The last-minute decision of Google (NSDQ: GOOG) and Samsung to move their launch event for Ice Cream Sandwich and the Nexus Prime from the first day of CTIA to next week in Hong Kong really took all the air out of this show, which is all you need to know about the current state of business-oriented mobile technology: a consumer-oriented launch would have been the talk of the town. Attendees were treated to very few new developments in mobile, with perhaps the most buzz centered around mobile payments and the concept of connected mobile devices, both of which have been talked about for years.
The ennui is pretty easy to understand: enterprise technology managers controlled the pace and adoption of technology for decades but starting with the launch of the iPhone in 2007, non-technology executives and employees have been demanding the right to use the devices they find so palatable in their regular lives for work purposes. As a result, “enterprise mobile technology” is kind of a misnomer; the dollars, talent, and hype in mobile are going toward companies that are building things for consumers.
Just look at the three startups the CTIA chose to feature during its closing keynote address on Thursday. Two of them: Shopkick and Jumio, are working on ways for retailers to provide a more pleasant shopping experience for consumers through apps for daily deals and payments-processing via the mobile device, respectively. And the other, Tango, has built a video-calling application that certainly has ramifications for business use but is not pitched that way on the company’s Web site.
Much of the problem stems from the fact that mobile platforms are still very much in flux: there’s Android and iOS, and perhaps a few others, but standardizing across a platform is still a very perilous decision given how quickly the mobile world changes. In the PC era, companies could deploy internal applications without having to worry about platform conflicts, especially as Web applications became popular.
But mobile is much more dynamic. Take the BlackBerry, the mobile device of choice for corporations for several years: app development on the BlackBerry is anemic compared to what’s happening on Android and iOS, where all the talented mobile developers flock first.
Sure, you can still provision BlackBerrys for your workers in order to ensure secure e-mail transactions (when the service works) but they won’t like it. When they make their own spending decisions, U.S. consumers are fleeing the BlackBerry in favor of iPhones or Android devices.
“It’s almost impossible if you have more than 1,000 employees to standardize on one kind of (mobile technology) to support the use cases of all your employees,” said Aaron Levie, founder and CEO of Box.net, during a panel discussion at CTIA around mobile business technology. Therefore most businesses haven’t standardized on app-friendly mobile devices (a group to which the BlackBerry does not belong) because it’s simply too daunting.
“We standardized on Windows (PCs), and it took forever. And then the executives came in with iPhones and said, ‘you better make this work,’” said Robert Schlaff, vice president and global mobile product manager for Citi.
This is not to say that businesses aren’t aware of how mobile technology will transform the way people work.
AT&T Mobility CEO Ralph De La Vega told attendees during his keynote speech that mobile is growing as a percentage of the average company’s IT budget. Polycom announced new mobile applications that enable powerful video-conferencing collaboration a step above what consumer apps like Skype allow. And companies like Amgen have deployed thousands of iPads to their workers as part of an experiment in mobile working conditions, said Polycom CEO Andy Miller during his keynote address.
But there is little consensus: modern mobile technology offers so much more of a personal computing experience than the personal computer, which makes it much more difficult to find common ground across a big company.
That leaves the enterprise in the same position it has been in since the launch of the iPhone: struggling to fit the “bring-your-own-device” reality of today’s workplace into a mobile strategy that gives their workers the tools they need without having to double their IT budgets.
“You have to define what you’re going to control a little more precisely,” said Jennifer Rosales, executive director of Verizon’s business solutions group. For IT executives used to calling the shots, that can be a glum exercise.
]]>“It is clear to me that mobile and commerce are on a collision course,” said Dan Schulman of American Express in his Wednesday morning keynote address at CTIA Enterprise and Applications. Many have made the same point during a year in which mobile payments has been designated as The Next Big Thing, but few groups probably want it to happen more than credit-card companies, who would love to find a way for people to use their services for more and more of their transactions.
“We’re moving to a world beyond cash,” said Ed McLaughlin, Chief Emerging Payments Officer at Mastercard. “I do think this is execution against an inevitable.”
The motivation is simple. Mobile phones are so widespread in both the developed and developing worlds as to be in almost constant usage, and are often in one’s hand when waiting in line to purchase goods or services. If phone makers, wireless carriers, and payments companies are able to figure out how to turn those phones into credit cards, they stand to capture a bigger piece of the transaction pie that currently goes to cash or regular credit cards.
McLaughlin thinks that Mastercard’s work with PayPass is a natural jumping-off point for mobile payments, and Google (NSDQ: GOOG) is actually building Google Wallet on top of that service. After all, PayPass already uses the NFC (near-field communications) technology that many phone makers are starting to include in their devices.
But it’s never a good sign when companies promote products like PayPass but decline to provide hard numbers as to how many people are actually using the product. Laura Chambers of PayPal told attendees at GigaOm Mobilize last month that NFC payment processing was used extremely infrequently, and McLaughlin and Mastercard were unable or unwilling to produce any numbers to refute that notion.
It just illustrates how far credit-card companies have to go to get people to think of “tap-to-pay” as an alternative to swiping even when the chips are built into their cards. But such services are used more widely outside of the U.S., and Schulman thinks that the greatest opportunity for mobile payments might actually come from people who have yet to embrace credit cards, or even banks.
There are an awful lot of people around the world who are still treating cash as not just king, but as the only vehicle for their financial transactions, Schulman said. Yet many of those people have mobile phones, a legacy of how quickly mobile networks have sprung up where wireline networks never reached. There’s an overlap there that could allow people to gain security from not having to have so much cash in their possession while signing up for accounts that could allow them to also participate in e-commerce for the first time.
