A couple of talks at MWC may be signs of important future trends in mobile and online. AT&T CEO Stephenson said that the difficulties in moving content between devices, was hampering mobile content opportunity. He also commented that AT&T believed that apps should run across devices, not be linked to a single gadget. While at…
As MWC unfolds, we’re starting to get a clearer picture of the thrust of the event and also some feedback from operators on their specific take-aways. The picture isn’t simple, but it’s interesting! Microsoft has said more about its Phone 7 plans, no doubt to take some pressure off new partner Nokia. The new software…
As Mobile World Congress opens this year, it’s already clear that we’re going to see a battle of relevance as much as one of technology. Network equipment vendors divide roughly into two groups; those who have wireless 4G assets and those who don’t. The former group has a direct link to wireless projects and investment,…
“Half a loaf is better than none” is an old saw, but it sure seems to describe the newest mobile development—the Microsoft/Nokia pact. The pact is being hailed and panned depending on perspectives, but maybe it deserves it because it’s not the whole solution for either party. Both probably know that, and are gambling that…
Cisco’s numbers were a big disappointment to investors, and they focused on two issues that are in fact the key ones for Cisco (and the market) at this point. First, Cisco’s gross margins were off, and that’s likely due to discounting forced on Cisco by competition. Second, Cisco suffered in the critical switching space, the…
We’re continuing to see parallels between the world overall and the world of technology; between global economic issues and tech issues. It’s so logical (the parts conform, after all, to the Model of the Whole) that you have to wonder if it’s an accident! Egypt is proving that online social network services can build a…
Cost matters, and nowhere is that more true than in telecom, and in mobile broadband in particular. Operators are trying to manage what’s clearly a decisive shift of their own revenue/profit potential from wireline to mobile, and to manage the cost of creating and sustaining customers and ARPU. One of the key elements in this…
There are some new indications that the momentum of the web is shifting more decisively toward content, but not in the simplistic “content is king” sense. What’s happening is a combination of fairly complicated and interrelated shifts, and these are gradually changing the way the online business model works. How that will impact the online…
One of the issues that now face the networking market is the fate of Nokia, the once-giant smartphone and networking company that has seemed to stumble in every market race for the last couple of years. There have been all manner of analyses of why this has happened, but they’ve all (in my opinion at…
News Corp has finally launched it’s iPad-paper, The Daily, but it’s obviously way too soon to know whether the experiment in a newspaper that’s neither printed nor online, but instead is appliance-targeted, will work. The price is lower than that of print news to be sure, but at $40 a year it’s still more than…