The MoPR Blog

Something ELSE in The Smartphone Market

We rarely lead our Weekend Reading Feature with a blog post, but it’s hard to get past this intriguing opening by Richard Lai in “Engadget“: “Folks, today might be the day when you start to notice how ancient our smartphones have become, even if they only came out in last few months.”

Lai details debut in London this week of a new smartphone and smartphone platform bearing the name “ELSE.” This Linux based smartphone from Israel’s Emblaze Mobile was “built from scratch” and features a sleek design and, by all accounts, an amazing user Interface. Read about, look at and watch why ELSE may be a game changer in the smartphone market in this Engadget post.

Future of the PC

Speaking of game changers, Jon Fortt writes in “Forbes” about the competing trends driving development of personal computers. Fortt asks, “Will tomorrow’s PC be a nimble netbook or a high-def laptop?” then details an explanation of opposing views offered by Google and AMD.

A Life Beyond Twitter?

One of the genius aspects of Twitter is how it engendered and surrounded itself with a vibrant devepoer ecosystem. Many of you reading this post are using third party apps and services built for and around Twitter. But could Twitter eventually walk away from this ecosystem? A “Portfolio” magazine article by Anthony Duignan-Cabrera examines how Twitter’s business interests are evolving and how developers are prepaparing for life after TWitter no longer needs them.

In a sometimes amusing companion piece by Jacqui Cheng of “Ars Technica,” Portfolio looks at the social networking behavior of young people. Is the generation of people under 35 taking social networking too far? One stat from the article: 36 percent of under-35 users admitted to checking Twitter/Facebook/texts immediately after getting it on.

In Case You Missed It: Search Engine Minimization

Traditional media is evolving so it can thrive in the New Media era. As part of that evolution, some online news resources are switching from free to subscription based distribution models. News Corp. chief Rupport Murdoch has concerns about news from his company’s various media brands being indexed in the Google search engine. With Google readers can find snippets of News Corp. articles, not only threatening his revenue model, but also be mislead by lack of context. So Murdoch is taking steps to block News Corp. news content from appearing in Google search results. As Bloomberg’s Greg Bensinger and Brian Womack point out in this story, News Corp. is not the only media outlet taking this dramatic step.

Google Aims To Remake Computers

Quentin Hardy at Forbes details Google’s plans for the Chrome OS and an “ultra-cheap” portable computer in time for Christmas next year. Google is definitely a company with its head in the Cloud. With a host of Internet-based applications, Google is banking that users can do most of their computing online. Years after Sun’s John Gage first said “the network is the computer,” could Google be on the verge of making that vision a reality? Read Quentin’s article to find out.

King of the Cloud

Speaking of cloud computing, Steve Hamm at BusinessWeek reviews Saleforce.com CEO Marc Benioff’s (with Carlye Adler and Josey-Bass) new book, “King of the Cloud”. Based on Hamm’s review, this book looks like a great Christmas present for anyone in technology (hint hint).

By the way, The Economist had a very interesting debate about whether cloud computing is ready for primetime. In this debate, Benioff squared off against Microsoft Business Division chief, Stephen Elop. I already told you how the book review turns out; I won’t spoil the debate. If you want to know the outcome, you’ll just have to read it yourself.

Sending Shockwaves Across the Indian Telecom Industry

Many mobile markets around the world are or are approaching saturation. Some markets count their penetration rate above 100 percent. But at more than 400 million mobile subscribers, India is a hot growth market in a country of 1.14 billion people. As India’s telecom providers build networks and innovate services, a recent move by one of India’s GSM providers, Tata Teleservices (TTSL) is sending shockwaves across the country’s telecom industry. In India Today, a major business publication in India, Kushan Mitra explains the impact of the company’s new per-second pricing plan. TTSL’s per-second pricing plan is the only plan it offers, costing subscribers 1 paise (the Indian equivalent of a penny) per second. To put that in perspective, US carriers charge roughly 360 percent more than TTSL (excluding unlimited calling plans). AT&T’s 1350 minute personal plan runs $79.99 per month. At today’s exchange rate, 1350 minutes would cost $17.40 using TTSL’s 1 paise per minute pricing.

In a second article, Mitra explains how Tata executive Anil Sardana, newly appointed to run TTSL, not only fixed a broken company, but has become a transformative figure in the Indian telecom industry.

In case you miss it

On the other hand, as the US mobile market approaches saturation, a different market dynamic in the competition for mobile subscribers is taking hold. Last week ZDnet blogger Jason Perlow had an excellent post explaining the machinations of the US smartphone market and its ecosystem of carriers, handset manufacturers and smartphone operating systems.

As the year slowly starts to wind down, the tradeshows and events in the mobile and wireless space just keep on coming. One show right on the horizon is Mobile Internet World 2008, being held October 21-23 at the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center.

Billed as “the leading conference and expo for connecting the people, technologies and trends that will shape the future of the mobile Internet,” the show promises to deliver some outstanding themes and tracks. And, proving how important mobile technologies have become in the past few years, the three-day conference is expanding its agenda to cover mobile Internet trends; open platform development standards; mobile transactions, and ultra-mobile devices.

Event themes will range from “monetizing mobile Internet applications” to “application development,” while the show will offer an 8-track program that features mobile Internet business models and mobile content & entertainment, among other important and relevant sessions.

The conference will include keynotes and networking sessions from a wide variety of industry thought leaders from companies such as Intel, Verizon Wireless, Google, Sprint Nextel, and Yahoo. Keynote speakers will include some industry heavyweights, for example:

• Steve Elfman –President of Network Operations, Sprint Nextel
• Anthony Lewis –VP of Open Development, Verizon Wireless
• Rich Miner -EVP of Mobile, Google
• Anand Chandrasekher, SVP, GM,Ultra Mobility Group, Intel
• Len Lauer –COO, Qualcomm
• Emily Nagle Green –CEO, Yankee Group
• Bruce Stewart –VP & GM, Connected Life Americas, Yahoo!
• Ian McKerlich, Director of Mobile Web and Content Services, T-Mobile USA

Networking sessions promise to showcase some of the mobile industry’s brightest talents and technologies including the following tracks and events:

The Mobile Web Developer Challenge – Featuring some of the most exciting new applications available on over 5,000 device types, including games, portals, social networking and more. Developers will compete for prizes worth over $40,000.

The Mobile Internet Innovation Awards – These awards will recognize leaders in the development and deployment of mobile internet technology.

The RFID Special Interest Group – Presented by the MIT Enterprise Forum of Cambridge to offer best-practice examples of where RFID technology fits in enterprise and public-sector applications.

The Google Android Developers Workshop – Highlighting Google’s wireless platform strategy and how companies can effectively build Android applications.

Based on conversations with the show organizers it sounds like this year’s show has added opportunities for attendees and media to experience hands-on the latest application and service innovations available in the mobile Internet market.

Go here for more information on the show. As we get news and other details on this event we will be sure to share them here as well.