CellCon Consulting » tech

AT&T Chief Regrets Offering Unlimited Data for iPhone

Adam — Thu, 17 May 2012 18:35:53 +0000

From the NY Times:

When Randall Stephenson, AT&T’s chief executive, spoke about the state of the wireless industry at a conference this week, he shared some surprisingly frank comments about the iPhone.

If AT&T hadn’t offered unlimited data, it would have been able to get people who used more data to pay up for it, as opposed to having the light data users subsidize the heavy ones, he said.

“My only regret was how we introduced pricing in the beginning, because how did we introduce pricing? Thirty dollars and you get all you can eat,” he said…“And it’s a variable cost model. Every additional megabyte you use in this network, I have to invest capital.”

Read the entire article here:

Gowalla Gone

Adam — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 12:33:55 +0000

As you may remember, Foursquare and Gowalla both launched in 2009. Providing a similar (ok, very similar) service, Gowalla has announced they’re out. From Gowalla.com:

“Thank you for going out with Gowalla. It was a pleasure to journey with you around the world. Download your check-ins, photos and lists here soon.”

The Game Stop Fiasco

Adam — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 17:41:13 +0000

So, Game Stop, a Brick & Mortar (and on-line) game retailer has put it’s collective foot in their collective mouth (and more.) Here’s the synopsis and link:

Basically, Game Stop told it’s managers to open a sealed copy of a new game, which included a code for a free on-line version, and remove the code slips.

Those who opted for a physical copy of Deus Ex: Human Revolution were greeted with a pleasant surprise yesterday. Included with the retail game was a code that could be redeemed for a free OnLive copy — unless, of course, the game was purchased at GameStop.

GameSpy reports it heard from multiple GameStop customers complaining about opened games and missing codes. It also heard from an anonymous source claiming to be a GameStop employee showing what appears to be management instructing employees to remove and discard the OnLive codes from all PC copies of the game.

Bad news, right? Who is Game Stop to remove a bonus that the developer decided should be in there? Well, look at the following (dead-on) video from Gary Vaynerchuk. As Gary states, even if GameStop was doing what they thought was right in their corporate minds, they did it the (very) wrong way. Of course, with hindsight being 20/20, GameStop should have (and should have the oomph to) call the developer and tell them they wouldn’t carry the game the way it was packaged. Give Gary a look-see here:

Your thoughts?

Still Want To Know Why – Take 2

Adam — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 16:34:44 +0000

A while ago, I posted a video about WHY Social Media. Well, the video has been updated, and although I like the last one better, here’s the updated version:

Want to know what’s happening? Listen to Twitter

Adam — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 15:42:44 +0000

Check out this story from Baristanet.com. This is just a snippet that I edited; you’ll have to click on to read the rest of the story:

Last Friday night… an alert came over from Breaking News Network, which caught my attention:

*Smoke Condition*| Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR), 10 Toler Pl| smoke condition in the control tower has all air traffic shutdown for the airports…

…we turned on the car radio to see if the local news had anything, but heard nothing…

I didn’t think any more about the incident until yesterday, when I read a blog post by Tom Evslin, chief technology officer for the state of Vermont, who happened to be sitting on a plane waiting to take off…Evslin, being a captive to the situation, tried harder than I did to find out what was going on. Using twitter he… (click here to read the rest: http://www.baristanet.com/2011/03/twitter-and-ewr/

Has Apple has killed the desktop computer?

Adam — Sun, 27 Mar 2011 19:45:40 +0000

Here’s what I mean: when I first started consulting I had two computers – I had a desktop to do the majority of my computing work and I a (less powerful) laptop for my presentations and for when I wanted or needed to work remotely.

When Apple came out with the iPad and now the iPad2 and then a hundred or so plus compatibles, it may have killed the need for the desktop computer. Today’s laptops are just as powerful as the older desktop and have as much power as most people need. If you need extra storage space, hard drives are cheap- you can buy a terabyte hard drive for under $70 and you no longer need to buy an expensive docking station to attach a monitor and a keyboard -you simply plug them into a USB port.

So your laptop is now becomes your desktop and if you want something smaller and lighter and more portable to do to do presentations, you grab an iPad or Xoom or a Blackberry Playbook- that’s going to be the new laptop. You don’t need a desktop unless you’re doing hard-core video editing or something similar. Today’s laptops are just as powerful as 95% of the desktops out there and I think proper desktops, for the most part, will disappear within three years.

PS: I wrote this first on my iPhone using dictation software then did some minor editing on the iPad. No desktop or laptop at all!

Ipad2 Video Unboxing

Adam — Thu, 24 Mar 2011 19:17:54 +0000

Oy – well, I promised it, so here it is. Try not to laugh too much.

ipad2 unboxing

BTP (semi) Episode

Adam — Thu, 24 Mar 2011 12:13:52 +0000

We’ve just released episode 86.5 of our podcast, the BizTech Podcast. It’s not a full episode, just an announcement of what’ going to be coming very soon in episode 87. You can read more about it (and all prior 85.5 episodes) at our sister site: www.biztechpodcast.com

This is simply Brilliant

Adam — Tue, 22 Feb 2011 20:19:45 +0000

Brilliant Guerilla Marketing Idea

What needs to happen next in the wireless world

Adam — Tue, 18 Jan 2011 14:43:59 +0000

Soooooo… I think we can call the iPad a hit. Apple sold 3 million in the first 80 days after launch.

There were about 80 ‘tablets’ that appeared at the recent CES.

That’s a lot of data being tossed through the airwaves.

So, listen up AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, Sprint, Metro PCS and anyone else I’ve forgotten to mention. Here is your next BIG winner. First one to do this will win customers BIG time:

Data Buckets

Huh? Well, let’s say you’re on a Family-type plan now. You pay for (lets say) 1000 minutes and have 3 phones. It’s not that each phone gets 333.33 minutes. It’s a bucket of 1000 minute with 3 straws. You can ‘drink’ as much or as little as you want.

Do it with data. Every carrier has already killed off the unlimited data plan anyway. Give us 2GB (or whatever) of data and let us tell you how many ‘straws’ we want. I don’t care if it’s my iPhone, my tablet, my notebook or whatever. They all ‘drink’ from the same bucket. And don’t charge me for each device. If you want to charge something like $5 more (TOTAL) fine, but don’t nickle & dime me for each device. $30 (or so) for 2GB for as many devices on my account is a killer idea.

Go do it – now – before I buy my iPad 2.0