Carl Ford
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Emerging Technology
Niklas and Janus Jolts Ebay WTF?
September 15, 2009
Many of us believed that the acquistion of Paradial would have been appropriate. It maybe that Paradial represents some prior art of value in the patent licensing.
Testing a Big Question for 'Open' 4G Devices
September 3, 2009There was a little cold-water type reality splashed on the audience at the morning panels here Thursday at the 4GWE conference, specifically around the notion of 4G network and device testing -- a relatively non-sexy topic that may nevertheless slow down the delivery of all the new devices promised for the 4G networks of the future.
The problem, as outlined by the panelists, is that with the increased bandwidth and increased functionality of the mobile devices of the future comes exponential requirements for testing to make sure the devices and the applications residing on them work as promised.
There was some deep-dive material that we're not going to get into right now (check this space for an update when we post the panel presentations) but on a simpler plane panelists like David Gehringer, VP of marketing for Fanfare Software, noted that things like the IEEE standards, say for mobile WiMAX, are really just the starting point for delivering a working device.
"It's nice to have a standard, but it's really just the ante," Gehringer said. After you meet the baseline standard specs, he said, "then the real testing starts."
Fanny Mlinarsky, president of octoScope, said that in the past testing mobile devices was relatively simple, since they typically only had one radio inside. Now, multiple radios -- different cellular bands, as well as Wi-Fi and Bluetooth -- are a given, as are multiple applications, sometimes from third parties outside the carrier's own operations.
The complexity, she said, makes testing devices a much harder task these days. Even Apple's iPhone, which all panelists agreed was an extremely well-tested device from the manufacturer's standpoint, has attracted a wide range of add-on applications, some of which perform better than others -- especially when it comes to battery usage.
"That's why iPhone users stay close to the power plug," Mlinarsky said.
Thats a lot of Stimulus
August 27, 2009Over 2,200 Applications
Over 25 B Requested (4 B has been Allocated)
WASHINGTON- The Commerce Department's National Telecommunications
and Information Administration (NTIA) and the Department of Agriculture's
Rural Utilities Service (RUS) announced today that they received almost 2,200
applications requesting nearly $28 billion in funding for proposed broadband
projects reaching all 50 U.S. states and territories and the District of Columbia.
This is the first round of American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funding
aimed at expanding broadband access and adoption to help bridge the
technological divide and create jobs building Internet infrastructure, with $4
billion available through loans, grants, and loan/grant combinations.
The Recovery Act provided a total of $7.2 billion to NTIA and RUS to expand
access to and adoption of broadband services. Of that funding, NTIA will utilize
$4.7 billion to deploy broadband infrastructure in unserved and underserved areas
in the United States, expand public computer center capacity, and encourage
sustainable adoption of broadband service.
No Degrees of Separation: SMS vs. Mobile IM
August 27, 2009
Some good friends and I keep a dialogue going about the industry. We don't make public our views, so as to protect the people from being exposed with their views versus their consulting / job opportunities.
A thread that I thought was intriguing was about the reason SMS / txting has not been successfully bypassed by IM. It may be that the price is right to avoid the cross elastics.
But I think there is a simpler answer. Signalling on IM on a mobile phone requires a learning curve and a redirection, while texting is via SMS is an embedded application. So the cost to do the IM is in the time, and the cost to do the SMS is nominal.
I bring this up, because of the discussion about Apple's iPhone coming to China. In the article IDC states that about 7% of the iPhone market share is in Asia. Previously, I have pointed out that Telefonica has not gotten the boost ATT has from the iPhone.
I think China Unicom will have a big enough market that the opportunity itself will change the marketshare. While Touchscreens are hot according to the article and my expectation is that will point to more gaming being done and less phone calls.
The reality is that Kanji characters are very easily navigated by the Asian market with alphabetic keyboards. Spelling phonetically on the alpha the kanji characters appear on the screen until the option of four or five appears and bingo they mouse over to it.
It will be interesting to see if the that kind of a mix on a touch screen can be duplicated. On my gPhone, this feature is less that spectacular for english, so the touch screens may be need to go through a few generations of optimization for this to work properly.
But the iPhone is to fun not to be bought and with China's software development capability, I have high expectations for the App Store, although it may be jointly owned with China Unicom in the end due to China's restrictions.
