MacBook Air: Heart or Head?

Posted by Wireless Mobility Blog on January 31st, 2008
There has been time now for industry analysts to really take a good look at Apple’s new MacBook Air laptop computer. The initial infatuation with the world’s thinnest laptop has worn off, and some people are now willing to note its drawbacks as well as its advantages.
 
For example, BusinessWeek reporter Stephen Wildstrom said that MacBook Air “set off an intense struggle” between his heart and his head. On the heart side: this computer is really sexy, one might even say a work of art. It also crams more into a very slim package than probably seemed possible before Steve Jobs’ latest Macworld keynote.
 
But, on the head side, Wildstrom said his practical, business-oriented self thinks the lack of built-in disc drive, Ethernet port and broadband card slot could be deal-breaker. He pointed out, for example, that WiFi (which is built into the MacBook Air) is not ubiquitous in places like hotel rooms, requiring the business user to hook up an external Ethernet port for Internet connectivity.
 
For the small subset of users who put a premium on mobility, Wildstrom said, the inability to swap out the battery also poses a problem; he said he got four hours of heavy use on a single charge, but when traveling there are times when he needs more than that.
 
“Ultimately, the Air presents potential buyers with a tough choice,” Wildstrom wrote in the Newsweek report. “It is lovely to look at and delightful to hold. The screen may be the best I've seen, and the keyboard is better than the MacBook Pro's. Even after prolonged use, the case stays fairly cool to the touch. Against that, you need to weigh the inconvenience caused by all the things Apple chose to leave out. The product might not have been quite as smooth and shiny with these elements, but it would have had greater rational, as well as emotional, appeal.”
 
What do you think—is the MacBook Air more appealing to the heart or the head? I’d be willing to bet the answer depends on where and how you might plan to use this new laptop.

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700MHz Spectrum Auction Update: D Block Floundering

Posted by Wireless Mobility Blog on January 30th, 2008
As of Tuesday, the FCC had conducted 12 rounds of bidding for sections of the 700MHz spectrum, over a span of four days. But one of the blocks up for bid isn’t garnering much interest among potential buyers, Reuters reported.
 
That is “Block D,” also known as the “public safety block” because it’s designated for use by police, firefighters and other public saftery officials, Reuters reported. So far there has only been one bid for this block—for $472 million, far below the FCC’s reserve price of $1.3 million.
 
If things don’t pick up soon for the D block, the FCC may be forced to modify its requirements for the spectrum and/or lower the price. Reuters speculated that the dearth of bidders may be due to the credit crunch companies in the U.S. are experiencing; possibly they simply can’t raise the capital.
 
Current requirements for the D block also likely make it less appealing in terms of return on investment: “Under rules adopted by the FCC, the winner of the D block airwaves will be required to negotiate an agreement with public safety agencies, build out a nationwide network and then give those agencies priority use during emergencies,” Reuters explained.
 
What do you think—will someone step in yet to rescue the D block? Or will the FCC have to change its expectations for this section of the spectrum?

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Google Bullish On Mobile Advertising?Really?

Posted by kperkins on January 25th, 2008

Google Stock Dive
In reading an article about Google becoming bullish on mobile advertising, the quote from their CEO that I find interesting is that they’re about to unleash a “huge revolution” in mobile advertising… and that it will “likely happen next year.”

Wow, that sounds more like “evolution” than “revolution”. It’s funny: the bigger Google gets, the more they do “hey, we’re coming out with something in a year” in order to keep Wall Street interested. Given that the market tanked this last week, and they’ve gone from a high of ~$750/share down to ~$550/share in a matter of two months… they’re gonna have to come up with something a little better than “we’re about to revolutionize mobile”. They might have done that on the desktop with search. But they’re a far cry from every operator on the planet using them (and their ads). If anything, Yahoo!–with as many deals as they have tied up already with operators–has certainly demonstrated revolution more than Google has in the mobile space. (gulp)

Another POV:

Posted by Kevin Perkins

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700MHz Auction: Will Google Rescue Open Access?

Posted by Wireless Mobility Blog on January 24th, 2008
So, with the FCC’s 700MHz spectrum auction underway, the $4.6 billion question is: will Google come to the rescue of open access or not? If the company bids more than the $4.6 billion reserve (minimum) price specified for the C Block of spectrum to be licensed as “open,” then the consumer advocacy groups and some analysts will be pretty happy.
 
