SMARTPHONES COULD become cheaper and use more open standards if a new phone system developed by Telefonica and Mozilla becomes popular among phonemakers.
The second day of Mobile World Congress kicked off with an announcement by the two companies about a new phone architecture built on the web that allows applications gain access to core phone functions. The so-called open web devices are built on HTML5, which requires fewer resources than other operating systems, allowing mobile manufacturers to make cheaper, less powerful smartphones without affecting performance.
With Nokia unveiling a new lower-cost Windows Phone at the event, Belfast-based JamPot’s announcement that it is bringing its AppBuilder platform to Windows Phone 7 was timely.
Chief executive James Scott said the decision was prompted by the success of Nokia’s Lumia Windows phones, which have shipped more than one million units, according to the Finnish company.
“Windows Phone we see as being very much on the upward swing, whereas systems like Blackberry are on the downwards,” said Mr Scott.
In total, about 70 Irish firms are involved in the event, with 25 of them exhibiting.
The event also attracted some interest from car makers, with Ford revealing that it would bring its in-car mobile system Sync to Europe, starting with the company’s B-Max family car model.
Sync allows mobile users to connect their handsets to the system via Bluetooth. It supports iPods and flash drives through a USB connection and may even help save lives through an emergency assist feature that uses the driver’s phone to call emergency services automatically in case of accident. It is due to go on sale in Europe later this year.
Huawei yesterday said it planned to launch a 10-inch tablet. The MediaPad 10 FHD comes with the latest version of Google’s operating system, Android 4.0 or Ice Cream Sandwich.
