People want access to all of their important content wherever they are on any device. The addition of Dashwire’s cutting-edge sync services and deep mobile cloud experience strengthens our ability to deliver these services in a more powerful way.

That’s HTC president Fred Liu last week announcing his company’s acquisition of Dashwire, a Seattle-based mobile cloud platform developer. The acquisition underscores the growing importance of the cloud in mobile, but as Boy Genius Report noted, it also highlights how valuable patents have become in the space. For example, Core Mobile Networks, which recently scored an investment from Citrix Systems, could be targeted for patent-pending technology that delivers cloud-based content with contextual relevance to mobile devices. Another potential acquisition is Blaast, a Finnish startup that seeks to leverage the cloud to bring smartphone-quality data services to feature phones, although that company has to reveal details of its technology.

Patents will drive substantial M&A activity — and plenty of lawsuits — as we increasingly lean on the cloud to access mobile data. For more thoughts on how patents are shaping the growth of the mobile cloud industry, please see my weekly update at GigaOM Pro.

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• How patents are shaping the growth of the mobile cloud

Considering the increasing importance of Bada to Samsung, it should be clear that Android is not the only source of growth for the company and its transition of feature phones to Bada as well as Android is a key strategic driver for differentiation vis-a-vis low end entrants.

That’s asymco’s Horace Dediu this week discussing Canalys’s recent estimate that shipments of Samsung handsets running the Bada platform grew 355 percent in the second quarter over the same period last year. That growth may not be jaw-dropping in context: Bada debuted in June 2010 and has yet to reach the U.S., so we’re not talking about a huge figure to begin with. But it’s clear that Samsung is successfully targeting a market that exists between no-frills mobile services and high-end data offerings. The manufacturer could duplicate that success in the U.S., and prepaid would be an ideal way to bring the platform to market here. For more thoughts on how that could happen, please see my weekly column at GigaOM Pro (subscription required).

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• Why prepaid could help Bada win in the U.S.
• Infrastructure Q2: Big data and PaaS gain more momentum
• Is there a market for prepaid tablets?

Everyone thinks that mobile phones and mobile commerce are the next big things, and I think what this data shows is it’s probably actually tablets. We have always capped e-commerce at 10 to 15 percent of total retail sales, but this potentially has the capability of really expanding e-commerce much beyond that.

That’s from Sucharita Mulpuru, an e-commerce analyst with Forrester, commenting in the New York Times on a recent Forrester study that found that tablets already account for 20 percent of e-commerce sales, despite the fact that only 9 percent of shoppers own tablets. Those figures come on the heels of last week’s survey from Perfomics, indicating that tablets are increasingly driving paid mobile search impressions. The study found that tablets account for 14 percent of paid mobile search impressions, and they generate 1.7 percent of all paid search impressions. And businesses looking to take advantage of that emerging trend must innovate in a few key areas.

For example, in the app space, retailers should consider producing their own branded app as well as leveraging third-party apps and online social networks. In search, advertisers should take advantage of offerings like Google’s new tablet-targeting options, which enable them to include “tablets with full browsers” on the list of devices they want to receive their ads. In my latest weekly update at GigaOM Pro, I brainstorm more about the areas in which businesses and advertisers need to take advantage of the rise in tablets in order to conquer the mobile commerce arena.

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• How businesses can reach the growing tablet market
• The Deafening Buzz About Hyperlocal Mobile Ads
• Millennials in the enterprise, part 1: strategies for supporting the new digital workforce

Voice revenues are shrinking for mobile carriers, networks are approaching capacity and the rising cost of handset subsidies is eating into profits. And while U.S. consumption of mobile data is up 89 percent, according to recent figures from Nielsen, the price of data has dropped 46 percent per megabyte over the past year.

There has never been a more challenging time for mobile carriers, but opportunities still abound for those willing to embrace new business models and innovative services. Carriers could differentiate their messaging services, for instance, by overhauling traditional voicemail and developing more-sophisticated offerings that integrate voice messaging with other forms of communication. For more thoughts on how carriers can better monetize mobile data and avoid becoming simple access providers, please see my weekly update at GigaOM Pro (subscription required).

