re: NY Times on the Nokia IBM Deal
* Analysts say the announcements represent an attempt by Nokia and I.B.M. to:
- open the door to a richer set of wireless media offerings in the future.
- deflect the emerging threat from Microsoft in the market for software for mobile hand-held devices.
* "The biggest danger for our industry is technology fragmentation. We need to make sure we have a consistent technology base to allow new services to take off. The software business for Nokia is strategic, but not in the sense of gaining revenues. We want a harmonization of the technology base." - Matti Vanska, Director of Server Software sales for Nokia -
* "Nokia is the company most forcefully trying to make sure there is an alternative to Microsoft." - Scott Ellison, analyst for International Data Corporation -
>> Nokia to Join With I.B.M. in 2 Ventures on Software
Steve Lohr
New York Times
07/09/02
Nokia and I.B.M. will announce an agreement today to develop software to distribute music and other media securely to cellphones over wireless networks in a effort to broaden the market for wireless services beyond telephone service and simple text messages.
The companies are also announcing a licensing deal today in which Nokia's wireless software will be integrated with I.B.M.'s digital media software and will be sold and supported by I.B.M.'s big services unit.
The software used by Nokia and I.B.M. is based on Java, the programming language developed by Sun Microsystems.
The announcements, analysts say, represent an attempt by Nokia and I.B.M. to do two things: open the door to a richer set of wireless media offerings in the future, and deflect the emerging threat from Microsoft in the market for software for mobile hand-held devices.
Both Nokia, the leading cellphone maker, and I.B.M., the world's largest computer company, say the security software they develop for digital rights management is intended to be widely used in the industry.
The two companies are strong supporters of the Open Mobile Alliance, announced last month, which was formed to reach agreement on open technology standards to stimulate growth in the global market for wireless services.
"The biggest danger for our industry is technology fragmentation," said Matti Vanska, the director of server software sales for Nokia. "We need to make sure we have a consistent technology base to allow new services to take off."
Microsoft is also among the 200 members of the Open Mobile Alliance. But its history of establishing Windows as a dominant software standard in the personal computing industry and its efforts to push a mobile-phone version of Windows, called Stinger, have made many cellphone makers skeptical about the intentions of Microsoft.
The competition for mobile-phone software is just beginning. A new generation of mobile phones with multimedia capability is only now being introduced, and analysts do not expect them to become mainstream offerings for another couple of years.
"Nokia is the company most forcefully trying to make sure there is an alternative to Microsoft," said Scott Ellison, an analyst for the International Data Corporation, a research company.
Nokia's mobile-phone software is based on Java, a rival to Microsoft technology. And in software, Nokia has a very different business model from Microsoft. The company hopes to prosper mainly by selling handsets and the equipment used to run wireless networks, like mobile bay stations and switches, not by selling software.
"The software business for Nokia is strategic, but not in the sense of gaining revenues," Mr. Vanska explained. "We want a harmonization of the technology base."
Nokia and I.B.M. will first develop digital rights management software for what wireless operators call light content — ring tones, games, logos and pictures. For example, portions of popular songs can be downloaded for a small fee and used as the ring tone on a cellphone.
The current market exists mainly in Europe and Japan, where wireless services are more advanced than in the United States, and among young people, 25 and under. In Europe, the market for such light content is $500 million a year.
The Nokia-I.B.M. software will also allow a preview function, so users can sample an offering without paying for it or copying it.
The far larger market will be for so-called richer content — music albums, movies, digital newspapers and magazines. But that market will not take off unless media companies are assured their products can be protected from piracy. "What we're doing is a first step, but it's an important first step," said Richard Anderson, general manager of I.B.M.'s digital media group. <<
Joint Press Release from Nokia and IBM:
>> Nokia and IBM Collaborate on Digital Content Delivery for Mobile Devices
July 09, 2002
Espoo, Finland
Armonk, N.Y
Nokia and IBM today announced an agreement on digital content delivery for mobile applications and services. Combining their expertise, Nokia and IBM will provide wireless operators and service providers with a complete solution for content management and delivery. According to the agreement, IBM will market Nokia’s delivery server software for mobile content downloading. The companies have also agreed to collaborate on secure content delivery solutions, including digital rights management, according to industry-wide open standards and specifications.
The solution combines the Nokia Delivery Server with IBM Digital Media Factory framework and enables service providers to offer exciting new content services for mobile users, such as Java based mobile games, polyphonic MIDI ring tones, digital images, graphics, screen savers and icons. The services built on the solution, called Digital Media for Mobile Devices (DM Mobile), will allow users to fully leverage the advanced features of mobile devices such as preview and seamless downloading of new content.
Using a modular approach, future developments of the Nokia and IBM solution will allow support for delivery and protection of a richer set of media types. This will allow operators and service providers to leverage their initial investment and increase their revenue streams.
“We are very pleased to work together with IBM on mobile content delivery and provide service providers with a top-quality solution for rapidly emerging services. Furthermore, we share the same view on an architecture development for protected content and Digital Rights Management in the mobile domain. Both Nokia and IBM have a strong commitment to drive and adopt an open based DRM technology that will result in a rich set of new services that are interoperable throughout networks and mobile devices,” said Pertti Korhonen, executive vice president, Mobile Software, Nokia.
"This agreement pulls together the critical components necessary to support the secure delivery of content," said Dick Anderson, general manager of IBM's Digital Media group. “It enables new and exciting applications to be created and delivered to new advanced mobile devices. IBM and Nokia are at the forefront of protecting content from creation to delivery in a wireless environment.”
The Nokia Delivery Server will become part of IBM’s Digital Media Factory framework, based on a number of IBM core products and business partners, which helps companies create, store, manage and distribute digital content across the digital media value chain. IBM Global Services will sell and support the resulting offering with consulting, installation, and integration.
The Nokia Delivery Server software will also integrate with IBM’s Service Provider Delivery Environment (SPDE – pronounced “speed-ee”), an open standards based framework built on IBM’s WebSphere e-business infrastructure software designed to give wireline and wireless service providers the flexibility to introduce new revenue generating voice, text and Internet-based services to their customers faster, easier and at a lower cost. The Nokia Delivery Server is to be ported and made available for use on IBM Linux-based xSeries eServer systems. Finally, the combined IBM/Nokia Download Server solution will be supported and demonstrated by the IBM Network Integration Laboratory in La Gaude, France as a specific solution that is integrated with the IBM SPDE and Digital Media Factory frameworks.
Both Nokia and IBM are active members of the newly formed Open Mobile Alliance (OMA). OMA is the nearly 200-member company organization charged with delivering open standards for the mobile industry, helping to create interoperable services which work across countries, operators and mobile terminals and are tailored for user’s needs. <<
- Eric - |
