Mobility Watch

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Palm

Do you agree with that statement? Are newly released smartphones expected to have bugs that that will take months and months of patches to make them work right? Should the buyer have lowered expectations for a technological device that costs upto thousands?

First Generation Nokia Smartphones are notorious for having a plethora of bugs, and I read that the iPhone wasn’t entirely 100% bug-free, either. Not that familiar with HP’s iPaq or Rim’s blackberry.

Smartphones at about.com had this to say about palm and winmo:

Palm OS: Cons
The Palm OS looks and feels dated–because it is. It has not had a major overhaul in years. The company says it is working on a new version of the OS that will combine elements of the current version (called Garnet) with elements of Linux, an operating system that runs on servers, personal computers, and some smartphones.

Windows Mobile OS: Cons
Windows Mobile is not always user-friendly. It’s easy to be confused by the operating system, partly because the environment can feel very familiar to, yet also very different than the version of Windows that you run on your PC. Windows Mobile can also be slow, sluggish, and buggy.

Verizon femtocell

It’ll be available in Verizon stores and online starting January 25 for $249.99 — not a bad deal for Verizon, considering you’re saving them the expense of erecting a tower.

Not to be outdone, AT&T seems to still have femtocells somewhere on the front burner with surveys going out to subscribers asking whether they’d be interested in a “small, security-enabled cellular base station” they can call their own (via engadget).

Fierce wireless has this to say: What remains to be seen is what Verizon will charge for the femtocell device and the service plan. Sprint charges around $50 for the product and $15 per month for service. Verizon’s commitment, broader than Sprint’s thus far and the only one by a U.S. telco that has both local wireline and wireless networks, may well bring femtocell deployment to its tipping point in the U.S. market.

Is this a wireless technology you would use? I would, if it would mean cheaper, faster internet connections, download times and page loads.

When Apple announced it had chosen to go with Cingular (now AT&T) as the preferred carrier for its new iPhone, observers in the peanut gallery (myself included) blogged about whether Verizon Wireless, the Cadillac of cell phone carriers, would ever get a shot at it.

Turns out Verizon Wireless did have a shot at it.  Two years ago.

Verizon Wireless turned it down.

It seems Apple wanted a percentage of the monthly service fees, control over how and where the iPhones would be sold and control of the customer relationship.  Verizon would have none of it.

“We said no.  We have nothing bad to say about the Apple iPhone.  We just couldn’t reach a deal that was mutually beneficial”, according to Verizon Wireless vice president Jim Gerace. 

This raises some interesting questions about the deal Cingular has cut with Apple.  The most intriguing question:  Will one of Cingular’s most powerful distributors, Wal-Mart, get to distribute the iPhone along with the rest of Cingular’s lineup?  And how about Radio Shack?

As of now Cingular stores, Apple stores and their associated websites are the only places we know of that will have the iPhone for sure.

Apple, iPhone,  Cingular Wireless, AT&T, Verizon Wireless, Wal-Mart

[via USA Today] 

When Cingular Wireless bought the former AT&T Wireless for $41 billion a few years back and became the biggest cellular company in America, a lot of wireless wonks predicted the buyout would be a failure, and that Verizon Wireless would come back and catch Cingular.

Those wonks may still end up being right, at least about Verizon catching Cingular.  During the third quarter of 2006, for instance, Verizon added 1.9 million customers.  Cingular only added 1.6 million.  But Cingular is no failure these days.  With just-announced profit margins in the 40 percent range and a new Apple iPhone on its way in June, Wall Street loves Cingular and its parent company, which strangely enough is known as AT&T.

As Cingular adopts the AT&T brand, it would appear that the big are just getting bigger.  Verizon and Cingular are at each other’s throats over who’s best, particularly in terms of coverage.  T-Mobile. which has competitive signals in some, but not all, markets, can offer gimmicks like My Faves and tout the relative popularity of T-Mo’s cusomer service.

Carriers like Sprint, whose calling plans and data packages are some of the lowest in the industry, continue to struggle.  Customers find out the hard way that Verizon, with its reputation for best coverage, generally has the highest prices.  Cingular (AT&T) has poured millions into improving coverage and reputation the last few years, while generally undercutting Verizon’s prices.

As a result Cingular is enjoying the best of two worlds - it’s a “discount” carrier  (compared with Verizon, anyway) with coverage that has improved to the point that a lot of customers can’t tell the difference between Verzon and Cingular.  Until they look at their bills at the end of the month.