Of course if Google does bid that much, it’s possible the company may actually go all the way and win the spectrum itself. Or not. The outcome will either paint Google as the knight in shining armor or as a company determined to really shake up the wireless market.
 
Which do you think it will be?

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InfoWorld: 700MHz Auction Could End ‘Disastrously’

Posted by Wireless Mobility Blog on January 23rd, 2008
700Mhz auction. Does that get your heart racing? It isn’t garnering nearly the same level of excitement as, say, Apple releasing a new product. But the FCC’s auction, set to begin tomorrow, nonetheless is setting off some chatter in the wireless industry.
 
Whether or not the impact of the auction ends up, on balance, having a negative or positive effect remains to be seen—and likely depends a lot on where you’re sitting. For example, an InfoWorld report today warned that this particular auction may very well be similar in its impact to the “disastrous 1996 C-Block PCS auction,” yet that isn’t deterring companies that plan to bid.
 
“Like the earlier auction, the 700MHz auction is set to occur in a faltering economy, presenting challenges to license hopefuls needing cash,” InfoWorld said in its report. “Yet, just like that ill-fated auction more than 10 years ago, an oddball collection of participants plan to bid, this time including the Missouri Farmers' Union, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn, and Disney.”
 
Why was the C-Block auction in 1996 “disastrous”? InfoWorld said: “because it was designed not just for companies with access to billions of dollars but for entrepreneurs interested in getting into the wireless industry. Postal carriers, lawyers, and doctors quit their day jobs and invested their savings, confident that U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) incentives would help them make it big.”
 
Out of an original 255 bidders in the 1996 auction, InfoWorld said, 89 won licenses and only a handful went on to start actual businesses. All the rest went bankrupt, sold their licenses at significant losses, or returned the licenses to the FCC as part of an amnesty program.
 
What do you think—will the 700MHz auction be a repeat, with many disappointed gold-diggers in the end losing more than they invest? Or something entirely different?

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In-Sta: Revenue Growth for Mobile Business Apps to Slow Somewhat in 2008

Posted by Wireless Mobility Blog on January 18th, 2008
Wireless service providers may need to engage in some reality-checking during 2008 when it comes to projected versus actual revenue growth associated with mobile business applications. That’s what In-Stat predicted this week in a new report, Wireless Data in the US Enterprise 2007: Avoiding a CDPD Reprise.
 
The research firm expects revenue growth for this particular wireless sector will end up being about 44 percent from 2007 to 2008, down slightly from 50 percent for 2006 and 2007. Why the slight downturn? In-Stat chalked it up to the services companies actually implement, which tend to be somewhat reduced from plans made by decision-makers.
 
“As business users approach saturation for horizontal mobile data applications, most of the growth potential remains for vertical market applications,” In-Stat analyst Bill Hughes said in the report. “These require more planning and time to implement. The result is that many within the wireless industry may have overoptimistic forecasts.”  
 
In terms of horizontal applications, In-Stat said the following four have the highest penetration because they’re relatively easy to implement: wireless Internet, wireless IM, wireless e-mail and personal information management (PIM).
 
What do you think—are service providers expecting too much from an increasingly saturated market?

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Macworld Keynote Recap So Far

Posted by Wireless Mobility Blog on January 15th, 2008
As I write this, Steve Jobs has been keynoting for nearly two hours and it appears most of the surprises are out of the bag at this point. I’m sure everyone out there is busy refreshing real-time blogs from Macworld, Engadget and the like. So here’s a very short and sweet recap of what Apple announced today so far:
 
1. Almost 20 percent of the Apple OS installed base has upgraded to Leopard. Five million copies sold in the first three months of launch.
 
2. Time Capsule is essentially Time Machine on steroids: an AirPort Extreme base station and hard-drive combined into one unit. This allows Mac users to backup all their machines, wirelessly, to one central location.
 
3. Apple has sold four million iPhones to date, and as of 3Q07 end the device held almost 20 percent (precisely 19.5 percent) of the U.S. smartphone market.
 
4. New features for iPhone, including maps “with location” and ability to SMS multiple people at the same time.
 
5. iPhone updates (mail, maps, stocks, notes, weather enhancements) available in iPod Touch for $20 upgrade.
 
6. Movie rentals through iTunes. Studios on board: Touchstone, MGM, Miramax, New Line, Lions Gate, WB, Fox, Paramount, Disney, Universal, New Line, Sony. Rentals are $2.99 for library titles, $3.99 for new releases. Prices for HD rentals are slightly higher: $3.99 and $4.99 respectively.
 
