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Explore the history of mobile phones, the current mobile market, and future trends in the industry. Learn about mobile phone functions, hardware, carriers, and supporting infrastructure. Discover testing strategies and job interviewing strategies in the mobile industry.
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Mobile Overview Frank Careccia VP of Engineering, Cellfire Inc. fcareccia@cellfire.com
Agenda • Mobile Brief History • Mobile Market • Mobile Phone • Carrier Overview • Mobile Phone – More Details • Operating Systems • Mobile Carriers and Technologies • Mobile Services • Short Codes • Supporting Infrastructure • Testing Strategies and Carrier Certification • Job Interviewing Strategies
Mobile Brief History • According to internal memos, American Telephone & Telegraph, AT&T, discussed developing a wireless phone as early as 1915. • In the early 1970s AT&T retained Baines and Co. to determine the commercial plausibility of the mobile market. The result of the evaluation was that there was no commercial value to that space, and as such AT&T abandoned it. • Later, 1993-4, AT&T spent $15.3 billion to reenter the market by acquiring McCaw Cellular and introduced the Cellular One national network. • The first commercial mobile phone service was launched in Japan by NTT in 1978.
Mobile Brief History • The first mobile phone to enable internet connectivity and wireless email, the Nokia Communicator, was released in 1996, creating a new category of multi-use devices called Smart phones. • In 1999 the first mobile internet service was launched by NTT DoCoMo in Japan under the i-Mode service.
Mobile Market • There are now more phones than PCs • Nearly 1.3 billion mobile phones shipped globally last year, and 456 million of them were smartphones • 46% of US phones sold are smart phones • As of Feb. 2012 over 585,000 unique phone applications were available at Apple’s App Store • Apple’s App Store reached it’s 25 billionth application download • By 2013, mobile phones will overtake PC’s as the most common web access device worldwide. The combined installed base of smartphone and browser-equipped enhanced phones will exceed 1.82 billionunits
Mobile Market • Mobile Services Sales reached 788 billion USD world wide in 2009. • Comparable in size to the Internet and global radio broadcasting industry combined. • There are now over 5.9 billion mobile subscriptions in the world, more than 85% of the human population (6.75 billion). • As a result the mobile phone is the most widely spread technology and the most common electronic device in the world.
Mobile Market • A medium in which 5.9 billion people could theoretically be reached by SMS text message - three times as many as can be reached by email • Smartphone sales are expected to top 657 million units CY-2012. at a growth rate of 58% year to year. • On average children in the UK receive their first mobile phone at age 8 • In the US an average user receives 136 SMS messages per month and makes 46% of the calls away from home
What is a Mobile Phone? • A mobile phone also called a wireless phone or cellular phone is a short-range, portable electronic device used for mobile voice or data communication over a network of specialized base stations known as cell sites.
What is a Mobile Phone? Function: • In addition to the standard voice function of a telephone, current mobile phones support many additional services, and accessories, such as SMS for text messaging, email, packet switching for access to the Internet, gaming, Bluetooth, infrared, camera with video recorder and MMS for sending and receiving photos and video. • Most current mobile phones connect to a cellular network of base stations (cell sites), which is in turn interconnected to the public switched telephone network (PSTN). The exception is satellite phones.
What is a Mobile Phone? Hardware: • Small computer incorporating I/O interface, networking, data communication, digital and analog voice processing, digital video processing. • Up and coming GPS, LBS, RFC and NFC chip sets ARM Architecture: • The Advanced RISC Machine architecture is a 32-bit RISC processor architecture developed by ARM Limited. • Because of their power saving features, ARM CPUs are dominant in the mobile electronics market, where low power consumption is a critical design goal.
Macro Level Overview • Modern Mobile phones send and receive digital radio signals with any number of cell site base stations fitted with microwave antennas. • These sites are usually mounted on a tower, pole or building, located throughout populated areas, then connected to a cabled communication network and switching system. • The phones have a low-power transceiver that transmits voice and data to the nearest cell sites, normally not more than 8 to 13 km (approximately 5 to 8 miles) away. • Many of these sites are camouflaged to blend with existing environments, particularly in scenic areas.
