The March Of Mobile Phone Progress Isn't Always Smooth Or Direct

from the be-patient dept

Tim Wu is discouraged. Writing in Slate last week, the telecom expert lamented the terms he's facing as an aspiring iPhone 2 owner: a two-year AT&T contract thanks to the handset's newfound inability to be unlocked and a move toward a more conventional subsidized handset model. Wu sees this as emblematic of a shift in the mobile industry:

The fact that someone like me is switching to AT&T is a sign of the times in the telephone world. The wireless industry was once and is still sometimes called a "poster child for competition." That kind of talk needs to end.

He's right -- but then, that kind of talk shouldn't have been started in the first place. The mobile market was defined by long contracts, locked handsets and a lack of prepaid options long before Apple arrived on the scene. Now it appears that it'll remain that way long after Apple.

Admittedly, this is a disappointment. Many looked at Apple's choice of a second-rate carrier -- one they could bully around -- as a sign that everything was about to change. Finally a handset manufacturer had arisen that was powerful enough to break the industry's self-serving revenue model and empower consumers! With the recent declaration of the iPhone 2's retreat toward conventional industry shadiness, those counting on Apple's benevolent technological dictatorship have found themselves disappointed (as they have before, and no doubt will again). They were fooling themselves anyway: did anyone really think Apple was going to tolerate phone unlocking forever?

But the outlook isn't all grim. As Wu notes, the Google-led Open Handset Alliance is trying to follow in Apple's footsteps with its own game-changing, must-have handsets -- only this time there seems to be a more expressly ideological slant to the effort. And Verizon's Open Development Initiative, while less than perfect, is perhaps even more encouraging in that it shows the industry has begun to acknowledge the market's need for more flexibility in data services.

And that's the real reason for hope: the march of progress. Anyone who tries to paint the mobile industry as the picture of efficient market competition is either in denial or deeply dishonest. But wireless services will inevitably become more important and more available, whether thanks to WiMAX, revived municipal wifi projects (now without capital costs, thanks to the magic of bankruptcy!), spectrum freed by digital broadcasting, or some other wireless technology. The mobile carriers haven't been great at competing amongst themselves, but you can bet they'll begin responding once consumers have reasonable alternatives.

Filed Under: competition, markets, mobile phones, monopolies, tim wu

Kids Use Mobile Phones Too Much? Send 'Em To A Mental Hospital

from the seems-a-bit-extreme dept

We've noted in the past the, well, addiction some people have to calling any sort of regular usage of something an "addiction." It's quite common with all sorts of technologies. Often there doesn't seem to be any actual evidence of an addiction -- or, if there is, it usually becomes clear that the problem is somewhere else, and the people simply turn to technology to avoid that other issue in their lives. Either way, it still seems a bit extreme to hear that, in Spain, parents have sent two children, aged 12 and 13, to a mental hospital to try to help "cure them" of their mobile phone "addiction." As parents, what was wrong with just taking away their mobile phone?

Filed Under: addiction, mental hospital, mobile phones, uk

Is It Fair Game To Track People's Movements Via Their Mobile Phones?

from the ethical-questions dept

For many years, there have been efforts under way to use data from mobile phones to determine where people are or how they travel. Often this is used with the idea of getting useful automobile traffic info (if mobile phones are moving slowly, so are their cars). However, this has resulted in some privacy concerns, with people wondering why their data is being used in this way. And stories about how the boss of a big Chinese telco regularly uses the data to spy on people's location probably don't make people any more comfortable.

However, some researchers worked with an unnamed mobile phone company to get a ton of this type of data in order to get an idea of how people move around. While the researchers seem to think the results are surprising, they don't seem all that unexpected. Basically, people tend to just go to a few regular places rather than travel randomly around -- and most people don't travel far from home all that often. I'm somewhat surprised that anyone would have expected otherwise.

