Big Future for Location-Based Services?

Location-based services might not be a big mass market business yet, but it seems almost inevitable that they will be. You don't get the likes of Nokia and Google placing such big bets on location-based services without something developing.

ABI Research expects personal navigation devices (PNDs) will grow to a global sales volume of more than 100 million units by 2011. While dedicated PNDs will remain the preferred form-factor for use in cars, GPS will increasingly be an expected ingredient in handsets, portable media players (PMPs), ultra-mobile PCs (UMPCs), and other mobile devices, ABI forecasts.

Handset-based GPS will grow strongly in North America, reaching a sales volume of 21 million units by 2012, ABI Research forecasts.

In-Stat reaches very similar overall conclusions, though it adds digital cameras and even handheld games to the mix of devices expected to include GPS. In-Stat predicts that sales of mobile devices with integrated GPS will grow from 180 million units in 2007 to 720 million units in 2011.

In fact, mapping-related and location-related Web apps might be more commercially attractive than entertainment was expected to be. For starters, mobile Web advertising revenues in 2011 are expected to be dominated by Web and search. In fact, Strategy Analytics estimates that about 76 percent of all mobile advertising will be generated either by Web apps or search.

All of that dovetails with Google’s thinking about the advertising potential of the mobile Web. And the point is that if consumers find location-based Web apps attractive, and there is a robust advertising support model, carriers are bound to see big increases in broadband service plans, even if they don’t see similarly robust demand for walled-garden enhanced services.

Orange UK: Still Looking for Killer App

Mobile Web appears to be the most-frequently-used mobile app, according to new data from Orange U.K.(France Telecom).

Orange U.K. has 1.4 million broadband wireless customers, but the single most-used application is text messaging, which doesn't require broadband access. Orange U.K. customers send or receive about 71 text messages a day (more than 2,000 a month) but just about 4.3 Multimedia Message Service (MMS) messages a day (129 a month) for users who take advantage of MMS, and most do not.

About 58 percent of Orange U.K. customers can use MMS and six-month usage growth was 37 percent.

In the mobile search area, Orange saw about 250,000 repeat visitors each day, on a base of 1.4 million users. One might therefore estimate that about 18 percent of the base uses mobile search daily.

Orange users downloaded about 7,680 games a day across the user base, up about 3.4 percent over the last six months. Music downloads grew about 15 percent over the last six months to about 3,280 a day.

Orange mobile TV usage is said to be growing at double the management forecast, but one suspects the numbers still are fairly low, as the actual numerical results were not released. Mobile video clip downloads averaged 5,211 a day.

Downloads of logos, wallpapers and pictures averaged 3,233 a day. On the other hand, users are uploading about 23,333 photos a day to online photo albums.

So far, the story would seem to be consistent with what many would have expected: lots of niche applications but no single “killer app” beyond text messaging, which doesn’t require a 3G network. Orange U.K., like other mobile service providers, remains in a “throw it on the wall and see what sticks” mode, watching to see what apps are most compelling to users of 3G services.

So far, no other mobile carrier has discovered the elusive application that users intuitively understand and that is capable of driving 3G access. Right now, that’s the point: keep experimenting.

So far, one would have to conclude that mobile Web usage is the leading app, in terms of daily hits.

No EchoStar Purchase for at&t

at&t appears to have decided not to buy EchoStar to jumpstart its TV business, as it has boosted its dividend and launched a stock buyback program.

In total, at&t might spend roughly $17 billion in 2008 on dividends and buybacks, consuming most or all of the cash its businesses are likely to generate, leaving little to finance a purchase of EchoStar.

at&t also plans to expand U-Verse to cover 30 million households by 2010 in the 22 states where AT&T is the main local-phone company, up from an earlier target of 18 million households.

Broadband access strategy might have played a role in the thinking as well. By speeding its TV capabilities, at&t automatically creates a better network for high-speed access as well.

