Smartphone Thoughts - Daily News, Views, Rants and Raves

"Not sure how it is about you but for me, Outlook lacks one important field: private mobile phone numbers. Outlook has many fields for contact details, like Assistant phone number (very useful), Business Fax, Home Fax, Other Fax (three fax number fields? ), Pager (who is using a Pager today), Primary and Radio (what ever it is) and even Telex (though the last Telex was disconnected in the late 80s in the last century) but Outlook 2007 has just one filed for mobile numbers! I'm not going to say that all the previously mentioned fields don't make any sense anymore today but please - why just one Mobile field after Microsoft just recently introduced its new Outlook 2007, Exchange 2007 and Windows Mobile 6? Wouldn't it be the perfect timing to introduce new fields?"



Is Microsoft just copying and pasting their Outlook mobile WM5 template into their Outlook mobile WM6 template and adding a few extra functions to make it look fresh? Sometimes I wonder if Microsoft is real-world thinking about what is really needed for 2007. Here we have an article that feels that the fields in Outlook mobile are outdated and should contain fields that are more revelent for today. What do you think? Does Outlook mobile need an overhaul such as number of fields to fit today's real world contact management functions? What else would you add or subtract?

"Canadian cellphone users can now change their wireless services without losing their existing phone numbers, as wireless number portability comes into effect in metropolitan areas across the country. The Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association announced the introduction of the wireless number portability (WNP) program after an 18-month implementation process. The service allows Canadian customers to change wireless service providers within the same local calling area and keep their existing phone number. Customers can also transfer a phone number for a wireline phone to a wireless phone and vice versa."

Well, it's about time! So all you Canucks that have been hanging on to your overpriced or poor service carrier can now pack up and move to another overpriced and poor service carrier of your choice - without loosing your number. It's a step in the right direction. ;)

"Even though Nokia maintained its overall lead with 56.4% of the worldwide market for smartphones, ABI Research is predicting that the Symbian-based share of smartphones will decline in coming years. Nokia sold 40 million Series 60- and Series 80-based smartphones in 2006, up from 28.5 million in 2005. That's a 44.5% increase in sales. New devices like the value-priced E61/62 helped lift Nokia far and away from its closest competitor, Motorola, which claimed only 8.5% of the smartphone market on sales of 6.03 million units (mostly Q's and the Chinese market MING)."

The article goes on to mention that they expect Nokia's market share to drop to 46% by 2012 due to increased presure from other operating systems. I wish they had included numbers showing how this relates to last year. Did Nokia/Symbian's share of the market decline? It would be cool to see how the market shares have changed over the last 3-4 years.

"Operators and handset makers are moving toward standardizing on just a few mobile phone operating systems. They're likely to choose relatively open platforms with large developer groups, according to experts at the 3GSM World Congress in Barcelona on Wednesday. ...operators want to try to standardize on just a few phone operating systems which would make it easier to offer consistent services across a wide range of devices. Vodafone (Profile, Products, Articles) Group currently supports handsets based on more than 15 different platforms, said Dirk Wierzbitzki, group director of terminals portfolio and services at Vodafone. Tweaking each application to work on each platform is expensive, and because the operator must work to the lowest common denominator, it's not offering the innovative services that it wants"

Windows Mobile isn't mentioned as an option in this article, but other than that, I can't say I disagree with it. Operators just can't afford to support numerous different operating systems on their devices. Just like most corporate IT departments standardize on one desktop OS, the carriers are looking to reduce the number to something more reasonable. I think it's safe to say that most carriers would like 2-3 different operating systems, and it would be safe to say that Symbian and Windows Mobile are high on the list. At least, that's my ranking. :)

"There's one question nipping the minds of Canada's big cellphone carriers as they ready a system to allow customers to keep their phone numbers when they switch wireless providers: Will it encourage you to switch? Telecommunications Consultants Yankee Group said yesterday they believe it won't. And they argued the proposed deadline for wireless carriers to implement so-called wireless number portability, Sept. 12, 2007, is realistic and rational."

Realistic? The deadline is almost 2 years away! I think the big guys are worried that their customers are going to jump ship, and rightly so. I think we'll see much the same effect as the US carriers experienced. 1 of the major carriers will see a large number of people leave. While the other guys will only have a small number of people switching. Ah well, at least we know that number portability is coming, even if it's 2 years out. :?

"Canadian mobile phone companies have agreed to let customers who change service providers to keep their phone numbers, an industry group said Thursday. But the Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association said a start date has not yet been set for number portability, a feature long demanded by consumer advocates. As it now stands, customers who change mobile phone companies are forced to change numbers, discouraging many from shopping around. But under the proposed changes, customers will be allowed to keep the same phone number when changing service providers within the same local service area. Consumers also will be able to keep the same phone number when transferring their landline phone service to wireless service and vice versa."

:clap:

"The number of Americans using mobile phones has surpassed the number of home Internet users, according to a survey by New York-based global media company Enpocket. Although voice communication is the main reason for using mobile phones, the survey showed that data and multimedia services are becoming a key usage driver. For example, almost 40% of mobile owners are now regularly sending and receiving text messages. And camera phone use has also jumped, as 22% said they took a photo with their camera and 12% said they sent or received MMS in the first three months of 2005."

