AT&T’s report on earnings reinforced some structural changes in the industry that Verizon’s report had already suggested. One basic truth is that mobile services are more profitable and more fertile areas for growth than wireline. Another is that mobile service gains and ARPU both depend substantially on broadband and smartphones rather than on voice services. …
Earnings season is underway, and I think it’s clear that the results are generally positive and probably more so than expected. That raises again the possibility that the recovery is proceeding more quickly than economists expected, and another sign that may be true is that the major parties in the US now seem to be…
The shape of the networking industry has long been determined by forces on the outside in what could be called the “on-net” space, and two powerful players there are undergoing management transitions. Apple is losing (at least temporarily, though we hear management expects Jobs’ departure to be permanent) its charismatic CEO and Google is switching…
Cisco took what could be a giant step for itself at CES with its new video ecosystem. Called Videoscape, it combines in-home tools and software to centralize the mediation and management of video relationships, creating what’s probably the most architected video service layer available to network operators today. Since Cisco was already doing well in…
There’s more good economic news this morning; ADP’s private payrolls report gained the largest number of jobs in its history, which strongly suggests that hiring may be coming back. You may recall that our forecast for unemployment for 2011 was considerably more optimistic than the official one, and I’m hopeful that the ADP data is…
The kick-off of the Consumer Electronics Show this year may be more meaningful for tech than usual because it’s a barometer of some critical market dynamics. Tablets are set to take the hot seat at the show, even though (as usual) Apple isn’t attending. The big question in my view is less whether we’ll see…
The new year is always a time of perceived change, though of course the simple transition between two calendar dates doesn’t drive change itself. Rather than talk about the coming year in general (which I’ve done in our Annual Technology Forecast issue for Netwatcher in any event), I’ll focus here on the immediate “changes” the…
I had a chance to review the full text of the FCC’s Net Neutrality Order (10-201 if you’re into the FCC’s numbering system) and there were no real surprises in the material versus the commentary that was provided in the public meeting. I’m still concerned that the FCC hasn’t created a solid legal foundation for…
At CES, Microsoft will confront a demon that’s been haunting it from the early ‘90s, and how it does that will likely have a major impact on the future of the company and of Windows and its ecosystem. The demon is the GUI. Most OSs can be visualized as a kernel and a shell, with…
The FCC’s neutrality vote went as expected, with commentary by various people involved in the process, including the Commissioners. I found a lot that I agreed with, but I disagreed with at least some of what virtually everyone said. It’s not a disappointing order, though I’m sure that most will characterize it that way. The…