Apple

Keep In Touch

June 11, 2008

If you haven't noticed, there will be more and more touch-enabled devices in your future. The craze seemed to get the biggest boost from the popularity of the iPhone interface which spawned a number of similar interfaces from competing phone companies and even from the companies making mobile browsers.

Stacey Higginbotham, goes into detail on some of the new touch developments on her blog over at GigaOM. She further speculates that touch can be a great way to control things like lighting and HVAC.

I don't disagree but I would like to point out that it is great to see the potential of a new UI being realized because of the success of a phone. People have told me Apple is not a tech company but an interface company applying their unique perspective on various markets.

Posted in AT&T, Apple, Blackberry, Communications Developer, Consumer Electronics, Google, IP Communications, Microsoft, Technology, Verizon, Video, Wireless

iPhone Adoption and Women

June 10, 2008

Women love iPhones but not as many as I thought. The iPhone seems the natural phone for women as it is stylish, powerful and easy to use. I would have guessed that more than 50% of iPhone users are women but it seems the number is closer to 33% which is up from 25% last October.

Another interesting stat gleaned from an article on the matter is that 71% of women choose the family's wireless plans.

Analysts think the trend towards iPhone purchases by women will increase and I would expect this percentage to get to 55% - 70%. It will be interesting to see how this percentage changes as we get past the early adopter phase.

Posted in AT&T, Apple, Broadband, Consumer Electronics, Technology, Wireless

Build Communities With Google's Help

June 10, 2008

Let's say your company plays in a few different spaces such as information technology, security and storage. And let's say your company has decided to build a community of interest which is dedicated to a specific subject area as you are hoping like-minded people will visit the community regularly and begin to associate your company as a leader in the space and hopefully some of these people will become new customers.

In this example, your resources are limited and even if they aren't, you need to choose one of these above areas to build your community. Assume each of them has equal market sizes and growth rates and you need to determine where the highest level of search interest lies.

Using the updated Google Trends, you can now see a graph over time of search volume on a relative and absolute basis and this information can be exported for analysis.

You may find for example that storage interest spikes around the year-end holidays but also seems unusually high in May of each year... This information can be useful in your business as it helps you see how people are searching for various terms.

If you have read my blog before, you know TMC has been building communities (Global Online Communities, Channels) for companies in the communications and technology space for some time now.

Posted in AT&T, Apple, Avaya, Blackberry, Broadband, CRM, Call Center, Cisco, Communications Developer, Conference, Conferencing, Consumer Electronics, E-Commerce, FCC, Google, Green, IMS, IP Communications, IPTV, ITEXPO, JITC, Merger/Acquisition, Microsoft, Musings, Nortel, Open Source, Patent, Personal, Podcast, Rates Technology, SIP, Science, Security, Skype, Speech Technologies, TMCnet, Technology, Unified Communications, Verizon, Video, VoIP, Vonage, WiMAX, Wireless, Yahoo

iPhone: More Walled Gardens

June 10, 2008

Phil Wolff does a great job discussing why the iPhone's lack of background processing is bad. Bad for p2p apps, bad for users, bad for developer and everyone but Apple. Frankly I haven't spent time analyzing how the iPhone processes things in the background or foreground but I can tell you that lack of background processing is terrible from a user perspective as it reduces productivity. Yes you gain battery life but this does not seem like a solution which will make the iPhone as useful as possible for the business community.

I don't want to jump to any conclusions mind you and we should wait to see how iPhone apps behave in the real world as time goes on.

Posted in Apple

Google and Apple News

June 10, 2008

I go on a podcast soon but before I go, it is worth pointing out a few articles I perused this morning. One is focused on Google making us stupid -- and the concept is that reading on the web has changed the way we work. We are now all able to ingest information small bite-sized chunks and can no longer read books or long articles like the good old days. I tend to agree.

Then there is the Apple news.

Posted in Apple, Google, Technology

T-Mobile Lawsuit Repercussions

June 10, 2008

Rob Adler has an interesting take on the T-Mobile/Starbucks WiFi lawsuit at his Vantage blog. His point? That the PR hit of winning a lawsuit which takes away WiFi from millions of users will be extreme. I can't help but wonder if the general public would ever be aware of the lawsuit.

