| Martin Creaner's Blog -
The mobile industry content play is becoming a very confused space. With the growth of free apps, downloaded by users on unlimited bandwidth 3G packages, the operators are losing interest in content and gradually surrendering that space to the OTT players. But rather than surrendering the space they need a mind-shift to the principle that “somebody has got to pay”. If the apps are free then they need to be monetized through some other mechanism such as advertising, but despite the hype that really... -
I blogged last month about the iPhone business model and stimulated huge discussion about whether the business model had sufficient longevity or whether it would have to change to survive. Over the past couple of weeks things seem to have moved very, very quickly. Firstly we had the iPhone 4 antenna debacle - leading to iPhone 4.0 being compared to Microsoft's Vista slump . There is an element of Apple living by the media sword and dying by the media sword. When they do the smallest good thing... -
Two very interesting stories last week regarding the growing dominance of the Chinese equipment suppliers Huawei and ZTE. Firstly we heard that Huawei is now the #2 telecoms vendor by sales and #1 in terms of profitability. This is a remarkable achievement over a very short period of time. It wasn't long ago that the world was stunned by the 'plucky' chinese vendor managing to secure a strong role in major NGN programs such as BT's 21CN program. And since then we have witnessed a... -
What the net neutrality debate has been missing for the past few years are solid facts. There has been a lot of emotion and moral philosophising, but very few facts to support the discussion. I read this morning of a report by The New York Law School , that stated that imposition of net neutrality regulation could cost the US economy at least $62billion annually over the next five years and eliminate a total of 502,000 jobs. ( Download the full report ) The report seems to work on the basis that... -
So whats happening with LTE. Last year, everywhere you turned you would hear a new announcement about an upcoming LTE deployment. But for the first half of this year the LTE news has been a lot more restrained. This isn’t due to the fact that nothing is happening – far from it. According to the GSMA there are now 88 operators in 42 countries (liberally sprinkled across Americas, Europe,Africa, Middle East and Asia) that have now committed to deploy LTE Systems or are engaged in trials or other preparatory... -
I have to say that I'm a bit jealous of Elon Musk . For those of you who never heard of him, he's the man who set up PayPal a number of years ago and became fabulously wealthy on the back of that bit of visionary entrepreneurship.....but thats not why I'm jealous of him. He has since gone on to found Tesla Motors , who are manufacturers of electric roadster cars and is the chairman of Solarcity , which is a renewable energy provider for those same electric cars. Now while that generates... -
Last week I questioned whether the iphone business model was doomed . I didn't have many supporters for my view, but today I read that Appcity have struck a deal with Apple that enables them to sell iPhone applications. Not only that, but they seem to have convinced Apple to participate in an "All the apps you can eat" model! Now this is real business model evolution!! So perhaps the days of the iPhone being an island product in the sea of the mobile content world are coming to an end... -
The level of hype surrounding “smart grid,” which is the next-generation of the electrical grid that’s more aware of usage by end users and can proactively take measures to ensure that customers get the power they need when they need it, is set to rival the 'cloud' hype of 2009. In fairness, the telco world is just beginning to wake up to an opportunity that has been a hot topic for several years in the wider utilities world. I have come across articles from as far back as 2004 that refer... -
It is well documented that the current and emerging generation of super-cool user devices are key enablers of the next generation of communications services. The poster child for these devices is the iPhone. As a user of the iPhone I have to admit being a huge fan of all aspects of the device - the quality of the screen, the level of integration of the software, etc.. So why do I suspect that it's a doomed product? It comes down to simple human nature and the unwritten laws of business. The iPhone... -
For those of you who enjoy my blog you will find that Management World in Nice is the best place to immerse yourself in a few days of similar dialogue. It's the only event to focus on the end-to-end management of communications and digital services and offers a unique blend of thought-leadership, real-world case-studies and interactive debates. This year’s event also features the most senior executives from across the industry for our Keynote Perspectives session on Tuesday morning, complemented...
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