Category: Mobile

In 10 years there will be 50 billion devices connected to the web, declared Ericsson President and CEO Hans Vestberg yesterday. That differs from Intel’s estimates that by 2015 the world will have 15 billion connected devices up from 5 billion now. However, the point is the same — mobile broadband and cheap chips equal a connected network of gadgets.

Vestberg highlighted the benefits of connected health-care devices, which we’ve also featured. The smart grid (GigaOM Pro sub req’d) and the potential for connected appliances also will bring more devices online, in addition to the already proliferating connected consumer electronics devices like televisions, cameras and game consoles. Already, the carriers are salivating at the prospect of providing cellular connections to these products and have set up divisions dedicated to machine-to-machine connectivity, but Wi-Fi is also a contender as the wireless backhaul to the web.

Large-scale projects such as Hewlett-Packard’s CeNSE network will also drive the number of connected devices, as will tracking modules for managing a company’s inventory or supply chain. So for those eyeing Ericsson’s connected future with skepticism, know that the technology already exists in the form of wireless broadband options, while more chips to provide the brains combined with radios will start hitting the markets in the next few years. We’re just waiting on the business models and deployments.

Got an iPad? You’ll want to download the interactive digital edition of Car and Driver, complete with in-story photo galleries and video. We’ve got a quick tour above for your viewing pleasure.

The Zinio app is available in the iTunes App Store.

No related posts.

If you live outside the U.S. and are waiting to experience Apple’s iPad, your wait just became longer. Citing the product’s “runaway success,” Apple is postponing an international iPad launch by one full month. Pre-orders and pricing information for international iPad purchases will become available on May 10. Here is Apple’s full statement:

“Although we have delivered more than 500,000 iPads during its first week, demand is far higher than we predicted and will likely continue to exceed our supply over the next several weeks as more people see and touch an iPad™. We have also taken a large number of pre-orders for iPad 3G models for delivery by the end of April.

Faced with this surprisingly strong US demand, we have made the difficult decision to postpone the international launch of iPad by one month, until the end of May. We will announce international pricing and begin taking online pre-orders on Monday, May 10. We know that many international customers waiting to buy an iPad will be disappointed by this news, but we hope they will be pleased to learn the reason—the iPad is a runaway success in the US thus far.”

So is this just a simple supply and demand issue? I don’t think so. My suspicion is that Apple didn’t predict the right product model mix between the Wi-Fi and 3G versions of its iPad.

Early sales estimates showed that nearly two of every three iPad orders were for Wi-Fi models. I personally find the device better suited to use in the home, where typically a Wi-Fi signal is available. Additionally, all early reviews and video demonstrations are based on the Wi-Fi model, which could be further generating consumer interest in it. Or it could just be that the first wave of buyers couldn’t wait until the end of April to get their hands on the device.

Related research on GigaOM Pro (sub req’d):

Hot Topic: Apple’s iPad

It was a good weekend for racing junkies, with NASCAR in Phoenix, the IRL at Barber Motorsports Park in Alabama, and MotoGP making its season debut in Qatar. Here are some personal pet peeves and pleasant surprises from the weekend.

NASCAR: The pleasant surprise is that the open-wheel converts are getting there at last. Well, Juan Pablo Montoya and Marcos Ambrose have been doing a good job already, but the fact that five road racers were among the top seven qualifiers was shocking. Sam Hornish, Jr., A.J. Allmendinger, and Scott Speed didn’t fare quite so well in the race, but JPM was fifth and all five finished among the top 21 cars. The pet peeve was yet another green-and-white checkered finish. All these do is cause an utter crapshoot at the end of the race. This may sound weird, but if there’s a yellow 10 laps from the finish of the race, why not declare the result at the point the flag came out? At least a driver’s hard work in the race would be rewarded, rather than lose a race because he spun the rear tires on a restart.

IRL: On the good side of the ledger, Marco Andretti led a ton of laps, which made a nice change to Will Power’s Penske car or one of the Ganassi boys riding off into the sunset. Oh, and Helio Castroneves won, which was pleasing. On the bad side? The IRL’s obsession with putting a pace car out when a local yellow would make more sense on road courses. Every single IRL race is a fuel-mileage strategy battle, when one would rather see a flat-out drive between pit stops. Mind you, with the lack of overtaking opportunities at Barber, perhaps they just wanted to spice up the show.

