Communications and Technology Blog - Tehrani.com - Android Archives

Gadgets to Have Integrated Welcome Ads Soon?

2012-05-18T13:50:24Z

If ads on the Kindle Fire Welcome Screen are successful, others will follow

There are a few things which are well known about Amazon’s Kindle Fire. First of all at $199 the company either loses money or at best breaks even depending on which analyst you speak with. We also know the version of Android the device runs is unusual as Amazon has its own proprietary shell around it.

And just like a company can pay to have a promotion on the Amazon PC home page it is being reported that Amazon is considering charging between $600,000 to $1 million for the rights to have ads displayed on the welcome screen.

Will this ad be shown on current Kindle Fires or perhaps a new ad supported model? Well the answer is not known at this point.

This approach is far different than that of Apple who has implemented ground breaking minimalist designs not only on its devices’ home pages but in its retail stores.

But consumers have shown a willingness to be flexible when it comes to saving money. Witness the success of the Kindle Fire as an example.

If Amazon is very successful selling home page advertising and such ads become popular and the consumer likes the model, there is a natural industry progression we can expect.

First off, a question… What company comes to mind when I say Internet ads. OK, I get it – today the answer is Facebook but in general, Google – right? And what company has the market-leading smartphone OS? You guessed it – at least till Facebook develops one, its Google again.

So doesn’t it make sense that Google will want in on the action and will start to integrate ads into the home pages of Android phones allowing consumers, carriers and equipment makers to subsidize the price of the phone with honest to goodness product pitches?

This potential trend is a real possibility and consumers have shown themselves to be very willing to take subsidized devices in exchange for long-term contracts. They also tolerate ads on TV, radio and even their streaming radio courtesy of services like Pandora. Ad supported gadgets may be the next frontier and if Amazon is successful, we may see the market scramble to emulate and/or improve upon its model.

Brightcove Sales Reflects well on Video, Cloud, HTML5

2012-05-04T09:54:33Z

What happens when you sit at the intersection of cloud, HTML5 and video - especially when tablets and high-resolution smartphones are being sold by the hundreds of millions? The answer is - if you are Brightcove, that your sales grow rapidly. In fact the company just announced earnings of $19.9 million which is up 53% YoY. Sure, this isn't a huge number but the percentage is obviously intriguing.

Moreover, gross profit for the first quarter was up 56% at $13.6 million. Still, the company reported an operating loss for the quarter of $3.2 million compared to a loss of $4.4 million for the same quarter, last year.

In the video below Jeff Whatcott of Brightcove discusses Brightcove 4, an iPhone SDK and other new offerings with TMC's Erik Linask

New customers added this quarter include Allianz France, Pfizer International Operations, Toyota and Starwood Hotels & Resorts and NBC.

Over my career I have seen many companies look at video as a growing market but few have been able to monetize this space beyond content producers and perhaps YouTube. It remains to be seen if Brightcove will be able to generate large profits in video but their list of top customers, earnings momentum and reinvestment in their business shows they could become a solidly profitable business video company in the next few years.

Why Samsung Must Have a Successful Media Player

2012-05-02T14:52:32Z

If Samsung is the anti-Apple and with their success in the smartphone space you have to consider them a strong alternative, then they have to have a strategy which allows them to emulate Apple in order to be as successful. By this I mean, Apple has the amazing ability to sell a range of products which are highly similar and yet each is in its own category.

You want an inexpensive music player for the kids? The Apple answer, an iPod Touch. They become teenagers and need a phone? The Apple answer is the iPhone. They need a gaming device on the go and something to help them read books for school, etc? The Apple answer is an iPad.

The efficiencies here are truly awe-inspiring… They use similar processors and other components – especially the iPod the iPhone.

Samsung, in order to compete on the top and especially bottom line needs to do the same. They need to sell millions of music players – entry level devices which are considered iPod Touch alternatives.

Although the company has tried before, their recently announced Samsung Galaxy Player 3.6 and 4.2 are supposed to be the devices which cut into Apple’s growing marketshare.

As Walt Mossberg points out however at 480x320 the 3.6 has inferior graphics to the iPod Touch but the flipside is it comes with a charger, earbuds with a microphone, expandable memory and the flexibility of Android (assuming you see this as an advantage.) All this and you save $50 over the similar Apple device. Mossberg further opines the Samsung feels more flimsy than the iPod Touch but Samsung counters that the 4.2 will be a better competitor – priced at $199.