[via Business Week]

When the Super Bowl goes on TV February 4, say a little ‘thank you’ to what makes it all possible.

Advertising.

Sitting through the ads for Bud Light and Degree deodorant (or leaving the room while they’re on) pays all the bills (except your cable or satellite bill, if that’s how you get your local channels).

How would you feel if Bud Light or Degree deodorant or even prescription medications for ED would pay your wireless bill for you?

For now, the major cell phone carriers (Verizon, Cingular/AT&T, Sprint) will experiment with a few little banner ads on screen along with menus for information services and such.

Smaller carriers like Virgin Mobile and Amp’d will go further.  You promise to watch ads, the carriers will provide you with free content in exchange. 

Xero Mobile will go further, by handing out a million cell phones on college campuses - and giving the students 40 percent off their monthly service charge.. if they’ll sit and watch four commercials a day.

A company in Britain called Blyk will go even further - with totally free plans on phones paid for by ads.

What excites ad executives most about all this is that wireless phone advertising can reach a rich audience of 18-30 year olds that other advertising media (including radio & TV) don’t.

Craig Mathias of the Farpoint Group suggests eventually it may be much more than broadcast-style ads on your handset’s small screen.  How about replacing ringback tones with sponsor messages?  You’re waiting for your mom to answer the phone, and instead of the ring tone in your ear, a voice asks you to ask your doctor if Cialis is right for you.

When NetZero first started, it made a name for itself providing free Internet service in exchange for giving up a chunk of your screen for a banner ad.  What would you be willing to give up, if you could have wireless phone service cheap, or even free?

cell phone advertising, AT&T, Cingular, Sprint, T-Mobile, Verizon Wireless, Virgin Mobile, Amp’d

[via NY Times News Service, Computerworld]

Since Apple chose Cingular (AT&T) as its carrier to roll out the new iPhone, does that mean there will never be a CDMA version of the device, and that Verizon and Sprint will never be able to sell it?

Apple’s decision to produce iPhone as a GSM cellular device has a lot to do with GSM’s predominant position as the cellular transmission system of choice worldwide.  About 70% of the world’s cell phones are GSM.  Certainly Steve Jobs envisioned marketing the iPhone on a worldwide basis.  And although Cingular (AT&T), a GSM carrier, has won first crack at marketing the iPhone here, there’s a strong possibility that iPhones could eventually be sold unlocked, to be used on any GSM system carrier, or that T-Mobile could wind up selling them as well.

But will Apple eventually want to go after Verizon and “the network”?  There are several good reasons for him not to.  For one, the CDMA system is awfully carrier-specific.  Steve Jobs likes the idea of controlling his product’s destiny.  He no doubt appreciates the fact that, if Cingular (AT&T) decided to stop marketing iPhones, he could cut a deal with T-Mobile in a heartbeat.  The GSM system allows for handsets to go from one carrier to another with little hassle.

On the other hand one carrier’s CDMA handsets are pretty much “locked in” to that carrier.  And the CDMA carriers maintain a lot of control over features.  Verizon Wireless is well known for disabling features like certain Bluetooth capabilities on some of its handsets.  Handset manufacturers have very little say in the matter.  Steve Jobs wouldn’t like that. 

Then there’s the matter of Qualcomm’s royalties for the CDMA system, which Apple would have to pay in order to make CDMA handsets.  Look how Steve Jobs rebelled against the idea of settling with Cisco over the iPhone trademark.  I’m sure Jobs doesn’t want share anything he doesn’t have to, when it comes to iPhone, including royalties.

While Verizon Wireless appears to be on the outside looking in when it comes to the iPhone, potential partners are reaping a windfall even before the handsets are built.  Foxconn International Holdings in China, which makes handsets for Nokia and Motorola, saw its stock jump 4 percent in a single day Friday when it was rumored to be in line to manufacture some or all of the new iPhones. 

Apple, iPhone, Steve Jobs, Verizon Wireless, Sprint, GSM, CDMA, Qualcomm

[via International Herald Tribune] 

We wrote about Sprint discontinuing its Fair & Flexible calling plans for new customers around the first of the year.  The move became official Thursday with the announcement of Sprint’s new Power Pack pricing plans.  Other than the 7PM night & weekend rate start time, there’s no gimmick for Sprint to woo new customers - nothing like Cingular’s rollover minutes or T-Mobile’s My Faves.

