Sixty mobile phone operators have linked up to develop new “chat” functionality for subscribers that will replicate the experience of online programs such as MSN Messenger, an industry initiative unveiled yesterday revealed.
The aim is to enable users to see which of the contacts in their address book are available and then allow them to start instant messaging with a system that would also transfer photos and video.
Michael O’Hara, marketing director of the GSM Association, the industry body behind the initiative, said the idea was to enable “enhanced messaging from the contacts list on your phone.”
“It allows you to do instant messaging, to see the presence information of your friends and to share multimedia during a chat session,” he said.
Users would be able to write a message about themselves — their “presence” — which would appear in the address book of others. This functionality will be familiar to users of hit social networking site Facebook.
Chat, in the new sense of the word, is a written rather than verbal exchange. Users communicate using instant messages that flash up in a dialogue box.
The GSM Association announced the industry initiatives yesterday when the world’s biggest mobile phone event opened in Barcelona where the industry is unveiling the latest innovations that it hopes will drive demand through the global economic downturn.
The Mobile World Congress, which runs to Thursday, will bring together 60,000 industry insiders from 1,200 companies, the GSM Association said.
All the major network operators such as Vodafone, MTN and China Mobile are present, as well as handset makers like Nokia and Samsung. Microsoft, Yahoo and a host of start-ups looking to tout their new products are also attending.
As well as glitzy launches and new industry initiatives, the economic crisis is set to cast a pall over the gathering with cost-cutting and survival the new concerns of an industry that has become accustomed to constant growth.
Leading research group Gartner predicts that annual sales of handsets will fall this year.
One among many new product launches expected at the show will be the first mobile phones from Taiwanese IT manufacturer Acer Inc (宏碁). One of them, according to rumors on mobile phone blogs, will have screens on both sides.
Meanwhile, Facebook users spend almost 30 minutes a day on the site poking and messaging their friends on average, with access patterns similar on mobile phones and computers, a British study showed yesterday.
The research tracked access to Facebook by mobile phone subscribers in Britain and found that the social networking phenomenon was the top site for users measured by browsing time.
Users accessing Facebook on their mobile phones spent on average 24 minutes on the site compared with 27.5 minutes daily by computer users, the study found.
Mobile phone users accessed the site on average 3.3 times per day, compared with 2.3 times for computer users.
The study, carried out by the GSM Association, aimed to provide insight into the surfing habits of mobile phone users with a view to encouraging advertising.
A Chinese aircraft carrier group entered Japan’s economic waters over the weekend, before exiting to conduct drills involving fighter jets, the Japanese Ministry of Defense said yesterday. The Liaoning aircraft carrier, two missile destroyers and one fast combat supply ship sailed about 300km southwest of Japan’s easternmost island of Minamitori on Saturday, a ministry statement said. It was the first time a Chinese aircraft carrier had entered that part of Japan’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ), a ministry spokesman said. “We think the Chinese military is trying to improve its operational capability and ability to conduct operations in distant areas,” the spokesman said. China’s growing
BUILDUP: US General Dan Caine said Chinese military maneuvers are not routine exercises, but instead are ‘rehearsals for a forced unification’ with Taiwan China poses an increasingly aggressive threat to the US and deterring Beijing is the Pentagon’s top regional priority amid its rapid military buildup and invasion drills near Taiwan, US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said on Tuesday. “Our pacing threat is communist China,” Hegseth told the US House of Representatives Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense during an oversight hearing with US General Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. “Beijing is preparing for war in the Indo-Pacific as part of its broader strategy to dominate that region and then the world,” Hegseth said, adding that if it succeeds, it could derail
COMPLIANCE: The SEF has helped more than 3,900 Chinese verify documents, indicating that most of those affected are willing to cooperate, the MAC said More than 3,100 spouses from China have submitted proof of renunciation of their Chinese household registration, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday. The National Immigration Agency has since April issued notices to spouses to submit proof that they had renounced their Chinese household registration on or before June 30 or their Taiwanese household registration would be revoked. People having difficulties obtaining such a document can request an extension of the deadline or submit a written affidavit in lieu of it. The council said it would hold a briefing at 2:30pm on Friday at the immigration agency’s Taichung office in cooperation with the
CHIP WAR: The new restrictions are expected to cut off China’s access to Taiwan’s technologies, materials and equipment essential to building AI semiconductors Taiwan has blacklisted Huawei Technologies Co (華為) and Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC, 中芯), dealing another major blow to the two companies spearheading China’s efforts to develop cutting-edge artificial intelligence (AI) chip technologies. The Ministry of Economic Affairs’ International Trade Administration has included Huawei, SMIC and several of their subsidiaries in an update of its so-called strategic high-tech commodities entity list, the latest version on its Web site showed on Saturday. It did not publicly announce the change. Other entities on the list include organizations such as the Taliban and al-Qaeda, as well as companies in China, Iran and elsewhere. Local companies need
RSS