Bell’s Brilliant Strategy: Charge for GPS!

By Mark Evans in ILEC News, Analysis 1 Comment

Money
Armed with a gazillion dollars in debt (Actually, $30-billion give or take a few dollars) if a private equity buy-out is consummated, Bell Canada’s new corporate mantra is: more cash flow, more cash flow.

In practical terms, what it means is Bell needs to squeeze as many dollars as it possibly can from consumers without squeezing too hard that they flee to their local cablecos (e.g. Rogers, Videotron, Cogeco).

So far, the Mo’ Cash Flo’ (MCF) strategy has seen Bell start to charge wireless users for incoming text-messages if they happen not to subscribe a monthly (aka recurring revenue) text-message bundle.

Now, there’s growing speculation that Bell wants to change the rules for wireless GPS.

According to Wellington Financial Blog, rather than stand on the sidelines while GPS becomes the new mobile “killer app”, Bell is apparently thinking of doing two things:

1. It could lengthen the time it takes for wireless user to access GSP services such as Google Maps and Blackberry Maps to 2 to 10 minutes from 15 to 20 seconds. And it could resolve GPS data to 1 to 2.5 kilometers rather than 10 to 25 meters.

2. For consumers looking for superior GPS service, Bell – surprise, surprise – would be more than happy to sell you its own service called GPS Nav for $10/month. Sweet.

Knowing the state of competition within Canada, Rogers and Telus will likely use Bell’s move as an excuse to also offer advance GPS service.

Putting aside Bell’s financial needs, it’s a shame that it’s trying to piggyback on the growth of GPS. We’re on the cusp of some really amazing innovation and services based on the ability to use location for all kinds of different things. To get in the way of free GPS to make a buck is sad but, frankly, not that surprising.

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PlanetEye Wins Fast 50 Award

By Mark Evans in Uncategorized 3 Comments

With the recent launch of our new design, there has been a lot of working happening behind the scenes to make PlanetEye one of the world’s leading online travel planning destinations.

So, it’s exciting and gratifying to be recognized as one of Canada’s Companies-to-Watch Award as part of the 2008 Deloitte Technology Fast 50 Awards. The award recognizes early-stage technology companies that have been in business for less than five years. and show management expertise and superior technology that set the stage for an early-stage company to enjoy continued growth.

By the way, we also got a great review on Webware earlier this week.

Tracking the the Conversations

By Mark Evans in Web 2.0 2 Comments

Social Mention
When it comes to social media, everyone talks about being part of the conversation. As a result, there’s a lot of talking happening on blogs, micro-blogs (Twitter, et al) and social networks.

One of the challenges is trying to listen to all these conversations. If you’re interested in a particular idea, issue, trend, company or person, how do you effectively tap into the conversation?

The good news is over the last little while, new and interesting social media “listening” tools are starting to emerge. One of the most intriguing is Social Mention, a social media search engine for blogs, micro-blogs, bookmarks, comments, event, images, news and video.

For anyone who wants to track social media, Social Mention is an impressive tool with plenty of potential. Now, if this was a Silicon Valley startup, I suspect it would the toast of the town. But Social Mention is based in Ottawa, which is known more its telecom roots (Nortel, Newbridge, Mitel, etc.) than a social media hub.

I’m not sure if Social Mention wants to stay under the radar but it’s impossible to learn much about it given the “About” section tells you nothing other than what it does. But, hey, we’re Canadian so being meek and humble is part of our cultural DNA.

That said, Social Mention may not stay under the radar for too much longer. Mashable gave it a glowing review earlier this week so the world may be beating a path to its door any time soon.

If, by any chance, the people behind Social Mention use Social Mention to track conversations about themselves, I’d love to ask them a few questions. You know, the typical who, why, what stuff.

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It’s the Keyboard, Stupid

By Mark Evans in Google, Wireless 13 Comments

Keyboard
For all the talk about whether the iPhone is going to hammer the Blackberry, there are plenty of reasons why that won’t happen.

Perhaps the biggest – and the most obvious – is the Blackberry has a fully-functional keyboard so you can easily write e-mails, text messages and blog posts.

Aside from the Blackberry’s durability and robust e-mail system, the keyboard is arguably the Blackberry’s killer app. Sure, people complain their thumbs are too big for the keys but, all in all, you can type quickly with a Blackberry. That’s something you can’t say with the iPhone, which uses a touch-screen keyboard.

According to Walter Mossberg, Google’s new G1 phone has a keyboard, although he says “The keys are a bit flat, and you have to reach your right thumb around a bulging portion of the phone’s body to type”.

So for all you Blackberry naysayers – and I’m talking to you BusinessWeek – now you know what the Blackberry is still riding high.

More: If the G1 ever comes to Canada, I’d love to give it a whirl. Still waiting on the Samsung Instinct. For more on the G1, go here and read to your heart’s content.

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Chrome Quickly Loses its Shine

By Mark Evans in Browsers, Google 19 Comments

Chrome
It’s only been a few weeks since Google unleashed Chrome but the buzz seems to have pretty much evaporated.

There are probably happy Chrome users but given the excitement about its debut, the Web’s newest browser (the one that was going to reignite the browser wars) appears to have fallen flat. You don’t hear people raving about Chrome or blog extolling its virtues.

Is Chrome a dud?

Well, you could argue Chrome is under-whelming. Without many bells and whistles, Chrome is like being asked to drive a Chevy Cavalier as opposed to a fully-loaded BMW. Other than the novelty factor, there are few reasons to embrace Chrome right now.

Of course, it would be unwise to dismiss Chrome as another Froogle (aka Google Product Seach). With Chrome, Google has dipped its toe in the waters. Over the next little while, you can expect Google to beef up Chrome with more features/add-ons and integrated with other services such as GMail and Blogger.

Until then, the majority of Web users will probably stick with IE and Firefox. But Chrome strikes me as a fox lurking in the bushes, waiting for the right time to pounce. For now, it’s not dangerous but wait until it gets a little more hungry.

More: Ars Technica has a story asking whether Google reverse-engineered Windows with Chrome. ComputerWorld has a story that suggests Chrome’s share of the browser market has declined to 0.77% as user migrate back to Firefox and IE. The data comes from Net Applications, which tracks 40,000 sites.

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