Embedded wireless broadband (3G) capability for laptops has been difficult for enterprises to justify because of upfront purchase costs, monthly costs and asset protection, but new pricing plans and technology evolution will force changes in strategy, according to Gartner, Inc.

“Our standing recommendation against embedding wireless WAN (WWAN) cards in notebooks — except for applications with a clear return-on-investment justification — has been based on lack of global coverage, high costs and poor asset protection,” said Ken Dulaney, vice president and distinguished analyst at Gartner. “However, new technologies and pricing due by the end of 2008 have the potential to eliminate the problems of embedded, wireless 3G notebook purchases.”

Gartner analysts said organizations can consider embedded 3G in new notebook purchases for moderate to extensive travelers in 2009.

“Various influencing factors are transitioning to a point where embedded 3G will become superior from a cost perspective compared with previously used alternatives, such as Wi-Fi ‘hot spots’ and hotel broadband for wide-area use,” said Leslie Fiering, research vice president at Gartner.

Historically, embedded WWANs have been tied to specific technologies and service providers, meaning that users could not just swap cards out when they moved to an area not covered by a certain carrier. Ongoing service costs at an average estimate of $600 a year were difficult to justify, and roaming charges could drive costs even higher. Additionally, the tremendous churn in WWAN technologies and frequencies could make a WWAN card obsolete within two years inside a notebook with a three-year expected life

Namco Networks, the leading publisher and developer of mobile games and entertainment for mass-market casual gamers, today announced the PAC-MAN Fever Mobile Tournament at this year's Penny Arcade Expo (PAX). The tournament will be held at Namco Networks' booth #141 at PAX, August 29-31, 2008.

Contestants in the PAC-MAN Fever Mobile Tournament at PAX will compete on AT&T phones and battle for the best score in PAC-MAN. The top four daily scores earn a spot in the daily final challenge where they will compete for a prize pack that includes a new phone from AT&T.

Buzzwire, Inc. announced that it has signed a syndication deal with RooftopComedy, the Internet Comedy Channel and foremost interactive media provider of stand-up and sketch comedy. The partnership will commence at the Aspen RooftopComedy Festival, May 30-31, which will bring together the best, most innovative stand-up comedians from across the U.S. The festival will feature the National College Comedy Competition Finals, and some of the biggest names in current comedy, including Chris Porter, Tig, Robert Hawkins, Jimmy Dore, Vince Morris, and many more. Select clips from the two-day event will be available on mobile phones through Buzzwire.

Buzzwire gives consumers access to the original Web programming through one-click mobile access. In addition to the Aspen comedy festival clips, Buzzwire will feature stand-up comedy from clubs across the U.S. and the U.K. RooftopComedy fans can use Buzzwire to watch their favorite clips on the go, create their own personalized mobile media channels, and share their favorite clips with family and friends.

RooftopComedy records, produces and distributes live comedy performances from the best comedy venues every night of the week. These are published to RooftopComedy.com and the RooftopComedy Network, which now includes Buzzwire. Performances are recorded from locations through the U.S. and an expanding number of venues in Europe and Asia.

IN-FUSIO, a leading digital-content publisher,announced it has licensed mobile gaming rights for the upcoming motion picture Get Smart, from Warner Bros. Digital Distribution. Based on the highly anticipated motion picture from Warner Bros. Pictures and Village Roadshow Pictures, the Get Smart mobile game will combine mission-based gameplay, puzzle solving and combat with the trademark Get Smart humor.

In the movie, CONTROL secret agents Maxwell Smart and the lovely-but-lethal Agent 99 are on a mission to thwart a plan for world domination by the evil crime syndicate KAOS.

Assuming the role of CONTROL operatives, Get Smart mobile game players will battle KAOS henchmen in a variety of locations, including a training facility, city streets, agent Krstic’s mansion, nuclear facilities and prison dungeons. In addition to gadgets collected along the way, Maxwell’s signature “hwa-rang-do” martial-arts moves and powerful insult-based combat offer creative ways to take on the forces of evil.

