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.)

• WAC - latest analyst and press announcement
• T-Mobile Quits Dev Program
• Why Mobile Developer Programs Aren’t Working
• GetJar surpasses 1 billion application downloads
• App Makers Worry as Data Plans Are Capped
• Apple purging widget applications from App Store
• Free Apps Threaten Revenue Streams of Mobile App Stores
• Data caps force app developers to be efficient
• App Creep and the Case for the Mobile Browser
• Full Analysis of iPhone Economics - it is bad news. And then it gets worse

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.)

• Why AT&T Did Some Rethinking of the Possible
• The Good, the Bad and the Ugly of AT&T’s New Pricing Plan
• Top 10 Technology-Led Approaches to Mobile Broadband Traffic Management
• 3UK shows Skype drives revenues, reduces churn
• The three pillars of AT&T’s new data pricing plans
• Will Carriers Be Big Players in the Internet of Things?
• Future Broadband: “Happy Pipes”: worth $416Bn by 2020?
• BlackBerry App World makeover adds carrier billing
• Doing a 180 on Vodafone 360
• Putting a value on customer data with reference to offload
• On App-Specific (Customer) Support | Developer Survey
• Verizon smartphone customers consume 600-800 MB per month

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.)

• FTC extends Google/AdMob probe to look into iAd
• VoIPo3G becoming a reality. Remember, you read it here first….
• GeoLocal: The Rise of Consumer Location-based Services
• Mobile Impact of MasterCard API Move: Covering The Bases
• Nokia Money: The Model for Mobile P2P Growth?
• Yahoo-Nokia Alliance Is Too Late for Mobile Market
• Google to add streaming music service to Android
• Qualcomm CEO: FLO TV numbers ‘not nearly what we expected’
• Mobile Payments: A Guide to the Growing Market in Your Pocket
• I See You: Video Chat Taking Off

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.)

• Cellphones purportedly used more now for data, Gossip Girl blasts than calls
• OpenWays makes your smartphone a hotel room key, provides a different kind of ‘unlock’
• New App Provides Instant Notification of Car Speed and Acceleration Violations
• Wireless Monitoring of Medical Patients
• Quitting smoking, one text at a time
• British garbage collectors to get 1,500 BlackBerrys
• Using a Smartphone to Manage Travel
• Back Ache- There’s Even an App for That!
• Sprint’s 4G Enables Chicago Food Depository
• Wireless monitoring allows more accurate study of COPD, Parkinson’s patients
• Smartphone apps serve as ‘electronic therapist’ for mental health patients
• 4G: Fighting Crime in Annapolis

For years, we’ve talked about the cellphone as the swiss army knife.

And I’ve found the analogy to be really on-target. I’ve told the story many times about how I used to (pre-9/11) always carry a small knife in my pocket that had a small pair of scissors and a tiny screw driver. There were times when I found myself trying to demo the latest telecom applications at a customer site or a trade show and I’d use those scissors to strip a wire and the screw driver to lock down a connection. (Scary, I know…)

But, in reality, those scissors and that tiny screw driver were a poor excuse for real tools. They were incredibly valuable because I had them with me, but given my druthers, I’d rather use a real stripping tool or real screw driver.

Cellphones have been the same way. You can use your cellphone as a camera. You can use your cellphone to watch TV or movies. You can use them as an eReader. You can use your cellphone as a navigation device. And your cellphone is incredibly valuable for those purposes (relative to its quality at each) because it is always with you. (That’s a big part of McGuire’s Law of Mobility, by the way…)

But in reality, given the choice, most people would rather use a “real” camera, a “real” TV, a “real” book or eReader, or a “real” navigation device.

The EVO 4G is the first phone that really changes that reality. Its true broadband connectivity, high powered processor, 8MP camera, huge screen, and HDMI output make it truly competitive as a “real” product in each of those categories. Add in stereo Bluetooth, 720p video recording, an additional front facing camera for video chatting, hot spot capability, a digital compass, and all the applications in the Android marketplace, and suddenly the EVO becomes the ultimate “swiss army knife” capable of credibly replacing a broad range of products.

Wow.

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.)

• RIM stays top dog in OS battle, Android tops Apple for No. 2
• The real reason Android is outselling the iPhone: Android is everywhere
• Opinion - It’s Time For Google To Kill The Failed Nexus One
• 4 Lessons Learned From Google’s Nexus One Store Closure
• Android’s daily shipment rate jumps up to 65,000 per day
• Smartphone Wars: Battle looks set to go to many rounds before victors declared
• Is Android fragmented or is this the new rate of innovation?
• It’s time to experiment with device pricing
• Hey, HP, the Smartphone Market Is Calling
• Is Steve Ballmer’s Fate Tied to Microsoft’s Handset Efforts?
• The Latest Trends in Business-Class Smartphones

As we work to build mobility into every product, service, and process, our greatest inhibitor is the mindset represented by those who defend the tethering of products and processes to specific places. This mindset is fueled by the investments that have been made that establish power in the companies, departments, and individuals that stand in the way of mobilizing our lives and our businesses. These investments are not always in hard assets, but often are investments of time and experience to establish intellectual and relational assets. We should expect our assault on these ways to be defended to the death. Here are recent examples:

• AT&T disputes poor showing in dropped calls survey
• Investigation: Apple vs Nokia vs Google vs HTC vs RIM
• AT&T warns customer that emailing the CEO will result in a cease and desist letter

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.)

• For IT, enterprise wireless to get more gnarly in next decade
• Tipping Point? Quarter Of All Homes Have Totally Abandoned Landlines
• Privacy As a Competitive Advantage in Mobile
• The Pending Obsolescence of Handset Penetration Rates
• Iota Flex wants to be a MiFi for voice and text
• More British Children Own Mobile Phones than Own Books
• The Opportunity and Challenges of M2M
• Gartner analyst: Health CIOs must develop mobile strategies soon
• Intel: Nine in 10 say telehealth will transform care in next decade
• What is next for the enterprise?
• The New Power of Mobility
• Wireless Links for Video Consumer Electronics Devices Set to Boom

Bonus: Mike Dano on “Narrowing in on the value of the M2M market”

Bonus (2): AT&T & Verizon’s Future Is in Your Fridge

Bonus (3): Enterprise 2.0 Session: Machine-to-machine - opening for business

Converging products into a cellphone is one way that mobility is getting built into every product, but it’s not the only way. Every month, I’ll focus on devices that are integrating the power of mobility into products themselves in ways that create new value for the customer. Power up!

• Clothes
• Cars
• Cars (2)

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:

• Memristors
• MHL
• WiMax 2
• Metamaterial
• Solar and Wind Chargers
• 3D camera modules
• WiDi
• Rollable OLED
• Rollable displays (2)
• IPS touchscreens
• Copper nanowires
• Dual core chips