Mobile Solutions CI

RIM's co-CEOs to step down | Mobile - CNET News

Research In Motion's co-chief executives have resigned their positions as part of a management shuffle, the company announced this evening.

via news.cnet.com

Balsillie and Lazaridis are stepping down to be replaced by their COO. It must be very hard for them to make this move. It will be interesting to see what affect this has on the decision making within the company. At the senior level it still feels as if RIM is the only one who doesn't understand how far behind the market it is. Will that change overnight? Or do they need leadership from outside the company to cope?

This was the one move they had to leverage for a statement acknowledging a need to change (more to the analyst, carrier, and IT segments than end users). However the strong "business as usual" statements ignored that opportunity.

As RIM stands now it's hard to believe they exit 2012 a standalone. Given this will not be an attempt to revitalize the brand or product portfolio it looks more like housecleaning in advance of a deal.

CES 2012 Day One Device News

Here is my wrapup of the kickoff of CES from a device angle.

Nokia: Dominating the early CES news cycles, Nokia’s Lumia 900 for AT&T.

HTC

• Titan II, an LTE Windows Phone Mango device for AT&T. 4.7" Super LCD display, 16MP wide-angle camera, DLNA and HDMI-out. MSM8255 at 1.5GHz, 9.9mm

Motorola:

• VZW LTE Droid 4 – a slide QWERTY with dual-core 1.2 GHz processor, 1 GB RAM, an 8 megapixel camera w/1080p video, on Android 2.3
• Razr Maxx, a fat (almost 9mm) Razr with extended battery.

Samsung:

• Galaxy Nexus will be one of Sprint’s first LTE phones later this year.
• The Galaxy Note is heavily featured.
• Samsung is also launching Galaxy Tab, it’s 7.7” Android tablet, for Verizon’s LTE network.

LG:

• The Spectrum, a VZW device with IPS screen technology LG has demo’d for us. The Spectrum has a 4.5” 1280 x 720 display, runs Android 2.3, with a 1.5 GHz dual-core Snapdragon processor. The 4.5 inch display is matched perfectly to the 16:9 aspect ratio -- very long phone. It’s bundled with an exclusive ESPN deal to stream full HD 720p video clips to the device through ESPN’s ScoreCenter app.
• Viper, launching on Sprint, an “eco-friendly” phone with extremely efficient charger and made from 35 percent recycled plastics.

Huawei:

• Ascend P1 S, 6.68mm, 4.3 inches Super AMOLED qHD display with Gorilla Glass ( 960 x 540 resolution), TI OMAP 4460 at 1.5 Ghz running Android 4.0 . 8MP camera with LED flash and auto focus, 1.3MP front facing camera. HD video recording at 1080p and HDMI and DLNA. 1GB RAM/ 4 GB ROM with 1800 mAh battery. No carrier partners announced. Target price around $400.
• Ascend P1, same device with 7.9mm thickness and smaller battery.

Pantech: Pantech’s Burst is an Android phone for the budget-conscious, it will launch on AT&T’s network for under $50 with a contract.

 

The "Windows Phone is Superior" debate

People ask me all the time why, if I think Windows Phone is such an excellent product, sales appear so lackluster.  My belief is Microsoft’s approach with WP7 has a impedance mismatch with the carriers & device manufacturers while Google’s approach reduces friction with carriers & device manufacturers at the expense of end users. The question is: will end-user dissatisfaction with Android’s inconsistencies and fragmentation be strong enough to allow the better product to succeed.

via ceklog.kindel.com

I was very interested to read this blog post. The WindowsPhone "Metro" UI is certainly an interesting piece of work. My personal opinion is that after using it in a couple of incarnations I regard it as evolutionary not revolutionary.

However, the main point of this post and most insider debate within mobile is whether WP still has a chance not how effective the UI is.

And every time I read a post like this I think not. I don't mean to knock a great article from a thoughtful writer. What does surprise me is that this commentary was not an internal debate which got digested and incorporated into Microsoft's mobile planning about five years ago. And if not, that two years ago the writing on the wall would have forced it.

