Recently in mobility Category

Radar Networks Pulls in $13 Million Venture Capital During Round B of Financing Series

February 25, 2008 9:45 AM | 0 Comments
Radar Networks is on a role. The company announced Monday completion of Round B financing series, during which it brought in $13 million from several venture capital firms. This brings total venture capital funding for the company to $18 million, including Round B and Round A (which closed in April, 2006).
 
What’s drawing venture capital firms to invest in Radar? The company offers an online service called Twine, which the company describes as a “Web 3.0” application, part of the “Semantic Web.”
 
Twine lets users organize, share and discover information that correlates to their interests, and connect with networks of like-minded people. In this sense, it is similar to a lot other “social network” services on the Web. But Radar is taking this idea to a new level what the company calls “semantic understanding,” a method of automatically organizing information using algorithms that learns from users’ interests and uses its conclusions to make connection and recommendations.
 
Given the trend toward social networking services being used not only on desktop computers but on mobile devices as well, it seems likely that Twine will prove useful to computer-based surfers and on-the-go social networkers alike.
 
Round B of Radar’s financing series was led by Velocity Interactive Group. Draper Fisher Jurvetson and Vulcan Capital also participated.

Architecture Redundancy Would Help RIM Avoid Future BlackBerry Outages

February 14, 2008 3:54 PM | 0 Comments
The power of Google’s ability to perform fast and accurate Web searches comes in large part from the its distributed nature—using a geographically dispersed network of computing power to deliver results to users quickly. Distributed systems like Google’s have another advantage, too: they inherently protect against any single point of failure since if equipment in one location goes down the slack can be picked up somewhere else.
 
In a Thursday post, ZDNet MobileTech blogger Eric Everson suggested that, in light of two major outages within a year, RIM might want to consider a more distributed type of architecture to provide service for its BlackBerry devices, rather than feeding everything through a centralized system.
 
Everson quoted a Canadian Press report as pointing out that, “The concentration of RIM's BlackBerry service at a single network operation centre in the Ontario city of Waterloo, through which traffic such as e-mails are routed, exacerbates such problems and leaves it open to more crashes.”
 
Everson added in his post, “If at a network level everything is routed through a bottleneck configuration it likely doesn’t take the Founder of MyMobiSafe.com to point out that there may be some mobile security issues users should consider.”
 
In other words, there is power in numbers and RIM might do well to consider adopting a distributed network architecture to avoid such a major outage again in the future.

Rumor Mill: AT&T to Launch Centro Smartphone on Feb. 19

February 14, 2008 3:26 PM | 0 Comments
The rumor mill is in full gear this week suggesting that AT&T will be introducing its own “branded” model of Palm’s Centro smartphone, till now available exclusively through Sprint.
 
The PalmAddicts blog said Sprint’s exclusive hold on the Centro, which began shipping in early October, was rumored to be a three-month deal, so now’s about the time you’d expect to see it start being offered by other carriers.
 
Engadget seemed very confident in a Thursday post that AT&T’s Centro is set being shipping on February 19. The price likely will be $99, and the color probably white.

A Closer Look at Apple's MacBook Air Laptop

February 4, 2008 11:29 AM | 0 Comments
If you’re among those considering whether or not to buy Apple’s new MacBook Air laptop, there are now some pretty thorough reviews available to help with the decision. One of those is from Engadget.
 
Engadget’s review examines all aspects of the new laptop, including hardware (processor, battery life, display, keyboard, audio, wireless connectivity, ports, etc.) and software (OS, multi-touch gestures, Remote Disc, etc.).
 
The review is quite thorough, and concludes that although MacBook Air is supposed to appeal to road warriors, it compromises on some of the things such users most need (like ability to swap out a second battery). Given the laptop’s limitations, Engadget thinks it’s unlikely road warriors will pick the Air to replace their primary computer (which may very well be a laptop with more connectivity options), and as such Apple might be more successful if it lowered the price to roughly $1500 and included an Ethernet dongle and SuperDrive into the package.
 
“The Air isn't supposed to be everything for everyone,” Engadget said in its review. “For those in need of a machine that masters basics in a super thin, light form-factor, and who have the coin to pay for that ultraportability, the Air absolutely nails it like few others.”
 
What do you think—would you consider or are you planning to buy a MacBook Air?

FCC 700MHz Auction Update

February 1, 2008 5:15 PM | 0 Comments
Update as of 5:10 p.m. on Friday, February 1, 2008: after 25 rounds of bidding, the FCC’s 700MHz auction has pulled in just over $18 billion.
 
Earlier in the day, after 24 rounds of bidding, RCR Wireless News noted that the bidding had slowed, with only 1.8 billion coming in during the first three rounds Friday morning (compared with $4 billion for all round on Thursday).
 
The eight C Block licenses did not receive any new bids, RCR Wireless noted, which means bidding on this block may be done. (If so, will Google emerge as not only the white night that rescued open access but also as the owner of the spectrum?)
 
How do you see the rest of the auction playing out?

How Many iPhones Has Apple Really Sold?

February 1, 2008 9:03 AM | 0 Comments
It just doesn’t add up. During Steve Jobs’ Macworld keynote, he reported that Apple shipped four million iPhones so far. But AT&T says it had only about two million iPhone customers at the end of 2007. Even taking into account the fact that Apple now has service agreements with carriers in countries other than the U.S., it appears there is a discrepancy. 
 
InformationWeek offers information from analysts at Sanford Bernstein that attempts to explain the mismatch between Apple’s and AT&T’s numbers. The analyst firm estimated that Apple’s total iPhone shipments are actually 3.75 million, not 4 million. The firm also estimated that carriers have activated 2.35 million iPhones.
 
