Does Apple Need A Jobs Transplant?
June 30, 2009
Apple CEO Steve Jobs is back at work after a 6 month medical leave of absence. During that time, he apparently had a liver transplant. There has been a great deal of speculation that Job, who has been treated for pancreatic cancer, may have suffered some form of relapse with the cancer spreading to his liver. While that remains unclear, what is clear is that Apple is in a very difficult position.
Few companies are more closely associated with their supreme leader than Apple. Jobs has led the company to a spectacular string of successes and the little company that could is now a technology powerhouse controlling the music industry, influencing the computer industry, and transforming the mobile phone industries. That’s a lot of power for one man to wield.
With all of this success, Apple shares are soaring. Even in the middle of a terrible recession, Apple is trading high. But all of that could come crashing to the ground if Steve were to suddenly have to leave the company (or worse). While Apple managed to run just fine in Steve’s absence, Jobs has never been far from the company or from the minds of shareholders and fans.
Which begs the question, is it time for Apple to anoint an heir apparent for Steve Jobs should he no longer be able to run the company? Should Steve follow the Bill Gates example and move to a creative and supportive role but turn full control of the company over to others?
There are obviously hundreds of talented and creative people at Apple. Perhaps it is time for some of those people to have their moment in the sun and prove to the Apple faithful (and more importantly to shareholders) that Apple is capable of surviving Steve Jobs.
As painful as it may be, Apple may very well be in need a Jobs transplant.
Unified Entertainment and Communications for the Home
June 22, 2009
Don’t underestimate the power of young people to shape our future communications. A few years ago, who would have imagined that texts and tweets would become more popular than phone calls for a huge segment of the population? Nor would we have guessed that Facebook would infringe on the space previously held by email - which itself booted good old fashioned snail mail years ago.
Before last week, I never would have thought that home game systems were anything other than child’s play. And yet, I’m now totally convinced that we are at the threshhold of the next big advance in entertainment, communications and home networking. A sort of Unified Communications (UC) for the residential set brought to us by the Xbox and Playstation.
Here’s how my eyes were suddenly opened. Read more
iPhone 3.0 Rocks, AT&T Sucks
June 17, 2009
If you are as big an iPhone geek as I am, you woke up early this morning to see if the new 3.0 software update was ready to be downloaded. It wasn’t, but became available for download around 10 am pacific time. Early reaction to the new software is glowing. The phone seems much more responsive and less sluggish. New Voice Memo feature was much needed, and ability to search for terms across the entire device (emails and apps) makes the phone an indispensible tool.
In all, the new iPhone 3.0 software brings a slew of new features to the wildly popular device, over 100 updates in total. Chief among these are the highly anticipated arrival of cut & paste, MMS, and data tethering. It is a huge update which brings the bulk of ‘most wanted’ user features to the device.
However, all is not joy in iPhoneland. Apple’s carrier partner AT&T, has increasingly upset iPhone customers, threatening the ‘golden-device’ status that the iPhone has enjoyed thus far. In a move that can only be described as short-sighted (or incompetence as the case may be) AT&T will be blocking both MMS (the ability to send pictures and video to other mobile phones) and tethering (using your iPhone as an internet data connection for your laptop) on the iPhone 3.0 software. While both of those features may come at additional cost later this Summer, that is not fast enough for iPhone users. In addition, AT&T is removing the pay-as-you-go option for iPhone customers. And to make matters worse, AT&T has managed to further upset loyal iPhone customers by making them pay a hefty surcharge to upgrade their phones to the new iPhone 3G S when it is released later this week (You can sign a petition to protest AT&T’s customer hostility on Twitter: http://twitition.com/f96aq)
Which begs the question, no matter how much you love your iPhone, how much abuse are you willing to take from your carrier before you simply walk away?
I’m thrilled with the continuous updates and feature enhancements that Apple has been making, but look forward to a day when the iPhone is available on better, faster, and friendlier carrier networks. AT&T has made it painfully clear that they don’t really value their customers beyond the dollars they can wring out of them.
AT&T could be using the limited amount of time they have left in their exclusive iPhone contract to lure in new customers and dazzle them with great service and support. Instead, they have chosen to squander their advantage. Apple may have trained their customers to pay a premium for quality products, but few are willing to pay for outright customer abuse.
I’m sure that many iPhone customers join me in longing for the day when we can break free from AT&T’s shackles and flee to a more customer-centric carrier.
Verdict: iPhone 3.0 rocks! AT&T sucks!
Telecom Monthly - June Newsletter: Sex, WiFi and Bankruptcy
June 3, 2009
There is only so much doom and gloom a guy can take. Thank the telecom gods it’s Summer and there are enough diversions to keep our minds off the economy. Actually, signs are finally pointing to a bottoming out of the depression and that signals better times ahead . . . we hope! The question is: how long can some of the Telecom Industry’s most vulnerable companies hold out? The vultures are waiting to pick the carcass clean; that you can be sure of.
While April was filled with drama, May was all about price cuts, innovation, and sexspionage. Carriers are lowering prices and improving offerings, the FCC is tightening rules, and customers are just trying to find a way to pay the bills.
One way that carriers show how well they are doing is through the announcement of how many new customers they are able to bring aboard. But that can be a tricky number. Take Verizon for example: they are reportedly spending $200 in advertising for each new FiOS customer they sign up. Ouch! AT&T is in a similar situation with its U-verse service. But Vonage is in the unenviable position of spending up to $300 for each new VoIP customer it is able to buy. If you can’t get your customers on the cheap, buy them! But that strategy doesn’t work forever. Eventually, some bills have to be paid.