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• Will Metered Mobile Data Slow the App Market’s Growth?
• For the future of femtocells, opportunity still exists

“The 3G thing on tablets is bogus. Nobody wants to pay for that data.”

That’s from IDG analyst Bob O’Donnell recently in Computerworld, opining that the high price of data plans are why 3G tablets are gathering dust in inventory. O’Donnell suggested those lagging sales will force carriers to offer a single data plan that covers a family of devices. That solution makes a lot of sense, but I think there could also be a sizable market for affordable prepaid tablets. For more on this, see my weekly update at GigaOM Pro (subscription required).

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• Is there a market for prepaid tablets?

“We believe there is a large opportunity to extend our brand and games to mobile platforms such as Apple iOS and Google Android. We will continue to make our games accessible on a large number of mobile and other Internet-connected devices and invest in developing and acquiring development talent, technologies and content.”

From the S-1 Zynga filed last week as it prepares for its IPO. But while Zynga helped pioneer online social gaming, mobile gaming is an established space teeming with powerful players like Electronic Arts, Gameloft and Rovio. To take on those companies and build on its newfound momentum in mobile, Zynga should focus on a few key strategies. For my thoughts on how Zynga should expand into mobile, please see my weekly column at GigaOM Pro (sub. required).

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• How Mobile Is Changing the Video Game Market — and What It Means
• Mobile Q1: All Eyes on Tablets, T-Mobile and AT&T

Femtocells have not been successful with consumers for three major reasons:

1. Price: AT&T charges $150 for its MicroCell, and Verizon Wireless’s Network Extender will run you $250. Network operators incur back-end costs in deploying femtocells, of course, but it’s no mystery why customers have balked at the thought of paying what amounts to a double dip.

2. Wi-Fi: Home-based femtocell technology is squaring off against Wi-Fi, which is supported by nearly every data-friendly smartphone on the market.

3. Advancing cellular technologies: Femtocell development has lagged behind the advancement of cellular build-outs; for example, Verizon didn’t offer a 3G femtocell until last October. And new technologies like LTE and even HSPA+ provide more capacity as well as faster network speeds. Capacity has been an important selling point for femtocells.

While the window for consumer-targeted, in-home femtocells is closing quickly, there are still segments in which they could thrive. As the Register noted earlier this week, manufacturers such as Picochip and Ubiquisys have begun unveiling public access products dubbed “metrocells” that fill network gaps where blanket coverage with traditional cell towers is difficult. Meanwhile, the market research firm Maravedis has predicted that public-access femtocells will fall from $100 to $70 or so this year and will continue to slide into the $50 range next year. Those colliding trends lay the foundation for long-awaited growth in the femtocell market.

Further opportunity also lies in the enterprise, where femtocells can be used to deliver better indoor coverage and multiple connections to smartphones, tablets and other connected devices. They can be a low-cost alternative to picocells or DAS (distributed antenna systems), for instance, and can route calls through an enterprise PBS to deliver them to four-digit office extensions or mobile phones. If carriers can integrate femtocells in a way that makes it easier and cheaper for businesses, the technology will see substantial adoption in the enterprise.

For more thoughts on why opportunities still exists for femtocells outside the residential market, please see my weekly column at GigaOM Pro.

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• For the future of femtocells, opportunity still exists

That may be largely due to LinkedIn’s slow response to the drastic increase in smartphone usage: The company didn’t release a downloadable app for BlackBerry until last year, and its Android app is only seven months old. But while LinkedIn has long been the subject of speculation regarding tie-ups with Google or Research In Motion, among others, it doesn’t need to depend on others to boost its mobile business. It could tap the booming mobile market by focusing on a few key initiatives:

1. Integration with Skype. Om suggested a partnership last year, and embracing Skype would give LinkedIn communications offerings that would be very compelling to many of its business users. It would also pave the way for videoconferencing over smartphones and tablets.
2. Partnerships with handset manufacturers and carriers. Embedding LinkedIn’s mobile apps on handsets would go a long way toward making users aware of those offerings. It could also help the company leverage its precious contact information by enabling users to sync phones with their accounts, just as Android does with Facebook contacts.
3. Mobile advertising. LinkedIn’s network compiles an enormous amount of data that is valuable for marketing and corporate intelligence, as Business 2 Community noted last month. That information can be coupled with mobile data such as location to deliver highly targeted ads that can be presented through LinkedIn’s mobile site and applications.

