All you can eat content

apple is considering unlimited music services, Nokia style. apple cares more about hardware than service. apple somehow feels something has to be done in the format field if it doesn't want the iTunes / iPod / iPhone success to dry up.

SK Telecom IS an expert in marketing mobile services. It owns the platforms and the contents. And its deal with SanDisk last month in Barcelona looks more interesting to me. SanDisk's Flash memory cards + SKT's DRM solutions aim at the mobile TV and PVR (Personal Video Recorder) applications.

OK. Storage is key. OK, there's this thing about CDs going south vs immaterial music et al, and that thing about MNOs enhancing the mother of all cards, the SIM/USIM. And OK, we are more into the Blu Ray / Tera octet hard drive era than in memory card times.

But SK Telecom is venturing beyond the MNO's yard, taking yet another initiative on yet another part of the value chain. And it had been a while since they did something like that. So let's wait and see.

Mobile TV for WIMAX, lingo-free

What's in a name... From IPWireless to NextWave Wireless* and from TDtv to MXtv, the TDD champion abandons the techno lingo for a vocabulary fitter for this meshy / cloudy / blurred world.

Let's forget about the recent controversy about WiMAX, TDD (now), and FDD (soon according to Bill Gateses, someday according to Steve Jobses, maybe according to Arun Sarins, never according to WiMAX haters) ; let's forget about that fabled path towards 4G**: this is about next gen "waves", about giving you the "MAX", about TV on the go.

If you enjoy techno lingo and old style hardware, you can also try Huawei's E510 HSUPA datacard. If your device still has the slot for it next June the 5th.

* see "Social networking for social networks" (20080214)

** see "3G & 4G - WiMAX flirts with ITU" (20070303)

Daily news

Burning gates in Korea

Seoulites are crying for the loss of the city's ancient Southern Gate : Sungnyemun, also known as Namdaemun, was burned down in arson two weeks ago. The building survived the Japanese occupation as well as the 1950s War.

Korean handset manufacturers are worrying about other another monument : the protective walls around their home market. W-CDMA is blooming across the country, and Koreans are getting used to seeing a USIM card each time they manipulate their much more valuable memory cards, but there is a lock on that one.

This month, the said lock will be partially lifted and consumers will be able to change handsets as often as they want. Provided they're from the same operator, at the beginning. Which limits the second hand market to today's leaders, especially LG (Cyon) and Samsung (AnyCall). But that's a beginning. LG Telecom, stuck to CDMA, can't take the move (no USIM there).

We're still a long way from European standards, but roaming charges are eventually about to drop. With China and Japan, as a start (KTF with its partner DoCoMo). On the fixed networks too, or so I hope : I do enjoy cutting edge home networking and VOD services but what's the point of FTTH ?