It’s an assumption that’s all too easy to make in the modern mobile world, the notion that something needs to take off in the U.S. first before reaching the rest of the world. Many have already forgotten (or simply never knew) how far ahead of the U.S. that Europe and Japan were in mobile technology before the introduction of the Treo and then the iPhone.
So while the obstacles to mobile payments may seem daunting in the U.S., the credit-card industry is quietly making things happen elsewhere. (Mastercard announced a mobile-payments deal in Dubai this week with Research in Motion (NSDQ: RIMM) and Etisalat, a wireless carrier in the Middle East.) Those regions will be the proving grounds for the question of whether consumers are ready to combine their phones with their wallets.
It’s a possibility the credit-card industry can’t afford to ignore.
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]]>Galvin took the reins at Motorola in 1959 from his father and company founder Paul Galvin and stepped down in 1988 when his son Christopher became CEO, remaining on Motorola’s board until 2001. During that time Motorola practically invented an industry that has touched nearly everyone in the developed world: there are now more wireless subscribers in the U.S. then there are people.
The first phones Motorola developed were not pretty, but they paved the way for wireless as we know it. Don’t ask anyone at CTIA who Bob Galvin was, however: Motorola’s booth featured no mention of Galvin, which probably isn’t that surprising considering references to the Galvins are rare on the sites of both Motorola Mobility and Motorola Solutions. A few passers-by responded with polite-but-blank stares when asked if they had heard of Galvin.
Galvin’s family issued a press release announcing his death. “Galvin discovered his highest passions pursuing the principles of leadership, innovation, creativity, ethics, and dignity and respect for all. His was an inspiring, principled, loving and accomplished American life,” they said in the release.
Motorola issued its own statement hours later. “Bob’s commitment to innovation has remained a core value at Motorola Mobility and his contributions have left a lasting mark on both the Motorola Mobility portfolio and the entire cell phone industry. Today we honor Bob’s many accomplishments and celebrate the technology he was so instrumental in building.”
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]]>The CTIA is probably the most buttoned-down industry across the technology spectrum, constantly on message about the need for greater wireless spectrum over which to deliver voice and data services. Sprint’s Dan Hesse, AT&T’s Ralph De La Vega, and Verizon’s Dan Mead did little to change that impression Tuesday, delivering separate addresses rather than interacting together on stage the way they did in March, two days after AT&T (NYSE: T) announced its $39 billion bid for T-Mobile.
Only veiled references to that controversial deal were aired during the morning’s presentation, with Hesse comparing De La Vega to Abraham Lincoln assassin John Wilkes Booth (the men do share a distinctive mustache). De La Vega fired back moments later when he took the stage, noting that Booth was an actor and declaring that Hesse was “the best actor we have in wireless today,” likely a reference to Hesse’s performances before congressional committees and in speeches bemoaning the effects that a combined AT&T/T-Mobile would have on the wireless industry.
But that was otherwise it for the fireworks.
Hesse, who has been chairman of the CTIA for the past year, talked about the industry’s commitment toward making more environmentally friendly devices and services as well as applications that could help reduce texting-while-driving. De La Vega pointed out how AT&T has been opening offices in new areas for the company, such as Silicon Valley, Texas, and Israel, in hopes of tapping into centers of innovative technology development. And Mead talked about how wireless services can aid first responders in disaster situations and provide opportunities for the elderly or disabled to participate more in civic activities.
Unlike the March conference, this particular edition of CTIA is focused on business use of wireless technology, which De La Vega noted is becoming a larger and larger portion of the average company’s IT budget as they shift from the PC era to the post-PC era. They also acknowledged the rise of what’s being called “machine to machine” wireless connections, perhaps more popularly known as “the Internet of things.”
Concepts such as connected refrigerators have been talked about forever, but could actually be gaining steam as the technology required becomes more realistic to install and buy. Expect to hear more from wireless carriers about how they are connecting more than phones and tablets over the next year.
As expected, CTIA President Steve Largent kicked off the morning session with a tribute to Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) co-founder Steve Jobs, who died last week after having turned the wireless industry upside down with the launch of the iPhone in 2007. “The likes of Steve Jobs come along rarely, and he will be greatly missed,” Largent said.
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]]>What was expected to be the highlight of the week—Google and Samsung’s introduction of the most advanced Android phone to date—was canceled on Friday out of what the companies said was respect for Steve Jobs and Apple (NSDQ: AAPL), with company representatives saying the decision was made at the highest levels of each organization and has nothing to do with any product delays. It’s a lost opportunity for Google and Samsung to introduce both the Ice Cream Sandwich version of Android and the Nexus Prime, believed to be the next “pure Google” Android phone, following the introduction of the iPhone 4S a day before Jobs’ death.
That doesn’t mean we’ll be left twiddling our thumbs, however. The fall edition of the CTIA show generally focuses on how businesses are embracing mobile technology, and how mobile software development tools and techniques are evolving. Here’s a sense of what we expect:
Carrier Fireworks: It probably won’t be as dramatic as the time they took the stage in March just days after AT&T’s bombshell announcement that it intended to acquire T-Mobile for $39 billion, but the leaders of three of the top four wireless carriers in the U.S.—AT&T’s Ralph De La Vega, Verizon’s Dan Mead, and Sprint’s Dan Hesse—will once meet in a roundtable discussion on Tuesday. Unfortunately the panel is being moderated by CTIA head Steve Largent, which means it will be a rehearsed affair unlikely to be as interesting as it was in March when Jim Cramer of CNBC (NSDQ: CMCSA) did his usual thing.
