Wow, E911 Has Finally Come Along

from the never-thought-we'd-see-the-day dept

For years, there's been talk of how 911 service needed to include the ability for a mobile phone user's location to be sent to call centers when they made an emergency call. The implementation has taken ages, thanks to toothless government "crackdowns" and constantly backpedaling deadlines. Another big reason was that tax money intended to upgrade call centers to be able to receive the info was instead spent on winter boots and ballpoint pens. So it was with some surprise that we saw 95 percent of the US population now lives in an area with 911 call centers that can receive their location from a wireless phone, and over 90 percent of individual call centers in the US have the ability. That's quite a milestone for a program that looked for a long time like it was going nowhere; hopefully implementation of the next 911 upgrade won't take nearly as long.

Filed Under: e911

The Real Impact Of Google's Latitude: Getting People Comfortable With Location Sharing

from the What's-Your-10-20 dept

There's been a lot of coverage around about Google's new friend finder, built into its Maps app for smartphones. The feature, called Latitude, is able to share your location with friends that you select, and who also carry a compatible mobile device (or laptop) with the app installed and a data connection to Google's servers. This kind of service has lots of uses for the enterprise, families, and among friends, and it seems like Google has added the necessary controls to avoid the worst of the privacy issues. But the privacy issue has been discussed elsewhere, and frankly it's hardly worth debating since usage is optional. Yes, you sacrifice privacy to use such a service, but YOU choose can when it's useful enough to be worth the privacy sacrifice, and turn it off at other times. Seems simple. I make the same trade-off with my toll-paying RFID tag.

So let's discuss the competitive implications of this latest move, instead. Other firms, such as Loopt, Networks in Motion, Wavemarket, OmniTRAKS, FindWhere, Motorola Rhino, Autodesk have been offering various location tracking services for years, with the first in the US consumer phone services popping up around 2005. Historically, the services were offered for prices of $10/mo or more. Loopt offers their consumer service through carriers for free or $4/mo, but Latitude is user-installed and free. Now, it's no surprise that consumer-grade tracking services are offered for free: consumers tend to like that price, and the providers can make revenue by driving consumers to local business through advertising. But the free Google application also threatens enterprise-grade tracking solutions, especially in an era of cost-cutting. Like enterprise-grade solutions, Google can display a map with the location of all the tracked "friends" or staff on a PC as well as a phone. Zoinks! Looks like the bottom just fell out of the low end of the enterprise tracking market.

So, how do enterprise vendors "compete with free"? Well, so far, Latitude cannot replace an elaborate employee tracking solution that records breadcrumbs, integrates time-carding, optimal dispatch routing, offers geo-fencing, and other high-end functions. The existing enterprise vendors can compete quite well by offering premium features, integration into management tools, and verticalized solutions that deliver incremental value over the free services. How do you compete with a free product? Offer a product that's worth more -- and which the free version can't easily copy.

Google's entry signals a tipping point for tracking, as its brand penetration and price will push this type of service into many more handsets. Since Latitude also works on laptops, we can expect much better targeted location-aware advertising on our laptop Google searches, too... whether that impresses you or creeps you out. Bottom line is that the Twitter-types, who constantly update their network with short text messages, can save themselves some typing with Latitude. Privacy advocates will shun it, and others like me will manage it, enabling Latitude when we need it, and shutting it off most of the day. However, in the long run, this can be quite good for competitors in the market who can successfully incorporate advanced features worth paying for. Let Google educate the market, and have demand for such apps in the enterprise level bubble up.

Filed Under: latitude, location, tracking
Companies: google

India's $10 Laptop Isn't A Laptop... And Nobody's Sure Exactly What It Is

from the land-of-confusion dept

Earlier in the week, I posted that a new cheap laptop initiative from the Indian government was following the OLPC project's strategy of forging ahead on its own, instead of collaborating with market players and taking advantage of the benefits such collaboration could offer. Some more details about the project have emerged, and I'm glad to report they weren't doing what I predicted, in that they didn't launch a new student-focused netbook; instead, they launched... well, this thing that isn't a laptop. The problem is it's not very clear at all what, exactly, the device is. The Times of India calls it "a damp squib," and a storage device that could lead to the development of a $60 laptop. Photos aren't a lot of help, nor is the description that it "helps e-learners access the Web easily." Even the most detailed list of specs doesn't help. As far as we can tell, it's some sort of glorified 2GB thumb drive, in a 10-inch by 5-inch case, that may or may not include some networking technology. It's somehow related to a project to put textbook information online so it can more easily be accessed in remote parts of the country. So, congrats to the Indian government for not going down the laptop path, but if they could better explain just what they hell they have made, everybody would be grateful.