Posted in AT&T, Apple, Broadband, Cisco, Consumer Electronics, E-Commerce, FCC, IP Communications, Microsoft, Nortel, Technology, Unified Communications, Verizon, VoIP, Wireless

Talkswitch Interview: Jan Scheeren

June 9, 2008

Right now the small business market is the shining star in communications -- plenty of growth is predicted in this space and small businesses for the most part are behind the tech curve -- meaning they need to catch up. For over a decade, Talkswitch has been serving this space with innovate, small PBXs designed to be easy to install and support.

Jan Scheeren the President & CEO of the company has been to TMC headquarters frequently to tell us about new products and upgrades. Scheeren knows the small business communications market better than most and on this podcast I was able to pick his brain on the SMB communications space and learn a great deal about his thoughts, the competitive situation, etc.

It is definitely worth a listen.

Posted in AT&T, Apple, Blackberry, Broadband, Consumer Electronics, FCC, Green, IP Communications, Nortel, Open Source, Podcast, SIP, Technology, Unified Communications, Verizon, VoIP

Conflicting iPhone Rumors

June 8, 2008

There is just so much information being spewed out on the internet regarding the unveiling of the iPhone. The latest bit of news has to do with production problems. Check out this article for insights on conflicting rumors and photos of the next-gen iPhone.

Posted in AT&T, Apple, Broadband, Consumer Electronics, FCC, IP Communications, Technology, Video, Wireless

T-Mobile Suing Starbucks

June 7, 2008

T-Mobile is already not thrilled AT&T will replace them as the service provider of choice in Starbucks stores, now the GSM-based service provider who was early to embrace WiFi is losing revenue due to the new AT&T/Starbucks promotion of free WiFi in its stores.

While the news came out around February 11th that AT&T and Starbucks would provide free WiFi service, according to these court documents T-Mobile learned of this arrangement on or around March 30th.

Here are the salient points from this lawsuit:

In early 2008, Starbucks, AT&T and T-Mobile negotiated some agreements allowing a structured and seamless transition allowing AT&T to replace T-Mobile as the WiFi provider in Starbucks stores.
During the transition period, T-Mobile and AT&T would each promote the other brand via web pages which are displayed when a user logs onto the wireless network.
In addition, this page would allow customers to be authenticated by an existing subscription with either service provider.
AT&T and T-Mobile would not pay each other for using one another's networks.
Starbucks rolled out a promotional plan allowing its customers using a Starbucks card to register the card at starbucks.com and at this point the customers are directed to an AT&T page.
Since every US market is covered by T-Mobile except for Bakersfield, CA and San Antonio, TX, T-Mobile loses the opportunity to be marketed in front of these customers in other markets.
In addition, these cards are available to everyone, not just AT&T customers.
The agreement stipulates only AT&T customers are to have this right.

There is more but you get the idea... The point is if you have a T-Mobile account today, why not cancel it and use these cards instead to ensure you have access to the internet for free.

Based on the documents it is apparently T-Mobile thinks that Starbucks and the relationship they have with the behemoth of a coffee house is important to their success. Om Malik finds it funny that a coffehouse is a key pawn between two telecoms. He has a point.

Posted in AT&T, Apple, Blackberry, Broadband, CRM, Cisco, FCC, IP Communications, Nortel, Patent, SIP, Security, Technology, Verizon, Video, VoIP, Wireless

Will Steve Jobs Wow Us?

June 7, 2008

It seems that if you do not blog about the iPhone this weekend you will be out touch with the blogging and news gathering communities. It is just that important. On Monday we will have a new Apple mobile device to drool over and I wonder if the company has any surprises up its sleeve such as higher screen resolution?

We know the new iPhone also called Jesus Phone by some will have 3G but will it also have a keyboard?

Posted in AT&T, Apple, Broadband, Communications Developer, Consumer Electronics, FCC, IMS, IP Communications, Microsoft, SIP, Technology, Verizon, Video, Virtual Worlds, VoIP, Wireless

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