MotoGP: Nothing bad here. Sorry. These boys are stellar in every regard, none more so than Valentino Rossi, who picked up yet another win after Casey Stoner crashed his Ducati. From an American perspective, Nicky Hayden had his most competitive showing on the Ducati yet, a reward for the hard work he has put in during the past 12 months. A lesser rider would have looked at the difference between his speed and Stoner’s and gone crazy, but Hayden has gradually got the Ducati working to his liking. Ben Spies showed why he got a ride with the Tech 3 Yamaha team, finishing in a fine fifth place. And Jorge Lorenzo’s charge from fourth to second in the last few laps was something to behold, too.

Related posts:

1. Monday Morning Crew Chief, Wednesday Afternoon Edition: Why Formula 1 Could Disappear Up Its Own Fundament
2. Monday Morning Crew Chief: Handbags at Dawn
3. Monday Morning Crew Chief: Saturday Night, Sunday Morning

Verizon Wireless has launched its first wave of NFL Mobile applications, including live streaming of Sunday and Thursday night games, for subscribers today as the official sponsor of the NFL.

If you are a Verizon subscriber and interested at all in the NFL, you should download the application before the end of the year while it’s free and requires no monthly subscription. After Dec. 31, a spokesperson said Verizon did not know what it may cost. Of course, subscribers should have a data plan if they plan to use the application much, but the applications launched today are mostly for BlackBerry and Android devices, which typically carry a data plan anyway.

In March, Verizon Wireless reportedly paid $750 million to be the exclusive partner of the NFL, taking over the reigns from Sprint (NYSE: S) which had a similar deal for previous five years.

The NFL Mobile app will kick-off with coverage on April 22 with the start of the draft. Then as the season progresses, more features will be added, including information from training camps, preseason games and live streaming coverage of games throughout the 2010 NFL season. Also later this year, NFL RedZone, will come to mobile for the first time. 

Verizon said the application is available on 13 smartphones and multimedia phones, ranging from the Droid to a plethora of BlackBerrys and LG (SEO: 066570) Chocolate Touch, the LG enV TOUCH, and the Samsung Rogue. Android users can download it in the market starting today; BlackBerry users can go to http://mobile.vzw.com/nfl from their browser to download it; and other customers can text “NFL” to 2777 to receive instructions.

Technology has been a part of archaeology from the time it shifted from treasure hunting to academic profession, from using geography to plot a grid on a dig site, mechanics to pump out a flooded tomb, statistics to map demographic changes or now, using personal technology and global positioning software to identify the previously unknown.

The latter is what Professor Chris Fisher, associate professor in CSU’s Department of Anthropology, and his team from Colorado State University have done. They discovered a large, ancient urban center using rugged handheld computers and GPS.

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This thousand-year-old urban center stands, overgrown with scrub and soil, in the Lake Pátzcuaro Basin in the central Mexican state of Michoacán. Fisher’s team used four Trimble Recon rugged handheld computers in conjunction with GeoXH and GeoXT GPS receivers, to do real-time, on-site mapping of over 1,300 architectural features, including hundreds of “house mounds,” in just one acre of the site. They took 25 to 30 data points on each feature but were still able to complete the initial full-coverage mapping in a month.

“The technology accelerated our ability to get meaningful data,” he said. “We were able to create an architectural typology of the site right away!”

The city was part of the Purépecha Empire, also known as the Tarascan Empire. The Purépecha controlled a great chunk of western Mexico with a fortified frontier. On the other side of that frontier? The much better known Aztec Empire.

The technology, and the strategy Fisher developed for its use, allowed the near-immediate capture of a frieze-like picture of the urbanization of a Purépecha center that enabled empire. The city, which prior to Fisher’s work, was nothing but a couple of ruins and a pin in a map, turned out to be five square kilometers. Without the hand-held, on-site tech, it would have possibly taken seasons of painstaking mapping to develop the picture.

“The Lake Pátzcuaro Basin was the geopolitical core of the empire with a dense population, centralized settlement systems, engineered environment and a socially stratified society,” said Fisher.

Although the city was initially discovered during the 2009 season, Fisher is currently presenting his findings officially at the Society for American Archaeology meetings in St. Louis. His team will continue mapping the city this summer.

Fisher specializes in climate change archaeology, plotting changes in climate and the cultural adaptation that went with it, including identifying which strategies worked and which failed. A project studying this, Legacies of Resilience, is partially funded by the National Science Foundation.

