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Current | Archives
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Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Sending thingd down
After the concert on Sunday, people are worried that everyone using cell phone services like picture messages and Twitter will send the cell phone networks down. I heard on the radio that there was a big spike of SMS messages on election day. I wonder if we can send the whole nation's cell network down. Someone get Reina Hardest on that right now Labels: cell phone, president, Reina Hardest, Twitter, Washington DC
- Rich,
12:03 AM
Thursday, July 10, 2008
Txt dollars
There is a good blog entry here looking at the True Price of Txt Messages. The basic idea is that is you were charged the same price for downloading music as you are for sending SMS messages, you would be charged thousands of dollars per song. That is crazy if you think about it. This is really a consumer problem. People who want to send txt messages see value in the feature. They do not compare the cost of talking compared to the cost of sending a txt message. Each feature has its own use. I know that I txt people that I do not call. Txt messages have a more casual feel to them. To be honest, I do not know how much I am paying per txt message. A few months ago I went up from 200 messages a month to unlimited messages a month. That costs me $5 a month. Going down from 900 minutes to 450 minutes did more than cover it. That being said, I have never figured out how much I am paying per message. Having unlimited messages has let me use twitter on my phone. I would not use twitter on my phone without unlimited messages. Phone companies have increased the cost of txt messages because they can. People who use them find them valueable. My guess is that price sensitive people will get plans with unlimited txt messages and people who do not pay attention will keep being changed a lot for this service. I think it will be years before we see the prices on these services go down. Labels: cell phone, cost, SMS
- Rich,
6:34 PM
Friday, June 27, 2008
State Wide Talk and Drive day.
 I am declaring June 30 "State wide Talk and Drive Day!" On July 1 California is enacting a hands free while driving cell phone law. This will bring an end to an era to the state that is the home of car phones on the free way. On the last day, we might as well call'em if you got'em. I am calling on all my California people to use your cell phone and drive on Monday June 30. Lets use this freedom while we have it. Labels: California, cell phone, driving, law
- Rich,
9:26 AM
Monday, June 16, 2008
Cheaper iPhone, Kinda
Everyone has heard how the new iPhone will see at a price of $200. The problem is that this is not really the price of owning an iPhone. It took a while for it to come out that the new iPhones will not have the same pricing plans as the old iPhone. Gizmodo had done a iPhone cost of ownership comparison. It is a pretty interesting chart. I am looking forward to the iPhone release so I can hear upgrade stories. I wonder what will happen to existing iPhone users who want 3G. I have read too many conflicting pricing plans for me to believe any of them. If I was ATT I would not let them gt the phone for $200. I would want them to pay more because I already have them as a customer and I am the only company with the iPhone. AT&T has very little chance of those those customers. I guess I will be waiting to find out if I will be able to use an Android phone on Verizon. Labels: ATT, cell phone, cost of ownership, Gizmodo, iphone, price
- Rich,
3:55 PM
Monday, July 02, 2007
AT&T iPhone Experence
I hope that iPhone users do not let apple off the hook for poor service by AT&T. I have seen people complain about poor service from AT&T activating the iPhone. It might just be just opening night bugs. If the problems are on going, I hope the media and iPhone users do not forget that Apple chose AT&T. Apple could have opened this phone up to run on more than one carrier. If AT&T screws iPhone users, it is Apple screwing iPhone users. There is no other way around it. I wonder if Apple fans will see it that way. My guess is that they will not. Labels: apple, ATT, cell phone, iphone
- Rich,
8:57 AM
Thursday, April 26, 2007
Dodgeball, Is it useful here?