I haven’t followed Samsung’s media players and moreover they haven’t received much press. So already there is a troubling lack of momentum in this product line. So the challenge for the Korean company is they need to make a device far cheaper and better for them to receive mass adoption. Moreover, at this point many people have gone down the iOS ecosystem road with iCloud, iTunes and myriad chargers and accessories. You have to do something dramatic to win them over.

One Direction singing What Makes You Beautiful

A celebrity endorsement perhaps? Would the cast of Jersey Shore be good ambassadors for the product? I am semi-serious here but I do think pop sensation One Direction could be one strong candidate to consider as they give you the youth market as well as the general pop space and they are new enough that an endorsement probably wouldn't be as expensive as a more established band. Not that Samsung hasn't shown a propensity to spend as much money as needed and more on marketing.

Moreover, if Samsung, Google and the rest of the Android community doesn’t act quickly – it may be too late to compete in the media player and tablet space.

On the flipside, Samsung is able to leverage its truly breathtaking display technology developed for TVs across its entire line of consumer products. This is one of the reasons the Galaxy S II smartphone is so impressive - it uses Super AMOLED technology which is gorgeous.

See a video interview between myself and Tom Chun Director and head of Wireless Terminal Strategy at Samsung discussing the ability to leverage TV technology across consumer electronics products

But with Apple rumored to be coming into the TV business, now is the time for Samsung to look to diversify with more serious and competitive offerings so they can match Apple product for product.

Blackberry 10 like Siri uses Productivity to Differentiate

2012-05-01T19:24:58Z

Apple's iPhone 4S is perhaps most known for Siri the built-in personal assistant which has had mixed reviews. Still, in-part because of this feature, the company has sold iPhones by the boatload.

RIM, who is fighting to regain market share has come at the productivity game from a different angle - the predictive text technology in its soon to be released Blackberry 10 OS is much-improved and has the potential to drastically reduce the amount of time it takes to communicate on a smartphone or tablet.

For information workers - it seems the more you work, the more there is to do. Especially when you consider the huge time suck associated with social networking, watching online video and gaming and book-reading on the go using the latest crop of tablets.

Although it is soon to say that RIM has nailed it with its new OS, it does look better than previous operating systems from the company. Now the question is how long before the functionality is copied by others and the patent war over this feature begins?

See analysis from the AP, a hands-on review from CNet and comments fom USA Today.

Optimum Live TV App now on PC

2012-04-26T21:05:27Z

Update: the Optimum app for Android does not allow live TV viewing but allows you to manage your DVR and check TV listings. The company says this functionality "is coming." Moreover - the app will only work on laptops - not PCs with external monitors. Is it too late to ask for a do over on this post?

Having been on Android and iOS for quite some time (see my review from last April), Cablevision's Optimum TV viewers can now also watch TV on their PCs, Macs and laptops. This could be important to power users who have tricked out monitors of 24" or perhaps even greater. In fact the need for a standalone TV may be getting questioned more and more as a result of the ability to directly (and more easily I might add) watch TV on PCs.

In order to take advantage of the service be sure to have Windows XP SP2 or greater as well as a processor which runs at 1.6 GHz or better. Mac users will need an Intel Core Duo 1.83 GHz processor or better. Both platforms need at least a gig of RAM as 25MB of free hard disk space.

Similar to the way the iOS and Android versions work - you will be able to watch TV, browse listings and manage your DVR but not watch video stored on it.

I have been impressed with the Optimum app for TV viewing using an iPad although occasionally there is a connection error which is typically solved by leaving and re-entering the application.

It is amazing to me that tablets like the iPad have been on the market for only a few years and already have become the first place developers took when coming out with new apps. It is well known that apps generally drive hardware purchases and point to the direction of the hardware platform market share. I remember having serious discussions with the people at Quark about their popular QuarkXPress desktop publishing solution back in 1990 or so at the New York based Folio show - at the time they said they would never port to the PC. A few years later they changed their mind and interestingly, Apple really started to decline around the same time.

What will be really interesting however is when the stats come out from the cable companies regarding which platforms consumers are using to consume video. In other words - yes, PCs and laptops have larger screens than tablets but your PC isn't easy to lug into the bathroom, onto the kitchen table, etc. Of course I am not advocating TV watching in the john but if you do, please spray some Lysol on that tablet before subsequently bringing it to the kitchen table.

