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What I've been reading this week

I’m firmly of the belief that participants in the TMT industry need to read widely in order to understand the present and future dynamics of the market. To that end, this post is a collection of the articles that have caught my eye this week.

Digital media

Worth a flick through, although interesting that the website is buggy if you’re not using Chrome. Sign of the times?
http://www.googlezeitgeist.com/en#

The arrogance of the music industry is astounding – why should Megaupload take down something that was legitimately produced and paid for? Do you think there might be a reason the labels and publishers are dying out?
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2011/12/judge-gives-umg-24-hours-to-explain-takedown-spree.ars

Emerging markets

Old news that I’ve just stumbled on again - I believe that these gateways hold the key for African telecoms networks as onshore cabling becomes more widespread. Malawi is land locked, but could still play a hub role in onshore connectivity.
http://www.telegeography.com/products/commsupdate/articles/2011/05/23/gateway-terrestrial-network-project-goes-live-in-malawi/

New business models

This historic deal to merge some of the distribution of the US major cable networks could be excellent news for Verizon’s VDMS digital supply chain business. Having Comcast and/ or Time Warner on board would be a major coup.
http://www.edwardswildman.com/newsstand/detail.aspx?news=2708

Wi-fi has been a big winner this year. Try walking down a street in a major city and finding a spot without some form of coverage... difficult at best, but excellent for the consumer and excellent for device manufacturers.
http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/npd-tablet-users-increasingly-favor-wi-fi-over-cellular-connections/2011-12-12?utm_medium=nl&utm_source=internal

An interesting analysis that shows how completely Apple has penetrated the consumer market – small screen and silver screen!
http://mashable.com/2011/12/14/apple-products-movies-infographic/

The bottom line is that no one knows how many Kindle Fires have been sold. All we do know is that it’s a drop in the ocean next to Apple’s 40Mn iPads in 2011.
http://paidcontent.org/article/419-amazon-doesnt-release-kindle-fire-preorders-but-others-fill-in/

And mobile operators still think that NFC secure elements will be in the SIM. Good luck with that.
http://www.rethink-wireless.com/2011/12/14/intel-sharpens-focus-nfc.htm

Technology evolution

Flogging a dead horse, news-wise, but it is interesting to see how Symbian share has eroded as cheap Android devices have hit the market. Microsoft is, however, the right partner in crime for NOK in the markets that matter – those that don’t enforce draconian terms of participation and then steal your IP. As a case in point, Nokia’s former Symbian flagship, the N8 was carbon copied in China... running Android...
http://paidcontent.co.uk/article/419-heres-how-android-has-destroyed-symbian-in-china/

And lo and behold, here’s an example of how Android has done for Symbian at the base of the market. Wild proliferation of handset features has driven an acceleration of the chip and chipset market and therefore cancelled out Symbian’s advantage over Android in the hardware that can run it (reasonably) effectively. The user experience on these low end devices is pretty terrible, but how long until it’s acceptable?
http://www.rethink-wireless.com/2011/12/12/spreadtrum-pushes-android-sub-50-space.htm

In my distant past I had my own radio show that went out online and on AM. Back in the day we had a rack of (old) servers, a couple of mixing desks and thousands of pounds of sources. Now all of that can be accomplished from an iPad. Great news for those trying to take cost out of a radio business. Terrible news for those who work behind the scenes.
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2011-12/08/airtime-pro

Satellite broadband is much under-rated, having taken major strides in the last 5 years. As we become more data-obsessed as a society, then the need to be connected in remote places (like 30,000 feet up) becomes more important and therefore more valuable. All that considered, the $400Mn Viasat-1 satellite, with its 100 metre long solar panels, is an impressive piece of technology!
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/4385f5fc-2672-11e1-9ed3-00144feabdc0.html#axzz1galCSlUJ

Comments

  1. Hi Matthew,

    Thanks for the link to the Wired UK Airtime post, glad it was of interest! If you'd like to take Airtime Pro for a spin, I'd be happy to set up a free trial for you...

    Best, Adam

    ReplyDelete

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