What may be more interesting, though, is the brewing controversy over how this data was obtained and whether or not it violated privacy rights or ethics rules. The researchers note that the data was totally anonymized, but we've all seen how any anonymized dataset can be unanonymized with a little work. In some ways, this goes back to a post we had last year from Tom Lee, questioning whether we needed new privacy norms when it came to things like mobile phone tracking. What does seem likely, however, is that we're only going to hear of more and more cases where such tracking data is used, and such questions about privacy and morality probably won't hold much weight next to the desire to get and use that kind of data.

Filed Under: ethics, mobile phones, movement studies, privacy, tracking

Verizon Wireless Finally Buying Alltel

from the get-a-room-already dept

It's only been rumored for about four years, but it looks like Verizon Wireless is finally buying Alltel. It's yet another merger in the space, with this one letting Verizon leap over AT&T to declare itself the largest national carrier. Considering the space, I'm sure there will soon be a flurry of "who's next?" articles showing up -- though most of the big obvious mergers are now out of the way. One assumes this should also mean the end of the ridiculous lawsuit Verizon Wireless had filed against Alltel for misleading advertising.

Filed Under: mergers, mobile phones
Companies: alltel, verizon wireless

Everyone Panic: Teens Are Sending Each Other Naked Photos On Camera Phones

from the really? dept

When I first read this article from the Associated Press about this new teen fad of teenagers using camera phones to send each other naked photos of themselves, I'll admit that I reacted exactly as the article's authors probably intended -- wondering what the hell kids are up to these days. However, is this really that surprising or shocking? At that age, kids do all sorts of stupid things, and if you hand them tools like camera phones that make it so easy, it's no surprise that some kids, somewhere will do things like pass around naked photos of each other (which, by the way, opens them up to charges of child pornography). Hell, kids have been "playing doctor" for ages, and it didn't necessarily warrant a writeup in the Associated Press.

And, while the article does list out multiple such cases, there's no indication how widespread this really is. Yes, there are some kids out there who do stupid, impulsive things (especially when it involves members of the opposite sex that they're interested in), and hopefully people realize these are just isolated incidents. But, somehow, I get the feeling we'll soon be hearing people suggesting that this is a "common occurrence" rather than just a few isolated incidents. So, really, the story here is that there are some kids out there that don't have the best judgment, and sometimes a small number of those kids do stupid things. It just so happens that, these days, those stupid things can involve being naked on the internet.

Filed Under: kids, mobile phones, naked pictures, photos

Betting On Mobile Phones Won't Save The Recording Industry

from the grasping-at-straws dept

The recording industry hasn't had much of a strategy for dealing with the changing marketplace over the past decade (and, no, I don't consider lashing out and suing music fans as a "strategy"), so far be it for them to start now. That's why it's amusing to see articles about how the recording industry honchos are now betting on a new generation of mobile phones to save them. Funny how that works. This is the same group of executives who will claim that the phones themselves have no value without the music -- and yet here they are hoping and praying that the devices will save their industry.

But the real problem is that this isn't a strategy. It's wishful thinking. It doesn't involve any actual insight into what's happening in the market. It doesn't involve any proactive movement towards accepting new business models and changing the way business is done. It's merely the old way of thinking, trying to figure out what the "next" platform will be on which to sell music. It went from vinyl to cassette tape (we'll skip 8-track) to CD to computer... and now they want it to go to mobile. But they're missing the fact that the more popular mobile devices get, the sooner it is that we'll see file sharing apps for mobile devices pop up. Rather than waiting and praying that some new platform will be the savior, isn't it time that the industry started taking lessons from the past 10 years, and worked towards adapting to the age of digital content?