Macro Level Overview • When the mobile phone or data device is turned on, it registers with the mobile telephone exchange, or switch, with its unique identifiers, and can then be alerted by the mobile switch when there is an incoming telephone call. • The handset constantly listens for the strongest signal being received from the surrounding base stations, and is able to switch seamlessly between sites. As the user moves around the network, the "handoffs" are performed to allow the device to switch sites without interrupting the call.
Macro Level Overview • Cell sites have relatively low-power (often only one or two watts) radio transmitters which broadcast their presence and relay communications between the mobile handsets and the switch. • The switch in turn connects the call to another subscriber of the same wireless service provider or to the public telephone network, which includes the networks of other wireless carriers.
SIM Card • Most cell phones require a small microchip, called a Subscriber Identity Module or SIM Card, to function. • Approximately the size of a small postage stamp, the SIM Card is usually placed underneath the battery in the rear of the unit, and (when properly activated) stores the phone's configuration data, and information about the phone itself, such as which calling plan the subscriber is using. • When the subscriber removes the SIM Card, it can be re-inserted into another phone and used as normal.
SIM Card • Those cell phones that do not use a SIM Card have the data programmed in to their memory. • This data is accessed by using a special digit sequence to access the "NAM" as in "Name" or number programming menu. • From here, one can add information such as a new number for your phone, new Service Provider numbers, new emergency numbers, change their Authentication Key or A-Key code, and update their Preferred Roaming List or PRL.
OS – Smart Phones (Q4-2011) • World wide market share statistics: • Android 46.3% • Apple 30% • RIM 14.9% • Win-Mobile 4.6%; • Other 4.1% • Other OS include Symbian, Palm OS, J2ME, and Qualcomm's BREW.
OS - Android • Android is a software platform and operating system for mobile devices based on the Linux operating system developed by Google and later the Open Handset Alliance. • It allows developers to write managed code in a Java-like language that utilizes Google-developed Java libraries, but does not support programs developed in native code. • Google has pledged to make most of the Android platform available under the Apache free-software and open-source license, once it is released in 2008 .
OS - iPhone • iPhone OS is the operating system developed by Apple Inc. for the iPhone and iPod touch. • iPhone OS is Mac OS X based and has four abstraction layers: the Core OS layer, the Core Services layer, the Media layer, and the Cocoa Touch layer. The operating system takes less than half a gigabyte (GB) of the device's total memory storage. • As of 2012, there are over 585,000 applications officially available for the iPhone
OS - RIM • RIM provides a proprietary multi-tasking operating system (OS) for the BlackBerry, which makes heavy use of the device's specialized input devices, particularly the scroll wheel (1995 - 2006) or more recently the trackball (September 12th 2006 - Present). • The OS provides support for MIDP 1.0 (JavaME) and WAP 1.2. Previous versions allowed wireless synchronization with Microsoft Exchange Server's e-mail and calendar, as well as with Lotus Domino's e-mail. • The OS ver 4 and above provides a subset of MIDP 2.0, and allows complete wireless activation and synchronization with Exchange's e-mail, calendar, tasks, notes and contacts, and adds support for Novell GroupWise and Lotus Notes.
OS - RIM • Third-party developers can write software using these APIs, and proprietary BlackBerry APIs as well, but any application that makes use of certain restricted functionality must be digitally signed so that it can be associated to a developer account at RIM. • This signing procedure guarantees the authorship of an application, but does not guarantee the quality or security of the code.
OS – Windows Mobile • Originally appearing as the Pocket PC 2000 operating system, Windows Mobile has been updated several times, with the current version being Windows Mobile 7 released in 2011. • Microsoft licenses Windows Mobile to four out of the five world's largest mobile phone manufacturers.
OS – Windows Mobile • Windows Mobile is a compact operating system combined with a suite of basic applications for mobile devices based on the Microsoft Win32 API. • It is designed to be somewhat similar to desktop versions of Windows, feature-wise and aesthetically • Devices that run Windows Mobile include Pocket PCs, Smartphones, Portable Media Centers, and on-board computers for certain automobiles.
