Nokia moves Apple’s WebCore further into new Mobile TV devices
Posted by Dennis Sellers 
Nov 14, 2005 at 5:06am
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Last Friday Macsimum News released a report titled “Apple, ISMA and the new IPTV Workgroup.” In today’s report, you’ll read about important announcements and past links between the Digital Video Broadcasting Project (DVB), Nokia and Apple. More importantly, you’ll learn of a new twist in Nokia’s use for WebCore.
The Digital Video Broadcasting Project (DVB)
Last Week the DVB announced the launching of their new
Global mobile TV market trials
The new site reveals the following cities that are now conducting mobile TV trial services: Sydney Australia, Helsinki Finland, Metz and Paris France, Berlin Germany, Turin Italy, The Hague Netherlands, Lisbon Portugal, Barcelona and Madrid Spain, Bern Switzerland, Taipei Taiwan, Cambridge and Oxford England and Pittsburg USA.
Interesting to note that according to Nokia, DVB-H will be accessible by an audience of approximately 300 million mobile users by 2006.
The DVB on MPEG-4 Part 10 (H.264/AVC)
Other interesting information could be found on the new DVB site FAQ. For instance, this fact:
Why was DVB-H developed by DVB now?
DVB-H is the product of DVB’s process of analyzing commercial requirements and producing an open standard to meet these. Based on DVB-T, but operating in the IP environment and with special features for the battery-powered, handheld market, DVB-H is flexible and future-proof.
In the past, DVB-S, DVB-C and DVB-T services have driven the market for compression technologies, and
In the past, it would have been reasonable to expect proprietary technologies to dominate the early stages of a new market. DVB-H has changed this – not only does it present an ideal solution for the mobile TV market, but it is completely open.
In another “Next Wave Series update” dated Nov.r 4, 2004, Frank Casanova stated that “The DVB selection of AVC is just one more example of where the world is insisting on open standards. It doesn’t matter if you’re a cell phone manufacturer, broadcaster or producer of HD decoded video, interoperability counts. AVC is being ratified into relevancy by all of these standards organizations and Apple is right there.”
“In this world of ‘my codec is better than yours’ – this codec is better,” he continued. “AVC is clearly the chosen direction, which comes as no surprise to me because interoperability across any industry is important,” said Casanova. “Any proprietary technology would naturally get shut out where interoperability and openness is required. MPEG-4 provides a level of openness and compatibility that all of these different industries from 3G to HD all require.”
Another interesting fact is that he term “IP/TV” is an active registered United States trademark owned first by Precept Software, Inc. and now by Cisco Systems, Inc. The DVB’s equivalent for IP datacast or IP/TV is DVB-IPDC. Why is that important? You’ll soon see.
Nokia and Apple’s WebCore adding up
On DVB’s new site you’ll find that they list 14 companies that are known to have DVB receiving devices in development or already on the market, which includes the likes of Nokia, Motorola, Siemens and others. Nokia’s unit listed is the N92 (illustrated). .JPG)
It’s important to take note of the Nokia N92 in particular, due to specific information outlined in two different press releases earlier this month. The first was presented in Macsimum’s report titled “Nokia delivers new micro browser with Apple’s WebCore ahead of schedule.” The second press release, found recently, adds a key link that ties Nokia’s new N92 back to Apple’s WebCore as well as noted here: “The Nokia N92, which is based on S60 3rd Edition and Symbian OS, is planned to be commercially available in mid 2006 in Europe, Africa and Asia, in countries where DVB-H services are available…”
The first press release stated the following: “Nokia unveiled the new Web browser for its world leading smartphone software, S60 platform. The new browser is aimed to provide smartphone users with a true Web experience and industry leading performance when browsing full Web pages on the Internet using a smartphone. The new Web browser is available to S60 licensees as part of the S60 3rd Edition offering.”
”…the new Web browser for S60 is based on the WebCore and JavaScriptCore components of Apple’s Safari Web Kit, the industry’s smallest and fastest open source full Web rendering engine for mobile devices that Apple uses in its popular Safari Internet browser.”
This important new link positions Apple’s WebCore as the power behind both Nokia’s new S60 and N92 based devices that will deliver television over IP via the DVB-H IP datacast (DVB-IPDC) standard, as predicted in the Next Wave Series update on June 14: “Nokia’s adoption of WebCore points to IPTV.” Apple’s WebCore has just snuck beyond cell phones and unto digital devices that will deliver television.
