowing the map to be orientated correctly when turning around whilst stationary. All the phones exhibit different location based and multimedia experiences from pedestrian navigation to geotagging and movie viewing to video and photo sharing. This came complete with new software to upload photos to social networking sites like Flikr. There was a new photo management and synchronisation application for the new (and older) phones.

Just over a year ago Nokia acquired Gate5 and released Nokia Maps. Today they announced Nokia Maps 2.0. Nokia Maps 2.0 adds Walk, a pedestrian focused navigation component to the application, while still offering Drive, a world class car navigation system. The pedestrian navigation efficiently walks you from A to B with visual turn-by-turn guidance. It helps you to locate yourself by giving information about the surrounding buildings, streets and parks (including pathways through the park).

The afternoon and evening was spent looking at some new GPS aware social networking applications. One of the biggest seems to be GyPSii which combines, messaging, photo and video blogging all together with buddy lists and finders. Being of the (slightly) older generation I nvr lrnt 2 txt prply so using a numerical keypad is a complete anathema to me, but my son will just love this.

Article by Mike Barrett on Tuesday, February 12 @ 00:19:16 GMT

A busy morning in Barcelona - Localising your GPS Experience.

I arrived at the fairgrounds for the Mobile World Congress at 8:45 this morning to find a queue of people waiting to get in trailing back over 500 metres... My first thought was to turn around and come back later. Then I realised that I could sneak in through the Press entrance bypassing the crowds.

The atmosphere is electric here. There are lots of shiny new devices, but also the whole range of support services to back up the hardware. This ranges from the core Mobile Technologies all the way through to applications and accessories.

For the first time this year I am not a Judge in the Navteq LBS challenge so I have had time to actually visit some of the booths. I had scheduled myself to attend the Nokia Press Conference only to find out that is was being held in the centre of the city nowhere near the MWC Halls, so that was scrubbed.

I capitalised on the time saved by visiting some of the exhibitors booths from Navteq to Teleatlas, from Alk CoPilot to Navigon, and not forgetting JPL NASA. The talk here is all about Localising GPS, moving away from A-B navigation and more into community and internet convergence.

ALK CoPilot announced last week the incorporation of Microsoft Live into the core navigation app and this is heavily featured on both the Microsoft stand and the Navteq one too. A visit to Teleatlas showed the movement away from cars towards pedestrian navigation, a whole different experience. Whilst Navigon have been busy beavering away integrating not just localised internet searching, but also community web sites into their mobile SatNav applications.

More details on these will follow later.

Article by Mike Barrett on Monday, February 11 @ 13:16:37 GMT

A forecast for this year's Mobile World Conference from Mike Short of O2

Normally we like to speculate and guess who will be announcing what at these shows. We rarely publish as we are ofttimes wrong... However one of the great luminaries of the mobile world has stuck his neck out and made some predictions...

Mike Short, Head of Research & Development at O2 has penned his predictions for Mobile World Congress…

Hi everyone,

Last year, as the last European Chairman of the Global GSM ASSOCIATION, I was asked by many people heading over to Barcelona, what I thought the big trends from Mobile World Congress 08 (MWC) would be. As Head of Research & Development at O2 and Chair of the UK Mobile Data Association I see a lot of innovation and new initiatives in the mobile space. So I thought I would repeat the exercise this year. Below are my key takes about what will be the most talked about themes at this year’s hotly anticipated show:-

Mobile Data and Applications
There will be a lot of experience shared around the 3G evolution, mobile internet and mobile email space again this year as we head towards a much richer and comprehensive data market.
The growing influence of the web will also come through in both business and consumer applications, touching new sectors such as Transport, Health and Education

Mobile Commerce and banking
Support for the GSMA Pay-By-Mobile initiative took off last year with a range of handset manufacturers and operators such as Nokia, Motorola, O2, Vodafone and Orange pledging to examine the use of NFC for contactless payments. With the UK’s first large scale NFC trial – the O2 Wallet – going live in November 2007, Mobile World Congress will be a platform for further brands to review and discuss their plans for using NFC technology in 2008.

This may also be complemented by GSM A led money transfer initiatives, to help the unbanked through mobile around the world.

Mobile advertising
2008 will be the year that mobile advertising comes of age. With more consumers than ever now browsing the web through their mobile handsets, there is a significant and largely untapped audience for advertisers to target customers appropriately with relevant messaging. At MWC expect operators, partnering with advertising specialists, to discuss how they can provide better targeting and measurement for mobile advertising, campaigns, from behavioural and demographic to geographic and channel-based targeting.

Screens, eyewear and accessories
When Bluetooth was first unveiled, largely for headsets, back in 1998 it did not achieve immediate consumer acceptance until around 2002. Talk has now moved to the adoption of screens and video eyewear. MWC 2008 should see the start of products such as pico projectors. With companies like Plastic Logic, Polymer vision, Vuzix, Microvision, and MyVu on show it will be interesting to see how this market develops as we move from a verbal to a visual world of mobile. It may not be long now before wearing video eyewear on the beach to watch the latest episode of Lost, whilst still getting a tan and protecting your eyes from the sun may not be far off.

Mobile communities and social networking
The steady growth of Facebook, Bebo and MySpace means making these communities truly mobile will generate excitement as well. The mobile industry has dabbled in this area with messaging and applications that can be downloaded straight to a handset there are still a lot more to be understood and implemented. We will see further offerings coming down the line later this year, potentially around what the future holds for user generated content (UGC) on mobile. The recent announcement of EYEVIBE by O2 and 3 in the UK is just one illustration of this.

M2M Forecast
Machine to machine or M2M will continue to grow as mobile provides new opportunities for machine as well as people connectivity. Telematics services are already growing rapidly now that GSM/ 3G modules have fallen in cost, and can be designed into longer term telematics applications from health care to transport, from environmental management to energy .

With more (mobile) phones than people in most developed nations the global forecast of M2M could be as high as 60 Billion by 2020, based on there being 10 times more machines than people around the world, but this will only happen with broader cross sector cooperation and partnerships.

Barcelona tapas – something for everyone
Mobile video and TV - expect many more demos and trials to be announced, but no one single standard adopted globally .
Mobile bar code standards
GPS will be integrated more fully into networks and devices enabling many new innovative mapping and location based services
Environmental /climate change solutions – the role that mobile can play in this

I am sure there will be a million more thoughts and ideas that will come out of Mobile World Congress and I would love to hear your views on the big stories and trends.

Best Regards

Mike Short

Article by Mike Barrett on Sunday, February 10 @ 00:21:17 GMT