T-Mobile Suspends Bobsled service

T-Mobile's Bobsled, VOIP solution to make calls, and leave voice messages between Facebook users got released last week. T-Mobile claims the service is suspended due to some design issues and most people may think that the service is offered by Facebook. The hidden reason might be the joint agreement between the Skype and Facebook where Skype offering similar service. Lets hope, T-Mobile's strategy to extend its brand beyond that of mobile operator to multi-platform voice service provider will be successful.

Motorola Mobility survival at risk

Motorola did a patchy release of their Xoom tablet. They released the device without flash on top of it they have asked customers to ship the device back to Motorola to get LTE upgrade, which does not make sense. Its exactly what Apple does not do, they guarantee the customer experience. The cost of the android-based tablets is often expensive compared to iPads. Motorola doesn't have much differentiation compared to other small OEMs. All these days, Motorola got huge support from Verizon, now that they got iDevices, Verizon is focusing more Apple products which makes Motorola more worrisome. HTC can be a bigger threat to Motorola in US market.

Summary: Unless Motorola shows differentiation, their survival might be at risk

RadioMe- Tuning to social networks

RadioMe trying to address the audience in true mobility situations where people can get network updates via audio. Social networks now became part of everyday life and people want to get the updates no matter what their current context is. Apparently, there are some hidden challenges like pronunciation, reading out the links and the biggest of all, how to prioritize the updates when there are too many of them. Lets hope RadioMe over come these challenges to provide on the go social experience.

Apple location tracker file

The Guardian's exposure of Apple's location tracker file caused a stir in US, and congressman wrote a detailed letter asking more information from Apple. iDevice comes with a feature to turn On/Off the location feature under general settings. When On, any application can use the location info. The real concern is about syncing the location data to computers. Another concern is that the file is not encrypted, so any one can access this data. Apple may claim that this data might used to understand and improve the customer behavior but there might be a commercial roadmap to monetize this data. Lets wait to hear from Apple.

Apple iPhone 5 to Roll Out This September

The rumors are good for Apple, As annual apple's dev conference is in June, The industry is looking forward to their new product lines. The speculation on iPhone5 might be true as its time for new gadget. Faster processor, High-quality camera and NFC capabilities are highly anticipated features in iPhone5. Apple is doing wait and see approach on payments initiatives. 4inch display is also on list of rumors but apple is unlikely to increase the size during next revision. Apple may reach the saturation in US market on their phone product lines after the release of iphone 5.

T-Mobile Officially Announces G-Slate

After Motorola's patchy release of honeycomb based xoom tablet, T-mobile announced the 3D tablet G Slate manufactured by LG. The hardware spec look similar to the xoom with Tegra dual core processor. There are two camera's to capture the 3D pictures and comes with a 3D glasses. I like 3D content, but not user generated 3D content.

summary: like it or not, the 3D tablets are here.

ISIS announced a pilot in Utah

This was the first announcement from ISIS after AT&T, T-mobile and Verizon announced the mobile payments initiative during Nov 2010. There was agreement in place with state transport authority and ISIS is working with local commerce body to reach to the retail business owners. Unlike metros, I am not sure why they have salt lake city for the trail, it might be easier to partner but they have to give a way NFC enabled handsets and may need to educate the users in terms of security. Lets hope the pilot give boost to the mobile payments industry.