Sony eyes cellphone/game gear hybrid

Sony plans to set up a project team as early as July to develop a new product that combines functions of its portable game player and mobile phones made by Sony Ericsson, its handset joint-venture with Sweden's Ericsson. The development is seen as a way of better competing with Apple's iPod and iPhone, which is deemed to be encroaching on the gaming space traditionally dominated by the likes of Sony's PlayStation Portable (PSP) and Nintendo's DS.
Source: GSMA Mobile Business Briefing

China Mobile reports slow 3G uptake to date

China Mobile has revealed that less than 3 percent of new mobile customers acquired this year are using its new 3G network, suggesting that the TD-SCDMA network is suffering from a lack of compatible devices. According to a PC World report, which cites a recent China Mobile filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the operator had 746,000 subscribers on its 3G network by the end of May, representing just 2.4 percent of total net additions at the operator since the launch of the new network on 7 January. The total number of China Mobile subscribers grew from 457.3 million to 488.1 million during the first five months of 2009, an increase of 6.7 percent, or 30.8 million subscribers. China Mobile is the world's largest operator in terms of subscribers.
Slow take-up of its 3G services are deemed due to the relative immaturity of the TD-SCDMA standard compared to competing standards such as WCDMA, which is used by the majority of the world's 3G mobile operators, including China Mobile's closest domestic competitor, China Unicom. According to the SEC filing, China Mobile is counting on dual-mode handsets that support both TD-SCDMA and GSM to help spur more demand for its TD-SCDMA services by allowing users to upgrade to 3G services without having to change their mobile number. It is also planning to market laptops with TD-SCDMA data cards and home Internet access gateways to attract more 3G subscribers.
Source: GSMA Mobile Business Briefing

Vodafone and T-Mobile eye UK merger

Vodafone is considering an offer to buy T-Mobile UK in a move that would transform the UK mobile market. A partnership between the two operators would see the merged company become the UK's largest mobile player by some distance with an estimated 45 percent market share, which could see a deal being blocked by regulators. However, the FT suggests that the merger would ease pricing and margin pressures in the fiercely competitive UK market and notes that the UK is the only major European market with five mobile operators.
"The most likely scenario would be a joint-venture between Vodafone UK and T-Mobile UK, the way Vodafone has recently done it in Australia with Hutchison," commented Wireless Intelligence analyst Joss Gillet.
According to Wireless Intelligence data for 1Q09, the UK market is led by Telefonica's O2 with a 26.7 percent share, followed by Vodafone (24.4 percent), T-Mobile (21.8 percent), Orange (20.7 percent) and 3 (6.5 percent).
Source: GSMA Mobile Business Briefing

Three Launch Nokia N97 With Skype

3 - the only network in the UK currently promoting free Skype on the Nokia N97, as well as most of their handset range. 3 is the first operator to embrace free Skype-to-Skype calling and IM on the phone via the Skype on 3 application. The phone will be available on contract from £35 a month, with voicemail and 300 minutes/texts. Internet can be added for £5 a month. Or get it for £319.99 on PAYG, where every top up comes with 90 days of free voicemail, a free bundle of texts and 150MB of internet usage. Plus on both contract and PAYG, get the added benefit of unlimited free Skype-to-Skype calls and IM, and Windows Live Messenger.
Source: 3G.co.uk

Top 20 operator-group footprint accounts for 57% of World connections in Q1 2009

Aggregated top 20 operators and operator groups*, Q1 2009
Source: Wireless Intelligence, company data

Rank	Operator	Total Connections (millions)*	Markets*
1	China Mobile	478.8	2
2	Vodafone Group	247.3	19
3	Telefonica Group	190.1	20
4	America Movil Group	174.9	17
5	China Unicom	137.7	1
6	Deutsche Telekom Group	127.1	12
7	Telenor Group	96.6	10
8	MTS Group	92.2	5
9	Verizon Wireless	86.6	1
10	France Telecom Group	85.7	26
11	MTN Group	79.4	19
12	AT&T	79.1	3
13	Telekomsel	72.1	1
14	Telecom Italia Group (TIM)	70.3	2
15	VimpelCom Group	62.7	7
16	Weather Investments Group	62.7	7
17	Zain Group	61.9	21
18	Reliance Communications	61.1	1
19	Orascom Telecom Group	58.9	9
20	NTT DOCOMO Group	54.7	2

* Operators are consolidated at 100% of all connections within a group
that holds a 50% or greater economic interest in their operation.

Source: Wireless Intelligence

Teardown Reveals Manufcturing Cost of Apples's iPhone 3GS

"The entry-level, 16Gbyte version of Apple's new iPhone 3G S carries a BOM cost of $172.46 and a manufacturing expense of $6.50, for a total of $178.96," said Andrew Rassweiler, director and principal analyst, teardown services, for iSuppli.
The table and cost data presented in this article consist only of the iPhone 3G S's BOM. The total does not include other costs, including software development, shipping and distribution, packaging, royalty fees and miscellaneous accessories included with each phone.

Apple iPhone 3G S Major Components and Cost Drivers (U.S. Dollars)

Manufacturer	Multi-Source Probability	Component Description	Cost
Toshiba	High	Flash Memory NAND, 16GB, MLC	$24.00
	High	Display Module 3.5" Diagonal, 16M Color TFT, 320 x 480 Pixels	$19.25
	Medium	Touch Screen Assembly Capacitive, Glass	$16.00
Samsung	Low	Application Processor ARM Core, Package-on-Package	$14.46
Infineon	Low	Baseband HSDPA/WCDMA/EDGE, Dual ARM926 and ARM7Core	$13.00
	Medium	Camera Module 3 Megapixel Auto-Focus	$9.55
Samsung (with Elpida die)	High	SDRAM - Mobile DDR 2Gb Package-on-Package (Mounted on Application Processor, Two Die)	$8.50
Broadcom	Low	Bluetooth/FM/WLAN Single Chip, WLAN IEEE802.11b/g, Bluetooth V2.1+EDR, with FM and RDS/RBDS Receiver	$5.95
Numonyx	High	Memory MCP 128Mb NOR Flash and 512Mb Mobile DDR	$3.65
Infineon	Low	RF Transceiver Quad-Band GSM/EDGE, Tri-Band WCDMA/HSDPA, 130nm RF CMOS	$2.80
Infineon	Low	GPS Receiver Single Chip, 0.13um, with Integrated Front-End RF, PLL, PM, Correlator Engine and Host Control Interface	$2.25
Infineon	Low	Power IC RF Function	$1.25
Murata	Low	FEM Quad-Band GSM, Tri-Band UMTS Antenna Switch and Quad-Band GSM RX RF SAW Filters	$1.35
Dialog	Low	Power IC Application Processor Function	$1.30
Cirrus Logic	Low	Audio Codec Ultra Low Power, Stereo, with Headphone Amplifier	$1.15
Rest of Bill-of-Materials*			$48.00
Total Bill-of-Materials			$172.46
Manufacturing Costs*			$6.50
Grand Total			$178.96
*Estimated Pending Complete Analysis

Apple iPhone 3Gs Other Noteworthy Components

Manufacturer	Multi-Source Probability	Component Description
STMicroelectronics	Low	Accelerometer MEMS 3-Axis, ?2g/?4g/?8g, Digital Output
AKM Semiconductor	Low	Electronic Compass 3-Axis, with Built-In ADC, DAC, Amplifier, Temperature Sensor and 8-Bit Digital Output

Source: 3G.co.uk