Time for Carriers to step up | Here comes fast apps | RealtyGo_blog

Fast App

Understanding the interplay between the wireline and wireless worlds is important as value shifts occur. You can’t have a blockbuster iPad2 launch without Wi-Fi. And 55% to 60% of the embedded home Wi-Fi base is coming through cable modems. Apple Inc.’s success eventually results in Comcast Corp.’s, Time Warner Cable Inc.’s, Verizon Communications Inc.’s FioS and even AT&T Inc.’s U-Verse’s success.

With the next generation of tablet and phone devices (Apple’s iPad2 and the HTC Corp. Thunderbolt, for example) comes the front facing camera. We wrote about this with the column “The iPhone without a contract” last Labor Day. Sprint Nextel Corp.’s HTC Evo 4G launched last year with a front-facing camera using the WiMAX network and QiK (now owned by Skype) as the pre-installed app. New hardware begets new software. And this new software is high BPS (bandwidth per second). The higher the BPS, the faster the app.

The next $100 billion of value in the telecommunications industry (inclusive of software) is going to be created by the fast app ecosystem. Combine secure cloud computing with gigabit Ethernet backhaul and dual-core processors and you have the makings of an entirely new industry. It’s not that Groupon brought millions of us daily deals – it’s that they now bring them to us in 1080p (or whatever form factor your device can support). I can now see next year’s holiday blockbuster toys in action at Amazon.com (or through their app), not still photos. And video communication, including a revamped Pandora + YouTube, is now connected to my television. Why do I have a V-Tech cordless phone (and a $40 per month bill)? Why do I have a premium digital video tier?

It’s an exciting world to dream about, and developments are coming very quickly, thanks to companies like Apple and Google Inc. The highest returns can only occur, however, when you expand the market from portable (Wi-Fi) to mobile devices. In car. On train. On bus. If you are moving, you need mobility, not portability. And mobility requires bandwidth that moves with you.

This is where the wireless carriers come in. They hold the keys to mobile fast apps. As much as the developer community wants to circumvent or ignore relationships with the wireless carriers, they cannot achieve a high common denominator (“fastest app”) without the ability to achieve consistent bandwidth speeds and consistently low latency. Said another way, those applications developers that invest in the network interfaces and carrier relationships will create differentiation (and value) faster than those who dumb performance down to the lowest levels. When technology moves quickly, value is created from those companies who can expand with the market, who can achieve the highest and best result instead of the lowest and least. The bandwidth disparity created by 2G/3G/4G and Wi-Fi networks operating simultaneously is too great.

The only way Sprint Nextel and T-Mobile USA Inc. (combined or separate) can grow 10 to 20 million net adds in the next three years is to partner with the fast applications developers. Multi-player Angry Birds in 3D with optional voice chat does not happen without network integration – the connections are real-time, not “push” and servers need to be very close to the network. Sprint Nextel and T-Mobile USA may need more growth than 10 to 20 million net adds over the next 3 years to remain relevant. Dropped calls be damned – what about dropped apps?

So we have a willing development community, at least two willing carriers (on top of Verizon Wireless and AT&T Mobility who will definitely not take this lying down), and capital waiting to earn disproportionate returns. Where do we get started? Three ideas:

1. Multi-player Angry Birds in 3D with optional voice chat takes applications to a new level. Maybe an “all green” AB on March 17?

2. Facebook (or their replacement) could reinvent video communications singlehandedly (and take advertising to a new level).

3. Cloud-based communications directories with caller identificaton (app free version includes a mini-advertisement delivered on every incoming call).

One of the biggest reasons for any directory is discovery. In the old days of White Pages, we discovered a street address and a phone number associated with a name. With the advent of fast apps, I may want to know if you have FaceTime and if you are available for a quick chat, even if you are not in my contact list. Where’s the FaceTime (or Skype or Fring or ooVoo or YouTube or Facebook) listing on my BlackBerry? It doesn’t exist. Then how do I discover that you have FaceTime (meaning an Apple device that has a front facing camera on a participating carrier that has optimized FaceTime for their 4G network)? We need a better discovery engine to make FaceTime or their competitor a more relevant communications application.

The directory needs to protect privacy. I need to be able to turn off applications from being used by some and make an entirely different set of applications available to others. The directory needs to be connected to individuals, not Exchange (which, as explained in the last paragraph, doesn’t have room for these listings anyway). Privacy is easiest with an independent source – friendly to but free from wireless carriers, handset manufacturers, and operating systems.

Finally, the directory needs to be free. Listed or unlisted, private, user-controlled and free. This is not to say that there aren’t charges for “end caps” (featured fast apps), or that larger corporate or association directories don’t pay some fees, or that we show a mini-message on every incoming call in exchange for a free app, but this is not the calling name data storage margins of the past. And, if it can bring in 10 to 20 million customers for Sprint Nextel and T-Mobile USA (together or separate), it’s worth the carrier effort.

