Wireless

RIM Should Return to its Startup Roots

By Mark Evans in Wireless 6 Comments Tags: , , ,

What to do about Research in Motion, Canada’s flagship technology company that just can’t seem to find its equilibrium in a market that has become volatile, competitive and unstable despite its growth.

Here’s a radical idea inspired by an exchange on Twitter with the National Post’s Matt Hartley: RIM should embrace its startup roots and the entrepreneurialism that made it a wireless tour de force by creating a new unit focused on teenagers or perhaps people under the age of 25. It may sound like an odd concept but here’s what I’m thinking:

Despite the BlackBerry’s diminished stature, young people are huge fans based on “in-depth research”, which has consisted of looking at their wireless devices.

Anecdotally, the BlackBerry rules the roost. Maybe it’s BBM, which lets them connect with friends and family for free. Perhaps it’s the keyboard, which makes it easy to use BBM and social media services such as Facebook. Whatever the reason, the young’uns are a pocket of strength for the BlackBerry.

A New Business Focused on Young People

To capitalize on it, RIM should carve out a new startup-like unit focused on young people. The new business would be all about creating devices, applications, marketing campaigns, events and social media activity for the under-25 demographic.

Free from the shackles of RIM’s enterprise roots (aka Your father/mother’s BlackBerry), the new business would have the freedom to be hip, cool and connected with an audience that aren’t geeks but looking for devices that meet their lifestyle needs.

This business would use BlackBerry hardware but customize it for younger people. The device, for example, would emphasize chat, video, music and social media, while e-mail and the phone would be standard features but certainly not the main selling points.

The marketing, created by an agency with expertise in younger consumers, would appeal directly to a demographic that knows what they want but are looking for someone who understands their needs and how they live. The lead spokesperson would be someone such as Justin Bieber. a BlackBerry user, who grew up close to RIM’s Waterloo headquarters.

It would be a radical move for RIM to create a new business but it might take some strategic and tactical creativity to jump-start the company’s prospects.

As it now stands, RIM has a split personality. It has a strong foothold in its traditional enterprise market but, at the same time, trying to figure out how to play in the pro-sumer market. This has made it a challenge from a marketing perspective given they’re two different audiences.

The creation of a new business focused on young people would be a way to resolve this problem and, in the process, maybe bring back RIM’s mojo.

How Many Apps Do You Really Need?

By Mark Evans in Apple/iPod, Wireless 3 Comments Tags: , ,

On the 37Signals blog yesterday, Niall Larkin’s post on how many mobile apps people really struck a chord.

Larkin argues he only needs 10 apps, mostly because the iPhone comes with many of the apps (e.g. Safari, photos, weather, Mail) he uses all the time. It’s a great point that talks to one of the dirty little secrets of the mobile world: most people only use a few apps but they really like the idea of having thousands of options.

It’s one of the reasons for the iPhone’s massive appeal, while the BlackBerry gets roundly criticized for the shortcomings of BlackBerry App World. Truth be told, BlackBerry App World likely has most of the apps people really need but it gets pounded for not offering thousands of more options.

It’s probably not unlike going to Denny’s, which features a menu with dozens of choices. I suspect the majority of people eat a small number of items, which lets Denny’s offer multiple options with the knowledge that many of them will not be selected.

In the technology world, however, perception is often reality. Consumers like the idea of choice, options and features even though they many not use many of them. It’s the same reason why consumers upgrade devices, hardware and software when what they have is perfectly good.

When it comes to my personal use of apps on my iPhone, most of my time is sucked up by TweetBot, Safari and the camera. Once in awhile, I’ll use Yelp, Dialvetica, Tweeb, AroundMe, Tumblr and Angry Birds. In total, that’s nine apps so I’m clearly in the same camp as Larkin. That said, there are 81 apps on my iPhone, which means most of them collect a lot of digital dust.

So how many apps do you really use or need? And if you had to pay for apps, how many would you have on your device?

Less Wireless Competition in Canada?

By Mark Evans in Wireless 1 Comment Tags: , , ,

Now that a federal court has ruled that Wind Mobile’s ownership structure doesn’t comply with Canada’s foreign ownership rules, one of the options being openly discussed by analysts and Wind is the possible consolidation of the wireless market. This could see Wind acquire one of the new players – Mobilicity and Public Mobile – so Wind can get back onside.

How ironic given the effort made to introduce more wireless competition. If consolidation became a reality, the wireless market could quickly revert to its former self with maybe, at best, a few new players.

It raises the question about how long any kind of competition – wireless or broadband – can really exist in Canada without foreign ownership rules being relaxed. Right now, the biggest problem facing competitors is there are few buyers for their companies and, as important, a limited number of investors. With few financing options, selling out to one of the incumbents is a strong possibility, which means less competition.

Amid the speculation about Wind’s future, it is important to remember that consolidation is nothing new to the Canadian market. Microcell, for example, was the new kid on the block that shook up the landscape with lower prices. Then, it ran into financial problems and filed for bankruptcy protection before it was acquired by Rogers.

The federal government allowed the transaction to go through even though it meant a major competitor was going to be swallowed up by an existing competitor. A couple years later, the government then decided Canada needed more competition.

If you’re at all confused about what’s the horizon, you are probably not alone. The biggest question is whether consolidation is inevitable or a healthy scenario. Is this what the government envisioned when it decided there had to be more wireless competition?