Instead we still see from both inside Microsoft and from their actions a willful ignorance of the market systems they operate in. Operator channels, retail reps, national chains, distributors, end consumers, technology blogs and writers, chipset manufacturers, hardware manufacturers, security threats, SarbOx- and HIPPA-style regulations all feed into the market system that a mobile player must align to succeed.

If you don't have a systematic understanding and approach to this complex and hyper world you will be dead. Which translates to about 3% market share.

Spreadtrum pushes Android into sub-$50 space - Rethink Wireless

Designs based on these platforms have already been though the China Mobile testing process, says Spreadtrum, and should appear in commercial products as soon as this month, with about 12 vendors, mainly low cost Chinese manufacturers, expected to use the chips.

via www.rethink-wireless.com

The Android team will see a key goal met as the chipset portion of the mobile ecosystem flattens this year to produce a $50 smartphone.

Product innovation cannot outpace the willingness of manufacturers to spend their way into the lower cost tiers of mobile markets. Winning share in 2012 and 2013 will require innovating on business model, not hardware features.

Verizon stitches up rivals with shock cableco deal - Rethink Wireless

But even sweeter for Verizon is that Comcast, TWC and Brighthouse will also stop reselling Clearwire's 4G services in mid-2012, presumably to ride on the larger carrier's LTE network. Despite all the competitive issues between Verizon and the cablecos, they have mutual interests too, and there are extensive cross-marketing arrangements in their new deal. These will weaken the cornerstone of Sprint's strategy to survive as a major third player - its wholesale business, in which it has traded on the fact it did not have the same conflicts of interest with cable as Verizon or AT&T, with their extensive wireline broadband and TV interests

via www.rethink-wireless.com

Verizon's crafty deal was the news of the week for the US wireless market. If Verizon truly moves to supplying wholesale service at competitive rates they will further carve out the market into the highest and lowest segments, owning the high end and collapsing mid-tier players and offers.

Microsoft's Shrinking Window For Tablets: Its Fifth-Mover Product Strategy Is Late - Forbes

market dynamics are rapidly altering consumers’ attitudes and needs. Most significantly, consumers’ interest in Windows tablets is plummeting. In Q1, 2011, Windows was by far the top choice of consumers – while no touch-first Windows tablets existed, 46% of U.S. consumers yearned for one. By Q3, 2011, that picture had changed dramatically: Windows was no longer #1 in choice preference, and interest among consumers dropped to 25%. Microsoft has missed the peak of consumer desire for a product they haven’t yet released.

via www.forbes.com

A "product" view of tablets. While the market may be moving quickly, is it possible to assess a product without even knowing fully the experience it will deliver?

Why Verizon needs AT&T-Mo to just disappear — Tech News and Analysis

The biggest threat to Verizon’s future business isn’t AT&T; it’s the FCC and other regulators

via gigaom.com

A brutal truth--what does it say for the US wireless market when monopoly pricing power is the only perceived competitive threat?

This indicates why disruptive pricing and revenue models will blossom in 2012 and 2013. Alternative consumption and pricing are the big levers which will move the market next, as product technology surpasses consumer needs.

Grading the top 10 U.S. carriers in the third quarter of 2011 - FierceWireless

As the third-quarter reporting season comes to a close, it's time to start parsing the information to see which carriers slipped and which managed to get ahead

via www.fiercewireless.com

Great compendium of subscriber adds, losses, and ending state across US carriers heading into the 2011 holiday season.

Android Crushed the Smartphone Competition Last Quarter | Gadget Lab | Wired.com

The Gartner report also notes that Windows Phone’s market share dropped, from 2.7 percent in the third quarter of 2010 to only 1.5 percent this year. Windows didn’t have much going on in the summer, with the spoils of its partnership with Nokia, namely the Nokia Lumia 800, only beginning to gain some prominence this quarter (unfortunately, the phone won’t even be available in the US until 2012).

via www.wired.com

Despite an industry-wide desire for an alternative to the Android and iOS duopoly, it increasingly seems that WP will struggle to be that alternative. At least in handsets.

Wireless in the third quarter of 2011 - FierceWireless

wireless industry perform in the third quarter of 2011

via www.fiercewireless.com

Great recap of handset manufacturers and carriers reported Q3 results.