McGuire’s Law

Standard disclaimer: don’t take from my selections, ordering, headlines, etc. any indications of the interests or plans of my employer (if you do, you’ll undoubtedly be disappointed when they don’t play out.)

• Opera surpasses iPhone for mobile browser lead
• Dissecting mobile broadband stats
• With 2M Downloads, Where Is Right on Track
• Mobile video viewers looking for laughs
• Mobile messages top 84 billion in Q1
• Why Carriers Love Social Networks On Mobiles
• How The Different Mobile Data Syncing Services Stack Up
• Examining an operator / carrier’s role in Video Content Delivery
• GSMA introduces Mobile Money Exchange
• Would You Pay for Mobile News Access?
• T-Mobile Says Mobile Ads are 30 times more effective than internet ads
• Creativity Comes to Location

The Law of Mobility talks about value increasing with mobility. The impact of this law is being felt because the barriers to building mobility in are being obliterated week after week. Here are examples of technology advances enabling this to happen:

• Power-Sipping Displays
• Data eyeglasses
• RF cochlea
• Memory LCD
• 4G
• Bandwidth management
• SDXC
• Tiny VGA
• Augmented reality
• Flash
• Webkit

Standard disclaimer: don’t take from my selections, ordering, headlines, etc. any indications of the interests or plans of my employer (if you do, you’ll undoubtedly be disappointed when they don’t play out.)

• U.S. CTO: Mobile app use may increase broadband spending
• RIM: APIs are crucial, enterprises are the target
• Most iPhone apps downloaded on the weekend
• The Emerging App Store Ecosystem
• Developers: An App Store Isn’t A Marketing Strategy
• Cricket’s MyHomeScreen shows the industry how to take on the Consumer Electronics and Operating System App Stores
• Femtocell applications - APIs and platform choice
• From the experts: Advice for building a better app business
• A second opinion on Palm’s Pre app numbers
• Android Users Are Stickier Than iPhone Users

Standard disclaimer: don’t take from my selections, ordering, headlines, etc. any indications of the interests or plans of my employer (if you do, you’ll undoubtedly be disappointed when they don’t play out.)

• A Tale of Two Smartphones: US vs Rest of World compared
• Smartphones: The New Consumer Necessity
• Multiple devices…. quick comment
• Subsidies will not be critical to embedded wireless devices
• Netbooks vs. smartbooks: what are the similarities and differences?
• The Summer of the Superphone
• Sony CEO Stringer: It’s the Network, Stupid
• Intel puts mobility at heart of revamped R&D organization
• Mobile Phones in 10 Year’s Time
• Symbian not in a hurry to take on smartphones
• Can’t be one perfect smartphone for everybody
• Nokia N97 lost in the smartphone hype
• Has the Palm Pre already beaten the iPhone?

Last week, I was in California for a meeting of the MobileBeat Advisory Board, with a great group of folks helping fuel the mobility revolution. I was asked to share my reflections on the first week of the Pre being on the market. I tied it all back to the mobility revolution, and how Sprint is focused on making mobility instant, compelling, and worry-free. The Pre is a great proof point for all of that.

Then, this week, I read “Three Things the Palm Pre Does Better Than the iPhone 3GS” by John Mahoney at PopSci.com. Especially this quote - “But the Pre and especially its webOS software is so interesting because it’s the first phone to actually build on the trail blazed by the iPhone in some truly key areas of functionality. And what’s more American than some good ol’ fashioned competition begetting forward-looking innovation that elevates the playing field for all?” - reminded me of a piece I wrote almost two years ago, just as the original iPhone was about to hit the market.

Titled “Are we a week away from a revolution?”, I was pretty spot on in picking ways the iPhone would push the mobility revolution forward (okay 3 out of 4 ain’t bad…).

But my favorite hope/prediction was in the closing sentence: “But I’m excited to see how Friday’s release will push our industry to the next level, with new consumer excitement, new consumer enthusiasm (and willingness to spend), and hopefully a strong response from the industry to new consumer expectations.”

With the Pre, I’m glad the closing phrase has come true!

