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Posted on 06.26.08 by Nikhil @ 1:30 am
Remember the fanfare when Google announced that it was coming out with Android, its wireless OS? Well, maybe not so fast. It seem that Android’s system has been delayed and it could be year end or later before it actually comes out. As a result, T-Mobile USA reportedly won’t deliver its Android-powered phone until fourth quarter, Sprint and China Mobile will likely be delayed with their Android-powered phones until late 2008 or early 2009. The main point here is not so much thast its being delayed, but that Google didn’t realize just how tought the wireless business can be.As a journalist who covered many new, innovative companies for Forbes Magazine - during the early days of the Internet - I can tell you that so many aspiring companies came in to my office to tell me their big plans. And so many of them are no longer around today. Breaking into new businesses is tough.For Google, one of the big challenges is getting the OS to work across many different operating systems and handsets. Of course, Google isn’t some upstart company. But even big companies such as Disney, with Disney Mobile and ESPN with its Mobile ESPN ran into big problems. I wouldn’t underestimate Google yet - but I do think that the company didn’t quite realize the challenges it faced with it debuted Android. Filed under: Stock Watch and Applications and Infrastructure Comments: Comments Off |
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Posted on 03.13.07 by Nikhil @ 12:20 pm
A number of wireless Chinese stocks recently got hit with a triple whammy. Chinese companies with shares traded in the U.S. were hammered by the recent plunge in the Chinese market, the fall in the U.S. market and then, once again, by the recent actions of the Chinese government, which has been regulating the ways wireless content providers can market and sell their content. The situation has been so difficult that Tom Online (nasdaq: TOMO - news - people ), one of the biggest wireless portals in China, will soon be taken private by its parent company, Tom Group, so that its business can be restructured and its business strategy can be optimized without the pressures that face public companies. But while Tom goes private, there could now be some good opportunities for investors. One company that I think will reward investors this year is Beijing-based Hurray! Holdings (nasdaq: HRAY - news - people ). The company’s American Depository Shares, which now trade around $4.93, are down nearly 50% from the company’s 52-week high in April. Yet Hurray! is taking aggressive steps to revamp its business. Filed under: Stock Watch and Wireless Gaming and Applications and Cutting Edge Comments: Comments Off |
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Posted on 02.21.07 by Nikhil @ 4:15 pm
Sometimes, when everything goes wrong, companies try to put on a happy face, releasing a flurry of news in the hopes of raising investor confidence. That could be what is going on at Openwave Systems (nasdaq: OPWV - news - people ), whose stock is down 60% over the past year. Just this month, Redwood City, Calif.-based Openwave (nasdaq: OPWV - news - people ) announced that it will pay $5 million to acquire WiderWeb, a British company that develops technology used to adapt Web content for mobile devices. Good news? Not for a while: Openwave says the acquisition will not have a material effect on its fiscal 2007 financial results. Filed under: Stock Watch and Applications Comments: Comments Off |
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Posted on 02.13.07 by Nikhil @ 5:12 pm
Last week, Polycom, a Pleasanton, Calif.-based manufacturer of video and audio conferencing systems, said it agreed to buy communications equipment company SpectraLink for $11.75 per share, or about $220 million cash. The purchase price represented a 33% premium to the stock’s closing price last Wednesday, when the deal was announced. It was exactly what shareholders of SpectraLink needed. But is it a good deal? Earlier this year, shares of SpectraLink (nasdaq: SLNK - news - people ) were on a tear. The company, which provides phones that work off a wireless local area network (WLAN)–a Wi-Fi network designed for the workplace–had recently acquired KIRK Telecom, a privately held Danish provider of wireless communications products. SpectraLink paid $62 million ($30 million in cash and $32 million in debt). In addition to selling its phones to big retailers like Home Depot (nyse: HD - news - people ), where salespeople can always be reachable no matter where they are located, the belief was that KIRK, which develops and markets wireless voice and data systems for corporate customers throughout the world, would be a big boost for SpectraLink, broadening its market share to England and Germany, among other countries. It also seemed that KIRK, which provided wireless voice networks based on the European system, DECT, would find growth in the U.S., since that particular technology is less expensive to deploy for small- and medium-sized businesses. Filed under: Stock Watch and Applications and Cutting Edge Comments: Comments Off |
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Posted on 10.10.06 by Nikhil @ 1:51 pm
T-Mobile just announced today that, yes, it has a 3G Wireless strategy! The company, which has been often criticized for lacking enough spectrum to keep up with competitors,said that it will spend $2.6 billion over the next three years to build a UMTS/HSDPA network. But don’t expect TV on your cellphone anytime soon, at least with T-Mobile. The company’s USA CEO Robert Dotson says that the first priorities are to applications already being used such as email. The company also said that infrastructure and handset vendors have already been picked for T-Mobile USA’s 3G network rollout. expect to see this network launched in the middle of next year. Visit WirelessWeek for more info. Filed under: Applications and Infrastructure and News Comments: None |
