Sunday, January 16, 2011
iPads for Credit Card Processing
Green Cab of Madison, Wisconsin uses Apple iPads for their dispatch system and to take credit card payments.
Gary Kim has been a digital infra analyst and journalist for more than 30 years, covering the business impact of technology, pre- and post-internet. He sees a similar evolution coming with AI. General-purpose technologies do not come along very often, but when they do, they change life, economies and industries.
Smartphone as Credit Card Terminal
This is an example of how a smartphone can be used as a credit card terminal. If you think about event sites and even lots of farmers market or other small retail types of venues, this could be useful.
Gary Kim has been a digital infra analyst and journalist for more than 30 years, covering the business impact of technology, pre- and post-internet. He sees a similar evolution coming with AI. General-purpose technologies do not come along very often, but when they do, they change life, economies and industries.
Mobile Websites or Mobile Apps?
As we continue to debate whether mobile apps or mobile web is a better approach to the mobile experience, there is evidence for both points of view.
Mobile websites arguably are better for getting "information on the go." There are no serious platform issues and no need for downloading apps.
Mobile apps, on the other hand, are about experience enhancement, not information. Perhaps the best mobile apps allow users to enhance the value of an experience, typically when interaction is required, and are not best suited for gathering in-depth information, some would argue.
Apps, of course, have to be downloaded and installed, which means there are authoring costs and issues.
Mobile websites arguably are better for getting "information on the go." There are no serious platform issues and no need for downloading apps.
Mobile apps, on the other hand, are about experience enhancement, not information. Perhaps the best mobile apps allow users to enhance the value of an experience, typically when interaction is required, and are not best suited for gathering in-depth information, some would argue.
Apps, of course, have to be downloaded and installed, which means there are authoring costs and issues.
Gary Kim has been a digital infra analyst and journalist for more than 30 years, covering the business impact of technology, pre- and post-internet. He sees a similar evolution coming with AI. General-purpose technologies do not come along very often, but when they do, they change life, economies and industries.
Saturday, January 15, 2011
Why 4G Standards Really Don't Matter
There was a time, several years ago, when one might have gotten a reasonable argument about which flavor of fourth-generation wireless air interface (WiMAX or Long Term Evolution) was "better." One rarely hears such arguments anymore, for several reasons.
When the world's dominant GSM carriers all decided to embrace LTE, the "standards war" was effectively over. Much in the same way that Hollywood initially squabbled over HD-DVD and Blu-ray as the superior format to bring HD to the masses, the mobile industry at one point argued about the merits of WiMAX and LTE.
The decisions are of course very important to suppliers who had hoped to create a huge new business based on either of the standards. Intel, for example, had hoped to create huge new demand for WiMAX chipsets.
Beyond the technology differences, though, the key questions now are not over format, but business model. It is typical for supporters of next-generation wireless networks to tout new applications enabled by the new networks. Text messaging is a good example of a feature available on a 2G network that could not be provided on a first generation network. Email was a feature available on 2.5 networks.
Proponents of 3G networks always talked about the new applications that 3G would enable. But it took quite some time before specific 3G applications actually developed. As it turns out, PC dongle access and mobile Internet access turned out to be the new apps 3G enabled on a fairly wide basis. But lots of the other potential applications failed to develop.
The issue for 4G networks is whether new apps actually can be created, and how long it will take before that happens. In the meantime, "4G" mostly means "faster broadband" for most end users. The other important angle is that a new network always brings with it the chance to reset consumer expectations about "typical" features and pricing mechanisms.
For the moment, that is the key issue for 4G network operators. In the near term, 4G is unlikely to mean much other than "faster than 3G" as a core value proposition. But 4G pricing and packaging can be different than typically is the case for 3G, and that will be the near term revenue issue of greatest importance.
Over time, it is likely that other "killer apps" will develop. But that will take some time, in all likelihood.
Ironically, neither of these wireless technologies actually qualify as “4G” in the eyes of the International Telecommunication Union, but that hasn’t stopped the carriers’ marketing departments from capitalizing on the term anyway.