“Assuming that 20% of the unactivated phones may have been unlocked to work on other networks, that still leaves 670,000 iPhones unaccounted for,” InformationWeek noted in its report.
 
That means that there is a pile of not-yet-activated iPhones in the hands of carriers. The question remains: can Apple still hit its target of selling 10 million iPhones by the end of 2008? What do you think?
 
On a somewhat related note, Rich Tehrani blogged yesterday that Motorola may be considering spinning off its handset business. He asked whether this is really a smart move, given how big mobility is these days. The company has operations in 44 countries/regions and describes itself as “a global communications leader” that’s all about seamless mobility, broadband embedded systems and wireless networks.

MacBook Air: Heart or Head?

January 31, 2008 10:18 AM | 0 Comments
There has been time now for industry analysts to really take a good look at Apple’s new MacBook Air laptop computer. The initial infatuation with the world’s thinnest laptop has worn off, and some people are now willing to note its drawbacks as well as its advantages.
 
For example, BusinessWeek reporter Stephen Wildstrom said that MacBook Air “set off an intense struggle” between his heart and his head. On the heart side: this computer is really sexy, one might even say a work of art. It also crams more into a very slim package than probably seemed possible before Steve Jobs’ latest Macworld keynote.
 
But, on the head side, Wildstrom said his practical, business-oriented self thinks the lack of built-in disc drive, Ethernet port and broadband card slot could be deal-breaker. He pointed out, for example, that WiFi (which is built into the MacBook Air) is not ubiquitous in places like hotel rooms, requiring the business user to hook up an external Ethernet port for Internet connectivity.
 
For the small subset of users who put a premium on mobility, Wildstrom said, the inability to swap out the battery also poses a problem; he said he got four hours of heavy use on a single charge, but when traveling there are times when he needs more than that.
 
“Ultimately, the Air presents potential buyers with a tough choice,” Wildstrom wrote in the Newsweek report. “It is lovely to look at and delightful to hold. The screen may be the best I've seen, and the keyboard is better than the MacBook Pro's. Even after prolonged use, the case stays fairly cool to the touch. Against that, you need to weigh the inconvenience caused by all the things Apple chose to leave out. The product might not have been quite as smooth and shiny with these elements, but it would have had greater rational, as well as emotional, appeal.”
 
What do you think—is the MacBook Air more appealing to the heart or the head? I’d be willing to bet the answer depends on where and how you might plan to use this new laptop.

700MHz Spectrum Auction Update: D Block Floundering

January 30, 2008 9:50 AM | 0 Comments
As of Tuesday, the FCC had conducted 12 rounds of bidding for sections of the 700MHz spectrum, over a span of four days. But one of the blocks up for bid isn’t garnering much interest among potential buyers, Reuters reported.
 
That is “Block D,” also known as the “public safety block” because it’s designated for use by police, firefighters and other public saftery officials, Reuters reported. So far there has only been one bid for this block—for $472 million, far below the FCC’s reserve price of $1.3 million.
 
If things don’t pick up soon for the D block, the FCC may be forced to modify its requirements for the spectrum and/or lower the price. Reuters speculated that the dearth of bidders may be due to the credit crunch companies in the U.S. are experiencing; possibly they simply can’t raise the capital.
 
Current requirements for the D block also likely make it less appealing in terms of return on investment: “Under rules adopted by the FCC, the winner of the D block airwaves will be required to negotiate an agreement with public safety agencies, build out a nationwide network and then give those agencies priority use during emergencies,” Reuters explained.
 
What do you think—will someone step in yet to rescue the D block? Or will the FCC have to change its expectations for this section of the spectrum?

700MHz Auction: Will Google Rescue Open Access?

January 24, 2008 4:53 PM | 0 Comments
So, with the FCC’s 700MHz spectrum auction underway, the $4.6 billion question is: will Google come to the rescue of open access or not? If the company bids more than the $4.6 billion reserve (minimum) price specified for the C Block of spectrum to be licensed as “open,” then the consumer advocacy groups and some analysts will be pretty happy.
 
Of course if Google does bid that much, it’s possible the company may actually go all the way and win the spectrum itself. Or not. The outcome will either paint Google as the knight in shining armor or as a company determined to really shake up the wireless market.
 
Which do you think it will be?

In-Sta: Revenue Growth for Mobile Business Apps to Slow Somewhat in 2008

January 18, 2008 11:03 AM | 0 Comments
Wireless service providers may need to engage in some reality-checking during 2008 when it comes to projected versus actual revenue growth associated with mobile business applications. That’s what In-Stat predicted this week in a new report, Wireless Data in the US Enterprise 2007: Avoiding a CDPD Reprise.
 
The research firm expects revenue growth for this particular wireless sector will end up being about 44 percent from 2007 to 2008, down slightly from 50 percent for 2006 and 2007. Why the slight downturn? In-Stat chalked it up to the services companies actually implement, which tend to be somewhat reduced from plans made by decision-makers.
 
“As business users approach saturation for horizontal mobile data applications, most of the growth potential remains for vertical market applications,” In-Stat analyst Bill Hughes said in the report. “These require more planning and time to implement. The result is that many within the wireless industry may have overoptimistic forecasts.”  
 
In terms of horizontal applications, In-Stat said the following four have the highest penetration because they’re relatively easy to implement: wireless Internet, wireless IM, wireless e-mail and personal information management (PIM).
 
What do you think—are service providers expecting too much from an increasingly saturated market?
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