E-Tickets Only Starting June 1

By Kendra Marr

Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, February 23, 2008; Page D01

Mark your calendars: In 100 days, airlines around the world plan to stop issuing paper tickets.

The International Air Transport Association, a trade group representing 240 airlines, announced yesterday that starting June 1, its members will use only electronic tickets. The airlines, which include the big U.S. carriers, account for 94 percent of international air traffic.

Exceptions will be made for small airlines that can't afford new computer systems, but they'll have to pay for the privilege.

"It's about simplifying the business," said Steve Lott, the association's spokesman. The change will make it easier and cheaper for airlines to issue tickets, he said.

Once, travelers purchased airline tickets through travel agents, and paper tickets were mailed to their homes. If you lost your paper ticket or if it was stolen, you could lose your flight.

Today, more people use the Internet to book flights, and the reservations are stored in the airlines' computers. Travelers can print e-tickets at home or at airports. If you lose an e-ticket, you can print another.

"It's the convenience -- to be able to book a ticket and get my boarding pass without waiting in line or talking to a person," said Josko Silobrcic of Boston, who was using the US Airways check-in kiosk at Reagan National Airport yesterday afternoon.

The IATA is the clearinghouse for paper tickets, distributing ticket stock that airlines and travel agents order from specialized printers. On June 1, it will stop that service.

"It is a hard-and-fast deadline," Lott said.

E-tickets aren't as prevalent in other countries as they are in the United States, where they are used in 97 percent of air travel. In Russia and other countries of the former Soviet Union, that figure is only 54 percent because of legislation that banned e-tickets until last year. Some airlines, which are typically small and fly to remote regions, will now have to choose whether to invest in new computer systems or begin buying and processing paper tickets themselves. Some of the smallest airlines may do so because it will be cheaper, Lott said.

For most major airlines, e-tickets will cut costs. While a paper ticket costs $10 to create and process, an e-ticket costs $1. The switch will save the industry $3 billion a year, according to the IATA.

If passengers do not have access to the Internet or printers, they can continue to purchase tickets by phone or through travel agents. Instead of receiving paper tickets in advance, customers will be asked to pick them up at airline counters or kiosks in airports.

Airlines still need to work out some kinks. Computer reservation systems need to be reprogrammed for infants who don't take seats but need boarding passes.

Airlines also will adjust their systems to allow passengers on two-leg trips to transfer from one airline to another and check their bags through. In the past, paper tickets were required because different reservation systems didn't work together.

The switch to all-electronic ticketing is part of a program started in June 2004, when high oil prices and financial losses prompted airlines to reconsider their business models. Plans include ticketing kiosks where passengers can check in for flights on five different airlines.

Laila Mikhail, an agent with Up and Away Travel in Fairfax, said she rarely issues paper tickets. "We already moved to the e-ticket a long time ago," she said. "That's nothing new."

Airlines added fees for paper tickets as an incentive to go electronic. In 2002, Northwest Airlines increased its paper-ticket surcharge from $10 to $25.

As for the people who prefer paper tickets: Too bad, Mikhail said.

"They like to have something in their hand, but welcome to the 21st century," she said. "They'll get used to it and they'll like it."

Cynthia Stranis of St. Louis said she has used e-tickets since American Airlines installed check-in kiosks at Lambert-St. Louis International Airport.

"It's quick; you get to see the aircraft layout," Stranis said yesterday at Reagan National. "It's one less thing to think about when you're packing."

Goldman Sachs Predicts Downturn in U.S. IT Spending

While Goldman Sachs presents a gloomy outlook, IT vendors say a business downturn in the United States won’t necessarily impact their businesses.

LAS VEGAS — Goldman Sachs is putting a decidedly bleak spin on its U.S. IT spending outlook for the remainder of 2008.

At the company’s Technology Investment Symposium here in Las Vegas, analysts said tech spending in the U.S. market will likely decrease by two percentage points, from 7 percent in 2007 to 5 percent this year.

