Monday 9 May 2011

Most Trusted Mobile Manufacturing Company In India

Most Trusted Mobile Manufacturing Company In India

A mobile phone (also called mobile, cellular phone, cell phone or handphone) is an electronic device used for full duplex two-way radio telecommunications over a cellular network of base stations known as cell sites. Mobile phones differ from cordless telephones, which only offer telephone service within limited range through a single base station attached to a fixed land line, for example within a home or an office.

A mobile phone allows its user to make and receive telephone calls to and from the public telephone network which includes other mobiles and fixed line phones across the world. It does this by connecting to a cellular network owned by a mobile network operator. A key feature of the cellular network is that it enables seamless telephone calls even when the user is moving around wide areas via a process known as handoff or handover.

In addition to being a telephone, modern mobile phones also support many additional services, and accessories, such as SMS (or text) messages, email, Internet access, gaming, Bluetooth and infrared short range wireless communication, camera, MMS messaging, MP3 player, radio and GPS. Low-end mobile phones are often referred to as feature phones, whereas high-end mobile phones that offer more advanced computing ability are referred to as smartphones.

The first handheld cellular phone was demonstrated by Martin Cooper of Motorola in 1973, using a handset weighing 2 kg (4.4 lb). In the year 1990, 12.4 million people worldwide had cellular subscriptions. By the end of 2009, only 20 years later, the number of mobile cellular subscriptions worldwide reached approximately 4.6 billion, 370 times the 1990 number, penetrating the developing economies and reaching the bottom of the economic pyramid
History
Radiophones have a long and varied history going back to Reginald Fessenden's invention and shore-to-ship demonstration of radio telephony, through the Second World War with military use of radio telephony links and civil services in the 1950s, while hand-held mobile radio devices have been available since 1973.

The first mobile telephone call made from a car occurred in St. Louis, Missouri, USA on June 17, 1946, but the system was impractical from what is considered a portable handset today. The equipment weighed 80 lbs, and the AT&T service, basically a massive party line, cost $30 USD per month (equal to $334.15 today) plus 30 to 40 cents per local call, equal to $3.34 to $4.46 today.

In 1960, the world’s first partly automatic car phone system, Mobile System A (MTA), was launched in Sweden. MTA phones were composed of vacuum tubes and relays, and had a weight of 40 kg. In 1962, a more modern version called Mobile System B (MTB) was launched, which was a push-button telephone, and which used transistors in order to enhance the telephone’s calling capacity and improve its operational reliability. In 1971 the MTD version was launched, opening for several different brands of equipment and gaining commercial success.

Martin Cooper, a Motorola researcher and executive is considered to be the inventor of the first practical mobile phone for hand-held use in a non-vehicle setting, after a long race against Bell Labs for the first portable mobile phone. Using a modern, if somewhat heavy portable handset, Cooper made the first call on a hand-held mobile phone on April 3, 1973 to his rival, Dr. Joel S. Engel of Bell Labs

The first commercially automated cellular network (the 1G generation) was launched in Japan by NTT in 1979, initially in the metropolitan area of Tokyo. Within five years, the NTT network had been expanded to cover the whole population of Japan and became the first nation-wide 1G network. In 1981, this was followed by the simultaneous launch of the Nordic Mobile Telephone(NMT) system in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden. NMT was the first mobile phone network featuring international roaming. The first 1G network launched in the USA was Chicago based Ameritech in 1983 using the Motorola DynaTAC mobile phone. Several countries then followed in the early 1980s including the UK, Mexico and Canada.

The first "modern" network technology on digital 2G (second generation) cellular technology was launched by Radiolinja (now part of Elisa Group) in 1991 in Finland on the GSM standard which also marked the introduction of competition in mobile telecoms when Radiolinja challenged incumbent Telecom Finland (now part of TeliaSonera) who ran a 1G NMT network.
In 2001 the first commercial launch of 3G (Third Generation) was again in Japan by NTT DoCoMoon the WCDMA standard.
One of the newest 3G technologies to be implemented is High-Speed Downlink Packet Access(HSDPA). It is an enhanced 3G (third generation) mobile telephony communications protocol in the High-Speed Packet Access (HSPA) family, also coined 3.5G, 3G+ or turbo 3G, which allows networks based on Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) to have higher data transfer speeds and capacity

