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The Importance of Functional Branding
Avi Greengart, Principal Analyst, Mobile Devices at Current
Analysis
April 16, 2007 (Note: a shorter version of this report also appeared as my RCR
Wireless Analyst Angle column)
I’m a mobile devices analyst, and I test literally hundreds of gadgets a year. I
change phones at least weekly and sometimes more frequently than that (playing
with toys is a tough way to make a living, but someone has to do it). However,
convincing my wife to “upgrade” is a lesson in how much of the real world works.
[click title to
read full report]
iPhone First Impressions,
Avi Greengart, Principal Analyst, Mobile Devices at Current
Analysis
January 9, 2007
I left CES early – very,
very early – this morning to head up to San Francisco and attend Steve Jobs’
keynote at MacWorld. I was also able to ask Apple questions afterwards and
all-too-briefly use an iPhone myself, an experience that greatly colors my
analysis. Here are some first impressions. A full report will follow... [click
title to read full report]
Apple Phone: Who Cares? (And Why)
Avi Greengart, Principal Analyst, Mobile Devices at Current
Analysis
January 4, 2007
Apple’s strict pre-launch
secrecy has helped fuel rampant speculation among the financial analyst
community and press that Apple will launch a phone next week at MacWorld as a
defensive move to protect its iPod franchise. Of course, when it’s a secret, it
can be all things to all people, so Apple risks a backlash if it doesn’t release
a revolutionary product, or doesn’t announce anything at all. We do not claim to
know what products Apple is working on, when they will be available, or how they
will be distributed. On the other hand, we’ve gotten the question so often that
it’s time to answer, “what might an Apple phone mean for the industry?” [click
title to read full report]
Cellphones are consumer
devices, and like other consumer purchases, there are magic price points at
which new groups of customers are compelled to buy into a category. The last
major price reset for multimedia handsets was in mid-2005, when Verizon Wireless
priced Motorola’s E815 at just $99 after rebates with a two-year contract. Well,
it’s happened again. Due to a variety of competitive factors, Cingular, Verizon
Wireless, and Sprint are all offering super-thin clamshell 3G multimedia phones
for just $49. [click title to read full report]
Microsoft has recently
admitted that it plans to launch “Zune,” its own digital media player and music
download service to challenge Apple’s iPod and iTunes. The logic behind the move
is sound: Apple is increasingly making iTunes the gatekeeper to digital content,
Microsoft’s partners haven’t made a dent in Apple’s market share, and some of
the Zune details around social networking and content sharing are proven
concepts on the web. However, Apple’s biggest threat is not another digital
audio player, but the musicphone. Apple acknowledges as much, and promises it is
“not sitting around doing nothing.” Is Microsoft chasing the iPod just as Apple
is about to move on to musicphones? [click title to read full report]
I was the "featured analyst" on Current Analysis' home page
for a month, and as part of the promotion, three reports I had written on
Motorola's Q (the announcement, launch, and a product assessment) are available
for download. Here's the headline/summary from the most recent one:
The Q is the first smartphone consumers would be willing to be
seen with after 5 PM, making it an attractive proposition for prosumers buying a
single device for dual business and personal use. And its $199 price point
reshapes the price curve for QWERTY devices. However, the Q is dependant on
Microsoft for its built-in e-mail synchronization. ActiveSync still lags RIM in
providing a polished push e-mail experience, and lacks critical end-to-end
security. As such, many IT managers are likely to stick with RIM, but Palm will
suffer collateral damage. [click title to read all three reports on the Q]
Even in a world gone mad
with convergence, the line between computers and phones used to be pretty clear.
