Wireless industry veteran Whitey Bluestein writes that it isn’t a question of if Apple will offer its own mobile service. It’s merely a question of when. Apple has all of the infrastructure and ambition. And most importantly it has leverage over the operators. Read more »
Verizon and Comcast are now selling their cross-network bundle of mobile and broadband services in six new markets. The U.S. Department of Justice may well find that their cross-selling pact anti-competitive, but Verizon and its cable partners aren’t stopping until they’re told they have to. Read more »
With Google and European officials clashing again, this time over the company’s new, simplified privacy policy, is it simply a one-off moment of friction — or part of an inevitable slide towards all-out conflict? Read more »
Verizon plans milk as much revenue off of its 3G and LTE networks as possible, becoming the “premium” mobile data operator, but its plan could backfire. Despite the increase in 4G sales, Verizon is still primarily a 3G operator, and 3G doesn’t justify its steep prices. Read more »
Verizon’s blockbuster deal with the major cable operators has made casualties of its future residential broadband expansion plans and its partnership with DirecTV. Verizon is wasting little time in embracing its rivals Comcast and Time Warner and overturning the competitive dynamics of the residential broadband industry. Read more »
The spectrum deal that Verizon signed to buy the unused airwaves from the nation’s top cable providers signals the moment that the consumer benefits of the convergence of voice, video and data hit the wall. It’s a deal that’s great for Verizon and bad for consumers. Read more »
British social shopping game Fantasy Shopper, which launched last month, has become the first non-American company to win the top prize Amazon Web Services Start-Up Challenge. Read more »
Verizon filed its second suit against the network neutrality laws today, sparking more debate over who can determine how content traverses the Internet. Meanwhile, a paper suggests that the Internet delivers up to $5,686 in economic value, and says that value is at risk. Read more »
After years of finger-pointing by competitors, Google is finally coming under the scrutiny of federal antitrust regulators. But just like a similar investigation into Microsoft a decade ago, a federal inquiry into whether Google’s behavior is illegal is likely to be a giant waste of time. Read more »
Sometimes knowing you are observed is enough to make you behave well. And the recent hoopla over AT&T releasing unredacted merger filings and an FCC request for more data, raise the question of how much transparency the FCC should sacrifice to protect competitive information. Read more »
Hewlett-Packard plans to spend some $10.25 billion to acquire Autonomy, the United Kingdom–based software and services company. HP’s balance sheet currently has $13 billion in cash. Why is the company making such a big bet? According to HP’s CEO, Leo Apotheker, it’s now or never. Read more »
Google’s launch of social games for Google+ seems to have struck a nerve at Facebook, with one executive dismissing the offering as an inconsequential copycat effort. That and other moves make it clear the competition is keeping Facebook awake at night, which is a good thing. Read more »
Technology used by ISPs as well as regulatory decisions have shaped the Internet. The New America Foundation sees danger in the current evolution of the Internet as the web becomes segregated by what people are allowed to access and the cost of that access. Read more »
Facebook’s blocking of a Chrome extension that allowed users to export their friends’ email addresses has reignited a debate over who should control that kind of data — should you have the right to export it, or is Facebook right to prevent you from doing so? Read more »
According to a news report on Thursday, the Federal Trade Commission is looking into Twitter’s business practices. Although that doesn’t mean Twitter is under official investigation, it means the company’s behavior must have raised enough critical flags to catch the regulator’s attention, which is rarely good. Read more »
Sometimes it’s not what you say, but what you don’t say that matters, and in today’s release of the annual wireless competition report, the Federal Communications Commission silence speaks volumes. The problem is, no one knows what that silence is saying. Read more »
Allied Fiber may be able to do something the FCC can’t: help make American broadband just a bit more competitive. In a few weeks it will begin construction on its new type of optical network. It’s six months late, but better late than never. Read more »
Large companies hiring PR firms to plant negative stories about their competitors isn’t a new phenomenon, but Facebook’s attempt to do this about Google and privacy isn’t just ironic, it’s a sign of how scared the social network really is about competition from the web giant. Read more »
The European Union is broadening an investigation into Google that was originally launched following complaints the web giant was giving its own assets preferential treatment in search results. Google has also been coming under increasing pressure in the U.S. as a result of similar allegations. Read more »
The iPad is making headlines today for dominating the global tablet market during the last quarter, accounting for 95.5 percent of all shipments. It’s a big number, but it’s also a statistic that belies the nature of the clash to come for tablet devices. Read more »
When we work alone, away from the constant prying eyes of colleagues and supervisors, we tend to lose our competitive edge. I’ve noticed this in myself, too. I haven’t exactly been slacking off or taking my work for granted, but I feel like something’s missing. Read more »
Certain parts of my business are what I’m increasingly becoming known for, and if I hope to continue standing out in these areas, I have to continue to seek excellence, and to me, excellence is not the same as perfection. Read more »
Yesterday Apple announced the arrival date of its much-ballyhooed tablet, the iPad. It will have a staggered release throughout April, beginning on the 3rd in the U.S. Once it does arrive, we’ll see what effect it has on the mobile landscape. But right now, Apple has […] Read more »
The Google/Apple war appears to be in the arms race stage at the moment, with the Nexus One set to be unveiled today as the latest weapon in the Google arsenal. Apple, for its part, appears to be momentarily playing catch-up, with plans to acquire another […] Read more »