AT&T is a company which is not inclined to sit still and wait out the recession. They have been dabbling in all sorts of ventures lately. Perhaps most interesting is the big T’s interest in cloud computing services. AT&T is slowly rolling out new cloud services such as Internet file storage which allows customers to access their data from anywhere they have Internet connectivity. Of course, they aren’t alone in this space, everyone from Microsoft to Amazon have been blowing clouds for quite some time and there is always the threat of Google making its enormous cloud computing network available to the public at little or no cost.
Sprint may have opened a Pandora’s box when it began offering unlimited prepaid mobile service for just $50 a month on it’s Boost network. Virgin has matched that offer and others are following suit. But that marks a serious decline in carrier revenues and a price war is the last thing that Sprint needs right now. Due to the economy, lowered rates look like they are bound to stick, and that will likely place intense pressure on the post-paid market as well. Perhaps Sprint is hoping that they’ll be able to switch some users on to more lucrative plans for the about-to-be-launched Palm Pre. But with a $200 asking price (after a $100 mail in rebate) the Pre may not be Sprint’s salvation in the bottom feeder market they have so eagerly been developing at just $50 per month.
And what are old school carriers like AT&T to do about their rapidly aging wired networks? Ruckus Technologies hopes to solve many home wiring problems through their wireless “Ruckus” box. AT&T thinks it can speed up local installations and lower install costs with the Ruckus technology. That solves the problem in the home, but what is AT&T going to do about its ancient switching equipment and millions of miles of aging copper? Perhaps there is a wireless solution in the future for some of that mess as well.
Some interesting news on the regulatory side last month in the US: the FCC began tightening the screws on local number portability (LNP for short), in a ruling designed to make carriers more responsive to customer requests to move a phone number from one carrier to another. Carriers will now have just one business day to complete the request. And a Federal Appeals Court has determined that cable companies cannot be granted exclusive rights to apartment buildings and condos. Perhaps there will be a rebirth of telecom competition after all.
Abroad, Deutsche Telekom is getting blasted for commissioning reports on the sex lives of its employees! They have also admitted to scouring the bank records of more than 100,000 workers. If they lose too much money on law suits, perhaps they can drum up a bit of cash with a “Telecom Workers Gone Wild” video. Anyhoo…
Embattled Nortel is experiencing a slowing of its sales cycle due to the economy and concerns regarding the company’s bankruptcy and who might eventually control the company’s assets. A cartel of former Nortel executives are exploring the possibility of buying the company and are seeking one billion dollars to seal the deal. Regardless of who takes control of the company, current CEO Mike Zafirovski should probably start airing out his Golden Parachute.
Someone alert Captain Nemo! The sub-marine telecommunication cable business is hopping again. As many as 16 new cables are scheduled to be turned up this year. The cost of laying under sea cable has dropped dramatically and as the volume of transatlantic data and voice have increased, the pressure for increased availability and lowered costs has also increased. This should be very good news for the industry and for customers looking for more options and lower rates.
And finally, Skype is feeling the pressures of the increase in consumer mobile as land line replacement. Consumer VoIP no longer looks like the sure thing that it did a few years ago. But Business VoIP has never been hotter. Recently, Skype began to dabble with Business VoIP solutions and now it is looking to enlist industry Value Added Resellers (VARs) and Telecom Agencies to resell its products. They will soon find that the small to mid size business market is nearly entirely driven by price. Can another price war be far behind?
And that marks our farewell to May and embrace of Summer. May the sun shine brightly and help us recover our collective sanity after the darkest Spring in recent memory. A boat load interesting news floats on the horizon and we look forward to towing it in to you on TelecomMonthly.com.
Happy June everyone!
The Channel Invades IT EXPO With CVx
June 3, 2009
For years, the IT EXPO has been the essential trade show for cutting edge IP telecommunications, and is the longest running trade show in its category. It is the show where many important partnerships are struck and where you go to find solutions to modern telephony problems. However, until now, it hasn’t been a great place for independent agents and VARs to find potential new sources of revenue.
All of that is about to change. Technology Marketing Corporate (TMC) and Beka Publishing (ChannelVision Magazine) have announced a partnership to create an indirect sales channel section within TMC’s Internet Telephony Conference and EXPO (IT EXPO) at the October 17-20, 2010 event.
The new show within a show will be called CVx and will trade on Channel Vision’s indirect channel distribution and TMC’s solid trade show planning.
“For some time now readers and supporters of ChannelVision have been asking when we were going to extend the magazine and Web site brand into the trade show format,” said Berge Kaprelian, CEO and president of Beka Publishing. “We are excited and very optimistic about the opportunity to do just that in partnership with the folks at TMC and in conjunction with such a valued and well-run event.”
Attendies of CVX will be able to take part in a series of educational seminars and sessions directed exclusively to telecommunications agents, resellers, other indirect distributors and their partner suppliers.
“For a decade, the telecom reseller/agent community has used ITEXPO as a place to meet and form valuable relationships. Adding the CVx sessions and networking opportunities to the program at ITEXPO West next year solidifies the event’s position as the prime venue for resellers and agents to add high-demand new solutions to their portfolios,” said TMC president and conference chairman Rich Tehrani.
We will follow this news and let our readers know when the web site for CVx becomes available. Until then, for more information about ITEXPO, contact Dave Rodriguez at 1-203-852-6800, ext. 146 or drodriguez@tmcnet.com. For information about CVx, contact Berge Kaprelian at 1-480-503-0770 or berge@bekapublishing.com.
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