Dial 0 For Opinion: Apple making inevitable move
Added on 2008-04-25 11:07:00
by Alfredo Padilla
 When Apple first launched the iPhone (review) the biggest news, aside from the device itself, was the peculiar agreement they had with AT&T, the exlusive carrier. The agreement shared subscriber revenues from AT&T to Apple and did not include a discounted price for the iPhone even though customers had to sign up for at two-year contract agreement. At the time we criticized this deal for several reasons. From the consumer perspective you no longer received any benefit for signing your life away to a wireless carrier for two-years. Traditionally consumers would get a discount of anywhere from $50 to a couple of hundred dollars for signing such an agreement. Locking the iPhone to AT&T also reduced consumer choice in terms of carriers. We also though the deal was bad for Apple, however, because tying yourself to a single carrier meant that you limited the possible universe of buyers. Many consumers are either stuck in a contract with their carrier or like their carriers prices or service and wouldn't consider moving to AT&T. We also predicted that if Apple attempted to strike such deals with overseas carriers they would run into problems.
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Dial 0 for Opinion: CTIA day one fails to impress
Added on 2008-04-02 02:30:00
by Alfredo Padilla
 The largest cell phone expo in the United States is being held in Las Vegas this week and with the opening day of the show the industry has generally failed to impress. The biggest announcements coming out of the Las Vegas Convention Center today were Sprint launching an iPhone competitor, the Samsung Instinct (video) and Nokia announcing a Wimax enabled internet tablet (article). Wimax is one of the contestants for the next generation of mobile networks and Nokia N810 with Wimax represents their first attempt with the technology. Ironically this announcement was also related to Sprint as they are scheduled to launch the only Wimax network in the United States later this year.
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Dial 0 for Opinion: 3G Sucks
Added on 2008-03-26 09:17:00
by Alfredo Padilla
Tech geeks, like us, always fawn over the newer and, ostensibly, better technologies that rapidly inundate us. The truth of the matter is, however, that newer doesn't necessarily mean better, and nothing is a better indication of this truism than 3G (third generation) cell phone technologies. Geeks love 3G technology because if there's anything that gets a geek's heart pounding it's the idea of fast data connections. 3G technologies on cell phones allow users to connect to the internet on their device at broadband speeds, and some newer implementations like AT&T's HSDPA network, offer speeds up to 3.6 Mbps, faster than most DSL connections. You can see the scorn piled on devices that lack this newer and "better" technology by looking at the heap of criticism the iPhone received for not supporting 3G. Well I've got something to say to all my fellow geeks that unabashedly worship at the alter of the new: 3G sucks.
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Dial 0 for Opinion: What's the fallout of the 700Mhz auction?
Added on 2008-03-21 11:55:00
by Alfredo Padilla
 The FCC this week announced the winners of the 700Mhz auction, giving top prizes for the much sought after C block of the spectrum to Verizon Wireless and AT&T. The two carriers used a strategy of bidding for and winning regional and local licenses instead of bidding on the block as a whole. The question now is, what will the result mean for consumers and the wireless industry?
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