Top 5 Cellular Phone Producers for 2008

Based on reports from PhoneArena, here is a list of the top 5 cellular phone producers in the global market for 2008:

1. Nokia - 470 million units sold.
2. Samsung - 200 million units sold.
3. LG - 100 million units sold.
4. Motorola - 99.9 million units sold.
5. Sony Ericsson - 96.6 million units sold.

I am still hoping Motorola will come through (eventually) and will revive its mobile devices unit. Until then, another 4000 jobs are expected to be lost (beside those 3000 from November of last year).

Cell Phones - Top 3 best sellers

I remember reading about it a while ago. Digging a little through the Internet, I found the source in engadget. Here are the facts:

1. Nokia 1100 - around 200 million units sold.
2. Motorola RAZR V3 - around 50 million units sold (although I believe that the Motorola StarTac sold more units).
   
3. LG Chocolate - around 10 million units sold.

Now, Apple's iPhone has a big chance of overrunning the third spot by the end of 2008 (with the new improved and cheaper 3G model). We'll just have to wait and see. Of course, searching the internet will reveal a different top for the most selling cell phones.

On a similar note, CNET has published a review on the best 5 cell phones. Why haven't I owned any of them yet?

Testing Mobile Applications

Mobile developers will tell you that probably the hardest part of the entire mobile application development process is testing. You would need access to hundreds of mobile devices, test on each and every one, and make sure that the features you implemented in your application work properly on each and every test device. Sure we have emulator, but all they provide is an emulated environment of the phone. Sure you should start with an emulator when testing the application, but eventually, to see how it works on a real device, you need to push further. The question that unfolds is what can you do if your company does not have access to hundreds and hundreds of devices. Here are a few possibilities:

Motorola offers a Handset Loaner Program through which you can test your mobile application on Motorola handsets. The kit that you will receive will consist of the Handset, Charger, Battery, and a USB Cable. The cost of the kit for a 30 day loan varies between $35 and $70. There are not a lot of devices available as far as I can tell. If you loose or damage the device, the fee is $1000 for most of the devices. A lot isn't it? Make sure you do not damage or loose the device.

Nokia offers the Remote Device Access program free of charge for all Nokia Forum members. It is a service that allows you to remotely test your mobile application on Symbian OS-based Nokia devices. "The main features of the service are remote controlling a device, installing and running applications, transferring files, and analyzing log files in real-time."

Sony Ericsson Virtual Lab service allows for remote testing of your mobile applications on selected 2007 Sony Ericsson mobile phones that are connected to a network 24/7. The cost varies between $18 to $20 an hour. The platforms supported are Java ME and UIQ 3.

Probably the most well known service is DeviceAnywhere, and this is because of the high number of devices/manufacturers/operators supported. It offers remote access to almost one thousand mobile devices from more than 25 manufacturers that run on more than 20 networks from places like Japan, UK, US, France, etc. Individual device packages are $100 a month each (and you can choose from over 20 packages); the hourly rate various between $13 and $16 and the hours can be used across all device packages. The unused hours do not roll over to the next month, since unused hours expire at the end of each month. You do get 3 hours of free trial to try the service.

DotMobi Virtual Developer Lab, powered by DeviceAnywhere, offers you 5 free hours to test your mobile application.

PACA Mobile Center offers access to more than 850 handsets. As far as I understood, you need to go to one of their centers (located in France) to get access to the pool of devices. The daily access cost is 500 euros, with the possibility of a 10 day plan starting from 3000 euros, and a yearly plan of 12000 euros. For start up companies, the fees are usually half off the regular price mentioned.

Mob4Fire implements the concept of crowed sourced mobile application testing. How it works is easy and straightforward: "The developer chooses a mix of handsets, network and OS's to test the software on, gets it tested by the crowed, gets feedback and pays the tester." There is an online rating system where testers are rated based on the quality and timeliness of the response. Developers are also tested based on how clearly they outlined the job testers need to do.

I will keep adding to this blog if I find new information. If you want to participate, you are very welcome, so please leave comments.

Motorola insider writes about current crisis

On engadget you can find the publication of a letter written by Numair Faraz, the personal adviser of Motorola's former CMO Geoffrey Frost, to the executive group at Motorola. Some of the claims made their are troubling and point to how Ed Zander, the former CEO, made some unfortunate decisions that diminished the role Motorola played in the mobile phone market.
Some parts that I find disturbing:

"Motorola's current CEO, Greg Brown, is so technologically out of touch he refuses to use a computer for communications, and has all his email correspondences printed by his secretary and replied to by dictation." (not part of the letter)

"But apparently different from the rest of the incompetent senior executives at Motorola -- except instead of merely being inept, you're actually actively killing the company" and "You clearly have no interest in fighting the good fight and attempting to mold Motorola into the market leader it can and should be." (Talking about Greg Brown, current Motorola CEO)

Some of the solutions mentioned:

"... make me a phone that looks, feels, and works like a symbol of wealth and privilege."

"Fully embrace embedded Linux and Google's Android initiative, and take the phone operating system out of the stone age."

"Understand that the next big feature in handsets isn't a camera or a music player -- it is social connectedness; build expertise in this area, and sell it down the entire value chain." (totally agree with this, although I would look even beyond this, to the next stage of evolution, like the Semantic Web).

I wonder how open minded the current executive team is as to incorporate advises and to take critics in a constructive way. Either way, the letter is refreshing and the solutions proposed there need to be incorporated into future directions that the company has to take.

Can the current crisis help Motorola?

Is it a stretch to think that one has to undergo some kind of a crisis (spiritual, emotional, material, etc) to become the source of innovation and light? Ron Tolido's blog has some examples of just that. Motorola needs to turn around its mobile devices business (something that is clear to everybody) and this is the perfect moment to do just that.

If we think abut new phones that Motorola has come up with, one comes into mind, namely the ROKR E8. The phone uses the ModeShift technology that is proprietary to Motorola as far as I can tell. I tried finding more info about it, but with no great success, except an article on InformationWeek. You can switch between the camera, music player, or a basic phone just by pressing one button. One has only the controls they need when they need them. For example, in music player mode, you would only see controls such as play, pause, shuffle, fast forward/backward etc, all specific to what a music player should have. The phone has won CNET's Best of CES award in the cell phones and smartphones category and CNET People's Voice Award. It is clearly a big step forward that Motorola has made, and we should expect in the future to see more mobile phones from Motorola that will incorporate this technology.

One other effort has been made in the R&D category by trying to incorporate technologies and practices that would shrink the design cycle of a mobile phone from 24 months (as it was in 2003 when the project started) to 24 hours. Known under the name of "One Pass to Production", the research project is being carried out by students and researchers at Florida Atlantic University. I came on board in 2006 and was (and still am) very excited by the challenge that comes with this project. There are six critical areas that are investigated: product specification; verification; performance evaluation; software development acceleration techniques; digital six sigma; and software-hardware co-design techniques. Students are divided into groups focusing on different stages of product development in order to find ways to reduce the length of the production cycle. Currently, we believe that our current methodology, after 5 years of research, can lead to a one month design cycle. Motorola's internal evaluation puts it at 3 months. I do believe that the goal of 24 hours will be reached, and in the future, I will post more about this research project. More information about this can be found here.

I have no doubt that if continuing on this path, Motorola's Mobile Division will survive its own recession and come out stronger and more focused than before.