Filed Under: $10 pc, india

Mobile Industry Isn't Immune From Saturation, Recession

from the trying-times dept

One-time mobile phone giant Motorola came out with its latest earnings earlier this week, and as widely expected, they weren't pretty. The company's mobile-phone business has been spiralling downward since it peaked with the hugely popular RAZR, an iconic device for which the company could never deliver a successful follow-up. Motorola is becoming a "peripheral player" in the cell phone business, and there's been plenty of speculation that the company is searching for somebody to take the unit off its hands. Moto's problems are largely of its own making, but come at a time when economic reality is pushing handset sales down across the entire industry, and they've become a major part of the story about how "the cellphone industry's best days are behind it."

The gist of the NYT piece is that in terms of mobile phone subscribers, the world is essentially saturated. In the US, somewhere around 85% of the population has a mobile phone; meanwhile, more than 50 countries have over 100 percent penetration, meaning they have more mobile subscriptions than people. So, in some sense, though growth is slowing, there is still room for more. But, besides that, saturation doesn't mean the end of the road for handset vendors. Most of their sales in countries like the US have been replacement sales for quite some time, and as consumers become more sophisticated, they just have to -- gasp -- work harder to convince them to upgrade to new devices with better features, while the economic climate means they have to pay a lot more attention to value as well. Quickly growing markets may have simplified things for the mobile industry when simply giving people access to mobile handsets and basic services was the primary goal. There's a lot of innovation left in mobile devices and services yet, but like anybody else in this environment, mobile companies aren't immune from a slowdown. Playing that off and using the poor strategy and execution of one company to paint a picture of an industry headed for the brink may not be wholly accurate.

Filed Under: mobile industry, recession
Companies: motorola

India's Do Not Call List Now Covers SMS Spam, Too

from the would-you-like-to-extend-your-size-to-160-characters? dept

The problem of spam text messages sent to mobile phones has been a significant one in many countries, though it hasn't reached epidemic proportions (yet) in the US. Operators have done a pretty good job of stopping the messages from getting delivered, while the cost and difficulty of sending them has also been a useful obstacle. Some, however, still manage to get through. Over in India, the government has extended its do not call list to cover commercial text messages as well, and has mandated that operators must add some tracking information to the messages so regulators can track down their senders. In the US, it's illegal for telemarketers to call cell phones, while the not-particularly-effective CAN-SPAM act makes it illegal to send spam email to phones. At least one court has ruled that SMS spam is covered by the law banning telemarketing calls to mobiles, but it would be nice to see cell phones get some extra protection from spam -- especially since it often brings some financial pain as well as annoyance.

Filed Under: do not call, india, sms, spam

Analyst Says What We Already Knew: Apple's Multi-Touch Patent Fight Won't Help Its Business

from the in-case-you-didn't-get-it-yet dept

After Palm showed off its new Pre smartphone, including the device's multitouch interface, at the Consumer Electronics Show last month, Apple made some threatening noises about how it would go after anybody who "ripped off" its intellectual property. As always, we didn't see how this would benefit anybody in the marketplace, since competition pays benefits to consumers, and drives participants, even Apple, to continually innovate and improve their products. Now, a wireless industry analyst has called Apple's threats into question. He makes the point that a long, drawn out IP fight won't help Apple's business in the long run: "Building on the company's legacy as one of the greatest innovators in the technology industry may be a smarter business model than taking on the rest of the industry in a battle that may be impossible to win."