Still, Hesse is likely to work in a reference to why the AT&T/T-Mobile merger is a bad idea every second sentence. De La Vega will explain why the merger will create jobs, save kittens, and eliminate the designated hitter. Hesse will also have to defend his company’s new 4G strategy, which has changed quite a bit since the same three leaders appeared at CTIA in March. And Mead is likely to chuckle at all the fuss as Verizon sits back and prepares for its next move once the chaos surrounding its competitors settles down.
All three men now run companies that carry Apple’s iPhone 4S, and they will probably be asked to reflect on the death of Jobs and what I’m sure were interesting negotiations between the companies over the years. AT&T (NYSE: T) announced late Friday that they received 200,000 iPhone 4S pre-orders in the first 12 hours the device was on sale, showing just how dependent the wireless industry is on perhaps Jobs’ finest creation.
Android No-Show?: The decision to cancel Samsung and Google’s press conference scheduled for Tuesday was quite strange: very few people would have thought it crass to continue with a press conference scheduled well before Jobs’ death and nearly a full week later. It’s really hard to imagine Jobs reaching the same conclusion were he to have an important public event on his calendar in the week following the death of a similar industry titan.
Assuming Google and Samsung are telling the truth about the launch schedule for the Nexus Prime (neither company has confirmed the name, but Samsung’s statement Friday spoke of “a new product”), it’s hard to criticize those executives too much for trying to show respect for an industry legend. Still, they’ll now have to unveil Ice Cream Sandwich at a different event that will allow Apple to have one of its trademark product-launch weeks (especially likely to have the usual lines now) all to itself.
Business Time: The “consumerization of IT” is a popular catchphrase in tech right now, mainly because it’s accurate. Workers are demanding that their tools live up to the same standards that their consumer electronics devices must achieve, with easier-to-understand interfaces and mobile access as a given. Entire new classes of devices like tablets are further changing the way that companies think about how they use technology to advance their core business.
I’ll be talking to more representatives of the mobile payments industry and those who are keen on building out what Rob Bailey of SimpleGeo called “point-of-sale 2.0” types of experiences at retailers over dinner a few weeks back. Mobile video is also expected to be discussed in depth during two of the three keynote sessions featuring companies like Polycom and Tango.
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]]>Update: The Next Web is reporting that the event “Samsung Unpacked: Google Edition” has now been rescheduled for October 27, and will take place in London. If correct, that would put it in direct competition with an annual event from one of Samsung’s biggest competitors, Nokia (NYSE: NOK), which is holding Nokia World in London October 26-27. Coincidence or very direct intention? Samsung’s spokesperson, Kim Titus, declined to confirm the date to paidContent. More below.
]]>Update: The Next Web is reporting that the event “Samsung Unpacked: Google Edition” has now been rescheduled for October 27, and will take place in London. If correct, that would put it in direct competition with an annual event from one of Samsung’s biggest competitors, Nokia (NYSE: NOK), which is holding Nokia World in London October 26-27. Coincidence or very direct intention? Samsung’s spokesperson, Kim Titus, declined to confirm the date to paidContent. More below.
The news of the cancellation for CTIA was first seen on the UK blog Pocket-Lint. A statement emailed to paidContent from Kim Titus, a spokesperson for Samsung, confirmed the news:
“Samsung and Google have decided to postpone the Samsung Mobile Unpacked event during the CTIA in San Diego, previously scheduled for Oct. 11. Under the current circumstances, both parties have agreed that this is not the appropriate time for the announcement of a new product. We would ask for the understanding of our clients and media for any inconvenience caused. We will announce a new date and venue in due course.”
Ironically, it was only this morning that a video leaked apparently showing the Nexus Prime with Ice Cream Sandwich in action.
It’s unclear what is really behind the delayed launch. Could it be those ongoing patent issues? Market climate? A technical glitch on the device or with the OS?
The wording of the news could give some clue. “Current circumstances” might have to do with the fact that the announcement would have been preceded by a week that has been a tumultuous one for Samsung’s chief competitor and key client, Apple (NSDQ: AAPL), which unveiled its latest iPhone, the 4S, and—in news that goes beyond Apple device fans—saw the passing of its iconic and hugely influential founder, chairman and former CEO, Steve Jobs.
Update: Samsung confirmed in an e-mail to paidContent that the event was canceled out of respect for Jobs. “We believe this is not the right time to announce a new product as the world expresses tribute to Steve Jobs’ passing,” the company said in a statement. Sources familiar with the launch schedule for the product insisted there were no product delays associated with this decision.
While the 4S may have disappointed some by not appearing any different in form, the incremental advances, with an emphasis on lower-costing software rather than hardware upgrades, is being seen by others as a logical and much better step for Apple in the current market and mobile climate. At least one operator, O2 in Germany, has reported very robust preorders.
Samung’s pre-earnings guidance released today, it appears that the legal problems that it has been facing with Apple—it has been prevented from selling its newest Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet in two markets so far, Germany and Australia—have yet to impact the bottom line.
Samsung noted that it expects to report operating profit for Q3 of around 4.2 trillion Won ($3.6 billion), on sales of 41 trillion Won ($34.8 billion). Reuters points out that this would be a decline on the same quarter last year but still exceeds expectations from analysts it polled, which were expecting profits of 3.4 trillion Won.
Smartphones are an increasingly strong driver for revenues at Samsung, which could end up overtaking Apple as the single-largest smartphone vendor in terms of unit sales (not value) in Q3. In the last quarter, Reuters (NYSE: TRI) notes, Apple sold about 1 million more than Samsung. Smartphones made up 26 percent of Samsung’s revenue in the last quarter and there is expectation that proportion will grow, with or without the launch of one extra device in the form of the Nexus Prime.