LinkedIn has done well so far without aggressively moving into mobile, but its users will increasingly demand more from the service as our data consumption continues to surge. For more thoughts on how the company can boost its business by serving those on-the-go users, please see my weekly column at GigaOM Pro (subscription required).

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• A Media Tablet Forecast, 2011 – 2015
• Transient Apps: The Consumer Influence on Enterprise Mobility, Part 2

And while end users are primarily driving the market for enterprise tablets today, businesses will increasingly take tablet deployments into their own hands, as a recent survey from Dimensional Research illustrates. The firm found that 22 percent of business and IT executives polled said that they had officially deployed tablets, and 78 percent plan to do so by the end of 2013.

But as I discuss in a new report on enterprise tablets at GigaOM Pro (subscription required), the competition will be fierce, because so many new tablets are coming to market. Apple has created something of a standard with its $500 price point for the least expensive iPad, so competitors who can’t match that price will have to differentiate themselves with other features or functionality. Both consumer and enterprise applications will also play a major role in determining the success or failure of tablets in the enterprise. And security will increasingly be a factor, especially for businesses that allow employees to use their own tablets for work.

Enterprise tablets represent a very promising space, especially in vertical markets such as education, retail and health care. But the market for business tablets is still in its infancy, and it will endure substantial growing pains over the next two to three years. Tablet manufacturers and application developers who understand the needs of businesses and their employees will thrive as the space gets legs. Those who fail to meet those needs will quickly find themselves left behind. For more thoughts on the promising market for enterprise tablets as well as a competitive analysis of major players in the space, please see my new report (subscription required).

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• The rise of tablets in the enterprise
• A Media Tablet Forecast, 2011 – 2015
• Fixing Fragmentation: Google’s Key to the Enterprise Tablet Space

But mobile is a very different game than email discounts: Our phones are always with us, so they’re much more personal than computers, and they provide marketers with tools like location data and downloadable apps. So coupon distributors will need to be mindful of four important areas as they expand beyond computer-centric businesses into the more complex world of smartphones.

1. Unwanted ads. Groupon has demonstrated that consumers are happy to receive a deal a day via email on their computers, then occasionally buy it to use weeks, or even months, later. But because phones are more personal devices, our tolerance for daily come-ons is much smaller, as this recent study from Ipsos Observer illustrates. Instead of pushing one or two ads a day at scheduled intervals, mobile deals should be delivered to consumers when they’re specifically looking for something or when they voluntarily disclose their location to see what’s nearby.

2. Location and search. GPS and geofencing are valuable tools, but sending an automated offer based solely on location isn’t enough. That’s why the tired “Starbucks scenario” of offering discounts to anyone who passes in front of a store has never taken off, and why proximity marketing via Bluetooth has foundered. Location-based offers should be sent when users check in at a specific venue or when they use their phones to search for something, and those offers should take into account the context of those activities.

3. App functionality. Groupon has the right idea here with Groupon Now, which launched last month in Chicago and features just two buttons: “I’m hungry” and “I’m bored.” But that functionality is a fraction of what we could see in the next few years. Search topics could be far more specific, and apps could perform searches based on barcode information or even an uploaded image.

The market for mobile discounts is still almost entirely untapped, giving smaller players and newcomers an opportunity to compete with the big boys as the space gets legs. Those who best understand how to bring real value to users on their phones by presenting highly targeted offers could alter the landscape of digital deals dramatically. For more thoughts on how the daily deal players should leverage mobile, please see my weekly column at GigaOM Pro (subscription required).

