handsets

Mobile Business Expo 2008 Wrap-Up: The Big Issues

Craig Mathias — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 07:25:31 -0400

It was really interesting, in the sense of the old curse "may you live in interesting times", to have been in New York all this past week, ostensibly attending a technology conference, but hearing at least as much about the foolishness going on all week on Wall Street. Physics, our little corner of reality, can't be fooled. Exploited, yes, but fooled, no. Quite the opposite from what was going on in big office buildings right around the corner from my hotel. And guess who gets stuck with the bill now? You and me. And what did we do wrong?

But things were decidedly more upbeat at Mobile Business Expo. I structured the program this year around key areas of debate, and that we had. Here are the big ones, at least from the sessions I was able to attend:

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The Useful Life of Cars - and Handsets

Craig Mathias — Wed, 14 May 2008 15:32:39 -0400

It's a well-known fact that all automobiles, no matter how well-maintained and -loved, eventually die and need to be replaced. The day comes when the maintenance costs become untenable and off to the dealer we go. Car sales are in the dumper right now, a function of the overall macroeconomic picture and high fuel prices, and this situation isn't going to improve anytime soon. But the replacement-car market is also motivated by new gadgets and features, along with styling and clever marketing.

Thus it is as well with the cell phone/handset market, which allows essentially everyone to partake of a small and mostly-affordable luxury on a semi-regular basis.

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Motorola - So Much for Synergy

Craig Mathias — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 09:08:52 -0400

Well, I guess as I expected, Motorola is indeed going to be spinning off the handset business. While I'd hoped that Motorola would keep it all together and generate synergies that really no other wireless firm on this planet could, what I really expected was that someone would snap up the Mobile Devices business (as Motorola calls it), and I suppose that could still happen at any time, even after the spinoff occurs. In fact, I'd still bet on it.

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