It’s kind of scary seeing my mug on John’s post from the 27^th about GIPS mobile offerings.  However, as has been widely published in sources like Engadget, Gizmodo and the New York Times, there has been a crack in Apple’s normally impenetrable veil of secrecy around new product developments with the exposure of a prototype of Apple’s next generation iPhone.  The fact that the device has a front facing camera is the best response to the piece covered in John’s post.

A frequent criticism of Apple is that they don’t do anything that revolutionary.  It is that claim that makes Apple’s success all the more spectacular and game-changing.  Portable .mp3 players existed long before the iPod, but Apple’s entry changed not only the company, but the entire industry.  Similarly, the iPhone and the iPad were neither the first smart phone nor the first tablet PC on the market, but their introduction and resulting success have changed their markets significantly.  With the iPhone, hundreds of thousands of applications have proliferated, creating a whole new market for applications developers (historically a weakness for Apple).  Adding voice and video to some of these applications will enrich the experience for the end user.  To be sure, mobile video conferencing is again not a new category, as AT&T introduced video share about three years ago.  However, the service was not very usable and the device support was not where it needed to be.  However, with the introduction of frame-by-frame access to the camera which is included in iPhone OS 4 and the front facing camera which appears to be part of the 4G design, Apple will be poised once again to change the game with mobile video conferencing.

Now, no discussion of the leak would be complete without mention of the heavy handed response of Apple and the local authorities against Gizmodo and the individual who found the lost device.  However, coverage of that topic should be left to the professionals…or at least the fake professions at The Daily Show: 

Updating yesterday’s post, it looks like Apple will be releasing a new iPhone this summer, and rumor is it will have a front facing camera. Could this be the start of a real movement toward mobile video conferencing?

While there are hundreds of reviews of Mobile World Congress in the news and media, I thought it might be interesting to get an exhibitor’s point of view of the event especially as the media tend to get stuck in the headlights of oncoming shiny new mobile devices from the big players in the industry and not the ecosystem that the event represents.

In general the show appeared to have more visitors (50,000) in attendance than in 2009 and as one senior executive that I talked with over lunch said “I’ve got 20 years in the mobile industry and I’m still astounded and confounded at all the companies at this event – many of which I still don’t know what they do.”

GIPS made an announcement the week prior about availability of GIPS VideoEngine on the iPhone platform, which generated a good amount of press coverage but also added to the increased amount of people visiting GIPS at the show.  The visitors (at least to GIPS stand) also appeared to be more senior in attendance and I saw a lot more lists in people’s hand of “companies to visit,”  perhaps a sign that were people were doing their homework this year.

Whereas many industry events offer free tickets, Mobile World Congress charge nearly 600 Euro per ticket and they closely guard who comes in and out of the show – even with a pass each person must show their ID too. In 2009 the mood was downbeat and 2010 it was the complete opposite. Hopefully the optimistic tone is a true reflection of where the industry is heading now and a sign of things to come.

The show for me illustrated that the sum is greater than the parts, so while the likes of Google, HTC, Samsung, Huawei and the BBC (did I mention the Beeb stopped by our stand ; ) grabbed major headlines – this only illustrated the icing layer on the cake and not all the ingredients that go into making this event a good reflection of the mobile telecommunications ecosystem.

Cable and telephone companies are preparing for a meeting tomorrow as the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) starts work on a US national broadband strategy. Two items on the ticket are: Promoting Diversification of Ownership in the Broadcasting Services and a Notice of Inquiry seeking comment to inform the Commission’s development of a national broadband plan for our country

Less than 1 percent of the stimulus package will go towards improving the US broadband infrastructure. However, that 1 percent does weigh more than $7 billion and it would seem that further federal monies may also flow into this pot.

The FCC’s mandate is to provide a plan by early 2010 that incorporates the guidelines that will guarantee delivery of the Internet and define how fast is next-gen broadband in the US.

Free Press a non-partisan organization promoting decentralization in broadcasting, wrote a letter to the FCC chairman, Michael Copp, last Friday raising concerns that “wireless service providers appear to be engaging in activities that go against the Commission’s Internet Policy Statement by violating consumers’ right to run applications, use services, or attach devices of their choice over their broadband connections.”

Ben Scott, Policy Director at Free Press continued in the letter: “Wireless networks demonstrate numerous anti-consumer practices that may be violations of the Commission’s Internet Policy Statement. In some cases, these appear to be outright restrictions on applications, services or devices imposed by the carrier.”

However, Service Providers are going to want to maintain control of their networks to ensure that bandwidth is not eaten up by larger users, while end users and application developers will want to have services, such as video, that requires more bandwidth.

The debate has been stimulated by a number of companies who offer VoIP services such as Skype (over Wi-Fi) and Zer01 – a truly mobile VoIP carrier here in the US.