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» Nokia (NYSE: NOK) is broadening its Symbian smartphone portfolio with the Astound phone, available on T-Mobile beginning April 6. The device has an 8-megapixel camera with dual-LED flash and 720p HD video capture, free turn-by-turn navigation and some pre-loaded games. [Release]
» CTIA released its biannual survey, which tracks data submitted by carriers from Jan.-Dec. 2010. Some findings: wireless penetration rate is up to 96 percent compared to year-end 2009’s 91.2 percent. There are also 57 percent more active smartphones in 2010 than in 2009: 78.2 million compared to 49.8 million. [Release]
» Powerwave Technologies has introduced its new 4G network infrastructure products, LTE Picocell and 4G MIMO Active Array Antenna, which are finalists for a CTIA E-Tech Award. The company is also showing off its iCC Internet Commanded Combiner, which facilitates feed line and antenna sharing on 2G, 3G or 4G networks. [Release]
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CEO Dan Hesse, fresh off his morning sparring session with his wireless industry counterparts over the proposed AT&T/T-Mobile merger, introduced the two new devices at a press conference held on the sidelines of CTIA Wireless. Both are Android devices, and represent interesting gambits in mobile differentiation.
First of all, the Evo 3D is just that, a 3D mobile phone. It uses a qHD display that can generate 3D images that can be seen without having to wear the awkward glasses that have derailed the march of 3D into the living room. It runs Android 2.3, which will improve battery life on Evo devices, and it has a dual-core Qualcomm (NSDQ: QCOM) processor that runs faster than other dual-core Qualcomm chips out there in the market, said Fared Adib, head of product development for Sprint.
The Evo View tablet appeared to be just another Android tablet, along the lines of the new Samsung Galaxy Tabs introduced earlier in the day as well as the currently available Motorola (NYSE: MMI) Xoom. However, it only runs Android 2.3, not the 3.0 Honeycomb release found on the new Galaxy Tabs and the Xoom, and it won’t get 3.0 “until it’s ready,” Adib said without elborating. Sprint and Evo manufacturer HTC also did not release pricing information for the tablet, making it unclear exactly how it stacks up against the competition in the nascent Android tablet market.
Instead, Sprint highlighted the HTC Scribe pen for drawing or taking notes on the tablet. The Evo View is essentially a carbon copy of the HTC Flyer tablet that was introduced at Mobile World Congress for the GSM 3G standard with the Scribe pen, except it will run on Sprint’s network.
]]>The man who has perhaps the most to lose from a combined AT&T (NYSE: T) and T-Mobile—Sprint’s Dan Hesse—was not shy about hinting where he stood. “My opinion doesn’t matter, I think the FCC and the DOJ will have an opinion,” he said, in response to questions from CNBC’s Jim Cramer during the opening session at the CTIA Wireless show. Earlier in the morning, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski made it clear before he launched into a speech about a promising wireless future that he was not going to comment on the deal, which was announced Sunday.
AT&T’s Ralph De La Vega defended it against criticism from consumer advocates and many wireless industry professionals that the combined AT&T/T-Mobile would stifle competitiveness in the industry and harm consumers, lifting many talking points from AT&T’s press release. AT&T says the deal is pro-consumer because it will bring 4G LTE services to 95 percent of Americans and will improve existing service by giving the combined entity more access to spectrum and cell towers, but consumer groups worry that with nearly 80 percent of all wireless customers served by just two companies, prices will inevitably rise and choices could be restricted.
Verizon’s Dan Mead, on the other hand, played it coy, arguing that there’s plenty of innovation in the wireless industry and that Verizon has enough spectrum to meet its needs for the forseeable future. Verizon may be worried that if it goes on record opposing the AT&T deal that itself might have trouble trying to clear future megadeals with the U.S. government.
Mead said his company did not look at acquiring T-Mobile. “We didn’t think there was a need. We’ve been building through a series of great acqusitions and we’re confident in where we’re at for our customers.” Earlier, Mead told Reuters (NYSE: TRI) that his company was likewise not interested in acquiring Sprint (NYSE: S), which quickly became the focus of much speculation about possible Verizon counter-moves.
Aside from talk of the proposed merger—which was all anyone basically wanted to hear—Cramer asked the CEOs about several wide-ranging topics in the wireless industry, such as the need for more spectrum, which was discussed at length by Genachowski in his remarks. Among those topics: metering (Mead is interested, Hesse isn’t sure), poor wireless service (De La Vega said traffic management is the most difficult thing in wireless right now) and whether or not emerging powers like Facebook are friends to the wireless industry (all agreed that anybody who drives a lot of data usage is a friend).
Hesse got off by far the best lines on the panel. At one point, as De La Vega promoted the proposed merger’s potential to bring 4G LTE service to so many Americans, he quipped, “I thought you and T-Mobile had 4G already?” It’s a reference to the ongoing controversy over exactly what constitutes 4G speed, as well as AT&T’s recent practice of advertising and selling phones labeled as 4G that don’t have that capability turned on just yet, as AT&T completes the back-end network rollout needed for those speeds. He also broke into a question from Cramer meant for De La Vega about why mobile phone performance can be spotty, reminding Cramer of his complaints to Mead about the size of his wireless bill: “I thought you had Verizon service.”
]]>If the deal is approved by federal regulators—which could take up to a year—AT&T will become the largest wireless carrier in the U.S., leapfrogging over rival Verizon by adding T-Mobile’s 33.7 million subscribers to reach nearly 130 million wireless subscribers. Verizon currently has about 101 million subscribers.