Handset features
All mobile phones have a number of features in common, but manufacturers also try to differentiate their own products by implementing additional functions to make them more attractive to consumers. This has led to great innovation in mobile phone development over the last twenty years.
The common components found on all phones are:
  1. A rechargeable battery providing the power source for the phone functions
  2. An input mechanism and display to allow the user to interact with the phone. The most common input mechanism is a keypad, but touch screens are also found in some high end smart phones.
  3. Basic mobile phone services to allow users to make calls and send text messages.
  4. All GSM phones use a SIM card to allow an account to be swapped among devices. Some CDMA devices also have a similar card called a R-UIM.
  5. Individual GSM, WCDMA, iDEN and some satellite phone devices are uniquely identified by an International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) number.
Low-end mobile phones are often referred to as feature phones, and offer basic telephony, as well as functions such as playing music and taking photos, and sometimes simple applications based on generic managed platforms such as Java ME or BREW. Handsets with more advanced computing ability through the use of native software applications became known as smart phones. The first smartphone was the Nokia 9000 Communicator in 1996 which added PDA functionality to the basic mobile phone at the time. As miniaturisation and increased processing power of microchips has enabled ever more features to be added to phones, the concept of the smartphone has evolved, and what was a high-end smartphone five years ago, is a standard phone today.

Several phone series have been introduced to address a given market segment, such as the RIM Blackberry focusing on enterprise/corporate customer email needs; the SonyEricsson Walkman series of musicphones and Cybershot series of camera phones; the Nokia Nseries of multimedia phones, the Palm Pre the HTC Dream and the Apple iPhone.

Other features that may be found on mobile phones include GPS navigation, music (MP3) and video (MP4) playback, RDS radio receiver, alarms, memo recording, personal digital assistant functions, ability to watch streaming video, video download, video calling, built-in cameras (1.0+Mpx) and camcorders (video recording), with autofocus and flash, ringtones, games, PTT, memory card reader (SD), USB (2.0), dual line support, infrared, Bluetooth (2.0) and WiFi connectivity,instant messaging, Internet e-mail and browsing and serving as a wireless modem. Nokia and the University of Cambridge demonstrated a bendable cell phone called the Morph

Software and applications
The most commonly used data application on mobile phones is SMS text messaging. The first SMS text message was sent from a computer to a mobile phone in 1992 in the UK, while the first person-to-person SMS from phone to phone was sent in Finland in 1993.

Other non-SMS data services used on mobile phones include mobile music, downloadable logos and pictures, gaming, gambling, adult entertainment and advertising. The first downloadable mobile content was sold to a mobile phone in Finland in 1998, when Radiolinja (now Elisa) introduced the downloadable ring tone service. In 1999 Japanese mobile operator NTT DoCoMo introduced its mobile internet service, i-Mode, which today is the world's largest mobile internet service.

The first mobile news service, delivered via SMS, was launched in Finland in 2000. Mobile news services are expanding with many organisations providing "on-demand" news services by SMS. Some also provide "instant" news pushed out by SMS.
Mobile payments were first trialled in Finland in 1998 when two Coca-Cola vending machines in Espoo were enabled to work with SMS payments. Eventually the idea spread and in 1999 the Philippines launched the first commercial mobile payments systems, on the mobile operators Globe and Smart. Today mobile payments ranging from mobile banking to mobile credit cards to mobile commerce are very widely used in Asia and Africa, and in selected European markets.
Standardization of Micro-USB connector for charging
Starting from 2010, many mobile phone manufacturers have agreed to use the Micro-USB connector for charging their phones. The mobile phone manufacturers who have agreed to this standard include:
  1. LG
  2. Motorola
  3. Nokia
  4. Research In Motion
  5. Samsung
  6. Sony Ericsson
On 17 February 2009, the GSM Association announced that they had agreed on a standard charger for mobile phones. The standard connector to be adopted by 17 manufacturers in the Open Mobile Terminal Platform including Nokia, Motorola and Samsung is to be the micro-USB connector (several media reports erroneously reported this as the mini-USB). The new chargers will be much more efficient than existing chargers. Having a standard charger for all phones, means that manufacturers will no longer have to supply a charger with every new phone



In addition, on 22 October 2009 the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) announced that it had embraced micro-USB as the Universal Charger Solution its "energy-efficient one-charger-fits-all new mobile phone solution", and added: "Based on the Micro-USB interface, UCS chargers will also include a 4-star or higher efficiency rating — up to three times more energy-efficient than an unrated charger.
As mobile operators continue to seek increased influence over the design and branding of handsets, manufacturers of these handsets are faced with a new challenge in the turbulent world of mobile communications. How can handset manufacturers continue to maintain the value of their hardware brand?