Fast apps are the next $100 billion opportunity in the communications industry. A well executed fast apps strategy by T-Mobile USA and Sprint Nextel (combined or separate) can break the current duopoly (or Verizon Wireless can execute it on its own with LTE and cripple their competition). To make fast apps a reality, the discovery process needs to be radically simpler, privacy needs to be protected, and it needs to be free to the end user. We need an independent directory.

Here come the fast apps. Are you ready?

Jim Patterson is CEO and co-founder of Mobile Symmetry, a start-up created for carriers to solve the problems of an increasingly mobile-only society. Patterson was most recently President – Wholesale Services for Sprint and has a career that spans over eighteen years in telecom and technology. Patterson welcomes your commentsatjim@mobilesymmetry.com.

| 02.17.11 | Google: Personalization will revolutionize commerce – RealtyGo_blog

Google Mobile BARCELONA, Spain–Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) Chairman and CEO Eric Schmidt capped off the second day of the Mobile World Congress trade show here with a far-ranging and forward-thinking keynote address forecasting a future where increasingly personalized and relevant mobile services transform most every facet of users’ lives. “Smartphones are taking over–smartphone sales surpassed PC sales on a quarterly basis just last week,” Schmidt told a capacity crowd. “The smartphone is the destination for the next generation of games, apps and social connectivity.” Looking beyond the current mobile marketplace, Schmidt outlined what he called “a serendipity platform–your phone helping you learn new things and meet new people you wouldn’t otherwise meet. Why does my phone not talk to my friend’s phone? Why doesn’t it monitor people who are ill?” Adding he believes very strongly in “the optimism of what we can do with computers and technology,” Schmidt said the accelerated evolution of the Web, mobile and cloud services will ultimately shoulder even greater burdens plaguing everyday life, giving consumers the time and flexibility to spend more time with the people they care about, doing the things they enjoy and making the world a better place. “Computers are here to make us happier,” he asserted. Schmidt also stressed the increasing role of permission-based personalization solutions, anticipating a future where technology solves human failings spanning from fuzzy memories to boredom. Shifting his focus to more contemporary mobile industry opportunities, Schmidt said he anticipates substantial breakthroughs in the mobile advertising segment. “Think about the creativity of the commercials you see on TV, and apply that on mobile in a personal way–that’s the next great frontier,” he said. “The display business is fundamentally about telling stories–that produces a better, more relevant ad and a more satisfied consumer. A billion dollar business right in front of us.” In addition, Schmidt called mobile payment services and Near Field Communications transaction technologies a “mega-scale opportunity,” outlining a scenario where he’s walking down the street in a commercial area. “My phone remembers I need new pants, and it knows ahead of me are two stores–one offering the product at a 20 percent discount, the other offering a 30 percent discount. I enter the store with the bigger discount, the pants are ready, and out I go. You don’t think this is going to work? It should revolutionize electronic commerce and payments. We’re seeing that models around consumerism are working when they’re tied to location and advertising.” Despite the mobile industry’s myriad innovations, Schmidt cited its capacity to revolutionize life in developing nations as his greatest source of pride. “The future is for the masses, not the elite,” Schmidt stated. “Two billion people we’ve never heard from will enter our conversation in the next three to four years. Because of mobile, it’s possible, and it will change their lives more than it changed any of ours. That’s what I’m proudest of.”

| 02.17.11 | Google: Personalization will revolutionize commerce – RealtyGo_blog

Google’s AdMob network tops 2 billion requests a day – RealtyGo.co

Google’s (NASDAQ:GOOG) AdMob mobile advertising network now receives over 2 billion ad requests each day, more than quadrupling requests over the last year. According to Google, the AdMob network now fields more requests in each 24-hour period than it did in the entire month of December 2007; more than 100 million unique Android and iOS devices request ads each month, nearly doubling over the last six months. Asia leads all international markets in terms of regional growth, with monthly ad requests increasing 564 percent over the past year–Western Europe is next at 471 percent, followed by Oceania (363 percent) and North America (266 percent).

Admob...RealtyGo

Google acquired AdMob for $750 million in 2009, finalizing the deal last May. According to research firm IDC, Google controlled 59 percent of the U.S. mobile advertising market (including search and display ads) at the end of 2010; prior to the AdMob deal, Google represented 48.6 percent. Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL), which in January 2010 acquired mobile ad network Quattro Wireless for $275 million and introduced its iAd platform in July, finished 2010 controlling 8.4 percent of the market, IDC adds.

via Google’s AdMob network tops 2 billion requests a day – RealtyGo