By Ian Paul
November  18, 2009

Google phone rumors are back with a vengeance, spurred on by reports that the Internet behemoth Google is partnering with phone maker HTC on a “super” Android device thinner than the Droid and iPhone. The release date for this Google-branded phone is early 2010, according to TechCrunch’s Michael Arrington, who reported a Google Phone was in the works Tuesday.

Rumors of a Google phone are nothing new, although speculation did start to disappear once Android-based phones hit the market last year. But this is the second time a Google phone rumor has popped up in recent weeks, and Arrington’s rumor bear a striking resemblance to what we’ve heard before.

The Real Google Phone

Taking a page out of Apple’s “we control the customer experience” playbook, Google reportedly wants to produce a handset that will be completely dictated by the team in Mountain View. Details about the phone are incredibly thin. There’s no word on what kind of specs the handset would have, but potential manufacturers for the phone, according to Arrington, include LG and Samsung. A major advertising campaign introducing the phone could reportedly start as early as January 2010.

Google will reportedly sell its phone directly to customers as well as through retailers. That suggests the search giant may not have a network partner on board, and would sell unsubsidized phones instead. Phones sold outside of the carrier system means the Google phone could cost as much as $500, and would have to run on a SIM-friendly GSM.

While a carrier-free Google phone would be an unusual move in the age of exclusivity contracts, it’s not unheard of. Handset makers such as RIM and Palm sell unlocked versions of their smartphones through Amazon and other retailers.

The suggestion that the phone will not be tied to a specific carrier, backs up a previous assertion by Northeast Securities analyst Ashok Kumor who made similar claims last month after Google’s “design partners” filled him about the phone, according to the Street.com.

The iPhone is Not Beta
A phone experience created and designed exclusively by Google will inevitably draw comparisons with Apple’s iPhone. And, as Arrington points out, for good reason. Just as the iPhone is Apple’s vision of the handset, a Google-branded phone would be a competing vision of what the smartphone should be.

But while dictating the phone experience makes sense for Apple — a company that has a long history in designing polished hardware — Google is not about launching polished products. Can the company that made beta a punchline deliver on a complete customer experience the first time around? Sure, the original iPhone lacked smartphone basics like cut-and-paste, video capability, and MMS. But with the exception of video, those are all software issues. The fact is, from a hardware perspective, the original iPhone was a revolutionary and complete product. There’s no question iPhone hardware has improved over time, but that doesn’t take anything away from the original design.

Google, on the other hand, is all about delivering an incomplete product and then fixing and improving it over time. But you can’t do that with a physical product. For smartphones there is no such thing as beta. You either get it right at launch or you don’t. It’s as simple as that.

Another question is how Google’s Android partners will react to a Google phone? As my colleague JR Raphael pointed out last month, Google has worked hard to convince manufacturers to embrace the Android platform. Changing roles from Android facilitator to Android competitor, could hamper those efforts.

It was business as usual at BroadcastAsia2009 and CommunicAsia2009 this week as 54,354 attendees congregated at Asia’s largest media and infocomm trade event. Of the total number of attendees, 49% came from outside of Singapore, hailing from about 100 countries and regions across Asia-Pacific, Europe, US and the Middle-East.

Spanning 58,000 square metres, the exhibitions featured 1,923 exhibiting companies from 60 countries and regions. The shows saw a total of 34 group pavilions, with countries like Belgium, Brunei Darussalam and Vietnam participating for the very first time.

Exhibitors were pleased with the event, citing the opportunity to network and discuss business deals with high quality visitors as the key reason.  “BroadcastAsia2009 and CommunicAsia2009 is clearly the most important platform in the Asia Pacific region for the industry to launch products, make announcements and network.  We are encouraged by the positive feedback from exhibitors.  80 per cent of exhibitors have already indicated that they will be participating in the shows in 2010,” said Mr Stephen Tan, chief executive of show organizer, Singapore Exhibition Services.

