wireless trends

-- near-field communications (NFC), Wibree, and Ultra Wideband
-- M-RFID - take your normal RFID and turn the tables ...
-- WiMax
-- Video Streaming

and the changing landscape ...

If we look back over the last fifty years, it typically took years for new technologies to reach their first million products in the field. It took the colour TV eight years to reach the million mark. The PC was faster, at 28 months, the Palm Pilot set a new record at 9 months. The iPod took just 17 days.

Wireless technologies have had even slower evolution. From the first to the millionth 802.11 chip took a leisurely 4 years. Bluetooth did better, but was still a slow starter taking 17 months from the first product to the millionth one, taking just another 5 years to get to the billion mark.

--

King of the handset hill

Here's what the latest shipment numbers look like, courtesy Fierce Wireless


As expected, Apple is missing this party - though a report pegs this at 2.2%.

Salvation for testing on blackberrys

DeviceAnywhere now provides Blackberry's! (iPhone 3G was already supported!)

If the wallet is deep enough, there is very little out there that replicates their solution.  And if you think, emulators can cut it - you just haven't been in a production level environment!

Is SMS getting stale?

Cellular News posted an article highlighting that Europeans received fewer SMS ads YoY (110 vs 112). Given that mobile ads are relatively a new thing - this is either a blip or an inflection point on its acceptability curve.  Something worth tracking.
Have reproduced a table from the above article below.

	Aug-07	Aug-08	% Change	Aug-07	Aug-08	Point Change
Downloads for mobile phone	40,792	35,915	-12.0%	4.4%	3.9%	-0.6
News or information	25,929	22,122	-14.7%	2.8%	3.2%	0.4
Mobile phone or plan	32,222	31,574	-2.0%	4.6%	4.7%	0.1
Entertainment	12,644	11,230	-11.2%	4.3%	5.1%	0.7
Total Mobile + Media Sectors	111,587	100,841	-9.6%	4.1%	4.1%	0.0
Clothing/Fashion	3,982	5,503	38.2%	5.8%	6.4%	0.6
Restaurants	1,037	1,424	37.3%	11.6%	15.5%	3.9
Cars	4,407	3,731	-15.4%	11.2%	7.9%	-3.3
Food	1,413	2,162	53.0%	9.2%	12.6%	3.4
Financial services	8,963	9,956	11.1%	3.7%	4.7%	1.0
Consumer electronics	3,957	4,647	17.4%	6.3%	6.7%	0.4
Travel	5,779	6,602	14.2%	4.9%	5.8%	0.9
Total Non-Mobile/Media Sectors	29,539	34,024	15.2%	6.2%	6.8%	0.5

A peek into the mandi madness ...

Medianama posted some interesting sub numbers ... Mobile stands at 315.24 Million -(reproduced their data table below).



This is well on its growth path (>50% covered) as outlined earlier.

They also have a summary of some of the discussions held at the recently concluded TiECon 2008.

The market scene seems to be one of "potential" as the telecom operators are loathe to venture out of their walled gardens, unlike their brethen in other parts of the world.

Voice-based VAS? Enter the voicesite!

Onto financing: Govind Sankaranarayanan, CFO of Tata Capital put out an article saying seed now for the future ... and oddly enough, I've been thinking the same thing over the past few weeks.

And lastly, something of immediate relevance, business lessons from the great depression.

Tinted glasses

Reproduced w/o permission.

A toon on the current financial crisis ...



In case the URL doesn't open - its: http://www.sinfest.net/archive_page.php?comicID=2959

Second - a political one - as the US election is just around the corner.



and finally, a link to the "Money as Debt" video on the way banks work ...

A global crisis ...

An excerpt from a recent issue of The Economist:

European banks were collapsing at a dizzying pace even as Christian Noyer, governor of the Bank of France, declared that “there is no drama in front of us.” Hypo Real Estate was just one of five banks in seven European countries bailed out in three days. Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands carved up Fortis, a big bancassurer; Britain nationalised Bradford & Bingley; Belgium, France and Luxembourg saved Dexia; and Iceland rescued Glitnir. Separately, Ireland took €400 billion of contingent liabilities onto the national balance sheet, when it stood behind the deposits and debts of its six large banks and building societies. You have to wonder what Mr Noyer regards as dramatic.

Why are the non-US banks so worried? Their market exposure is high. Effectively they have been lending more than they have.   Roughly $1.40 for each $1 of deposit compared to $0.96 to a $1 in the US.  Coupled with the white elephant - junk American securities - they bought, housing busts in their respective countries (UK, Ireland, Spain - to name a few) and lack of oxygen (credit) in the system, have left most banks reeling.  Mind you, its not just the west that is feeling the pain.  Strong ripples have wafted through Russia, China, Hong Kong and even, here, India.

Short-term cover money is only available at exorbitant rates.

This is leading to everyone hoarding cash: banks and business.  New products are being canceled or delayed; jobs are being pruned; credit exposure is highly marginalized and new construction is all, but, happening, and orgs are undertaking cost cutting.

All in all, seems like a depression is imminent - although, most are reluctant to admit this.