This really doesn't surprise me. Home Internet access is shared by multiple people in a household, but each individual has their own mobile phone. It's good to hear that mobile revolution is growing. Windows Mobile Smartphones are positioned nicely to grow along with the market. :D

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"Nearly 8 million mobile phone users have switched carriers and kept their cell numbers since a new rule allowing that flexibility went into effect one year ago, the Federal Communications Commission disclosed Tuesday. Almost 750,000 more people have moved either a home or office phone number to a cell phone, the FCC said on the eve of the first anniversary of the agency's "number portability' order."

The FCC has released information regrading the total number of complaints filed since number portability started back on November 24, 2003. The winner, you ask? AT&T. Here's the breakdown:

• AT&T Wireless (2787)
  
• Sprint PCS (1445)
  
• Verizon Wireless (933)
  
• T-Mobile (854)
  
• Cingular Wireless (849)
  
• Nextel (420)

Did anyone here move from AT&T to Cingular only to find out a couple months later that Cingular purchased AT&T? :lol:

Normally, one doesn't think about polling data and cellular phones. However, as a recent Arizona Republic article points out, the recent phone number portability rules in the U.S. may be impacting the quality of the data being collected by marketing and political pollsters. The Federal Communications Commission has regulations forbidding pollsters to call anyone who would have to pay for the call. That means no polling calls to cellular phones. Pollster's phone lists have always excluded cell phone numbers, but the phone number portability rules have made it difficult to keep them off:

"... when an FCC order went into effect last month giving consumers the right to keep their phone numbers when changing to a new phone company, the intermixing of land-line and wireless numbers confounded the polling industry.

Now, even if pollsters dial what used to be a land line, if it turns out to be wireless they can be sued. "

This is interesting because of the potential impact on polling data. For any poll to be valid, it needs to cover a broad sample population. Could the "wireless demographic" be excluded from public opinion polls? Probably not this year, but the trend to "go wireless" is continuing. Pollsters may soon need to address how to capture opinions from an unwired populous.

Gizmodo points to an RCR Wireless News article discussing the winners and losers after a week of phone number portability (PNP) in the United States. It seems that Verizon and Nextel both had more subscribers bring their numbers to their respective services than took their numbers and ran. AT&T Wireless and Cingular were declared first-week losers after more subscribers left their services than joined. AT&T Wireless' woes are being blamed, in part, to recent problems with their GSM account activation process.

The article points out that the number transfers are frequently taking longer than the promised two-and-a-half hours, with some taking as long as four days.

Have you switched your mobile phone number to another carrier? How did it go?

"The Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association on Wednesday morning threw in the towel and gave up fighting wireless local number portability. CTIA will stop lobbying on Capitol Hill and will oppose any judicial effort to delay WLNP but will stay prepared to fight against any action by wireline carriers to delay wireline-to-wireless portability which the Federal Communications Commission confirmed on Monday must also go forward on Nov. 24."

This is great news for those of us anxiously awaiting the chance to switch mobile operators once the new regulations go into effect later this month. Read the full article over at RCR Wireless News for more details on this development.

"This Thanksgiving, America's 147 million cell-phone users will indeed have something to be thankful for: On Nov. 24, we'll all finally be allowed to switch carriers without having to change our phone number. It's the chance consumers have been anticipating. Now, without any inconvenience, we finally will be able turn the table on wireless carriers that have been torturing us for years with dropped calls, inconsistent customer service, and complicated price plans that require an advanced degree in comparative analysis to comprehend.

By Christmas, analysts predict, most cellular outfits will find big lumps of coal in their stockings. Industry churn -- the percentage of customers who change service providers -- already tops 27% annually, according to industry group the Cellular Telecommunication & Information Assn. (CTIA). When so-called number portability kicks in, that percentage can be expected to skyrocket. A recent survey by Management Network Group, a communications research firm, revealed that 6% of cell-phone users -- some 8.7 million people -- would switch carriers within a day if they could take their phone numbers with them. Some 27%, or 39 million customers, said they would switch providers as soon as they received a better offer. Better than 50% of those who experienced service issues in the past year said they would at some point switch carriers.

Much has been said about number portability's impact on carriers. Industry watchers have speculated about the possible winners (Verizon (VZ ) and AT&T Wireless (AWE )) -- the anticipated losers (Cingular and Sprint (PCS )), and portability's total cost to the industry -- likely about $2 billion. But little has been said about just how the carriers plan to manage the impending chaos. Most of the industry, with the exception of Verizon Wireless, is still fighting the FCC mandate. And hypercompetitive carriers are paranoid about tipping their hands to their rivals. "There's going to be a bloodbath, and yet no one is talking about how to avoid it," says Jeffrey Kagan, an independent telecom analyst in Atlanta.

So, here are a few unsolicited suggestions about how cell-phone carriers might best respond to the new rules. Based on interviews with disgruntled customers, marketing experts, and telecom executives who survived the transition from regulated to competitive long-distance telephone service, wireless outfits should follow three simple guidelines to make sure they win more customers than they lose."

Read the whole artilce and list of survival tips for carriers over at BusinessWeek.

So what do you think? Do you expect to change carriers when number portability kicks in? What could your current carrier do to convince you to stay and what could other carrier do to convince you to leave?