Gphones cool, but will catch on slowly, says ARM CEO

November 07, 2007 (IDG News Service) -- Google's move into the market for smart phone operating software on Monday has hyped the idea of a "Gphone," but the new software may take a while to catch on, the head of mobile microprocessor developer ARM said Wednesday.

Smart phones are phones that can run software for e-mail, web-browsing, mapping and calendaring, typified by products running the Symbian, Palm or Windows Mobile operating systems, or more recently by Apple's iPhone.

Google and its partners in the Open Handset Alliance announced a challenger to those offerings on Monday, with support for a Linux-based open software platform for mobile phones, called Android. Google is not announcing a phone running the software itself, but hopes other manufacturers will launch phones using the code the group develops.

"The Google phone will obviously stimulate further growth in the smart phone market," said Warren East, CEO of ARM, in an interview in Taipei.

East is bullish about Android because Google has put its name, reputation and research efforts behind the project.

But building up a new mobile phone software platform can take years, especially in an industry where incumbents such as market leader Symbian have a lengthy head start.

"You're not going to see hundreds of millions of Google phones anytime soon," he said.

East should know. The microprocessor cores his company designs are found in around 95 percent of all smartphones, including Apple's iPhone. Gphones are expected to hit the market in the second half of next year, but by that time most major phone makers will have new smartphone products available to compete against the devices, and many expect Apple to have updated its iPhone.

Devices that draw attention, like the iPhone and future Google phones, whatever they may be, create a lot of demand for smartphones, East said. Global smartphone shipments could reach 300 million next year after doubling this year to 200 million, he added, crediting this year's increase partly to the popularity of the iPhone.

The first iPhone had a lot of ARM technology inside, said East, including the ARM11 processor.

"I think it's inevitable if the iPhone continues to be as successful as it appears on launch that there will be iPhone IIs, iPhone IIIs, whatever. And if we do our job right then they will be based on future ARM processors," East said.

Apple shipped 1.39 million iPhones from the launch through the end of its fourth quarter, Sept. 29, and saw sales spike after it reduced the price of the 8G-byte iPhone by $200, the company said last month. The company's target for next year is to sell 10 million iPhones.

OLPC laptop production started

Full-scale production has finally started for the XO laptop from the One Laptop Per Child Foundation, which is aimed at children in developing nations.

OLPC laptop production started

Full-scale production has finally started for the XO laptop from the One Laptop Per Child Foundation, which is aimed at children in developing nations.

SUNY Morrisville goes high spped!

I've never had the pleasure of visiting the SUNY school talked about in "America's Most Wired College' dives in to 802.11n wireless networking", but it sure seems to be on the cutting edge and is even known as the "most wired college". I think it's fantastic that administrators and faculty there have taken the bold step of implementing 802.11n wireless. That really shouldn't come as a surprise, as apparently, they're considered a "ThinkPad University," or a leader in mobile computing in education.  With so many students and staff using wireless laptops, it was almost necessary that the university adopt 802.11n wireless, which even reaches to parking areas - a plus for this school (located in northern NY where whether can be fierce) where commuting students like to check their computers before they get out of their cars and head to class. No surprise either: it seems even classrooms where laptops can be connected by wired outlets, students overwhelmingly prefer connecting wirelessly. The Morrisville dorms - with no wired outlets - leave students with only wireless as an option; making the switch to 802.11n in my opinion, a no-brainer.

Second Life for a Cisco virtual press conference: fly on over!

When Cisco Systems Inc. said it would announce the winners of a networking technology innovation contest called Connected Life inside a Second Life simulation, it seemed like the place for me to be, if only to see how major companies might use this virtual world.Cisco has been staging virtual meetings in Second Life for more than a year with developers meeting with channel partners, but this presentation was the first time that I had heard of a reporter being asked to cover a meeting there. I am probably an SL noob  by most standards, but at least had already loaded the SL client on my laptop and had created a avatar named Matt2 Ultsch.  I thought I knew most of the ways to move, run, and even fly in SL, and to search out islands and events. 

HTC Working on Google Phone

Taiwan's HTC will start selling a Google phone in the second half of 2008.