“One of the great challenges for the 21st century will be creating solutions to link social and environmental change,” said Fisher. “Archaeology is uniquely poised to make a significant contribution to this debate by helping to explain trajectories of socio-ecosystem evolution over long time periods.”

When Fisher heads back the site on April 18, he intends to make greater use of Google SketchUp, a 3D modeling program. He already used it to make in-field sketches but this season he and his team will use it extensively to create a portfolio of walkable sketches and a three-dimensional picture of the urban center and its agriculture.

The same technology we use in our daily lives is helping to make that contribution possible. I’m sorry. But exactly how cool is that?

Fessin’ up time. I hooked Chris up with his computer system during the time I worked for its manufacturer. I did so because the project, climate change archaeology, was so cool I almost fainted when he told me about it.

Discuss

There are plenty of reasons for HTC to buy Palm, but the realization that it needs to stop relying on outside companies to provide software for its devices is making such purchase look all the more appealing. More »

Google CEO Eric Schmidt sat for a Q&A at the company’s Atmosphere event yesterday pitching its Apps platform to the enterprise. A couple of his remarks stuck with me today and I wanted to share them as well as a video of the session that Google has now made available to the public.

Schmidt made two specific comments about resource allocation, saying that the hardest and most pressing engineering issues facing Google today are around sharing and mobile. He was talking to the enterprise execs present but his statements were so absolute I think it’s fair to apply them more broadly.

“Companies are about sharing,” Schmidt said. “One of the new things in the last five years about the web is that it enables sharing-sensitive apps.” He continued,

I think of calendars as incredibly boring, but I’m wrong, calendars are incredibly interesting because they’re incredibly shared. So from a computer science perspective, all of a sudden we have our top engineers who want to build calendars. I’m going, what’s wrong with you guys? But in fact it’s a very interesting example. Spreadsheets are similar, the most interesting spreadsheets are highly, highly interlinked, something I didn’t know, and was not possible with the previous technology — Microsoft technology made it very difficult because they were not built in that model.

Schmidt also recommended to the executives present that “You should always put your best team on your mobile app that enables your service. The answer should always be mobile first.”

As the mobile Internet becomes central for both consumer and corporate users, the core product questions are interoperability, security and safety, Schmidt said. “What’s important is to get the mobile experience right, because mobility will ultimately be the way you provision most of your services,” he added, saying that Google considers phones, tablets and netbooks mobile experiences.

Lastly, to make good mobile, web and diskless computer (aka Chrome OS) apps, Schmidt had a platform recommendation as well: “From our perspective the single most important development has been the arrival of the HTML 5 standard.”

Related content from GigaOM Pro (sub req’d):

The App Developer’s Guide to Choosing a Mobile Platform

The network neutrality debate — whether or not Internet Service Providers can discriminate against packets (GigaOM Pro sub req’d) or application providers — pits what the blogosphere often sees as the forces of good (Google, The Free Press) against the forces of evil (AT&T, Verizon, Comcast), while generally ignoring the technical realities or even clearly understanding the limits of said networks. So I was excited to see presented to the FCC this week a paper written by Scott Jordan, a professor of computer science at the University of California, Irvine, on whether or not one can or should apply net neutrality to wireless networks.

The paper concludes that the differences between wireline and wireless networks do change the way network management is implemented, and suggests that by creating the equivalent of an open interface for the transport layers (layers 1-3 in the OSI model) of a wireless network would be enough to prevent ISPs from stifling competition on wireless networks. From an abstract of the paper:

We address whether differences between wired and wireless network technology merit different treatment with respect to net neutrality. We are concerned with whether the challenges of wireless signals and mobility merit different traffic management techniques, and how these techniques may affect net neutrality. Although wireless networks require stronger traffic management, we find these differences are only at and below the network layer, and hence wireless broadband access providers can effectively control congestion without restricting a user’s right to run the applications of their choice.

However, for Jordan the open interface would be tied to pricing, notably the amount a user is willing to pay for certain prioritization or types of traffic at the lower levels. He explains in the paper itself:

In contrast, many current plans are not application-agnostic and are hence not consistent with an open interface. Some plans for smartphones include unlimited amounts of data, but restrict use to certain devices (e.g. prohibit tethering to a laptop) and to certain applications (e.g. permit web browsing and email, but prohibit file sharing, streaming, and VoIP). The goals of traffic management can be more efficiently obtained through an application-agnostic interface that allows users to choose their own applications and to match these applications to QoS options based on price.