Sprint also announced brutal news this week for its workforce.  That workforce will be shrinking by 5,000 this year.  It’s part of the hangover from Sprint’s merger with Nextel, which has been drawn out and painful.  The biggest challenge has been hanging onto Nextel customers.  They’ve been leaving for other carriers because Nextel hasn’t been able to improve service and coverage as quickly as those customers would like. 

Nextel has been fighting to keep those customers by introducing “hybrid” phones that allow Nextel customers to access Sprint’s voice network when Nextel’s own network is unavailable.  Sprint Nextel will also invest $8.5 billion in 2007 to add more cell sites and build out its WiMax wireless broadband network.  Chicago and Washington will be the first cities to get that new technology. 

But Wall Street doesn’t like Sprint Nextel’s overall outlook.  The problem for any wireless carrier is, once you lose a customer to another carrier, it takes two years for that customer’s contract to expire before you can hope to woo that customer back.  It’ll take Sprint $1.1 billion just to cover marketing and handset subsidies this year, to try to do it.  The fact that Sprint doesn’t usually get first crack at the flashy phones like BlackBerry’s Pearl or Apple’s iPhone doesn’t help.

Sprint Nextel and its employees are going through some difficult times.  We’d hate to see them cash it in and be merged with some other wireless company.  Even those of us who aren’t Sprint customers benefit from increased competition.  If 4 major carriers in the U.S. (Cingular, Verizon, Sprint Nextel, T-Mobile) were to become 3 carriers, the loss of competition would almost certainly lead to higher rates for us all.

Sprint, Nextel, Verizon Wireless, Cingular Wireless, AT&T, T-Mobile, Fair & Flexible, Power Packs, WiMax, Apple iPhone, BlackBerry Pearl 

[via CBR]

O.K., I promise I’ll try to sound just as excited about the MOTOKRZR K1 rollout on Cingular as I was about the iPhone.  Although even the Cingular Wireless people haven’t bothered to put out a news release on this.  (I guess they’re worn out from all the press hubbub that Steve Jobs’ little announcement caused for them.)

But if you head for Cingular’s website it’s there, all right.  It’s the official replacement for the V3 and it’s already appeared in a CDMA version for Verizon Wireless and Sprint.

When you get past the flashy, glossy front and dig into the phone you’ll find: 

The GSM version does NOT include 3G capability, but Motorola promises that this puppy is about as video-friendly as a non-3G phone can be.  It’s really all about multimedia capabilities.  And its slinky appearance, of course.  It may not be slinky enough to satisfy Steve Jobs, but then, what is?

Expect to spend $200 on this one after the usual incentives and 2-year commitment to Cingular.

Motorola, KRZR K1, Cingular Wireless, AT&T, iPhone, Steve Jobs, Verizon Wireless, Sprint

[via Motorola]

As the Consumer Electronics Show gets rolling in Vegas, this year’s big news on the wireless side appears to be the marriage of TV with cell phones.

We’ve already tipped you off to Samsung’s technology that would allow TV broadcasters to reach specially-equipped wireless phones with their existing digital broadcasts.  Now we’re hearing all about Verizon Wireless’ V CAST TV network.  And Samsung is playing a role in Verizon’s announcement as well, just keep reading.

Verizon’s offering will use MediaFLO wireless video technology to provide the “best of TV”.  But not just clips this time.  We’re talking entire episodes of programs from MTV, Nickelodeon, NBC, CBS and Fox.  ESPN and other network providers will likely join in by the time this service actually launches, sometime before the end of March.

Prime time shows will actually run in prime time, at the same time they’re available to home viewers.  Some of those shows will then be rerun several times, into the next day.  There will be commercials - sometimes the same commercials that home viewers see, sometimes not.  The capability to time-shift programs with your phone will not be available, at least not at the launch.

Two different handsets - the LG VX9400 (pictured) and the Samsung u620 - will be the first offerings capable of receiving V CAST TV network shows.  They’ll both have screens that let you watch in widescreen (landscape) format.

Pricing is not being announced, although Verizon makes clear that access to the V CAST TV Network will cost extra, on top of VZW’s current V CAST plans.