—AT&T’s next steps: It’s been an open secret in the wireless world for a few months now that T-Mobile’s parent company was considering ways to offload the carrier, but most expected T-Mobile to eventually wind up with Sprint despite network integration issues that could have been messy. By hooking up with AT&T, T-Mobile now plans to pursue the LTE path to the so-called 4G wireless networking era, the companies said in the press release.
In addition to the 33.7 million customers, AT&T will also gain access to T-Mobile’s network of cell sites that could help AT&T improve the coverage of its notoriously flaky network. It will have to do the work to eventually upgrade those sites to the LTE standard, as T-Mobile had declared plans as recently as January’s Consumer Electronics Show to pursue a slightly different path to faster wireless speeds based on the HSPA+ technology. But those plans will now be scrapped, it would appear.
AT&T and T-Mobile’s existing networks are both based on the same standards, and both are in the midst of deploying HSPA+ networks. But AT&T also plans to start rolling out LTE-based networks in the middle of this year, which is also the same standard that Verizon and many other wireless carriers around the world are heading toward. If the world coalesced around LTE, and T-Mobile was unable to build such a network on its own, it might have faced trouble down the road in getting access to the latest and greatest smartphones that would probably debut for the largest volume network technology.
—Solving the spectrum problem: Beyond the alphabet soup that characterizes the wireless industry, however, both companies were also facing potential problems with owning enough wireless spectrum to carry their data traffic over the airwaves. In its press release, AT&T said that based on current growth rates, it was going to exhaust the capacity of its existing spectrum before federal regulators opened up new spectrum to carriers. Buying T-Mobile gives it a way to expand those spectrum holdings in the near-term.
AT&T is clearly already worried about the prospect of having to shepherd the deal through government roadblocks, devoting a sizable portion of its press release to addressing concerns about competitiveness in the wireless market and arguing that the deal will allow the company to bring fast wireless data connections to 95 percent of America. It even cited the plan to merge the two companies as important to achieve President Obama’s recent talk about narrowing the digital divide, which likely had eyes rolling from coast to coast on a Sunday afternoon.
Make no mistake: the ripple effects of this deal will be felt in nearly every corner of the mobile market, should it come to pass. While AT&T claimed in its press release that the wireless market has lots of providers from consumers to chose among, in reality, the best phones and best networks only arrive at the current four major carriers, although Metro PCS and U.S. Cellular are becoming much stronger. With that number now being reduced, competition for the latest and greatest phones—and the seemingly requisite two-year contracts that come along with carrier subsidies—seems likely to increase.
—Who’s the biggest loser? Perhaps the biggest loser from the deal will be Sprint, which now faces an uncertain future as its proposed path to 4G networking—WiMax—is extremely rocky. Clearwire (NSDQ: CLWR), one of Sprint’s major partners on WiMax technology, is in turmoil after several years of losses and a recent shakeup of its executive roster.
With Sprint and Verizon sharing a common 3G network technology, speculation is now likely to turn toward talks of a merger between those two companies. While that would likely meet with as much regulatory resistance as AT&T and T-Mobile’s proposal, it would give Sprint a path out of its 4G conundrum and allow Verizon to add Sprint’s 50 million customers to once again become the nation’s largest carrier.
Much attention will also be paid to how the deal affects prices for wireless service. T-Mobile had been known for a low-price approach to wireless service combined with strong customer support, two areas in which AT&T is not exactly considered a leader. AT&T tried to get out ahead of this potential issue as well in its release, noting that smaller carriers are competing on price and that even with several large mergers over the last decade of the wireless industry, prices declined 50 percent. As they say, however, past performance doesn’t necessarily indicate future results, and AT&T will have to find a way to keep T-Mobile’s cost-conscious customers on board to avoid losing customers to other carriers.
The deal’s announcement comes just days before the CEOs of all four wireless carriers in the U.S.—Ralph De La Vega of AT&T, Dan Hesse of Sprint, Philip Humm of T-Mobile USA, and Dan Mead of Verizon—are scheduled to participate in a panel at the CTIA Wireless conference in Orlando. Tuesday’s discussion (which we will cover) is likely to be much more interesting now given the proposed merger.
Update: Ina Fried reports that T-Mobile has canceled, citing extenuating work demands.”
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]]>The high-level summary is that show delivered as advertised. Conversations were largely about apps (a subject we actively engaged in) and the enterprise (a subject we tried to stay awake for). Two other areas of focus were 4G and the mind-boggling number of Android phones targeting first-time smartphone buyers. We left convinced it will be a white, err…green robot kind of Christmas. Overall, the show felt a little sleepy, and one day we even played hooky to go check out Twitter’s new headquarters.
Slideshow after the jump…
]]>The high-level summary is that show delivered as advertised. Conversations were largely about apps (a subject we actively engaged in) and the enterprise (a subject we tried to stay awake for). Two other areas of focus were 4G and the mind-boggling number of Android phones targeting first-time smartphone buyers. We left convinced it will be a white, err…green robot kind of Christmas. Overall, the show felt a little sleepy, and one day we even played hooky to go check out Twitter’s new headquarters.
Slideshow after the jump…
Native apps vs. web apps: This debate started before the show got started. At a well-attended Mobile Monday event, the question thrown about was whether developers should build applications that are downloaded to the handset, or if everything should be accessed through the browser. After hearing a panel of experts, the consensus in the room by a show of hands was that the browser will dominate in the next three to five years as handsets become more capable and networks carry more bandwidth. The huge benefit being that it will reduce some fragmentation (now synonymous with the “F-word”).