A thread that I thought was intriguing was about the reason SMS / txting has not been successfully bypassed by IM. It may be that the price is right to avoid the cross elastics.
But I think there is a simpler answer. Signalling on IM on a mobile phone requires a learning curve and a redirection, while texting is via SMS is an embedded application. So the cost to do the IM is in the time, and the cost to do the SMS is nominal.
I bring this up, because of the discussion about Apple's iPhone coming to China. In the article IDC states that about 7% of the iPhone market share is in Asia. Previously, I have pointed out that Telefonica has not gotten the boost ATT has from the iPhone.
I think China Unicom will have a big enough market that the opportunity itself will change the marketshare. While Touchscreens are hot according to the article and my expectation is that will point to more gaming being done and less phone calls.
The reality is that Kanji characters are very easily navigated by the Asian market with alphabetic keyboards. Spelling phonetically on the alpha the kanji characters appear on the screen until the option of four or five appears and bingo they mouse over to it.
It will be interesting to see if the that kind of a mix on a touch screen can be duplicated. On my gPhone, this feature is less that spectacular for english, so the touch screens may be need to go through a few generations of optimization for this to work properly.
But the iPhone is to fun not to be bought and with China's software development capability, I have high expectations for the App Store, although it may be jointly owned with China Unicom in the end due to China's restrictions.
BTOP Reviewer Training This Week
August 25, 2009In this time of need for so many Americans, thank you so much for taking a moment to consider how you might help President Obama and your Federal Government deliver on the promise of economic recovery through the Recovery Act's Broadband Technology Opportunities Program and Broadband Initiatives Program.
We need the help of experienced professionals like you to ensure the success of the BTOP grant program by lending some of your valuable hours to helping review the many applications we expect to receive over the coming months for broadband grant funding. To be considered as a reviewer you must have significant expertise and experience in at least one of the following areas:
1) the design, funding, construction, and operation of broadband networks or public computer centers;
The War is Still a Skirmish amongst Giants:
August 19, 2009
Andy Abramson sent me a note about the Truphone announcement regarding an iPhone bug. It is not that Apple targeted Truphone its just a bug. Here is the post,
Apple iPhone Bug Isn't Truphone's Problem
Apple iPhone Bug Isn't Truphone's Problem
I'm posting is a Public Service Announcement but also since Truphone is my agency's client we felt the important thing to do is get the right information out as far and wide as possible.
This afternoon this afternoon Truphone sent an emailout to its customers explaining that Truphone knows of a bug issue with the Apple iPhone that has existed since the launch of the 3.0 OS in June 2009.The issue has been widely reported on sites including Mobile Crunch and theiphoneblog. The problem, as was outlined in the email, impacts all applications on a the iPhone, not just the Truphone application.
I can't be the only one suffering! Address Book MisManagement
August 13, 2009
As a bell head the concept of state was indoctrinated into me. I am not sure if this was through Osmosis, the continue using of the Bell System Practice as a head rest, or the "My Network" mentality.
Today the peers run rampant on my machine. I get a .vcf file or an AIM message and you would think I was dealing with the bankers of the old lending tree add. (I would use the old WaMu ad but the bankers were all clustered in those ads).
Particularly annoying right now is Plaxo. Which seems to have lost its state awareness on the fact that I downloaded the integrated app to my address book and yet everytime i get a .vcf pops up again.
Other nonsense includes the ability to take from Google but not push to Google. (Not sure why Google has not taken this problem on themselves).
The continual facebook loss of my password (and my mistrust of anything that claims to be facebook).
And of course my Apple Time Machine, that has decided I have to reinput all my license keys after the fiasco of the stolen machine.
I want control of my identity and I want control of the identity systems independent of software packages.
I thought the data portability group was going to bring me something to this end, but they seem to have other issues that motivate them. OpenID in theory should be this, but so far the services seem to have more control than the users.
I think this should all be linked to a presence enginge managing presentity with a key chain to my devices. I have not seen anything like this as independent service, but maybe I am wrong.
Today the peers run rampant on my machine. I get a .vcf file or an AIM message and you would think I was dealing with the bankers of the old lending tree add. (I would use the old WaMu ad but the bankers were all clustered in those ads).
