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Busy News day February 11, 2008

Posted by chetan in : AORTA, European Wireless Market, International Trade, Japan Wireless Market, Mergers and Acquisitions, Mobile Advertising, Mobile Ecosystem, Wireless Value Chain, Worldwide Wireless Market , add a comment

Of course, MWC is underway but even otherwise, there are plenty of news items trickling in

  • AOL launches open source platform for Mobile phone. I talked to Jai Jaisimha, VP Products AOL Mobile about this program on friday and this program is more ambitious than anything we have seen thus far as it includes all device types - essentially abstract the device layer and let developers focus on apps. If there is enough traction, the AOL’s business model is to monetize services built around this open source platform.

    • Book Review: The History of Wireless

    Posted by chetan in : BRIC, CTIA, European Wireless Market, Indian Wireless Market, International Trade, Japan Wireless Market, US Wireless Market, Worldwide Wireless Market , 1 comment so far

    The History of Wireless: How Creative Minds Produced Technology for the Masses

    The History of Wireless: How Creative Minds Produced Technology for the Masses by Ira Brodsky, Telescope Books

    Last week a colleague of mine, Ira Brodsky sent me his latest book on the history of the wireless industry and i must say i was hooked on to it until i was done. It is a brilliant book especially for us industry junkies and technology history buffs. Ira has done a superb job of mining vivid details about the history, personalities of the major actors in the drama of the evolution of the wireless industry - starting from Luigi Galvani’s frog experiments back in 1781to the most recent advances in broadband wireless, this books transports you to a front row experience of the how the industry grew, each discovery made, each opportunity missed, and how each of the genius inventors over the past 200+ years through determination and foresight brought us the current day wireless industry. I wish the book was available when i was studying science and electrical engineering in school. The terms volt, faraday, ohm, hertz, etc would have had a different meaning.

    We often don’t think about how “true” inventions were made in the wireless industry and take things for granted, in fact the art of original scientific inventions seems to be an endangered species these days. The details of this book are so stunning and Ira has written such a readable book that you feel like you are a fly on the wall while Galvani, Franklin, Faraday, Volta, Maxwell, Hertz, Morse, Bell, Marconi, Edison, Bose, Sarnoff, Galvin, Ericsson, Viterbi, and others were doing their thing.

    The book is effective not only in capturing the history so beautifully but for drawing the lessons from successes and failures of inventors and companies. For today’s entrepreneurs there are words of wisdom and inspiration.

    Yahoo rejects Microsoft’s bid February 9, 2008

    Posted by chetan in : US Wireless Market , add a comment

    Not a surprise but Yahoo plans to reject Microsoft’s bid. Now comes the test of Ballmer’s mettle. Will he follow-up on his hostile bid or wait for another day. Time will give Google to figure out a strategy to keep Microsoft at bay. Ballmer should consult with Mr. Ellison who has had a good knack of hostile takeovers with success.

    Sampling Errors: "Pay attention to what I do, Not what I Say" February 7, 2008

    Posted by chetan in : European Wireless Market, Japan Wireless Market, Mobile Advertising, Mobile Applications, Mobile Content, Mobile Ecosystem, Mobile Entertainment, Mobile Gaming, Mobile Search, US Wireless Market, Wireless Value Chain, Worldwide Wireless Market , add a comment

    The current primary season in the US provides an exciting time for both political junkies and the number junkies. The stats that have been pouring out from the contests is great data to analyze. It is also interesting to follow the polling of various contests and how on/off the mark they get from time to time. Polling is now getting to these ridiculous daily polls. I often wonder if there is anyone left in the country who hasn’t been polled.

    There have been so many errors in the polls even in the ones that were taken a day before and the reasons for them are simple - it is primarily due to sampling errors. The pollsters made mistakes in accurately representing the likely-to-vote population. Some errors creep in due to people not accurately reflecting their choices or change their minds at the last minute.

    Why am I talking about this? Similar survey and polls have relevance in the technology world especially in services and products that are consumer oriented. Many companies and service providers fall into the trap of “what consumers say they want.” I always had a feeling that people don’t always accurately reflect their choices either consciously or unconsciously. To prove this point, i looked at data to see the differences between the same user w.r.t. their explicit (what they say) and implicit (what they do) preferences and the results were quite revealing. Majority of the people (80%+) don’t always do what they say - meaning they might indicate that one band is their top choice but their actions reveal something totally different. Also, their preferences evolve and change over time so a survey done today will be outdated in 6 months for the same person.

