News Release from: Insignia Solutions
Edited by the Electronicstalk Editorial Team on 23 July 2002
Software is key to new cellphone designs
Motorola's announcement last week that it will build customised phones for major wireless operators is part of a larger trend that will see traditional handset manufacturers marginalised.
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Motorola's announcement last week that it will build customised phones for major wireless operators is part of a larger trend that will see traditional handset manufacturers marginalised as software becomes the key wireless market differentiator. Squeezed by a combination of commoditisation, operator price pressure and consumer brands like Sony entering the market, traditional handset manufacturers will have to address this "white-box" approach to survive. This is the view of Insignia Solutions, whose Secure System Provisioning (SSP) and Java handset software enables wireless operators to update phones remotely and offer new services to consumers such as instant news, e-mail or the ability to send and receive colour photos and movies.
While still the second largest mobile phone company in the world Motorola has signed deals with Verizon Wireless, Cingular, AT and T Wireless, VoiceStream and Vodafone to produce low-end customised handsets from September with the same basic 'skeleton' but with different shapes, colours and finishes to fit in with each wireless operator's brand image.
The software inside each phone will be customised so they will have different games, ring tones, icons and wake up screens.
By reusing the same skeleton the c330 line of mobile phones will be available to customers at a cost in the $100 range.
"Motorola's announcement shows that the balance of power is shifting away from 'traditional' handset manufacturers, towards the wireless operators and software companies.
The handset production value chain is changing - phones themselves are becoming a commodity and it is the software that controls them that's key", commented Peter Baldwin, EVP operations, Insignia Solutions.
"It's the same as the PC business in 1990s, people no longer care about the hardware components inside the phone - they want something that can be adapted to meet their individual lifestyle needs.
Why do I care what make my cell phone is if it offers me the services I want like wireless instant messaging?".
"In the past wireless operators had to sell fixed-function mobile phones, making them prisoners of hardware - now the operators can continuously introduce unique services and applications, transforming cell phones into completely dynamic, flexible devices that instantly incorporate the exact features demanded by customers".
Software such as Insignia's enables operators to sell a bare-bones phone and then customise it after the point of sale by deploying new services wirelessly.
As Insignia's software uses the universal Java software language operators can update phones irrespective of make or model, enabling them to access new revenue streams quickly and cheaply.
Insignia has partnerships with leading mobile players such as Sun, ARM, Intel and Texas Instruments that support its strategy to be at the centre of the mobile services market.
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