In addition to the mobile game, special content from the movie, wallpapers, voicetones and theme music will be available. The Get Smart mobile game will be available this summer on a variety of wireless carriers in North America.

The average reported purchase price for wireless mobile phones is now $9 higher than reported in 2007, according to the J.D. Power and Associates 2008 U.S. Wireless Mobile Phone Evaluation Study(SM)-Volume 1.

The study finds that the average reported purchase price for a wireless handset has increased substantially for the first time in two years. The average purchase price cited by customers for a mobile phone is $101 — up $9 from just six months ago — and marks the highest average price paid for a wireless device since the study’s inception in 2003.

The increase in the average purchase price can be partially attributed to the recent surge in popularity of smartphone devices, such as the RIM Blackberry, Palm Treo and recently introduced Apple iPhone, as well as music- enabled handsets, both of which typically have higher price points when first offered. The current average reported purchase price for smartphone devices is $208, much higher than the average price paid ($58) for phones with fewer features.

“As more customers start to upgrade to mobile phones that offer real-time connectivity and access to Internet content — particularly those offered by smartphone devices — we should continue to see the wireless handset price point rise,” said Kirk Parsons, senior director of wireless services at J.D. Power and Associates. “Sales of smartphone devices have increased considerably over the past year to 6.3 percent from 1.7 percent in overall market share at the beginning of 2007.”

The Road to 100G Alliance announced that the Sprint Nextel Corporation (Sprint), a leading supplier of comprehensive wireless and wire-line services, and NetLogic Microsystems, Inc., a leading provider of knowledge-based processors, have joined the alliance as contributing members. The Road to 100G Alliance is a global community of leading hardware, software and equipment vendors, along with service providers, dedicated to accelerating the adoption and ongoing development of a new era of next generation networking platforms.

“We welcome Sprint as our first service provider representative to the Road to 100G Alliance. Sprint’s perspective will help guide the Alliance in terms of new services and applications for advanced network and telecom equipment, and will certainly bring to light many important issues,” said Bill Weisinger, Road to 100G Alliance Chairman and President. “We are also excited to have NetLogic Microsystems join our Alliance as they will bring their broad perspective on high-speed integrated circuits that accelerate the delivery of voice, video, data and multimedia content for high performance networks.”

Unlike many existing standards bodies, the Road to 100G Alliance is focused solely on identifying and addressing the complex implementation and integration issues which might compromise the adoption and proliferation of next generation telecommunications and network solutions. The Alliance exists to make recommendations which ensure interoperability between the myriad of technologies that enable equipment for a variety of new applications

Infineon Technologies AG announced the availability of its new generation 3G platform family. This new platform family addresses all major 3G market segments and includes a high performance HSPA modem solution, a feature phone solution enriched with high multimedia capabilities and a cost-efficient 3G solution.

This platform family is a further step on Infineon’s integration roadmap: it reduces the number of devices in the chipset from three to two and the component count of a typical platform by 50 per cent.

The new 3G-solutions offer the industry’s smallest PCB (printed circuit board) footprint with a space reduction of up to 40 per cent. Furthermore the standby power is reduced by up to 30 per cent compared to existing HSDPA platform solutions.

“Our new platforms enable our customers to fully reuse their hardware and software developments and launch multiple phones covering all feature phone market segments with lower cost and faster time-to-market,” said Prof. Dr. Hermann Eul, Executive Vice President of the Infineon Management Board and President of the Communication Solutions Business Group.

“Given the compelling size of our new Baseband and RF devices and the low component count of our platforms, we are offering the world’s smallest platform footprint, enabling manufacturers to build slim, feature rich HSUPA / HSDPA phones for all 3G market segments.”

Infineon uses its own dual-mode 3GPP release 6 Protocol Stack, which enables the company to provide complete in-house system solutions. Having the ownership of each and every platform component eases completing lab tests (GCF, PTCRB and IOT), field tests and operator approvals on Infineon’s reference platforms, which in turn accelerates customers’ phone projects substantially.