Tag: Windows Phone

What seems obvious

To me at least, is the fact that there are going to be plenty of iPhone users out there who are going to get a very nasty surprise when they get their first bill. This article says how the Australian consumer watchdog is getting involved to keep an eye on the data offerings from our telcos.

 

The article says:

 

Optus, Telstra and Vodafone’s iPhone pricing plans have attracted particularly harsh criticism for being too expensive and not offering a high enough web data quota for comfortable internet browsing.

 

and

 

Some Telstra plans offer 3GB of data but the cheapest is $149 a month and the most expensive is $219 a month. The other carriers’ plans max out at 1GB for Vodafone and 2GB for Optus, which isn’t enough for intensive web browsing.

 

Data charges are the cash cows for telcos today. They stand to make huge profits as more and more people become connected wirelessly and use their mobile device as freely as they use their land based Internet connections. The people who don’t take great care in how much they use the Internet wirelessly are going to pay a very steep price for such convenience.

 

Just remember, the telcos are NOT doing you any favours signing you up to a plan. They will put you on the one that makes the most money for them. Shop around, understand how much you download and how to control what your mobile device downloads. Failing that, turn the device OFF when you don’t need to use it, because a device that is off can’t download anything!

iPhone to SBS 2003 success!

As expected, had a referral call today begging to get their iPhone connected up to SBS 2003 to receive emails.

 

After some fiddling, some updating and little bit of configuration we have it all working! Yeah.

 

Even though it is working we are doing some further testing to come up with a procedure for all our customers just so we know exactly what needs to be configured. More on those details once we have completed our testing. There appears to be a couple of gotcha’s but we need to verify our facts first.

 

However, for the time being we have one happy iPhone user. So if you are a reseller I suggest you start gearing up, because sooner or later someone is going to ask you to connect an iPhone to Exchange server (and I saw that the local Optus shop was pretty busy today).

Take a loan out for > 1GB

Been doing some research into the total cost of iPhones here in Australia and found this pretty groovy site to help you compare phones and plans:

http://mobile-phones.smh.com.au/Mobile

Now, if you select an iPhone and then say have an allowance of up to 1GB of data the costs over a 12 month contract are probably $1,500 – $2,000 in total (i.e. $125 – $167 per month) which is probably ok for most technology (and iStuff) obsessed people (suckers).

But if you scroll the data usage up to say 2GB the total plan cost jumps to around $6,000 in total (i.e. $ 500 per month). If you exceed your monthly data limit you are looking at an additional 35c per MB.

I have a feeling that plenty of people are going to rush out and buy an iPhone and then start happily surfing away. That warm and fuzzy feeling will probably last until the first monthly bill arrives. Which my guess is, will be closer to $500 than $125. Bottom line, it ain’t the voice calls the telco’s make money on it is the data.

Interestingly, on the plan that I looked at, it also said:

(You are not able to view your monthly usage prior to receiving your bill.)

So you are only going to know you have exceeded your limit after the fact! KA-CHING telco.

All I can say is – buyer beware of the data charges.

The little device set to change the world

Now kids, July 11 is only 6 more sleeps. Then you’ll be able to join the rest of the “in” crowd and go out and “mortgage” an Apple iPhone. For those of us “uncool” enough not to line up at our local store for an iPhone there is little doubt that we will be endlessly regaled by those having shelled out for the device about how “cool” they are, how “fantastic” they are, how “amazing” they are… and so on and so on, “dude”.

 

In all seriousness, these devices ARE going to change the current comfortable world of IT that most techie’s live in. Firstly, techie’s are going to have to figure out how to get the iPhone sync’ing with Exchange server pretty darn quick because by Monday July 14 the boss is going to expect to be receiving emails on the iPhone they bought on Friday July 11! Techie’s are also going to need to work out how to use all the functions the boss saw in the iPhone video without actually being allowed to use the device because once the boss has one of these sexy things in their hands they are never going to want to let it go (or so Apple says).

 

Now, the iPhone is far from perfect and has a number of disappointments that are coming to light. I have also heard that the iPhone doesn’t have speed dialling! C’mon, that can’t be true can it? Even a 10 year old Nokia has speed dialling. One of the biggest issues has been the support for data traffic from our local telco’s here in Australia. Optus is the latest to release its pricing but there is plenty of good local Aussie information at the SMH site, which in itself highlights why this product will revolutionize the market (imagine a whole section dedicated simply to one product in a major metropolitan online newspaper!).

 

It doesn’t matter if the iPhone is expensive to buy, it doesn’t matter if it is going to be expensive to run, it doesn’t matter if it has security issues, as I have heard so many people say of late – “I want it”. When was the last time you heard people say that about Microsoft technology? Certainly not about Vista eh? But that’s another story. What it does highlight is the fact that technology is fast becoming a commodity and fast being driven by the consumer not business market. Consumer’s are embracing technology faster than business. Business simply want things to stay the same for as long as possible, they don’t like change. Yet they WILL BE dragged kicking and screaming forwards as consumers infiltrate their products into businesses they are involved with. As I said previously, case in point, techie’s get ready to have those iPhone’s sync’ing with corporate emails by Monday July 14.

 

Sure, it doesn’t make sense but then what does in a consumer’s mind these days? If you want to survive in the technology field you have to adapt to what is driving your customers. Like it or not, after Friday 11 July the world in Australia is going to be a different place and you can either embrace it as an opportunity or be road kill as your customers stampede around you to have “what they want”.

Is this the end of the Blackberry?

Like the Ipod, one of the great technology revolutions recently has been the introduction of the iPhone. Both of these devices are probably not a massive technological revolution in real terms but they have revolutionized the look, feel, design and way a technology device has been marketed to the masses. Apple is to be congratulated whole heartedly for this, they are masters of the game.

 

One of the major appeals of the iPhone is not doubt its interface. The ability to drag pages, the appearance and more make it a stand out of design that few other suppliers seem to be able to duplicate (even though it wouldn’t seem that hard). We are yet to see the iPhone here in Australia yet I know that one of the biggest drawbacks it has had is its inability to be used in a corporate environment. The major requirement here is the ability for the phone to sync up with corporate email servers, probably the most popular one being Microsoft Exchange Server. In many cases this has meant that executives had to choose whether to forgo the iPhone for the standard Blackberry (or Windows Mobile device) or carry around two devices.

 

Well no more. It would seem from this press release that Apple is going to allow the iPhone to work with Microsoft’s ActiveSync technology, which will lay the ground work for the iPhone to sync with Exchange Server. The removal of this barrier will probably see the wide scale adoption of the iPhone in business markets. This spells trouble for Blackberry devices (and Windows Mobile devices as well mind you). The Blackberry maybe functional and maybe already widespread but it lacks one important feature when compared to the iPhone. Coolness.

 

As the iPod generation begins to make a greater impact on the business world, rising through the ranks, there seems little doubt they will demand the iPhone as the communications device of choice. The acceptance by both Microsoft and Apple that this is in both of their best interests, I believe, is going to make a significant change on the technology landscape in the years ahead. The biggest loser in this change, at the moment, would certainly appear to be Blackberry, however if I was selling Windows Mobile devices I wouldn’t become complacent. Windows Mobile devices probably have one more development cycle left to challenge the iPhone before they too come under significant threat.

 

When it comes to market share, cool beats functional any day of the week.