Software company executives who presented at the meeting, on the other hand, said the downtrodden U.S. economy won’t harm their business.

Executives from as far afield as Microsoft and HP to Tata and Accenture—as well as smaller companies—said that while they’ve seen some small impacts from the U.S. economy with respect to IT spending, there is little to fear in the bigger picture.

“The positive side of the recession is it kind of shakes out the weaker companies. It’s all good for the company if you have a good balance sheet,” said Global Payments Chairman and CEO Paul Garcia. “There’s nothing better for good companies than a good downturn.”

Goldman Sachs analysts said the reason a deceleration in IT spending seems inevitable boils down to a number of factors: slower gross domestic product growth; constrained end-market spending; and cautious CIO sentiments.

“We’re definitely a little gloomy on IT spending,” said Sarah Friar, deputy business unit leader of the Technology Research Group at Goldman Sachs and the lead analyst for the software sector.

“Really a lot of that is due to a drop in GDP that is so closely associated with IT. On the flip side, what makes us not completely throw ourselves out the window in IT is two things: global spending and on top of that, we’re also seeing quite strong mergers and acquisitions tailwinds …, which you can’t ignore in software.”

GDP is generally defined as the total market value of all final goods and services produced within a country in a given period of time—usually a calendar year.

In its Technology State of the Union report released at the Tech Symposium, Goldman said that while a decline in tech spending looks inevitable, it’s unlikely to swing to the negative. The report said that of the two downturns that provide a recent historical perspective for forecasting current impacts—the dot-com meltdown in 2000-2001 and the recession in 1990-1991—only the latter example can potentially serve as a proxy for what 2008 might hold.

“Because IT spending has been outpacing GDP only very modestly over the past few years, and we have experienced minimal overbuilding in that same time period—indeed, post-bubble IT spenders have been generally quite cost-conscious—it would be surprising for spending to swing to growth significantly lower than that of GDP, which our economists forecast will grow nominally at about 3.5 percent for 2008,” reads the Goldman report. “Goldman Sachs Research expects real GDP to shrink from 2.2 percent in 2007 to 0.9 in 2008.

HP CEO Mark Hurd gave a nod to Goldman’s gloomy forecast but said the impacts of downward spending in the U.S. economy will not be felt too hard at HP. Mainly, according to Hurd, that’s because HP is already on its own cost-cutting path—and it’s a global company.

“We will cut every penny of not valuable costs regardless of the macro environment,” said Hurd in his keynote address Feb. 26. “I don’t care about the macro environment as it relates to getting our company as efficient as it can be. It’s not the way we think. We’re going after everything [to cut costs] regardless.

Hurd said he has seen some reticence among U.S. consumers in its most recent fiscal quarter, but not enough to impact the company’s global business. “It wasn’t like we saw a huge change,” said Hurd. “It was enough, though, that we noticed it.”

Sander Van’t Noordende, senior executive at Accenture, likewise said his company is prospering in a down economy. Van’t Noordende’s segment focuses on clients in the energy, gas, utilities, chemicals, natural resources and paper and pulp industries. He said a number of factors are driving IT spending in those industries—the No. 1 driver being globalization. “Companies like Shell and BP, they’re organizing by vertical,” he said. “They’re implementing an operating model that is the same wherever they are operating.”

Secondly, according to Van’t Noordende, globalization is not just occurring in U.S. and European companies, it’s happening in Latin America, Australia, Russia and the Middle East as well. At the same time, Accenture’s clients are undergoing changes based on their vertical industry. “Our clients either produce energy or are large consumers in energy,” he said. “That’s the bigger scheme of things in resources these days.”

Van’t Noordende said that many of his clients are looking for ways to optimize the billions of dollars they are spending on new investments, including (but in no way limited to) building out their SAP investments. “They’re looking for help managing those investments,” he said.

