Rise of the Smartphones

You know, the day is coming when generic cell phones will become obsolete. You have seen them, you have owned them, the models made by LG, Samsung, Sanyo, Motorola. Flip or non flip it does not matter, these phones are losing steam. They are still out there, but they are losing market share to the Blackberries, and Windows Mobile type devices that are out there. The features that these smartphones bring to us make everyday life so much easier.

Let me give a couple of examples. I went to Las Vegas this weekend to meet some friends. I did not even have to bring my laptop in this case. On the way there in the airport I was still replying to e-mail that I had received at the end of the week. I went online several times over the weekend. I went to google.com from my browser inside the Blackberry to get restaurant info/make reservations/directions/mapping. Texting is also so much easier with a full qwerty keyboard. I even went to Southwest.com to do an advanced check in to reserve my seats on the way home. These are features that can be performed on regular phones, but it is very cumbersome to do so.

Smartphone market share is pushing 50% of the prosumer (professional) market. That figure seemed very accurate from my observations in Las Vegas. The everyday features are well worth the extra data plan fees to operate the smartphones.

Welcome to the Future!

Mike

Greenberry

Two nights ago I attended a SBA (small business administration) class at Wake Tech Community College here in Raleigh. As a small business owner, I found it compelling to understand another financing option that exists in this challenging world of ours. There were 20-25 people in the class. Our class leader started into the program. There was a lot of information to swallow so I took out my Sprint World Blackberry to take a note which is an option that rests within the main menu of the device. Give it a title, type away, save it, and then go back to the office and sync it with Microsoft Outlook on your PC. The note can then be edited, and even e-mailed. This was a much cleaner way to manage this activity than using pen and paper, besides this is 2008.

The beauty of this is that I had no paper trail. I hear all this talk about being green. Well this was my way to jump in and contribute. I would much rather have all this info created electronically than have it on paper that I could lose, or misplace and would eventually shred and throw away anyway. With the market share of smartphones soring, this is a simple and effective tool that is available to all of us. If RIM wants a new tag line, how about Greenberry? Hey Microsoft, tips appreciated.

Welcome to the Future.

Mike

Even at Busch Gardens

I took my family up to Busch Gardens in Williamsburg VA. on Sunday. We love it there, it is 3 hours from our house, and really a great place to go for the day. The lines are relatively short, the weather was perfect, and they had their annual Hallowscreem event going on. Halloween rocks!! I could not help but notice that football was in the air. It was Sunday and there were jerseys being worn everywhere. I saw Cowboys, Ravens, and plenty of Redskin garb. But what I really noticed was how people were using their cell phones to catch up on games, scores, anything NFL.

You know it was not long ago that of you could choose a theme park over your house and TV, that you would never know what happened until you returned home. Now you can go online from your phone and stay up to date. So I joined the fun and I pulled out one of my Sprint phones, and powered on my NFL live application. I lived in Arizona for years and follow the Cardinals over the years. I literally followed play by play during the game (which AZ. thankfully scorched the Bills!) for one quarter while my wife and kids were on a ride and I was sitting with our youngest who was napping.

You just have to have a data plan on your phone. Most of the carriers have these sort of plans to add on. They range from $10 to $20 and are add on features that can be added or deleted without any contract extensions. The carriers are really banking on all of us adding these kind of services. As voice rate plans have plateaued, the carriers really need the data revenue to sustain profitability. But I have to admit, on this Sunday I was more than happy to be paying for this service.

Welcome to the future.

Mike

Google Time

Today was one of the worst days on Wall Street I have ever seen. The DOW dipped 800 points and then rallied back to only a loss of 369. It finished under 10,000 for the first time in 4 years. There is widespread panic and fear, so much for the taxpayers bailout plan achieving results on Wall Street. Even Google dropped 4% today. This coming at a time when Google should be so excited about entering the wireless handset market. They have announced the launch of their G1 this month. The phone will be sold in T-Mobile stores in markets that T-Mobile has launched its 3G data network upgrade like Miami, LA, Houston, totalling 21 markets this fall.

The device will be accessible to other areas but it is formatted for higher data networks mentioned above. It will have a large touchscreen like the IPhone, but also have a trackball like the Blackberry with a slide out keyboard. It will not initially be setup for corporate e-mail functionality though so RIM and Windows Mobile smart phones and the IPhone still have quite an edge. Most 1st generation phones are not overly sophisticated though, there will be modifications coming.

But in an age of massive competition with the likes of Motorola, LG, Sanyo, Sansung to name a few, now we have Google jumping in. I wonder how long it will take them to pursue other carriers like Sprint or Verizon. T-mobile has its limitations just like IPhone does because it is exclusive to ATT. Microsoft and Yahoo are also investing heavily into the wireless handset market to slow this giant down.

Welcome to the Future

Mike

This stuff really works

Here I am, at football practice in Rolesville NC wayching my boy from my fold up chair. I love this time of year. The change of seasons, the break in the weather, and the football season upon us. I have my laptop with me , and I am typing away. I have my Blackberry in my lap also. I am receiving/sending/replying to e-mails that are still coming through for the day. I have my Sprint Sierra USB aircard with me to connect to this blogsite. It truly is amazing how we can use these modern day tools. Remember 5 years ago these cards only had 16k connection speeds, now we have true broadband speeds. "Too connected" I hear people say, referring to these devices. Well I view it as ahead of my competitors, on top of my business, and being efficient with my time. This stuff really does work!

Welcome to the future.

Mike

There is a first time for everything

Well, after all this blog talk over the last several months, I am up and doing it myself! I believe this is another modern day version of communication in this tech world we live in. This is a first for me. I am primarily going to focus on my busines, and my customer experiences. But I also am going to explore my day to day observations within my own life. I hope you will find this blog to be educational, but also humorous in my points of view. I would love to hear any stories of how my blog relates to your own life or business.

Welcome to the future.

Mike