永远的草莓地－想象没有天堂

Tehcnical: Open Platforms in the Mobile Devices Industry

IP and packet-switched technology can be regarded as the last impact that the Computer Industry brings to the Telecommunication Industry. As a result, mobile networks are now evolving toward packet-switchecd, VoIP particularly becomes a mainstream technique in wireless telecommunication systems.

According this lecture, we can see another huge influence from the Computer Industry. This influence includes unified standardization, compatible hardware and software, as well as the open source, to sum up, it is an open platform.

Open platforms in the mobile devices industry consists of open operating system such as Nokia S60 and Linux, Java, as well as open architecture which heavily integrates open source software. Furthermore, Nokia sponsored the development of existing open source software and also developed new components and open sourced them. Therefore, an open development environment could be established in this open platform.

Open platforms will certainly encourage innovation, which can be illustrated with the huge success of the Internet, which is the biggest open platform in the world. Open platforms in Mobile Devices Industry will improve the infusion of innovative new technologies, e.g., cellular voice and data, Internet phone and data, as well as high speed data, video, and TV.

While the business model of the Computer Industry is software and service oriented, the business model of the Mobile Devices Industry is still hardware oriented. Nevertheless, it is evolving to software and service oriented, and at that time, the Mobile Devices Industry will be completely different.

Business: VoIP and WLAN - Changing the Rules?

VoIP has become a real big business nowadays. Currently, Skype has about 100 million registered users, and it was reported that eight million concurrent Skype users were online as of November 8, 2006. Skype users spoke for 6.9 billion minutes during the first quarter 2006. Skype now handles 7% of the world's long-distance minutes.

One important message conveyed in this lecture is that VoIP will go mobile: on one hand, 3G networks will support VoIP with the deployment of IMS; on the other hand, Internet VoIP companies also want to expand into calling for mobile devices. The lecturer had talked about the main technical problem for mobile VoIP: handoffs between Cellular, WLAN, WiMAX, and generic IP access network.

Furthermore, the business problem for Internet VoIP companies to go mobile may lie on mobile operators, for they will probably block those companies like Skype on their networks, since the latter might be unwelcome competitors.

A recent article in BusinessWeek suggests Skype to change its business model and reach agreements with phone makers and carriers. It can pay for the use of carrier’s mobile networks, and also let carriers use its social networking features to target users with ads or new services.

As far as I am concerned, although Skype has already been transplanted to several handset, it is still hard to reach agreements with carriers and mobile operators, but in future, this might happens. And as long as Skype can succeed to cooperate with one mobile operator, the others will follow.

 
Entertainment: TV Goes On-line

This lecture talked about a really interesting convergence between two of the world’s greatest media: the Internet and TV. This topic concerning the greatest entertainment of our time is inevitably entertaining itself, well, although TV might be a little bit obsolete for the youth generation.

Entertainment business has been changed a lot by digital technology, for instance, Apple’s iTunes and iPod. Since the Internet has already shown its capacity of dealing with voice (e.g., music and VoIP), it’s the time for television content. With technique supporting, TV ca be watched over the Internet with personal computer, and over mobile networks with mobile devices,

The most interesting method that seems to me is live streaming in mobile devices. Working people in big urban areas like every big city in China always spend a lot of time on waiting and taking bus to office and back home, sometimes even more than two hours a day. That becomes a crucial part of their complaint to job.

But if they could kill their time with TV entertainment programs in the bus, job might be a little bit happier. And since work is the key factor that cause the deep pressure of modern life, TV goes On-line might be able to help people to ease their lives in this manner.

这学期电信论坛课的报告，要求是从技术，经济，娱乐三个角度选出3个最好的演讲，并评述。写了整整一学期这种课程报告，其中得失，寒假再作评判。