LATAM Telecom

Had a busy week in the West Coast, first with BlackBerry for their annual Analyst Summit in San Ramon and then rushing over to San Francisco for Slack Frontiers. I was tweeting and blogging throughout the two days at Frontiers but decided to hold off on my comments from the BlackBerry event since I was not sure what was on NDA. I've reviewed my notes and here are my key takeaways. If you're curious about what other attendees were talking about check out Twitter with the hashtag #BlackBerryTrust. BlackBerry has undergone a significant transformation in the last five years. CEO John Chen opened the event and provided an update on the company's transition to software and services. The company has made several strategic acquisitions over the last five years that support its positioning in cyber security the Internet of Things for connected devices like cars. BlackBerry is targeting verticals with a solutions-based approach that brings together several products in it...

IDC predicts worldwide mobile phone shipments will fall 8.3% in 2009 ( Cellular News ). Q4 08 shipments fell 11.6%, marking the first time the holiday quarter has not recorded double digit growth in seven years. IDC also scaled back the outlook for smartphones as a result of the industry's changing dynamics, reducing from previously stated 8.7% to 3.4% growth. It is expected, however, that in the coming years the industry will migrate toward the converged device segment and this segment will maintain positive growth in 2009. The explosive success of Apple's iPhone and the App Store have significantly affected demand for smartphones and are defining new industry trends, with other companies including Nokia, Verizon, RIM, Microsoft launching their own mobile application stores this year. A March ChangeWave survey of 4,292 cell phone owners confirmed a shift to smartphones, with Apple and RIM in a close race for market leadership while their competitors continue to suffer the eff...

"This is the exact time to invest - if you can - because not only is there opportunity, but there are lots of resources out there." - Mike Lazaridis Picture: Research In Motion co-CEOs Jim Balsillie (left) and Mike Lazaridis THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan We are one quarter into 2009, a year that is turning out to be one of the most challenging to navigate in recent history. As this first quarter comes to an end I want to share my thoughts on what to expect for the rest of the year. Like other sectors of the economy, the Telecom industry faces huge economic challenges as the United States and other nations slip into a global recession: The Telecom Industry will face a slowdown in 2009; IDATE reports that the telecom equipment market will suffer a downturn with an expected growth rate of 1% compared to the year before. This will affect infrastructure and mobile phones; IDC predicts worldwide mobile phone shipments to fall 8.3% in 2009 . Companies will face the downturn by limitin...

"Live a balanced life - learn some and think some and draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work every day some." - Robert Fulghum The market for mobile applications has changed significantly in the last four years, when I first started working with these applications. Four years does not sound like a long time but in this industry it means I have lived through several generations of devices and have seen some applications take off and many others fail. This year, analysts expect mobile applications to really take off; it is very exciting to see the industry reach this point, so I thought I'd share my experience and what I've learned in the process. Back then, Comverse was working on developing client applications that used new device capabilities to enhance network based services. These services included Call Completion, Mobile Instant Messaging, Address Book Backup, Mobile Email and Visual Voice Mail; each of them had different technical and commercial issu...

Rob Pegoraro, blogger and author of Fast Forward, the Washington's Post Personal Technology column, wrote yesterday about the new BlackBerry models (see BlackBerrys Again Get Sleeker but Can't Challenge iPhone ). I like Pegoraro's analysis on the new devices, it is very detailed and comprehensive, however his comparison to the iPhone, misses the point entirely. I have written extensively about how the iPhone is breaking new ground and challenging traditional handset vendors and operators to rethink their strategy. A quick look at how big players have responded since the iPhone was shown to the world at MacWorld 2007 is proof enough: Nokia recently unveiled its flagship phone for 2009, the N97, a few days ago and of course, RIM's new devices include touch screen devices that do mimic the iPhone user interface. Experience however, has shown that the BlackBerry VS iPhone challenge exists mostly in the minds of analysts, not in the marketplace. BlackBerry has positioned it...

A quick look at how the handset industry has changed after the iPhone was first introduced at Macworld 2007, confirms that visual interfaces are becoming a de facto standard for mobile devices: Just a few months after the iPhone launch by AT&T, Verizon launched the Voyager, made by LG. In early 2008, Sprint announced at CTIA the launch of the Samsung Instinct. More recently, just a few weeks ago, Research in Motion introduced the first touch screen Blackberry. Finally, Nokia, introduced its flagship phone for 2009, the N97, a few days ago. These are just a few of the many example of new touch screen devices by major handset manufacturers. At first instance it might seem like iPhone clones are flooding the market, but I strongly believe they are more than that; they are part of a growing trend that focuses on user experience. While it can be argued that Apple's iPhone did not actually create these innovations, some of which had been around for several years before its release, ...

Last week Apple released the much expected SDK for the iPhone, allowing thrid party applications to run on the handset. This move (from John O'Brien's Technology Blog MacChat ) will reposition the iPhone in the corporate segment, which up until now has been dominated by RIM's BlackBerry. The iPhone is already the second most popular smartphone after the BlackBerry but up until now it was not a serious contender in the corporate segment. It should be interesting to see how things evolve in Latin America, where just a couple of years ago the BlackBerry was introduced with much hype. Despite being a small niche (in some countries in LA, subscribers are only in the thousands), it has proven to be one of the highest revenue generating handsets for operators worldwide. In Latin America, however, the segment for smartphones is much smaller than in North America or Europe, and targeting this segment with special handsets can be tricky. Such is the case of the BlackBerry. This means...