Buzz twittered a story about dodgeball being down. (God that sentence shows what kind of geek I am). The story goes into the fallout between the dodgeball founders and Google. The founders left Google and many people think that Google will now let dodgeball die. This whole story is interesting to me. I am a dodgeball user, but I do not find dodgeball to be all that useful. I think I can count on one hand how many times it has been useful twice in a month. I know part of this is because my friends do not really use it. If I knew more people using it, I might get more out of it. Of the 14 people on my friends list only about 6 of them use it regularly. One of my pet peeves with dodgeball is that they never made San Jose or Silicon Valley its own city. Most of the time I get dodgeballs from people in the city going to bars. This is not very useful to me. I am not going to run up there just because I got a dodgeball. Dodgeball had the feeling of a fad for me. In 2006 lots of people used it, but now it seems that people use it less often. Even if the people who do use it, use it sparingly. It is a service that one person cannot use alone. Since I started using dodgeball I do not think they have added any features. I do not think it has become more useful. I do not know if that is a problem with the concept or if that is a problem with what Google was willing to do with it. I am not sure what social mobile computing looks like. What I know is that terrain has something to do with it. What you can do with social mobile computing is different in New York City and a rural area. It might be different in every city in America. I wonder if that scares a company like Google. Twitter is an interesting idea to look at. I turn off the messages going to my cell phone, but it would kill my 500 messages a month. It is halfway mini blog/mobile social service/time waster. It is very much like the never ending cocktail party. It is not like you are really getting to know anyone, but you are listening to them try to be witty. I am trying to think about what would make an interesting service, but nothing comes to mind. I guess if something did come to mind I would be working on it right now. Labels: cell phone, Dodgeball, google, textmsg
- Rich,
6:22 PM
Tuesday, April 10, 2007
100 Million iPods and Not surprised.
I do not want to sound like a jerk, but I am not impressed by Apple selling 100 million iPods. I know some people are falling over themselves saying how great this is, comparing it to the adaption rate of Television. I am impressed that Apple has been able to keep such a high market share, but I am not impressed at the rate of adaption of mp3 players. I think there are a ton of opportunities that Apple was able to capitalize on. Apple did an amazing job staying on top of the heap and seeing 100 million units without the MP3 player becoming a commodity. We have to recognize that Apple has things in iPods favor that other devices do not have. 1) Fifteen Years of Sony Walkmen: - Growing up in the 80s, the walkman was the gold standard of personal electronics. Everyone wanted one and everyone had to have one. Most of my life headphones have been a part of it. No one had to convince me that a portable music player was a good way to spend my money. I was about 30 when the iPod came out. It was not a hard sell to me or anyone else under 30. By the time the MP3 player came around I was ready to get rid of my old CD walkman. The CD walkman was too large and too hard to carry music around for. Even my Creative Nomad was a big improvement of the CD walkman. Gadgets are in - Between Cell Phones, Game Boys, PDAs, DVD players, and game consoles, This has been a gadget decade. Gadgets are feeding America's need to buy thing. There is not two ways around it. Best Buy and Circuit City are two of the biggest retail chains in America for a reason. Apple was able to cash in on these trends. The Price is right - In consumer electronics $300-200 is the golden range. It is the range where people can buy the product without having to ask their spouse. It is in that some one special (spouse, child parent) gift range. I think that a decade of items like the Playstation has helped set this range. Once the iPod hit this range people went right out and bought big. Don't get me wrong. Apple did a lot of things right. I think iTunes, the iPod Mini, adding more features each release, and the iPod nano all helped Apple keep their market share. If they would have done something wrong another company would have picked up the slack. Apple worked hard to keep the killer market share. I am still not impressed how how fast 100 million MP3 players have sold. Labels: apple, cell phone, gadget, ipod, walkman
- Rich,
6:48 PM
Friday, March 30, 2007
iPhone getting closer
I have been unconvinced by the iPhone from before it was announced at MacWorld. I have a lot of the same concerns that John Dvorak has. I know that Dvorak has a history of being a troll. It does not mean he does not have a good point. Apple has a great history of beating companies that are not that good to start with. The MP3 player market was not very developed when Apple got in. Of course they made quick work of that market. Now they are entering a market with companies that sell hundreds of millions of units. Nokia, Motorola, and LG have all been around the block a few times. That makes this a whole different game. The point that Dvorak is making is that Apple will need to be able to revise the iPhone much quicker than it has revised the iPod. Even if the first iPhone is great, they will be a long way from taking over the market at that point. In a year's time we will be able to tell if the iPhone was successful or not. Until then Dvorak has just as much of a chance of being right as all those fanboys going crazy for a phone they have not used yet. Labels: apple, cell phone, iphone, ipod, LG, Motorola, Nokia
- Rich,
3:53 PM
Friday, March 02, 2007
Phones for nothing and my Music players for free
I know you have to believe in your product or you are not going to get anywhere. I know you need to tell analysts that you are going to conquer the world. If you do not think you can be the best you are not going to be the best. All that being said I was just shocked at some of the answers from the analyst Q&A session with Apple COO Tim Cook. Here is one of them that caught my attention. Q: Your stated goal for calendar 2008 is to ship 10 million units, which is about 1 percent of the overall market. Given the functionality and price point of the product, it eliminates the low end of the market. How do you look at the available market for the first generation of iPhone and what kind of marketshare do you think you can take?