One debate centered around Google (NSDQ: GOOG) Maps. Today, most users access it through the browser on the PC, but on the mobile phone there’s an app for that. Critics argued it should be no different in mobile, but app fans argued the phone is more complicated. Users are accessing location-based data, providing directions and turn-by-turn navigation. Some of these tasks are expected to be addressed in new evolving web standards, like HTML5.
But on a panel I hosted the following at an iHollywood event, the participants felt completely different—and that three to five years is an aggressive estimate. Essentially it came down to the business model: Today, applications are primarily distributed through app stores, which offer consumers an easy way to discover new ones, but also offers businesses a way to monetize their content through easy-to-use billing systems. Opera, which builds browsers for the PC and mobile phone, was all too happy to join the debate. It recognized that there will be a need to monetize content as it shifts from applications to the browser. To that end, it which launched an advertising network to help monetize the mobile web as part of its recent acquisition of Ad Marvel.
Android Fanboys: It wasn’t just the handset makers that were eager to talk about Android phones, it was the carriers—and well, just about anyone. I guess it’s time to root for Windows Phone 7 in order to be a contrarian! The Android developer track was well attended with everyone eager to pick up a T-shirt at the door. One guy even had spooky iridescent green robot sneakers…but truly, the only thing to report about Android is that people were at the show to talk about their apps for the platform, and how many Android handsets they were selling.
The hot commodity at the Samsung booth was the Samsung Galaxy S smartphone line-up, but also the Galaxy Tab, one of the first Android tablets. Sprint (NYSE: S) unveiled three new phones the Samsung Transform ($149), Sanyo Zio ($99) and the LG (SEO: 066570) Optimus ($49). All run the Android OS, and will come with something they call Sprint ID (if you read my story, you learned it is a way to bring branded experiences to the phone for advertising revenues).
Most predominantly, Motorola shamelessly hosted a press conference on the eve of CTIA at the same facilities associated with Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) events, to unveil six Android smartphones—the largest collection it claimed were ever unveiled at one time. To recap, there was the Citrus, Spice, Flipout, Bravo, Defy, and last but not least the Droid Pro. Most of the devices are compact. Some have keyboards. And, all but one are aimed at the low-end of the market, which Motorola (NYSE: MOT) expects to blossom as first-time smartphone users buy devices around the holidays. The one high-end device was the Droid Pro, which is designed to satisfy the demands of the IT department, and therefore target BlackBerry users, leaving no rock unturned.
4G: Verizon Wireless announced that it will soon say when its 4G network will be available, seriously. The network will be available from day one in 38 markets. We heard it first during the keynote when Verizon’s Lowell McAdam said it will unveil six phones and tablets on stage at CES in January with Google’s Eric Schmidt standing by their side (more Android!). Then, we heard about it more at their press conference. And, then we heard about it for a third time during an interview with Verizon’s CTO Tony Melone.
]]>Kuzak offered a few ideas for automobile applications. An app called Driver’s Ed 2.0 could provide alerts about hyperlocal traffic and accident information. It could also alert you about intersections and roads that are particularly dangerous based on accident history. An app called Cloud Parking could find parking spaces, reserve and pay for them. Another app, a social networking one, could let you poll your friends for a restaurant recommendation while on the road, rather than relying on the closest fast food restaurant or relying on Yelp.
Ford has published an SDK that will give developers access to APIs that will let them tailor their smartphone apps for Ford cars with Microsoft’s Sync technology inside. So far, the SDK supports BlackBerry and Android, but it will support the iPhone and Windows Phone 7 soon. Currently, apps like Pandora, Stitcher and OpenBeak have leveraged the APIs with a 1,000 other submissions. More information can be found here.
Kuzak argued that it was a really large opportunity. He said 36 percent of cellphone owners that have apps use them while commuting, and that the typical American spends three hours in a car a day.
The next generation of Ford cars coming out early next year will have technology called My Ford Touch, which includes a touchscreen on the dashboard that can connect to your smartphones. The cars also have SD card slots, USB slots for charging your phone, and the ability to connect a USB Modem to create a Wi-Fi cloud in the car. Kuzak said that the Touch technology will be in 80 percent of its vehicles in the next five years. Kuzak: “I’m looking for a lot of people who don’t know what can’t be done. We need your help, we need your big ideas.”
]]>The process is more than three years in the making. In 2007, it paid $9 billion for then spectrum, and have since been working in close cooperation of LTE infrastructure makers, back-haul providers and device makers. Now, its job is in convincing customers that its worth adopting. We caught up with Verizon Wireless CTO Tony Melone to get the skinny on what to expect when the network lights up later this year.
]]>The process is more than three years in the making. In 2007, it paid $9 billion for then spectrum, and have since been working in close cooperation of LTE infrastructure makers, back-haul providers and device makers. Now, its job is in convincing customers that its worth adopting. We caught up with Verizon Wireless CTO Tony Melone to get the skinny on what to expect when the network lights up later this year.
On providing a broad, ubiquitous experience: We’ve written about the problems of advanced networks before. They can often be unpredictable and full of holes, but Melone says they have taken a different approach and have committed to building out 70 percent of the footprint in each market. “What the customer wants is predictability. When we define a market at a 70 percent minimum, we don’t want any holes.” Generally, he said the rule of thumb is that if there’s 3G cover than there will be 4G, but if there’s conditions they haven’t been able to cover come for 3G, than they won’t have 4G. Otherwise, the core of each market will be built out to the edges minus 30 percent.