Verizon Wireless, V CAST TV Network, LG, Samsung, NBC, ESPN, Fox, MTV, Nickelodeon, CBS

[via Verizon Wireless, Phone News]

A Mobility Watch reader named Wes wondered why he couldn’t locate the Motorola SLVR L7c phone, which had been announced by Sprint as coming soon, back in November.  He’d gone to the Sprint website, and his local Sprint store, and saw nothing.

He was going to the wrong place.

Everybody knows that if you want a Sprint phone, you don’t go to Sprint.  You go to Best Buy.

Huh?

It turns out that the MOTOSLVR L7c is a Best Buy exclusive.  It is unavailable from Sprint stores or Sprint’s own website. 

Here’s the deal.  It would seem that Best Buy is so big, so important to Sprint’s marketing strategy, that Best Buy is able to convince Sprint to make certain handset models available at Best Buy exclusively.  These models won’t even be available at Sprint stores.  Probably not ever.

If you’re working for Sprint and being judged on how many cell phones you can sell, this ought to make you crazy.  Why should the big retailer down the street get an offering from your own company, that you yourself can’t offer?

Then again - Sprint needs to have a presence in the big retail stores, because its competitors are there.  Sprint has had more of a business-focused client base and it especially needs to reach out to Joe Consumer, who shops at Best Buy, Circuit City, etc.  Sprint probably has no choice but to offer exclusives like the MOTOSLVR to Best Buy in order to keep that relationship and get shelf space, alongside Verizon and Cingular.

And Sprint may make more money in the long run letting other retailers sell its phones, than it makes selling them in its own stores.

This is the “Wal-Mart” effect:  Give in to the demands of the mega-retailers, because in the end you can’t survive without them.

Whatever the case, it’s confusing for customers who don’t get to see a cellular provider’s entire product line without having to go to multiple websites or several different stores.

But once you find the product, the good news is, the price is often lower at the big retailer than it would have been at the company store.  The $59.99 deal Best Buy is offering for the MOTOSLVR from Sprint beats the heck out of the $99.99 price Cingular charges for its MOTOSLVR on Cingular’s own website.

Sprint, Best Buy, Cingular Wireless, Verizon Wireless, Motorola, MOTOSLVR L7c, Wal-Mart 

The Wall Street Journal helped generate buzz about a possible buyout of Alltel, the fifth largest cellular carrier in the U.S.  It seems that its stock is a relative bargain and the company has very little debt.  And private equity takeovers of public companies are all the rage right now.

A private equity takeover of Alltel would probably mean practically nothing to its 11 million-or-so mostly-rural subscribers. 

So why are we talking about it here?

Because when a buyout this big is talked about, competing companies start thinking about whether they should offer their own bids.  In this case, both Sprint and Verizon Wireless would be candidates, since they are the bigger service providers, and use the same CDMA technology as Alltel uses to route their calls. 

So Alltel customers might wind up as customers of Sprint or Verizon, whether they like it or not.

For Verizon Wireless, the biggest obstacle to acquiring Alltel might be the Federal Trade Commission, which might object to already-big Verizon getting much bigger.  Verizon would probably have to dump subscribers in some areas where it currently competes with Alltel.

For Sprint, the biggest obstacle to acquiring Alltel is the fact that the company has struggled after it acquired Nextel. 

For wireless customers generally, there’s a delicate balance between having enough competition to keep prices low, and having your provider be big enough to give you decent nationwide (or worldwide) coverage.  Alltel’s existing service and roaming agreements with Verizon Wireless seem to make its subscribers happy. 

So there are lots of good reasons why Alltel could and should remain independent - even if it does get swallowed up by private equity money. 

Alltel, Wall Street Journal, Verizon Wireless, Sprint, Nextel

[via Wall Street Journal]

Every time someone tells me they’re about to announce the “next big thing”, I say to myself, “Yeah, sure!”. 

Unless it’s coming from someone responsible for the last big thing.  Someone like Steve Jobs.

So here’s another “next big thing”.  And Stevie has nothing to do with it.

The concept:  In-car WiFi.

AutoNet Mobile, the “first ISP for cars”, is creating a black box device that’ll hook up to your car’s cigarette lighter, assuming it isn’t already crammed with other device chargers or portable GPS units.  It’ll get third-generation (3G) high speed broadband hookups via both Sprint and Verizon Wireless, and distribute them to all the laptops, handhelds and other WiFi devices in your car.

Price:  $399 for the box, $49 a month additional for the service (even if you already have a broadband card from Sprint or Verizon).