I'm looking forward to trying the app out this weekend - maybe sooner if time allows. I will report anything out of the ordinary that happens.

Is Skype Microsoft's Only Chance for Mobile Success?

2012-04-26T17:33:59Z

If you are looking for increased competition in the mobile space, Apple’s recent and seemingly constant record earnings are bad news. Worse yet for the competition, Apple has transcended its original position of a computer and electronics maker to become a major force in the publicly traded markets and even the US economy. Its phones are status symbols the world over and its tablet is so far ahead of the rest of the market the company can charge hundreds more and consumers will pay for these products with a smile.

So news of Microsoft losing share to in the mobile space should hardly be considered news. In fact even if the company purchased Nokia and RIM the challenge of integration would far outweigh the benefits. Sadly this would be true if both companies were given to Redmond at no charge. How bad is the situation? Well between December 2006 and December 2011 the Microsoft went from having 34% of the US market for smartphones to a paltry 5%! And all this while the smartphone market in the US has been exploding with growth.

Microsoft knows how bad things are. Sadly, they were way ahead in mobile – I used to rely on the HTC/UT Starcom Verizon XV6700 and called it the near-perfect device in March of 2006. It deserved this designation because it was truly a mobile office in your pocket.

I complained at the time that different carriers selling the same device were calling it something else and moreover there was really no branding for the device at all.

I think this phone may have been the last opportunity Microsoft needed to exploit to stay a mobile leader.

Sure, they have the relationship with Nokia but it will be a really tough sell to unseat Apple and Android at this point – unless something dramatic and unforeseen (by others) happens like Android or iOS exhibiting a massive security flaw driving users into the hands of the competition.

But Microsoft still has Skype as its last hope to attain some relevance in the smartphone space. If the software company is serious about the market and we all know they have to be, there will have to be serious handset subsidization. Even then, it is unclear it will be significant player in the market.

But a simple way to subsidize is by bundling Skype credits with phones – there is a huge arbitrage play here between what carriers charge for their voice minute bundles compared to what Skype charges.

To offset some of the cost, Microsoft will have to show ads which could be powered by Bing.

The challenge of course is voice calls are becoming less important each year as consumers use social and text as their preferred method of communications.

But the window is still open for Skype phone which is subsidized heavily – one which consumers would have to consider because the price is so low. Of course the challenge here is carriers like Verizon provide a number of phones for free with a contract such as the LG Enlighten and the Samsung Illusion. So Microsoft would have to potentially give you a free phone as well as unlimited calling or some number of minutes per month, etc. Also this strategy assumes carriers won’t mind Skype becoming the keeper of the carrier relationship. Sure, many wireless providers have partnered with Skype in the past but it is unclear if they are still happy to do so.

In short, Skype may be the last chance for Microsoft to become successful in mobile – and in the US, the subsidized approach to providing phones and service may make it very difficult to find success. Skype integration may be a better option in other countries where devices are generally purchased on their own.

I don’t want to come off as optimistic mind you – this strategy will be expensive and basically bribes consumers to take a product they don’t want. It’s worth pointing out a similar strategy in the past used by Bing to gain share from Google was a failure. But mobile is so important, the company may be forced to give the idea a shot – and if so they better start soon.

Skype may not be the only hope as Microsoft also owns a significant portion of Facebook - tight integration with this social network may be another option for Redmond to attack mobile. But it is unclear that Facebook would be willing to work exclusively or even semi-exclusively with a platform which has limited appeal - unless the price is really right.

Is the Post-PC Era a Myth?

2012-04-16T14:26:59Z

The way one should interpret the term "Post-PC" is "after PC" - implying that the world has changed from era to the next. Sarah Perez at TechCrunch does an admirable job of laying the case for what she calls the Post-PC era or alternatively - "PCs Everywhere" which I agree isn't quite as catchy.

In her article she discusses how Apple sold 37M iPhones in Q4, 15% of the official PC market is made up of tablets (mostly iPads) and Apple is now the leading "PC" vendor. Moreover smartphone shipments last year hit 487.7M while PC shipments hit 414.6M and the smartphone growth rate is 63% versus 15% for PCs.

So one would imagine once again that the phrase "Post-PC" means that there aren't going to be more PCs sold.

