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.)

• The Future of Cheap Androids Begins Now
• Lets Understand Phones: Market is Shifting from Dumbphones to Smartphones
• What does a Nokisoft smartphone look like before it is born?
• Tablets are threat to Smartphones and Netbooks, analyzes Frost and Sullivan
• With 24% Share of Smartphones, Android Will Outshine “Nokisoft”
• Smartphones Top US Consumer Electronics Purchase Plans for 2011
• The “Cool Factor” No Longer Driving Handset Sales - Form and Function Winning
• Kyocera Shows Off Dual-Screen Android Smartphone
• Apple retakes World’s Biggest Computer Maker Crown after 3 decades - with power of iPhone, iPad and Touch
• Smartphone Bloodbath 2010: Now Final Numbers Q4 and Full Year 2010 - and each rival awarded their final grades
• Nokia Autopsy on MeeGo - One last look back, Before we look forward on the New Nokia
• Noki-Soft Windfall - who wins most when Micro-Kia hand away lucrative smartphone empire bigger than Blackberry, bigger than iPhone

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.)

• Its Not 4G, Its Faux G
• Are operators misleading consumers by claiming HSPA+ is 4G?
• NTT DoCoMo, China Mobile, KT form partnership, every other carrier in the world should probably be concerned
• Threats to the Telco Business Model
• How will operators differentiate themselves in 2011?
• N. American operators may be unprofitable by 2013
• Mobile data: finding ‘Quick fixes’ for revenue growth
• Mobility in 2011 – The Network & Operators
• Network Operators are Key to the Smartphone Ecosystem
• Mobile operators should fear the threat from Facebook
• New business models based on mobile data are needed to drive growth worldwide
• Operators Want Higher Smartphone Revenues, But Need to Educate Customers on Using Advanced Features
• Subsidised Phones for the Poor Could Generate $3.7 Billion in Income

This morning, Darrin asked about a new port-in credit available for customers coming to Sprint from other carriers. I wasn’t familiar with the offer, so I checked it out and asked his specific question of our marketing folks.

It looks like a sweet deal. (Especially combined with Everything Plus.)

If you’ve been thinking about giving Sprint a try, now might be the perfect time! If you’ve had a bad experience with us in the past, we are a changed company, as Vocalabs and J.D. Power can attest.

Welcome to Sprint!

This week, HP finally introduced some interesting new products based on the WebOS platform that came from the Palm acquisition. The company is certainly being aggressive, taking the platform in a number of different, and even surprising, directions.

I want to thank all of you who have e-mailed me encouraging Sprint to commit to the WebOS platform and asking whether we were going to have any of these new devices on our network. (Thanks Tom. :))

As I’ve said here many times, any Sprint employee sharing information on unreleased devices is subject to termination, and I enjoy working at Sprint, so even if I knew details of Sprint’s plans for upcoming devices, I wouldn’t share those plans.

However, I can say that Sprint values the long relationship it has had with Palm (now HP) and you can be sure that we will continue to discuss with HP/Palm the types of devices we’d like to see on our network and to evaluate the new devices HP brings to the table.

I also can say that we certainly expect to see the new WiFi-enabled WebOS devices on our network thanks to the great MiFi and Overdrive products that we already have in our portfolio, as well as the Hotspot feature available in an increasing number of our handsets. For those that love WebOS, I encourage you to consider HP’s new products paired with the great 4G experience that Sprint can deliver today through these hotspot capabilities.

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:

• Flexible and transparent displays
• 16MP cameraphone modules
• Dualcore
• Barometers
• 3D displays
• Combination chipsets
• Multi-tech cellular chipsets
• 3D holographic displays
• Paper batteries
• Gesture control

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.)

• In-app purchases now half of iPhone developer revenues
• Feature Creep Emerges as Next Challenge for Mobile Devs
• RIM’s WebWorks SDK: make apps compatible with both PlayBook and BlackBerry 6
• Why developers need to take responsibility and create more network-aware applications
• Amazon opens Appstore Developer program, is obviously doing an app store
• Developers — Don’t Bet on Mobile Ad Revenue to Pay the Bills
• Google accelerates in-house mobile app development
• Why it’s time for app developers to go global
• Developers See Dollars In Android Improvements
• BlackBerry App World 2.1 gets in-app payments, too
• The App Market Is Heading for an App Store Showdown
• Pocketgear relaunches as Appia, becomes a mobile app store platform
• Flurry’s app recommendation service gains huge momentum, reaching 80M users a month
• Best Practices for Maximizing Mobile App Revenue

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.)

