Coinciding with Mobile World Congress, a triumvirate consisting of the UN, Vodafone and the Rockefeller Foundation are to unite in providing help and advice to remote and disadvantaged communities.  

According to the UN press release, the mHealth Alliance will attempt to maximise the benefits of health information through the use of mobile technology and the 2.2 billion handsets in the developing world.

Mobile networks have a clear advantage in providing communications where more traditional fixed line infrastructures are impractical for so many reasons.  Unfortunately various projects have foundered on the long decision making process, committees and research leaving little if any money for actual deployments.

This is a shame as low cost technology tailored to these environments clearly exists, even for the remotest of communities, and the widest of health care, education and advisory needs.  It will be interesting to see what, if any, real achievements, other than more reports, the mHealth Alliance will announce at next years MWC.

On a more positive note Bill Gates has enough money, and now the time, to make a positive contribution.  In effect there is a decision making committee of only two, he and his wife. 

Micro capital projects, and the ability to get the best price for crops, are proven to raise families and villages from poverty.  Virtual money through PayPal and web only cards are well established at providing very low cost banking facilities in first world markets.  Combining the two to make transfer of funds using mobile technology can simplify many daily transactions, but importantly ensure capital reaches the families who can most benefit from it.

There is no reason why both can’t succeed but many motivated people have invested time and effort into such projects in the past only to be let down by their sponsors.  My guess is Bill will succeed where the mHealth Alliance will get bogged down in officialdom.

As expected, Palm is demonstrating the UMTS version of their Pre smartphone at MWC.

Built for the world outside of CDMA, UMTS is almost everywhere these days, Vodafone (their UK carrier of choice) may be launching the Pre sometime in the second half of the year.

So to get the developers writing apps in time for Pre’s launch, O’Reilly publishers are launching a developer’s guide. The first chapter is already on-line via Palm’s developer web site (http://developer.palm.com/ ) so that should kick start some interest from dissatisfied Android developers.

BBC’s interview with Palm’s CEO Ed Colligan demonstrates a passion for the company that has broken with the past to design the Pre.  Palm has an immense history in this market and in it’s slimmed down form has found the energy to surpass the iPhone at every functional level.

Now that the Pre will also support Flash, it seems that Palm will be soon be the internet anywhere company especially after Apple’s disappointing start to the year.

The BBC’s Cellan-Jones interview of Google’s Hugo Barra was quite informative in a negative sort of way.  With only one ‘new’ handset confirmed from HTC, the Android platform seems to be spluttering to a halt.

HTC’s Magic seems on the face of it to be a G1 without the keyboard.  Also T-Mobile has been passed over, or did T-Mobile pass over it, for Vodafone as Magic’s launch partner.

In his interview, Barra seemed to be shrugging his verbal shoulders to the questions on what Google is expecting from Android and the market.  A thousand applications he felt wasn’t bad (compare that to the avalanche of choice in Apple’s App Store).  To the question of why there is not a choice of handsets Barra effectively said that as an open source project how would they know?

If Android is truly a big part of Google’s future strategy then they should know.  With T-Mobile floundering with the G1, and no other manufacturers promising delivery of the next generation Android handset, Google doesn’t appear to care.  The market won’t take care of itself, and Google will lose out to Ovi and Microsoft in the web apps department if it can’t motivate itself to care about Android. 

It says a lot that Acer would rather pay Microsoft licensing fees, reducing their margins, than take Google’s free OS.

After a torturous 2008, Symbian have recaptured some of the tech high ground, but not through Nokia.

With a new breezy image and some killer graphics, SF is on a real uptick at MWC.

Unfortunately although Nokia announced some solid evolutionary handsets, there has been little to impress from SF’s temporary owner, even the launch of Nokia’s first 8MPx camera N86 seems to have been a bit flat.

Their competitors though are having a fine old time.  S60 powered handsets such as Samsung’s i8910 and Sony Ericsson’s Idou have trounced the Nokia newbie’s.  From screen acreage, to cameras, Xenon flash, capacitive screen technology, Nokia’s competitors have thrown down a substantial gauntlet.

Under its temporary ownership, Nokia will have absorbed some of Symbian’s creative employees so perhaps we can expect something special in the UI department later this year, or not.