The Samsung Galaxy is Ultra-Cool

By Mark Evans in Wireless 1 Comment Tags: , , ,

The Samsung Galaxy is ultra-cool. It’s a sleek, beautifully designed wireless device.

While you might say “Mark, you’re just another gadget geek excited about new, shiny toy”. And while that my be true, a far more significant consideration is how so many non-geeks see the Galaxy as cool. I’m talking about people like my hockey buddies, who enthusiastically show off their new Galaxy phones without any prompting. It is something I haven’t seen with any other non-iPhone device. No one has pulled out their Blackberry Torch to gush about screen, applications or the high-quality videos.

In a smartphone world dominated by the iPhone, the ability to be seen as “cool” is crucial to have any kind of success. The benchmark is so high that devices that aren’t cool have no chance of being widely adopted. Until now, no device has been able to capture the imagination of wireless users. The Galaxy has a huge opportunity to break the rule.

So, what makes the Galaxy so cool?

For one, it’s the design. Slightly longer than an iPhone but a bit slimmer than my iPhone 3GS, the Galaxy S Vibrant I’m evaluating has a nice, comfortable feel. The screen quality is top-notch, which is particularly important to watch videos and movies. In many respects, the Galaxy has the same features and functionality has the iPhone.

While iPhone users may suggest the key competitive difference is the number of applications within iTunes. Truth be told most of the major services are available for Android-powered smartphones such as the Galaxy. In a few minutes, I downloaded two of my go-to mobile apps, Twitter and Facebook. As a GMail user, I like the fact a GMail app came as a standard feature.

Perhaps the biggest appeal of the Galaxy is it seems like a viable alternative to the iPhone for people looking for a cool smartphone. These are consumers who may not want to become part of the Apple Nation, and have no interest in using a Windows-powered smartphone. Before the Galaxy, there wasn’t a compelling option to the iPhone.

Maybe the Galaxy is a cool, shiny toy but from the number of people now using them, it is definitely attracting a lot more attention than any other smartphone.

Do Consumers Want Canada’s New Wireless Players?

By Mark Evans in Wireless 4 Comments Tags: , , ,

In theory, more competition in Canada’s wireless market is a good thing because it will encourage the industry to become more innovative and, hopefully, it will drive down prices, which rank as the highest in the world.

The question, however, is whether consumers are interested in Canada’s new wireless players, which have emerged to compete against the three large incumbents – Rogers, Telus and Bell. So far, it doesn’t look like consumers really care much about the new competitors, which includes Wind, Public Mobile and Videotron.

Earlier this week, Wind CEO Tony Lacavera said the company has attracted about 140,000 customers. On the surface, it looks pretty good but it does appear the company has enough traction to reach its goal of 1.5 million customers by the end of its third year of business. In Quebec, Videoton only attracted 8,400 wireless customers in the third-quarter, failing to meet the 25,000 to 30,000 expected by analysts.

While the new wireless players will talk about the progress they are making, the harsh reality is Canada’s wireless landscape is a challenging place to establish a foothold when you consider how long the incumbents have been able to establish themselves. While the new players are valiantly trying to capture the attention of consumers, the incumbents are aggressively counter-attacking every move the new players make. A blatant example is Rogers’ launch of the low-cost Chattr brand earlier this year.

Maybe the the new wireless competitors need more time to win over consumers and position themselves as alternatives. Perhaps it is a matter of consumers being able to free themselves of long-term contracts before being able to consider alternatives. It could be that the new players need to offer cool smartphones given this is where the market is rapidly heading.

But any you want to cut it, Canada’s wireless market is, on the surface, more competitive but the bigger question is whether Canadian consumers are willing to enthusiastically embrace the new competitors.

How Are Canada’s New Wireless Players Doing?

By Mark Evans in Wireless No Comments Tags: , , , , ,

Looking at Rogers Communications’ third-quarter results, the “new competitive reality” (aka new low-cost wireless rivals such as Wind, Public Mobile and Mobilicity) is starting to have an impact on Rogers’ profits.

Faced with the reality that consumers now have more choices, Rogers has been forced to lower its prices, cough up better deals to existing customers who threaten to leave, and launch a low-cost wireless service of its own, Chattr. This may be bad news for Rogers but it’s good news for consumers who are paying some of the highest wireless prices in the world.

Amid the doom and gloom about Rogers, there’s one key metric missing: Other than the fact Rogers is being forced to play nice, how many consumers are actually signing up with Wind, Public Mobile and Mobilicity? Is the competition winning lots of business or simply forcing the incumbents to offer sweeter deals?

There has been little subscriber information from the new players other than a press release by Wind in August that it had “welcomed over 100,000 customers in our first two quarters”. You need to figure out what “welcomed” means before getting too excited. Does this mean subscribers? Does it mean people who asked for information about what Wind is offering?

As much as it may be easy to dismiss Wind, et al, one lesson I learned an important lesson a few years ago that a a lot of business can happen without a lot of horn-blowing. I went to a Virgin Mobile event a few years ago, and told their PR person that I was going to guess how many customers they had. I wrote “25,000″ on my hand, and then showed it to her. Much to my surprise, Virgin had 250,000. When Virgin sold its stake to Bell, there were more than one million subscribers.

For all we know, the new players could have lots of customers or very few customers. As privately-owned companies, they don’t have to disclose any information unless it’s to their advantage. At some point, they may have to tip their cards to demonstrate to analysts and consumers they have enough traction to become viable and long-term players. But I think until they get a healthy amount of subscribers, don’t expect to hear any updates.

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