As more consumers begin to access the Internet wirelessly, Free Press argues it will be critical for the FCC to clarify both that the Internet Policy Statement applies to wireless and that online consumer protections that prohibit blocking are the same regardless of how we access the Web.

More demand for VoIP or video conferencing will require technology that regardless of network, platform or device ensures high-quality voice or video calls even when bandwidth is restricted – thankfully there is GIPS technology!

Today Apple previewed the iPhone OS 3.0 and announced the immediate availability of a Beta version for developers. There has been speculation that this release will address some of the major challenges that face voice and video over IP developers on this platform. Two issues in particular have bothered us; namely  the lack of support for applications to run in the background and the fact that applications cannot get access to video recorded from the built-in camera.

Support for running applications in the background is essential for a fully functional voice or video application. Without it you either have to have the application running at all times, which makes it impossible to run other applications, or accept that inbound calls may not get through. Apple has to some extent addressed this issue with the introduction of a push notification system. Actually, this system was initially announced last summer for release in September 2008 but has not been released until now. The push notification system is based on communication with an Apple server over the cellular network but offers far from the functionality that can be provided with support for background processes.

In order to offer two way video conferencing, support for capturing video from the iPhone’s camera is necessary. Hence, it is very disappointing that no such support has been added in this release. This limits video conferencing applications to one way video. It is my guess that Apple will fairly soon release an iPhone with a front facing camera, which is another pre-requisite for a good video conferencing solution and that there will be no support for video capture into 3^rd party applications until this enhanced phone is available.

It seems like Apple has addressed a number of general issues for iPhone developers but left us VoIp and video over IP developers without much to get excited about.

Mobile Word Congress starts next week, and GIPS is getting ready to exhibit for and mingle with the approximately 50,000 attendees.

Last year I remember the launch of Xperia, SonyEricsson’s smartphone based on Windows Mobile, as a major event. This year I suspect to see a lot of new mobile smart phones with touch screens that will try to compete with the iPhone. The battle between smart phone operating systems and manufactures continues strong as ever. The winners of this battle will be the providers that enable the best combination of usability, feature set and access to content. We also expect to hear a lot about LTE (Long Term Evolution) or 4G that was specified to improve the UMTS mobile phone standard to cope with future technology evolutions. These efforts to standardize next gen networks will further strengthen the multimedia possibilities for smartphones. 

To best equip application developers to enter this battle, Global IP Solutions will demonstrate how we can enable real-time, high quality mobile video and voice over IP. In addition, we will be blogging live from the show, with the latest news and events, and perhaps a witty observation or two.

Today, GIPS released a report by research firm Ovum that discusses mobile carriers’ plans for real-time video services.  The report finds that carriers are quite enthusiastic about the prospects for mobile video, with over 50% of respondents saying they planned to launch or expand such services in the next 2 years.

It seems like ever since VoIP became viable, people have been speculating when (or if) mobile carriers would roll out the next generation of communication services. Most of the talk has revolved around a perceived threat to carrier revenue streams, and reluctance toward any type of service that could possibly take traffic off circuit-switched networks.  Despite the speculation, very little was known about operators’ plans for services other than SMS and data that could utilize next-gen networks. So we figured, “why not just ask them!?”

What we found was that, contrary to popular some predictions, carriers see real-time video, which includes video conferencing, as a possible differentiating feature that will help them retain market share. Investment in and deployment of 4G and WiMax networks appears to be accelerating, lowering the technical barriers to such advanced services. Furthermore, more devices are coming equipped with user-facing cameras (read last week’s post about the iPhone patent), which seems to indicate a clear demand for real-time video communications.

How consumers may actually use such services is really up to anyone’s imagination. I can believe that quite a few people would see mobile video conferencing as somewhat intrusive. However, video certainly adds an extra dimension to a call, and there are plenty of scenarios in which users may want to see the face of the person with whom they are speaking. In addition, the possibilities this type of technology creates in such areas as citizen journalism and user generated content appear to be limitless. That might mean more inane YouTube-esque content, but as with any new technology, you have to take the good with the bad.

The simple answer to that question is: No, they did not.

In Alexander Wolfe’s article in Information Week on the iPhone patent just awarded to Apple he focuses on that the patent indicates that Apple is planning video conferencing for the iPhone. This is obviously interesting and very likely given that the phone described in teh patent has a user facing camera. However, the article also gives the impression that the camera and video conferencing are included in what is covered by the patent. To be clear, Alexander isn’t stating this as a fact but it makes sense to point out that so is not the case. Especially since there are several other similar reports making similar suggestions.

If you read the patent carefully you will find that the description of  video conferencing solutions is included in the “Description of Embodiments” part. As for all patents, what is actually patented is stated in the claims section where there is no mention of a video application. The claims are all about the touch screen functionality. Those claims are of course very interseting and can cause problems for competitors.