High Tech Computer (HTC) announced the HTC Touch Diamond today. The Touch Diamond utilizes 3G (third generation) mobile technology. The device runs Microsoft Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional and has a touch screen that can be used one-handed. Apple hasn’t said when it will launch a 3G phone, but the company is expected to do so later this year.

Starting this June, the Touch Diamond will be available in Europe. The Asian and Middle Eastern markets will follow, with sales hitting North and South America in the second half of 2008.

“Today we mark a new era in mobile-phone evolution, an era where beauty and size integrate with uncompromising innovation at broadband speeds,” said Peter Chou, HTC president and CEO. “The HTC Touch Diamond will make browsing the Web and using Web-enabled applications just as practical and easy to use as making calls.”

Qualcomm chips allow the Touch Diamond to use High Speed Packet Access (HSPA) on Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA) networks that allow data speeds up to 7.2 Mbits per second.

The Touch Diamond has a 2.8 inch touch-screen that has a resolution of 640 pixels by 480 pixels. TouchFlo software can make images look 3D and turning the handset sidewise rotates the view accordingly.

The Touch Diamond has a 3.2 megapixel camera with auto-focus that allows video calling. The battery life lasts up to four hours of talk time and the handset has 4G bytes of flash memory for storing music and video.

This isn’t the first time HTC beat Apple to the punch. Last year HTC launched its first Touch handset nearly a month ahead of Apple’s iPhone launch.

Touch Diamond

Carphone Warehouse and O2 cut the price for the basic iPhone in Britain by 100 pounds ($197). The 8 gigabyte iPhone will be sold for 169 pounds until June 1. The 16 GB iPhone price will not be lowered and sells for 329 pounds. Sales of the iPhone have slowed in Britain since its launch and this move may have been made to clear inventory of the 8GB model to make room for the next model upgrade. Apple is expected to launch a third-generation high-speed version of its popular phone later this year.

“More and more this is starting to look like they want to clear stock of an older model, with a looming revision to the iPhone which will likely include 3G,” CCS Insight analyst Ben Wood told Reuters.

“But also we think the iPhone has slowed down during the first quarter and we think this (a 3G launch) should give sales a bit of a lift.”

Long-Term Evolution (LTE) is one step closer to industry-wide stability. 3GPP LTE technology (LTE is the name given to a project within the Third Generation Partnership Project) offers wireless broadband speeds with downloads around 100 Mbps and uploads of 50 Mbps. Seven telecommunication companies have reached an agreement on a framework for licensing intellectual-property rights that relate to LTE. This agreement will make the transition to LTE easier because the fear of lawsuits will be reduced.

Alcatel-Lucent, Ericsson, NEC, NextWave Wireless, Nokia Siemens Networks and Sony Ericsson have agreed to an industry standard being called FRAND, which stands for Fair, Reasonable And Non-Discriminatory licensing terms. Notebook computers that use LTE will pay a combined maximum royalty in the single digits. Handsets will pay a single-digit royalty that is based on a percentage of the sales price of the device.

Ericsson Senior Vice President and CTO Hakan Eriksson said this agreement will “reassure operators of the early widespread adoption of LET technology throughout the consumer electronics industry.”

Industry giant Qualcomm has yet to sign onto the FRAND framework. Other companies like Verizon Wireless, China Mobile, Vodafone and NTT DoCoMo are working on their own versions of LTE.

The future may not be here yet but it could be by next year. Wireless high-speed access will go a long way to promoting services like high-resolution video streaming and innovative online games that can be accessed almost anywhere at any time.

A U.S. Court of Appeals upheld a lower court’s ruling that banned Qualcomm from selling chips that infringed on three patents owned by Broadcom Corp. A California jury in 2007 found that Qualcomm didn’t have a right to the patents and the lower court placed an injunction on Qualcomm that stopped it from selling the chips.

“We are gratified that the U.S. Court of Appeals rejected Qualcomm’s motion for a stay, leaving in force the injunction against Qualcomm’s infringement issued by the U.S. District Court in Santa Ana,” Broadcom General Counsel David Dull said in a statement.

The chips in question are third-generation (3G) WCDMA chips. This technology provides much higher data speeds to mobile and portable wireless devices than most North American networks allow.

U.S. district Judge James Selna ordered Qualcomm to pay mandatory royalties to Broadcom for the chips it sells during the “sunset period” ending January 31, 2009. After the sunset period ends, Qualcomm will be barred from using the three Broadcom patents.

Qualcomm is currently working on 3G chips that will replace those patented by Broadcom. The new chips are slated to be ready by the end of the current quarter.

Mobile technology company Qualcomm lost another legal fight with Nokia. A British court ruled today that Qualcomm’s claim of patent infringement against handset maker Nokia were invalid. The U.K. High Court said Nokia had not infringed on patents regarding GSM mobile phone standards.

Qualcomm has been trying to bring an injunction against Nokia that would keep it from selling products using the GSM patents in the United Kingdom. GSM, or Global System for Mobile Communications, is the world’s dominant second-generation mobile phone technology standard.

Over the last two years, Qualcomm has filed 11 lawsuits in courts around the world. Qualcomm has yet to win a lawsuit against Nokia on the GSM issue.

