The same week that Nokia Siemens Networks unveiled its LTE solution for North America comes a little nugget from Ericsson: the M700. Hailed as the "world's first commercially available LTE-capable platform," it promises peak data transmissions of 100Mbps down and 50Mbps up, which will undoubtedly be the next best thing since sliced bread. Reportedly, initial devices based on the unit will be ExpressCards, USB modems, etc., and of course, it supports bandwidths between 1.4 and 20MHz and the oh-so-exciting 700MHz bands. Unfortunately, a commercial release isn't set to happen until 2009 -- with products "based on the platform" not scheduled until 2010 -- but to its credit, samples of ASICs will be ready to roll sometime this year.

For now it's not much more than a plan to announce a plan within the next few weeks, but since it involves Google and cellphone networks, we'll take it. The Wall Street Journal has the news that Google will announce its mobile offerings within the next two weeks, which could take the form of hardware, software packages, or -- most likely -- an open platform for phones that third party developers can build on. Interaction is the key word here: Google's platform won't involve locking down features, rather, it'll open them up so that they work together. How exactly the company will execute this plan will be revealed within the immediate future: although with most phone manufacturers already subcontracting development of their phone's software platforms, it doesn't sound like it should be too difficult a job to muscle in.

[Thanks, Harry; via MarketWatch. Image credit]

On the same day that Palm names Wind River Systems as its preferred Linux provider, Motorola has gone and unveiled a new mobile Linux platform of its own. The "next-generation" MOTOMAGX package is supposed to "lay the foundation to deliver new levels of openness, flexibility, and support for third-party applications on Motorola mobile devices." Notably, Moto also stated that up to 60-percent of its handsets would be based on Linux "in the next few years," and announced that the MOTOROKR Z6 and RAZR2 V8 mobiles would be the first two based on the platform. Best of all, developers interested in creating applications for the MOTOMAGX platform using Java ME can get their hands dirty today by downloading the corresponding MOTODEV Studio, and be on the lookout for WebUI and "native Linux plug-ins" to be available to "select" individuals by the end of Q4.

Billed as "the latest evolution of the highest-volume mobile-development platform available," Nokia used this week's JavaOne shindig to launch its Series 40 5th Edition operation system for mass-market handsets. While not technically a smartphone platform (unlike its big sib S60), Series 40 is about as open as a dumbphone platform can get -- and 5th Edition is making it even more open with a wide variety of new Java-based APIs. Though there are apparently some UI enhancements in store that promise to yield "richer multimedia applications," Nokia's pretty vague about what exactly the user will see in 5th Edition, concentrating instead on the benefits to developers and carriers. Most notably, the Bluetooth OBEX profile is now supported in Java apps, Flash Lite 2.1 gets Nokia's blessing, and the Advanced Media Supplements standard offers up 3D sound. No word on when 5th Edition might be hitting handsets, but a new suite of tools to harness the new goodies will be available to devs starting next month.

The world's most popular smartphone platform, Symbian, is taking a step forward this week with the announcement of version 9.5. Nine and a half versions sounds like a lot, and, well, it is -- but when you consider that Symbian has its roots in Psion's ages-old EPOC, it's pretty darned plausible to think that they've come this far. New features are very multimedia-centric, reflecting the reality that modern phones are becoming true multimedia convergence devices; the camera subsystem alone accounts for 35 new goodies including orientation tilt sensor support, autofocus spots, and red-eye reduction. No word on when Symbian's largest clients -- Nokia's S60 and Sony Ericsson's UIQ -- will integrate the latest version, but we think it's pretty safe to say that they will.

