Will Rogers Introduce Bundled Mobile Broadband Plans?

Canadian wireless provider Rogers apparently is considering giving customers a data plan that would let them use an iPad (or other similar devices) plus mobile phones, on a single access plan,  according to Electronista.

That's the sort of innovation in pricing plans and packaging that seems almost inevitable as people start using multiple wireless devices, and start to rebel against paying separate access fees for every single device they use, especially when some of those devices might not require much bandwidth, while others are used often enough to justify a typical $30 a month plan.

Observers often criticize mobile and other service providers for unimaginative thinking on such matters. Fair or not, one wonders what changes might be in store when fourth-generation Long Term Evolution networks start to enter their marketing phases.

So far, Clearwire has been more experimental than other leading mobile providers. To be fair, it isn't clear how much creativity actually can be brought to bear on the basic access service. But we ought to expect some changes as the types of devices benefiting from mobile access proliferate, and people start using multiple devices.

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Blockbuster Tries to Take Advantage of its 28-Day Release Window Advantage

We should soon see whether Blockbuster's 28-day earlier release window for new release DVDs confers any business advantage over other competitors in the space, especially Netflix and Redbox, as Blockbuster and its studio partners seem to think will be the case.

Blockbuster announced availability of the hit movie, "It's Complicated" from Blockbuster in stores, by mail, or digitally, a full four weeks before it will be available through some competitors.

Blockbuster's early advantage reflects its ongoing agreement with Universal Studios to provide customers with the opportunity to rent hit movies the day they are released. Blockbuster also has early availability of other box office hits like Sherlock Holmes and the highest grossing film of all-time, Avatar, as well as other upcoming new releases such as Tooth Fairy, Valentine's Day, and Invictus.

Blockbuster also has struck deals with mobile handset providers to put the "Blockbuster On Demand" app prominently on the main screens of about 60 models of Samsung Blu-ray Players, HDTVs, and Blu-ray Home Theater Systems, as well as on T-Mobile's HTC HD2.

Blockbuster is the only multichannel provider that has every hot new movie on the day of its release, it's just that simple. What we now shall see is whether that makes a material difference for Blockbuster. Release windows typically have been important in the movie distribution business, so some shift should be seen.

What do you Think of This Google Tablet?

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I don't know what you think, but this Android-powered tablet, if it winds up being a commercial product, does not seem to have the "wow" factor of the Apple iPad.

A Skirmish in the Apple-Google Fight

It's a small skirmish, but Android will be supporting Flash natively in version 2.2 of the operating system, though Google appears to think highly of HTML5 as well. Apple, of course, does not support Flash for the iPad.

Adobe demonstrated Flash running on Android about 10 months ago, it seems, and HTC devices do support Flash on at least some "Sense"-capable devices.

Putting Flash support into Android does not mean Google will not also support HTML5, but the decision seems at least partly a stake in the ground in the growing battle over video playback standards for the mobile Web.

Android Market Closes on 50,000 Apps

At this rate, it will not be long before the Android Market features 50,000 or so applications.

That's well behind Apple's total of about 150,000 apps, but Android is catching up pretty fast.

Would You Rather Have had the First iPod or $14,500?

“If you spent the money on an original iPod in 2001 on Apple stock ($499), you would have $14,513.78 today.” 


In part that's a commentary on Apple's soaring equity value;in part that's a clue about product pricing for device pricing. 


So the issue is whether the same choices exist today for the Apple iPad. Of course, 2001 was a good time to buy equities. 

Alcatel-Lucent Gets into Mobile Advertising Business

Alcatel-Lucent has created a white-label direct marketing platform called  "Optism" that is designed to help mobile operators create “media inventory” and provide advertisers with easy access to highly-targeted audiences.

Optism is not an ad network so much as an enabler of ad networks, since it is the mobile service providers who actually will retail the services, but Optism does create a permission and preference-based mobile marketing capability aggregated across multiple mobile operators.

Optism features a media arm that brokers relationships between mobile operators and advertisers, greatly simplifying the media selling process for aggregated operator inventory.

You might wonder whether Alcatel-Lucent now is competing with Google or Apple. It says it isn't, since Optism primarily aims to create direct marketing campaigns taking advantage of mobile communication features, such as text messaging.

It's an interesting approach to creating business-to-business revenue streams that are not directly dependent on end-user subscriptions. Available as a hosted and white-labled solution, Optism might be able to get economies of scale no single mobile operator could.


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