Gary Kim writes on IP Carrier that while global tablet sales are growing at 98% YoY for 2012, the PC market is expected to increase 4.4% and will increase to 10% in 2013.

The catch is - and there is always a catch, that most of these sales will be in emerging markets and will be for more portable computers - laptops, ultrabooks, etc. Kim makes the argument however that tablets may be 42% of total PC sales by 2016 - a staggering percentage.

The trend is clear however that portability and style trump virtually everything else when it comes to the tech space. And moreover although the PC space is growing - it is in-part because tablets are being factored in.

So really the proper explanation for what is happening is we are entering a post - bland, nontransportable PC market phase. Let's just call is "Post-PC" for short.

US Database of Stolen Cellphones to be Established

2012-04-10T02:48:45Z

Today is a bad day for thieves, very bad. You see, electronics are the number one item stolen – even more so than cash and finally the US will be implementing a system to ensure stolen cell phones no longer work on US cellular networks. In December of 2009 I wrote about how eBay has become the world’s largest pawn shop of stolen goods and in fact gave an example to a person in the UK who tracked down $10,000 worth of stolen goods, taken from him on eBay – and was able to recover them.

As a result, in the post titled Tech Lubricates Theft, Can it do so For Law Enforcement? I proposed a central database where devices get unique identification numbers and are subsequently linked to consumers. The idea being that if a gadget is stolen, it no longer operates. I outlined the following benefits of such a database and system:

Less crime
Less police needed
Less violence
Lower security costs which means savings get passed on
More secure neighborhoods
Higher standard of living

I went on to say the following:

Thankfully we are at a point where GPS and RFID devices can be easily and inexpensively integrated into lots of products making them very difficult to steal and resell.

Perhaps a company or group of them will come out with a new set of standards which will allow us to track our belongings more accurately.

I would imagine a couple of the ones who should be involved include Amazon as they sell just about everything. eBay too as they really sell just about everything and Google who will obviously want us to use their search engine to track and find all of our products.

So for now, Web lubrication is really working to the advantage of the thieves. Hopefully soon we can turn the tables and put the power of technology in the hands of retailers, consumers and law enforcement and send more thieves to jail.

In another post from September, 2010 I said:

But really, if we want to improve global productivity and reduce the amount of police reports filed why would we not implement such a simple system? eBay in fact should be championing the idea as it is a publicly traded company and at some point you have to assume the bad press from them being the world's largest pawn shop will catch up with them.

The good news is US carriers have come together with the FCC to develop a database of stolen phones – details haven’t been worked out but they will be over time. Moreover, the goal is to connect US carriers with others overseas - U.K., Germany, France and Australia have similar systems in place already.

Of course a few challenges to the system are that many countries have yet to implement a similar system. So a thief could still sell goods in those places. Moreover, what about other electronics? You may remember me railing against TomTom for not having a policy in place to ensure they don’t profit from stolen GPS devices by continuing to allow them to operate on their network.

I applaud the FCC and Chairman Julius Genachowski for spearheading this initiative – I believe this is one of those initiatives which will drastically improve the quality of life for the average US citizen. And it is a first step – we have to ensure privacy is kept intact, other devices are added to databases and that global cooperation takes place.

There also needs to be a global system of arbitration – to minimize disputes. What happens for example when a couple separates ad one person is upset the other took the GPS unit with them when they left the house? If they report the device as stolen, is it? Someone has to deal with these issues – perhaps the local police can handle it. Time will tell.

So again, I applaud the FCC and US wireless carriers – this is a historic day in my opinion and I hope global quality of life improves as a result.

Goodbye Android, we hardly Knew You

2012-04-02T20:23:37Z

New research is showing that Android has some real problems. Obviously Google knows this and it’s part of the reason they purchased Motorola and as Henry Blodget points out are opening an online tablet store. David Beckemeyer too weighs in with a chart showing just how dominant Apple is becoming.

But before we get into that I was at my accountant last week and while he was crunching numbers I decided to tell my wife it was time to get my oldest daughter a refurbished laptop because her netbook takes longer to boot than the time it takes for us to assemble all the documents for the IRS. Without skipping a beat the accountant looked up and said, “Why don’t you get her a Macbook?”

Now mind you, I like my accountant and all but I didn’t ask him for his advice and/or perspective. Worse yet, I think I may actually be getting billed for a discussion I didn’t go there to have.