OS – Symbian • Symbian OS is an open operating system, designed for mobile devices, with associated libraries, user interface frameworks and reference implementations of common tools, produced by Symbian Ltd. It is runs exclusively on ARM processors. • Symbian OS was built to follow three design rules: the integrity and security of user data is paramount, user time must not be wasted, and all resources are scarce. • For hardware the OS is optimized for low-power battery-based devices and for ROM-based systems (e.g. features like XIP and re-entrancy in shared libraries). Applications, and the OS, follow an object-oriented design, MVC.
OS - BREW • BREW (Binary Runtime Environment for Wireless) is an application development platform created by Qualcomm for mobile phones. It was originally developed for CDMA handsets, but has since been ported to other air interfaces including GSM/GPRS. • BREW is a software platform that can download and run small programs for playing games, sending messages, sharing photos, etc. The main advantage of BREW platforms is that the application developers can easily port their applications between all Qualcomm devices.
OS - BREW • BREW runs between the application and the wireless device's chip operating system so as to enable a programmer to develop applications without needing to code for system interface or understand wireless applications. It debuted in September 2001. • BREW is a proprietary cell phone application platform. • BREW is designed so that the platform rejects unsigned applications. In order to have an application signed, a developer must pay a testing fee to National Software Testing Labs (NSTL), which then can approve or deny the request. This allows carriers to maintain control over the applications that run on their customers' phones.
OS – J2ME • Java Platform, Micro Edition or Java ME is still commonly referred to by its previous name: Java 2 Platform, Micro Edition or J2ME is a specification of a subset of the Java platform aimed at providing a certified collection of Java APIs for the development of software for tiny, small, and resource-constrained devices. • Target devices are from many industries such as Home appliances, Security, Defense, Automotive, Industrial, Handsets, Industrial Control, Multimedia, Communication, Cell Phones, PDAs and Set-top Boxes are some well known samples.
OS – J2ME • Java ME was designed by Sun Microsystems and originally developed under the Java Community Process as JSR 68, the different flavors of Java ME have evolved in separate JSRs. • Sun provides a reference implementation of the specification, but has tended not to provide free binary implementations of its Java ME runtime environment for mobile devices, rather relying on third parties to provide their own. • As of 22 December 2006, the Java ME source code is licensed under the GNU General Public License, and is released under the project name phoneME.
OS – Palm OS • Palm OS (also known as Garnet OS) is an embedded operating system initially developed by U.S. Robotics' owned Palm Computing, Inc. for personal digital assistants (PDAs) in 1996. • Palm OS is designed for ease of use with a touch screen-based graphical user interface. • It is provided with a suite of basic applications for personal information management.
OS Maintenance • OS and infrastructure upgrades are rare and highly discouraged by the carriers. • Firmware upgrades are usually performed at a Carrier Service Center
Mobile Carrier Technologies - CDMA • CDMA or "code division multiple access" is a digital radio system that transmits streams of bits • CDMA permits several radios to share the same frequencies. Since larger numbers of phones can be served by smaller numbers of cell-sites, CDMA-based standards have a significant economic advantage • In North America, the technology is now being supplanted by IS-2000 (CDMA2000), a later CDMA-based standard.
Mobile Carrier Technologies – GSM • Global System for Mobile communicationsis the most popular standard for mobile phones in the world. • Its promoter, the GSM Association, estimates that 82% of the global mobile market uses the standard. • GSM is used by over 3 billion people across more than 212 countries and territories. • Its ubiquity makes international roaming very common between mobile phone operators, enabling subscribers to use their phones in many parts of the world..
Mobile Carrier Technologies – GSM • GSM also pioneered a low-cost alternative to voice calls, the Short Message Service (SMS), which is now supported on other mobile standards as well. • Another advantage is that the standard includes one worldwide Emergency telephone number, 112. • Newer versions of the standard are backward-compatible with the original GSM phones.
