Posts Tagged ‘Verizon’
Right now Apple has the corner on the Smartphone – 40 percent market share, to be exact in the US alone. Apple also has the corner in Applications – 99.4 percent of Applications sold are from the iPhone. So if January 27th comes and they announce a 4G phone in CDMA format working on Verizon, they will have officially pushed the envelope and poised themselves to monopolize the mobile phone industry. That could have a horrible reverse impact for Apple as the FCC will then step in.
It is no secret the Apple iPhone is the device to beat. It pretty much wrote the book on smartphones – taking over what Microsoft and Palm couldn’t accomplish. The only real change in the device was the switch from EDGE to 3G, and that became an added feature – have an underlying network to catch what 3G might not.
Remember those rumors surrounding the 2nd gen iPhone? People would notice changes, like a “3G” option in the settings, shipment transfers of 2 Megapixel cameras and 3G chips. The rumors flew back then before the announcement. Just like today with this upcoming announcement.
But there is one rumor that – if true – may hurt Apple more than help. If this rumor is true, the phone can dominate in the top 2 U.S. phone carriers’ markets. It could shift the power and give Apple at least 55% of market overnight – with a possible reality of 75% by Q3.
Step in the FCC.
Not to mention step in Palm and any Android phone maker. Example: Motorola Droid is a great phone in its own right. They found a good place in Verizon. Apple moving over could crush them. Verizon just took the Palm Pre Plus from Sprint. If Verizon was to also get the iPhone, do you think Palm won’t look for legal action?
This would definitely cause companies to complain, just like they did with Microsoft in the 90’s and IBM in 1969 with the Sherman Antitrust Act. Complaints that the FCC cannot ignore.
I suppose you could move the iPhone completely from AT&T to Verizon, but that might just cause a lot of issue with customers. It would definitely bring lawsuits from other phone companies that have special contracts with Verizon. It would definitely be a mess that not even Apple would want to get into.
Now to change gears a bit – if the tablet was to go to Verizon, thinking might be different. One would guess it’s a great idea– iPhone on AT&T and the tablet either on Both, or just on Verizon. Then again, there might be a rift between Apple and AT&T and people might not get the tablet if it means having 2 separate contracts.
Another thing to keep in mind – An iPhone takes a lot of wireless resource. Even though a possible 4G option is upon us, the infrastructure is just not there just yet.
Putting more 3G and 4G devices out there means you need to have more tower coverage. It’s not like you can put one tower out there and expect a 250k population to easily access it on a constant basis. Some cities like Chicago or New York – who have over 1 million people – would never be able to keep a phone connection.
So it goes to say if you were to switch a popular phone that takes up twice the resource as other phones, you might find that the full 3G coverage wouldn’t amount to a hill of beans if it’s oversaturated.
Could Verizon handle an iPhone revolution? It’s got coverage, but not speed. Slower download means someone could log more time on the phone just waiting for results. The sooner someone checks email, the sooner they get off the phone and move to something else. Then the next person has the connection to get their stuff done.
While it’s not what people would want, the best solution would be to keep the iPhone on AT&T and have the Tablet on both networks. A limited multitasking phone that takes up twice the resource in a GSM environment seems to be the best fit. It would also keep market share to a reasonable level and a partnership in good standings.
Oh yes. ONE MORE THING: While CDMA phones take less power, CDMA seems to “chatter” more, therefore taking more battery power than a GSM phone. If you think your iPhone battery is horrible now, just wait and see how fast the battery drains on a CDMA/3G iPhone. Even the Droid’s battery does not last a whole day if used in the same fashion as the iPhone.
That is, unless Apple and the chip makers came up with a remarkable new technology to keep the power consumption low. I suppose it could happen…
1992 – Technically a Smartphone is a Personal Digital Assistant. You can thank John Scully, CEO of Apple on that term. He coined it in reference to Apple joining the market by years end.