But putting that aside (I really hope he doesn’t read my blog) it shows just how loyal people are to Apple. Again, unsolicited testimonials and suggestions on what to purchase are pretty much the realm of only Apple these days. Eight years ago you would hear similar things about the Blackberry keyboard and fantastic email capabilities but can you imagine anyone telling you to go out and get a Windows laptop? It is just counter to everything we know about consumers and the PC relationship; in fact most relationships with consumers and computer companies are devoid of the passion Apple seems to exude.

Part of the challenge has to do with the ease of use factor – many women I know and men above a certain age seem to hate Android while techies love it. I guarantee that science fiction aficionados (also known affectionately as geeks) strongly gravitate towards Android.

Back to Beckemeyer whose above chart detailing how people access the web shows that for all the talk of Android dominance, in the future we will live increasingly in an Apple-dominated world.

Part of the reason has to do with the fact that iPhones and iPads are still easier to use. I know many people who purchased an Android device because it was all Verizon offered and can’t wait to get an Apple. Moreover, the words of Roger McNamee below seem to be ringing truer by the day:

What if Apple doesn't get 10-15% market-share in tablets but instead 60-70%? Then Apple will be the largest hardware company out there by a mile.

If this trend continues and I am not sure what can stop it, it will be an about-face for how the tech market has traditionally worked. Remember, that with computers and laptops, the PC won the war because the price/performance curve favored open ecosystems where hardware vendors were forced to compete on an open, level playing field. The Macs too in the eighties and much of the nineties weren’t so special from a design perspective so everyone competed to provide the most computing power for the least dollars.

But Apple has turned the computing market into fashion– meaning iPhones are more like personal statements of character than merely consumer electronics. You wonder why Apple doesn’t event show up at the CES show? Well maybe because they consider their products to be fashion statements which just happen to need a power cord.

And even their flaws somehow turn into selling points. Witness Siri, which doesn’t work that well and people love it. Jim Cramer rants about it on CNBC – so much so that I believe they must have optimized it for his voice.

As I have said in the past, Samsung and perhaps Sony are in the best position to put up a fight against Apple in terms of making gadgets which look great. But let’s face it, the clock is ticking and at a certain point, Android will take a back seat to iOS when it comes to competing for developer time and attention. And once that happens it will be very tough for Android to once again gain share.

So yes, the new Google tablet store and coming out with Google branded tablets which are likely to be given away at a loss are the only ways to blunt the iOS onslaught. So it may be a bit premature to declare Android dead but it is clear that Google seems to be panicking.

Disclosure: I own Apple shares.

Consumers Tell Mobile Carriers how to Save Millions

2012-03-22T17:42:15Z

Wireless carriers spend millions on contact center calls related to device questions from their subscribers and to lean more Amdocs recently commissioned a survey which shows that while 83% of the 2,900 consumers surveyed are aware of self-service options, only 37% of consumers use them. Why? You may think because they don't have access to a PC or perhaps they have an Apple iDevice and are afraid the answer will be in Adobe Flash and all they will see is a series of question marks.

Well, if this is what you thought, you'd be wrong on both counts. The reality is that they expect the answers to be wrong or inaccurate.

So perhaps you are thinking, social media is the solution. Nope, 75% of users did not find a satisfactory answer there.

91% of respondents requested a single repository of information which would keep them from having to rely on Google, Bing and/or another search provider.

TMCnet's Peter Bernstein goes into considerable depth, analyzing the study and making important recommendations about how to reduce call center call volume and the associated cost. Wireless service providers should really read the piece.

NQ Mobile Protects Android Phones from Malware and Viruses

2012-03-20T16:21:45Z

Last year Roger McNamee mentioned that he doesn’t think Android has a bright future because of the malicious apps proliferating on the platform and to his point Android malware is up over 400% with no signs of slowing down. This is where NQ Mobile’s NQ Mobile Security app comes in. I recently met with Kim Titus who described the threat as being greatest over SMS as well as in parts of the world where apps are sideloaded. He believes 10% of Android devices in fact are infected and SQL injection as well as HTML5 are further challenges to securing this mobile OS.

The company’s software available in the Android app store is being downloaded 200,000 times per day and as part of the solution, users get access to the company’s 250 security experts who break down malware and protect customers from it. I mentioned the freemium model and you do get security for free but the advanced features are paid.

