Interview with the Grandfather of the Cell Phone Marty Cooper

The inventor of the cell phone Marty Cooper was recently interviewed in this article of CBS News in which he shared some insights on what he thinks of modern day cellphones. Cooper mentioned in the interview that "Technology has to be invisible. Transparent. Just simple. A modern cell phone in general has an instruction book that's bigger and heavier than the cell phone. That's not right."

He thinks that consumers should dictate exactly what they want from a product and not the engineer because in the end the consumer is king. It'll be interesting to see what will come of wireless communication in the future.

New Mobile UC Application is Launched for in-Building Wireless

According to this article in TMC.net, iBwave has released a mobile app that makes it easy for users to capture building information and basic network information essential for indoor radio planning.

It turns a smartphone into a device that is able to capture information from the building and is able to conduct on-site surveys. What are other examples of similar devices that have been launched within the past couple of months? Interested in hearing your thoughts.

What is MOBS About? The Year of the Onslaught

Internally and externally, people have been asking me about MOBS and what it means.

MOBS stands for Mobile Omnipresent Business Solutions, and it's a conference I am putting together for mid-July on the West Coast.

The event’s focus will be still be on Inbuilding but will also encompass the evolving use of mobile throughout retail enterprises, health care, hospitality, public safety, university campuses, and more. It will bring together integrators, international and domestic carriers, professionals in WiMax, LTE, HSPA+, applications developers for Android, iPhone and more. It will also bring together entrepreneurs starting their own companies or managing existing companies that focus primarily on commerce for the mobile devices.

This is an evolving definition, since 2010 is the Year of the Onslaught. This is a year where we will see so many new devices and where behavior of the users of these devices will radically shape the way enterprises are run. If you are interested in being a part of this forum, you can leave a comment on this blog and I will get back to you.

Apple Tablet: Does Tech Solve a Business Crisis?

Things to consider:

The release of the Apple tablet is being considered a solution for the publishing crisis / newspapers crisis / media crisis.

Maybe people are just talking to each other more through other tech means, like mobile phones, and they don't need to consume news that much.

Should journalists be social and community organizers rather than "reporters?" What does reporting accomplish these days? What are you as a reporter if nobody knows your name in the social web?

If the trend away from objective, non-partisan reporting towards being invested in a community is true, than what mobile projects can we develop to bring communities closer? And what does that mean for the mobile industry and the job of telecoms?

The new role of telecom would be the role of social hub. Telecoms that are more aware of the social habits of their customer base could service them better. What I don't know is whether the amazing amount of data use brought on by Android apps, iPhone apps and the like have given telecoms any more profounder insight into how to service their end-users.

In this way, perhaps tech can solve a business crisis, for telecoms and media, but I think it's really more likely that understanding humans helps move business forward.

Speaker Updates

It's that time of the production cycle when I let you all in on the fabulous companies that have come on board as speakers and supporters of the forum.

Here's a list of companies that will be supporting the Mobile Omnipresent Business Solutions forum with their speakers:

Reliance Communications (India)
Sprint Nextel
Mobients
T-Mobile
AT&T
Effective UI
Health Hero
Mobifoundry
Apisphere
TomTom (China)
WiMax Italia (Italy)
Tishman Technologies
Raytheon
Motorola
Federal Office for High Performance Green Buildings -- U.S. General Services Administration
Vornado Realty Trust
CTO from Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group
Quantum Networks
K-Edge Networks
MobileTribe
Sintnow
ProvenPowerful
RF Wise
Engineer for Cisco Systems
ABI Research
CIO from VA Health System VISN 20 Health Care
CTO of Alcatel-Lucent
IIT
InBuilding Wireless Alliance


I will be adding to this throughout the day and throughout the holidays into 2010. Keep in mind that we do have some room on our quickly filling panels. If you want to be considered for a slot and you can:

*Discuss strategy for using mobile for business
*Provide insights into telecoms operations, pricing and development of the inbuilding and data spectrums
*Talk about your enterprise's use of mobile as a business tool
*Consider the pros and cons of wireless hospital infrastructure

We want to hear from you. Please send me an email at dcrets [at] iirusa [dot] com. I am happy to talk with you in detail about the agenda, and send you a version of it.

The Droid: Hype or Happening?

Remember when you were young and dating for the first time? I bet someone, your mom or your dad, or maybe a sister or brother, told you that you should never put your heart out there all at once.

It's best to keep 'em guessing a little bit, showing a little of the greatness you possess, but not all.

Apparently, this strategy works very well with releasing a game-changer phone.

The go-slow, reveal little approach to releasing the Droid seems to have worked well for Verizon.

I'm actually thinking of getting this phone, even though I was left longing when I signed up for the iPhone 2.0 release.

Is this the year for too much hype? Does anyone out there have the Droid? Does it perform well? I like Verizon's call network and data network. I don't think I've ever had a dropped call in the one and half years I have had Verizon service.

What really I want to know about is how does the phone perform on the user level?