Blog

Teetering On The Edge Of Innovation

The last couple of weeks have confirmed to me that there is a lack of compelling innovation in the consumer electronics space… at least right now. Phone and smartwatch launches have become small iterative enhancements rather than substantial innovations, while IFA, the large European consumer electronics show, was a muted affair with little to set the world on fire.

IFA Goes (A Bit More) Mobile

IFA is often considered to be the CES tradeshow of Europe, where global consumer electronics vendors would showcase the commercialized products they previously previewed at CES. Held in Berlin every year in early September, the show would get little attention from the mobile world but that has been changing lately as smartphone vendors shift their focus from overly mature markets like the U.S. to EMEA markets.

The T-Mobile/Sprint Merger Inches Towards Closure

The T-Mobile/Sprint merger is (almost) complete, having passed the major hurdle of gaining approval from the Department of Justice (DoJ) on Friday. As part of the deal, Dish Networks has emerged as the new “number four” carrier, and is spending $5 billion to purchase Sprint’s prepaid assets, notably Boost and Virgin, as well as a swathe of 800 MHz spectrum from Sprint. It is, without a shadow of a doubt, a major victory for T-Mobile and Sprint.

Speak and Spell

In an era of smartphones and tablets, schools are beginning to change their curriculum, taking the focus off skills such as cursive writing. As voice-based interfaces become more pervasive, what additional changes will the future bring?

The Emperor Only Wears Underpants

I’m starting to get concerned that the marketing hype surrounding 5G will struggle to meet the reality of the situation. Beyond any technical reservations (we’ll get to those) there seems to be a growing sentiment that 5G will cause fundamental upheavals in society and business – the like of which have never been seen before. Consider me a skeptic.

The Huawei Challenge

There are dark times ahead for Huawei, due to the U.S. Government’s decision to blacklist the vendor. And while the move was inevitable, it will now not only impact the network infrastructure side of the business, but also its ability to support Android smartphones.

Your Signal May Vary

Traveling across some of the more rural parts of America has given me a healthy dose of reality when it comes to national coverage of U.S. mobile carriers. While the movement towards national mobile coverage has been around since Craig McCaw in the early 80s, I still found pockets of emptiness on my travels.