Real-time tweets from CTIA and Showstoppers, 7 October 2009 7 October 2009
Posted by Steve Blum in Tellus Venture Associates.Tags: AT&T, bitstream, fcc, FloTV, friendcaller, intermap, showstoppers, verizon, yahoo
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Julius Genachowski, FCC chair, CTIA keynote, commends ATT, Verizon for opening iPhone to Internet calls, adopting Android.
Four priorities at FCC, spectrum for 4G, remove obstacles to 4G, “fair” rules of road for Internet, empower consumers.
Ralph de la Vega, ATT CEO up now, thanks Genchowski, but warns of danger of interference.
Ralph saying US mobile industry most innovative, consumer friendly in world, damn we’re great.
Ralph descends into ATT sales pitch, time for a nap.
David Ko Yahoo Mobile SVP up now, he’s excited about Yahoo’s ads.
Ko hands off to tacky home page demo, abuse of a captive audience IMHO, l8r dood.
At Showstoppers event at CTIA show, saw some interesting companies and products.
FloTV is potential disruptor. Originally delivered streaming video for Verizon and ATT, now going direct to consumers.
FloTV will be selling something like 16 TV channels nationwide, via UHF channel 55, for $9 per month.
FloTV demonstrated branded mobile device with $249 price point, but no reason to think their market is limited to mobile subs.
FloTV essentially $9 per month basic cable with streaming news, sports & such. Get rest off air & by download, bye bye cable.
BOLT browser launched out of beta by Bitstream, heats up browser competition, further tilts market away from native apps.
Virgin Mobile showing first nationwide pay-go mobile broadband. $149 dongle, buy bandwidth in $10 or more increments.
Friendcaller.com showing browser to browser VOIP, not revolutionary but still a neat angle that’ll find a market.
Intermap has Accuterra service, runs on iPhone, links GPS data to downloaded maps of parks, wildlands, fine for tourists.
Talked to Zer01 Mobile, claims unlimited data & voice for $70/month, lots of holes in their story though.
Mobile devs aligning into 2 camps: those who do & don’t play nice with iPhone. Is iPhone the Apple II of smartphones?
Quick look around the press room at CTIA, nearly everyone using Macs, even the guy from PC World magazine.
Carriers can’t rock and roll 6 October 2009
Posted by Steve Blum in Tellus Venture Associates.Tags: apple computer, AT&T, CTIA, verizon
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AT&T’s Rob Hyatt and Verizon’s Ed Ruth spoke today about the music business at the Mobile Entertainment conference at the CTIA show in San Diego. Neither were upbeat about their success to date, and both seemed to be waiting for something to happen. They seemed to define that something as “innovation” in the market place, but what they really seemed to want are innovations that allow them to keep music downloads and streaming within their walled gardens.
Hyatt said that AT&T’s executives don’t find the business case for music to be compelling. While Ruth paid lip service to openness, or rather Verizon’s version of openness, he made it clear that Verizon intends to own the app and download stores on its network, and keep content revenue moving through their existing customer billing relationships.
More than anything, they seemed puzzled by the way the music industry itself works and the relationship that consumers have with it. A telling moment was when Ruth talked about their devices and download stores being on a par with Apple’s products and iTunes store. The point that he seemed to be trying to make was that it’s just a matter of time before they start eating into the iTunes market share.
Others attribute Apple’s dominance to its understanding of the app store ecosystem. It’s the combination of a developer community, the blessing and support of a major mobile carrier, compelling content and a pleasant, easily grasped user experience.
Apple is the application and content provider that has gone the furthest in busting out of the mobile carriers’ preferred business model. Money is more evenly divided amongst the players — developers, content owners, retail and carrier. More generous cash flow is an incentive for developers to put the iPhone at the top of the priority list, which means more applications are released for it, and more quickly. In turn, more apps lead to greater consumer interest, which translates into more sales. More sales means more money, and the cycle reinforces itself.
Meanwhile, the carriers wait for (there’s that word again) innovation. The content owners have to be innovative enough to accept the mobile carrier’s business model, and consumers have to be innovative enough to just do what they’re told. Success is just a matter of time. Could be a very long time.
Live from CTIA 1 April 2009: real time tweets 2 April 2009
Posted by Steve Blum in Tellus Venture Associates.Tags: CTIA, fierce wireless, kikkerland, newbay, omega mobile, oulu, rim, t-mobile, verizon
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CTIA head Steve Largent talking at keynote sez wireless a bright spot in dismal economy.
Tmobile-USA CEO Robert Dotson also upbeat, so far speech is bland banalities, invoking Obama, Charles Lindbergh.
Dotson showing video talking up open source, sez on indy devs to drive innovation.
Dotson links stimulus bill, wireless broadband, rural connectivity & tmobile, guess who’s lining up for government cash?
CTIA survey sez people don’t want more taxes or regulation or to pay higher mobile phone bills. No s*** Sherlock.
Ivan Seidenberg CEO Verizon up now, sez 6 hours TV & online use per day, only half hour wireless use means growth opportunity.
Seidenberg wants d-block spectrum assigned directly to locals, improve broadband for first responders he sez.