7. Apple TV 2 (free software upgrade): syncs with computer, but no computer is required; you can rent movies straight from your TV.
 
8. MacBook Air is the major new gadget from Apple: it’s a laptop thin enough to fit into a manila envelope. Its wedge-shaped, 0.16 at its thinnest part. Includes 13.3” widescreen LED-backlit display, built-in iSight camera, full-size keyboard, and multi-touch gesture support on its trackpad. The 80GB hard drive is 1.8” with option for 64GB solid-state disk. 1.6GHz standard, option for 1.8GHz. Five hours of battery life. $1,799, ships in two weeks (can pre-order today).
 
That’s the recap so far. Let the analysis begin!

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Texting for Takeout Food: Let Your Fingers Do the Ordering

Posted by Wireless Mobility Blog on January 14th, 2008
As if ordering delivery take-out food wasn’t already easy enough, USA Today recently reported that soon it may no longer be necessary to even talk to another person on the phone to put in your order. That’s because text ordering is being adopted by more and more national fast-food and other restaurant chains, allowing users to send their requests for sustenance via a cell phone.
 
Among the chains now offering or looking into offering text ordering: Papa John’s (national TV spots now promote the service), Domino’s (launched last July), Pizza Hut (soon to get started), Quiznos (considering), Dunkin’ Donuts (considering), Subway (considering), McDonald’s (testing in Seoul), and Starbucks (trial underway in London and in one U.S. store).
 
The USA Today report quoted Papa John’s CEO Nigel Travis as saying that the potential of texting can be compared to online ordering, which currently accounts for 20 percent of the company’s sales. (He went on to predict that, within two years, texting will account for 3 percent of sales.)
 
Americans send about 30 billion text messages each month, USA Today noted. GoMoboo.com CEO Noah Glass was quoted in the report as predicting that texting very well might account for 25 percent of all takeout food orders by the time another decade is gone.
 
Not everyone is thrilled about using cell phones to text in takeout orders, though; some users are concerned about privacy. For example, one user quoted in the USA Today report said he guards his cell phone number carefully, describing it as “the last firewall of privacy.” Giving it to a national restaurant chain in the process of placing an order could be in invitation to unwanted calls, he implied.
 
What do you think—do the benefits of text ordering outweigh the potential privacy breaches?

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Radar from Tiny Pictures Enables Free Photo and Video Sharing

Posted by Wireless Mobility Blog on January 10th, 2008
The other day, a rep from Tiny Pictures, which makes software solutions for mobile devices, got in touch to tell me about Radar. She explained that Radar is a free service that lets mobile phone users share camera phone pictures, videos and attached comments with friends and family. She described the service as a “real time conversation—letting you show the funny, nutty, interesting things that happen to you.”
 
The capabilities of Radar include a private “channel” and Web address to protect your privacy, allowing only invited friends to see the content you’ve chosen to share. Friends can then comment, either privately or publicly.
 
Radar reportedly works with most cameraphones (compatible with more than 225 devices) including iPhone, BlackBerry and smartphones running Windows Mobile.
 
Seems like a cool idea. If you try Radar, let me know how you like it.

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Texting the Screen During New Year

Posted by Wireless Mobility Blog on January 2nd, 2008
Yours truly braved the crowds this year to attend the New Year’s celebrations in Times Square. It was a long day—my companions and I arrived in the city about 11:30, and were in position with a great view of the ball by about 2:00. It was a long wait; you try standing in the same place for ten hours and you’ll understand why everyone was cheering at midnight: the ordeal was over, we could all go home.
 
One of the things that kept the crowd on my side of the street (we were next to the MTV building) entertained was an MTV-sponsored giant screen on which were displayed text messages from people standing on the street. Mobile phone users simply typed in a special code, and whatever username they wanted displayed, then their message. A few minutes later—voila! There it was for thousands of people to read.
 
Here’s a wideshot of the screen, with surrounding buildings and the crowd across the street from where I was standing, contained by concrete barriers.
 
 
The text message screen became a way for strangers in a massive crowd to converse with each other. The messages, some in response to MTV-planted questions, included your standard debates about which was the best sports team, what people resolved to do in 2008, how tired people were of standing there, and way too many instances of “Welcome to the party.”
 
Here’s a sampling of the messages.
 
 
In my opinion, the text screen was a brilliant idea that gave an otherwise restless crowd something to do for long stretches of time.
 
Were you in Times Square on New Year’s Eve? Happy New Year!

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