This in turn leads to other interesting questions. What is the role of handset manufacturers in the overall brand relationship? Will the industry continue to support the same number of major brands or will there only be room for four or five ‘super brands’ in a few years’ time? How will new contract manufacturers move into this space, and what does this imply for the leading branded manufacturers?

Intriguing questions indeed, and this “battle of the mobile brands” formed a key focus of the recent World Handset Forum, hosted by IBC Telecoms in Amsterdam.

Trends on the handset front which transformed the Japanese wireless industry a few years ago are now appearing in other regions like Europe as well. In Japan, wireless operators like NTT DoCoMo exercise tight control on features and branding of the handsets manufactured by companies like NEC. Now, in Europe, wireless operator brands such as Vodafone and Orange are extending their brand strength beyond the consumer service to the wireless device itself – for instance, via “signature phones.”

Network operators around the world are increasingly specifying everything from the hardware to the applications and services included on the mobile handsets they sell. Manufacturers therefore need to effectively support these requirements and personalise devices for individual operators, advised Martin Keogh, Vice President, Global Product Management, Global Brand, Marketing and Products, Orange.

Orange has lined up a range of manufacturers for its signature handsets – including Nokia, Sony Ericsson, LG and Samsung. “Every six months, we give product manufacturers an updated three-year roadmap of product requirements,” said Keogh.
Handsets which meet these specifications – the “signature phones” – offer consistent, simple and compelling brand value. Orange released 1 million signature phones in 2003. “Our signature phones delivered almost double ARPU as compared to normal cellphones,” claimed Keogh.

Companies like Nokia are developing the smartphone market through open operating system technologies and industry partnerships which align Nokia’s brand strengths in domains like gaming with operator concern over business realities like ARPU. Opportunities are opening up for network operators, handset manufacturers and developers to benefit from an open platform standard, said Antti Vasara, Vice President, Technology Marketing & Sales, Nokia Technology Platforms. “The days of hypergrowth are over in the mobile business,” admitted Vasara.

The rise of contract manufacturers is sparking new business models in terminal design and production. Such developments in the mobile handset value chain are seriously challenging the conventional wisdom of the tradition handset business model and yielding viable but disruptive alternatives, according to Don Levy, head of strategic development at Bellwave, a South Korean handset manufacturer with offices in Shanghai, Beijing and San Diego.

Innovations in handset manufacturing and supply chain configuration have led to the rise of new kinds of players: ODMs (original design manufacturers, like BenQ), OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) and ODEs (original design and engineering firms, like Bellwave).

OEMs are increasingly outsourcing handset design and production to companies who in turn set up design and production facilities in manufacturing powerhouses like China, said Levy.

“We are witnessing the rise of OEMs in China who are using the huge domestic market for growth,” observed Levy, who traced the evolution of Chinese manufacturers like Bird and TCL right across the value chain from distribution and assembly to manufacturing and design. Within a few years, at least a couple of Chinese OEMs will become global OEMs, predicted Levy.
Recently, China slapped heavy import duties on handsets, thus forcing foreign handset manufacturers to set up domestic production facilities. Korean ODMs focused on the huge China market are now going global.

ODEs are more flexible than ODMs, and can thus be viewed as “the mouse between charging elephants” like Nokia and Siemens, joked Levy. And while much of the “battle of the brands” has focused on the tussle between operators and major handset brands, a significant role can be played by OEMs and ODMs who can now approach operators directly for lucrative handset orders.
Many of these manufacturers do not intend to slug it out on the marketing and consumer branding front with the likes of superbrands like Nokia, but can still eat away significant market share by striking deals with aggressive operators more intent on promoting their own mobile brands. And such agreements and financing issues are undoubtedly going to impact mobile fortunes as attention focuses on the “next billion” mobile subscribers, especially those in the emerging economies of the world

Reference http://www.techsparks.com/Battle-of-the-brands.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_phone

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