Author Archive | Ed Oswald

Can AT&T Pull Off a Smooth iPhone MMS Rollout?

Posted by Ed Oswald on September 24, 2009 at 11:12 am

We are now less than a day away from the start of the long-awaited rollout of MMS on the iPhone. AT&T is planning to roll out the functionality in bunches starting at 10am ET, with a text message being sent to iPhone customers when the account is enabled for MMS, according to an anonymous source quoted by Broadband Reports.

The question now is, given AT&T’s history, will this rollout go off without a hitch? It’s questionable. During tests, the carrier’s MMS servers reportedly failed for those invited to participate. Additionally, in the test groups, “record traffic” was reportedly seen during peak hours. If the situation is as reported, it seems to suggest that Friday could be another one of those days for the carrier’s millions of iPhone users.

If traffic is 40 percent higher than normal as some are predicting on Friday,the grief that iPhone users may experience could bleed to non-iPhone users, further damaging the company’s already weak standing for service reliability with a good chunk of its customers.

Certainly, it’s going to be interesting to watch how AT&T’s network does in the first days of the rollout. Since users will have to connect to iTunes to sync the new “carrier file” which enables the functionality within the iPhone’s software, it’s fairly likely we won’t see any potential problems crop up until later in the day or on Saturday.

Sorry AT&T, but I’m not holding my breath here that you guys can do this. Too many times since I’ve switched to you folks in October for the iPhone 3G you’ve let me down. I never thought I would actually want to go back to T-Mobile and EDGE data (yep, that’s all they have here), but at least they weren’t dropping calls.

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Best Buy, Verizon Team on New E-Book Reader

Posted by Ed Oswald on September 23, 2009 at 11:00 am

Move over, Amazon Kindle. Best Buy and Verizon have unveiled a new e-book reader Wednesday that will sell for $399 and is built by iRex Technologies. The reader like the Kindle would be able to purchase content over the 3G network, and will be sold in about 100 of Best Buy’s locations by October.

Barnes and Noble’s e-bookstore would be used to supply the device with content, the companies said.

Verizon stands to benefit from this new device as it would receive a portion of the revenue to pay for the use of bandwidth by these devices over the network. Best Buy benefits from a device that is a direct revenue stream for them: the company is so serious about e-readers that it is specifically training its associates on how to sell the devices.

The two companies may be getting on the bandwagon at the right time. After only selling around a million of these devices in 2008, over five million are expected to be sold this year according to research firm iSuppli. Much of this increase has to do with the success of the Kindle, which has continued to sell very well by all accounts.

Regardless, the issue of price still looms large. As we reported here on Technologizer at the beginning of this month, e-readers are still too expensive for most consumers. At $400, iRex’s new reader seems to be more than twice what consumers would consider paying for a device.

These companies still need to address this issue if they plan to continue growing sales of these devices well into the future.

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iPods DO Get a Refresh, But Only the Nano

Posted by Ed Oswald on September 9, 2009 at 11:07 am

While it looked as if this Apple event was going to be for the birds with not much if any impressive news out of Cupertino, turns out we were wrong. As expected, the Nano got a refresh, adding a microphone, camera, and speaker to the device.

As far as I know, the video camera was expected, but this is the first I’m hearing of a microphone or speaker. The size of the player is not changing — although Apple is smartly mentioning that the Nano is a fifth the size of the popular Flip digital video cameras, which the Nano obviously now competes with.

Guess what else the Nano has now? An FM radio. Thought you’d never see that, right. And Apple knows its market for these things: all Nanos come now with built in pedometers, giving those athletes who make up a significant portion of its customer base another reason to upgrade.

An 8GB model would be available for $149, and a 16GB for $179.

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Apple Starts a Price War

Posted by Ed Oswald on September 9, 2009 at 10:58 am

You knew this was coming: Apple has announced that it would cut the price of the 8GB iPod Touch to $199, while offering a 32GB for $299 and a new 64GB for $399. This effectively puts it in direct competition with the Zune HD, whose 16GB model retails for $219, and 32GB model which retails for $289.

Think the iPod Classic is about to die? Think again, it lives on: Apple announced a gargantuan 160GB model for $249, as far as I know the cheapest out there for a portable media player of that capacity.

