The Narrative

Read/WriteWeb on: Main Themes of Internet Companies at CES

Posted on by charlie

Great CES meta-reporting from Richard McManus.

I see more mobile (device connectivity, partnerships, action!). Of course.

Link: Read/WriteWeb: Main Themes of Internet Companies at CES.

There’s been a ton of CES news to digest these past few days, especially in the past 12 or so hours. Yahoo released Go and CEO Terry Semel made a speech at CES; Google released Google Pack, Google Video Player and Google Video Store; Larry Page did a speech at CES. As I trawled through all the news – thanks in particular to Engadget and PaidContent for the excellent coverage – I tried to distil some of the themes emerging. Here’s a starter for 10, which I’d love to get peoples comments on…

The Narrative

A VC on: Jealousy

Posted on by charlie

Indeed, indeed.

Link [via Hugh]: A VC: Jealousy.

The Telco’s had their chance back in the mid 90s to develop all these value added services to run on their networks.  They didn’t do it.  They bought back stock, built golf courses, defrauded their shareholders, took on enourmous debt, and generally did everything other than take advantage of the incredible opportunity that they had with the coming of the Internet.  Bottom line – the screwed up.

Jarvis calls the Telcos "robber barons" and Om Malik calls this hairbrained scheme a "chimera".  I had to look that up.  Om’s either calling this money grubbing scheme a "fire breathing she monster" which sounds about right, or a "creation of the imagination" which it clearly is.

have two words for it:

Dream On

Strategy

Wap Review points out: Google acquires Reqwireless

Posted on by charlie

Another Google purchase in mobile.

I knew Reqwireless from way back in 2002 or something like that – the really early days of Series 60. It was the first real browser for Series 60 (the better browsers didn’t show up until the 6600).

The article below has some thoughts about why they were bought out, but I think it has to do with creating a small app that allows Google to serve ads. Maybe an email client for Gmail or a browser (as Wap Review suggests). I do not think it’s an attempt to create something like Yahoo!Go. First, Google doesn’t integrate their own products too well. Second, Google doesn’t have any phone-web integration, only app (cool, but not integrated). Third, I don’t see Google holding on to customers the same way Yahoo tries. Google wants eye-balls with thumbs (this is mobile) that will click.

I don’t know why Google Local Mobile didn’t already integrate into their ads network. It has the UI and the users is already trained to see adds there. But, I expect Reqwireless to be used in services that will be excuses for more ads, not smoe benficial service for user data.

What this does do is suggest that many more cool downloadable apps are still to come from Google.

What do you speculate? Do it now before we truly find out. 🙂

Link: Google acquires Reqwireless at Wap Review.

One stop shopping for all your mobile needs – easy for users and a potential goldmine for content providers like Yahoo AND Google. Adding to my belief that this sort of all in one client-server mobile portal is what Google has in mind with the Reqwireless technology is Reqwireless’ other products; EmailViewer, HotViewer and GotMailViewer all email apps using Reqwireless’ client-server architecture. EmailViewer is the general purpose version for POP and IMAP while HotViewer and GotMailViewer which are for HotMail and AOLMail respectively.

The Narrative

mojo on: How to misuse data in 5 easy steps

Posted on by charlie

Mojo goes deeper into the data I mentioned earlier. It didn’t sit well with me, but I put on my own filters, so it passed with little impact. Read what she has to say.

Link: How to misuse data in 5 easy steps | 1/5/2006 | mobile jones.

The fact that Nokia is under represented in the US market isn’t new information, but use of that fact to support the absurd assertion that this somehow proves that Motorola offers a superior user experience, or even that the handset alone determines the user experience for downloading mobile content is incredible.  There seems to be a glaring absence of accounting for the difference in operator portals.  The layout of a portal in locating information or applications to download would certainly play a substantial part in the user experience.  What about the users?  Were they all beginners, or intermediates or some mix?  We don’t know.  So the conclusions drawn in the article are clearly flawed and lacking validity or logic.

Strategy

One more thing: Yahoo goes further with mobile

Posted on by charlie

I forgot one thing about the app that shocked me and others are starting to comment – the app is huge. Also, installation takes a while and if you look at the install log, you’ll see a bunch of mini-apps there – recipe for disaster.

I never had the memory issues that others were having, though.

I guess we’re cutting close to what the device can actually do. Sigh. Need to wait for better devices.

Enough. I could go on for a bit on this. But, now I remember one of the main reasons I don’t use it.

Link: Lifeblog: Yahoo goes further with mobile.

I’ve played with the Series 60 Yahoo!Go app and it’s pretty nifty, especially if you have a Yahoo account. It does a really fast and good job of synching calendar and contacts info, among other nice tricks.

Strategy

Googirama on: SMS seen as growth engine for mobile industry

Posted on by charlie

Ha! Good enough for me.

Last week I was doing some biz analysis for a web company and my mind get gong back to SMS – SMS – SMS. I almost felt foolish thinking of it, despite always harping about how it still has plenty room to grow.

Well, CTIA is not a shabby establishment. And they agree.

Link: SMS seen as growth engine for mobile industry – Googirama: Mobile Blogging Tools Technology Commentary.

Recent research from  CTIA predicts SMS growth from 900 billion in 2005 to over 1.5 trillion by 2008. Not only will this force price cuts but companies who enable more related services especially in the areas of advertising, entertainment and business communication stand to benefit most. SMS as alerting tools for potential credit fraud and mobile blogging services for personal/dating sites are just some areas expected to experience heavy growth.

Face it: it’s the only ‘data service’ making decent money.

The Narrative

mojo on: Linking top phones to mobile data usage

Posted on by charlie

Debi has some commentary on some numbers by M:metric.

She also highlights a decrease in mobile data usage from April to November. That’s troubling if true, since there are a ton more subscribers in November than April, so in numerical terms the decrease might be quite significant. Hmm…

Link: Linking top phones to mobile data usage | 12/29/2005 | mobile jones.

The report is interesting on a number of points.  First, market share by manufacturer and top models are identified.  The top two manufacturers with the greatest install base are Motorola, and in second place, Nokia.    The single most "used" mobile phone is the Nokia 6010 which M:metrics points out is a device commonly associated with pre paid plans and lower spending.   Note:  the phone doesn’t have a camera.