Vodafone to Offer Dell Ultra-Mobile PC

Vodafone and Dell have announced that Dell’s Inspiron Mini 9 ultra-mobile device will be sold with built-in mobile broadband, exclusively through Vodafone stores and online, and directly from Dell, in key European markets.

Available from late September, the Inspiron Mini 9, featuring built-in mobile broadband from Vodafone. There is no word yet whether Vodafone plans to take the plan a step further and directly bundle the mobile PC with service in the same way that mobile phones are bundled with mobile service.

But that is a logical step, if EU regulators will allow it.

$40 billion private line services market

The $40 billion private line services market is posting solid growth for a third straight year, say researchers at Insight Research. 

Mobile Not Up to Emergency Tasks

"SMS is touted as being able to deliver critical information during disaster events, and such services have been purchased by universities and municipalities hoping to protect the general public," says industry association 3G Americas.

 "Unfortunately, such systems typically will not work as advertised." 
 
New research conducted for the association indicates that there are serious limitations in third party Emergency Alert Systems (EAS).

In particular, because of the general architecture of CDMA, TDMA and GSM cellular networks, such systems will not be able to deliver a high volume of emergency messages in a short period of time.

Current systems not only cannot widely disseminate such messages quickly, and the additional traffic created by third party EAS solutions may disrupt other traffic such as voice communications, including that of emergency responders or the public to 9-1-1 services, the analysis suggests.

Surprise! Teens are Heavy Videogame Players

You could have guessed this would be the case, but researchers at the Pew Internet & American Life Project say a recent survey confirms that video gaming is pervasive in the lives of American teens. When asked, half of all teens reported playing a video game “yesterday.” Those who play daily typically play for an hour or more.

Fully 97 percent of teens ages 12-17 play computer, web, portable, or console games. About 86 percent of teens play on a console like the Xbox, PlayStation, or Wii while 73 percent play games on a desktop or a laptop computer.

Some 60 percent use a portable gaming device like a Sony PlayStation Portable, a Nintendo DS, or a Game Boy.

About 48 percent  use a cell phone or handheld organizer to play games.

Further Enterprise IT Slowdown, Dell Says

When Dell announced its second quarter financial results on Aug. 28, 2008, it reported continued conservatism in IT spending in the United States, which had extended into Western Europe and several countries in Asia. The company now says it is seeing further softening in global end-user demand in the current quarter. Something must have happened over the last several weeks to change Dell's thinking, and one suspects the financial turmoil on Wall Street has at least a little to do with the new thinking. 

ChangeWave finds the same trend. 

Which Analogy for Satellite Radio?

It's hard to know precisely what to make of the recent plummeting of SiriusXM's stock to less than $1. In current circumstances, investors clearly are worried about the company's ability to refinance its debt. In a broader context, it is hard to figure out the size of the opportunity.  In February 2007 about 3.4 percent of radio listening was garnered by satellite radio.

In some ways, the value proposition is simple enough: "satellite radio will do for radio what cable TV did for television choice." These days, some appear not to be so sure, as Arbitron and Edison Media Research shows continued growth in usage and ownership of various forms of digital audio platforms, including online radio, iPod/MP3 players, and podcasting, for example. 

 

That study shows 13 percent of the U.S. population age 12 and older have listened to online radio in the past week; up from eleven percent in 2007.  On a weekly basis, online radio reaches more than 15 percent of 25- to 54-year olds.

But iPod and portable MP3 player ownership now is up to 37 percent of respondents. 

Audio podcasting usage continues to increase, with 18 percent of respondents reporting they have, at some point, listened to an audio podcast; up from 13 percent in 2007.  About nine percent say they have listened to an audio podcast in the past month.

Radio is more than music, but there is growing evidence that the Internet is gaining on radio as the medium to learn about new music. In 2008, radio is mentioned as the medium “you turn to first to learn about new music” by about half of consumers (49 percent), with Internet at 25 percent.  In 2002, radio was mentioned by 63 percent as they way they learned about new music, while only nine percent said the Internet provided that function.

So in a broad sense, the headwinds satellite radio is facing might include a change in the way people listen to music, something that has happened many times in the past. 

That still does not speak to the other major function of radio, which is news and other non-musical programming. It still does appear that satellite radio has an opportunity there. Today's satellite listeners are heavy listeners to radio in general including AM and FM radio. Satellite listeners spent an average of 33 hours a week with radio compared with the typical listener who listened approximately 19 hours a week to radio. Also, people who listened to satellite spent more time with AM or FM radio (14 hours) than they did with satellite radio (10 hours 45 minutes) or Internet (8 hours 15 minutes).

Still, one has a disquieting sense that some of the entertainment function once provided by radio now is supplied by other media, ranging from Internet-delivered radio, MP3 players or even non-music or non-news pursuits such as gaming, social networking and other diversions. 

The point is that the "satellite radio will do for radio what cable TV did for television" analogy might not be quite apt. The satellite radio analogy might instead be likened to a scenario where cable TV launched after Internet-delivered video already had begun to take hold in the market. The answer is not completely clear yet, but unlike cable TV, satellite radio has several other competitors for the music delivery portion of its business. 

Verizon Open Devices: Not What You Might Think

About 90 percent of the devices now in certification process for the Verizon Wireless network are intended to be used for "machine to machine" communication, not traditional voice or mobile data, reports Unstrung. That includes sensors, tracking devices, temperature monitors, and other devices of an "instrumentation" sort. The first two devices already approved are a storage tank-monitoring device from  and a prisoner-tracking electronic ankle bracelet, Verizon VP Tony Lewis says. 

Other devices close to final certification are a wireless router for the insurance industry and a $69 speech and texting device. Verizon thinks the reason is simply that there has been pent-up demand for such devices, but up to this point would-be providers likely have been deterred by uncertainty. 

"The promise of 'machine talking to machine' was always there, but the question for vendors was 'what network' and how to get on it quickly and cheaply," notes Lewis. In-home sensors and health care-related products, as well as in-home sensors for heat regulation, energy mangement or security are obvious areas of opportunity as well.

Lewis argues that Verizon's open network plan now offers vendors a straightforward and affordable way to do so.

That's one reason some observers and Verizon itself now believe "mobile penetration" ultimately could climb to the multiple hundreds of percent range, though current U.S. penetration is under 100 percent.