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iTunes Gets a Makeover, New Features

Posted by Ed Oswald on September 9, 2009 at 10:41 am

ituneslogo The first announcement off of the pipeline is a new version of iTunes, which is available immediately. iTunes 9 contains a few significant enhancements, so lets run through them.

Improved Syncing: Definitely a useful feature. Many of us have iPods smaller than our music collections, so Apple’s enhancements here should help. You can sync via a certain type of music, such as artist or genre. Photos work in the same way too: here it could be a person or event. Movies even work — only syncing new movies. At the same time you may select media that you always want to sync.

In other words, much greater control over what media is on your iPod or iPhone.

Home Sharing: This feature allows a user to copy media on up to five computers on his or her home network. Users would be able to see what files are missing from their libraries that are on other computers and copy it over.

iTunes LP: This new offering is likely a result of the variable pricing that the record industry won from Apple a while back. Just like your old LPs, these packaged deals would include extras, including cover art, lyrics, videos and the like.

Social Media: As rumored, you can share “Wish Lists” to Facebook and Twitter.

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China Forcing News Sites to ID Commenters

Posted by Ed Oswald on September 7, 2009 at 11:52 am

News sites in China are now being required to obtain the true identities of their commenters, likely in an attempt to suppress and deter so-called “subversive” behavior. Previously, commenters had been offered a bit more anonymity where they could either post without registering at all or with much less personal information.

The new policy took effect last month and requires a real name and government issued identification number. This would positively identify every commenter on top of their already traceable IP address.

It appears from news reports that the government has tried to keep its involvement in the change under wraps, working to suppress reports on the matter in the media. It has worked for much of this decade on bringing a “real name” system to the Chinese Internet, and those in China say this is likely just the beginning.

There’s also another reason why the government didn’t want this publicized: it is unpopular and previous attempts have gotten a lot of blowback. China tried in 2006 to implement the policy on blogs, but after prominent bloggers in the country came out against the new policy and the public also overwhelmingly opposed it, the country backed off.

Local officials tried it too: Hangzhou officials wanted a similar policy for all who post on sites in the city earlier this year, however again public criticism killed the government’s plans.

It is certainly disappointing to see China once again working to curtail their citizens rights. The “subversion” tactic is something they use frequently: in most cases it’s an excuse to prevent free speech. Truly, there isn’t much that can be said that could truly disrupt the country.

What they’re paranoid of is the fact that there is a large portion of their population that wants freedom of speech and to be able to speak out. What China’s learning now is that in the digital age, that’s going to be much harder than ever to control.

(Cross posted from TechPolitik)

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Hey Amazon and Sony! It’s Time for a Price Drop.

Posted by Ed Oswald on September 3, 2009 at 11:44 am

While the Amazon Kindle and to some extent the Sony Reader have ignited the e-book industry, analysts say that the market will not be able to grow much further without a serious price drop. Forrester Research studied the problem, and found the “magic price” where consumers would start considering a purchase was around $150.

It gets worse though: the actual price that consumers want to pay is much lower, sitting at around $90. This is nowhere close to the current retail prices of e-bookreaders: Sony’s somewhat close to the magic number with it’s cheapest at $199, but Amazon’s way overpriced in consumer’s eyes at $299.

Analyst Sarah Rotman Epps said that e-readers will likely never be a mass market device, however by getting prices down quicker they could exceed current sales targets easily. Consumers have an expectation that prices on technology can drop quickly (i.e. iPhone) and are expecting the same to happen here, she argues.

Component prices seem to be the major issue here, as the screens used to manufacture these devices are still somewhat prohibitively expensive. Regardless, Epps said she expects the prices of e-readers to drop about 20% in the next year.

That would put Sony near that $150 goal, but the Kindle would still remain well over $200, and above what most consumers would be willing to pay.

I agree that the pricing needs to come down on these units. If it comes to it, and the reason why the Kindle can’t get cheap faster is due to the EV-DO data included, take it out. Sell it as an option. I don’t know if Amazon would be willing to do that, but if they did that could be one way to lower prices faster.

Are you all in the market for one of these devices, and if so, what is your magic price for an e-reader? Let us know in the comments.

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Microsoft’s Move to Axe Much of Zune Line Risky

Posted by Ed Oswald on September 2, 2009 at 6:07 am

Zune HD Microsoft is going full-bore when it comes to the Zune HD, due out in stores September 15. Redmond apparently believes so much in the product that it is willing to axe the entire line to focus on the device, if reports from Paul Thurrott are to be believed.

