We have two very relevant articles from the online world, discussing how people use technology, and today’s subject is subject is cell phones. Or, perhaps more appropriately, as Apple and Nokia appear to view things, the real subject is human behavior.
That's about when I found another article on another subject altogether. Time to post.
From mywire.com, the BBC reports that Nokia spends a great deal of time looking at mobile trends worldwide, from how people use their phones, to where they keep them (in their pockets, bags, with “Hello Kitty” style bangles, or without). I try to keep mine from hitting the pavement, or, as in the case of my last Nokia phone, away from the washer. Hot soapy water and GSM don’t mix – although the SIM card came out of the immersion ok.
Apple, meanwhile, intends the iPhone to function as, well, a fully functioning web tool, loaded with its Safari browser, rather than function primarily a phone or music player. Industry experts are watching to see whether the new device, which reportedly has had over a million pre-launch inquiries, has the effect of hurting sales of the iPod – which has passed the 100 million unit mark.
Waiting in the wings, of course, are Nokia, Samsung, and everybody else who makes a music player and phone combo. It just has to be tough to make predictions about what the market will look like in 3 to 15 years (the Nokia team’s time frame), or to divine how people hailing from very different backgrounds, and beyond national borders, live their lives, confident in your ability to do what every other heavy hitting mobile device maker thus far has failed to do: blend the phone + music device (+ mobile web experience).
There’s a lot riding on it, but given that design and peoples’ awareness of design is so much a part of our heavily-marketed-to daily existence, I wouldn’t bet against the iPhone. Neither, for that matter, will AT&T Wireless: retail store employees expect a wave of traffic just generated by that device, and don’t plan on taking any time off in June.
Here’s the countertrend – as technology makes it easier for people to connect with other people anywhere in the world, “beyond national borders,” details do matter – another news report from yesterday has it that, after Friday, US based VoIP provider Vonage will be banned from operating in South Korea, given the Korean government’s decision that VoIP is a telephony service, and must be licensed as such.
Given their respective national commitments to high speed network deployments, both wireline and wireless, it is no surprise that companies road test new products in Japan and Korea. Japanese consumers toy around with some pretty sophisticated technologies, so it really should come as no surprise that a top 10 list of the “world’s best cell phones” includes a good number from Japan.
So goes Motorola: following full page ads for the company’s new RAZR 2 in a business publication, I spied an article in the Wall Street Journal describing the anticipated launch, capturing capture Moto’s efforts to regain the momentum behind the original RAZR. As the most popular cell phone in history, selling over 100 million units, the RAZR’s stylish, slim looks propelled Motorola’s success at the expense of its always jostling rivals.
Then yesterday AP reported that Motorola intended an initial “soft” launch for the RAZR2 (V8) in Korea in June, a month ahead of the worldwide launch in July. Other manufacturers are not standing still. A competitor and erstwhile partner, also with a 100 million unit seller under its belt – Apple with its iconic iPod – will put its much vaunted design acumen on the line with a new music player + phone, while Samsung’s “innovative, super-slim, two-faced” “iPhone fighter” (the M620 UpStage) was introduced at the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association (CTIA) show this year.
The more the merrier, as they say.
Now, I am not a network engineer, but any phone that comes with a 300 page instruction manual is likely not only to have greater capabilities but also place greater demands on a carrier’s network, than, say, the clunker model I used on that same network several years ago. Meanwhile, on the network side as well, carriers press vendors to rewrite the laws of physics every day.
And the vendors, of course, get the job done: I was astonished to hear a colleague's characterization of the technical capabilities of a certain piece of edge equipment - Ciena's CNX-5 Plus - which he described as being slightly taller than a credit card is wide, but capable of cramming 24 Mbps per user times 96 users per shelf, for bandwidth hungry consumers. It is available today.
I’m still astonished, and mindful of what the market can do, given widespread consumer adoption and content availability, guided by the right regulatory policies. As my colleague aptly said, the broadband ball game is about creating "more coverage and more capability." It’s a tricky balance to achieve, and subject to more than a little speculation and discussion, which provides one of the unseen moving parts of a complex machine heading in the right direction.
The Wall Street Journal reported this week that the Dolan family’s deal for Cablevision private will make it the third cable company to have gone private in recent transactions – Cox Communications and Insight Communications are the other two big names.
While Cablevision’s franchise in the New York City surrounds will no doubt be subject to intense competition from Verizon, also selling telephone, broadband and video services over its newly upgraded network, Cablevision’s home improvements are already in place and generating cash.
Intense competition can be a good thing: the Journal also reported earlier this week that Verizon planned to offer package specials that include landline service to retain basic phone customers; it might be a good idea to pay attention to specials that arrive in the mail, or to go ahead and make that call.
Cablevision, the Journal reports, provides phone service to 27% of the homes in its network area, a higher rate than achieved by other cable companies, which means the other companies are going to have to work harder (offer more deals or claim better service) to pry customers from telephone companies.
In discussions centered upon the US global broadband standing, there are those who voice worry about falling behind other countries, say, with two central offices, which, when both are outfitted with DSLAMs, ring up 100% broadband deployment, I like to focus on more positive things, like the nice little upgrades and special deals tussle going on between the telcos and cablecos, a market feature somewhat unique in the world communications arena.
A DSLAM stands for Digital Signal Line Access Multiplexer - basically a modem bank in the network that speaks to your broadband modem. As a peer said recently about modems - "if you can hear it, you don't have broadband."
I think I’ll make that call to Verizon. The telcos, of course, follow in the wake of cable’s network upgrades, but we’d probably have to thank a wee bit of a regulatory dispute in telcoland for that, lasting about 8 years or so before things actually began to simmer down, if you choose to characterize the period following the FCC’s deregulatory measures as “quiet” – so maybe I should use other words or phrases, such as “stable,” or “clarity,” or “known quantity.”