“We program manage and provide IT infrastructure to manage those projects. It’s not like building out a new plant; it’s almost like building a new organization. If you have a joint business with an oil company in Uzbekistan, it’s a new organization. Then once the place is there you want to optimize. They’re looking for help there.”

Tata Consulting Services is also profiting in a down economy—and perhaps because of it, according to S. Sambamurthy, client partner in Banking Financial Services at Tata. One of the key drivers for business for Tata is a consolidation wave in the financial services industry where Tata’s clients want to reduce the number of vendors in their IT environment.

For example there were some large financial institution customers last year whose IT spending decreased, but their business with Tata increased. “They had fragmented suppliers and were looking to consolidate [spending],” said Sambamurthy. “Second, their option was previously offshore. With that customer we expanded their development footprint in South America significantly. When you’re certifying new locations … it’s a much longer cycle.”

IT services fall short of greatness, CIOs say

Technology leaders want to improve how IT supports the business, but without being involved in strategic decisions at the highest level, many say IT can't realize its goal of adding value to the bottom line.

Nearly 80% of 125 CIOs and senior IT directors polled said a lack of senior representation at the board level had a direct impact on their ability to deliver great -- rather than just good -- IT services. Good IT services for the purposes of this survey were defined as "merely day-to-day maintenance and firefighting." Great IT services were defined as "a series of strategic business/operational processes that add value to the bottom line."

---

Download the latest Network World Executive Guide - Special Report: Consolidated Recovery

---

The "Great vs. Good IT" research was conducted in January 2008 by Omniboss, a division of Vanson Bourne, and commissioned by Touchpaper, an international provider of IT services and other management products. The survey found that more than 40% of CIOs and senior IT directors did not believe that their department delivered great IT services. Another 42% of those polled reported that they are not involved in the decision-making processes around major organizational changes until the implementation stage or later. In addition, 44% of technology leaders confirmed they don’t have an IT representative at the board level.

Others cited technology among the issues holding them back from maturing service delivery from good to great. For instance, 55% attributed their lack of great service delivery within IT to not having systems and processes in place to make IT changes effectively. Nearly half (49%) reported they lacked solutions to automate the handling of day-to-day IT service and support issues.

"Without a doubt, the time has come when 'good' simply isn't good enough in terms of IT service delivery. 'Good' may keep users happy, but it leaves the CIO reduced to somebody who spends their whole day just putting out fires," said Graham Ridgway, CEO of Touchpaper, in a company statement.

Nokia unveils concept phone Morph

NEW YORK and ESPOO, Finland, February 25 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ --
Morph, a joint nanotechnology concept, developed by Nokia Research Center
(NRC) (NYSE: NOK) and the University of Cambridge (UK) - was launched today
alongside the "Design and the Elastic Mind" exhibition, on view from
February 24 to May 12, 2008, at The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New
York. Morph features in both the exhibition catalog and on MoMA's official
website.

Morph is a concept that demonstrates how future mobile devices might be
stretchable and flexible, allowing the user to transform their mobile
device into radically different shapes. It demonstrates the ultimate
functionality that nanotechnology might be capable of delivering: flexible
materials, transparent electronics and self-cleaning surfaces. Dr. Bob
Iannucci, Chief Technology Officer, Nokia, commented: "Nokia Research
Center is looking at ways to reinvent the form and function of mobile
devices; the Morph concept shows what might be possible."

Dr. Tapani Ryhanen, Head of the NRC Cambridge UK laboratory, Nokia,
commented: "We hope that this combination of art and science will showcase
the potential of nanoscience to a wider audience. The research we are
carrying out is fundamental to this as we seek a safe and controlled way to
develop and use new materials."

Professor Mark Welland, Head of the Department of Engineering's
Nanoscience Group at the University of Cambridge and University Director of
Nokia-Cambridge collaboration added: "Developing the Morph concept with
Nokia has provided us with a focus that is both artistically inspirational
but, more importantly, sets the technology agenda for our joint nanoscience
research that will stimulate our future work together."

