SK Telecom Jumps into Software

SK Telecom Co., South Korea’s largest mobile-phone operator, plans to spend 1 trillion won ($896 million) to develop software for mobile handsets, Bloomberg reports. Apparently, SK Telecom thinks it has to create its own mapping, instant messaging and social networking apps.

Some observers will argue this effort is likely to fail. Neither consumer apps nor software have tended to be areas of extreme competence for telcos or mobile service providers in the past. On the other hand, the Korean market, like many other international markets, does not have the same end user preference patterns as one might see today in the U.S. market.

One might tremble to compete with Facebook or Google in the U.S. market. But those services are not necessarily so entrenched everywhere. SK Telecom might see an opening to move its brand further up the value stack.

The investment, spread over three years starting 2011, will be made mostly in research and development, Chief Executive Officer Jung Man Won says.

SK to Make Software to Compete With Facebook, Apple - Bloomberg

Predicting future behavior using analytics: we haven't had the tools until now

Social networks provide rich mines of data that can be used to anticipate the future. We will all have less privacy than we now think we have.

http://techcrunch.com/2010/10/26/taykey/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Techcrunch+%28TechCrunch%29

Where privacy issues, social network analytics, marketing and user responsibility meet

Analytics can uncover more than you think.

http://www.internetevolution.com/author.asp?section_id=864&doc_id=199028

Xfinity TV now available as a "tv everywhere" offering for Comcast subscribers

About 150,000 pieces of content are available as part of the service.

http://blog.comcast.com/2010/10/now-online-at-xfinity-tv---top-rated-tv-shows-hit-movies-rdvr-personalized-watchlists-and-150000-vid.html

Cius, PlayBook, Flare: tablets aimed at enterprises wanting mobile collaboration

Enterprise gadgets aim to build off existing apps and products in enterprise environment

http://www.fiercevoip.com/story/exploring-tablet-telepresence/2010-10-18?utm_medium=nl&utm_source=internal&sms_ss=twitter&at_xt=4cc621f566358f4a,0

Best Buy offering pre orders for Samsung Galaxy

http://www.phonearena.com/news/Best-Buy-offering-pre-orders-for-two-tablets_id14167?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+phonearena%2FySoL+%28Phone+Arena+-+Latest+News%29&utm_content=Google+Reader

800 Mbps DSL?

More than a decade ago, a highly-placed technologist at Nortel told me, off the record, that "DSL wouldn't work." Of course, that proved to be incorrect.

But several decades ago, some smart technologists at what was then AT&T Bell Labs also told me it was "impossible" to load 40 discrete linear video channels on a single optical transmitter, as cable operators said they needed.

The point is that technological innovation often is possible where the smart guys who know the most are convinced a limit has been reached.

The important thing about 800 Mbps DSL demonstrated in the lab means 100 Mbps using DSL in the real world should be feasible, without a complete telco network upgrade to fiber-to-the-home.

And that, in turn, is crucial in part because it suggests there is a path forward for telco DSL and national broadband plans that call for 100 Mbps speeds, without capital investment that carriers would find difficult to justify.

100 Mbps DSL is Here & 800 Mbps is Around the Corner