A: The traditional way of look at a market you look at products you are selling, you think about the price bands that are currently market, you look at price band your product is in, and you assume you can get a percentage of it. And that's how you get to the addressable market. That kind of analysis doesn't make really great products. The iPod would not have been brought to market if we would have looked at it that way. How many $399 music players were being sold at that time?
Today in the cell phone industry, a lot of people pay zero for the cell phone. Guess what? That's what it's worth! And so, if we offer something that has tremendous value and is sort of this thing that people people didn't have in their consciousness -- it was unimaginable, I think a whole bunch of people will pay $499 and $599. Our target is clearly to hit 10 million and I would guess that some of those people -- there are some of those in the audience -- who are paying zero because it's worth zero, will pay more a bit more because its worth it. To start with you are not paying zero for a "free" phone. The price of that phone is rolled up into your plan. Cell phones are happy to give phones away to get people to sign up. That same phone when you are not signing up for a new plan is $200 to $250. Many of the people who want your phone will not be signing up for new contracts. How much will the iPhone be for them? Will it be $699 or $799. That will have to be a hell of a lot better than a free phone for that price. Second, are you really competing with free phones? I thought you were competing with other smart phones. Most of the people I know who get the free phones, only want a phone. They do not want any of the other features. I have seen some free smart phones, but most of the time they start at $199. You are saying that you phone is more than three times better than the $199 smart phone. Third, your partner has to sell those free phones also. It might not be so good to make the partner look bad. You cannot throw too many stones at the other companies in the same stable. It might be bad for you in the end. I am still in the unconvinced camp. Just because apple has been able to keep the iPod line in great shape, it does not mean their phone will be great. I hope they are being more thoughtful about other phones than the COO seem. Labels: apple, cell phone, iphone, Tim Cook
- Rich,
5:57 PM
Friday, January 12, 2007
iPhoning It In
The only think people have been talking about over the last couple of days is the iPhone. It the SFlickr meetup last night I must have talked about the iPhone six times. Everyone just wants to get one. I have been telling people all the reasons I will not be running out to buy one right away. Mostly I am not willing to switch my phone service to Singular to get the phone. I guess I would have to leave the United States to use it on the phone provider of my choice. If I could get it for T-mobile I might think about it. It seems that lots of people are blogging about it. That has to be a good thing for Apple. I wonder if they will be able to keep the Buzz high from now to the release in June. For those who do not know they announced it now because it still has to go through FCC testing. There would be no way to keep it quite during FCC testing. Here is a pretty good article about 10 myths about the iPhone. Most of what I have read so far has been about how the iPhone will either kill all other smart phones or fail out right. It seems like there is no middle point on that continuum for people who are writing about the iPhone. Personally I want to hold and use one before I judge what it will do in the market place. I think there is a good chance that the phone will do well and still not put other smart phone makers out of business. I think they might chance the rules for how smart phones are made, but I think they will have a hard time pushing everyone else out of business. Many people try to tell me that Apple is going to do to the cell phone market what it did to the MP3 player market. I have a hard time seeing this. Apple entered the mp3 player market in 2001. The devices had only been around since 1998. Apple brought people to the market, they did not people to switch away from other products. The cell phone market is different than that. It is a market that has been around longer and has much higher penetration. The average person is on their 3 or 4th cell phone by now. People have ideas what they like and what they don't. Steve Jobs said at the keynote that everyone hates their cell phone. That is not correct. I love my cell phone. I have an LG VX9000. It is perfect for what I use it. The keyboard is great for sending text messages. I am not always happy with my cell phone service provider, because they charge to much for some services. I am not going to say the iPhone is going to fail. I am not going to say that the in three years Apple, Inc will be the only companies making cell phones. I am happy that Apple is taking a chance my making a cell phone. It is still a chance. Apple still needs to do work to deliver this phone. Once they get the phone to market it is not over either. They will have to keep on going. I am looking forward to see how the market changes in the next 2-3 years. Labels: apple, cell phone, iphone, markets