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• How the daily deal guys can leverage mobile
• The Deafening Buzz About Hyperlocal Mobile Ads
• The Near-Term Evolution of Social Commerce

Don’t believe the hype. Let me be clear: I’d like to see SMS snuffed out, too, given the outrageous prices that carriers charge for transmissions that barely impact the network. (One blogger determined in a 2008 analysis that carriers charge roughly one cent for every byte of data in an SMS message when charged per message. At that rate, downloading a song would cost about $6,000.) And it appears there’s a lot to like about iMessage, from its integration with SMS (so messages are sent through the platform automatically and marked as such in the user interface) to the fact that it gives iPad and iPod touch owners another way of communicating on their devices. But iMessage won’t impact SMS usage and revenues much more than BlackBerry Messenger (which boasts 35 million users) has. With that in mind, let’s examine a few reasons why iMessage isn’t about to ring the death knell for SMS.

1. It works only on iOS devices. Yes, there are more than 200 million iOS gadgets in use, but Apple’s mobile operating system accounts for a little less than one-fourth of the overall U.S. smartphone market, according to new data from ComScore. Smartphones are still outnumbered by feature phones in the U.S., so Apple’s share of the overall handset market is much smaller. And while smartphone users consume far more mobile data than their feature phone–toting counterparts, nearly everybody sends text messages.
2. SMS is typically bundled. Service operators sell text messages to consumers in bulk or package them with voice services, so it’s highly unlikely that users who text often are paying 20 cents or so per message they send or receive. There are a few scenarios where iMessage could replace SMS — families or small businesses where everyone carries an iOS device, for example — but those cases are not as common. The vast majority of users will be highly unlikely to change their messaging plans.
3. Carriers can tweak their SMS plans accordingly. As Sascha Segan at PCMag.com noted, carriers control the networks. So they could identify iMessage missives and count them as SMS if they choose to, or they could simply raise overall data charges for all users to offset any lost revenues.

For more thoughts on why iMessage doesn’t pose a mortal threat to the cash cow that is SMS, please see my weekly column at GigaOM Pro (subscription required).

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• Why iMessage won’t kill SMS
• Mobile Q1: All Eyes on Tablets, T-Mobile and AT&T
• A Media Tablet Forecast, 2011 – 2015

Apple may be positioned to change all that, though, with the iOS 5 platform it will outline at next week’s WWDC in San Francisco. The company has reportedly been in discussions to license Nuance’s effective voice technology – dubbed Dragon – and may integrate it with the new version of iOS 5. Apple could make the technology available to developers as a built-in API in iOS 5, handing app creators a valuable new tool. Such a move would not only give voice recognition a much-needed push into the mobile mainstream, it would give Apple the chance to once again transform the way we interact with our phones. Here’s why:

1) Voice recognition technology is finally ready for prime time. Dragon powers Nuance’s FlexT9  for Android, a dictation app that sells for a mere $5 and enjoys a four-star user rating after more than 1,100 reviews. And there is no shortage of compelling use cases, from accessing a navigation app while driving (when your hands should be on the wheel) to dictating lengthy messages rather than typing on a miniature keyboard.

2) Apple knows how to educate the consumer. Voice recognition has come a long way, but using it still isn’t always intuitive. Google’s technology, for example, requires users to say the words “period” or “comma” if they want to add punctuation to their messages. But Apple’s marketing genius lies in showing consumers how to use technology: The first iPhone commercials were essentially tutorials in how to surf the Web, access email and find nearby businesses on the handset. A similar campaign could illustrate how to do all those things and more by talking, not typing.

3) Apple is a master of the user interface. The touchscreen was nothing new when the iPhone came to market; Apple’s true innovation was in simplifying the technology with an interface that made it easy for users to navigate their phones. The company could do the same with voice by integrating Dragon closely with iOS, making it easy to send messages or navigate the Safari browser by speaking. And the legions of iOS developers will surely find innovative new ways to leverage voice in everything from messaging to gaming to social networking.

For more thoughts on how Apple could leverage voice recognition technology to change the way we use our phones, see my latest Weekly Update at GigaOM Pro (subscription required).

