Category: Mobile

Bloomberg has created a new post to oversee its worldwide mobile strategy and has hired Oke Okaro from ESPN (NYSE: DIS) for the role. Okaro was most recently VP of mobile for ESPN and he had been at the Disney sports content unit for roughly six years. As Bloomberg’s global head of mobile, Okaro will be charged with developing mobile products and striking deals with content distributors and wireless carriers. Okaro will report to Bloomberg Multimedia CEO Andy Lack.

The move is part of Bloomberg’s work to create a more of “consumer-facing” business alongside its primary terminal business. For the past few years, Bloomberg has been looking to build up the individual assets such as Bloomberg.com, Bloomberg TV, Bloomberg Radio and Bloomberg Mobile and foster while fostering an interlocking cross-platform strategy. The focus on mobile couldn’t have been better timed.

In addition to this weekend’s much-hyped debut of Apple’s iPad on store shelves, Bloomberg’s efforts to expand comes as rivals Reuters (NYSE: TRI) and the AP have been increasingly aiming their digital offerings directly at consumers as well. Release

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Today, during the U.S. debut of the 2011 Volkswagen Touareg at the New York auto show, VW of North America CEO Stefan Jacoby confirmed that the upcoming New Mid-Size Sedan (NMS) will have a diesel engine option for North America. The NMS, which is the working title for the Passat replacement, most likely will be powered by the current corporate 140-hp, 2.0-liter TDI turbo-diesel. We are crossing our fingers that maybe, just maybe, VW will give us the uprated Euro version which puts out 170 hp.

While little else is known about the NMS, we can tell you that it will be built at VW’s new plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee, alongside the next Jetta, which was previewed by the NCC concept. VW previously handed out the above NMS sketch which shows that it will wear the current VW family face, as seen on the latest Golf and Touareg.

Look for the NMS to debut sometime later this year as a 2011 model; by then we should know its official name. We hope.

Related posts:

1. 2010 Volkswagen Passat BlueMotion Diesel – Auto Shows
2. 2011 / 2012 VW Passat Replacement / New Mid-Sized Sedan (NMS) – Car News
3. Volkswagen Releases Another NMS Teaser Sketch

Kleiner Perkins said today that it will double the size of its iFund — capital dedicated specifically to companies developing for the iPhone and iPod touch — as it’s already spent its allocated $100 million in the two years since the fund was first formed. The announcement comes on the eve of Apple’s iPad launch, the SDK for which, in light of Kleiner’s close relationship with Apple, iFund recipients have had early access.

Kleiner Perkins' John Doerr says the iPad is a "new world" of computing.

The iFund has backed 14 companies to date, three of them still in stealth, with more than 100 million mobile downloads among them. Four are profitable and together they expect to bring in some $100 million in revenue for 2010.

Kleiner partner John Doerr was effusive in his love for Apple, Steve Jobs and his visionary products. “I’ve touched it, I’ve held it, I’ve caressed it,” he said of the iPad. “I hope that I can sleep with it Saturday night. It feels like you’re touching the future.”

Doerr spoke of new opportunities to use the iPad for education and health care, alluding to future company and product launches in those spaces. He said he hoped tablet developers would make new iPad apps that proactively anticipate user needs and create “interpersonal surfaces and services.”

Meanwhile the existing iFund companies on display were much more oriented towards gaming, with a dash of communications. Pinger CEO Greg Woock spoke of iPad launches of existing iPhone games like Doodle Buddy; ngmoco CEO Neil Young previewed new iPad-first launches like Castlecraft, Charadium and Warpgate (which will cost slightly more than iPhone versions); and GOGII co-founder Zack Norman showed screenshots of an iPad version of his company’s integrated text-messaging platform. iFund companies will have 12 apps ready in time for the iPad launch this weekend.