His reasoning is twofold: first and most obviously, Apple stands to gain more by competing in the market than competing in the courts. Second, he says that if Apple went ahead with patent suits, it may not be able to win them. He says that it appears that much of Apple's multitouch IP portfolio is based on work from a couple of its employees -- who also were granted a number of multitouch patents while they were employed by the University of Delaware. The University holds those patents, while the analyst also found a lot of potential prior art he says could threaten the Apple patents' validity if they're reviewed. So if Apple realizes the patents may not stand up to a review, it could explain the bluster; but once it's clear the threats are empty, they hold no value. The question now seems to be how long Apple will try to play out the show, and how many resources it will throw at it that would be better spent on developing its products.

Filed Under: iphone, multi-touch, patents, pre
Companies: apple, palm

Mobile Operators Want Anything That Might Force Them To Compete... Taken Out Of Stimulus Bill

from the hey,-your-policy-goal-chocolate-is-in-my-government-handout-peanut-butter dept

As debate over the massive economic stimulus bill continues, the trade group representing US mobile operators has weighed in, with its head, former-NFL-star-turned-congressman-turned-shill Steve Largent, saying that unless open-access rules are removed from the broadband section of the bill, carriers will be "hesitant to participate". News to Steve: the stimulus bill, and this section, aren't necessarily intended merely to further line the pockets of incumbent mobile operators. While he thinks open-access rules "will deter providers from taking advantage of the grant program," one would have to imagine that if incumbents sat on the sidelines, plenty of new entrants would be more than willing to open their businesses to the government support and use it to craft new mobile broadband networks that would provide some much-needed competition in the space. Furthermore, such open access requirements didn't stop Verizon from shelling out several billion dollars for spectrum licenses last year. It seems that the CTIA loves it some stimulus -- as long as it doesn't stimulate any potential competition for its members.

Filed Under: economy, steve largent, stimulus, wireless
Companies: ctia

Latest Pointless Law: Requiring Cameraphones To Click When Taking Photos

from the this-again? dept

History is littered with examples of new technologies causing people to freak out. When automobiles were introduced, laws were passed forcing people to walk in front of the cars, waving red flags. Years ago, I read a great article about how when regular film cameras were first introduced, there were regulations against them, due to fears about privacy violations (I could have sworn I wrote about it on Techdirt, but now I can't find it...). It seems that a similar concept may be showing up with cameraphones, as John writes in to let us know of new legislation in Congress that would require all cameraphones to "click" when taking a photo. The idea, of course, is to "protect the children" so that predators can't secretly take photos. The law is similar to one found in South Korea, so it's hardly a new idea -- though it still doesn't make much sense. Someone looking to do something illegal with their cameraphone will easily figure out a way to take silent photos. All this law will actually do is annoy those who have perfectly legitimate reasons for wanting to take photos quietly. Hell, you could just as easily come up with some silly scenario how this law would be damaging to children... such as if someone wanted to photograph a predator stalking children without the guy knowing... Anyway, vote on what you think of the law below:

Filed Under: cameraphones, noise

Senate Delays Digital TV Transition; Will The Situation Be Any Different In June?

from the doubtful dept

It still makes little sense to us to delay the digital TV switchover beyond February 17th. The switch has already been delayed for nearly a decade, and anyone who doesn't know about it yet isn't likely to know about it when June roles around either. Yet, for political expediency, it looks like the Senate has approved plans to move the transition back to June (the House still needs to vote on this, but it seems likely to pass), which will end up slowing the rollout of various wireless services, thereby harming most consumers a lot more than this helps them. Hopefully, in June, politicians don't roll over again and push back the date again.

Filed Under: congress, delay, digital tv

White House Confirms: President Keeps His Blackberry

from the now-about-the-IM dept

There were some stories yesterday saying that, despite earlier worries he'd be forced to give it up, President Obama was able to keep his Blackberry -- and now the White House has confirmed it. Apparently, some security software has been added, and a very limited number of people will know the email address. Also, it appears that the administration is noting that the Presidential Records Act does allow an exception for strictly personal emails. So, while the President is being told to consider any emails he sends to be public, strictly personal email to friends or family will likely not be kept and revealed. What isn't entirely clear is who determines what is, and what is not, personal. In the meantime, how long until we hear about the first Obama-email-inspired phishing scam? You know someone's going to try to use a fake Obama email address to try to scam people... Now, let's see what they can do about giving instant messaging back to White House staffers.

Filed Under: barack obama, blackberry, email, president