On the remaining 30 percent: He said that if they did build out the markets 100 percent, they would have only been able to build 25 instead of 38. In phase two, they’ll add new markets, and expand the 70 percent to 90 percent. “The last 10 percent costs you more than the first 50 percent of a new market,” he said.
Falling back to 3G: Both AT&T (NYSE: T) and T-Mobile USA are boosting their speeds on their 3G networks. Then, when users fall back from 4G to 3G, it won’t be such a long drop. Melone said Verizon’s 3G network today is getting speeds of about 600 kbps to 1.4 mb, vs. the LTE network expects to get an average of 5 to 12 mbps. He said on average it will offer about a 10x speed increase. He admits it is a big drop. “But when you think about what they are doing…Unless they are doing really heavy duty streaming, you don’t need it. 600 kbps would provide excellent coverage…I don’t see that as an issue.”
New services and applications coming: In the future, there will be services and applications that will require the higher speeds, making the drop to 3G more painful. Melone reasons it won’t be an issue: “Once the customer gets used to that, going back to EV-DO—We’ll have two-thirds of the country covered.”
The 3G-4G hand-off: Melone said that users will be able to keep an active data session going—like streaming—when they drop from 4G to 3G, but going back to 4G won’t be as easy. The transition will only take place once the user goes idle.
Early-adopter advantage: Now of these things will really be a problem in the early days when very few devices are loading up the network. In fact, speeds could burst between 40 and 50 mbps. Verizon is expected to join Google’s Eric Schmidt on stage at the consumer electronics show in Las Vegas in January to release six smartphones and tablets using 4G.
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]]>The carrier’s business model was curiously left out of the press conference today. Afterwards, Sprint’s President Steve Elfman explained to mocoNews how it works. “First you buy the data plan, and then we have a revenue share from the ads, he said. “It’s very targeted.”
For example, ESPN (NYSE: DIS) could bundle together a number of apps and then deliver an advertisement for running shoes. An Electronic Arts (NSDQ: ERTS) pack was offering a demo of some of their games, like Tetris, and was also driving traffic to their Facebook and Twitter accounts. Other app packs will be built by strong consumer brands, such as Oprah, Comcast (NSDQ: CMCSA), Disney, MTV, Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO). Sprint will take a share of the revenues from ads and any premium content sold through Sprint ID.
Sprint’s CEO Dan Hesse is also banking on these partners to help sell phones. Hesse likened it to the old MNVO model, in which brands like ESPN and Disney launched their own cellular service. They eventually shut down because the costs were too high to build the phones, package the content and sell it. This will make it much cheaper.
Kevin McGinnis, Sprint’s director of product management, explained that content partners will be able to sell Sprint phones directly to the consumer. In theory that means Disney could promote and sell the Hannah Montana phone on their web site, which is a Sprint phone with a Hannah Montana app pack pre-installed.
On Sunday, two entry-level Android devices are launching with 16 app packs, and a third device will be available on Halloween. But Hesse said he envisions the service being rolled out on all of its phones and tablets, signaling how much money it is putting behind this concept. Sprint is working with Handmark, Motricity and Sapeint to help create applications for partners.
The service will not be without its challenges. The biggest hurdle for Sprint will be in getting attention. Companies are stretched thin as it is to make applications for all the platforms out there—and now, Sprint is creating another layer of fragmentation. McGinnis argued otherwise: “It takes two hours to create a bundle, and all of the applications you include can be distributed to non-Sprint customers in the Android Market.”
It’s also questionable how much the platform simplifies the smartphone experience for the user. Each phone can download up to five app packs. Each app pack has five pages. Simple math shows that users will be managing a total of 25 pages of applications (Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) limits users to 11 pages on the iPhone). It’s also not very easy to toggle between the different packs. In a quick test on a demo device, downloading new packs took a few minutes while toggling between different packs was a fairly slow process.
]]>Sprint’s CEO Dan Hesse walks out on stage to tell us exactly how it intends to solve this problem: Sprint ID. The ID project allows users to have multiple profiles, like one for work and one for play. Content partners include Disney (NYSE: DIS), MTV, Comcast (NSDQ: CMCSA) and eBay (NSDQ: EBAY). Sprint (NYSE: S) is starting off with three handsets, but Hesse said: “We hope that all Sprint devices and tablets will be Sprint ID-enabled.”
]]>Sprint’s CEO Dan Hesse walks out on stage to tell us exactly how it intends to solve this problem: Sprint ID. The ID project allows users to have multiple profiles, like one for work and one for play. Content partners include Disney (NYSE: DIS), MTV, Comcast (NSDQ: CMCSA) and eBay (NSDQ: EBAY). Sprint (NYSE: S) is starting off with three handsets, but Hesse said: “We hope that all Sprint devices and tablets will be Sprint ID-enabled.”
The Sprint ID pack is a little confusing, but it looks like a overlay on top of the Android handset that offers “packs” of packaged information. Comcast is making one with content from E!, and Disney is designing one around ESPN content. There’s several more partners, including LatCel, which will include Hispanic-focused content. Consumers can also make their own packs that are designed around aspects of their own life, like a small business. Each user can have up to five on the handset.
Execs from all the content companies joined the press conference via video to convince us that Sprint ID packs will help consumers discover applications. We’ll get a hands-on demonstration shortly, but at this point, it sounds like another software layer on top of the Android software, much like handset makers and other carriers are creating today. Sprint’s now joining fragmentation party.
At one point in the press conference, Hesse compared the Sprint ID program to the old MVNO model, a scary thought. He argued that brands and content companies can now create tailored experiences for users without all the upfront costs of running your own cellular network and developing your own handsets.