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The rationale is that HTML5 and other Web-based technologies will soon give developers the tools they need to finally deliver an immersive experience to a massive audience across a wide variety of phones and operating systems. The biggest problem, though, is that those tools aren’t close to being ready. The HTML5 draft specification, for example, was moved to Last Call status only a few days ago and isn’t expected to be completed until 2014. So the reality of the situation is much more complicated than the black-and-white headlines of one technology “killing” another.

Over the next several years, both Web and native apps will evolve alongside each other, and savvy developers will choose the best technology — or combination of technologies — for their specific purposes. Hewlett-Packard, for instance, is raising eyebrows with this week’s claim that it will dethrone the iPad with its upcoming TouchPad; the device runs Palm’s webOS, an operating system that developers are finding increasingly attractive thanks in part to HP’s Enyo framework, which enables developers to build a single app that works effectively across webOS phones and tablets as well as in a computer browser.

Meanwhile, hybrid apps — which couple the broad support of Web-based apps with the richer features of downloadable offerings — are also gaining traction among the developer community. Real-world examples include Facebook; GeoCongress, which tells users who their elected officials are based on location; and the productivity app Clarizen. And unlike purely Web-based applications, hybrids can take advantage of distribution channels such as Apple’s App Store and Google’s Android Market — which is a big plus for smaller developers who face an enormous task in drawing traffic to their Web sites.

The challenge for developers, publishers and product strategists lies in striking a balance between the two technologies to create high-performance apps that are available to the biggest possible audience. Most will have to find some middle ground between the lowest common denominator and a jaw-dropping user experience. Even if it makes for less inflammatory headlines.

For more thoughts on the great mobile app debate, please see my weekly column at GigaOM Pro (subscription required).

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• A Media Tablet Forecast, 2011 – 2015

That hefty amount of cash has led some to dismiss those rumblings as simply a weird rumor. To be sure, a Nokia acquisition has its risks: The mobile handset market is already extremely competitive, and jumping into the manufacturing game could alienate Windows Phone partners like HTC and Samsung, which could mean that Microsoft’s future in mobile would hinge on such a deal. Nokia is also a company with an ingrained culture that’s slow to change, even by Microsoft’s standards, which could hold Microsoft back as the mobile markets continue accelerating. And Microsoft has been down this road before. It purchased Danger for $500 million and saw only the failed Microsoft Kin handset as the fruits of that labor.

But Windows Phone sales still appear to be sluggish, so while it would be a huge gamble for Redmond, there are several reasons to believe Microsoft might benefit by such a takeover. Here are a few:

1. An acquisition opens the door for a Skype handset. Skype recently topped 145 million monthly users, and Skype Mobile has been downloaded by more than five million iPhone users  alone. Meanwhile, carriers that once feared Wi-Fi calling — which is a key feature of Skype Mobile — are now beginning to embrace the technology as a way to offload traffic. Those trends could lay the groundwork for dramatic uptake of Skype usage on Wi-Fi for carriers that allow it.
2. Nokia still makes great hardware. As my colleague Kevin C. Tofel noted last fall, Nokia makes great devices but has failed in recent years to produce mobile software and services that can compete in an increasingly crowded platform market. An acquisition would enable Microsoft to most fully reap the rewards of a marriage between Nokia’s top-notch gadgets and its own impressive new operating system.
3. Ovi is a massive channel for distributing mobile content and services. Ovi services will already be integrated into Windows Phone 7 under terms of the existing tie-up, but Nokia plans to use the storefront to deliver apps for all its future smartphones. Acquiring Nokia’s mobile business could enable Microsoft to simply take over the Ovi Store (which is undergoing a name change), giving it outright control over the business.

Microsoft has seen little success in mobile data in recent years, and a botched takeover would likely mean the end of the company’s hopes to become a major player in the space. But it might be the only way for Microsoft to truly compete with Apple and Google in the era of the superphone. For more thoughts on why such an acquisition could work, please see my weekly column at GigaOM Pro (subscription required).