    We have a section in the book “Mobile Advertising” where I looked at some data provided by AgentArts (which got acquired by FAST which got acquired by Microsoft) and present my findings in the section “Pay attention to what i do, Not what i Say”

    Always be careful about the data you gather and make sure it represents reality before you start analyzing and crafting strategies based on them.

    Mobile Advertising Book: Perspectives

    Posted by chetan in : European Wireless Market, Mobile Advertising, Mobile Applications, Mobile Content, Mobile Ecosystem, US Wireless Market, Wireless Value Chain, Worldwide Wireless Market , 1 comment so far

    In the course of writing the book, we interviewed several key executives from around the world. 13 of them kindly consented to write an opinion piece for the book. They are from each critical segment of the value chain and from each key geographical region. Chapter 10 of the book - Perspectives is a collection of these 13 opinion pieces. They are:

    a) Opportunity for Mobile Advertising - Richard Saggers, Head of Mobile Advertising, Vodafone and EMEA Chairman, MMA

    b) Marketing Needs Innovation, Can Mobile Help? - Syl Saller, Global Innovation Director, Diageo

    c) Constraining Youths in the Mobile Gateways - Ian Stewart, SVP, MTV Networks International

    d) Mobile is the Connective Tissue to Other Media - Joe Doran, GM, Microsoft Advertiser and Publisher Solutions Group

    e) Mobile Advertising in India - Mahesh Prasad, President, Reliance Infocomm

    f) Delivering the Right Ad at the Right Time - Marianne Marck, VP, Walt Disney Internet Group

    g) Global Mobile Advertising Market Development & the (integral) Role of Guidelines - Laura Marriott, President, MMA

    h) The Future of Advertising Is in Consumer’s Pocket - Marco Boerries, EVP, Connected Life, Yahoo!

    i) Reaching Consumers with Highly Targeted Interactive Mobile Advertising - Omar Javaid, VP MediaFLO, Qualcomm

    j) The Coming Age of Mobile Innovation - Harry Santamaki, VP Multimedia, Media Industry, Nokia

    k) Mobile: Advertising’s 1st Screen - Maria Mandel, Executive Director, Ogilvy

    l) Brand Advertising is Likely to Dominate Mobile Advertising - Ujjal Kohli, CEO, Rhythm New Media

    m) Mobile Advertising Measurement - One Sport at Time - Kanishka Agarwal, VP, Nielsen Mobile

    Mobile World Congress

    Posted by chetan in : US Wireless Market , add a comment

    The mobile world is getting ready for the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona next week. I will be tracking it from far away. Will Google announce Android Handset?

    Another Quarter, Another MVNO February 5, 2008

    Posted by chetan in : US Wireless Market , add a comment

    Per Moconews, premium MVNO Voce is shutting down. MVNO is much harder than it looks.

    The Yahoo deal

    Posted by chetan in : Mobile Advertising, US Wireless Market, Worldwide Wireless Market , 2 comments

    Microsoft’s deal to acquire Yahoo is getting plenty of press. Google is going to try hard to keep it from happening and the high-tech industry is on its toes to see which way this might go. I think this deal has as much of a chance of passing as Google has of getting the DoubleClick one getting through - meaning .. it is unlikely that US will be a problem but Europeans will give them a hard time. Google’s argument that the combination will have more IM and Email accounts is a bogus one .. it is all about audience and it is all about advertising.

    Google’s ploy to offer a helping hand to its competitor is clever one and might give Yahoo some reason to pause and think more. Yahoo is having a hard to figuring out its strategy and they can’t seem to have a good idea. Microsoft has spent millions to get closer to Google and has been continuously failing and the gap continues to grow.

    Even if the merger goes through (which can take a good year), the integration won’t be easy. There is plenty of tech overlap. The culture of two companies are different and history is littered with examples of companies with different cultures failing within 2 years. It will make a good business school case study. Again, Microsoft is after audience and advertising. Rest is just window dressing.

    Ballmer might want to call Larry Ellison for some tips on hostile takeovers.

    Microsoft goes after Yahoo February 1, 2008

    Posted by chetan in : US Wireless Market , add a comment

    It was only a matter of time, Microsoft made a $44.6B cash and stock offer for Yahoo! The shareholders will be foolish not to vote for it at 60%+ premium.