I've seen the future, and it's cdma2000 1XEVDO. After wondering what a handset that could take a 2 mbps speed signal and display it in vivid color, live, in the palm of your hand...AND...it makes phone calls! This device was something you cannot purchase outside of Korea today..to be honest I'm not sure if you can purchase it is Korea yet anyway. I heard last night that they are carrying these around in Seoul during the World Cup to view replays. Truly remarkable. But how to spread this wonderful technology to the old US?? This blows i-mode away. Period. No surprise that FOMA service is... A BIG STINKING FLOP. Even in gadget crazy japan. After being in Japan a couple days ago this is an order of magnitude better. Oh yea, FOMA=WCDMA...but I'm not supposed to say bad things about WCDMA oops. Harmony. that's what it's all about. Somebody should tell the successful game industry that....they eat their young. The word is that 6 million of the 12 million J-phone customers in Japan have image phones - who'd of thunk it? Not everybody is thrilled. and now this? But KDDI has passed them up with their own service. So now they are subsidizing the phones and "the street" is pissed. Not only is there this phone, but a wall full of real, buttoned up 1X phones too. Turns out that with all the growth in CDMA around the world that there are now more than 120 million subs.

Really looking forward to heading to Korea this weekend and see some of these devices on the street and in shops. Keep your eye on Samsung - they are a gorilla that's getting bigger all the time. When Sprint launches 1X this summer it could be the beginning of more demand...but I'm loathe to make predictions, just suggest possibilities. While many of the comments during the show were the typical slide-ware vu-graph technology, there were some pretty interesting comments. One of my favorites was a comment from a Davina Yeo from IDC who described a wireless application that was saving money: rat traps. that's right - wireless rat traps (only in Asia!). It used to be that the trap cleaner would have to look at each and every trap, every few days, to see if there was a dead rat in it. With the wireless rat trap, the sprung trap emits a wireless signal that alerts the pest control firm to go get the stinking dead rat from the trap. Great to see some promising app growth! Longest journey begins with first steps.

Well, I used the Nokia 7650 and the Nokia 9210 communicator. I saw the first version of this at the GSM world Congress in Cannes, France in 1996! 6 years ago! Still no market for a $1000 phone you that is big, heavy and hard to use. I like, no make that LOVE the blackberry as somebody though about keyboards and understood that power of thumbs. Fingers are powerful too, but you need to do one or the other. This communicator is the worst of both worlds - too big to enter text with your thumbs, too small to type like a normal sized keyboard. What's the point?? I really wanted to like this device. I tried to type a couple of sentences into it and it was really frustrating. I mean, this is Nokia's most expensive terminal!! I really think they are good at industrial design, but apparently a new team got this project. The 7650 is so much better. you can use it with one hand, the image on the phone is good, it's got that sliding feature, etc. So picture phones will be coming to GPRS too.

I may have mentioned that I heard Stewart Alsop mention during the BREW conference last week that he thought that the convergence of the cell phone and the camera was dumb. I may have further mentioned that when I talked to him afterward and asked him why he thought that he told me "well, I had one of those Sony computers with the camera on it and never used it at all...and this seemed the same". Well, I forgive him for not knowing about the j-phone success. .. Most people, even smart guys like Stewart, would conclude that. You have to use digital cameras and phones to know that there is real power there in convergence. One thing that he keeps pointing out is that Nokia will be threatened by the gorilla of Samsung and others with cellphones, but, that phones (talking) is the key to phones. One example he made was the 9210. I could not agree more. I hope Nokia responds like a leader and comes up with a great CDMA phone that has the great Euro styling in a neat package.

oops...I'm way off topic....did I mention how great it was to see old friends who are now working in China again??? More on old friends and fun later


The conference closed up with some comments about China. What a tough cookie, the Chinese market.
China Unicom's CDMA sales are below projections and everybody is freaking out. When asked what people could do about it, the Nortel representative said "well, don't call your congress the 3G congress...1XRTT is not 3G it is 2.5 G..this name is just conference hype" there was some nervous laughter and applause. . Everybody loves conflict. makes for better entertainment. Calling technology evolution "3G" was always stupid and everybody did it. Still do. But it's adding insult to injury to then insult your host by accusing him of doing something that you have been doing yourself for years. The ITU set up some technical details for next generation wireless services. One of them, mobile data speed of 144 kbps, is met by 1XRTT mobile technology. The other - 2 mbps, is met by 1XEV-DO. So it meets the spec. But don't insult WCDMA by calling 1X technology 3G or anybody who is trying to sell equipment to UMTS carriers will get mad at you. I guess we'll have to let the miracle of time solve this one. A guy from CSFB asked "hey...why doesn't Unicom just launch a service like the guy from Leap was talking about yesterday and go for the mass market instead of going for the high end services?" Good idea. could not thought of a better idea myself. What a way to end the conference. Maybe I missed it, but that last couple of panels were rather disappointing. .

OK. I was going to mention the after hours activities. Those were fun too. People stimulated after a day of thinking and talking cell phones, who write/analyze/think/work in the industry are my idea of great dinner guests.I was lucky enough to have dinner every night with great dining companions; the editors and writers of: WirelessWeek, Telephony, Red Herring and industry pundits from Seybold and Schosteck. This was, of course, followed by drinks and further conversations late into the morning in Lan Kwai FongDinner conversations ranged from the Spectrum Cap to text messaging to packet switches...As much as I like Chinese food, I'm getting a little bored with it though. Nothing boring about Lan Kwai Fong though! I was thinking about how little the Hong Kongians use their mobile phones compared to the Japanese - especially for data. But the way traffic is, that would be really unsafe. for pedestrians that is.

When you go somewhere new, it always is great to go with locals, or at least pseudo-locals who know just where to go. Seemed we ended up at Al's Diner I never met Al, and it did not seem much like a Diner..in fact...I don't think I ever went inside. Just stood in the street and drank vodka drinks and VB beer. Beer always bloats me out, so the later it get's, the more I stick with the vodka drinks. Of course, then you get tired and switch to those deadly Red Bull and Vodka's. I guess I never learn. They just feel sooo good and the party keeps going and going. Everybody had a great time. Funny thing was this drinking beggar. You know the "deaf" beggars that tap you on the shoulder and beg? This guy was so relentless that it was almost funny. Almost. Not that funny after the fifth time. I swear he was picking up anybody's drink if they turned their back and guzzling it. that WAS funny. I mean, the guy picked up a nearly full Heineken and drained it in a few seconds.

. . Well, when those drinking VB got tired and went home, I joined the group going to Joe Bannans. That was too fun, but it felt like a minor mistake this morning. I had forgotten about that classic, Dancing Queen (except for the Muriel's Wedding theme music). The ex-pat crowd makes me fell not quite so old - that is - any other "disco" like bar would have much younger people in it and this place had a fair share of gray and missing hair in it to not make you feel like a geezer in the making, which of course, I am. We all are. Well, on to Shenzhen tomorrow. Never been there but they tell me it's nice.