Make that 9 Reasons IT Won't Support iPhone

Apple appears to be working on improving the iPhone's support of Microsoft's Exchange email platform, which could finally deliver true syncing capabilities, eliminating a potential objection to enterprise adoption. At least that's what one would conclude from a new company job posting.

The listing seeks a "motivated, highly-technical Exchange test/sync engineer with excellent problem solving and communication skills."

"You will join a dynamic team responsible for qualifying the latest iPhone products," the company wrote. "Your focus will be testing Exchange and Outlook functionality with Apple’s innovative new phone."

So far, the iPhone's official support of Exchange has been limited to IMAP functionality.

The lack of full support for the Microsoft platform is commonly cited as one of the primary barriers to adoption of the Apple handset by businesses, as Exchange is widely deployed as the email solution of choice amongst the corporate world.

But there are lots of other reasons enterprise IT might not be rushing to embrace the iPhone as an officially supported device. See the post below.

10 Reasons IT Won't Support iPhone

Forrester Research has put together a really good list of the top 10 reasons enterprise technology managers will not to support the iPhone. The objections are valid and important. And somehow we think users are going to use iPhones anyway, with or without enterprise support. Some of the objections are more important than other.

But Forrester analyts also note that enterprise "C" level executives are using them anyway, so it is only a matter of time before the iPhone filters down the corporate pyramid.

1. Doesn’t natively support push business email or over-the-air calendar sync. The iPhone can sync with Microsoft’s Exchange and IBM’s Lotus Notes over IMAP and SMTP ports, but server and security administrators have to configure their infrastructure to do so or purchase a mobile gateway. The issue is "doesn't natively support" push email. People can work around that, or the email services can be tweaked. A problem, but not a really big problem.

2. Doesn’t accommodate third-party applications, including those internally developed. This is a big problem. But Apple software engineers must know this. And there are rumors Apple already is working on a software developer kit that should take care of this objection.

3. There isn't a way to encrypt data on the device. Yes, this is a pretty big problem.

4. Can’t be remotely locked or wiped in the event of a lost or stolen device. Also a big problem.

5. Lacks a hard keypad that provides feedback, which isn’t ideal for rapid and accurate input. Not a major objection, ultimately. Yes, accuracy typically is less than on a QWERTY keyboard. But this is an irritant, not a show stopper. And people get better at it with practice, it seems.

6. Limited service provider support and its carrier lock-in inhibits flexibility. Issues, yes, but not as big a deal as the security issues.

7. It is expensive. Well, it is being bought by consumers, who bring them into the enterprise environment, so not a direct enterprise problem.

8. Is only the first generation, and lacks 3G support. This problem fixes itself.

9. Lacks a removable battery. Definitely an irritant. Apple doesn't seem to want to sell replacement batteries. But that support isn't available for iPods either, and we have found ways to replace those batteries.

10. There are no case studies of firms that have deployed it enterpris-ewide. Sure, IT will say this, but it isn't a major objection, ultimately.

One reason the iPhone probably is used in smaller businesses is that people don't have all those custom apps to support. And we are entering an era where maybe there are some devices and apps that IT will simply say it won't support, but users can buy them and do their own support. Younger users will do that. Even some of us older users will do so.

Really, its is the security and support for proprietary enterprise apps that are the real barriers.

Qwest to Reinstate Dividend

Qwest Communications will issue its first dividend since 2001, setting a recurring quarterly payout to shareholders of eight cents per share. In some ways, the move represents the final end to the "dot bomb" and telecom crash of the early 2000s.

Zayo Buys Citynet Fiber Network

Zayo Group is acquiring Tulsa, Okla.-based Citynet Fiber Network, the wholesale division of communications provider, Citynet. CFN will become part of Zayo Bandwidth, Zayo Group's fiber based bandwidth business unit.

The CFN network has 8,500 route miles of fiber covering 57 Tier I-III markets in 10 states. The company's on-net buildings encompass many major carrier locations like local exchange carrier central offices, carrier hotels and wireless mobile switching centers.

The transaction is acquisition number six for Zayo, and part of the continuing consolidation trend in the U.S. metro access space.