Mobile Carrier Technologies - GPRS • General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) is a data service available to users of GSM mobile phones. It provides data rates from 56 up to 114 kbit/s. • GPRS can be used for services such as WAP access, SMS, MMS, and for Internet communication services such as email and World Wide Web access. • 2G cellular systems combined with GPRS are often described as "2.5G", that is, a technology between the second (2G) and third generations of mobile telephony.
Mobile Carrier Technologies - GPRS • 3G standard meets the IMT-2000 specifications focusing mainly on reliability and speed (up to 200 KB/sec) • Long Term Evolution (LTE) is marketed as 4G service was launched by TeliaSonera in Oslo and Stockholm on 14 December 2009 • LTE is anticipated to become the first truly global mobile phone standard, although the use of different frequency bands in different countries will mean that only multi-band phones will be able to utilize LTE in all countries where it is supported.
Mobile Carrier Technologies – CDMA vs GSM • CDMA is used in the USA, South Korea, Canada, Mexico, India, Israel, New Zealand, Sri Lanka, Venezuela, Brazil, China PRC and Vietnam. • Around 18% subscribers worldwide use CDMA versus 82% using GSM. • GSM is used in 212 countries world wide
Mobile Carrier Networks Proprietary closed networks • Carrier controls access and content • Access is based on monetization and service usage relevance On Deck versus Off-deck • On Deck refers to carrier supported and sponsored applications. • Carrier performs level 1 support and billing information • Contractual relationship based on volume and user base resulting in revenue sharing (reporting is a must) • Various billing and service offerings • Off Deck refers to user supported and non carrier sponsored applications • Carrier is not aware of the application nor is able to support it • No contractual relationship exists
Mobile Services - WAP • WAP is an open international standard for application layer network communications in a wireless communication environment. • Its main use is to enable access to the Internet (HTTP) from a mobile phone (feature phone). • A WAP browser provides all of the basic services of a computer based web browser but simplified to operate within the restrictions of a mobile phone, such as its smaller view screen. • WAP Push has been incorporated into the specification to allow WAP content to be pushed to the mobile handset with minimum user intervention.
Mobile Services - WAP • Opera is a web browser and Internet suite developed by the Opera Software company. Opera handles common Internet-related tasks such as displaying web sites, sending and receiving e-mail messages, managing contacts, IRC online chatting, downloading files via BitTorrent, and reading web feeds. Opera is offered free of charge for personal computers and mobile phones, but for other devices it is not free. • Features of Opera include tabbed browsing, page zooming, mouse gestures, and an integrated download manager. Its security features include built-in phishing and malware protection, strong encryption when browsing secure web sites, and the ability to easily delete private data such as cookies and browsing history by simply clicking a button.
Mobile Services - WAP Default browsers used by major mobile phone and PDA vendors • Android by Google (based on WebKit) • BlackBerry Browser by Research in Motion (proprietary) • Blazer by Palm (based on NetFront). • Danger Browser by Danger (proprietary), installed on all Danger-designed devices including the T-Mobile Sidekick. • Internet Explorer Mobile by Microsoft Inc. • MOTOMAGX by Motorola (based on WebKit). • NetFront by ACCESS Co., Ltd. (proprietary). • Nokia Series 40 Browser by Nokia (proprietary). • Novarra nWeb (proprietary). • Obigo Browser by Obigo AB (Sweden)(proprietary). • Openwave Mobile Browser by Purple Labs (newly aquired from Openwave) (proprietary). • Opera Mobile by Opera Software ASA (Norway). - Capable of reading HTML and reformat for small screens (proprietary). • Picsel Techologies (Scotland) (proprietary). • PlayStation Portable web browser by Sony (based on NetFront). • Safari by Apple Inc on iPhone and iPod Touch (based on WebKit). • Iris Browser by Torch Mobile for Pocket PCs (based on WebKit). • Wapaka Browser for Java micro-browser by Digital Airways. • Web Browser for S60 by Nokia (based on WebKit).
WAP Demohttp://cfx.cellfire.com/wap4?app=cellfirewapand Sample Validation(See 34)