High Speed Internet Access (HSIA): Mobile Broadband

It’s not easy to get hold of an iPhone 3G S at the moment. It was predicted that the new iPhone would sell out very quickly and in fact 3 Mobile almost sold out on the day of the launch a couple of weeks ago.

Now, the situation is that the telcos offerings the iPhone 3GS have no stock available. Telstra has blamed the “global shortage of iPhone models”. It looks like it will be a couple of weeks before new shipments arrive for Australian carriers. Apple have said that they can’t keep up with the demand for the iPhone 3Gs and are working to address the current shortfall.

The iPhone 3Gs can be purchased directly from Apple at a cost of $879 for the 16GB model and $1040 for 32GB.

Jakob Nielsen has determined that the term “mobile usability” is an oxymoron after researching the usability of mobile phones when completing Internet tasks. 6 different phones were tested and participants were given a variety of tasks to perform using a total of 36 websites. The success rate for completing the tasks successfully was poor when compared with the success rate on a standard PC.

Neilsen states that the problems are because:

• small screens of mobile phones mean that people can’t see all the options and this hampers their ability to complete tasks
• it’s hard to type on a mobile phone even those with mini keyboards
  the lack of a mouse makes using a user interface difficult
• poor performance of mobile Internet means that it takes a long time to move from one web page to the next
• websites are badly design for mobile Internet

Not surprisingly, more sophisticated phones performed better in the study. Three types of phone were used, ordinary mobile phones, smartphones and touch-screen phones. The success rate was highest amongst touch-screen users, then smartphone users while the usability of ordinary phones was very poor.

Nielsen concludes that the answer in the short term is for designers to design mobile-optimised sites.
A summary of the study can be found at Jakob Neilsen’s, Alertbox with links to the full report.

3 Mobile are offering the 8GB iPhone 3G free on their $49 cap plan. This is an improvement on their preliminary pricing models released a few days ago and makes them the cheapest operator for the 8GB iPhone. Optus and Vodafone have the 8GB iPhone free on a $59 plan.

The plan comes with $350 worth of calls, 300 minutes to 3 mobiles and 250 MB of data.

3 Mobile have released their iPhone 3G S plan prices in advance of their launch of the product this Friday, 17th July.

The data allowances are fairly generous. At the top of the range 3 are offering a package called “The Works”. For a cost of $110 per month you get 3000 minutes worth of calls, 500 SMS or MMS and 3GB of data. The 16GB model on this plan has no monthly handset repayment fee. The 32GB iPhone will cost $5 per month. Extra data can be added to the plan (and any of the other iPhone plans). 500MB costs $6 per month. 1GB costs $10 per month and an 3GB costs $20 per month.

At the cheaper end, 3 are offering discounts on last year’s iPhone model. The iPhone 3G 8GB is available for a monthly cost of $49 ($39 cap and $10 handset repayment). This includes 150 MB of data and $150 of calls.

The 16GB iPhone 3GS is free on Three’s 24 month $79 cap plan. This matches Optus who also have the 16GB iPhone 3G S free on a $79 cap plan

3 have confirmed that internet tethering will be available at no extra cost.

There are rumours that Apple are considering a business version of the iPhone with a slide-out keyboard.

iPhone fans might say that there is no need for a keyboard and anyone who uses the iPhone for a week or so will get used to the touchscreen. However, the fact is that a sizeable section of business users are used to a QWERTY keyboard and are unwilling to contemplate an alternative like the iPhone’s onscreen keyboard. It’s why the majority of corporate phone sales have a QWERTY keyboard and the best sellers have slide-out keyboards.

If Apple can increase sales by making an iPhone with a keyboard then that must be an incentive for them to explore this option seriously.

Given the clear preference for smartphones with keyboards amongst business users, we’ve pu t together a list of the best smartphones with full QWERTY keyboards.

The rumours circulating for a while are that Dell are venturing into the mobile Internet Device (MID) market with a device a bit bigger than the iPod Touch which connects to the Internet and also plays music and videos. It has no mobile phone capabilities. The rumours are unconfirmed but come from people briefed on Dell’s plans according to the Wall Street Journal. The CEO of Dell, Michael Dell hinted at this a few months ago in a speech in Tokyo. “We already have agreements with many mobile carriers around netbook devices, so it wouldn’t be unreasonable to expect that we would have smaller mobile Internet devices or smartphones in the future.” he said.

Dell’s mobile device will run on the Android operating system and use an ARM chip rather than Intel.

