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Communicasia Still an Innovation Heaven

Posted on: Monday, 30 June 2008, 03:02 CDT

By Chandra Devi; Siti Syameen Md Khalili

COMMUNICASIA, the largest regional communications and information technology exhibition, seemed much quieter this year than on previous occasions. Nonetheless, the fair held on the grounds of the Singapore Expo still had its share of excitement with some manufacturers and service providers showcasing their latest wares.

Over 1,500 companies exhibited their solutions, ranging from mobile and convergent devices to wireless broadband and Internet protocol television.

The Malaysian Pavilion housed Netmask Telecomputer, Measat Satellite Systems, Green Packet and TM, among others. TM marked its fifth year at the fair while Measat and Euroconsult jointly announced the results of a study on high-definition TV development, highlighting that 75 per cent of pay-TV operators surveyed in 15 markets had or were planning to launch an HDTV offering this year.

A total of 84 local companies took part in CommunicAsia as well as parallel events EnterpriseIT and the International Interactive, Digital Media and Entertainment Exhibition and Conference while 30 companies exhibited at BroadcastAsia.

LG has a Secret

LG Electronics has placed yet another handset on the fashion runway, following in the footsteps of its successful design-centric models from the Black Label Series.

The Secret, or model KF750, which made its debut at CommunicAsia, is the Black Label Series' strongest model yet, even outperforming the Chocolate and Shine in terms of design, durability and performance, according to the company.

The touch-enabled slider phone is not only fashionable and slim at 11.8 millimetres thick, but also highly durable, thanks to the use of materials such as carbon fibre and tempered glass. So, say goodbye to scratch marks.

Striking a good balance of style and substance, the Secret comes with Neon Touch Navigation buttons and touch-screen function for multimedia features such as music, photos, games, documents and FM radio.

It is also equipped with a five-megapixel camera, which boasts 120- frame-per-second video recording and playback, and photo and video-editing features, including facial editing and the SmartLight feature that automatically adjusts a picture's light settings.

For Internet surfing and e-mail access, LG has bundled in the Google package, which also enables the use of Google Maps and YouTube.

And for more entertainment, the phone comes with motion-sensor games, which allow users to play onboard games by tilting or shaking.

Other exciting capabilities are DivX-certified video playback, auto- rotating display and auto-luminance control. With auto- rotating display, images on the screen can be shifted to be viewed in any position while with auto-luminance control, screen lighting is automatically adjusted according to ambient brightness.

The Secret, which has 100 megabytes of internal memory and a Micro Secure Digital card slot that supports cards up to four gigabytes, will be made available in most parts of Asia by end of next month.

Ericsson's broadband promise

ERICSSON took advantage of CommunicAsia to demonstrate its high- capacity broadband and TV solutions. Its portfolio includes solutions for fixed and mobile broadband, transport, core networks and IP Multimedia Subsystem, enabling an efficient network evolution to an all-Internet protocol operation.

Focusing on delivering broadband to anyone, anywhere and on any device, Ericsson's solutions are suited for operators keen on riding the broadband growth bandwagon.

In Southeast Asia, Malaysia currently leads broadband adoption with over 1.35 million subscriptions, said Ericsson Malaysia's regional manager, Consumer Lab Southeast Asia Vishnu Singh.

Still, the potential for growth is high, what more with the total adoption rate for the region at less than five per cent at present, he added.

Ericsson Malaysia's vice president, strategy Christian Hedelin highlighted that Ericsson's research through Consumer Lab showed that the main reasons for people not having broadband access were expensive pricing and unavailability.

While technology such as High Speed Packet Access (HSPA) can address the availability issue, the challenge for operators is making their services affordable.

"Our recent survey shows that for US$20 (RM66) per month, less than 20 per cent of users in Bangladesh think it is affordable. For Malaysia, people in smaller cities such as Ipoh, Kuala Terengganu and Johor Baru tend to think similarly," Hedelin said.

He pointed out that Ericsson helps operators address the pricing issue by bringing down cost per bit through the use of power- efficient terminals, delivering a wider spectrum, and providing intelligent traffic shaping and priority handling, among others.

To fibre up the region will take many years, so radio is a faster way to deliver broadband to the masses, according to Ericsson Southeast Asia's president Jan Signell, and that the mobile platform will soon overtake the fixed platform. Analysts estimate that HSPA will connect 70 per cent of mobile broadband subscribers by 2010.