Now Mr. Thurrott does not necessarily have the best track record in being accurate in predicting or reporting future Microsoft moves, but if he’s actually talking to executives you have got to think they aren’t blowing smoke. If true, it’s a pretty gutsy move on Microsoft’s park to put all their eggs in one basket.

[UPDATE: Microsoft has now confirmed that the original Zunes are dead. See this PC World story.]

Even though Apple seems to be focusing on touch as of late, the company still carries an expansive line of models to suit users tastes. Simply put, a one-size-fits-all approach doesn’t work well in this market.

Apple’s Shuffles and Nanos work good for athletes — look no further than the Nike+ add-on for the Nano as evidence. For Microsoft, the Zune 8 fufilled this niche. With it gone, the company is forcing users to upgrade to the much larger (and about 2 1/2 times more expensive) touch-based model.

In Microsoft’s defense, we all shouldn’t forget though how much ground the Zune needs to make up. Even though this latest round of Zunes sold slightly better, there is still a 20-25:1 ratio of iPods sold to every Zune Microsoft is focusing its efforts where the market is going.

Regardless, a large portion of the market will be underserved. Many consumers prefer smaller and cheaper players (anecdotal evidence seems to indicate this may be a fairly large chunk of all players sold). I can understand Microsoft’s desire to focus on the Zune HD, but deciding to axe the rest of your product line before you have any alternatives seems way too risky for a platform that is hanging on by a thread so as it is.

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The Web Does Not Equal More Civic Engagement

Posted by Ed Oswald on September 1, 2009 at 4:50 pm

The Web is not the answer to increased civic participation, according to the results of a study released Tuesday by the Pew Internet and American Life Project. Instead, as in offline activities, those engaged are still basically older and more wealthy than the citzenry at large.

For example, 35 percent of adults making more than $100,000 a year had participated in some kind of online political activity over the past year. Contrast this with those making under $20,000 — only 8 percent participation was recorded there. Pew noted that this was the same gap seen offline as well.

The bottom line seems to be that the more money you make, the more likely you’re going to be civically involved, regardless of whether it’s online or not.

“Contrary to the hopes of some advocates, the internet is not changing the socio-economic character of civic engagement in America,” Pew research specialist Aaron Smith said. He did acknowledge that access to the Internet does also correlate to socio-economic status, but added there was still a “strong positive relationship” between socio-economic status and political activism.

The news is certainly a blow to those who have been lifting the Web up as a way for a broader swath of the citizenry to get involved — heck, our own President is one of it’s biggest cheerleaders. But there may be a light at the end of the tunnel: social networking.

Pew found that those on social networking sites did not follow the patterns they found elsewhere, and thus one’s financial situation meant less to whether or not they were politically active.

“The impact of these new tools on the future of online political involvement depends in large part upon what happens as this younger cohort of “digital natives” gets older. Are we witnessing a generational change or a life-cycle phenomenon that will change as these younger users age? Will the civic divide close, or will rapidly evolving technologies continue to leave behind those with lower levels of education and income,” Smith asked.

I guess we’ll find out.

(Cross-posted from TechPolitik)

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Nokia Steps Back, Delays Music Service in U.S.

Posted by Ed Oswald on September 1, 2009 at 11:00 am

Nokia_Comes_With_Music_Nokia5310-XpressMusic_1_lowres With its “Comes With Music” music service getting a not-so-hot reception in the countries where it has already been launched, Nokia has decided to delay the launch of the product here in the US until at least 2010. Previously it had indicated it was on track for a launch sometime this year.

While the service seems to be doing decently in the developing markets it’s been introduced in, it’s underperformed everywhere else.

Obviously, the elephant in the room–iTunes–has a lot to do with Nokia’s woes. There’s also a good chance that many potential smartphone buyers just don’t associate Nokia with music.

It’s kind of a shame considering that Nokia’s strategy to attract customers is somewhat different. Essentially, for about 12-18 months after purchasing the handset you can download as much music as you want at no extra charge (thus the offering’s name).

A delay is really not that bad when you think about it. It’s important that Nokia sells the service effectively, especially considering the downloaded music is copy protected. Also, it needs a carrier to subsidize the cost of the device, since it’s pricey when purchased in unlocked form.

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