July 4th Smartphone sizzle

The 4th of July, fireworks, sunshine, US flags flying, cookouts, and smartphones?

This topic continues to gather steam. The Android platform by Google is hot. HTC is hot with its new EVO 4G Android Sprint phone. Rimm Blackberry is only growing domestically because of Google and of course the I-Phone. Word is not that Verizon will launch the I-phone by Jan 1st of 2011. The real question is can consumers keep up with these devices? Most people I meat know how to do some things like e-mail or browse. But my estimation would be that the average person only uses about 40% of what the device can actually do. Also, what about cost? I mean the monthly cost for owning one of these devices is now well over $100. In an economic downturn it really is impressive how many of these services/devices are entering the market.

Now if we can just write an app for the smartphones to light our fireworks, or clean them up.

Happy Independence day everyone!

Welcome to the Future.

CTIA Show Las Vegas 2010

Well, I am back from the show last week. It was a huge collection of people and technology in a city that is larger than life!

Google Android is a big hit. There are more Android devices hitting the market and in every size and shape. There was a new Sprint Android 3G/4G phone, and a new Nextel Android phone. There are over 20,000apps now for this platform.

Apps were the big thing again. Blackberry is even launching them left and right. Their entire booth was comprised of applications for business. go to www.appworld.blackberry.com to see them.

The US is leading the world in smartphone roll outs, mobile broadband infrastructure, app downloads, and also 3G/4G networks. It is evident that we are leading the world now in developing our wireless ecosystem. It does not hurt to have another $30 billion to invest towards those efforts this year alone.

The carrier competition to get to 4G is on. Sprint has WiMax, ATT and Verizon are developing LTE and T-Mobile is using HSPA plus network upgrade. It is becoming a data world where it is more important for us to browse, download, send pictures, and text than it is to make a phone call.

Welcome to the future.

Mike

Technology 2010

Well it is here, the new decade. The way we did things last decade, forget them, they are already old. What was normal then is not now. Goodbye old days.

Goodbye flip phones, hello Smartphones. Flip phones, just making cellular calls, are you kidding me, we need to Google stuff now and send e-mail more often. Goodbye voice, welcome data and VOIP. Remember those old analog lines, heck the FCC wants to ban them and go data only. Goodbye napping under a tree, hello GPS tracking. Business owners needs accountability to their bottom line and performance with the few employees they can even keep on payroll. Goodbye owning servers, hello hosted Exchange. Why would you spend $7,000 implementing an Exchange server when you can pay a couple hundred dollars a month to let those IT issues be someone else's problem? Goodbye travel, hello video conference. Let's see with budgets being slashed, Go To Meeting anyone?

It leaves me very optimistic to be honest. There are so many changing, evolving technologies, and businesses need help implementing them. Hello 2010.

Welcome to the Future.

Mike

Be Thankful for more than Technology

Yes I am thankful for my family, the people in my life, the blessings from above, we all should be. Tomorrow we can all slow down for a moment and reflect and be thankful.

But something tells me the Blackberries will still be working, the videos will be rolling, the high definition will be in focus and the laptops will be in full swing. It is amazing, this time we live in. Think about now versus 10 years ago. Cell phones, smartphones, IP phones, VOIP, high def TVs, memory cards, servers, e-mail, IT, GPS, flat panel PC screens to name a few. How will the elves keep up with this type of demand? It is everywhere, just look around and it looks so different than it did just a few years ago. Are we smarter, maybe, more efficient, probably, but there is still something better for all of us out there. What will it look like in 2020?

Yeah now that I think of it, I am appreciative for those simple things like family and health. They really do matter more than our space aged gadgets, at least for one or 2 days a year.

Welcome to the future.

Mike

Here comes Android

Well, Motorola is officially back in the game. Their stock is up over 10% today on strong 4th quarter earnings and the launch of Android.

This new smartphone is ready to tackle Apple, Rimm, and Palm once it releases. Motorola has some major hitters behind them in Verizon and Google. Droid 2.0 has a solid exterior, intelligent interior and is one of the thinnest full QWERTY keyboards slider phones now available. It has voice recognition, and could be summed up as a no fuss, high tech, over the air updating, multitasking machine. The screen is brilliant and has high resolution qualities as well and of course Google maps will be a staple feature. The camera is 5 mega pixels with a 16 GB memory card which is very impressive.

There are also many preloaded apps like gmail, youtube, calendar, Amazons MP3 store and another 12,000 apps that can be downloaded. Compared to Apple and its 90,000 apps, this may not be significant, but this phone will deliver competition to the smartphone market. The partners that are vested in this project are all serious players.

The unit will be exclusive from Verizon and run $199 with a 2 year agreement. For more information go to www.droiddoes.com. I love the press release I got earlier which starts off by saying "Hello Humans"

Welcome to the Future.

Mike

Those misleading cellular prices

You see the commercials. $49 for the new Blackberry Tour, or $29.99 for the Motorola Rival. Verizon, Sprint, ATT all of them do it. They advertise these prices left and right with the small print almost off the picture. These prices are for renewals for 2 year contracts. These prices are only available IF you are eligible for an upgrade.

Most cellular contracts are the same. You have to have made it roughly 20 out of 24 months through the contract to be eligible for the advertised prices I mentioned. I get calls every other day from people confused about this. They are 6 months into a contract, break or lose their phone, do not carry insurance and then I quote them "$289, are you kidding me I saw it on TV for $29.99" Well that is for an "eligible" customer.

The retail price of most all of these phones is not cheap. A Blackberry for example will run well over $400 to replace at retail if you do not carry insurance or have eligibility to get an upgrade with a discount off the new phone. In the carriers defense, when they discount or subsidize the phone they are losing money and have to keep you under contract for several months to reclaim the discount and actually be profitable.

Be careful of the E-bay purchases for replacements. Carry insurance on Smart phones and create a relationship with a broker that has access to wholesaler's if and when that dreaded day comes.

Welcome to the Future.

Mike

Observing New York technology

My wife brought me to the Big Apple this last weekend as a pre birthday party. I turn 40 in January and she knows I love that city so we went there now before winter kicks in.
We met some friends there and had the time of our lives, what a city with so much to do.

As we toured midtown from day to day I watched and listened to the people and how business is happening. Ironically we flew in on the the morning of the 11th. As we got into the city, there was obviously a somber mood, that day will never leave any of our memories, let alone New Yorker's. The cab we were in had a touch screen GPS. So even though our driver did not speak English well, I knew where we were going. The girl that sat next to us on the plane was on Facebook on her IPhone the minute we landed. We used my Blackberries GPS to find our way around the city as well. I traded e-mails with people from Arizona to North Carolina with them having no idea I was not in the office. Almost every other person that you walk by is on their cell phone. The digital age is abundant in Times Square, it is quite a spectacle for your eyes to see. There are high definition TVs in all the bars and restaurants. The studios where they film NBC's nightly news look like something from 2112. Technology is everywhere. We have come so far since even 1980. Now we just need the people in New York to be as helpful as the gadgets we all own!

This is a weekend I will certainly remember forever for personal reasons. But once again technology strikes!

Welcome to the future.

Mike