Not only does this mean the flat-rate mobile broadband plan is dead, but the onus is on the consumer to understand what she wants to do with her device and subscribe to the correct pricing plan. Already carriers are weighing how they will change mobile broadband pricing (GigaOM Pro, sub req’d) to more accurately reflect usage, so by providing a way to offer usage-based pricing in a way that could fit with network neutrality rules, this paper could help carriers implement such plans. It explains from a technical perspective why wireless networks should also abide by network neutrality regulations and how to do so in a manner that respects the constraints unique to wireless networks. So there’s something in here for both consumers and carriers to potentially dislike.

Image courtesy of Flickr user pfly

After working together for years through a trade association, a dozen broadcasters are now forming a financially-backed joint venture to develop a national mobile service, including live and on-demand video, local and national news and entertainment from both TV and print companies.

The joint venture is upping the financial stakes in the mobile TV space, which has been dominated by MobiTV, and Qualcomm’s FLO TV subsidiary. It consists of: Belo (NYSE: BLC), Cox Media Group, E.W. Scripps (NYSE: SSP), Fox, Gannett (NYSE: GCI) Broadcasting, Hearst Television, ION Television, Media General (NYSE: MEG), Meredith (NYSE: MDP), NBC, Post-Newsweek Stations and Raycom Media. The plan is to pool spectrum together from Fox, NBC & Telemundo and ION to be able to reach about 150 million U.S. consumers. It requires commitments for content, marketing and capital.

The joint venture is escalating its mobile efforts following the passage of the FCC’s National Broadband Initiative, which proposes to reclaim some of the broadcasters’ spectrum for more mobile broadband networks. The broadcasters will have to move fast to prove to the FCC that the spectrum is being used to the nation’s benefit. In a release, the group said the venture “is designed to complement” the initiative by reducing congestion of the nation’s wireless broadband infrastructure. In other words, they are arguing that if they can offload video to broadcast spectrum from today’s mobile networks fewer new networks will have to be built.

The Open Mobile Video Coalition, which names these dozen broadcasters as members, along with over 800 TV stations, has been working for years to establish a national mobile TV standard. The goal is for broadcaster to be able to transmit the same TV signals that they do today to mobile devices, like phones, cars and portable consumer electronics, without much financial investment.

Yesterday, the Open Mobile Video Coalition provided an update on its efforts, saying that 45 stations have started providing mobile broadcasts. Washington D.C. kicks off on May 3 and two stations in Detroit will follow. But it will take awhile for consumers to start having capable devices of receiving the broadcast signal. The first available consumer device is the “Tivizen,” which was funded by broadcasters. The small device, built by Valups, receives mobile TV signals and then re-transmits them to WiFi devices, such as a laptop or mobile phone. It will cost $149 beginning in May and will be available on Amazon.com.

The broadcasters are clearly trying to position this offering as a way for the FCC to achieve its goals of increasing mobile broadband in the U.S. That may be a tough argument to win. The FCC says the U.S. is currently in a spectrum crisis, given the dramatic growth curve of smartphone usage. But John Wallace, President of NBC Local Media, argues: “This initiative offers a path for the next generation of video consumption, and will help the FCC in its goal of ensuring efficient and reliable broadband service for US consumers.”

The group said more information would be released later in regards to a dedicated management team who would focus on “securing additional content, spectrum and distribution partnerships for the venture.”

This doesn’t necessarily pose a new threat to either Qualcomm’s FLO TV or MobiTV since the broadcasters have been working for a number of years on a plan to roll out mobile TV services. In fact. all three providers have their own set of challenges. FLO TV has recently launched its own branded service after relying on Verizon Wireless and AT&T (NYSE: T) for years to resell the service on a handful of phones. And while it has done a good job of securing rights to a lot of content, it still has major gaps, such as rights to the Super Bowl or the local news. In contrast, these broadcasters in the joint venture will benefit from having the rights to local content, but will clearly have to work together to secure national feeds. Both FLO and the joint venture will have to get new devices into the hands of consumers in order for them to receive a TV signal. That’s one of the biggest benefits for MobiTV. Its service is streamed over the mobile network, so as long as the network is not congested, any subscriber can watch content.