While multiple presenters cautioned against dismissal of the iPad as a blown-up iPhone, the reality is those are a bunch of blown-up iPhone games. ngmoco’s Young said not to expect a ground-up innovated application specific to the iPad for another six months. But he added that six months wouldn’t be considered a long time for a breakthrough title on a living room gaming console — more like two years. And Young attested that the iPad represents an opportunity for a game-changing gaming experience where users can forget they are actually using a device.

Doerr said to expect new dedicated iPad apps from iFund stealth companies in five weeks’ time.

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Mazda today announced pricing for the 2 hatchback ahead of its July U.S. launch. The base price of $14,730 will get you a Sport model with a healthy list of standard equipment; upgrading to the Touring model, which nets things like fog lights, cruise control, and a six-speaker sound system, will set you back $16,185. Few options will be available, chief among them an $800 four-speed auto that replaces the five-speed manual transmission.

Mazda 2 pricing undercuts that of the Honda Fit ($15,610), as well as the Ford Fiesta five-door ($15,795) with which it shares underpinnings. (At $13,995, the Fiesta sedan does beat the 2 hatch, but we’re comparing Granny Smiths to Fujis.)

Click here to read our story from the New York auto show and get a full rundown on U.S. specifics and pricing.

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Although we’ve been expecting Mitsubishi to bring a gasoline-powered version of its i microcar to North America, company spokesmen have confirmed that no decision has been reached on a small Mitsubishi for the U.S. We’ve been told that the Japanese automaker is still debating whether it wants to keep the i’s unique shape strictly for the electric i-MiEV, which is scheduled to arrive here in late 2011. This would be similar to what  Toyota has done with the hybrid-only Prius, associating its silhouette with eco-friendliness. Should Mitsubishi decide not to offer a gas i here, it would most likely bring a version of the small car that will replace the Colt, based on its upcoming “global small” platform.

While we can understand why Mitsubishi would want to save the i shape just for electrified vehicles, the company needs something—anything—to create brand awareness, and having multiple variants of the i on the road could only help.

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Mazda says it will offer a mid-size car with a fuel-efficient diesel engine in the U.S. by 2012. (This would seem to indicate an oil-burning 6 sedan, given that it’s the firm’s only mid-size car.) The car will be rated at up to 43 mpg in highway driving and be Mazda’s first diesel offering on our shores.

It will employ a diesel engine called the SKY-D, which was announced alongside the SKY-G gasoline engine and an automatic transmission called SKY-Drive at last year’s Tokyo show. We’ve now learned that all three technologies will make their way to American vehicles.

With lower internal friction and “innovative combustion” techniques, the SKY-D engine should be 20 percent more fuel-efficient and offer more torque than Mazda’s current 2.2-liter turbo-diesel (which we sampled in a Euro-spec Mazda CX-7). A ceramic diesel particulate filter means the engine will meet American emissions standards without a urea exhaust-treatment system.

In 2011, Mazda will launch the SKY-G engine globally. The gasoline engine will reportedly be 15 percent more fuel-efficient and offer 15 percent more torque than today’s comparable engines. The improvements stem from a higher compression ratio, reduced internal friction, optimized combustion, and “intake volume control.” SKY-G will become Mazda’s core powerplant and is said to offer zesty performance on top of the fuel savings.

Both engines will use the SKY-Drive gearbox, an updated version of Mazda’s six-speed automatic transmission. It will lock up the torque converter more often, making it five percent more efficient than Mazda’s current automatics while offering a direct feel and quicker shifts; Mazda says the automatic will feel like a dual-clutch transmission.

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1. Efficient Mazda SKY Engines and Transmission to Debut in Tokyo
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The iPad may be Apple’s next gold rush, but it’s also positioned to pay dividends to mobile developers in a big way. Applications for the much-hyped device will generally cost more than similar offerings on the iPhone, developers said in a story from the BBC this morning, due to unknown demand for the iPad and the extra work required to design to create feature-rich offerings that take advantage of the gadget’s high-tech screen. That presents a lucrative opportunity for developers who can entice users by fully leveraging the device’s capabilities.