Research is good. Free highlights from expensive research reports are great. Here are some recent headlines:

• 722 million Mobile Business Connections by 2014 (Juniper Research)
• U.S. mobile ad revenues to reach $229M in ‘09 (Magna)
• ‘Freemium’ app revenues to top $14 billion by 2014 (Juniper Research)
• WiMAX Broadband Services to Generate $15bn by 2014 (Juniper Research)
• Touch Screen Module Revenues Forecast to Reach $9B by 2015 (DisplaySearch)
• LTE to Reach 100 Million Subscriptions Faster Than Any Previous Mobile Standard (Pyramid Research)
• Speech Applications in Mobile Computing to Triple by 2014 (Datamonitor)
• Over Half of Cellular Backhaul Capacity will be Ethernet by the End of 2011 (In-Stat)
• Streamed Mobile Music Services to Remain Strong as Revenues Approach $5.5bn by 2013 (Juniper Research)
• Mobile banking users to number 53 million by 2013 (TowerGroup)
• Mobile Video: a $16B Market in 5 Years? (Pyramid Research)
• Mobile Payment Users Worldwide to Increase 70 Percent in 2009 (Gartner)

Bonus: NPR on “Mobile Phones Do Much More Than Make Calls”

Standard disclaimer: don’t take from my selections, ordering, headlines, etc. any indications of the interests or plans of my employer (if you do, you’ll undoubtedly be disappointed when they don’t play out.)

• Unilever to Test Mobile Supermarket Coupons
• Japan explores using cell phones to stop pandemics
• American Airlines Expands Mobile Boarding Passes to 3 More Airports
• Texting stops disease epidemic
• Grocery chain offers free wireless minutes
• Plants that Send an SMS When Thirsty
• USA Today Publisher Sees Hope in Mobile Platforms
• HarperCollins launches mobile marketing efforts
• NBC looks to boost mobile content, ad revenue
• Mobilizing America’s Pastime
• More Americans Using Their Mobile Phones For Matters Of The Heart
• Wireless technology revolutionizes condition monitoring
• M-Edu, yes mobile education earns 6 USD per user per mo in S Korea

Standard disclaimer: don’t take from my selections, ordering, headlines, etc. any indications of the interests or plans of my employer (if you do, you’ll undoubtedly be disappointed when they don’t play out.)

• Amazing evolution of mobile: The 8 C’s of Cellphones
• Mobile Standards Processes: Inhibiting business model innovation?
• Enterprise Mobility and Personal vs. Corporate Liable Devices
• How I Became an ISP Without Really Trying
• A content tsunami is coming
• Quick anecdotes on mobile broadband
• After CDMA, Qualcomm Looks for New Money Machines
• Mobile Industry in 2020 - A new entity - SMART players
• Nearly half of consumers fear losing phone more than wallet
• Is the mobile phone really the hub of social connections?
• Open Letter to Microsoft: Delusional Complacency with Mobile Strategy
• Successfully Navigating the Mobility Ecosystem

Standard disclaimer: don’t take from my selections, ordering, headlines, etc. any indications of the interests or plans of my employer (if you do, you’ll undoubtedly be disappointed when they don’t play out.)

• Living in the KT Boundary: In a world of solving life’s little problems one app at a time; Skype on smartphones (iPhone, Nokia, Blackberry etc) could be a key differentiator for the Operator.
• Is Verizon Really Ready to Open Up Its Network?
• 3 of UK Marries Itself to Skype; Shakes Up the Mobile Market
• Smart Pipes Conference Day One
• Smart Pipes Conference Day Two
• Nokia to open Ovi Map Player platform to developers
• Will the Openness of Android Turn it Into Another Windows Mobile?
• Open APIs 2.0 - Unifying Commercial Framework Needed
• Is an open network necessary?
• Testing and getting certified on the network

Standard disclaimer: don’t take from my selections, ordering, headlines, etc. any indications of the interests or plans of my employer (if you do, you’ll undoubtedly be disappointed when they don’t play out.)

• Amazon Kindles Good For Telcos, Bad for ARPU
• Forecasting Handset Sales Just Got Harder
• iPhone luring more customers to AT&T than ever
• New Mobile Term of the Day: Smartbook
• What Smartbooks Must Offer to Succeed
• Qualcomm’s smartbook play - do we need another device category?
• Qualcomm Turns a Netbook Into a Smartbook
• Devices 2.0 - Output from Telco 2.0 Exec Brainstorm, May 09
• INQ to give the world a Twitter-Phone
• The new embedded ecosystem
• Preparing for embedded wireless’ impending growth