It will be interesting to see how it is received if it ever sees the light of day especially given that it has no phone capabilities and yet is not big enough to be practical enough to use for working away from the office other than dealing with emails. Given that most people need a phone, it seems unlikely that they would be prepared to carry around two devices when smartphones such as the iPhone are so popular. Also Netbooks have surged in popularity in the small computer niche especially as the keyboard designs have evolved to make them much easier to use. Not everyone wants a touchscreen with limited keyboard functionality especially when trying to accomplish some work tasks.

I guess we’ll see how the overlapping markets of netbooks, smartphones, mobile Internet Devices and ultra-portable notebooks evolve.

The Nokia N97 is available in Australia to buy outright and will shortly be offered on a plan with Optus and Vodafone. The price was thought to be around $1300 but it’s possible to pick one up a bit cheaper than this. Techoni mobile phones have the N97 for sale at $939.

We outlined the Nokia N97 features last month. The device is promoted as a mobile computer, not just a phone. The home screen can be personalised by selecting widgets from a variety of sources including Australian local content from partners such as News Ltd. The content is displayed in six positions on the home screen and as well as providing updating information they can also link to mobile websites for applications such as Facebook.

A range of applications is available from Nokia’s Ovi Store or pre-installed on the phone. The N97 is the first phone to be shipped with the Ovi store. Another first is the relevance engine which personalises the content in the store depending on the user’s history and location.

The Nokia N97 has HSDPA and Wi-Fi connectivity, a Full QWERTY slideout and tilt keyboard, a 5-megapixel camera and 32GB of internal storage plus the option to expand this using microSD memory cards.

The options for getting hold of the new iPhone 3GS are unfolding.

Apple are selling the iPhone unlocked at Apple stores if you purchase one by credit card. The unlocked 16GB iPhone 3GS is $879 and the 32GB model is $1040.

Alternatively you can purchase a plan and get the iPhone 3GS included in the plan’s monthly costs. Telstra, Optus, Vodafone and 3 Mobile are all offering iPhone 3GS plans.

Here are the details of similar plans from each of the carriers:

Not surprisingly, Telstra comes in at the most expensive. The iPhone 3GS is free on the Phone Plan Ultimate which costs $150 a month with a 2 year contract. The plan includes 2000 call minutes, 2000 text messages and 150MB of data.

Optus are offering the 32GB iPhone 3GS free with their $99 per month Timeless plan which includes unlimited calls and text and 1.5GB of data. This is a 2 year contract.

Vodafone are offering the 32GB iPhone 3GS free with their $114 per month plan, unlimited calls and text, 2 year contract and 2 GB of data.

Nokia’s new flagship brand, the Nokia N97 is close to arriving in Australia. Nokia have scheduled a world release for early July. The pricing details haven’t been confirmed but the price is likely to be around $1300. The timing is close to the release of the new  iPhone 3GS which should be available in Australia on 26 June so it will be interesting to see how they compete.

The N97 is being promoted by Nokia as a mobile computer, not just a phone. There are a couple of features which are firsts in the Nokia suite of smartphones.

• The home screen of the N97 can be personalised by selecting widgets to include applications such as Facebook and content such as shopping information, weather and news.
• The N97 is the first Nokia phone to be shipped with the Ovi store. This will enable the downloading and installation of applications onto the phone and it will also be the first time Nokia’s relevance engine will be seen which personalises the content in the store depending on the user’s history and location.

Nokia want to be seen as a content provider not just a handset manufacturer and the N97 is a move in this direction for them.

The Nokia N97 features are impressive:

• 3.5” touchscreen
• Full QWERTY slideout and tilt keyboard
• 5 megapixels camera
• MP3 player
• 32GB of storage plus a micro SD card giving up to 16GB of additional storage
• Symbian S60 5th edition operating system
• GPS, HSDPA, WiFi, Bluetooth

Vodafone will offer the HTC Magic handset free on their $69 capped plan with $400 towards calls and 1GB of data.

3 Mobile released their pricing for the HTC Magic last week. 3’s $69 cap plan has a charge of $10 per month for the HTC Magic. The handset isn’t free until the higher value $99 cap plan.

There are some differences between 3 Mobile and Vodafone’s offerings other than the pricing.

The HTC Magic handsets are different. Vodafone have a white handset and 3 Mobile a black handset. More significantly 3 Mobile’s HTC Magic will include Microsoft ActivSync which syncs with Microsoft Exchange providing access to emails, calendar entries and contacts. The 3 Mobile handset is more attractive to business users.

The launch date for the HTC Magic plans is likely to be June for both 3 and Vodafone but the exact dates haven’t been confirmed.