Just how many people will want an iPad (or any other tablet) is uncertain, but GigaOM Pro VP of Research Michael Wolf predicts the tablet app market will reach $8.2 billion by 2015 (sub req’d). The increasing demand for mobile applications is crystal clear, however, according to data released today from Mplayit. The app discovery and merchandising startup said that 35 percent of iPhone, Android and BlackBerry users are interested in paid applications, with BlackBerry users willing to pay the biggest premium of all, with a medium price point of $5.99.

Those figures should be especially encouraging for developers targeting users of the iPad, which promises to offer a more interactive experience than is possible on even the best smartphones. Consumers who have grown accustomed to shelling out a couple of dollars for an iPhone game will surely pay a premium for titles that leverage the iPad’s 9.7-inch, high-resolution screen and its multitouch functionality. So if the iPad is a hit, developers who can deliver the goods on the impressive device will benefit as much as Apple will.

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Mobile OSes Are No Longer Just About Mobile

Image courtesy Flickr user Johnny Vulkan.

Back in 1999, Ford paid $6.5 billion for Volvo at the height of its luxury-brand spending binge. (It also bought Jaguar, Land Rover, and Aston Martin.) Just over ten years later, it took $1.8 billion, or less than a third of that, for Chinese automaker Geely to acquire the Swedish automaker.

While the infusion of cash probably looks very good to Ford, which has a mountain of debt to service, I think that Geely got a very good deal with this, and here’s why. First, the Chinese automaker gets access to a lot of quality technology and, particularly, to Volvo’s safety expertise. The Swedish company has been at the forefront of automobile safety for the past 50 years and it would take a fortune to gain that knowledge. We wouldn’t say that Volvo makes cars that we swoon over, but they are a ways ahead of the best that the Chinese can offer and, we venture, somewhat better in a collision.

Second, should Geely ever decide to build its own cars in Europe, it gives the company a manufacturing base. Volvo built about 333,000 cars in 2009, down from its peak of more than half a million. So there’s some spare capacity sitting around in Sweden and Belgium, where Volvo has its factories.

And finally, perhaps most important, Geely has bought an established luxury brand. In developing markets such as India and China, old-name European luxury brands have real cachet because there’s little or no indigenous high-end luxury industry. If you want to show you have made it, sitting in the back seat of a chauffeur-driven Mercedes while outfitted in Chanel and toting a Louis Vuitton bag makes that statement. Geely has already said that it plans to double Volvo’s annual production by making another 300,000 vehicles in China. It can charge a lot more for those cars than it can for ones with a Geely badge on the hood.

That volume sounds a bit ambitious, but as an Chinese automaker, Geely (and thus Volvo) has access to government contracts. A few top politicians driving around the streets of Beijing in Volvos would do wonders for the brand.

Related posts:

1. Geely Buys Volvo for $1.8 Billion
2. Ford and Geely Settle on Terms of Volvo Sale
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In the short term, Google’s likely to remain as the default search option on Apple’s devices, Barclays analyst Doug Anmuth says in a research note, but that doesn’t mean the search giant can afford to take that for granted. With all eyes are focused on Apple’s iPad debut on Saturday, there has been some speculation that Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) might choose Microsoft’s Bing as a search option for the new device. By itself, Anmuth doesn’t place too much importance on that decision. Given that 48 million iPhones have been sold to date, iPhone searches are likely to be more incremental than iPad searches. Plus, iPhone searches should be more location-based than iPad searches. However, the selection of a default search provider for the iPad will demonstrate which way Apple is leaning for its other products over the next few years and that could have implications for both Google (NSDQ: GOOG) and Bing, especially as Apple and Google grow more competitive on devices and, soon, for mobile advertising dollars.