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Posted on 10.10.06 by Nikhil @ 1:47 pm
Mobile TV, I believe, is one of the most exciting applications in wireless. Since the end of May, four companies - E-Plus, O2, T-Mobile and Vodafone have been working on mobile TV applications, having launched limited mobile TV service in Berlin, Hanover, Munich and Hamburg using the DVB-H standard. The service demonstrated the future potential of handset TV. Now, it looks like the service is soon to be widely available across the country. Read more in Cellular News. http://www.cellular-news.com/story/19024.php Filed under: Applications and Cutting Edge Comments: 1 Comment |
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Posted on 10.01.06 by Nikhil @ 2:16 pm
I went to an Electronic Arts showing of its newest products for 2007. They games were fascinating – they seem to keep getting better. There were also a number of games available on mobile phones. I played Bejeweled with one of the EA’s representatives (he was on one phone, I was on another) and it was a lot of fun – and worked well. Now, of course, EA is pinning its hopes on a successful holiday season. A big part of its success will depend on how well Nintendo’s Wii does when it is launched in November. At the showing/cocktail party I went to with EA reps, most of the attendees were gathered around the Wii from Nintendo. If the buzz around Wii is any indication, it oculd mean good things for both Nintendo and EA. Big News from EA this month. Electronic Arts reached an agreement with Nokia where EA will provide games that will be available to owners of Nokia devices. This is great news for distribution of EA’s games – however financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Filed under: Stock Watch and Wireless Gaming and Applications and Cutting Edge Comments: None |
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Posted on 09.29.06 by Nikhil @ 4:25 pm
There is a transition taking place among wireless carriers, and Motricity, based out of Research Triangle Park, N.C., is in the middle of it. Until recently, U.S. carriers such as Verizon (nyse: VZ - news - people ), Sprint Nextel (nyse: S - news - people ) and Alltel (nyse: AT - news - people ) have been notorious for guarding how their wireless networks are used and what kinds of content their subscribers can see. By doing so, they have been able to differentiate themselves from one another. The content made available to their subscribers could easily be found on a cellphone’s “deck.” Filed under: Stock Watch and Applications and Cutting Edge Comments: Comments Off |
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Posted on 09.28.06 by Nikhil @ 1:55 pm
MVNOs (mobile virutal network operators) hold the promise of giving advertisers a highly targeted audience. But last week, Disney’s seven month old Mobile ESPN service decided to call it quits. The service has had trouble attracting enough subscribers to make it worthwhile to the company. I’m a little surprised by Disney’s decision. Reason: it doesn’t seem like Disney really gave Mobile ESPN much of a chance. The service was never available over a significant holiday period. And it wasn’t around during a football season, when demand may have picked up. Also, it’s not that easy for new subscribers to switch to a new service. They need time to get out of their long term contracts. The problems that this service faced are not, I believe, a bad sign for MVNOs in general. I think the problems here were specific to Mobile ESPN. The service was expensive and it didn’t own enough proprietary content. It seems that ESPN could have solved these problems. Now, it’s possible that the service will be acquired by a carrier. Meanwhile, Disney isn’t giving up on MVNO’s completely. The company is still pushing ahead with Disney Mobile -a cellphone service for kids that gives lots of control to Mom and Dad. Mobile ESPN will take on no new customers, and will continue to remain active to existing customers at least through the end of this year. If you have the service and you want to discontinue it, you can with no penalty. If you bought a Mobile ESPN phone, you can get a full refund. Filed under: Applications and News Comments: None |
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Posted on 09.20.06 by Nikhil @ 2:12 pm
I found this news from Alltel Wireless interesting and innovative. Alltel said this month that it would partner with a company called JumpTap, which specializes in the development of innovative, carrier-centric mobile search and advertising. The plans is for the two companies to work together to develop a mobile search system so that Alltel subscribers can search for information from a host of different mobile, local and web-based providers. Alltel says that these new capabilities will be offered to its subscribers at no additional cost. The search technology will let Alltel customers quickly search for things like ringtones and wallpapers, maps and directions, news and sports, flight updates, weather, white pages, stock quotes, chat services, and any mobile website included in JumpTap’s Mobile Search Index. Filed under: Stock Watch and Applications and Cutting Edge and News Comments: None |
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