Some rumours about IPad2 state that the screen definition would be twice higher, becoming 2048x1536 instead of 1024x768.
Today, the Wired magazine on IPad already consumes more than 500MB in terms of bandwidth and disk size. Since Wired is often leveraging the full capacity, this could lead to a severe increase (media assets - image and video - take the larger part) in bandwith consumption (for consumers and/or for telcos) as well as on-device disk space (up to 2GB).
All this would only opertae if Apple manages to keep convincing publishers using its tablet after having sucked the customer relationship - as announced on Friday.
To be continued ...
Benoit Quirynen
About ICT evolutions shaping a new world.
Showing posts with label merge and acquisitions. Show all posts
Showing posts with label merge and acquisitions. Show all posts
Sunday, January 16, 2011
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
Telecom - why not simply deliver a better service ?
Blogs, articles, books, everywhere in the world strategists are discussing about the battle between internet boys and telecom elderly. Why are Internet boys so successful, in a kind of continuous hype curve, while telecom elderly are perceived as old-fashioned even if the second ones provide the necessary pipes for the first ones to operate ?
This interesting discussion was reenforced this week due to the Broadband forum.
There is certainly nothing wrong to raise the question and, even better, it's important for the whole society to find the right balance between the two sets of dinosaurs in order to support further evolutions.
But, before engaging in some hazardous strategies, telecom operators could perhaps simply deliver a better service. It's not about inventing yet another stuff. It's all about services around voice, messaging, data access and 3rd party premium services - all the services used by large panel of subscribers.
We can distinguish two aspects : provide a better user experience and solve all the numerous small inconsistencies which are very annoying for subscribers, eventually leading to a complete loss of trust.
Why the hell is the Skype user experience better than my phone experience ? I don't ask for a free service. It would nice but I understand it would not be sustainable. I just ask a mobile user experience as convenient as Skype.
The second improvement concerns the loss of trust that I still have in my telecom provider. Why the hell do I face a problem each time I activate a service ? It's true that I receive more alert messages than before, assumed to explain unusual situations. Receiving alerts when call center tells you that there is no problem creates frustration. Not receiving an alert when there is a problem is even more frustrating. And finally, each time spending 20+ minutes waiting in call center queue is certainly not my favorite activity.
Telecom systems have been built as mushrooms growing, on a yearly basis, a few month after annual Mobile World Congress. In order to face the other category of dinosaurs, it's time for telecom to debug all these minor frustrating error cases or even better, time to streamline the architectures.
Let's remove dangerous mushrooms and structure the telecom landscape for an open field based on latest technologies and concepts - supporting a new wave of innovation.
Fighting or partnering with the other side ? Future will say.
To be continued ...
Benoit Quirynen
This interesting discussion was reenforced this week due to the Broadband forum.
There is certainly nothing wrong to raise the question and, even better, it's important for the whole society to find the right balance between the two sets of dinosaurs in order to support further evolutions.
But, before engaging in some hazardous strategies, telecom operators could perhaps simply deliver a better service. It's not about inventing yet another stuff. It's all about services around voice, messaging, data access and 3rd party premium services - all the services used by large panel of subscribers.
We can distinguish two aspects : provide a better user experience and solve all the numerous small inconsistencies which are very annoying for subscribers, eventually leading to a complete loss of trust.
Why the hell is the Skype user experience better than my phone experience ? I don't ask for a free service. It would nice but I understand it would not be sustainable. I just ask a mobile user experience as convenient as Skype.
The second improvement concerns the loss of trust that I still have in my telecom provider. Why the hell do I face a problem each time I activate a service ? It's true that I receive more alert messages than before, assumed to explain unusual situations. Receiving alerts when call center tells you that there is no problem creates frustration. Not receiving an alert when there is a problem is even more frustrating. And finally, each time spending 20+ minutes waiting in call center queue is certainly not my favorite activity.
Telecom systems have been built as mushrooms growing, on a yearly basis, a few month after annual Mobile World Congress. In order to face the other category of dinosaurs, it's time for telecom to debug all these minor frustrating error cases or even better, time to streamline the architectures.
Let's remove dangerous mushrooms and structure the telecom landscape for an open field based on latest technologies and concepts - supporting a new wave of innovation.
Fighting or partnering with the other side ? Future will say.
To be continued ...
Benoit Quirynen
Thursday, July 15, 2010
Racer mobile phone - the name of the winners not written in the press release
Racer, the new Android phone sold below symbolic threshold of 100 UK Pounds, produced by ZTE and distributed by 3-UK, has been announced this week. This is probably an important milestone in the mobile phone history. Funny enough, the name of the true winners is not written in the press releases.
The announcement indicates an important smart complementary offer; 3UK granting a volume data bucket of 150MB for top-up on a prepaid account.
3UK and ZTE are obviously mentioned in the press release.
Through this launch, 3UK, desperately tries to attack its strong competitors with an appealing offer for youngsters. Vodafone, T-Mobile/Orange and O2 are able to follow when they decide. If the phone is a success, it's just a question of months to come back to a similar balance between telco players on the island.
On the other hand, ZTE makes a step towards a position in the top-5 mobile phone manufacturers but there is still a long long way to run.
Funny enough, the name of the big winners of this important milestone is not written.
Android is mentioned but Google is not. Through its "free licensing model", Google will win the scale battle with Apple. Google copies the Windows model used by Microsoft against Apple during last century. Google does not directly produce cash through this kind of offer. But advertising inventory (display and search) will indirectly grow at an higher pace and this growth is directly linked to G revenues.
