What Customers Want

According to findings from Compete, customers care more about price and customer service than flexibility. This could spell a slow buy-in on the appeal of open access devices and applications, especially if they are more expensive (unsubsidized) and less supported by carriers.

 

Apple of his Eye

Q4 was very good to CEO Steve Jobs. In a relative anomaly, the company posted glowing results across the board. Apple profits for the quarter were $1.76 per share, up by more than 50% from the same quarter last year. The company posted revenue of $9.6 billion, with sales outside the United States accounting for 45%.

Mac computer sales were up 44%. iPod sales were up 17%. And Apple sold 2.32 million iPhones in Q4.

Sandbagging? Apple’s CFO Peter Oppenheimer announced conservative expectations for Q1, saying the company anticipates per-share earnings of 94 cents on revenues of $6.8 billion in the first three months of 2008. Or is the company bracing for the effects of a recession?

 

E-Mail Still Tops

Webcredible, an online usability firm, determined that e-mail is the most desired service for mobile phone users. In a survey, the company asked, “Which service would you use on your wireless device if speed and quality weren’t an issue?”

Of the 1,010 respondents, 33% said e-mail would be their No. 1 priority. Social networking followed closely with 25% of the votes, local information access came in at 20% and getting travel and route planning information tallied 13% of the votes. Only 9% said that they would like to be able to shop online.

 

Playing Catch-Up

Webcredible, an online usability firm, determined that e-mail is the most desired service for mobile phone users. In a survey, the company asked, “Which service would you use on your wireless device if speed and quality weren’t an issue?” Of the 1,010 respondents, 33% said e-mail would be their No. 1 priority. Social networking followed closely with 25% of the votes, local information access came in at 20% and getting travel and route planning information tallied 13% of the votes. Only 9% said that they would like to be able to shop online.

 

Go Figure

4M

Number of iPhones sold in the United States since its launch, according to Apple’s Q4 earnings report.

8M

Number of subscribers Indian operators have added each month since July of last year.

30M

Number of phones based on Symbian OS that have shipped in Japan up until November 2007. To date, 69 mobile phone models based on Symbian OS have launched in Japan: Fujitsu, Mitsubishi, Nokia, Motorola, Sharp and Sony Ericsson.

$30B

Total capital estimated to be invested in WiMAX networks and technology over the next year, according to WiMAX Day. This is equivalent to the capex of the global GSM industry 10 years ago, when it was roughly the same age as WiMAX. Nearly half of this amount will be consumed in the deployment of new networks. According to documents recently filed by 20 publicly listed telecom companies, $9.2 billion has been allocated to build WiMAX networks around the world. These estimates do not include Sprint’s investment.