Particularly annoying right now is Plaxo. Which seems to have lost its state awareness on the fact that I downloaded the integrated app to my address book and yet everytime i get a .vcf pops up again.
Other nonsense includes the ability to take from Google but not push to Google. (Not sure why Google has not taken this problem on themselves).
The continual facebook loss of my password (and my mistrust of anything that claims to be facebook).
And of course my Apple Time Machine, that has decided I have to reinput all my license keys after the fiasco of the stolen machine.
I want control of my identity and I want control of the identity systems independent of software packages.
I thought the data portability group was going to bring me something to this end, but they seem to have other issues that motivate them. OpenID in theory should be this, but so far the services seem to have more control than the users.
I think this should all be linked to a presence enginge managing presentity with a key chain to my devices. I have not seen anything like this as independent service, but maybe I am wrong.
XG Technology: Building for the Broadband Experience
August 12, 2009
XG Technology has been driving the next generation of wireless services and is now on the brink of a roll out that will enable the service provider to be both Internet and voice friendly. While other companies are now ignoring the voice to develop data services on their voice network. xG has developed their voice strategies based on the wireless network they run IP over. WIth layer 2 optimization xG is designed to support the end points. The commercial release of their products are sold under the brand xMAX.
Recently they announced they were participating with the Stimulus with services they are building for Townes Tele-communications
XGTechnologyFrankPeake.mp3.
Frank Peake and Shaski G joins us in a discussion about xG's latest advances and the opportunities in the market today.
Recently they announced they were participating with the Stimulus with services they are building for Townes Tele-communications
XGTechnologyFrankPeake.mp3.
Frank Peake and Shaski G joins us in a discussion about xG's latest advances and the opportunities in the market today.
How Close is the Future: Verizon
August 11, 2009
Today's Wall Street Journal has an article about the deals Ivan Seidenberg has made as the head of Verizon, while the deals have been great for the corporate coffers, the stockholders and the buyers of the assets of Idearc, FarPoint and the Carlyle Group have suffered.
In some ways you can think of Verizon as the Carrier's version of General Electric with the same mantra of "if you can not be number 1 in a business get out of it."
Verizon has also managed to shed personnel in the deals making it a kind of force reduction solution, (we could look at this as the anti-matter to Cisco's acquire the company for the talent strategy).
At the heart of Verizon we can see one major goal enabling HD Video. Its true for their FIOS vision, and its true for their LTE vision at Verizon Wireless.
So how are they doing at delivering on this vision? And how many iterations does it take to get it right? FIOS is now starting to be talked about favorably by friends that have it. That future point that Verizon aimed for of the three HD TVs per home watching a game has arrived.
For Verizon Wireless, that vision is still to be delivered upon, the MediaFlo and VCast promise is in transition.
At their developer's conference you heard the message of Video as the future. Yes they want applications, but they want to be the screen you look at, more than the headset you speak into. This is the vision of FIOS, and its probably even a more illuminated vision for Verizon Wireless with LTE.
Think of the Term FIOS. As a techie I see the IOS and think of Cisco's Internetwork Operating System attached to the word Fiber. Its about the delivery of services via glass that was probably the vision being shared by the techies before the marketing took over.
Likewise at VDC, Verizon Wireless was promoting the Wireless equivalent. Roger Gurnani stated that the Network API they were promoting was just the beginning. They have an idea of where they want to be in the future, now the question is how fast can they get there?
The cash cows that have been sold seem to have lost their productive years based on their filing for bankruptcy. If you are making a deal with Verizon here is the caveat emptor, the asset they are selling probably does not fit into their vision of the future, so you may be paying a premium and should ask yourself what is your vision of the future. You better have a vision that goes beyond the dairy.
Verizon does.
In some ways you can think of Verizon as the Carrier's version of General Electric with the same mantra of "if you can not be number 1 in a business get out of it."
Verizon has also managed to shed personnel in the deals making it a kind of force reduction solution, (we could look at this as the anti-matter to Cisco's acquire the company for the talent strategy).
At the heart of Verizon we can see one major goal enabling HD Video. Its true for their FIOS vision, and its true for their LTE vision at Verizon Wireless.
So how are they doing at delivering on this vision? And how many iterations does it take to get it right? FIOS is now starting to be talked about favorably by friends that have it. That future point that Verizon aimed for of the three HD TVs per home watching a game has arrived.