Quality customers at BroadcastAsia2009

Long time exhibitor of the show, Panasonic, was pleased with the business opportunities made at BroadcastAsia2009. Panasonic Systems Asia Pacific’s assistant general manager for its Broadcast Regional Operation Centre, Max Khang said, “This year celebrates our 10th year at BroadcastAsia. SES had gone the extra mile to create more potential client interaction opportunities for Panasonic, creating an unexpected increase in sales revenue for us.”

Panasonic’s success at the show was fuelled by their full High-Definition (HD) 3D mini theatre. The HD 3D 10-minute movie saw a constant string of viewers throughout the four days, and had many people talking about 3D in HD broadcasting as the new frontier.

Another satisfied exhibitor is Playbox, one of the world’s leading innovators and manufacturers of IT-based television technology. “Playbox is an international organization and we are gradually expanding our Asian presence. While this year’s economic climate has proved to be a challenge, we are indeed pleased that we’ve not only managed to garner new customers at BroadcastAsia, at the same time, our booth has been overcrowded with visitors on a daily basis,” said Peter Petrov, Playbox’s advertising manager.

The spotlight was on the Singapore Pavilion at BroadcastAsia. With more than 20 local companies taking part for the first time, interactive digital media was one of the main features. One such project is “Wish Singapore” developed by PGK Media. Making its debut at this year’s National Day, the gigantic floating LED cylindrical display will feature Singaporeans’ well wishes at Marina Bay.

IPTV in the spotlight at BroadcastAsia2009 International Conference

A hot topic at the conference this year is IPTV. Although IPTV is not a new idea, the challenge now is reinventing it into a more compelling feature. The day long discussions, chaired by David Wood, Head of Emerging Media at the European Broadcasting Union, talked about the technical issues surrounding IPTV, and business opportunities such as how IPTV can differentiate itself from other TV services.

The session also looked at how advertising revenues can be derived from operating an IPTV service. Participants at the IPTV session explored the possibility of combining IPTV’s Video-on-demand features with internet features such as social networking sites and virtual sites. The topic of discussion was also whether this would be successful, as participants also felt that internet-based content often lack the right business models.

Worldwide and regional launches at CommunicAsia2009

This year, crowds at CommunicAsia were treated to a range of new launches, including the latest mobile devices from the industry’s market leaders. At the show, LG unveiled its Crystal GD900, the world’s first transparent phone, while Samsung introduced its next era of smartphones in a worldwide launch. The highly-anticipated, new Samsung Jet supports the latest smartphone features which include multi-task manager and Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync, bringing user-friendly menu navigations in a sleek and compact design. Garmin and ASUS also leveraged on CommunicAsia’s high profile to launch its first ever collaboration, the Garmin-ASUS nuvifones G60, a smartphone with location based capabilities.

With green revolution taking centre stage this year, CommunicAsia saw over 40 companies showcasing their green solutions. Indian vendor VNL took this opportunity to launch the world’s first 100% solar-powered GSM base station while companies such as ZTE and Samsung introduced handsets made from recycled materials.

“CommunicAsia provided the perfect platform for the Broadband Forum to promote the strength and progress of the broadband subscriber growth worldwide.  It also gave us the opportunity to meet and educate an influential level of executives throughout Asia” said Robin Mersh, chief operating officer of the global consortium.  The Broadband Forum announced the latest broadband statistics, which showed Asia leading the way with broadband connections, jumping by a third compared to 4% growth globally.

Results for NAVTEQ’s second annual Global LBS Challenge for the Asia-Pacific region was announced at CommunicAsia2009.  Japan-based Navitime took the grand prize for its application of the same name, bagging over $557,500 in cash, tools and data licenses and handsets from NAVTEQ.  Thomas Tierney, developer alliance manager for NAVTEQ said this year saw a wider variety of categories and some new technologies like the ability to pan and tilt maps with the handset and geo-tagged handset broadcasting.

Discussing business strategies at CommunicAsia2009 Summit

The CommunicAsia2009 Summit attracted an impressive 700 delegates and saw an exciting line-up of up-to-date topics in the infocomm industry.  The attendance by heavyweight speakers provided delegates with powerful insights to addressing the most current issues faced in today’s global marketplace.