The three phones being unveiled today that will have Sprint ID are the Samsung Transform ($149), Sanyo Zio ($99) and the LG Optimus ($49).
]]>It said the high-speed broadband technology will be live by year-end in 38 markets, including Los Angeles, Chicago, Boston, Seattle, Houston, New Orleans, Tampa and San Jose. It will also be live in 60 airports nationwide. Verizon’s COO Lowell McAdam said the network is only the first step, with about a half-dozen smartphones and tablets coming in the first half of next year. Those devices will be unveiled in January at CES in Las Vegas.
McAdam said in the 38 markets they expect to launch in, they’ll cover roughly 110 million people, which translates to about a 70 percent coverage in these markets. By 2012, it expects to cover 200 million people.
Verizon expects LTE to deliver data rates between five to 12 megabits per second down and two to five megabits up.
In addition, Verizon expects to get help rolling out 4G by collaborating with rural carriers, which can leverage Verizon’s spectrum and scale to buy devices and infrastructure at bulk rates. With their help, Verizon expects to roll out 4G much faster and cheaper than normally expected when a carrier is first to adopt a technology. McAdam: “It’s a win-win collaboration.”
What will consumers do with this network?
McAdam admits the carrier has been the “poster child” for the walled garden, but this time it is going to be open and let others do a lot of the innovation. “I got that. It served the industry pretty well, but in a 4G world, we have to turn the garden model inside out.” Recently, he said a developer told him that the cool innovation will come from the place you least expect it. McAdam joked: “You least expect it from the wireless carriers, so maybe we’ll get a win.”
]]>If this week’s CTIA is any indication, Opera is facing an uphill battle. For instance, the fall show has been renamed CTIA Enterprise and Applications and Apple (NSDQ: AAPL), Android and others have done a good job teaching consumers to download little pieces of software to their phones instead of surfing the web.
To make the mobile web more attractive, Opera Software has announced an Open Mobile Ad Exchange, which allows publishers and advertisers to expand advertising to emerging markets and feature phones, where Opera Mini is the dominant browser. Opera reasons that most of the advertising in data in mobile has been focused on smartphones, and that by building the ad exchange, publishers and advertisers will be able to reach a wider group of individuals. The ad exchange connects to dozens of mobile ad networks worldwide and provides additional information about consumers when they are using the Opera browser.
Opera’s interest in advertising is directly correlated to the app vs. mobile web debate. To date, applications have been relatively easier to monetize because they are distributed through apps stores that have billing systems and advertising platforms in place. Opera’s Co-Founder Jon von Tetzchner told mocoNews “We think the combination of the browser and advertising is very exciting.”
]]>Microsoft’s PR Manager Brian Seitz walked us through three applications that will be available at launch: iheartradio, Lyrics by MusiXMatch and Slacker. While applications, like Slacker and Clear Channel’s iheartradio, have been popular on other phone platforms, the companies took time to make them look appropriate for the Windows platform that stresses big images and fonts that bleed off the screen to hint that there’s more available if you swipe your finger to the right.
In particular, Seitz pointed out the details in the Slacker app that showcases Windows Phone 7’s “paralax effect,” which means that the foreground and background move at different speeds as you swipe left and right.
]]>The most significant of all devices announced today is the Droid Pro, which is clearly going after the BlackBerry segment and will be on sale in the first week of November on Verizon Wireless. Motorola Mobility’s CEO Sanjay Jha, said: “34 percent of BlackBerry users are ready to switch to Android if it supports what the IT department wants. People want to bridge the gap on work and play. Motorola is better for business.”
]]>The most significant of all devices announced today is the Droid Pro, which is clearly going after the BlackBerry segment and will be on sale in the first week of November on Verizon Wireless. Motorola Mobility’s CEO Sanjay Jha, said: “34 percent of BlackBerry users are ready to switch to Android if it supports what the IT department wants. People want to bridge the gap on work and play. Motorola is better for business.”
Motorola claimed that today’s event was the largest swath of Android devices to be announced at one time—and it just might be. For Motorola, which introduced its first Android only a year ago, it’s fairly mind-blowing at how fast the market is moving. In addition to weaseling its way into the enterprise, and being clear about its intention of stealing share away from BlackBerry, Motorola also sees an opportunity in the low-end of the market. That trend is also being complemented by tiered data plans, which are bringing down the entry price points.
Motorola didn’t break any big technological ground today, other than the enhanced security features on the Droid Pro. While the early adopters out there might be disappointed, it might have just caught the eye of the connected soccer moms and clumsy teenagers. Here’s a taste of how the Motorola’s portfolio is breaking down:
—Motorola Citrus: A low-end device that will be available on Verizon Wireless later this year.
—Motorola Spice: The phone is like the Citrus, but has a full keyboard. It comes with a service called “Flashback,” which allows you to gimpse all of your activities from one day—text, emails, pictures, etc. It will be available first in Latin America.
—Motorola Flipout: Will be available on the AT&T (NYSE: T) network and is aimed at a small business owner. It has full horizontal slide keyboard and will be available on AT&T with Motoblur.
—Motorola Bravo: The device has a big screen but is still really compact. Will be available on the AT&T network.
—Motorola Defy is the a compact 3.7 inch device that is water resistant, dust proof and scratch resistant, otherwise called “life proof.” Available on T-Mobile USA.
—Droid Pro: The phone will work on both CDMA and GSM markets and is targeted to enterprise users with the full Qwerty keyboard and the additional security features that will satisfy the demands of the IT department.
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