Related

• Broadband Plan May Ask Broadcasters To Free Up Spectrum For Wireless
• What The FCC Is Trying To Achieve With Its National Broadband Plan

Recently I had the Sony Ericsson XPERIA X10 in my possession for about three weeks. The phone is truly outstanding as SE’s first Android device, and has some features that really shine in comparison to the competition. The design is also just so stunning, and reminds me of the Monolithic Design concept we’ve seen with Sony’s other products. However, after using the phone daily, it became obvious that there was a big problem – the battery life. The battery was draining way too quickly, even in standby mode. I tried some application management programs, and so forth, but it still seemed less than what I’d hoped for.

After reading the topic “X10 Power Usage” (16 pages and counting) at XDA Developer forums I quickly realized I wasn’t alone. The discussion within is very interesting and many culprits are identified, such as the obvious like Wi-Fi, but other oddities such as the pre-installed Moxier loading by itself. I’d noticed that too on my test version of the XPERIA X10.

There was also the matter of Data Sync within the Settings – it seems that having it update often for things such as Mail (or GMail) is making a big impact; try turning it off from Auto update. Try changing the Update frequency (Settings > Online Service Accounts > {ServiceName} > Update Automatically) of all services to Every Hour. And of course, Android programs like JuiceDefender, JuicePlotter, and Advanced Task Manager help out greatly.

I also read this helpful comment:

Using an application that stops several services on startup. I use startup auditor and disable moxier services, Timescape, face recognition…etc.

Using an application that disables the APN while the screen is off and therefore sincyng in the meanwhile. There are lots of such applications, data on demand works for me and is free.

Cycling the battery a few times from discharge to full charge. This has made truly a difference.

Using 2G most of the time rather than 3G. (I don’t have to do much, at work I’m in a dark spot with 2G coverage only).

All these measures combined, give me more than 20-30 hours of operation while at the beggining I could hadly get 8.

We also hear from twitter user RMMaurice that TaskPanel is a better alternative to Startup Auditor.

There was hope that the latest firmware version, R1FA016, that has slipped out to some around the world and pre-installed for others, would fix this, but it merely improves keyboard accuracy and other issues that were present. I found changing the keyboard style to the Android one was also helpful.

Please leave your tips in the comments.

Hit play for an audio recording of a mystery car’s exhaust note, and then share your guesses or get a few hints from other visitors in the comments below. Be sure to check back on Thursday for the answer!

Related posts:

1. Name That Exhaust Note, Episode 8: Audi S8
2. Name That Exhaust Note, Episode 15: Ferrari F430
3. Name That Exhaust Note, Episode 16: Porsche Cayman S

Google is said to be planning a rival device to Apple’s iPad that will be powered by Android. Assuming this is true, what does Google need to do in order to make its slate to competitive with the iPad?

• Size matters — A “Google Pad” should target the sweet spot of screen sizes, that of 5-8 inches. Any larger and some will complain that the device is too heavy — as is already happening with the iPad — while smaller devices simply don’t offer enough benefit over current smartphones, some of which have displays of 4 inches or larger. Google would have to subsequently adjust how Android and its apps run on larger displays — my own porting of Android to a 7-inch touchscreen computer offered a less-than-ideal experience because the user interface is optimized for small screens.

• Fix the Market — Other companies already offer Android-powered tablets, but those devices are mysteriously hobbled by limitations that include not having access to the Android Market for software. Obviously, Google wouldn’t similarly constrain its own product, but it still needs to make finding and installing software from the marketplace easier than it is now. One small tweak that would yield huge benefits is an “update all” function. Users don’t want to have to update software one app at a time.

• Sync or swim — Unlike its competitors, Google doesn’t offer software to synchronize data between Android devices and computers. One could correctly argue that the sync solution Google offers is the cloud — mail, contacts, calendars and other data is all available through an over-the-air web connection. But not all consumers are ready for a true wireless data sync. Google should either bundle solutions like DoubleTwist for media and application synchronization or perhaps the Missing Sync for personal data.

• Boost productivity — While most people don’t buy tablets to replace the productivity offered by a traditional computer, if it’s making one, Google should leverage its Google Docs platform for it. Currently, Android supports document viewing, but not much in the way of editing aside from limited spreadsheet changes. A native Android application or enhanced Google Docs functionality in the browser for basic document editing would rival Apple’s iWorks software for the iPad.

