In the three previous months, with the final day of the period being on June 30th, top wireless service provider At&t made over $3.77 billion in profit! This is over $800,000 more than what At&t made in such a period only a year before, marking a 30% increase in profits. And what can be attributed to such a rise? Mobile phones of course! Even though the giant lost over 1.5 million land line customers in the quarter, they have gain over 1.3 million back in mobile customers– and these mobile customers have some serious monthly plans. With their addition, wireless unit revenue grew 16% and data revenue rose a monstrous 52%. The global launch of the iPhone 3G was a huge influence, as the company said sales of the iPhone 3G were twice that of results from the first launch in the first 12 days. Looks like yet another sign of change towards a mobile world.
Yes, after all the talk of the new 3G network, the faster and better way for mobile phones to access the mobile web, the iPhone 3G, Blackberry Bold, and countless other handsets specifically developed for this “cutting edge” technology, Verizon goes and jumps immediately to 4G. As of this morning, head executives announced that Verizon Wireless would be launching a 4G network in 2010, for both better speed and a superior technology platform. Now, as far as I know, these transitions from 1st generation phones to 2nd generation to 3rd generation are supposed to mark giant leaps in the mobile field… so whether or not the change to 4G will live up to the first 2 transitions is questionable at best. But still, the fact that mobile networks are becoming so powerful and fast is a great trend to see! Here’s a chart to give an idea of how 4G speed is supposed to perform.
Mobile Security is becoming more and more important as our world tansitions into a wireless one, so I thought I’d show this new security feautre that Sprint has come up with. I have to say it looks pretty effective…
I just realized when I went to renew my license at the DMV the other day that the Hands Free Driving law comes into effect on July 1st… Less than a week away! Anyway, while I was studying to take my driver’s test again (next time I’ll definitely remember to renew it), I saw the details and just thought I’d spread the word.
The basic law says, as of July 1st, it is illegal to drive while using a mobile phone in CA, unless it is through some form of “hands free” device . The law also sets a bar at 18 years old—if you are a driver under 18, you are not allowed to use a cell phone at all, headset or not. The minimum fine for first offenders is $20, and then $50 for subsequent convictions, but the DMV is quick to point out that this is the absolute minimum—fines can be up to three times these amounts. That would be a real expensive call! I guess the moral of the story is don’t use your cell in the car; if your state is light blue, dark blue or black, it’s probably not worth it… Or maybe just carpool more so that your friends and family can screen calls for ya.
Not sure how many of you guys have seen this, but LG actually has a phone called the Prada phone that is very similar to the Apple iPhone. In fact, they were both announced a couple days apart from each other. Which one came first? That’s up for debate and for you to decide.
Regardless, here’s a demo on YouTube. I know this phone isn’t new anymore. I know people have had it in Asia for a long time now, but it’s not nearly as popular over here in the US. Check it out:
Vodafone, one of the biggest carriers in Europe, announced today that they are buying ZYB, a Danish mobile social network for 31.5 million Euros today.
“ZYB was smart in how they built their service. At first they were a simple address book backup-to-web service. But they realized they had a very complete social graph from the data (who’s closer to you than the people you call frequently on your mobile phone)? So they launched a mobile social network on the back of the original service.”
Just like what we believe here in Obopay, mobile is the way of the future!
Going back to the big $10 million prize money that we talked about before on our own blog as well as the Google blog, the Locale group actually won $25,000 and is one of the finalists of the big grand prize!
This also totally reminds me of how Google got started. Larry Page and Sergey Brin were both Stanford students at that time. Google was their Ph.D project. One thing let to another, and now you have… Google!
Pretty amazing. I am very curious in seeing how all this will pan out.
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