The name of the other winner is Facebook, with the same logic of increased inventory, since target of this phone is most probably youngsters, heavy Facebook users. This can be extended to myriad of mobile phone application providers.
Names of losers are rarely written in press releases.
We can not say that Apple will loose with this kind of move but it defines the borders of a profitable corner.
Apple, luxuriantly trapped by the very high value of his brand and its vertical approach - mandatory to change the game at the beginning but limiting the scale during next phases of growth -, will loose against Android in terms of mobile OS market share. As a consequence, iAds, advertising initiative from Apple, will then probably be restricted to high-end brands while Google presents a universal inventory for any brand, any shop.
The announcement indicates an important smart complementary offer; 3UK granting a volume data bucket of 150MB for top-up on a prepaid account.
3UK and ZTE are obviously mentioned in the press release.
Through this launch, 3UK, desperately tries to attack its strong competitors with an appealing offer for youngsters. Vodafone, T-Mobile/Orange and O2 are able to follow when they decide. If the phone is a success, it's just a question of months to come back to a similar balance between telco players on the island.
On the other hand, ZTE makes a step towards a position in the top-5 mobile phone manufacturers but there is still a long long way to run.
Funny enough, the name of the big winners of this important milestone is not written.
Android is mentioned but Google is not. Through its "free licensing model", Google will win the scale battle with Apple. Google copies the Windows model used by Microsoft against Apple during last century. Google does not directly produce cash through this kind of offer. But advertising inventory (display and search) will indirectly grow at an higher pace and this growth is directly linked to G revenues.
The name of the other winner is Facebook, with the same logic of increased inventory, since target of this phone is most probably youngsters, heavy Facebook users. This can be extended to myriad of mobile phone application providers.
Names of losers are rarely written in press releases.
We can not say that Apple will loose with this kind of move but it defines the borders of a profitable corner.
Apple, luxuriantly trapped by the very high value of his brand and its vertical approach - mandatory to change the game at the beginning but limiting the scale during next phases of growth -, will loose against Android in terms of mobile OS market share. As a consequence, iAds, advertising initiative from Apple, will then probably be restricted to high-end brands while Google presents a universal inventory for any brand, any shop.
This announcement now materializes another level of danger for Nokia. Lost in Symbian, Meego, Linux mobile OS announcements, Nokia is still the number one but does not manage to tease interest of developers for applications - the next criterion for people to buy a phone.
Moreover, the whole telco market could start to see ARPU (average revenue per user) declining faster at this stage. Through this offer with such a pricing for device and data, number of data users could reach a tipping point where messaging traffic could start to significantly migrate from charged SMS to free instant messaging.
This only if the Racer phone is good and is a commercial success.
To be continued ...
Benoit Quirynen
Sunday, July 4, 2010
Treaty of Tordesillas in 1494 - a business split still under discussion for telecom
1494, Spanish and Portuguese kingdoms ruled a dispute about ownership of the new world. Today, Portuguese prime minister wants to make use of its golden share to prevent Telefonica to control Vivo Brazil, the largest telco in the huge - fast emerging - country.
In 1494, "Treaty of Tordesillas" drew a meridian line (Tordesillas meridian) to determine ownership of the new world : Western part to Spain (all known America), Eastern part to Portugal (islands on the way to America). At this time, it was unknown that South-American territory was extending eastern this meridian line. In 1500, only 6 years later, Cabral, Portuguese navigator, discovered eastern part of Brazil, de facto becoming part of Portugal according to the famous treaty. From this presence in Eastern Brazil, Portugal extended his territory to take more than 50% of South-America.
In 2010, Vivo is the largest telco in Brazil. Through a JV, Telefonica and Portugal Telecom control major part of Vivo. Both Iberian telcos struggle with declining revenues in their home country and consider Brazil as the way for growth. Last week, Telefonica made an offer to buy shares of Portugal Telecom in this JV. Portuguese government now wants to make use of its golden share to protect interests of Portugal.
Spain still has to pay today for an error of about 12° longitude, 500 years ago. When drawing a line to share territories in a fast evolving business, you never know how, where and when it will end ... In ICT, business agreements and M&A operations are often handled much too fast, under immediate market pressure, without clear understanding of the consequences, especially since a lot of new territories are still to be discovered in this domain. What will happen in ICT world 2016 ?
To be continued ...
Benoit Quirynen
In 1494, "Treaty of Tordesillas" drew a meridian line (Tordesillas meridian) to determine ownership of the new world : Western part to Spain (all known America), Eastern part to Portugal (islands on the way to America). At this time, it was unknown that South-American territory was extending eastern this meridian line. In 1500, only 6 years later, Cabral, Portuguese navigator, discovered eastern part of Brazil, de facto becoming part of Portugal according to the famous treaty. From this presence in Eastern Brazil, Portugal extended his territory to take more than 50% of South-America.
In 2010, Vivo is the largest telco in Brazil. Through a JV, Telefonica and Portugal Telecom control major part of Vivo. Both Iberian telcos struggle with declining revenues in their home country and consider Brazil as the way for growth. Last week, Telefonica made an offer to buy shares of Portugal Telecom in this JV. Portuguese government now wants to make use of its golden share to protect interests of Portugal.
Spain still has to pay today for an error of about 12° longitude, 500 years ago. When drawing a line to share territories in a fast evolving business, you never know how, where and when it will end ... In ICT, business agreements and M&A operations are often handled much too fast, under immediate market pressure, without clear understanding of the consequences, especially since a lot of new territories are still to be discovered in this domain. What will happen in ICT world 2016 ?
To be continued ...
Benoit Quirynen
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