The partnership between Nokia and the University of Cambridge was
announced in March, 2007 - an agreement to work together on an extensive
and long term programme of joint research projects. NRC has established a
research facility at the University's West Cambridge site and collaborates
with several departments - initially the Nanoscience Center and Electrical
Division of the Engineering Department - on projects that, to begin with,
are centered on nanotechnology.

Elements of Morph might be available to integrate into handheld devices
within 7 years, though initially only at the high-end. However,
nanotechnology may one day lead to low cost manufacturing solutions, and
offers the possibility of integrating complex functionality at a low price.

For further information, please visit the websites
http://www.moma.org/elasticmind and http://www.nokia.com/A4126514

Photos are available on http://www.nokia.com/press -> Photos ->
Corporate - Research and Development.

About Nokia Research Center

Nokia Research Center (NRC) looks beyond Nokia's existing business and
product development to challenge current strategies and to stimulate
renewal in the company's direction. Working closely with all Nokia business
units, NRC's research explores new frontiers in digital services,
physical-digital connections, human interaction, data and content
technologies, device architecture, and access and connectivity. NRC
promotes open innovation by working on research projects in collaboration
with universities and research institutes around the world. For more
information, see our website: http://research.nokia.com

About Nokia

Nokia is the world leader in mobility, driving the transformation and
growth of the converging Internet and communications industries. Nokia
makes a wide range of mobile devices and provides people with experiences
in music, navigation, video, television, imaging, games and business. Nokia
also provides equipment, solutions and services for communications
networks.

About the University of Cambridge

The University of Cambridge will celebrate its 800th anniversary in
2009. It is one of the finest universities in the world, a superb British
university with global reach. It is renowned for its 31 colleges and world
class teaching departments, ground breaking research and breathtaking
architecture. It attracts the very best and brightest students, regardless
of background, and offers one of the UK's most generous bursary schemes.

Cambridge was recently ranked number two in the world and the number
one University outside the US, in two separate surveys, the Shanghai Jiao
Tong University 2006 survey, and in the Times Higher Education magazine's
world rankings.

Cambridge people have been awarded more Nobel Prizes than those from
any other UK university with more than 80 laureates.

The Nanoscience Centre is an 1800msquared research facility completed
in January 2003 and located at the north east corner of the University's
West Cambridge Site. The Centre provides open access to over 300
researchers from a variety of University Departments to the nanofabrication
and characterisation facilities housed in a combination of Clean Rooms and
low noise laboratories. Office space is primarily home to the Department of
Engineering's Nanoscience Group, technical and administrative staff and
members of other research groups who require long term access to
facilities. http://www.nanoscience.cam.ac.uk

Motorola Names Paul J. Liska Chief Financial Officer

SCHAUMBURG, Ill., Feb. 21 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Motorola, Inc. (NYSE: MOT - News) today announced Paul J. Liska has been named executive vice president and chief financial officer (CFO) of Motorola, effective March 1, 2008. Mr. Liska will report directly to Greg Brown, president and chief executive officer. Tom Meredith, the company's acting CFO will continue as a non-management board member and will work closely with Mr. Liska to ensure a smooth transition.

Brown stated, "Since appointing Tom Meredith as acting CFO, we have undertaken a thorough search process to identify candidates with financial, operational and strategic experience. We are fortunate that Paul has such a broad set of general management and CFO experiences. Paul will be a very valuable addition to our team and he is well-suited to drive forward the important work already underway to enhance our financial performance."

Brown added, "On behalf of the board and the management team, I want to thank Tom for his significant contributions over the last year. He has played an important role in improving Motorola's cash conversion cycle and cost structure. The changes implemented under Tom's leadership have helped position Motorola for renewed success. I am pleased that Tom will help through this key transition period."