You used a phone when you needed to make phone calls. You used a PC when you
needed to get work done. However, with beefed up mobile operating systems such
as Windows Mobile 5.0, QWERTY keyboards, WiFi, and sliding or clamshell form
factors, today's smartphones are edging into notebook territory. Meanwhile,
subnotebooks have gotten even smaller, and routinely come not only with an
Ethernet jack and WiFi, but with Bluetooth and modems for cellular networks
(EDGE, EV-DO, or HSDPA), too. No carrier has offered a voice plan to go with the
access embedded in notebooks, but connected notebooks can act as VoIP stations
when used with a headset.
[click title to read full report]
Are Fashion Phones A Fad?
Avi Greengart, Principal Analyst, Mobile Devices at Current Analysis
February 7, 2006
Valentine’s Day will be here soon, and with it comes the annual surge in
purchases of flowers, chocolates, and …pink Motorola RAZR phones? Yes, just in
time for Valentine’s Day, Cingular, Verizon Wireless, and T-Mobile are all
carrying the iconic Motorola clamshell in slightly different hues of pink
(though T-Mobile calls the color of its hot pink RAZR V3 "magenta").
Eighteen months ago, phones in the U.S. were black or silver, bar or
clamshell, and vendors hyped imaging capabilities or focused on the next big
thing, music and video playback. Today, there are three different pink RAZRs,
round PEBLs, slim Samsung sliders, and a Special Edition Sidekick II from noted
tattoo artist Mr. Cartoon. Nokia is pushing a $900 stainless steel slider with
no standout features to speak of, but notes in the press release that it
contains "specially reinforced glass used in luxury timepieces" and the slider
uses "a bi-stable spring mechanism and stainless steel ball bearings, like those
used in high-performance automobiles." What is going on here? [click title
to read full report]
First Apple overshadowed the debut of Motorola’s iTunes-phone,
the ROKR, with the simultaneous introduction of the tiny, beautiful nano. Then,
only a month later, Apple replaces its iPod photo line with a new model that
plays video. A video iPod doesn’t seem like something that affects sales or
design of phones unless you subscribe to the Limited Wallet Theory of Consumer
Electronics (“consumers can only buy so much stuff, so if they buy an expensive
iPod, they can’t also buy an expensive phone and data services”). However, even
acolytes of the Plastic Theory of Consumer Electronics (“consumers will just put
the other thing on the credit card, too”) must stop to consider that wireless
carriers were promoting that their shiny new gadget-phones are perfect for
playing short videos. Won’t somebody please tell Steve Jobs to slow down? [click
title to read full report]
As we approach the middle of the year, it’s clear that the hot
new mobile device category is the musicphone. Nearly every handset vendor has
announced its take on the idea; Nokia has a diminutive slider phone which
includes a 4 GB hard drive planned for later in the year, and Sony Ericsson is
attaching the venerable Walkman brand to its music-oriented phones. However, the
press has been busy writing about the only product that hasn’t been introduced:
the iPodphone, expected from Apple and Motorola. BusinessWeek and The New York
Times ran articles when Motorola didn’t launch an iPodphone at a trade show
earlier in the year, and gadget websites are trading rumors about Apple’s next
big announcement, and when it will be. What’s so special about the iPodphone
that rumors about it overshadow actual products? [click title to read full
report]
Say
"Cheese" (Just Don't Say, "Print")
Brad Akyuz, Analyst, Mobile Devices; and Avi Greengart, Principal
Analyst, Mobile Devices at Current Analysis
March 22, 2005
The world's first mobile phone integrating a digital camera
module was commercially introduced less than five years ago. Today, built-in
cameras are standard features for all handset segments other than cost-sensitive
entry level phones and security-conscious enterprise devices. Once captured,
users can share and/or print the photos, opening up a whole new revenue stream
for wireless device and service vendors, as well as cross-category players in
the printing and imaging arena. Currently, the cameraphone printing business is
extremely small, so vendors are trying various strategies to simplify or enhance
the user experience: image transfer/print via proprietary Web services,
Bluetooth, moblogging tools, IrDA, MMS, PictBridge, and more. Which approaches
make the most sense? [click title to read full report]
