Sprint has managed to demonstrate some very insightful maneuvering this week. At one point it owned 54 percent of Clearwire. Then, in July 2012, it decided to reduce its stake to 48 percent. But following Softbank’s decision to acquire a controlling share of Sprint for $20.1 billion or so, Sprint then re-upped its Clearwire stake to 50.8 percent. Well, now Sprint is looking to own all of Clearwire, and has made a $2.1 billion bid for it. Will it get what it’s after?
As Sprint is feeling flush with Softbank’s money, Motorola Mobility is looking much less flush with Google behind it. Aside from looking to sell off its set top box business, Google-Motorola is now looking to get out of the South Korean market, where it is longer thriving. It’s unfortunate, but we suspect Moto’s 400+ employees will find homes at very flush Samsung.
Informa Telecoms and Media, a provider of business-critical research, has reported that sales of prepaid smartphones are expected to surpass high-end devices by the end of 2017. That is certainly an interesting switch from what today’s market looks like. The Dish Network, meanwhile, has been approved by the FCC to move ahead with offering its own smartphone services. Perhaps they will lead the charge on prepaid smartphones.
New reports from both GSMA and AHCIET this week have uncovered a perhaps not so startling strategy – lower taxation for the telecom industry at every level in Latin America will help spur much higher revenue streams from those telecoms for every country in the region. Who would have guessed?
Enterprise Mobility
Is your business still not on the mobile train? That can’t be right can it? If it’s still true at your place of business, you need to take Mobility@Ogilvy’s new report on leveraging smart mobility in your business to the management team ASAP. Tell them it’s urgent! While you are at it, have them read our latest article on mobile strategies for small and medium sized businesses. Again, tell them it’s urgent.
We’ll wrap up the week by suggesting that while you are busy getting management to read the reports we’ve noted above, you should also begin taking into account what the various mobile applications platform vendors have to offer your business. One of the companies worth scoping out here is Antenna Software, a veteran and long time player in this space – dating back to 1998. The company has recently delivered new enhancements to its AMPchroma mobile development platform, and it is well worth looking into. It’s also worth noting that HiQube Business Analytics has added a new mobile app capability to its high end data analytics platform.
Those are the week's mobile musings and highlights. For much more, make sure to scope out Mobility TechZone directly.
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