RIM Goes Multi-Platform, Losing Smartphone Battle?

In a move almost certain to be interpreted as a sign enterprises are migrating to iOS and Android devices and away from their past heavy reliance on BlackBerry devices, Research In Motion announced plans for a multi-platform BlackBerry Enterprise Solution for managing and securing mobile devices for enterprises and government organizations.

The solution is expected to incorporate secure device management for Android and iOS based devices and tablets, all managed from a single web-based console, RIM says.

Some might try to spin the announcement as an extension of BES features to other key enteprise operating systems, and that it is. But others will say the move suggests RIM already can see that enterprises and larger organizations are moving away from BlackBerry and towards Apple and Android devices.

In fact, some might already be ready to predict the possibility that RIM might someday be a provider of server solutions, not handsets.

RIM's business has traditionally been driven by IT departments at enterprises, as BES gave companies an easy way to do things like activate devices, manage passwords, push out software updates, and wipe lost or stolen devices clean.

That might be the future of the business, not handsets.

read more here

AT&T to Take On Groupon

AT&T will itself get into the social shopping business by launching its own service within the next several weeks in Los Angeles, Atlanta and Dallas-Fort Worth.

The service, apparently to be housed within AT&T's yellowpages.com subsidiary, confirms the potential of social shopping as a new part of the local advertising business, historically where directories have part a part of the business as well.

The U.S. social shopping or group shoppingmarket, offering discounts at local businesses, will grow to $3.93 billion in 2015, from $1.25 billion this year, according to BIA/Kelsey.

Some might not believe the business will last, and in that case AT&T is just chasing a mirage. But there is good reason many now are optimistic about what might be possible as mobile devices, location awareness and local advertising and promotion meet to create what some believe is a genuinely-new business capable of diverting spending from other existing channels at the very least.

AT&T to Take On Groupon With $10 Promotion for Daily Deal Site - Bloomberg

Facebook Dominates Display Advertising

It wasn't so long ago that observers speculated about whether Facebook could keep growing, much less find a viable, self-sustaining business model. Looking at Facebook's share of online display ads, the concern about business or revenue model is not relevant any longer.

The only question might be the scale of Facebook's ad operations. These days, it is Twitter that occasionally still faces questions about its own revenue model.

http://goo.gl/utliu

PdaNet 3.0 Hides Android Tethering

The game of cat-and-mouse between developers and others in the ecosystem never ends. The developer of PdaNet, an app for tethering mobile phones to computers, has released an updated Android app that PdaNet says will hide tethering use from a user's wireless carrier. Data usage will look like regular smartphone data usage and won’t be distinguishable from data being transferred through your phone to your computer.

Carriers will respond, no doubt.

PdaNet is available as a free download from the Android Market. Users also will need to install a desktop app on a Windows or Mac computer, presumably the device using the tethered connection. A full license for the software currently runs $15.95.

PdaNet 3.0 lets you hide Android tethering from your wireless carrier

Twitter Amplifies Other Media, Is Media

Some argue that Twitter is not in and of itself a "news source," though some will argue it sometimes is just that.

Some will point out, rightly, that Twitter is a channel for a source, or a channel for pointing to a source. But there might be cases, many cases, perhaps, where Twitter "acts" in its own right as a media channel, even when it amplifies other media.

One might argue about whether Drudge Report or Huffington Post, among many other outlets, is "media," or simply "points to" other media. In truth, it is hard to separate the roles.

But one suspects that more people every day are using Twitter precisely as any other news medium is used, to deliver "news."

Twitter Does Not Supplant Other Media, It Amplifies It

Africa's Growing Middle Class is a Huge Deal

Some problems seem unsolvable; some probably are nearly unsolvable. But the growing middle class in many parts of Africa is a huge and important deal, given the relative or nearly-complete failure of many aid programs over the last half century, one might argue.

From a communications industry perspective, the growth explains, in part, not just growing interest but growing revenue possibility.

People often forget that all jobs come, in the final analysis, from the health of the private economy. People work in public sectors, to be sure, but all those jobs are funded by taxes on people who work, and companies that hire them. The whole point of any economic development effort is sustainable growth of the private economy.

Without robust economic growth, little in tax revenues is possible. The growth of the African middle class is a hugely-important development.

App Stores Pose Challenges Within Ecosystem

The "application store" might be among the more-significant innovations in the device and software businesses of recent years. Perhaps it is the single most-important innovation, as it illustrates the importance of content for many device strategies. It isn't so clear that the iPod could have come to dominate the MP3 player business without iTunes, and it seems unlikely the iPhone or iPad could have achieved their early market share leads without the trove of applications available in the Apple App Store.

Of course, app stores also mean that the relative balance of value within the software and device market also changes. Service provider businesses also are affected, obviously, as the device, with its app store, becomes the primary user connection with an access service.

Can Skype win in the Windows app store as it did in the iPhone app store? Skype Journal