Sprint as Wal-Mart?

“Sprint is at a crossroads,” said Craig Moffett, a New York-based analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein. “Their time-to- market advantage is now largely gone for 4G.”

That's true enough. What isn't so clear is how Sprint's positioning will evolve, now that the 4G platform does not offer such uniqueness.

Some might argue that Sprint will have emphasize its lower cost plans for unlimited wireless data use. "Unlimited," assuming the other carriers do not offer it, will offer some uniqueness.

I suspect Sprint will do more than that. Whether Sprint would agree with the Wal-Mart analogy is not clear. That Sprint would base its strategy on that seems unlikely. We'll see.

Sprint May Become Wal-Mart of Mobile as Rivals Move to `4G' - Bloomberg

Verizon Finally Lands the iPhone

The Apple iPhone is finally coming to Verizon Wireless, and among the big questions are whether the move leads to a significant exodus of customers from AT&T to Verizon Wireless, or not. We have five iPhones in use in the immediate family so I will be anxious to see what happens. It already appears that half the accounts are in no danger of any provider shifts. But three of the devices are used mostly in New York and Los Angeles, and there are significant reliability issues for at least one or two of those accounts, fairly regularly.

If I had to guess, I'd say two of the lines could shift. If that is replicated across the whole iPhone user base, it would be a big deal. I think I'd be surprised if three of five shifted to Verizon. That would be a really big deal.

Verizon Finally Lands the iPhone - WSJ.com (subscription required)

Cloud Computing: Less Adoption Near Term; More Than You Think Long Term

It would be entirely within historical precedents for cloud-based enterprise software to achieve less near-term revenue success than analysts expect, but more success than anticipated long term. That, in fact, is a common experience for truly-important and successful innovations.

RIM Still Has Largest U.S. Smartphone Installed Base

Some 61.5 million people in the United States owned smartphones during the three months ending in November, up 10 percent from the preceding three-month period, as RIM led with 33.5 percent market share of smartphones, according to comScore.

After several months of strong growth, Google Android captured the number-two ranking among smartphone platforms in November with 26 percent of U.S. smartphone subscribers. Apple accounted for 25 percent of smartphone subscribers (up 0.8 percentage points), followed by Microsoft with nine percent and Palm with 3.9 percent.

comScore Reports November 2010 U.S. Mobile Subscriber Market Share

Verizon iPhone Announcement Jan. 11?

Verizon Wireless has scheduled a press conference next Tuesday, Jan. 11, in New York, and the quick consensus is that this is finally when Verizon will announce the Verizon iPhone.

Quickly, people on Twitter are wondering why Steve Jobs would let Verizon announce this, instead of an Apple-hosted event. Simple answer: Because this isn't a new product.

Here's Why Steve Jobs Would Let Verizon Announce The Verizon iPhone

FCC Chairman Predicts 35-Fold Mobile Bandwidth Increase Next 5 Years

The amount of spectrum available for mobile broadband represents about a

threefold increase over where we were a few years ago, says Federal Communications Commission chairman Julius Genachowski. "Sounds good, until you see the forecasts of a 35 times increase in mobile broadband traffic over the next five years."

"And I believe that projection is conservative, not fully accounting for the explosive growth of tablets and what I predict we’ll see from 4G."

http://www.fcc.gov/Daily_Releases/Daily_Business/2011/db0107/DOC-303984A1.pdf

Verizon FiOS TV: IP Migration Enables Multi-Device Consumption

Verizon executive Joe Ambeault says there are some clear multi-device implications for migrating Verizon FiOS TV to IP delivery.

Consumers watching traditional FiOS TV should never see a difference, but by transitioning to IP, Verizon will have an opportunity to deliver its television service to a wide range of web-connected gadgets in the form of an app.

In other words, FiOS TV could become another service a consumer can buy in an app store, accessible across multiple screens and delivery platforms. In theory, consumers could even bring their own broadband to the table (FiOS or otherwise) and just layer FiOS TV on top, some might argue.

What If Verizon FiOS TV Was an App?