Some of these features are financial security information and ensuring specially encrypted data only goes point-to-point ensuring no outside party gets access to it. In addition, paid users get privacy protection and advanced antitheft features like remote wipe, lock and alarm sounding.

The software has a novel way of providing antitheft services and the free model allows you to enter a phone number which is texted in the event of the SIM card being changed. At this point this second device can track and lock the stolen phone.

I am told big features are coming soon in version 6.2 and 7.0 including family services.

Perhaps the most important part of the discussion was when the company explained that users aren’t the customers of the software they download [for free], advertisers are.

In other words the developers making the services users are consuming are first loyal to the people paying them who are the ones advertising. This means there will always be the temptation to cross the privacy line.

None of this is news to the mobile community as software has been found to invade privacy not only on Android but iOS as well. The question is in this mobile war on privacy and security, can users ever be protected enough. NQ Mobile likes to think their software is the answer to this challenge.

Volubill Helps Carriers Deliver Enhanced Wireless Services

2012-03-19T20:13:47Z

The FCC has a web page dedicated to bill shock and encourages wireless users who haven’t achieved a successful resolution with their wireless carrier to call and complain. The same page explains one in six users has at one time or another experienced bill shock – totaling 30 million users in total.

One of the companies helping carriers reduce bill shock for their customers is Volubill, the policy management and charging company has many innovative ideas to help carriers in an era of data caps and ballooning cell phone bills. In a recent conversation with Akil Chomoko Head of Product Marketing at the company he explained the company looks at the business side of things – enabling subscribers to be unrestricted and subsequently free to choose from various options which not only serve the needs of the customer better but potentially can generate more revenue for carriers.

The company’s Policy Manager integrates via Diameter (Gx) and Radius or SOAP/XML. It can also support an embeddable Subscriber Profile Repository (interface) to centralized SPRs such as HSS, CRM or SDPs. Moreover it integrates with the company’s own charging system “Convergent Charging” or a third-party solution.

But what differentiates the company perhaps most may not be the technology but the marketing ideas and experience helping carriers offer truly unique services. For example, as carriers in the US and elsewhere are adding bandwidth caps to their services, why not offer an opportunity to buy more data for a fixed amount of money?

The company has an app which can in fact help customers not only get a sense of how much data they are using but just as importantly it allows customers to purchase all sorts of optional plans you may want to offer. Before we go any further it is worth pointing out that the app demo I saw had a meter in the top left hand of the phone interface allowing users to see how much data they have used in their plan – just as they might see how much battery is left on the same device or how much credit they have on their credit cards.

The company has helped carriers provide, provision and bill for a bewildering array of services. Starting with the most ironic is a “happy hour” service provided by a Saudi carrier which allows a free hour of calling – which could free up the network for other parts of the day. Another service in the same country allows parents to prevent their kids cellphones from working during prayer time.

Moreover, carriers could use the platform to enable quota within a quota services where a low-cost plan may not only have a monthly cap but could also have a daily cap. Other options allow a customer to have a larger video viewing limit, a time based cap – let’s say $5 for one hour, a $5/day tethering price, tiered pricing based on QoS level or how about lower pricing for consumers who don’t use BitTorrent?

Other options could be a $10/month unlimited Facebook package or the same $10 could provide unlimited access to a few URLs of the user’s choice. The parental example above could be further enhanced to include homework and bedtime.

Other options include multi-SIM plans where consumers, families and businesses with multiple devices could share bandwidth across the devices in aggregate. A master account could top up the service and add a user cap if desired.

One comment of interest from Chomoko is the device-based app is a better solution for the consumer who wants a usage cap threshold notification in a timely manner. He pointed out that a user in Google Maps could rapidly exceed their bandwidth cap by the time a warning is received via SMS.

A recurring theme in our discussion was marketing-driven business – not technology driven. And this makes a lot of sense.

One of the most interesting applications worth sharing which shows how this would work is a carrier in Indonesia giving companies access to data between 9-5 with a separate prepaid plan for employees to use the phone during other times. Moreover, email is active at all times allowing the company to still provide a phone to workers for personal use but only pay for business communications.

It should also be evident that with such solutions we may be entering a new world of subsidized connectivity where a company like Google may subsidize a YouTube bundle where enhanced QoS is provided to consumers. Likewise for other large companies like Facebook.

