Convergence Conversation

Just seen at London's Victoria station - a (Sandisk-branded) vending machine selling memory cards, phone acessories... and mobile broadband USB dongles. Shrink-wrapped, no cumbersome sales or registration process, no annoying salesperson trying to upsell you.

Just data connectivity, on a stick.
Like memory, on a stick.

Yes, there's still absolutely a role for contracts, retail stores, expert sales executives and so on. But solely going that route leaves money on the table when someone wants a quick transactional purchase. When I get to Victoria, I want to hail a taxi, not sign up for a cab account. More...

Date:               Thursday 25 March 2010
Time:              18:00 - 20:00
Venue:            Intellect Offices, 10-12 Russell Square, WC1B 5EE
Chair:              Ved Sen, founder and CEO, ThinkPlank
Speakers:      Simon Bell, British Library, and
                         Jonathan Glasspool, Bloomsbury Publishing

Topic for this Conversation:  ‘Publishing 2.0’ 

Amidst the doom and gloom of media and advertising, newspapers (w More...

I've been writing about operator cross-network aps for a while, decoupling access from service. We need to see Vodafone 360 on AT&T handsets, and O2/Jajah VoIP on Hutchison 3 phones. It's the only way to build scale against the real Internet application players.

But thinking further, and especially in the light of yesterday's announcement by Nokia about free turn-by-turn navigation, there also needs to be cross-phone applications.

Google has a head start here, with its portfolio of apps available on most devices, not just Android. To compete, Nokia has to follow suit - if it's serious about apps, it cannot just confine them to its own hardware platforms, it needs to port them to Android, iPhone, RIM and so on. More...

It's mid-December, so it must be time for the annual prediction season. I've tried to keep them short and sharp and to the point - there's plenty of detailed argument behind each of these if people are interested.

I'm off away on holiday tomorrow, so may not get a chance to respond to comments.

Heros

• HSPA+ Just like LTE, but it's got voice and it's straighforward to implement
• Apple iPhone - looking unstoppable, playing the pricing and distribution curve flawlessly, and doubt Mr Jobs will have some extra Wow Factor in mid-2010 to maintain its cool. Apps will continue to help, although from Apple's point of view they're just a means to an end rather than an important revenue source.

More...

Ed: Below is a guest post by Ofer Karp, President, Wireless Broadband at Alvarion. In it, he addresses some of the issues we raised in our LTE - Late, Tempting, Elusive? article and at the November Telco 2.0 Exec Brainstorm to make the case for WiMAX. We'd be interested in comments from our readers...

A recent study by Unwired Insight claims that growth in data traffic will bring about a 3G network capacity crisis from some mobile network operators as early as 2010. As 2G users continue to migrate to 3G services, the available capacity per 3G user will decline rapidly in networks utilising HSPA, to less than 100MB per user per month in some cases. More...

Top Stories, 14th December 2009

• Devices: Google tries its hand at a handset
• Strategy and Finance: AT&T throttles heavy users, Sprint's McGuire: "We must break the Big Bell dogma"
• Digital Advertising 2.0: Telefonica launches ad platform in 18 markets
• Broadband: Kigali gets WiMAX
• Regulation: Bruce Schneieron the future of privacy.

Rich Karpinski Editor of Connected Planet (previously known as Telephony Online) has been blogging from the first-ever Telco 2.0 America Executive Brainstorm: if you weren't there, there's a taste of the event here and here.

Meanwhile, pictures and details of what is supposed to be a Google Phone leak. More...

Last week's top Telco 2.0 news stories

• Enterprise 2.0: Salesforce.com adds social network to its cloud platform
• Online Video: iPlayer via satellite broadcast - now with added usage data
• Devices: The $30 Android phone, and the Tesco iPhone
• Voice & Messaging 2.0: Hands-on with Vodafone 360
• Broadband & Fibre: "Our network is sabotaged 10 times a month"
• Telco 2.0 Event: Last chance to register for Telco 2.0 Americas

As part of the Telco 2.0 Americas event, we'll be debating the value of AppStores with American delegates to see if they differ in their views from their European counterparts, who we asked to vote on this question: More...

One of the perpetual themes I encounter at the moment is the notion that the world is moving towards a "converged" situation in which individuals or families purchase all their communications services from a single operator.

In particular, there is a fervent belief that people will choose the same cellular providers and fixed broadband providers, tempted by bundling deals and wondrous "three screen" content and entertainment services.

Not only that, but these ultra-loyal users will happily spend more in aggregate, persuade their entire families to follow their lead, churn less and will be happy to have femtocells or WiFi to offload "mobile broadband" onto their own paid-for fixed connections. More...

Last week's top Telco 2.0 news stories

• Strategy & Finance: Voda's EMEA CEO promotes 'two-sided' business models, but omits key factor
• Telco 2.0 Events: CEO of world's second biggest app store to speak at Telco 2.0 Americas
• Broadband & Fibre: Verizon CTO: it's fibre we need, not spectrum
• Infrastructure: Backhaul - it's where the excitement is!
• Products & Propositions: AT&T vs VZW: coverage is it
• Technology & Devices: Nokia + Sony Ericsson = Web + Linux

Vodafone is keen to find new ways of deriving revenue from its soaring data traffic. One way, according to Vodafone Europe CEO Michel Combes, might be to charge end-users or perhaps even content providers for guarantees of better QoS. More...

I'm slowly starting to become a bit more positive about Android. I've been in the US for most of the last week, and it was interesting to see how many "normal" people had Android devices, compared with the UK where it's still viewed as geektastic. Google's introduction of free turn-by-turn navigation is a bit of a smart move too: this article makes a fascinating read about the Google business model evolving.

It seems to me that the OS is maturing faster than anticipated, and certainly more quickly than Symbian and Windows Mobile. It looks as though Google will take a leaf out of Microsoft's book and jump all over its rivals if they make a mis-step (which certainly seems to be true of recent S60 and WM6.5 devices). More...