• Court developers — Apple has already got the attention of third-party developers, so Google will have to offer an equally if not more compelling development environment in order to have blockbuster applications on hand at launch. Netflix is a fine example — Apple successfully convinced the company to build media-streaming software for the ARM-powered iPad, enabling consumers to watch video wherever a web connection could be found.

As someone who switched from an iPhone to a Nexus One earlier this year — yes, I bought an iPad, too — I find the Apple experience more refined than that of Google. But Android still has much to offer, namely the lack of an ecosystem lock-in, easy integration with Google services and a growing number of software titles. If the company addresses the five areas I’ve outlined above, a Google Pad could be a very worthy alternative to Apple’s iPad indeed.

Related content from GigaOM Pro (sub req’d):

Can Anyone Compete With the iPad?

Thumbnail tablet rendering image courtesy of the Chromium Blog

Pip Coburn, who runs an investment advisory firm and is the author of “The Change Function,” likes to say that turnarounds rarely turn around. For proof, look no further than Palm, which has been a perennial turnaround candidate for as long as…well, since it stopped making the Palm V. But let’s face it: When a company has the foresight to develop a product as iconic as the Treo long before anyone else has even started dreaming of an Internet-connected smartphone, yet utterly fails to capitalize on its first-mover advantage, it only has itself to blame.

At the risk of offending my friends who are fans of The New York Mets, I think the team makes an apt metaphor for Palm. Like the Mets, Palm inspires more hope than actual achievements. And just as the Mets bought ace pitcher Johan Santana and slugger Carlos Beltran and dreamed of a championship, Palm brought in former Apple executive (and all-star) Jon Rubenstein. But it didn’t matter.

Nor did the $460 million that Elevation Partners has sunk into Palm. No amount of money is enough for this company. Why? Because you can’t graft corporate DNA — once a loser, always a loser.

Of course, no one saw that back in January 2009. Rubenstein and his team were viewed as saviors, thanks to a nice-looking phone (Palm Pre) and a great operating system (webOS.) But I didn’t buy it. Having watched baseball long enough, I know that anyone can be a champion before the season starts. What matters is who finishes with the pennant.

And Palm, despite the boasting, wasn’t going to win it. In a post entitled Can Pre Save Palm From Being Put Out to Pasture?, I wrote:

While most gadget gurus and lots of readers who follow me on Twitter) seem to be quite taken with the newest shiniest object, thanks to Palm Chairman Jon Rubenstein’s magic, the power of a press release and the drama of a CES keynote, I remain highly skeptical of Palm’s chance to succeed with this new effort. I may be the only one who isn’t buying it. I don’t think Pre has done anything to move the needle forward, though its backers — including the affable Roger McNamee — are waxing eloquent about its potential. In a market where the iPhone sets the pace, Palm is woefully behind the curve.

The Pre, which will be available on the Sprint network, won’t be released until sometime in the first half of 2009. From now till the time Pre launches is going to be a crucial time for Palm. Every single day will push the company deeper and deeper into the hole it’s dug.

Why? By announcing its product too early, Palm has turned up the hype cycle around its new product offering, and that means fewer sales for its existing products. Palm and its carrier partners were already having a tough time pushing Treos out the door, and now those carrier partners are going to be none too happy. With a new Palm device on the horizon, carriers have less of an incentive to push the company’s current devices, and that means a further decline in shipments.

The question now is, will Palm be able to get a lot of developers to come and develop for the platform? Yes, we know they have a loyal community and millions of developers, but the momentum is with Apple and Google. As I pointed out earlier today, the iPod touch is the secret weapon that makes the iPhone platform attractive to the developers.

Nevertheless, we have been following the story of Palm’s demise since the start so in order to save you time, I’ve summed it up in seven points:

1. Palm announces a major new mobile OS and attractive hardware.

2. It partners with a down-on-its-luck carrier for a six-month exclusive.

3. It finds that rivals and other carriers have more money to spend on marketing.

4. It develops ads that only a Zen master can decipher.

5. It fails to generate sales.

6. The lack of sales makes it difficult for the company to attract developers.

7. It starts to spiral downwards.

So where does it go from here? To the highest bidder, apparently. Some think it could be sold for $1-$2 billion, even though there’s really only one serious buyer, HTC. And I’m not sure why HTC should pay that much money for a company that’s fallen this far.