At the CEO Perspectives which kicked off the summit, telecommunications bigwigs shared about the need to invest in their networks, go all-IP and embrace their competition in matters like infrastructure sharing.  Dato’ Zam Isa, Group CEO of Telekom Malaysia asserts that the business model for telcos is not about voice anymore. “You have to change your mindset and move up the value chain and become an enabler of any-to-any services,” he said.

A boost for the region’s CG industry

Held in conjunction with BroadcastAsia2009, CG Overdrive 2009 saw a line up of elite CG artists from world famous studios speaking at the conference and Professional Tracks, which are lecture-style workshops that impart specific skills to CG professionals. The sessions gave participants an opportunity to interact with industry big names from Pixar, Lucasfilm Animation Singapore, and even renowned concept development visionary and illustrator, Craig Mullins. In its fourth edition, CG Overdrive has grown with the increasing demand for local content from Singapore by bringing in a stellar group of speakers who are gurus in their specialised fields of CG to share their expert knowledge with participants.

Public-Private partnerships for e-government initiatives

The inaugural iGov Global Exchange drew 600 leading e-Government experts from 27 countries to discuss opportunities and challenges in developing successful e-Government programmes.  Singapore’s senior minister Goh Chok Tong shared about good governance in his 45 years’ experience in government at the opening of the iGov Global Exchange. Urging the public sector to open up e-government platforms to the private sector, he said that government agencies should take the role of facilitator and enabler, and evolve from “being the sole provider of services to being a provider of a platform”.

Speakers from the industry and various government agencies shared their experience on implementing e-Government initiatives in countries including Canada, France, Hong Kong, Italy, Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, the UAE and the United States. In addition, the programme for delegates included visiting the iGov exhibition at CommunicAsia and site visits to some of the government infocomm projects in Singapore.

As a major player in the global mobile industry, LG has introduced its latest innovative handsets and strategic direction for the year at CommunicAsia 2009 in Singapore. The phones at center stage include the company’s new 3D S-Class graphic user interface which debuted in the LG Arena (LG-KM900) earlier this year and would cover the convergence, style and entertainment segments. These include the LG-GM730 smartphone, the world’s first transparent LG-GD900 Crystal and the full touchscreen eight-megapixel Viewty Smart (LG-GC900) camera phone.

“The new handsets LG will be showcasing at CommunicAsia 2009 are each designed to meet customer needs in different ways but all share our easy-to-use 3D S-Class User Interface,” said Dr. Skott Ahn, President and CEO of LG Electronics Mobile Communications Company. “These top-of-the-line phones, like all of our devices, are based on insights from consumers. Turning customers’ ideas into reality is what we do well at LG and it’s emphasized in our theme at this event, ‘No Longer Just an Idea.’”

The LG-GM730 is LG’s new flagship smartphone, which is the result of a strategic partnership with Microsoft. The combination of the Microsoft’s Windows Mobile 6.1 with LG’s S-Class User Interface provides easier access to the powerful smartphone’s myriad features including easy to use e-mail and organization tools. The slim, 11.9 mm LG-GM730 is the first of several smartphones that LG will release in Asia this year.

The LG-GD900 Crystal is the world’s first transparent phone and also the first to use LG’s next generation touch technology. Its fully transparent Crystal Touchpad appears at first to be just an alphanumeric keypad but it actually doubles as a touchpad. It can be used exactly like the trackpad on a laptop computer but also recognizes handwriting, responds to multi-touch commands and offers a new way of navigation called Gesture Command. Using Gesture Command, users can switch instantly among applications by simply drawing one of 12 easy symbols on the Crystal Touchpad.

One of the most talked about phones this year among LG’s stable of products has been the Viewty Smart (LG-GC900). This phone follows in the footsteps of the original Viewty (LG-KU990), a five-megapixel camera phone that sold more than seven million units. The new model features an eight-megapixel sensor and Intelligent Shot Mode that makes it easy to take great pictures by automatically analyzing scenes and adjusting camera settings accordingly. This type of technology is rare on even high-end standalone digital cameras. LG has specially tailored its S-Class User Interface to make using the new Viewty Smart as easy and intuitive as possible.