For Verizon Wireless, that vision is still to be delivered upon, the MediaFlo and VCast promise is in transition.
At their developer's conference you heard the message of Video as the future. Yes they want applications, but they want to be the screen you look at, more than the headset you speak into. This is the vision of FIOS, and its probably even a more illuminated vision for Verizon Wireless with LTE.
Think of the Term FIOS. As a techie I see the IOS and think of Cisco's Internetwork Operating System attached to the word Fiber. Its about the delivery of services via glass that was probably the vision being shared by the techies before the marketing took over.
Likewise at VDC, Verizon Wireless was promoting the Wireless equivalent. Roger Gurnani stated that the Network API they were promoting was just the beginning. They have an idea of where they want to be in the future, now the question is how fast can they get there?
The cash cows that have been sold seem to have lost their productive years based on their filing for bankruptcy. If you are making a deal with Verizon here is the caveat emptor, the asset they are selling probably does not fit into their vision of the future, so you may be paying a premium and should ask yourself what is your vision of the future. You better have a vision that goes beyond the dairy.
Verizon does.
The Apple Google war may make ATT the Victim.
August 3, 2009
While the California Titans get into a contest of wills, ATT's congressional nemesis is looking to add to the battle.
I have to say it's pretty amazing to me what Congress focuses on, but the letters from the FCC inquiring about GoogleVoice make clear that this is going to be dragged into the bigger discussion.
First of all lets talk about the letters. The FCC's letter to Apple
Apple letter 7 31 09.pdf wants to see if ATT drove the decision or had any influence. I think Craig Moffett is right to suggest that if that were the case, it would be more courtesy than control.
Though as a former President of a major phone company used to say, If you leave a telco witness up long enough they will confess to anything.
Now the ATT letter AT&T Letter 7 31 09.pdf gets into the general distrust and expands the discussion to ask about blocking applications as well.
Finally the Google letter Google letter 7 31 09.pdf ends with concern as to whether Android has similar strategies as Apple.
Embedded in the documents are a bunch of questions about Rural Services and Network Neutrality to the ATT & Apple relationship. Particularly when taken into consideration of the Markey Bill. It has brought to the attention of the Congress that the Stimulus may leave the unserved and underserved with a network that does not have sexy devices like the iPhone on it, which is not what their constiuents want to hear.
The people want device freedom, and Congress may give it to them.
On the business side of the equation the resignation of Eric Schmidt from the Apple board is probably long overdue. The companies have been expanding the Ven Diagram of overlap with Android, Chrome, MobileMe, Safari, etc.
While the two companies could have been the best hope for a level playing field of interoperability, we are probably not going to see either side be their better selves for a while.
Adobe and Oracle (Java) are two other companies that may have a desire to contribute to the discussion.
I have to say it's pretty amazing to me what Congress focuses on, but the letters from the FCC inquiring about GoogleVoice make clear that this is going to be dragged into the bigger discussion.
First of all lets talk about the letters. The FCC's letter to Apple
Apple letter 7 31 09.pdf wants to see if ATT drove the decision or had any influence. I think Craig Moffett is right to suggest that if that were the case, it would be more courtesy than control.
Though as a former President of a major phone company used to say, If you leave a telco witness up long enough they will confess to anything.
Now the ATT letter AT&T Letter 7 31 09.pdf gets into the general distrust and expands the discussion to ask about blocking applications as well.
Finally the Google letter Google letter 7 31 09.pdf ends with concern as to whether Android has similar strategies as Apple.
Embedded in the documents are a bunch of questions about Rural Services and Network Neutrality to the ATT & Apple relationship. Particularly when taken into consideration of the Markey Bill. It has brought to the attention of the Congress that the Stimulus may leave the unserved and underserved with a network that does not have sexy devices like the iPhone on it, which is not what their constiuents want to hear.
The people want device freedom, and Congress may give it to them.
On the business side of the equation the resignation of Eric Schmidt from the Apple board is probably long overdue. The companies have been expanding the Ven Diagram of overlap with Android, Chrome, MobileMe, Safari, etc.
While the two companies could have been the best hope for a level playing field of interoperability, we are probably not going to see either side be their better selves for a while.
Adobe and Oracle (Java) are two other companies that may have a desire to contribute to the discussion.