Palm had about $592 million in cash as of late February, and is estimated to have spent $80-$90 million so far in the current quarter. Kaufman Brothers’ analyst Shaw Wu told the Wall Street Journal that while it’s hard to value Palm in light of its ongoing operating losses, he thinks it’s worth at least $600 million. Others, of course, disagree.

From my perspective, the smartphone monsters — Apple with its iPhone and Google with Android — have too much momentum, developer attention and cash to be beaten in this market. Rubenstein and his backers clearly agree and as such, their decision to fold now is a smart one.

Here is a series of posts we’ve written on Palm and its slow road to nowhere:

• March 2010: Who Will Pick up Palm?
• February 2010: What Does Palm Do When Nobody Wants Its Products?
• January 2010: What Should Motorola Do? Buy Palm?
• January 2010: What Palm Needs to Do in Order to Bounce Back (This was my business case analysis of the situation, one year after the launch.)
• December 2009: For Palm, Yet another Gut-wrenching Crisis
• December 2009: Why Early 2010 Will Be Crucial for Palm
• January 2009: Can Pre Save Palm From Being Put Out to Pasture?

Related content from GigaOM Pro (sub req’d):

Marketing Handsets in the Superphone Era

For those of you who, when reading ye olde printed newspaper, have felt the urge to click an in-page link or email an article to a friend – a new service out of Switzerland is trying to bridge the gap.

iPhone app Paperboy recognises pictures users snap of article pages, corresponds them to their online equivalents and then lets readers share or read online.

The Swiss edition of European commuter newspaper 20 Minutes says it is now using Paperboy to let readers send articles to Facebook and Twitter friends and to store articles in a digital locker. German-language titles including Focus and EuroSoccer are also ensuring their publications are recognisable by the system.

Paperboy is a reversioning of the eponymous app made by image-recognition developer Kooaba, which lets users snap, store and send listings for various shopping products and also lets advertisers extend print campaigns online.

Via NewspaperInnovation.

Opera yesterday accomplished something many thought would never happen: Its Opera Mini 5 browser was approved for sale in the iTunes App Store. The popular browser boasts more than 50 million users worldwide thanks to several key features: fast browsing speeds, a tabbed interface and Opera Link, which synchronizes user bookmarks from Opera on a desktop. In other words, owners of iPhone OS devices now have a viable alternative when it comes to surfing the web on their handset, iPod touch or iPad. But how many people will actually use it?

Opera Mini brings a desktop-like browsing experience to feature phones that don’t already offer one. Thanks to the server-side compression — Opera serves up pages it optimizes on the fly — using Opera Mini is fast and uses less wireless bandwidth than native browsers. If you have a feature phone with a marginal browser or you’re watching your data usage, Opera Mini is a boon. But do iPhone users fit into either of those categories?

To find out, I installed Opera Mini for iPhone last night and took the browser for a spin. It’s fast — faster than Safari, in most cases. But unlike on other mobile devices, I didn’t have anything close to a desktop-like experience with it. And overall, I spent more time trying to get at information on the web, not less, as the fast loading and rendering speeds were negated by unreadable text. Essentially, I had to zoom in to read any text at all, and it was so small that most of the time I didn’t even know what I was tapping. Plus, it’s a scroll-fest to navigate. The comparison screen caps below illustrate the visual challenges, but let’s just say I was left convinced that devices running the iPhone OS don’t need Opera Mini.

The iPhone’s native Safari browser is already optimized for a high-quality mobile browsing experience. The same unreadable sites in full screen on Opera Mini are quite readable in Safari (see below). Safari may render more slowly, but you spend far less time guessing at what you want to tap, and in many cases, you don’t need to zoom at all.

Make no mistake: Apple allowing an alternative browser is important and it’s a coup of sorts for the Opera team to get a second browser on the iPhone OS. But Opera Mini’s greatest strength — offering a solid browsing experience on devices that are incapable of delivering the mobile web — is diluted on the iPhone, which already provides a capable web experience. Some will adopt Opera Mini on their iPhone for speed and throughput savings, but I don’t think Opera’s victory will equate to more than a historical footnote when it comes to most everyday iPhone users.

Related content on GigaOM Pro (subscription required):

• Mobile Market Overview, Q1 2010
• What Does the Future Hold for Browsers?
• Why Feature Phones Are the New Black for Mobile App

If all this iPad iPad iPad Apple Apple Apple gyrating has got you hot and bothered for an iPhone, take a deep breath and calm down. Now is probably the worst time to take the plunge, notes The Unofficial Apple Weblog. Historically, mid-summer is when Apple ugprades the hardware, so if you wait a couple of months you might be able to get a faster or more feature-rich iPhone for the same cash you’d be shelling out today.