• Word Lens augmented reality app instantly translates whatever you point it at
• Track And Turn Off Household Appliances With Your Phone
• How Long Until A Feature Length Movie Is Filmed Entirely With Smartphones?
• iGrill meat thermometer for iPhone is the expensive, unholy marriage of the meat thermometer and iPhone
• Cities Fighting Crime With Smartphone Apps
• App Smart: Apps to Give the Novice Mixologist a Fighting Chance
• File Your Taxes on Your Smartphone?
• Geolocation app appeals to your inner good samaritan, makes you an amateur EMT
• Veterans using mobile devices for follow-up care
• IRS Issues New Phone App to Track Refunds
• Cell phones improving results for wounded soldiers
• CNN shows off an Android tablet app where users can post news
• Massive Health Uses Big Data, Mobile Phones to Fight Chronic Disease
• Smartphones: Indispensable Tool For The Modern Busker
• New York Trials Real-Time Bus Tracking Information on Smartphones
• Will 350,000 people file taxes on smartphones?

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.

• Starbucks Mobile Payments Go National
• Google building its own NFC-based payments system?
• Vast Majority of Marketers Will Utilize Mobile Marketing and Increase Spending on Mobile Platforms in 2011
• Face It Carriers: Free Services Might Be Better Than Your Paid Ones
• Promised Market for NFC Effectively Commences in 2011 with Commercial Rolls
• Development of the Mobile Web
• Challenges for Hyperlocal Mobile Advertising
• Shorthand brings (some of) the Internet to phones, no data plan required
• Sprint adds HSN ID shopping app package
• Are Location-Based Services Ready to Turn the Corner?
• Paradoxes in the notion of mobile billing replacing cash or credit cards
• Apple adding mobile wallet services to iPhone and iPad
• How Vlingo’s mobile personal assistant makes money
• LG working on an NFC payment system for Europe, planning launch in 2012
• Report: Mobile e-mail rises; Web e-mail dips
• What will be the business model for free NFC-based interactions?

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

• Mobile Broadband Subs to Hit 1B in 2011
• Mobile game ad spend to reach $900 million by 2015
• Global Tablet Market Will Soar to US$46 Billion by 2014
• Ringback Tone Advertising to Hit $780 million annually by 2015 as Consumers Chase Free Airtime
• Connected Car App Users Accelerating 40-Fold by 2016
• A billion mobile broadband connected devices by 2016
• Tablets lead rise of ‘lite OS’ devices to 150 million global shipments
• AdSpend on Mobile Games to Reach Nearly $900 Million Globally by 2015
• Mobile Backhaul Market to Exceed $8 Billion by 2015
• Wireless M2M Communication Reached 81.4 Million Units in 2010
• Smartphone shipments will approach 1 billion
• Global Smartphone Shipments Reach Record 94 Million Units in Q4 2010
• Number of Entry-Level Smartphones to reach over 185 million by 2015, driven by Operator Own-Brand Initiatives and Falling Prices
• 1.4 billion people to access both fixed and mobile broadband by 2015
• By 2015, 8.7 Trillion Text Messages Will Be Sent Each Year
• Cellular M2M Modules Will See Dramatic Uptake in Automotive and Metering
• Cisco: Mobile Data Traffic Up 26X by 2015
• Remote patient monitoring market to grow 26 percent by 2014
• Social Networking Will Push Mobile VoIP Users to Nearly 139 Million by 2014
• App Stores to Generate $15 B in Revenue
• Shipments of consumer devices with embedded mobile broadband doubled in 2010
• Mobile Augmented Reality Attracts Leading Brands as Juniper Research forecasts $1.5 billion revenue stream by 2015
• Majority of Mobile Broadband Users Ready to Pay for a Higher Quality of Experience

Big Bell Dogma is the innovation stifling mindset, most often seen in large market-dominating companies, where the big company protects the status quo, tries to control what happens in the ecosystem, and believes they can perform tasks better than others in the ecosystem who specialize in that function. Big Bell Dogma hurts consumers, hurts the ecosystem, and slows market growth, but sometimes results in higher profits for the big companies. Here are recent examples:

• T-Mobile UK Decides Mobile Broadband Shouldn’t Actually Be Used For Mobile Broadband
• Steve Jobs to Media Co’s: It’s My Way or the Highway