iPhone, AT&T U-verse, Blackberry and Hosted Communications

February 14, 2007

Edgar Bronfman Jr. a record company exec speaking at CTIA is right on when he says the interface on cell phones can use drastic improvement. On average, Bronfman said, it can take a person 20 clicks to buy a ringtone, depending on the carrier network the consumer is using. He also complained about the fact that ringtones, full-track songs, music videos and album art are all sold in separate virtual stores.

I believe Apple has and will continue to change the mobile phone industry and if the industry doesn’t get its act together soon, Apple will steamroll it. Somehow Apple does everything design-wise better than any other company. Even today, Macs look better than all other computers. I can’t quite explain it – it seems no one even will copy Apple.

But to be honest I am sick of writing about the iPhone – and it isnt even released yet -- and will move on to other more interesting topics like whether AT&T’s U-verse is doomed. Although Tom makes a great case as to why Microsoft and AT&T have bet on the wrong standard, in reality even if the bet is wrong it won’t kill the initiative. Why? The system still works (or will soon) and the DVB-IPI standard will take time to become established. Besides, in AT&T’s territories, no new IPTV players will have access to the homes (unless broadband wireless throughput experiences some miraculous technological advancement) so it really doesn’t matter if the technology is poor.

But getting back to gadgets – or ahem – devices which help with business productivity – in the world of Blackberry there is a new ZDnet blog that is written by Russell Shaw and focuses on the ubiquitous mobile e-mail devices. Russell seems to be the world’s foremost expert on all things Blackberry – among other things.

Another story catching my eye is the news that Frost & Sullivan has confirmed what I have been writing about for a while and that is that hosting seems to really be catching on in the US.

There is so much more to write but in the interest of communicating more frequently I will leave you for now and write more again soon. Have a great day and if you are in the northeast I hope you are driving safely through the snow and sleet.