T-Mobile USA Wrongly Slams Verizon Wireless "Share Everything"

The Verizon Wireless ’s "Share Everything" plans are "costly, complicated and punitive,"  T-Mobile USA argues. Using T-Mobile USA's own comparison, those complaints seem overblown. T-Mobile argues users can save "up to" $40 a month, for a customer who pays full retail for their new device. Under a standard contract plan, the savings might be $20 a month.


The same logic applies for plans with two or three users on a single account. For a three-device (smart phone) account, monthly savings for a user on contract, with subsidized phones, is only about $10 a month. Roughly the same difference exists for two-device accounts, with T-Mobile USA users saving about $10 a month, compared top a Verizon Wireless Share Everything plan.


That wouldn't strike some of us as especially "costly." Nor does it seem "complicated" or "punitive." There is a small difference. But not much. 

Is E-Commerce More Important in Developing Markets than in Developed Markets?

E-commerce might be more important for consumers in developing nations than in developed nations, according to Capgemini researchers. 


In developing markets, the study said the percentages were higher but that at least one third of the respondents in more developed markets agreed with the assessment. Developing nations don't have the retail shopping infrastructure that developed markets do. 


Paris-based consulting firm Capgemini found that more than half of shoppers globally think more physical stores will become merely showrooms by 2020. 


According to the report, which was based on interviews with 16,000 consumers from 16 countries, 51 percent of respondents said that, in the next eight years, they expect retail locations to be showrooms for selecting and ordering products. 

Tablet Screen Size is a Bit Like Mobile Cell Size: Highly Non-Linear

Tablet screen size is a bit of a non-linear matter, though it often seems as though it is quite linear. More accurately, screen size and mobile cell coverage area are "linear," but not on a 1:1 basis. 


The typical rule of thumb for decreasing a mobile cell site's coverage is that reducing radius of coverage by 50 percent requires a quadrupling of the number of sites. 


In somewhat similar fashion, an iPad "mini" of about eight inches screen diagonal would have roughly 40 percent more surface area than a seven-inch Kindle Fire or Android Tablet. Apple  might have business reasons for producing a smaller-screen device in precisely the dimensions it seems to be choosing. 

586 million LTE Devices to Ship in 2016

Some 586 million smart phones using Long Term Evolution, and 154 million network interface cards or routers will be shipped globally in 2016, according to the Marketing Intelligence and Consulting Institute. 

Global shipments of LTE terminal devices, 2012-2016 (millions of units)
	LTE smartphones	Other terminal devices  (network interface cards and routers)
2012	64	41
2013	188	69
2014	300	74
2015	440	117
2016	586	154

Source

Nokia, RIM, HTC Smart Phone Shipments Will Decline in Second Quarter of 2012

Nokia, RIM and HTC are expected to see their smartphone shipments, as well as market share, continue declining in the third and fourth quarters of 2012, according to a report. 


Despite efforts initiated by Nokia, RIM and HTC to fend off competition from Apple and Samsung Electronics, RIM and HTC already have reported lower than expected shipments for the second quarter of 2012, while Nokia is expected to see its second-quarter smartphone shipments drop below 10 million units. 

South Korean Telcos Will Charge for Mobile VOIP

In an illustration of the ways regulatory frameworks affect business models, the Korea Communications Commission has decided to allow mobile operators, SK Telecom, KT and LG U to charge users to use mobile VoIP.


That practice, which levies an additional fee to use a lawful application, is prohibited in the United States, not so much by network neutrality rules, but by the Federal Communications Commission's "Internet Freedoms" principles, which stipulate that users have the right to use any lawful applications after having paid for a broadband subscription giving users Internet access.


But different regulations can, and do exist, in other markets. 


The new rules appear a direct response to mobile service provider concern about over the top VoIP provider KakaoTalk, which has 36 million Korean users. There are about 50 million Korean mobile phone users.


Another issue is whether such rules will apply to other services, such as Apple's FaceTime, when those services use mobile broadband bandwidth. 

OTT Video Could Help ISPs

In some ways, growing viewership of online video by the likes of Netflix, YouTube, Hulu, iTunes and other video streaming applications and services represent both a threat and an opportunity for broadband access providers who also sell subscription video services. 


The threat obviously is the danger that consumers might shift viewing from video subscription services to over the top alternatives. Over time, that could mean fewer subscribers, and less revenue for one of the three anchor services for a triple-play services provider.


On the other hand, video represents the application with highest bandwidth requirements, so demand for bigger broadband access buckets should grow over time, and perhaps dramatically- if significant percentages of households shift a large part of their video viewing to online sources.


For pure-play broadband access providers, who do not sell video services, video provides upside, mostly, increasing demand for faster services and more consumption.