If you were thinking of saving money by buying the older 3G model, make sure you know what you’re settling for. Not only is it a two-year-old model, it won’t be capable of using the multi-tasking feature that Apple’s next OS upgrade promises.

“Buyer’s Advice: Now is a really bad time to buy an iPhone 3G” [TUAW]

Yesterday we looked at DASH7, a wireless sensor networking standard that may play an important part in next generation mobile services – including location-based services, Internet of Things and social networking.

In this post we analyze some use cases for DASH7, which also point to where the Mobile Web is heading. We’ll look at how location-based services like Foursquare and Gowalla could evolve. Then we’ll explore the potential of long distance mobile advertising and mobile coupons.

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Extending Location-Based App Functionality

Given the growth of location-based apps such as Foursquare and Gowalla in 2010, it’s intriguing to think about what’s next for these services.

According to an as yet unreleased white paper by the DASH7 Alliance, enhanced loyalty programs could be the next big thing. With a DASH7-enabled phone, the white paper states, "a user could set his or her preferences in the Foursquare or Gowalla application that would allow the user to be automatically “discovered” or “checked in” at the coffee shop/restaurant/gun store/etc. and thereby accrue loyalty points passively, i.e. by just being “in” the establishment, rather than requiring active/conscious user behavior to participate in the program."

Even more advanced services could offer customized promotions created “on the fly”, targeting a certain user’s preferences.

Mobile Advertising From Long Distance and On-The-Go

A long-held goal of the Mobile Web – at least for retailers – is using mobile phones for mobile advertising, loyalty programs, couponing, and other ‘personalized shopping’ experiences. Of course there are privacy issues with these things, but nevertheless these scenarios are (finally) coming soon.

NFC-enabled phones have shown glimpses of this functionality, via smart posters, kiosks and billboards. As discussed in a previous post, NFC technology is limited to a 4 centimeter range – so the phone needs to be held close to the media asset in order to initiate the data transfer. Also it requires a tag reader application to be installed on your mobile phone.

According to its white paper, the DASH7 Alliance thinks that "a far larger set of customers would be willing to execute the same applications provided that they were executable a) from a longer distance, b) while moving, and c) in some cases, passively/without any conscious initiation of their own."

DASH7 has a range of hundreds of meters and can be used while on the move. While point 3 might scare some privacy advocates, it’s very likely that customers would need to opt in before they "passively" received such advertising messages.

If this is still too abstract for you, here’s a potential scenario: I’m driving down a street and I pass a smart poster pasted onto a building wall. This elicits a beep from my phone, because my phone has ‘passively’ scanned the poster and discovered something that I want to be notified about (I’ve opted into receiving notifications only about certain things). Because it’s against the law where I live to check my mobile phone while driving, I wait till I’m parked and then I check what the beep was for. Turns out that one of my favorite bands is playing in the city tomorrow night! The smart poster I’d driven past was an advertisement for that band. So I then proceed to book a ticket, using my phone of course.

Mobile Coupons

Mobile coupons are a hot area of activity already, with Google and others offering them. However, currently mobile coupons are limited to short-range and active receiving. Soon we might have long-range couponing, real-time interaction and ‘passively’ receiving coupons.

The DASH7 Alliance white paper offers a scenario of Paramount promoting its upcoming movie Iron Man 2, using a smart poster. In the NFC scenario, someone could walk past the Iron Man 2 poster and download a 2-for-1 coupon to see the movie. However, according to the DASH7 Alliance:

"…a combination DASH7/NFC-enabled smartphone could still support the default NFC scenario, but could also provide for a) longer distance distribution of the coupon b) “passive” acquisition of coupons according to a user’s pre-defined “coupon acquisition criteria” (e.g. “auto-accept coupons for any movies starring Al Pacino” , and c) real-time interaction with the media asset (e.g. “answer the following three questions correctly and win a 2-for-1 coupon to see “Iron Man 2”.)"

Those are just some of the next generation mobile services we can expect to see soon, thanks to wireless technologies like NFC and DASH7. Let us know in the comments if you have other potential use case ideas!

Photo credits: David Berkowitz; kengo

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