So carriers have been preaching the need for platform standardization in the cellphone space for some time now, most notably with Vodafone's commitment to tossing anything that isn't Windows Mobile-, Symbian-, or Linux-based to the curb. The popular reasoning for the move, if you listen to the carriers explain it, is that the current sitch limits their ability to offer rich content and makes doing so significantly more expensive. Here's what we don't understand: only a small handful of mobile operating systems dominate carriers' smartphone offerings as it is -- Symbian (in its various flavors), Windows Mobile, Garnet, and BlackBerry -- and eliminating any one of those from the average carrier's lineup would rile up a healthy percentage of its customer base, while non-smartphone devices do a pretty good job unifying content as it is with Java, Flash, and the like. So what's the bellyaching all about? Are the carriers putting together a case for reducing handset offerings that are already, in some cases, embarrassingly anemic? Besides, the concern centers around their ability to offer content directly, a concern obviously rooted in profitmaking; some software publishers have apparently raised the same issue, but as long as every platform out there is shored up with a vibrant developer and enthusiast community, carrier-backed content can happily take a back seat as far as we're concerned.

[Via Slashdot]

Managing one smartphone operating system can bring even the most technically competent folks among us to their knees -- but how about two? Intel and NTT DoCoMo have put their noggins together to draw up a standard for dual-booting two platforms on a handset: one of the manufacturer's / carrier's choosing, and another at the user's discretion. Apparently, the standard will ensure that if one OS crashes, the other will still be usable, and calls will be able to be placed and received regardless how badly the user fubars the installation. While we'd like this to ultimately lead to Treo 750s with multiple personality disorder, we suspect the whole initiative will ultimately be restricted to a handful of NTT DoCoMo specials.

[Via The Inquirer and WM247]

It seems that one of the prerequisites to the survival of a mobile software platform is... well, hardware to match. Imagine that? Apart from an LG special and a self-branded testbed that was never meant for the general public's consumption, SavaJe has blown through an alleged $71 million in venture capital with very little success to show for it. Its Java-based operating system has won the hearts and minds of the developer community, but thanks perhaps to a glut of platforms infecting the featurephone and smartphone markets these days, SavaJe simply hasn't caught on en masse. The lack of success appears to be taking a toll on the Massachusetts-based company, which is said to be desperately seeking a cash infusion while asking its developers to take a little unpaid time off. Call us morbid, but we reckon we're going to go ahead and write up that obit now.

[Via MobHappy]

Symbian, Windows Mobile, ALP, and NTT DoCoMo's Linux consortium apparently aren't enough, and KDDI's thinking there's room for at least one more mobile platform in the world. The Japanese carrier has rounded up Qualcomm, Sanyo, and Toshiba to get cracking on a brand new OS with initial commercial availability coming toward the end of 2007. The platform, which KDDI would presumably like to eventually drop on most or all of its models, will include the operating system itself plus software for messaging, "wireless applications," and "running cameras." We reckon these folks' efforts would be better spent hooking up with NTT DoCoMo on their platform, but corporate egos being what they are -- well, let's just say we don't see KDDI jumping on that bandwagon any time soon.

[Via The Register]

Nvidia has taken the wraps of its MobileMedia platform for Windows Mobile 5.0-based devices at Taiwan's big Computex trade show, promising to bring high-quality digital TV and video, 3D graphics, and high fidelity audio to PDAs and smartphones. At the heart of the MobileMedia platform is Nvidia's GeForce 5500 chip, which supposedly delivers "console-class 3D gaming," although they convienently don't specify which console -- we're guessing it falls somewhere below an Xbox 360 but above a Sega Genesis. As it turns out, we've actually already seen a couple of the smartphones based on the Nvidia platform, although no one was spilling deets at the time. Modeo's DVB-H smartphone (seen here) is just one of the devices already announced that has Nvidia tech on the inside, as is Samsung's i310 smartphone, as well as an unnamed device from ReignCom. Nvidia also announced that they've hooked up with Intel and Freescale to develop reference designs for Windows Mobile 5.0 devices currently in development that should be unveiled later this year.

In an exciting development for Java-enabled cellphone owners, and a bit of an embarrassing reminder of the Palm operating system's major limitation, Sun and Samsung have just announced a new platform that will allow regular handsets to multi-task certain applications. Called Multi-tasking VM Ware, or MVM, the new platform is built on the standard Java API, which will let existing Java applications run simultaneously even on non-smartphone models. Although we don't know when this technology will hit the market, considering that the lack of multi-tasking is one of the biggest drawbacks of most phones, it should prove to be a popular feature once available. [Note: subscription required for "Read" link].