"While voice services will remain a major contributor to operator revenues, the growing demand for data services over broadband, both fixed and wireless, is driving a technology shift towards HSPA, IP and fibre. With the comprehensive solutions in our portfolio, we are able to partner with operators to offer new and advanced services to their customers and manage the increasing demand and usage of mobile data," Signell said.

Sony Ericsson's motion gaming and more

ALTHOUGH Sony Ericsson did not have a booth at CommunicAsia, the phone manufacturer managed to organise a global announcement event during the show to introduce a host of innovative products, ranging from high-end to entry-level phones to its first HSPA universal serial bus (USB) modems.

Targeting the youth market and those interested in gaming on their phones, the company introduced the F305 with motion gaming features. Users can control games at a flick of a wrist or a swing of an arm, based on an advanced motion sensor technology.

While motion sensor technology is not new on Sony Ericsson phones, integrating it into gameplay is seen as a natural progression for the company.

Paying attention to serious gamers, the F305 allows eight hours of gameplay and includes a backup device that can be attached to the keyring for power boost when needed.

In the camera phone range, Sony Ericsson unveiled its first Cyber- shot slider, the C905. The model is packed with advanced camera features such as an 8.1-megapixel camera and real camera flash. Also introduced was the more affordable S302, which has basic camera functions.

Two new entry-level phones on showcase were the J132 and K330. The former is a talk and text phone with FM radio and stereo hands- free kit while the latter allows video and photo capture.

Besides that, Sony Ericsson showed off its first HSPA USB modems, the MD400 and MD400g, for high-speed broadband access. The modems have Memory Stick Micro and Micro Secure Digital slots, a built-in antenna and an additional swivel antenna. The MD400g also comes with a built-in global positioning system (GPS) receiver.

Yahoo!'s big regional mobile leap

IN efforts to strengthen its position in the region, Yahoo! made three announcements at CommunicAsia, which include its new Yahoo! oneSearch partnerships with five mobile operators.

The Yahoo! oneSearch partnerships will enable the five telecommunications companies - two from the Philippines, and one each from India, Hong Kong and Taiwan - to use Yahoo!'s search services as the preferred choice on their Internet mobile sites.

Yahoo! also entered into mobile advertising deals with Maxis Communications Berhad and Idea Cellular Limited of India, which will see the two telcos offering a variety of graphical advertising served by Yahoo!.

Next, Yahoo! announced localised versions of Yahoo! Go 3.0 voice search technology for consumers in India, Southeast Asia and Australia.

Finally, the company announced new mobile widgets for the Asia- Pacific, which are available through Yahoo! Go 3.0 and the Yahoo! mobile home page.

Samsung makes a `wish'

THE High Speed Downlink Packet Access-capable Omnia, or model SGH- i900, from Samsung managed to draw much attention with its metallic, minimalist design and ample features.

The phone offers a large intuitive touch-screen, five-megapixel camera, multimedia player, user-friendly browser, GPS with geotagging feature, and 16 gigabytes or 8GB of internal memory expandable up to 8GB through a Micro Secure Digital High Capacity card slot.

The Omnia, which means "everything" in Latin and "wish" in Arabic, runs on the Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional operating system. Apart from offering access to Microsoft Office documents through PowerPoint, Excel and Word, users can send and receive e- mail and manage appointments through Outlook.

The phone also offers multimedia capabilities, playback options, and multi-codec support for DivX, Xvid and other video formats.

The TouchWiz interface makes the Omnia user-friendly, allowing quick and easy text entry. There are also unique widgets that let users personalise the way they want to use this phone.

GCT, Green Packet offer seamless WiMax/Wi-Fi connectivity

GCT Semiconductor and Green Packet will work together on the world's first intelligent connection management solution that delivers seamless connectivity and handover between WiMax and Wi- Fi.

Green Packet's Intouch Connectivity Manager integrates Green Packet's mobile IP solution with GCT's GDM7215, the industry's first single-chip solution that supports both mobile WiMax IEEE 802.16e Wave 2 and Wi-Fi 802.11b/g. It also supports multiple connection modes such as wide area network and local area network in addition to WiMax and Wi-Fi.

Besides that, the solution incorporates lifestyle features such as communication services, information and entertainment into a single client.

Green Packet has already signed up WiMax operator Packet One Networks (M) Sdn Bhd to roll out this innovative technology in the coming months.

(c) 2008 New Straits Times. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.

Source: New Straits Times

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