Mike Lazaridis co-CEO RIM on stage, talking about magnificent – magnificent! – convergence & opportunity.
Lazaridis selling Blackberries, not doing industry leader speech like Dotson & Seidenberg.
2 out of 3 good batting average for trade show keynotes, kudos to Verizon, Tmobile & CTIA.
Lazaridis just wasting my time, l8r dood.
Met with folks from Oulu Innovation, have turned a Finnish community into a test bed for wireless apps, services & hardware.
Oulu attracting R&D operations, offers a living laboratory for proving new hardware & software for all handset makers, not just Nokia.
Met with Newbay too, 6 year old company, 250 employees, sez it’s profitable. 100% of revenue comes from mobile carriers.
Newbay creates content cloud – “lifetime cloud services” – for mobile carriers, users can store photos, sms, address books for example.
Heading back out to CTIA show floor, looking for big news. Not a packed show – can call it comfortably well attended though.
Mood at CTIA not upbeat, not down either, more like “if this is as bad as it gets I can deal with it”.
Hot party tonight is Fierce Wireless‘ at Caesars, follows free drinks at on-floor happy hour, CTIA crowd feeling good.
Omega Mobile designs mobile apps, doing well, upgraded offices in Emeryville, @scgeeks: looking for iPhone devs.
Driinn is neat, low tech gadget by Kikkerland, turns charger into a wall mounted mobile phone cradle.
Cup holder technology for a mobile age
Maybe they meant stimulating conversation? 13 March 2009
Posted by Steve Blum in Tellus Venture Associates.Tags: AT&T, broadband stimulus, california emerging technology fund, cetf, fcc, NTIA, RUS, verizon
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Following a couple weeks of meetings and conference calls with industry, government and community people, and doing some reading, the broadband portion of the stimulus package isn’t looking so stimulating…
- The real fight is on now. Lobbying groups are fully engaged as the NTIA determines the scoring criteria it will use. The process will continue over the next two to three weeks. There are more hearings scheduled for Washington, plus two others next week, one in Las Vegas and one in Flagstaff. Expect wonks from all sides to parachute in, trying to tweak details and definitions to their advantage. Same story for the RUS money.
- The deck seems stacked against urban community broadband projects. The focus at this point is on two criteria, 1. job creation and 2. reaching unserved and underserved areas. In that order. Big city interests want to equate “underserved” with “unaffordable”, but even if they are successful, they’re pitching jobs tomorrow against jobs today.
- There are three kinds of jobs that could be created via broadband process: one-time system construction, ongoing system operations, and second order effects where the availability/affordability of broadband creates and/or preserves jobs down the road.
- The consensus within the industry is that priority will go toward construction jobs, because those will get money into peoples hands and then into the economy most quickly. I wrote about this subject earlier.
- At the state level, the expectation is that substantially all of the NTIA money will go through the states. That’s probably not realistic. The broadband portion of the stimulus bill, unlike nearly all of the rest of the bill, does not require the money to flow through the states.
- Community and municipal people think that taking the state out of the funding stream means the NTIA will direct more money directly to community projects. That possibility becomes likelier if the current lobbying efforts directed at NTIA’s scoring criteria are successful. But the prevailing industry view is that the reason the NTIA money doesn’t necessarily flow through states is because the big incumbent carriers, like AT&T and Verizon, won the day in Congress and will be at the head of the line.
- The prevailing industry view also assumes that some money will go to community projects, if only for appearances sake. If so, cities could be in line for a bit of funding if a concrete job creation case can be made.
- The California Emerging Technology Fund has identified a substantial amount of money – more than $60 billion – that the stimulus bill directs towards broadband-related technology projects, with health-related IT projects at the top of the list. Most of that money ($55 billion? More?) will flow through the states, and CETF and the California governor’s office are well positioned to claim a nice chunk. The $7.2 billion of NTIA and RUS money could slipt away from them, though.
- Everyone agrees that the process is moving quickly, that the fact that several key positions in the new administration are unfilled makes the process very difficult, and that presenting a unified message, if not speaking with one voice, is the key to being heard before the scoring criteria are set. The game could be all but over by the end of March or the beginning of April.
- The FCC is in the act as well. It’s planning to come up with a national broadband strategy by the end of May. I think it’s a mistake to think that it will have much influence on NTIA and RUS grant decisions. The grants, and the process of making the grants, will create jobs, or so the Obama administration thinks. The FCC process will create or save jobs — mostly for lobbyists, lawyers and other Beltway bandits, but a job is a job, I guess. It’s about jobs, not grand broadband policy or even coherent management.
The mantra so far is “fast, fast, fast”. Fair enough. But everyone will want a say, then everyone will want a say regarding what everyone else said. It would be nice if the serious money actually started to flow by this Summer, or even by Fall. It would be nice. But I’m not counting on it.
Live from CES, 8 January 2009 8 January 2009
Posted by Steve Blum in Tellus Venture Associates.Tags: CES, consumer electronics show, echostar, Intel, iptv, municipal wireless, Nokia, panasonic, verizon, wirelesshd
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- WirelessHD press conference. Certification ready. 60GHz standard to link devices inside the same room to HDMI standards.
