Infinite Storage, Bandwidth, CPU Power

In a world with infinite storage, bandwidth, and CPU power, Google could offer instant end user access to "all applications," CEO Eric Schmidt has said. "Everything can be stored and accessed from anywhere, on any device." Everything can be stored in the cloud. "Every experience and application can be customized for each user." All of which might be reason enough for Google to build a huge, private Internet. It could be "100 times better" than anything else, offering a programmable, executable, reliable experience.

50% Margins on iPhone?

Apple phone is expected to cost $600. Cingular (at&t) won't be allowed to discount it. The cost to manufacture an 8 Gbyte iPhone is estimated to be about $280. As iTunes exists to sell iPods, so now mobile service exists to sell iPhones. True, as Steve Ballmer, Microsoft CEO points out, iPhone doesn't have a keypad, so text entry might be a bit of a chore. Still, this device is going to get lots of attention, and sales, from professionals, engineers and other people who just think it is the coolest phone on the market.

Why Security Always Tops Enterprise Objections...

to new IP-based services and platforms. Flaws in Web apps boosted bug counts for 2006 by more than a third over the previous year, according to data from four major databases tracking security and bugs: the Computer Emergency Response Team Coordination Center (CERT/CC), National Vulnerability Database, Open-Source Vulnerability Database and Symantec Vulnerability Database.

Counting both public sources and private submissions directly to the CERT Coordination Center, the group logged 8,064 vulnerabilities last year, an increase of 35 per cent over the number of flaws reported in 2005.

The three other major flaw databases, the National Vulnerability Database, the Open-Source Vulnerability Database, and the Symantec Vulnerability Database, recorded jumps anywhere from 20 to 35 per cent in 2006 compared to 2005. OSVDB estimates at least 20 per cent more vulnerabilities logged in 2006 compared to 2005.

Google's New Data Center

Google is opening a $600 million data center in Lenoir, N.C., matching the size of the similar facility Google is building in The Dalles, Ore. During the second and third quarters last year, Google's capital expenditures were more than $1.2 billion. Some experts believe dominance on the Internet could eventually be determined by the size and efficiency of huge data centers. Microsoft and Yahoo are both building facilities in Washington state, up the Columbia River from Google's. Microsoft also will build a $550 million data center in Austin, Tex.

Google also has leased enough wide area network dark fiber to rival that of many carriers. All of which will stand Google in good stead as video drives Internet traffic way beyond anything engineers have designed for, or that ISPs can afford to support, truth be told. Where a typical end user now generates between one and three gigabytes of traffic a month, video downloading could drive demand to one to three gigabytes a day. That 30 times increase, an order of magnitude and then some, is going to crush many ISPs, whose business models simply won't allow them to buy additional IP transit in that quantity.

So Google conceivably could emerge as quite a savior. Basically, peering with Google, on whatever terms Google might require, might be the key to survival. Interesting, indeed.

Other Things to Do With Your Mobile

Buy stuff! The number of mobile payment users is expected to grow from just more than 100 million worldwide users in 2006 to more than 200 million in 2009 according to the Yankee Group. That translates into revenue growth from $800 million to $1.8 billion in revenue between 2006 and 2009. That growth could be increased dramatically if a revenue sharing agreement can be developed among mobile carriers, credit card associations, issuing banks and retailers/merchants. This is better than debit cards for small purchases, don't you think?

Unity Will Put Brakes on Wireline Defections

Wasting no time at all since it gained full control of Cingular, at&t is creating one of the largest communities the communications industry has ever seen, in the form of 100 million phone and wireless accounts. at&t Unity, a pricing package that allows its cellular customers to call any AT&T landline customer without incurring additional usage fees or using their wireless minutes, expands the wireless "friends and family" concept to friends, family, business partners and people you don't know."

This is the same company that has an exclusive right to sell the Apple iPhone as well. Unity is available on all wireless plans of at least $59.99 a month.

To subscribe to a at&t Unity plan, a customer would need to have at&t wireless service as well as an at&t landline plan that offered unlimited local and long-distance service. AT&T’s unlimited local and long-distance landline service starts at $40 a month if bought online.

Actions such as this are one reason why even astute cable companies and independent VoIP providers won't be able to keep ripping landline customers away from at&t at high rates forever. At some point, it was inevitable that at&t and other similarly-situated firms would bundle their wireline assets in ways that would compel customers to keep their POTS lines.

Video Pricing Sticky to the Upside

One reason service providers might like being providers of video service, among many reasons they might well not like it, is that video entertainment prices are remarkably sticky to the upside where it comes to retail prices. Virtually every other type of communications good has seen declining prices over the last 10 years. Not so with video.