Wireless, Cellular, and Mobile

Windows Phone 7 vs. Android /via @gruber

The big three mobile platforms right now are iPhone, BlackBerry, and Android. (Feel free to add Nokia as a fourth.) I think Windows Phone 7 is most competitive with Android, because that’s the one with the same business model: licensing the OS to OEM hardware makers. They’re even competing for attention from the very same hardware makers, especially HTC.

Europe has become the 'flyover states' of the mobile industry /via @rtanglao

"Europe has become the 'flyover states' of the mobile industry," says a ­senior European executive, referring to the disparaging term used to describe middle America by high-powered business travellers shuttling between California and New York.

I predicted Apple TV and iPad in 2005 cc @scobleizer

So let's just agree that:

  1. Apple could do to movie downloads what they've done to music downloads
  2. iTunes is a likely place for this functionality to live because it's the one app that's already on Windows

But watching things on your TV where you have to walk your iPod Photo across and plug it into your TV (without a remote) isn't really an ideal interface. It would work, but it's not ideal.

Same thing goes for the Airport Express. You can now have all your music on your Mac, and beam it across to your stereo. Except, when you're not actually in front of your computer, you can't control iTunes.

This is where the Mac Tablet comes in. Steve probably poo-poos the Tablet as your main computer (that's what high-end PowerBooks are for). But, a Mac Tablet as media remote, as second computer in the home? Maybe good enough for students, replacing/augmenting the iBook line? Sounds like extra computers being sold.

OmniGroup is porting their apps to iPad

We’re really excited about Apple’s iPad, and we want to make all of our products available for it as soon as we can.  Yes, we already had a big year planned for 2010, with several long-anticipated major product releases—but we think iPad is really important:  important enough to spend some time juggling our plans to figure out how we can introduce five new iPad apps.

Yes.  Five.  We want to bring all five of our productivity apps to iPad:  OmniGraffle, OmniOutliner, OmniPlan, OmniFocus, and OmniGraphSketcher.

When all you care about is free lunch for all, don't be astonished when you're served shit

When all you care about is free lunch for all, don't be astonished when you're served shit. This may sound harsh, but if you think the Android Market is going to pressure Apple to relax its iron fist around its App Store walled garden, don't hold your breath.

Global mobile content $ > music + movies + gaming all put together /via @rtanglao

In 2009, Portio Research counted the global value of 'non messaging' premium content (music, gaming, news, etc) downloaded or consumed on phones and sold to them worldwide, to be worth 85 Billion dollars. Yes, 250 times bigger opportunity for any content owner like say a Disney or TimeWarner or Turner etc to make money today, on ALL phones, not those few iPhones that are in pockets of some 4% of Americans and less than half of one percent of the rest of the world. Understand how enormous this number is. Just 'premium' mobile data income (I am excluding messaging) is bigger than ALL internet content revenues, and all internet advertising income - added together! (Morgan Stanley said they totalled 64B dollars in 2009). Mobile content alone, is worth more than all global cinema box office revenues, and all global videogaming industry software income, and all global music industry income - PUT TOGETHER. Again? Mobile data paid content industry is bigger that music, hollywood and videogames, all added together. Its that big. And some crazy journalists count free downloads on App Stores and think this is the mobile data opportunity for the industry. Now in our zoo we are obsessing about the standard field mouse rather than the elephant.

But even this is not the real comparison. I just said, that Portio measured 'non messaging' premium content revenues for mobile. What of the total mobile data industry? It is now worth over 284 BILLION dollars globally, including messaging income (says Morgan Stanley). Thats 825 times bigger in value than all apps stores. Its not mouse to an elephant in our zoo, it is focusing on the ant and ignoring the elephant.

I kept trying to figure out different parts of Tomi's article to quote, and realized I was selecting the whole thing. You really do need to read the whole thing to understand where the mobile industry is *today* (and it is gigantic).

*However*, I think Tomi (who is fantastically smart and knowledgeable about the _global_ mobile telecoms industry) is missing where this is all heading. I saw the same thing happen at Nortel when the bitheads (me and other people in the IP everywhere camp - death of scarcity) bumped into the bellheads (telecoms thinking, more similarities to railroads, supply & demand).

Google won't sell a Nexus One to Canada (yet), but they do work here /via @johnjensen

First, you'll need a Nexus One. Apparently Google's online store realizes you're in Canada and won't sell you one - but the resourceful will get one. I'm sure Google will eventually release the Nexus One to Canada - probably when the limitations below are resolved.