- Clear thinker: Paul Liao, CTO Panasonic. Uses Maslow’s hierarchy to rate & rank tech features.
- Clear, though, that there’s still a battle to be fought over how to split up content and application revenue in the wireless world.
- Recognition that consumers will have lots of devices, but don’t want to pay lots of money to connect them all. There’s hope.
- Went to Wireless Meets CE panel. Nokia, Intel, Panasonic, Verizon represented. Vague consensus: 1 sub fee/device model will “evolve”.
- Heading to LVCC, bus line wasn’t long at all.
- Charlie Ergen: kids love IPTV & it will spread from there. Complicated now but just wait.
- DISH will sell 1080p downloads via Internet.
- ETC pres Mark Jackson keynotes DISH news conf, doesn’t say “satellite” once. It’s about TV!
- IPTV is now an integrated feature in mainstream TV products, services & platforms.
- SlingGuide puts personal content search & control online.
- SlingLoaded distributes video: TVs, PCs, iPhone, car, whatever.
- EchoStar intros STB with IPTV, new “SlingLoaded” navigation across all video sources.
- Waiting for EchoStar press conf to start.
- At Sands, show feels empty so far.
WirelessHD tranceivers
Sony netbook, sorry, Lifestyle PC 7 January 2009
Posted by Steve Blum in Tellus Venture Associates.Tags: australia, lifestyle pc, netbook, new zealand, sony, sony ericsson, t-mobile, tmobile, verizon, vodafone
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Here’s what it looks like…
The Sony netbook, sorry, Lifestyle PC
Sony also has a “Webbie” cam. HD video, $170 when it hits the market in March. There’s a $200 version available now, but not as cute.
Sony Webbie Cam -- the cute model
Live from CES Press Day, 7 January 2009 7 January 2009
Posted by Steve Blum in Tellus Venture Associates.Tags: australia, CES, cisco, ericsson, flacks, german, Intel, japanese, lg, linksys, microsoft, netgear, new zealand, sony, t-mbile, tagolog, tmobile, toshiba, verizon, vodafone
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Last to first, real time tweets from Las Vegas…
- Bill Gates is the UrGeek. Love or hate him, he’s an original with historic scope. Heroic in classical sense. Ballmer…
- Listening to Steve Ballmer, Microsoft CEO. Microsoft will rule the world. Honest.
- Sony shows great respect for mobile telecom carriers. Has WiFi Walkman in pipeline, but no 3/4G product that would cause consternation for Sony Ericsson’s mobile carrier customers.
- Sony sez not in negotiations for NZ/Australia mobile carrier deals for netbook, sorry Lifestyle PC, but GSM deals in Europe are locked.
- Even so, Sony netbook, sorry Lifestyle PC, is way cool. 600 grams, 20 cm screen. Uses Windoze OS but has a Linux bios & can boot either way.
- Sony intros netbook, sorry Lifestyle PC. $900. Includes wireless data card. Verizon deal for US, T-Mobile, Vodafone in EU. Nothing in New Zealand or Australia. Sorry, mate.
- Of course, Sony is cautious. Sony Ericsson is in bed with, and enthusiastically servicing, mobile telecom carriers.
- For CES, Sony divides its business into “in-home” & “out-of-home”. But out-of-home is mobile carrier-friendly, not consumer-focused.
- A couple words of Tagalog got me the sympathy of the bartender, though.
- My Japanese & German is an advantage at CES, Italian & Spanish no help.
- Lots of consumer-grade PR minions at what are supposed to be trade press-class events. Frustrating.
- Snuck a peek at Intel booth, heavy on mobile Internet & 4G, at least the WiMAX flavor.
- Cisco likes femtocell technology, puts it in the same bucket as WiFi. Interesting perspective.
- Steve Ballmer is tonight’s keynote, but here’s the advance scoop: Microsoft Bob is back!
- Apple it’s not but it’s a start for Cisco. They’ll need a lot of help though.
- Linksys by Cisco new consumer brand strategy, paying attention to product design now
- People started leaving, slid in for Q&A. Service provider guy talking about making networks video aware.
- Cisco PR kiddies say look it up on their website later. Duh.
- Cisco press conf overfull. Sent to watch a live web feed. Didn’t work. What business are they in?
- Line for Toshiba press conf too long. One way to manage reduced attendance is to book a smaller room.
- Sharp showing big displays. Really big.
- Line for Toshiba press conference out of control. Must be giving away free stuff.
- Netgear also showing IPTV player and home media center. Category is getting crowded, not much secret sauce anymore.
- Netgear has no deals with mobile carriers but sez they’ll appreciate increased data usage. Not convincing.
- CE guys determined to hang gizmos on mobile data networks: weeds in the walled garden!
- Streaming TV + tethered wifi router = bandwidth hell for carriers. CE guys are on the march!
- Netgear introing wifi router with slot for 3G data modem card. Sez 1 use is streaming TV.
- Skipped main event, checked out stuff afterwards. LG showing netbook, usual mobile phones, nice. Just nice.
- Line for LG press conf already strung out at 7:30am