On the device front, the iPhone has little to worry about from Google’s Nexus One, Anmuth says, as sales have been slow out of the gates due to the online-only distribution model, customer support issues, and lack of carriers with subsidies. But sales are ramping up and the Google device should see a boost from additional distribution on both Verizon and Vodafone (NYSE: VOD). Furthermore, sales of Android phones are also gaining, Anmuth says.

In the case of mobile advertising, Google and Apple surely competed for the acquisition of mobile ad net AdMob—which Google bought in November, followed by Apple
eventually acquiring Quattro Wireless in January. “Both seek to use their extensive data to deliver the most relevant and targeted ads through mobile devices,” Anmuth writes. “For Google, winning in apps advertising is particularly important given that apps have the potential to reduce the amount of time directly spent on mobile internet URLs and on URL-based searching.”

Despite the increased competition between those two, Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) isn’t all of sudden positioned to be a great partner of Apple’s either. And with Apple focused on the user experience, it still has more reasons to favor Google over Bing. But that doesn’t mean Apple won’t be able to find subtle ways of exploiting Google’s first real threat to its search dominance as the battles over mobile devices and advertising dollars heats up.

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We’ve seen software and applications designed to assist visually impaired individuals in the past, but nothing’s been quite what we’re shown in this video. The LookTel software actually allows phones to recognize and audibly identify objects almost instantly. More »

According to Suzuki, the Kizashi sedan was conceived less to be a Camry alternative than an Alfa Romeo for the masses; we see it as more of a Jetta competitor, but we get where they’re coming from. Now, on the eve of the New York auto show, Suzuki has added fuel to the Kizashi’s fire in the form of the Kizashi Sport, a separate and slightly sportier version of the Kizashi sedan that will be available on GTS and SLS trim levels.

The Sport is blessed with a 0.4-inch-lower suspension, 18-inch wheels that are 2.5 pounds lighter, a sexier front fascia, side-sill extensions, and a rear spoiler. The interior has been touched up with contrasting stitching, a sport steering wheel, and a new shift knob/boot. Otherwise, the vehicle is unchanged. Still, Suzuki claims that the Kizashi Sport corners better than the standard car—0.93 g on the skidpad versus 0.89 g, according to Suzuki’s testing.

As for other future Kizashi variants, such as a V-6 version like the one we sampled on the press launch for the Kizashi last summer, the possibility is still there. However, if it ever happens, it will take some time; the car we drove was engineered for GM’s 3.6-liter V-6, and with the GM partnership on the outs and a VW partnership on the ins, a smaller but possibly more potent turbocharged motor is more likely. Until then, enthusiasts will have to settle for the Kizashi Sport, which goes on sale in August at prices of roughly $23K for the GTS and $25K for the SLS.

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1. 2010 Suzuki Kizashi – Official Photos and Info
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3. 2010 Suzuki Kizashi – Short Take Road Test

A UK consultancy is predicting that tiered pricing plans for mobile internet are inevitable, given the dramatic rate at which mobile data—and especially video—is expected to rise in the near future.

By 2015, U.S. mobile consumers are expected to consume 327 petabytes of mobile data a month, rising at a compound annual growth rate of more than 117 percent, according to Coda Research Consultancy, which released the 87-page report today. As Mobile Crunch points out that represents a 40-fold increase in data consumption over five years.

At the core of this massive growth is mobile video, which Coda predicted will rise even faster. In 2015, video will consist of 224 petabytes of data a month, representing a compound annual growth rate of 138 percent.

One of the biggest topics at this year’s CTIA was how to keep up with consumers’ increasing mobile appetite. Whether this particular forecast turns out to be right, most carriers are looking at obtaining more spectrum and rolling out 4G to handle the curve. Steve Smith, co-founder of Coda, said carriers will cope by offering different rate plans for different levels of consumption. In a release, he said: “Flat-rate pricing has helped drive mobile internet adoption, but we envisage that as smartphone penetration rises and as carriers roll out 4G, carriers will have to move toward tiered pricing.”