- Rich,
3:28 PM
Wednesday, January 10, 2007
iPhone, iUnconvinced
Apple announced their new cell phone, the iPhone. It was the big announcement at MacWorld this year. Most of the people I know are going crazy for them already. They are excited to see that Apple is entering the smart phone market. They think that apple will clobber it the same way they clobbered the MP3 player market. I am always hesitant when people tell me something is the next big thing. I have seen a lot of next big things fail. I will hold my judgment on the iPhone until I can see and use one. I think the devil will be in the details here. Even if the UI is really good it does not mean the hardware will live up to the UI. I am worried about the touch screen. I want to have real buttons and a real keyboard. I ma happy to give up some screen size for real buttons. I like the feedback you do not get on a touch screen. I also have fat, sweaty fingers. That is not good for a touch screen. It will be hard to keep clean and unscratched. I think I would rather have a larger device with a slider. I wonder how long it takes for them to put out the same device without any phone features. It looks like it would be a pretty cool iPod without the phone features. I would like it for just wifi/iPod use. I am also unconvinced because I am not about to switch my phone provider to get one. I am not about to switch to Singular. No one I know likes Singular. I guess I will just have to wait and see. Labels: apple, cell phone, iphone, ipod
- Rich,
7:15 PM
Wednesday, December 13, 2006
Apple Calling
I like this article about the So-called iPhone that everyone is looking forward to. I have always has questions about an Apple Cell Phone. Would it be a smart phone, like the Trio and Blackberry or would it just be a phone that also had a music player. Much of the problem has to do with the cell providers. They make money from controlling the experience. Most people get phones from the cell providers because the providers pay for the cost of the hardware. This means that Apple would have to make a deal with some cell phone providers or they would have to make a phone so good that people are willing to pay full price for it. I am not sure the Apple or customers would really be happy with an iPhone. I know that people want to know what Apple could do to a cell phone, but I think the issues are too large. I want to see what they can do, but I do not think the can just change the market. Cell phones are a pretty mature product, I am not sure apple can come in and just change everything. Labels: apple, cell phone, iphone, ipod
- Rich,
3:40 PM
Wednesday, November 22, 2006
February 13: The tools
 February 13: The tools
Originally uploaded by earthdog. I need to get writing. Labels: cell phone, coffee, flickrpost, ipod
- Rich,
8:03 PM
Tuesday, June 27, 2006
mo-blogging
I am here at a blogger meetup in San Jose. We are talking about moblie tech. This is the first time I have blogged on the phone. Labels: cell phone, meetup, moblogging, San Jose
- Rich,
7:27 PM
Sunday, June 25, 2006
Dodgeball
I have been using dodgeball for more than four months now. I can say that it has been useful a total of once. That is crap. Most of the time Dodgeball is good for showing me where my friends in San Francisco are hanging out. I am not going to just get in my car and drive 50 miles because I got a text message. The system is set up to be used in a city, not in an area like the Bay Area. It would be nice for the text messages to tell me what city the venue is in, instead of me having to figure it out on my own. The other problem is that few of my friends around San Jose use it. I have no idea of how to get more of them to use it. I guess them knowing what coffee house I am hanging out in is not such a big draw for people. I have friends who are signed up but never use it. I am not sure how I can get them to use it. I hear (third or forth hand) that Buzz Anderson says Dodgeball is the perfect geek social tool. You can tell people what is going on without them having to commit to anything. I guess I want it to be a bit more useful. Right now it is doing nothing to help my social life. Labels: Buzz Anderson, cell phone, Dodgeball, San Francisco, SMS, textmsg, Web 2.0
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