Editor’s Note: Welcome to our weekly Reality Check column. We’ve gathered a group of visionaries and veterans in the mobile industry to give their insights into the marketplace.
One of the most popular series of articles we wrote last year was called “All I Want For Christmas … ”. (I’ve included the RCR Wireless links to part one and part two.) Twelve months have passed, and most of the list is still there, although admittedly we have come a long way with user support groups (and mobile directories). However, I didn’t even know last year that I should have wanted for an iPad – heck, we didn’t even know what to call it twelve months ago! The iPad is a case study in category creation and market leadership. Many chapters are left to write, but innovations like the iPad are a clear reason why Apple Inc. will earn an additional $100 billion in market capitalization for their shareholders in 2010, on top of the $99 billion they earned in 2009. (To put this in context, the entire U.S. telecom/cable industry will return about $55 billion to shareholders in 2010 with dividends, up from $20 billion in 2009). A top wish list item for any Reality Check reader is a strong, consistent return, and if you’ve been holding Apple, you’ve seen returns in the past 24 months.
This year, I’m separating my wish list into two parts – things that I really want, and things that one might refer to as “ambitions.” So the really want list, in no particular order, is:
1. A 2 GHz chip in a 4G phone/tablet. Today’s 1 GHz Qualcomm Inc. Snapdragon processor is nice, and we’ll get Qualcomm’s 1.5 GHz processor soon enough, but why stop there for my tablet? Go the full 2 GHz. As we mentioned in last year’s list, let’s put at least 64 gigabytes of storage in the device and add a consistent 4G signal – none of the “where available” caveats. If it’s a tablet, put the phone soft client in the pad and provide decent headset options. And sell it for $30 less per month per family if I take your wired high-speed Internet product.
2. A decent voice to read to me from my Kindle. I still cling to my Kindle 2. It’s a wonderful device, and, while I don’t read as much as I used to, I let my Kindle read to me on long trips. Amazon.com Inc. owns audible.com. Amazon runs the Kindle franchise. Give me the ability to hear the audio version of Jon Stewart’s “Earth” as read by Mr. Stewart, or Alex Cross novels by my namesake. I hate the Kindle’s male computer voice, and the female computer voice isn’t much better. While you are at it, could you put a decent GPS in the Kindle and allow me to do away with my Nuvi (a friendly voice whose dialect changes as I drive across the country would be brilliant). I promise to pay for it. If audible.com is so great from my iPod/iPhone, why not make it even greater from my Kindle? (Ironically, in my research, I found that I could actually download the audible reader to my Nuvi but not my Kindle!)
3. A Pandora franchise. There are so many things right about Pandora. The Blondie Channel, for one. If you love 80s music, it’s all you need. And no commercials and 192 kilobit per second sound, if you are willing to shell out $36 per year. (I am listening to it right now as I am writing this article). While all of these things are great, I’d like to be the first to put the bid in for a Pandora franchise. Give me Pandora Kansas City. Taking an item from last year’s wish list, I’d bring the area (and the world) Rockhurst High School sports (with their own channel), and coverage for our local hockey, arena football, baseball (T-Bones, not the Royals) and Major League Soccer teams. We could feature local bands far better than a national channel could, revive the K.C. blues scene, and attract local advertising in a way no one sitting in Pandora’s Oakland corporate offices could. (I wonder what Pandora New Orleans would go for? Or Pandora Austin? Or Pandora Nashville?)
4. The app of the month club. When I wrote about this last year, I highlighted the problems with the Verizon Wireless app store. It’s still weak, and millions of Android buyers later, the problem still exists: Where do I go to outfit my Droid? After the basic Google Earth, QiK/Fring, Facebook, Angry Birds, Doodle (insanely addictive) and Mobile Symmetry “must have” downloads (MS Droid app coming very soon), the choices are immense. Software companies worry about profiling, but why not try a fun and festive approach, like the one used by www.shoedazzle.com (yes, shoe of the month club – warning, also insanely addictive). If Groupon can turn down $6 billion, could app of the month at least warrant a cool billion? By the way, I am going to put my money where my mouth is here. I happen to have purchased www.appofthemonthclub.com last year, and I am willing to trade the domain for very tiny share of the start-up company for anyone who will put this idea to work. Hopefully, some December computer science graduate who is in need of a killer idea will take me up on the offer. Call me Santa Jim.
5. An opt-in mobile directory with free caller ID. In our year-end column, I’ll chronicle the journey we have been on the past year at Mobile Symmetry. However, in 2011, your wishes will come true: You can control your mobile privacy, you can find others’ mobile contact information (but only if they want you to), you can have your contacts follow you without buying expensive software or paying a monthly fee, and you can see more than the city and state for people who call you on your mobile but are not in your contact list. Did I also mention we have strong parental controls? Rather than update your Outlook contacts, why not invite your Outlook users to Mobile Symmetry and start fresh? You will be more organized because the only contact you need to keep current if your own. It’s what happens when you get a CIO, wholesale guy, and finance whiz who knows telecom’s foibles together. Register today at www.mobsym.com, then invite me to connect to let me know you’re on!
That’s it for this week. Next week we hit the more “ambitious” items on the wish list. For those of you who shut down after Friday for a well deserved holiday break, you can stay up to date with the latest through RCR Wireless. Thanks again for all of your support this year. Happy holidays!
Jim Patterson is CEO & co-founder of Mobile Symmetry, a start-up created for carriers to solve the problems of an increasingly mobile-only society. He was most recently President – Wholesale Services for Sprint and has a career that spans over eighteen years in telecom and technology. He welcomes your commentsatjim@mobilesymmetry.com.
