Tuesday, October 23, 2012

iPad Mini will change retail forever

Apple today released the new iPad Mini as well as an updated version of the iPad with Retina display (iPad4).

We have already started to see innovative retail use of the larger iPad both in large scale deployments within major corporations as well as within small businesses, but I think that the new iPad Mini is going to be the accelerant that will make these kind of deployments ignite everywhere.

iPad4 and iPad Mini today, iPhone6 and iPhone Mini this spring?

When Apple today released an updated iPad4 and an all-new iPad Mini, halfway into their normal release cycle for iPad, one has to wonder, what else do they have in store?

While this most likely was the last major announcement from Apple this year, at least regarding hardware products, it is not impossible that they would shift the release cycle for other products during the spring season.

Sunday, October 21, 2012

Mobile device data growth is slowing down, fast!

According to this GigaOM article, recent data points to a rapid slowdown in mobile device data consumption growth, challenging the idea that the rapid data consumption growth will continue forever.

While this may be good news to wireless carriers, it does question whether there really is a spectrum crisis, and whether the wireless carriers really need all that future spectrum they have been demanding. This has been questioned in the past but this is one of the first time we have seen data that appear to confirm that the data growth may not be permanent or at least hitting a plateau at the moment.

Saturday, October 20, 2012

What led Nokia to abandon MeeGo for Windows Phone?

I recently read this great article about what was going on inside Nokia before the decision to abandon MeeGo as the future OS and instead partnering with Microsoft and their Windows Phone OS.

The article is a translation of an article by Finnish publication Taskumuro which have interviewed a bunch of people with inside knowledge on what happened.

Friday, October 19, 2012

Nokia is more focused on ecosystem growth than WP8 competition

Nokia CEO Stephen Elop recently said on an investor call that Nokia is not worried by potential competition from partner Microsoft if they would release a "Surface Phone". Elop said that this could instead be a boost to the WP8 device ecosystem.

Apparently Elop said "We're encouraging of HTC and Samsung and Microsoft to have devices in the market and to be making whatever investments that helps spur the ecosystem on".

Friday, October 12, 2012

Sprint buying merged T-Mobile & MetroPCS?

Lately there has been rumors that Sprint is considering placing a bid for MetroPCS that would compete with the already announced merger between MetroPCS and T-Mobile. On top of that, rumors have circulated that Sprint may even consider making a bid for the merged entity of T-Mobile and MetroPCS.

I say, don't hold your breath.

Verizon, why wait ten years?

Verizon Wireless recently announced that they estimate to keep their CDMA 3G network alive for another ten years before shutting it down. At the same time they expect to have full LTE 4G coverage by the end of next year.

Why wait another ten years to shut down a network which is based on an already largely obsolete technology?

Friday, October 5, 2012

The solution to Sprint spectrum woes is not a bidding war over Metro PCS

After the announcement that T-Mobile is buying Metro PCS there has been rumors and speculation that Sprint is considering a counter bid to avoid being left out of the final stages of market consolidation.

If these rumors are true, they on the one hand point to another missed opportunity by Sprint, but on the other hand a lucky escape, it all depends on what the motivations behind going after Metro PCS would be.

Thursday, October 4, 2012

Peace between carriers and OTT players?

A recent study by Amdocs appear to hint at the possibility of a peace between wireless carriers and OTT players (like WhatsApp etc). The study has surveyed wireless carriers and OTT players about their sentiments towards collaboration and other related issues.

Not surprisingly, wireless carriers are to a large degree willing to see OTT companies as potential partners but equally unsurprising, the carriers have no plans of ceding the customer relationship to the OTT companies.

Wednesday, October 3, 2012

Clearwire is up for grabs.

T-Mobile and Metro PCS today announced their merger and in related news, gaining less attention, Comcast announced that they were jumping ship from Clearwire after last months announcement that fellow cable operator Time Warner Cable was doing the same.

While some people probably see this as reflecting poorly on Clearwire, I would say that there are two major forces at play here.

T-Mobile and Metro PCS. Why Yes!

In May I wrote this post about why T-Mobile and Metro PCS should not hesitate to merge and not be too discouraged by the failed Sprint and Nextel merger. Today the companies finally announced their merger.

As expected, T-Mobile and Metro PCS have chosen a much more agressive merger time table than Sprint did. But in all fairness, T-Mobile and Metro PCS has an "escape route" in their common use of LTE as their 4G standard. This will make it possible to merge their networks in an efficient way and quickly shut down the Metro PCS legacy CDMA network. For Sprint and Nextel, there was no such common path forward which complicated matters in addition to management problems.