A mere 21 days prior to Nokia’s original revelation about WebCore, “Apple Announces iTunes 6 With 2,000 Music Videos, Pixar Short Films & Hit TV Shows”. Hmm, this is getting interesting indeed.
Additionally, take note that Siemens is listed as the only other OEM at this point to have adopted Nokia’s S60 browser with Apple’s WebCore. Siemens is definitely one to keep an eye on going forward because they were giving away Apple’s Mac Mini at an event that was all about set top boxes, earlier in June. You may want to review that report again.
Lastly, are new features found in Nokia’s iS60 3rd Edition literature that are important to note:
“S60 3rd Edition, Feature Pack 1 introduces new features such as Firmware upgrade ‘Over The Air’ (FOTA) and Push to talk over Cellular (PoC). FOTA enables software upgrades to be performed over the air, initiated by either the user or operator. POC brings “walkie-talkie” functionality to mobile devices without the limitation of distance.”
This information just happens to be in context with new features found in Apple’s patent that was reported on by Macsimum on June 28 titled “Personal Mobile Radio, TV & Telephony.” Note the following:
Personal mobile radios: Personal mobile radios (404A) generally include a microphone and speaker (or audio jack) so as to allow voice communications. The mobile radios may be based on push to talk (PTT) whereby pressing a button opens the communication line from the mobile radio to the media player. The mobile radios may also include a channel tuner for selecting which channel to receive and send information, and a volume control dial for adjusting the volume of the audio signal. The mobile radios may also include a small display showing the selected channel, received signal strength, output power and the like.
So Apple’s WebCore being integrated with Nokia’s firmware upgrade with Over the Air and Push to talk over Cellular, is not only in line with Apple’s patent, but also gives credence to Ed Zander’s comment made to C/NET in late September: “And we know that they [Apple] are going to build a smart phone—it’s only a matter of time.”
Apple’s latest moves
CNN/Money reported late last Friday that “Whatever it rolls out in the future, Apple’s latest moves indicate that it plans to do for TV and film what it did for digital music – create the demand for downloaded media content by offering a customer-friendly experience.”
Yes exactly. And those “latest moves” outlined in this report make it clear that Apple’s ramp up here has been very concentrated over the last few months. November 2/05: “Presenting the Nokia N92: TV goes Mobile. A device using Apple’s WebCore”; October 12/05: “Apple Announces iTunes 6 With 2,000 Music Videos, Pixar Short Films & Hit TV Shows”; September 9/05: “Interoute deploys QuickTime 7 Globally”; September 7/05: “Apple, Motorola & Cingular Launch World’s First Mobile Phone with iTunes.”
It was interesting to note that Nokia stated that DVB-H would be accessible by an audience of approximately 300 million mobile users by 2006, because it reminded me of a statement Steve Jobs made back on July 26/04:
“We are thrilled to be working with Motorola to enable millions of music lovers to transfer any of their favorite songs from iTunes on their PC or Mac to Motorola’s next-generation mobile phones,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “The mobile phone market—with 1.5 billion subscribers expected worldwide by the end of 2004—is a phenomenal opportunity to get iTunes in the hands of even more music lovers around the world and we think Motorola is the ideal partner to kick this off.”Yes, Apple’s game plan for next-generation phones may have ”kicked off” with iTunes for music lovers, but we now know that Apple is ever so methodically moving into the realm of television. Nokia’s recent move to extend WebCore into a new series of digital devices beginning with their N92 with television is very promising. Who knows, maybe games are next on Apple’s game plan for the fall of 2006. Time will tell.
For now, Apple’s got the “Big Mo” – and that’s not about to slow down anytime soon!
neo@macsimumnews.com
PDF’s & Related Reports
A May 2005, PDF (92 pages): “ “DVB-H Validation Task Force Report”
A July 2005, PDF (99 pages): “DVB-H – Transmission System for Handheld Terminals”
“Nokia adopts Apple’s WebCore for new mobile micro browser for 2006”
“Next Wave News: Nokia’s adoption of WebCore just the beginning”
“Nokia’s adoption of WebCore points to IPTV.”
“Tiger’s QuickTime could reach more than three billion users a year”
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Contributor
Dennis Sellers
Dennis has been a newspaper editor/reporter (seven years) and teacher (seven years). He has over 4,000 magazine, newspaper and online articles to his credit. He has also covered the Mac and tech industries for over a decade for such online publications as MacCentral, MacMinute and now MacsimumNews.