The challenge of course will be small competitors may not have the deep pockets or advertising base to compete with app giants – but such are the facts of life I suppose.

Other facts are carriers are rapidly running out of wireless bandwidth and having the flexibility to manage networks on a more granular basis may yield more revenue for carriers and potentially more flexibility for consumers.

Apple's New TV to Force Tech Refresh and Cause More Apple Dominance

2012-03-19T16:36:59Z

Early in the year Samsung wowed users at CES with it’s unveiling of the Galaxy Note, a 5.3 inch wonder with WXGA resolution or 1280x800. To put that in perspective, there are many 15 inch laptops with the same resolution. Apple for its part countered with the New iPad sporting a 9.7 inch display with 2048x1536 pixel density or a full 264 pixels per inch – the same as the iPhone 4s. The iPad boasts four times the number of pixels as the iPad 2 and one million more pixels than HDTV at 1920x1080 pixels.

It is worth pointing out that the iPhone 4 and 4S have a whopping pixel density of 326! The Samsung Galaxy Note has 285 pixels-per-inch but uses Pentile Technology using two sub-pixels instead of three which is said to make these numbers not directly compatible with other manufacturers.

There has been a great deal of talk about a new Apple TV – one which incorporates a screen and there is certainly a division between people who believe it will be wildly successful and others who think it isn’t needed.

But if we look at the progression of the Retina Display from the iPhone 4S to the New iPad – doesn’t it make sense that this same technology innovation will come to a new Apple TV?

And if the argument can be made that more pixels are better on small screens which are used a few feet from your face, wouldn’t it also make sense to use this argument for a TV which usually is 8-12 feet away?

But the problem is that there isn’t programming to drive this resolution.

But will this stop Apple from being successful? Maybe not.

I believe the company is likely in talks with numerous content producers about producing higher resolution content to take advantage of not only the retina display on the iPad but future formats the company is working on.

And when this happens, the demand for bandwidth will increase even faster than it is today. There will be a need for more storage, faster processors, faster pipes, new satellites, more fiber, and a refresh of DVD libraries – assuming people still want their media stored on plastic.

For all the talk of fancy new technologies which were rumored to be incorporated into new Apple devices like some sort of advanced haptic feedback system and a curved screen, the breakthrough technology of the past few product refresh cycles (aside from Siri – if you consider that a breakthrough) has been pixels. Moreover, if we do see an Apple TV, expect it to push the pixel limit and it will have to have content to power it – no doubt much of it stored in iTunes.

And if Apple finds itself in a position to not only be controlling the content distribution but setting video standards, it will make competition that much more difficult.

Richard Bloch at Seeking Alpha recently wrote that Apple could become a $2 trillion company or four times as large as it is today by market cap. And this estimate factors in “the next big thing” which he defines potentially as a new TV.

Certainly we can expect Apple’s new TV to have a simpler user interface and likely make use of speech recognition but it seems a foregone conclusion that the top three selling points will be pixels, pixels and pixels and if I am correct, we can expect a technology refresh cycle of epic proportions and most of this new buying could favor Cupertino.

Read about Apple's plans for its cash stockpile on TMCnet and ZDNet.

Disclosure: The author owns Apple shares.

Taqua Leverages WiFi, Introduces Backhaul Product at MWC 2012

2012-03-10T22:59:49Z

Taqua has a made a name for itself serving carriers of all sizes with products like the T7000 for wireless and wireline switching, the T7100 for media management, trunking and peering as well as the TCS6100 for small cell and voice messaging services over 4G/LTE.

At Mobile World Congress 2012 in Barcelona I had a chance to speak with Payam Maveddat the company’s EVP of Product Line Management about the fact that carriers have become very interested in WiFi solutions. A frequent discussion at the show in fact was that carriers who wouldn’t even discuss WiFi with you a few years back are now actively asking for the technology to help alleviate the spectrum crunch they are all facing.

Maveddat explained that his customers are happy that they can leverage VoLTE, VoWiFi and femtocells with the company’s solutions. In addition he highlighted the company’s Android VoIP client that works with the company’s TCS6100. The app actively shuts down the wireless radio when it detects an active WiFi network and subsequently uses WiFi for not only the voice but for SMS communications. He says this solution works well for carriers who want to augment femtocells or even for carriers who can’t afford them.

