You wait ages for an operator own-label smartphone to come along, and then two come along at once. After trailing its Intel phone at Mobile World Congress this year, Orange announced that from next week it will have the phone actually available.
It is to be called the San Diego, a name that some (and the first person I saw to do this was Sean Jackson of PR company Axicom – so take a bow, Sean) have interpreted as a dig at Qualcomm. This is a phone that doesn't have any Qualcomm chips in it, see, being an Intel phone. Qualcomm is based in San Diego – hence the perceived dig. It doesn't have any ARM stuff in it either, mind you, making it even rarer in the mobile phone world. This is just as significant. Orange's head of devices told us that a challenge to the ARM architecture was one of the reasons Orange has invested in Intel. Anyway, perhaps the Orange Cambridge didn't sound quite as sexy as the San Diego.
People thinking this phone is in no way a big deal to Orange might be surprised to know that the operator has a mini "festival" planned for its launch on the 6th and 7th of June, right on London's happening South Bank. Yes, the day after the UKs enforced two day celebration of ritualised power worship/ 60 years' unbroken service from a dutiful, elderly monarch (take your pick) Orange will be taking to the same streets to celebrate the launch of a phone. We are told there will be "Live DJs and beatboxers and the UK’s best pro Skaters and BMXers" so it's fairly clear what demographic the operator is after. Over the hill journalists trying to reclaim their youth, obviously.
And yet, there must be something in this white label smartphone thing, because Vodafone is also launching its own smartphone, although this one is not quite as high spec as the San Diego. More of a Vodafone Torquay, really, although the operator is in fact calling it the Smart II. This phone too has had some big licks from the Voda publicity department, with its press people inserting the words, "most important phone ever" into the mouth of Vodafone's head of devices. The reason for that is that it is seen as a device that, retailing at £70 full price, can connect the so far Smartphone-less to the Smartphone world.
It's an Android Gingerbread device, with some pre-integrated Vodafone apps and services. What would have been really interesting would have been a "low end" smartphone that, as well as the Android Market button, showcased the full might of the Wholesale Applications Community app portfolio (remember that?). They could have called it the Vodafone 24/7 or Vodafone 365 or something similar, perhaps. It could even have come preloaded with some differentiating app, like a VoIP service or similar, branded to Vodafone. But steady as she goes. So far, just a low price smartphone.
Another pair of announcements this week came in M2M, where at almost the same time as DT announced the public availability of its M2M Marketplace, Telefonica Digital announced that O2 UK would be the latest Telefonica property to sign up to use Jasper Wireless' platform. DT's announcement was the more impactful, on the face of it, as its Marketplace was a result of its work in its M2M competence centre to provide vendors a chance to show of their wares to customers – really a self-service approach to enterprises that need M2M solutions. DT's approach is to foster and amplify the business of the M2M developers, and profit thereby. O2 has also taken "self-service" role, but this time working with Jasper Wireless to offer customers more control of the M2M services they are using deploying. One customer described the facility as the "holy grail". It's a sign that operators will not "own" M2M in the sense that you might think of when CEOs make speeches assigning it a "Top Five Priority" label. But they do work genuinely to provide that telco blend of scale and interoperability. If you're going to have an M2M marketplace, then the operator does make a good place to have it. They genuinely, to coin a phrase, add value to the value chain.
Speaking of adding value, the EC put its finger on the pin of a grenade late last week, and made as if to pull it out, before putting it back for now. Yes, the Trade Commissioner decided that he might have a look at the issue of whether Chinese telco vendors (ZTE, Huawei) had been benefiting from Government subsidies that enabled them to "dump" their products in European markets at below cost price. This would not necessarily be an ideal scenario for a European telco space that has China as a key, perhaps the key, export market. Any likely action against the Chinese vendors, one in particular, would more than likely be met with dismay in China, and the potential for retribution. Cue pleas for calm all round.
Right, that's it for now. We at Mobile Europe are off to partake in the national pageant, by which we mean, prepare for Orange's San Diego festival. We can't help but feel that our beatboxing might need a little brushing up in the meantime.
Keith Dyer
Editor
Mobile Europe
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