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Other Historical Events in Technology
- Mac OS X is unveiled
- Ask.com reorganizes – CEO Jim Lanzone steps down
- Verizon finishes acquisition of Alltel for $27.5 Billion
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No Comments »AT&T has dropped its lawsuit against Verizon’s ad campaign which compares AT&T’s 3G network unfavorably with Verizon’s. This was in response to a judge’s ruling that said, according to Bloomberg (linked above), when stripped of the legalese, that AT&T didn’t have a prayer of winning:
AT&T filed a notice of dismissal today in federal court in Atlanta, less than a month after U.S. District Judge Timothy Batten denied AT&T’s request to stop the ad campaign and said AT&T was unlikely to prevail in the case. Verizon Wireless dropped a related lawsuit over the matter.
In last month’s ruling, Batten said that while the ads, which use maps to compare the companies’ so-called third- generation networks, might be “sneaky” or “clever,” they are “literally true.” A hearing for AT&T to again ask the court to prohibit the ads had been scheduled for Dec. 16.
In return, Verizon dropped its suit asking a Federal Court to declare its ad campaign to be “truthful and accurate.”
This week we talk about Blogworld and the switch of networks.
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Here are your 5 tech things you should know for this week:
- Apple PC
- Password Hack
- Why Apple walked from US Chamber of Commerce
- AT&T and Verizon
- Will Twitter take things to next level?
No Comments »Contrary to prognostications, the wired telephone is not dead. One of my kids does not have a physical phone line and relies only on the cell, but the others are still wired. And so am I. If the cell phone’s dead and the cable is out, I want the security of that landline in case I ever have to make that 911 call I hope I never have to make.
And many persons live in areas or circumstances in which relying solely on a cell is just not possible–signals are too weak and spotty, the geography is hostile, the home security system works best with a land line (I know you can get systems that work via the internet or cell technology, but, even so . . .).
The New York Times reports that extra bells-and-whistles developed first for cell phones are starting to find their way into the wired phone market. Read the full story here.
An excerpt’s below the fold.
The HP netbooks will come with the netbook version of Windows XP and will start at $199.99 after a $50 mail-in rebate.
Read the full story here.
I just looked at the Verizon Wireless website. There’s no mention of it yet.
There is an iPhone Challenger, if not an iPhone Killer.
From Reuters. Full story here.
Research in Motion Ltd’s BlackBerry Curve moved past Apple Inc’s iPhone in the first quarter to become the best-selling consumer smartphone in the U.S., research group NPD said on Monday.
RIM, which already dominates the corporate smartphone market in the United States, also had three of the top five best-selling consumer smartphones in the period, with the Storm at No. 3 and the Pearl at No. 4, NPD said.
No Comments »The original article on the station:WKOW – ‘Woman blames Dell for missing online classes’. Maybe an antagonizing title as it brought many Dell and Ubuntu users online to blast the TV station and the woman. And why did Ubuntu users do this? Well – this person wanted Windows instead of Ubuntu.
The story starts out where the Abbie wanted a laptop for her studies. She bought one from Dell for $1100. The machine came loaded with Ubuntu – which Abbie hadn’t heard about until that point. When she called Dell, they told her that Ubuntu is a great OS and will work well for her.
For Abbie, she is not in tune with the computer world as much as a lot of other people are. And rightfully so – I don’t normally rebuild cars, so I don’t know what parts I should use – I don’t build houses, but I (as everyone else) will rent and own houses. For Abbie, she needs a computer that will work when she turns it on, and Ubuntu wasn’t doing that.
1 Comment »
I joined back up with Todd and Andy at the Verizon booth. They just finished with HP and an independent company, then we were on the go. I did some back channel on in-win cases and the Aiptek booth (because the camera I used at CES was an Aiptek). From there, we talked with the guys at Clearwire in where we learned on what’s going on with WiMax.
The show really started to look like it was winding down as people were starting to pack up. We stopped at the Nokia booth where there were a lot of people watching the N97 demo. From there it was to OOMA, where they did an interview and I did some backchannel on the 3-D Rock Band.
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On this day: Phi Day, Michael Spindler CEO Apple (93), Terry Semel Steps down Yahoo (07)
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