Coda said that peak capacity is not as much the main concern as general capacity—which makes it even more scarier because that means the networks could be tapped out all the time, not just at big events, like a conference or baseball game. “As carrier networks now stand, network utilization will reach 100 percent in 2012 during peak times,” Coda said. At that same time, smartphone penetration will reach 40 percent in the U.S.

Other findings:
—the number of people accessing social networks from their phones is supposed to rise 21 percent annually between now and 2015.
—the number of mobile video users will rise by 34 percent annually to reach 95 million in 2015.
—non-SMS data revenues will climb at 17 percent annually, and will form 87 percent of all data revenues in 2015.

Adult rated, for sure. Ferrari’s 720-hp gentleman’s racer makes no sense. Except it will make the author and 29 rich guys go ecstatic. Which makes perfect sense.

Watch the Video: Ferrari 599XX – Video

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On Thursday, Subaru will pull the wraps off this car at the New York auto show. All they’re telling us for now is that “The wing is back!” So what’s under that sheet?

We spy the outlines of a hood scoop and aggressive front fender flares which, coupled with the big rear wing, suggest the high-performance STI. (Then again, so does the recently announced 2011 Impreza WRX.) But the current STI is only offered as a five-door hatchback, and this teaser image shows a more sedan-like roofline. Does this mean Subaru is releasing an STI sedan, as was offered on the prior generation? We’ll find out for sure at the New York auto show later this week.

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Multi-touch is an enhancement to touchscreen technology, which provides the user with the ability to apply multiple finger gestures simultaneously onto the electronic visual display to send complex commands to the device. It was truly popularized by the iPhone, which allowed users to pinch, zoom and other commands by using two fingers. However, it has been unclear as to if the XPERIA X10 would ever have multi-touch. Sony Ericsson product manager Rikard Skogberg has stated on the official Sony Ericsson product blog, “there’s no multitouch in X10 – and I also can confirm that it’s not only related to SW but also to HW. Despite this, for future updates of X10 we are of course working on other solutions for e.g. zooming, which has been requested frequently on this blog, such has the solution demoed on X10 mini.”

There are at least four different versions of the Android operating system currently in the market, which has raised concerns that the platform will become fragmented and difficult to develop for.

With each additional version, developers must support and tweak applications multiple times—a burdensome process that Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) has warded off by making few device types and only a handful of OS updates. But now there’s some relief in sight, or at least according to Engadget, which heard multiple reports at CTIA that Google (NSDQ: GOOG) is working on at least two ways to alleviate some of these problems. None of them will be immediate, but they could fall into place before the problem gets any worse.

Google is intimately aware of the problem and has devoted a web site to illustrate which platforms are being used the most. Based on devices that have accessed the Android Market within a 14-day period, Google said nearly half of Android devices are running the 1.6 OS version, and the latest release—2.0.1—has only 20.4 percent of the users, which even falls behind the 1.5 version, which has 31 percent of the total.

What’s the solution? Often Google and others talk about the mobile web being the solution. Soon everything will be accessed through the browser, and not through applications. In the meantime, Google has two plans:

The first move is simple: Google may be slowing down the pace of innovation, giving handset makers and carriers a chance to catch up and push out the latest updates to consumers. In the past 18 months or so, Google has quickly pushed out at least four OS updates—and most of them were badly needed since the OS was in its infancy. Engadget said things are expected stabilize by the time we get to Froyo (remember, the code names are tasty treats by alphabetical order so this marks the sixth iteration—cupcake, donut, eclair, frozen yogurt, etc.).

Google’s second move is a bit more complicated: Engadget says Google will be disconnecting many of Android’s standard applications and components from the OS to make them downloadable through the Android Market. This will enable major parts of the Android experience to be updated on Google’s timetable (and directly by consumers). This will likely start occurring with Froyo and continue with Gingerbread, it says. More importantly, this wouldn’t be limited to applications, like maps, but also components, which mean it could extend to virtual keyboards, browsers, or other more concrete features of the operating system.

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