CommunicAsia2009 and BroadcastAsia2009 are expected to feature about 2000 exhibiting companies from 65 countries and regions from across the globe, demonstrating the strong demand by companies to expand their footprint in Asia’s emerging markets and the importance of the annual exhibitions as networking and sourcing platforms for the global infocomm and media industries. The shows are set to return from 16-19 June 2009 at the Singapore Expo.

The infocomm industry’s strength is still evident despite the unpredictable conditions in the global economy. Infocomm sectors in many Asian countries are out-performing the rest of the global economy, representing significant opportunities here.

“The global gloom has accentuated the gleaming potential in Asia and increased the urgency in which international companies are moving into the continent,” said Victor Wong, project director at show organizer Singapore Exhibition Services. “CommunicAsia and BroadcastAsia’s established reputation and repeated ability to attract trade professionals from across the Asia Pacific region makes the shows the first choice for exhibiting companies, especially in the current environment of tighter budgets.” Visitors can look forward to exciting displays from market leaders like Blackberry, Google, Harris, Huawei, LG, Navteq, Samsung, Yahoo! and ZTE.

As Web 2.0 technlogies take over the enterprise sector across Asia this year in the goal to streamline customer service and spending, this same development will be mirrored in the Philippines. IDC expects worldwide interoperability for WiMAX in the Philippines to get back into the game in 2009. WiMAX and other fixed wireless subscriptions in the Philippines will skyrocket to $1 billion by 2013, seizing about 5% of the market from the current 1%. A recent Market Research report showed that PLDT’s wireless broadband service revenues in the first half of 2008 rose by 50% year-on-year.

AS companies are turning to cutting edge technologies to meet the challenges posed by today’s tough economic climate, CommunicAsia2009 will focuse on the latest hot technologies for applications, solutions and hardware. These key techniques, which are already starting to have a huge impact on the way we live, work  and play, include IPTV, mobile entertainment, WiMAX, navigation and LBS, satellite, Femtocell, iGov, wireless technologies, Green IT and mobile Internet.

In response to the buzzing media industry development in Asia, BroadcastAsia2009 will again feature key technologies that draw huge interest and demand from the market. These include broadcast-to-handheld / mobile TV, digital media asset management, high-definition technology, PITV, mobile broadcasting and professional audio technology. Featured for the first time at BroadcastAsia2009 is digital signage which reflects the growing global demands of the retail, hospitality and entertainment industries for a dynamic medium to captivate their audiences. A form of electronic display that is installed in public spaces, digital signage is set to replace the conventional printed posters with state-of-the-art digital panels.

CommunicAsia, BroadcastAsia, CG Overdrive, as well as various inter-government meetings, are part of the Infocomm Media Business Exchange (imbX). It brings together business leaders, companies and industry professionals to showcase their latest innovations, network, exchange ideas and tap new markets.

SAN FRANCISCO - LG Electronics this spring will launch a series of broadband-enabled HDTVs that will stream movies, TV shows, and other high-definition content from Netflix, without the need for an external set-top box, the company has announced. LG and Netflix are demonstrating the new products this week at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

The LG plasma and LCD sets will include software that allows users to access the Netflix Web site, where they can stream movies and other shows. After selected by a user, a movie will begin playing in as little as 30 seconds, the companies say. Pricing is fuzzy at this time, but some reports indicate that LG’s Internet-ready TVs will likely cost US$200 to $300 more than comparable sets without Web features. Subscriber fees for Netflix’ DVD rental service currently start at $9 a month.

LG already offers a Blu-ray disc player that streams Netflix movies, but today’s announcement is significant because no external device is required to access Web content. Many questions remain, however.

Will the new LG sets will be Wi-Fi-enabled? Wireless connectivity would be big plus for home users with Wi-Fi routers. And given the variation in broadband speeds and services, what will the Netflix streaming movies look like? Subscribers of low-end DSL services will certainly want to know.