Steve Jobs Originally Wanted iPhone on its own Network

When Steve Jobs first dreamed up the iPhone with his team at Apple, he didn't want it to run on AT&T's network. He wanted to create his own network, says venture capitalist John Stanton, who spent a good deal of time with the late Apple CEO during the phone's development period.

Jobs wanted to replace carriers completely, Stanton says, instead using the unlicensed Wi-Fi spectrum. Jobs would not have been the first executive to think about how Wi-Fi could literally replace use of mobile networks for mobile voice and data. There was a fair amount of such speculation in the late 1990s and earlier 2000s. Wi-fi for mobile service?

By about 2005, most began to see Wi-Fi as a complementary access alternative to mobile service. Wi-Fi becomes complementary Republic Wireless, the new mobile service provider, is the latest example of that line of thinking. 


For ubiquity, no service provider yet has shown an ability to completely displace mobile networks. 
On the other hand, for consumers, most important personal devices are equipped, or increasingly will be equipped, with Wi-Fi capability. 


So even though it remains a challenge to design a mobile phone's connectivity around Wi-Fi-only connections, the in-home environment is becoming a "Wi-Fi mostly" sort of environment. 

Steve Jobs wanted iPhone on its own network

Future of Fixed-Line Telephony?

It is clear fixed line telephone services in the United States are beginning a rapid decline, with users favoring mobile phones and computer-enabled telephony, some would argue. Bill Reidway, Neustar Vice President of Numbering Services Product Management Reidway, is among them.


“As the fixed line network begins to fall by the wayside” explained Reidway, “the notion of telephone numbers associated with a specific geography falls with it.” Neustar’s Vision on the Future of Telephony That doesn't mean numbers are less important, just useful in a new way. 


Reidway also explained that although telephone numbers no longer have rigid location sensitive significance, users still generally prefer to associate their phone numbers with a location, and that is particularly important for business users. While it is certainly possible for a business or individual to use an area code, or even country code from any point in the world, he believes an area code “still says something about the identity behind the number.”


One might argue that, over time, the role of a fixed network will change, with users relying on fixed networks for some services and features that are superior to wireless, including bandwidth, cost and features. Business users are likely to derive higher value from fixed line voice than consumers will, for example. 


Most popular personal consumer devices will sport Wi-Fi capability, for example, meaning that "untethered" connectivity is becoming more important over time. 


Fixed networks, in other words, will become the primary broadband connection used inside homes. Given the existence of mobile data caps, it will make sense for most consumers to switch even their mobile devices to Wi-Fi connections when at home.

Most consumer devices use, will use, Wi-Fi

E-Reader Sales Grow Connected Devices Opportunity

A new report by analyst firm Juniper Research forecasts that e-reader shipments will reach 67 million by 2016, nearly triple the 25 million devices the company expects to reach the market in 2011.

While this is less than half the 55.2 million tablets that will be shipped this year, the price of the market-leading Kindle has fallen significantly (from $349 to $79) since it was launched, and electronic ink technology will ensure that the device continues to carve out a niche for itself in the wireless device ecosystem. eReader Shipments to Reach 67 million by 2016

Separately, Machina Research predicts wireless wide-area connected tablets and e-readers will grow from 66 million in 2011 to 230 million in 2020. Mobile service providers gain two ways from e-reader usage. There is the business-to-business revenue contributed by the e-reader partners, who use mobile networks to deliver content to the readers. 


There also is end user revenue supplied by connected devices. If half of the 2020 devices are e-readers, and just 15 percent of e-readers actually are mobile broadband connected, that is 17.25 million incremental broadband accounts in service. If, by 2020, half of the e-readers are capable of network connections, and are used as part of "family"-style mobile data plans that represent incremental revenue, then as many as 57.5 million new broadband accounts could be in service. 

Such trends are directly important for mobile service providers as many of those devices are equipped to work on mobile networks, and therefore represent a new class of devices that can be converted into new and incremental mobile broadband accounts. Greater use of Wi-Fi-only devices has relevance for fixed-network broadband providers to the extent that use of such devices increases the value of a fixed broadband connection.

Why Google should buy Barnes & Noble — Tech News and Analysis

Google should acquire Barnes & Noble, argues Michael Wolf at Gigaom. For some, that will seem like another source of channel conflict. As Google has to be careful about the relationship between its Android licensees and its owned Motorola Mobility division, so Google might have to avoid further potential conflict if Google were to become the owner of a content retailer such as Barnes & Noble.

In principle, Google ought to be able to figure out ways to leverage that asset on behalf of the Android community, much as iTunes or the App Store or Apple's network of retail locations benefits Apple. Which is to say that highly-successful smart phone, e-book and tablet ecosystems seem at the moment to require a robust content offering. The Barnes & Noble asset could help with the commerce part of Android's business , as well.

Why Google should buy Barnes & Noble

Sales of Smart Phones Up 42% Since 2010

Smart phone sales to end users reached 115 million units in the third quarter of 2011, up 42 percent from the third quarter of 2010. Sequentially, smar tphone sales slowed to seven percent growth from the second quarter of 2011 to the third quarter of 2011.

Smart phone sales accounted for 26 percent of all mobile phone sales, growing only marginally from 25 percent in the previous quarter. Smart phone Sales Increased 42 Percent

In many ways, you can say that "smart phones" now are a mobile service provider's "lead offer." It might have been "voice" in the past. For fixed networks, broadband and video have become the lead offers.

Apple Launches EasyPay for Some iTunes Purchases

Apple has introduced a new feature for the iPhone in its Apple Store app called EasyPay. EasyPay allows people to take a picture of the bar code of a product with the phone’s camera and then buy the product on the spot, using their iTunes account. Apple EasyPay


Previously, the app could be used to research products and order them, but the products had to be picked up from an employee in the store. Inevitably, some will see the move as a challenge to Google or PayPal Wallet offerings, which Apple's EasyPay is not.

Whatever Apple might decide to do in the future, it is not yet ready to launch a full-scale mobile payment service, at least not yet.


Nor does Apple appear to want to encourage use of the system for larger purchases, such as computers or tablets. Not for big purchases

Average U.S. Smart Phone Price Falls

Nearly two-thirds of U.S. smart phone buyers paid less than $200 for their devices during the third quarter of 2011 according to a recent study published by consumer-electronics researcher NPD. 

And much of that was driven by sales of the iPhone 4 and iPhone 3GS, which outsold competing phones from HTC, Motorola (NYSE: MMI), and Samsung despite their advanced age, NPD says.  Average Smartphone Price Falls Again In U.S.

The share of U.S. mobile handset sales that were smart phones reached 59 percent in the third quarter of 2011, an increase of 13 percentage points since the third quarter of 2010.

Based on the latest data from NPD’s monthly Mobile Phone Track service, average selling prices for smartphones have declined for four consecutive quarters, reaching $135 in the third quarter.
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Among U.S. consumers who considered purchasing phones in the $200 to $250 price range, 64 percent ended up purchasing a phone for less than $200. Smart phone prices fall.