MVIS Blog News Scan

Cell Phone Market Seen Soaring in '05

LONDON (Reuters) - The global mobile phone market is set to grow to 2 billion subscribers by the end of 2005, fueled by strong demand from developing economies in Asia and Latin America, Deloitte & Touche said on Tuesday.



Mobile penetration would surpass 100 percent in some markets as users take a second connection for data or for personal use. The mobile industry had 1.5 billion users in June last year.



"The most compelling and lucrative mobile content will continue to revolve around phone personalization, such as ring tones, real tones, wallpapers and basic games," Deloitte said in its 2005 outlook for the telecoms sector.



RADIO TAGGING



Radio tagging could become the sunrise industry this year, Deloitte said, as sectors ranging from retailing to automobiles drive up adoption of the technology to curtail theft, cut waste and improve productivity.



"In 2005, Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) will finally make it out of the lab and into the commercial world ... By the end of the year, more than 10 billion RFID tags will have been sold and used," Deloitte said in its 2005 outlook for the telecoms sector.



Deloitte said it expected collecting, collating and presenting RFID data will become a very sizeable industry, with technology companies grabbing the lion's share of revenue.

Global MP3 Player Sales Seen Up Sharply in 2005

TAIPEI (Reuters) - Global sales of portable digital music players are expected to rise significantly this year, the world's second-largest manufacturer of MP3 players said on Tuesday.



"This market is booming rapidly and one of the reasons why MP3s are so popular is that they are becoming cheaper," said Tommy Tsai, a product marketing manager at Creative Technology Ltd.'s Taiwan branch.



Tsai, citing estimates from market research firm IDC, told a seminar in Taipei that Creative and its rivals, including South Korea (news - web sites)'s Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. and U.S.-based Apple Computer Inc., would collectively sell 35 million portable flash MP3 players in 2005, compared with 25 million in 2004.



Apple is the leader in the mini hard disk-drive (HDD) music player market, with a roughly 60 to 70 percent share, following the success of its market-leading iPod, which can store tens of thousands of songs, compared with hundreds for regular MP3 players.



But Samsung and Creative together hold 13 percent of the global market share in the fast-growing segment that uses flash memory chips, Tsai said.



Singapore-based Creative estimated last week that revenue in the last quarter had risen 45 percent from a year earlier.

Oakley To Use Motorola's Bluetooth Technology

Motorola's Bluetooth technology will be appearing in Oakley Inc. products in about three months, Motorola reported Friday.



Both companies declined to discuss the type of products that will be announced, but with Oakley's position as a leading designer of eyewear, watches, and apparel, the possibilities are many. The companies said they want to develop products that can be used by consumers in a hands-free, untethered way.



As the world's second largest supplier of cell phones, Motorola has pioneered many different wireless technologies, including Bluetooth, which has enjoyed renewed interest and use in recent months.



"Motorola's continuing leadership in Bluetooth technology has opened up unique relationship opportunities with key lifestyle brands, such as Oakley," said Bruce Hawver, vice president and general manager of the firm's Companion Products Group, in a statement. "That's the power of our joint venture--it allows us to reach out to new and different types of users of the technology."

Oakley Digital Music Eyewear

OAKLEY THUMP™ is the world's first digital music eyewear. No more wires. Just high-performance optics forged with an integrated, state-of-the-art digital audio engine. Listen to music virtually anywhere. Change the way you see and hear the world. OAKLEY THUMP comes in seven color combinations and two types: a 128 MB version and a 256 MB version with polarized lenses.



Your ears are on your head, so why should your music system hang on your waist? Oakley's digital music eyewear delivers over 60 tracks or about 4 hours of head-thumping music directly to your brain without cables or wires. Your favorite tunes are played from something you're already wearing, and OAKLEY THUMP weighs only 1.8 ounces (52 grams) - lighter than an empty CD case. Forget about bulky equipment dangling from your body and shackling your every move. Cut the cord and take OAKLEY THUMP places where tethered music players get in the way.



Music on OAKLEY THUMP is so addictive, you'll never want to take it off. And you don't have to. The integrated speakers float by your ears and you can adjust them in three directions to balance music with outside noise. You can flip them up to grab a phone call or listen to a conversation, then flip them back down and not miss a beat. No more fumbling with wires or jamming rubber things in and out of your ears.

Lumera Receives Additional Patent; Award Increases Company's Growing Intellectual Property Assets

"In the past, other approaches to increase the lifetime of electro-optic polymers also reduced their efficiency," explains Tom Mino, Lumera's CEO, "but we've found that, with our proprietary modifications, we can increase both the lifetime and efficiency."



"We have been aggressively protecting the intellectual property around our competency in several areas including electro-optic polymers and devices, biotechnology instruments and disposables, and smart antennas for wireless communication," continued Mino. "Government agencies have been interested in this technology from our inception, and we continue to derive revenue for those efforts; but now we are seeing strong interest from companies in the optical modulator market and biotechnology sector as well."