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29th September 2010. 11:19
Monthly Archives: September 2010
I hope no one has missed the latest product announcement from Sony Ericsson, the LiveView™ micro display for Android phones. Basically it’s a micro display with remote control functionality, enabling you to get notifications from your phone or to control certain functionality in your phone. For example, this way you don’t have to take out your phone every time you want to change the track in the music player, or to read the latest a text message. Interested in making your Android™ application work with LiveView™? On the Developer World web site, we will soon publish an SDK and a tutorial, so that you can start developing LiveView-plugins to your Android™ application. Read more about LiveView™ on Sony Ericsson Developer World.
Tomorrow, the Google Developer Day will take place in Tokyo. It’s a one-day event where you have the opportunity to learn more about Google developer products and meet the engineers who work on them. The event deals with mobile and web technologies including Android, HTML5, Chrome, App Engine, Google Web Toolkit and more. I got a chance to have a chat with Abbas Sumar, Application partner manager from Sony Ericsson who will attend the event. Abbas Sumar is looking forward to an exciting day with the latest trends and developments within Android applications!
Erik Hellman.
Ever wondered how a manufacturer goes about to implement Android on a phone? Interested in how Sony Ericsson works with the Android platform? Erik Hellman from Sony Ericsson will present his experiences from working with Android at the Android Only event in Stockholm, Sweden, on Sept 29-30.
You’ve heard it here first… we’re announcing the rollout of our new Sony Ericsson Device Loaner Program. You guys had been asking for it, and we listened, and decided to take immediate action. To get the program up and running as soon as possible, we’ve partnered with an experienced U.S. vendor, Vienna Channels, to help facilitate the phone loaner service and logistics.
It’s a fairly quick and easy process to get signed up to borrow a Sony Ericsson phone. I signed up myself and it only took a few minutes. Once you’re fully signed up with Vienna Channels, there are a lot of great features on the Device Loaner Program site. For example, from the Products menu on the main page, you can view phone specifications and check real-time inventory levels of the phones available. From the Reports menu, you can even generate custom shipment reports.
Since the program is still new and inventory is limited, only one phone per developer/order is currently allowed. For now, two models are available – Xperia™ X10a phone and Xperia™ Mini Pro – but we will be continuously adding new phone models to the inventory list. You’ll also need to have a valid credit card when signing up, to pay for the shipping costs. If the device is not returned, the full cost of the device plus a 10% restocking fee will be charged to your credit card. The program is initially aimed at the U.S./Canadian market, but if you’re ordering outside of North America, please be aware that you’ll be paying for international shipping fees, plus applicable customs/duties for your particular destination.
If you have any questions about the Sony Ericsson Device Loaner Program, send an email to sonyericsson1@viennachannels.com.
APPNATION 2010, Day 1
I recently had to opportunity to attend the APPNATION Conference in San Francisco, CA, USA on Sept 13-14. My main purpose for going was to provide general media coverage on behalf of the Sony Ericsson Developer World for this two-day event. The show was comprised of over 1,000 app developers, media companies, mobile ad networks, venture capitalists and other players in the app ecosystem. One interesting estimate came from Drew Ianni, chairman and founder of APPNATION, who reported recent research that there will be one million mobile apps available for download by the year 2010.
A couple of days ago I got into a plane heading for Tokyo Game Show 2010. For all of you who are not attending this amazing event, I thought I should share my impressions after the first 2 days here.
Mobile Monday in Malmö, Sweden, took place this week and it was a really nice event with inspiring presentations from several different speakers, including Troed Sångberg from Sony Ericsson. The main theme was the Future of Openness (in Mobile), and a lot of people were very interested in how Sony Ericsson is working with openness and Android.
Read more about what was said on the Developer World site.
This Saturday, retro gaming was in focus at the Hackathon developer event in Stockholm. I got a hold of Peter Svensson, organiser of the event, to find out how it went.
If there’s one thing I know about application developers it’s that they want to get their apps out the door as soon as possible. The phrase “time is money” is almost a mantra in the application development community. So anything that can help speed the process is coveted.
This is particularly true when a developer confronts some aspect of the process in which he or she has little expertise. For example, a game developer might be expert in coding the logic of a game, but a neophyte at marketing or monetization strategy. Another developer might be skilled at building an app for a particular mobile platform but not so skilled in building an app that runs across multiple mobile platforms.
The good news is that there are a lot of products, tools, and services available that can fill in the blanks for developers. The bad news is that those products, tools, and services aren’t always easy to find. It would be great if there was a single place for developers to find tools and other resources they need.
Well, that’s the objective of the new Resources for Developers section in Developer World.
I just examined it, and its got lots of potential. The thing I particularly like is the many categories listed. These include:
- Advisory Services
- Mobile Advertising, Marketing, and Analytics
- Billing-Related Services/Products
- Application Development
- Mobile Interface/GUI/UX
- Games and Gaming
- Real Time Application Middleware
- Mixed/Augmented Reality
- Push/Notification
- Network and Traffic
- Miscellaneous
The Developer Resources section is seeded with a starter set of services. The list is modest right now, but it’s expected to grow. How much it grows and how fast it grows, depends in part on you. If you have or know of a product, tool, or service that’s really helpful, you’re encouraged to tell the folks who maintain the Developer Services section about it. You can do that simply by sending a note to DeveloperServices@sonyericsson.com.
I’ve got a few tools in mind that I plan to blog about in coming posts. I’m looking forward to seeing what other people recommend. As a community, you can compile a set of services that is truly beneficial to a lot of developers.
In the mobile business it’s common to hear statements like “smartphone adoption happening faster than predicted”. In that specific case the fallacy is likely that of mistaking Internet devices and smartphones for the same thing, but the shift in itself is interesting. Consumers are moving en masse from devices that could mostly only do one or a few things well to open devices that satisfy our needs to connect.
I predict the same thing happening not only to the small screens in our pockets, but our big screens hanging on our walls. The thing we still call “TV”, which even with the latest sets that can connect to specific Internet services, is pretty non-smart.
Depending on where you live (and if you’re an early adopter), you’ve either upgraded once or twice over the last ten years. One move to flat screens and one to HDTV, or both upgrades at the same time. The industry is at the moment in the startup phase of another upgrade, to 3D.
I claim that 3D is not the next must-have feature, the one that will get consumers to upgrade their sets again. I claim openness – the same disruptive shift that is currently happening in the mobile industry – is about to happen to the TV industry as well. 3D will tag along, the actual device tech is not that much more expensive if you’re going through the early adopters once again, but it will not be in the driver’s seat.
Disruptive shifts are hard to predict, and they cause havoc in the market place. Established truths and important players might get switched around, and existing predictions get thrown off the mark. That is, the exact same thing as we’re currently seeing in what’s – in error – called the “smartphone bloodbath” by Tomi Ahonen (who is otherwise my first stop when I need numbers!).
Current predictions of the potential size of the 3D TV market are based on consumers reacting to the 3D proposition itself. If you throw complete openness in to the mix, where the big screens on our walls become as intelligent as the small screens in our pockets are becoming, I’d claim the size of that market – as well as the speed of its creation – is severely underestimated.
Openness will fuel the next TV upgrade cycle. It will, as usual, be quite disruptive.
PS: Don’t miss out on the additional discussion seen in the comments below!
![Showing HTML5 device orientation on Xperia with Ice Cream Sandwich [demo]](http://img.youtube.com/vi/Q4CTkjaYumM/default.jpg)