I have two takes on this.  Take one:  Unless you have three kids in the back, each with a laptop, wanting Internet access at the same time, getting a simple broadband card directly from the wireless carrier would seem to make more sense.  Hmmmmm.

Take two:  It’s reported that this system will be made available in some Avis rent a cars for $11 a day.  That could make some sense, for travelling business people.  And there will be mobile-based businesses which will get some use of it.  Along with police, fire, disaster relief and other government agencies that operate on the go.  One rolling WiFi unit could theoretically connect an entire remote command center.

This “next big thing” will be demonstrated - where else? - at the Consumer Electronics Show in Vegas next week.  Where so many “big things” happen.

Mobile WiFi, Verizon Wireless, Sprint, Consumer Electronics Show, AutoNet Mobile

[via AutoNet Mobile, ComputerWorld]

When we last spoke about Sprint’s impending Motorola Q handset rollout, we said it might happen in December, or it might happen in January.

Update:  Forget about December.  Think January.  Sprint now says its Motorola Q will be available online and through its business channels later this month.  If you want to see it in a Sprint retail store, think February.

Sprint’s version offers NFL Mobile capability, the Sprint Powerdeck and its On Demand web content services.  It’ll also have the same Microsoft push email, Windows Mobile features and EV-DO third-generation broadband capabilities as the Verizon Wireless Q has.

LAPTOP Magazine got a review version of the Sprint Moto Q and gripes that it runs a tad slower than Verizon’s, and that it’s not quite as snazzy as Cingular Wireless’ Samsung Blackjack.  But - and this is a big but - Sprint’s unlimited monthly data package at $15 is way cheaper than Cingular’s $39 or Verizon’s $40.  For Sprint customers looking for a smartphone, Laptop says it’s the ”best option for the money”. 

According to Laptop Sprint will sell the Q for about $200 with incentives and 2-year commitment, which is $50 more than Verizon wants for a similar Black Motorola Q, and $100 more than Verizon’s original silver Motorola Q. 

But with much-cheaper unlimited data prices, you’ll save big bucks in the long run with Sprint’s version.

Motorola Q, Sprint, Verizon Wireless

[via Sprint, Brighthand, Laptop]

We’ve heard about YouTube’s deal with Verizon Wireless to provide some of its user-created content over V-Cast-equipped handsets.  We’ve also heard that the content will be edited, which means a lot of the most compelling must-see stuff may be deemed inappropriate for a Verizon-branded service.

Enter MyWaves, Inc. which has just launched its own video service, by repackaging video content from other sites including YouTube, Comedy Central, CNN, VH1 and more.  Mywaves promises you the opportunity to create your own channel lineup along with automatic text message updates when new material you’ve chosen is available for viewing.

And unlike Verizon Wireless’ YouTube offering, there’s no charge for MyWaves’ service, other than the data download expenses involved.  Now the fine print - this service will work best with 3G (third generation) high speed data capable handsets, and they have to be capable of running Java applications.  But they’re signing up customers from the four major U.S. cellular carriers - Sprint, Verizon Wireless, Cingular Wireless, and T-Mobile.

The developers of MyWaves promise that instead of editing (or censoring) material, they’re grouping content into channels that will make it easier for you to get to see whatever it is you’re looking for, from the comfort of your 2 inch handset screen.  They claim it’s designed “similarly to the way Apple created iTunes”. 

Whatever.  We won’t argue with free stuff, this early in the new year.

MyWaves, Cingular Wireless, Verizon Wireless, YouTube, T-Mobile, Sprint, user created video, iTunes

[via Slashphone, MyWaves]

Verizon Wireless seems to be wanting to tackle the rugged portion of the mobile phone market. And they have sent out their warrior which they call the G’zOne Type V Rugged Phone. This one has been created by Casio for Verizon.

According to Verizon, this new mobile phone of theirs is going to be water-proof and would prove to be quite resistant against shock. In fact, they are targeting those people who want and need mobile phones but just cannot quite have those units that can be quite fragile. So who is Verizon targeting? Those who love extreme activities and sports can be considered as one group that the G’zOne Type V Rugged Phone can be marketed to.

Now Casio does say that the phone has been based and moulded out of the military standards for mobile phones. They have also even tried to copy military phones that can withstand extreme temperatures.

[Via Fredericksburg.com]