”We are pleased with the Court’s decision that the patent claims are invalid and believe it is consistent with and supported by the facts,” said Nokia Chief Financial Officer Rick Simonson. ”This is the second court to conclude that Qualcomm does not have relevant and valid GSM patents.”

In February, the U.S. International Trade Commission refused Qualcomm’s petition for a review on an earlier decision, which said Nokia hadn’t infringed on three patents, as claimed by Qualcomm.

The two mobile phone technology companies have fought in court over patent-licensing agreements that expired in April, 2007. Qualcomm charges patent royalties for its technology to mobile phone manufacturers. Nokia and other phone makers claim the royalties are excessive.

Richard Windsor, an analyst at Japanese investment bank Nomura, said the legal battle will shift to a Delaware Court and a 3G patent dispute. Legal arguments are expected to begin this summer.

”Qualcomm is weak in GSM and we think it has been deploying a strategy of firing out legal long-shots,” said Windsor. ”The hope is that a victory in one of these cases will bring Nokia to the negotiating table, but, so far, it’s not achieved this.”
”The main focus now is going to be the Delaware case in July,” said Windsor. ”However, it’s our view that Qualcomm is unlikely to prevail in that case either.”

Motorola has been hired by Far EasTone Telecommunications to supply Far EasTone with WiMax networking equipment for its Taiwanese venture. Taiwan has remote mountain villages and sparsely populated islands that makes land-line telecommunications and Internet service too expensive to invest in. As a way to combat this, the government started its M-Taiwan (Mobile) project which encourages Internet mobility, WiMax, 3G (third generation telecommunications) and other wireless technologies.

Far EasTone won the contract to provide wireless services over its competitor Chunghwa Telecom. Chunghwa is a state-run company that controls Taiwan’s land-line telecommunications services. Jan Nilsson, Far EasTone’s president, hopes that by using WiMax the company will gain access to more home broadband Internet subscribers.

Strangely enough, the government of Taiwan has been trying to privatize Chunghwa to encourage competition but hasn’t been able to yet. By awarding the contract to Far EasTone and not Chunghwa, Taiwan’s government is creating an end-run around its own monopoly to spur competition. This is an example of how mobile phone technology creates new political realities and economic opportunities.

Motorola
Far EasTone Telecommunications
Chunghwa Telecom

In Europe they take football – what we Americans know as soccer – as seriously as many Americans take football – what we Americans call football. So when U.K. satellite service Sky Sports announced that it plans to offer all of its 92 Barclays Premier League matches on mobile this is big news indeed! Sky Sports 1, 2 and 3 will be available via the Sky Mobile TV series as simulcast channels.

Launched in November of 2005, and at the time said to be the largest 3G mobile TV service in Europe, Sky Mobile TV lets customers receive more than 30 mobile TV channels including news, music and entertainment… and now football! The service is currently available to 3G subscribers to Vodafone U.K., Vodafone Ireland and Orange networks. Additionally the service is expected to launch on T-Mobile in the coming weeks.

[Via Cellular-News]

Last week we reported that Oxygen Media was working on mobile game based on the reality TV series The Bad Girls Club, and this week additional details were announced. The game, which is being developed by Hong Kong-based Artificial Life, Inc., will be able for the 3G platform later this August. In addition to the 3G game, Oxygen and Artificial Life will also launch several other 2G games based on The Bad Girls Club in the coming months.

In the 3G version players will take the role of a new member of the club, and will have the usual agenda: to gain fame and win notoriety in the tabloid world. Players must prove to be a scandalous and notorious bad girl and win a spot on the cover of the Tabloid!

“Gaming is so huge with women, and Oxygen has been looking at how to break into this arena,” said Oxygen senior vice president Cynthia Ashworth. “This game presents the perfect opportunity to take our most popular television series to a new level by creating a mobile game that is on brand with the show and also connects with our young, tech-savvy female audience. This is only the beginning for Oxygen in the gaming arena.”

Bad Girls Club 3G Mobile will be available via download at the end of August for an initial price of $3.99.

Oxygen Media: Bad Girls Club 3G Mobile

CDMA2000 dominates the North American 3G wireless telecommunications market. That’s the official word form the CDMA Development Group (CDG), which announced that there are more than 135 million 3G subscribers in North America, and more than 22 percent of those use EV-DO mobile broadband devices.

“CDMA2000’s strong growth in North America validates the technology’s powerful and robust evolution path,” said Perry LaForge, executive director for the CDG. “Its superior performance, utility and reliability have made it the overwhelming choice for subscribers who demand substantial value — in other words, it is the best solution at the most affordable price.”

The two leading CDMA carriers, as of March 2007, were Sprint and Verizon, while rural operators including Embarg and Metro PCS.

Press release

By the year 2010 there could be more than 23 million 3G mobile phone users in South Korea, according to a new research report by ROA Group. And 41.95 million South Koreans, or roughly 85% of the total population, will be using some form of mobile handset. The report forecasts significant growth for the WCDMA (3G) mobile standard.

The prepaid mobile phone market, which is currently quite low in South Korea will likely remain so, and should account for only about 1% of the market by 2010.

[Via Cellular News]