Filed Under: mobile phones, music, recording industry

Musicians Whining About Fans With Mobile Phones

from the get-over-it dept

This past Friday night my favorite band was in town, so I went out to see them perform at a club in San Francisco. It was a fun time and they put on a great show (as they usually do) -- and it struck me early on that, even though the club was mobbed, and every once in a while I saw someone pull out a mobile phone to snap a photo or take a video, most people were just dancing and enjoying the show. Apparently, that's not necessarily the case everywhere. PicturePhoning alerts us to an article where a bunch of musicians are whining about fans in the audience with mobile phones. While they do make some interesting points about how fans these days are so focused on documenting their experiences that they might miss the actual experience, the whole "controversy" seems overblown. If the experience is good, the experience is good, and why should the musicians care how the fans experience it? And, as I can tell you from my experience on Friday night, when the experience is top notch, most people don't bother to pull out their mobile phones. So, perhaps rather than worrying about what the fans are doing, musicians should concentrate on putting on a better show.

Filed Under: concerts, mobile phones, musicians

Austrian City Demands People Switch Phones To Silent Mode On Public Transit

from the good-luck-with-that dept

It looks like politicians worldwide have decided to step in to try to stop rude mobile phone behavior. Just after we pointed to US politicians looking to ban the (already banned) use of mobile phones on airplanes, the mayor of the Austrian city of Graz, has said that commuters must switch their mobile phones to silent mode on public transportation. From the sound of it, this isn't so much a law, as a voluntary suggestion. The mayor says that police won't be going after anyone who fails to follow the rule. It's a little unclear from the AP article whether or not this is only supposed to prevent phones from ringing or if it's also meant to keep people from talking on the phone as well. Either way, it's unlikely to work. As the article also notes, Sweden recently did away with special "cell phone free" zones on public transportation because "it didn't really work." Meanwhile, New York City had pushed for mobile phone etiquette laws years ago, but it's not clear if it's ever enforced.

This does raise some interesting questions. Clearly, plenty of people are quite annoyed by the way others use mobile phones in public. In fact, there was an amusing study a few years back that showed nearly everyone gets annoyed at others for rude phone behavior, but when asked about their own behavior insist that they are never a problem. However, it does seem that even when people recognize the rudeness of others on mobile phones, if they're told to stop using their own mobile phone, it sets off a bit of mobile rage from people who feel unfairly restricted. I used to think that rude behavior on mobile phones was mostly due to people who were mobile phone "newbies" and didn't quite realize that there were better ways to use the phone, but that doesn't seem to be the case either.

So, is there a solution? Do we need laws to stop people from "rude" mobile phone behavior? Would they even work? Would education about mobile phone etiquette work instead? Or, should we all just learn to deal with the fact that sometimes, when we go out, there will be mobile phones ringing and people talking on them? My guess is that that last scenario (i.e., we just get used to the way it is) is most likely.

Filed Under: austria, etiquette, mobile phones, public transit

Next Thing To Ban: Walking While Talking On A Mobile Phone

from the no-chatting-for-you dept

Last month we pointed to some recent studies about how people walking while talking on mobile phones tend to do things that are riskier than those not talking on mobile phones and jokingly asked when politicians would start proposing bans on walking-while-talking, to go along with the popular bans on driving while talking. It didn't take long at all, actually. Parker Mason writes in to let us know that an Illinois lawmaker has proposed a ban on talking on a mobile phone while in a crosswalk. Combine that with jaywalking and you could really piss off a person who wasn't actually doing something dangerous. Actually, this isn't the first time such a thing has been proposed. Last year a similar law was proposed in New York, though I don't believe it went anywhere. It's nice that politicians want to protect people, but at some point you really have to ask why people can't take responsibilities for their own actions?

Filed Under: bans, illinois, mobile phones, walking

Brain Surgeon Announces That Mobile Phones Cause Cancer... But Without Any New Research

from the well-that's-convincing dept

Every so often, somewhere, a research report comes out claiming that mobile phones cause cancer only to be followed a few months later by the latest research report claiming that mobile phones don't cause cancer. It goes back and forth and back and forth. So, we take it with a grain of salt every time some new announcement comes out one way or the other, and that's doubly true with the latest report, as a brain surgeon has declared that mobile phones are "more dangerous than smoking." Of course, there's just one problem: the guy hasn't done any new research. He merely read some of the old research that claims mobile phones cause cancer and is repeating the claims found in them.

Filed Under: cancer, mobile phones