I asked if he thought such a solution would ever be released by Apple – remember that Apple more tightly controls its device features and functions so a third-party couldn’t release such functionality with current levels of OS access. He thought over time that Apple would release such functionality and I tend to agree as carrier pressure to minimize spectrum usage will likely reach a fever pitch and if they don’t do anything, the impending spectrum crunch will affect all Apple users on 3G and 4G networks.

As a side benefit, WiFi is more efficient than 3G and 4G as it doesn’t need to transmit as far – so if Apple was to enable this sort of solution, many users – especially heavy talkers using its 3G and 4G iPhones would likely experience a bump in battery life.

At MWC, the company also released a non-line-of-site backhaul solution for picocells and WiFi hotspots which have a range of between 300M and 2.5 kilometers. The current solution named the W-Series has throughput in the 70 Mbps range with a product roadmap which takes it into the hundreds of Mbps.

This sort of product may be the ideal lamp post solution allowing carriers to rapidly and inexpensively provide access in areas where microwave or fiber backhaul solutions are impractical. The company explains that each small cell site is connected by Ethernet to a Taqua Remote Backhaul Module over licensed but underutilized and inexpensive spectrum to its Hub Backhaul Module. Moreover, management of hundreds of clusters can be done over a single user interface.

As you might have guessed the technology powering the backhaul is OFDM and MIMO and can work in multiple bands from 2 to 4 GHz.

It has been great to see how the company has innovated over the years and the conversation with Payam shows how Taqua is certainly addressing carrier pain points by allowing them to reduce spectrum congestion.

AirWatch Highlights MDM in a Post-PC Era

2012-03-08T22:19:58Z

Yesterday Apple CEO Tim Cook showed a chart of how the iPad alone is selling more unites than PCs from any other individual vendor. This is an amazing achievement when you consider the iPad is a few years old and that HP swallowed up Compaq making it the largest vendor in the PC market. Of course with so much device proliferation the question of mobile device management or MDM has to rear its head. As this market is so crucial I am happy I had a chance to sit with Alan Dabbiere the charismatic Chairman of MDM leader Airwatch at MWC 2012.

A good part of our meeting centered around Dabbiere explaining how dominant his company is in the space – with over 500 employees and over 2,000 customers. He went on to say companies like Apple have to share the details of their new products to MDM vendors in advance and they want the market to consist of fewer large vendors. Other growth data points worth noting are the company has seen sequential MDM growth numbers between 30-100% in each quarter in 2011.

Moreover, the R&D team is now 175 people with R&D expense running at about 25% of revenue – a healthy number. Some of the differentiating features the company touts are support for all major OS versions as well as scalability, intelligent notifications, an SDK, an HTML5 console, an enterprise app catalogue and a multi-lingual console.

What Dabbiere spent considerable time discussing is the company’s secure content locker which allows anyone with console access to push content to selected users. What differentiates this solution from emailing content is the inability for users to subsequently take ownership of the content and forward in an unauthorized manner.

A real world example of how it works is adding a tab in the content locker which is sent to the board of directors just prior to a board meeting and then recalled the documents after the meeting is over. In another case an investment bank can use this solution to push research reports to clients without fear of them being able to forward these proprietary research documents to brokers at rival banks.

Of course I know your next question – in the case of a company pushing out content to non-employees – can the locker be branded by the company? The answer is yes. So Goldman Sachs could brand their own content locker and tabs which their clients can access but not copy or forward.

The final use case he shared was more esoteric but certainly helpful if you at a theme park in Orlando in August. Let’s assume you run a theme park where characters with big ears are prominently displayed and you would like to get email addresses for all your visitors but they likely don’t want to share this information with you as they fear spam. So instead you ask them to download a free app which includes a park map and then notify them when a ride is under or over crowded. Utilizing GPS of course would help you target visitors before they head to a part of the park which is overflowing with people.

Likewise you can use the app to help manage restaurant capacity – in other words you can send coupons to restaurants which are under crowded to ensure visitors are more evenly dispersed throughout the part. Another idea is if the park is experiencing capacity issues at all restaurants at the same time you can send a coupon to guests telling them it will be honored at a later time like say 1:00 pm.

Mobile device proliferation isn’t slowing down and neither is the need to manage and control the content on all these devices. One can imagine the MDM space and AirWatch have significant room to grow for the foreseeable future. At the moment the application is available on iOS and Android support should be here in a month with PC access available in the next 3-6 months.