Gary Kim has been a digital infra analyst and journalist for more than 30 years, covering the business impact of technology, pre- and post-internet. He sees a similar evolution coming with AI. General-purpose technologies do not come along very often, but when they do, they change life, economies and industries.
Is AT&T Hoarding Spectrum?
Some question whether AT&T is simply hoarding spectrum it has purchased, the implication being that the company simply is squatting on spectrum to deny its use to competitors. So is that the case?
The simple answer is "no." AT&T will deploy its new LTE network in 2011, on 700 MHz and Advanced Wireless Services (AWS) spectrum. Hoarding? Hardly. But the question has a lot of other nuances, and explain why spectrum costing billions does not always get put into service immediately. AT&T has perhaps more reasons than most.
The simple answer is "no." AT&T will deploy its new LTE network in 2011, on 700 MHz and Advanced Wireless Services (AWS) spectrum. Hoarding? Hardly. But the question has a lot of other nuances, and explain why spectrum costing billions does not always get put into service immediately. AT&T has perhaps more reasons than most.
Gary Kim has been a digital infra analyst and journalist for more than 30 years, covering the business impact of technology, pre- and post-internet. He sees a similar evolution coming with AI. General-purpose technologies do not come along very often, but when they do, they change life, economies and industries.
The Verizon iPhone Is Too Late?
Questions sometimes are more important than answers. One question might be whether the Apple iPhone can dominate the mobile handset market the way it dominates MP3 players. Another question might be whether Apple can dominate smartphones.
But one might wonder if a better question is what markets and segments does Apple wish to dominate. apple never has shown any desire to dominate the enterprise market. It never has wanted to have market share and volume at the expense of "premium" positioning in the market, or margins.
There will be huge demand for the Verizon iPhone, most observers seem to agree.
But Android has made big leaps forward in terms of quality and quantity: it recently began outselling the iPhone in the United States, for example.
Android phones are sold by dozens of hardware makers, the biggest being Samsung, Motorola, and HTC. There are lots of different form factors. Slider phones. Phones with keyboards. Big screens, small screens, midsize screens.
The iPhone, in contrast, is a bit like the situation people once had with Henry Ford’s Model T, where you could have any color you wanted, as long as it was black. With the iPhone you can have whatever Steve Jobs says you can have, some argue.
But Android has made big leaps forward in terms of quality and quantity: it recently began outselling the iPhone in the United States, for example.
Android phones are sold by dozens of hardware makers, the biggest being Samsung, Motorola, and HTC. There are lots of different form factors. Slider phones. Phones with keyboards. Big screens, small screens, midsize screens.
The iPhone, in contrast, is a bit like the situation people once had with Henry Ford’s Model T, where you could have any color you wanted, as long as it was black. With the iPhone you can have whatever Steve Jobs says you can have, some argue.
Apple likely only wants to be a highly-profitable supplier of high-end devices with premium positioning. It likely will succeed at that. Apple wanted to change the mobile handset business. It has done that.
Android, on the other hand, likely always aimed to be a mass-deployed operating system, and likely will succeed. The big question might be whether Symbian suffers more than others in that regard. Android can be used on lower-end devices as well as high-end devices, and will.
If one assumes that smartphones will, over time, become the "phone," then Apple never would have wanted to have the largest market share.
Gary Kim has been a digital infra analyst and journalist for more than 30 years, covering the business impact of technology, pre- and post-internet. He sees a similar evolution coming with AI. General-purpose technologies do not come along very often, but when they do, they change life, economies and industries.
Friday, January 14, 2011
Android Users; Giving to Charity Now Easier with PayPal Mobile
PayPal has added a donations feature to the PayPal Mobile for Android app. Now Android users have a fast and convenient way to make charitable contributions to more than 23,000 charities in the U.S, U.K and Canada, including World Food Program USA, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, Children’s Miracle Network and Habitat for Humanity International.
Gary Kim has been a digital infra analyst and journalist for more than 30 years, covering the business impact of technology, pre- and post-internet. He sees a similar evolution coming with AI. General-purpose technologies do not come along very often, but when they do, they change life, economies and industries.
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