Ahead of the Curve | Tom Yager » TAG: Wireless

January 03, 2008 | Comments: (0)

CES and Macworld Expo predictions

TAGS: Apple, Intel Macs, Microsoft, Mobile devices, Software Development, Wireless

Two trendsetting trade shows hit back to back, starting next week. Here's a preview.

Being far softer of belly and of brain for the time off, I'm glad to be returning to working and working out. Just in time, too, because I have just enough time to amp up for that one-two punch of trendsetting trade shows, the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) and Macworld Expo. During my vacation, I have taken advantage of half-hour breaks between naps to stock my quiver with relevance-seeking, pitch-piercing projectiles. I go to trade shows with a mission based on my view of what matters, which oft times yet entirely by chance fails to overlap with what everyone else considers important.

Consider my take on Macworld Expo. I think that the headliner there, although Mac heads will be loath to acknowledge it, will be Microsoft. It's been four years since Office for Mac, the one piece of software that every professional Mac owner must have, has felt its creator's touch. The new features in Office 2008 for Mac are almost incidental. Office 2008 is Universal, meaning that it runs natively on Intel and PowerPC Macs. Microsoft came by that honestly, using Xcode and Objective-C, accumulating expertise along the way that has made the developer staff blogs of Microsoft's Mac Business Unit one of the very few I check out regularly.

That's not to say that I have no questions about Office 2008. For instance, why will Entourage in the standard edition of Office 2008 stand out as the only mail client that doesn't connect to Exchange Server? I'm also curious about Office 2008's integration with the OS X dictionary that's shared by all Mac apps. I can see both sides of this: Microsoft's Office dictionaries and proofing tools are available in many languages and are geared for auto-correction, while Mac users like having one consistent master dictionary and thesaurus that operates system-wide.

Lest you think that I'm writing about Officeworld Expo, Macs built on Intel's Penryn 45-nanometer Core 2 CPUs will roll out at Macworld. I'm selfishly hoping that a Penryn MacBook Pro will be first out of the gate. The Santa Rosa model is more than fast enough. I'd like longer battery life and a break from the heat. Macworld Expo's heavy emphasis on an IT track fills me with new hope for an eight-core Xserve. That could bring a consolidation angle to OS X Server virtualization. I have a wish here, too: I'd like to see the entire OS X presentation layer rendered optional for OS X Server, with a flip of a switch in the Server Admin tool or a command-line operation. This would vastly shrink the resource footprint of a virtualized Mac server.

The iPhone will be a star attraction as well. The 3G iPhone will make its bow, and perhaps we'll see a hint of the iPhone/iPod Touch software development kit (SDK) that Apple plans to deliver in February. My personal wish is a screen alignment process, like the one that Microsoft handhelds use. This addresses the parallax problem that makes iPhone typing so error-prone. If Apple or AT&T decides to put a premium on 3G iPhone or the iPhone service plan, the raspberry you'll hear during the Macworld Expo Webcast will be mine.

Why would a publication of InfoWorld's orientation dispatch someone to CES? Don't let the word "consumer" fool you; CES isn't a city-sized Circuit City. It's chipmakers and manufacturers selling to manufacturers and importers, importers selling to distributors, and America making a rare appearance as a global peer player on its own stage. It's a chance to see technology and strategy in the making, as well as products that are already well entrenched in Asia and Europe but haven't yet caught the slow boat to the States.

I always see breakthroughs on multiple fronts at CES, and it's not a show I try to predict. I do expect to see the theme of consolidation play at CES as it does in IT, but with the spin of simplicity that IT doesn't usually take the time to make a priority. For example, when IT thinks of it, unified communication is a complicated server-side solution. What electronics vendors want is to sell that idea to consumers in a retail box. Why? Because that's what consumers demand. If there is a consistent lesson to take away from CES, it is that simplicity always deserves priority.

Posted by Tom Yager on January 3, 2008 03:00 AM

September 05, 2007 | Comments: (0)

Don't settle for consumer rates

TAGS: Wireless

The wireless market is skewed toward locking impulse-buying consumers into extra charges and long contracts, but business can bypass this

You might be surprised how the mere sight of a new mobile handset motivates fellow business travelers to vent on the subject of their crappy phones and their inattentive, overcharging operators. I'm astonished that Executive Platinum frequent flyers, people who negotiate multimillion-dollar deals, put themselves at the mercy of wireless operators. All it takes for business subscribers to get what they need from wireless operators is to quit acting like a consumers -- and start exercising the advantages business buyers enjoy.

Clueless consumers can be smacked with a $300-$500 bill each month just by making daytime calls, sending text messages as if they were free, and auditioning ring tones by downloading them. In contrast, business subscriber revenue rises only as more devices are added to an account, and it falls off only if the customer gets unhappy. An unhappy business customer isn't dissuaded, as consumers (rather foolishly) are, by penalties for early contract termination. A savvy business subscriber will pay to leave a lousy operator, knowing that a competing operator will welcome a shot at a new contract.

So don't buy wireless devices and service like a consumer. The right approach to buying wireless is to adopt the attitude of the privileged business subscriber you are, and that will save you hundreds or thousands of dollars per year. If you bring enough money (a multiple-line purchase) to the table, you'll get something that consumers don't even know exists: a dedicated account rep who takes your calls on the first ring and who is empowered to do what it takes to keep you as a customer.

Here's how to get what you deserve. First, don't use the Web to buy wireless and don't deal with the high-turnover staff at phone stores. Find the largest operator-owned store near you and call ahead to set up a meeting with a business rep. Go into that meeting knowing that you can negotiate the cost of phones and rate plans independently, and that à la carte plans are always available. Give at least two carriers the chance to compete for your business, and make sure they know that they have to fight to get you and to keep you.

The business marketing rep needs to understand that if he wants you to buy phones from him (and he does — phones are high-margin sales), they have to be unlocked to operate on multiple operators' networks. Buy the phone outright instead of amortizing its cost as part of a term rate plan. Claiming that you'll use the phone overseas is helpful in getting it unlocked.

When you buy a data plan, buy an unlimited plan for which you'll never pay metered data charges, or what some operators call "overages." AT&T, for example, puts a rider on the majority of its so-called unlimited data plans that forbids tethering, which is using the phone as a notebook's gateway to the Internet. The tethering clause gives the operator the right to charge in-plan data usage as overages that are charged at the metered rate, which for AT&T is $10 per megabyte. Horror stories of unexpected data usage bills for thousands of dollars abound. Your unlimited data plan is only unlimited if it includes unmetered tethering, even if tethering isn't in your future.

Lastly, even the sweetest deal is best left on the table if the rep from whom you buy the service doesn't hand you his or her business card and invite you to call directly with issues. If you're given the main 800 number for customer service, you've gotten the bum's rush. It may be that you've been spotted as a consumer looking to be handled as a business. In that case, it's smarter to check with your employer to see if they offer discounted wireless service to employees. In any case, even a consumer who buys wireless phones and service from the Web, the mall, or the retail showroom is just begging to be treated like a sucker. If nothing else, call the operator's sales line, and you'll discover phone deals and plan options that don't show up on the Web site.

Posted by Tom Yager on September 5, 2007 03:00 AM