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• 4 Reasons Why Microsoft Should Acquire Nokia
• Mobile Q1: All Eyes on Tablets, T-Mobile and AT&T

So it’s easy to see why Deutsche Telekom is looking to spin off its U.S. service provider for $39 billion. As we’ve said before, everybody except AT&T and T-Mobile loses if federal regulators allow the deal to go through. So while we believe the feds will eventually give their blessing after extracting some major concessions from AT&T, there’s always the chance the acquisition won’t survive the scrutiny it’s sure to undergo by the Department of Justice, the Federal Communications and Congress.

In my weekly column at GigaOM Pro, I discuss some strategies Deutsche Telekom should consider if the deal is scuttled.

1. Produce a hit handset. That’s a simple-minded suggestion, to be sure, and it is much easier said than done (especially since Apple is extremely unlikely to produce a T-Mobile iPhone anytime soon). But T-Mobile already has a top-notch customer service operation and a surprisingly fast network, so if it can team with a manufacturer to offer a must-have, exclusive handset — and then if it backs the device with a big-budget marketing campaign — it could lessen the gap with the big boys.
2. Submit to Google. Verizon Wireless and AT&T have cautiously kept Google at arm’s length, but Sprint has taken the opposite tack by fully embracing Google Voice, enabling users to call or text from Gmail and to use Google’s own voicemail system. T-Mobile has a deep history with Google – remember that it launched the first Android handset in October 2008 – and it could differentiate itself by doing everything it can to become the unofficial Google operator.
3. Find another buyer or merger partner. This is the most likely scenario if the AT&T takeover fails, as there are several potential suitors for whom T-Mobile might be a good fit. A cable TV provider like Comcast or Time Warner could be interested, for instance, although both have ties to Clearwire and Sprint.

It’s worth noting that rejection of the acquisition wouldn’t be entirely bad news for Deutsche Telekom, which would receive $3 billion in cash as well as some spectrum from AT&T under that scenario. Those assets – coupled with a new strategy – could help it compete in a market where AT&T and Verizon increasingly dominate. For more ideas on how that could happen, please see my weekly column at GigaOM Pro.

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• What T-Mobile Could Do if the AT&T Acquisition Fails
• Mobile Q1: All Eyes on Tablets, T-Mobile and AT&T
• Mobile Q4: All Eyes Were on Android, 4G and the Rising Tablet Tide

Beginning April 1, Sprint began charging an additional toll of one-half of one cent to companies that distribute texts on behalf of organizations for every message sent through its network. While the charge may seem minimal, it could dramatically change the economics for news outlets, retailers, banks and countless others who send texts as a free customer service rather than a way to generate revenue directly.

The carrier made no public announcement about the new charge, but discussed ESPN’s move last week in this company blog post. Others who have reportedly stopped sending text alerts to Sprint users include The Weather Channel and MSNBC . When I asked Sprint to comment, spokeswoman Jennifer Walsh Kiefer said the toll is necessary to keep pace with the increasing traffic of business-to-consumer texts:

“When the business model was originally created that enabled businesses to send texts to consumers without paying a fee, there was no charge because carriers were trying to encourage businesses to adopt texting as a way to reach consumers,” Kiefer said via email. “Today, with the dramatically rising use of texting by businesses, Sprint needs to recoup the cost for providing this capability.”

Of course, that neglects the fact that Sprint subscribers are already paying to both send and receive text messages. Sprint offers three plans that include unlimited messaging on its network as well as three a la carte messaging packages that can be added to other plans. Customers who choose not to buy bundled plans are charged 20 cents per message. And it’s worth noting that the cost of delivering text messages over the network is far lower than sending pictures or other kinds of content.

Sprint’s move isn’t unprecedented, however. Verizon Wireless in 2008 suddenly announced a ridiculous charge of three cents per message for business-to-consumer texts. The carrier aborted the plan after content providers were outraged. That kind of response hasn’t surfaced in the wake of Sprint’s more modest new charge, though, which means the fee is likely to stick — unless customers demand the carrier deliver those free score updates from ESPN.

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• Mobile Q1: All Eyes on Tablets, T-Mobile and AT&T
• A 2011 Green IT Forecast
• A 2011 Mobile Forecast