Prior to joining Motorola, Mr. Liska served as an industrial partner for various private equity firms including MidOcean Partners, CVC Capital Holdings and Ripplewood Holdings LLC. From 2004 to 2006, Mr. Liska served as executive chairman of US Freightways until its purchase by Yellow Roadway Corporation and served in various capacities with Weekly Reader Companies, including executive chairman. From 2001 to 2004, Mr. Liska held several positions with Sears, Roebuck and Co., including president of credit and financial products and executive vice president and chief financial officer. Prior to joining Sears, Mr. Liska was executive vice president and chief financial officer of The St. Paul Companies from 1997 to 2001.

About Motorola

Motorola is known around the world for innovation in communications. The company develops technologies, products and services that make mobile experiences possible. Our portfolio includes communications infrastructure, enterprise mobility solutions, digital set-tops, cable modems, mobile devices and Bluetooth accessories. Motorola is committed to delivering next generation communication solutions to people, businesses and governments. A Fortune 100 company with global presence and impact, Motorola had sales of US $36.6 billion in 2007. For more information about our company, our people and our innovations, please visit http://www.motorola.com.

Source: Motorola, Inc.

Microsoft looking for ways to converge Windows Mobile, Zune

Microsoft appears to be looking for new ways to tie Windows Mobile phones and Zune media players together, although a Zune phone remains unlikely.

BEA

• Virtualization TCO Calculator
• Sponsored by BEA

InfoWorld InfoClipz

• IBM IMPACT 2008 - Smart SOA Conference, Las Vegas, April 6-11
• Sponsored by IBM

Related Stories

• New Windows Server will lead march to 64-bit OS
• Microsoft steps up mobile consumer push
• Microsoft unveils new Zune players and community
• Popular Tags
  microsoft, windows-mobile, zune

Over the weekend, Microsoft developer "Mel" asked an open question on the Windows Mobile blog: "What are some ways the Zune player and a Windows Mobile device can work better together?"

Since then, more than 50 commenters have suggested ways that Microsoft might converge the two devices. The most common idea is to essentially replace the Windows Media Player on Windows Mobile devices with Zune software.

"I proposed that WMP should be fazed out in favor of a combined WMP/Zune player which will synch with both Windows Media AND Zune, instead of having to have two separate apps with two different libraries for each device," wrote one commenter using the name Colin Walker.

Peter Henning, another commenter, also suggested making just one media player that works on both devices. "Currently you are just making our lives much more difficult with this parallel development and incompatibilities," he wrote.

A single media player would solve some of the problems that other users complained about in syncing music between a Windows Mobile phone and a Zune. Another commenter going by the name Charlie Quidnunc noted that he has to create new playlists once he transfers music from Zune to his phone because Windows Media Player can't read Zune playlists.

Another complained that he can't transfer music that he downloaded under his Zune subscription plan to his Windows Mobile device because of DRM restrictions.

Offering Zune software on Windows Mobile phones could be one simple way for Microsoft to converge the two, said Michael Gartenberg, a research director with Jupiter Research. "There are any number of ways that Microsoft could go about Zune integration. We might see a Zune application for Windows Mobile devices."

But what we most likely won't see is a Zune phone, despite many Zune phone rumors. "On one hand, the Zune is a closed proprietary system not built around a partner ecosystem," Gartenberg noted. "On the other hand, the phone business is built on a partner ecosystem." Microsoft develops the Windows Mobile software, but hardware makers build the phones. By contrast, Microsoft develops the hardware and software for the Zune.

If Microsoft started making a Zune phone, it would compete with its phone hardware partners. "It's the same reason we don't see a Microsoft-branded PC," he said.

On the Windows Mobile blog, "Mel" emphasized that wasn't looking for more suggestions of a Zune phone. "I'm not referring to an imaginary 'Zune phone,' and I'm certainly not hinting or speculating about a converged device," he wrote.

Building a better music playing experience into Windows Mobile will be important for Microsoft, which is increasingly trying to make Windows Mobile phones appeal to consumers and not just business users. "For the most part, Windows Mobile has ignored consumers," Gartenberg said.

Microsoft recently announced plans to buy Danger, the developer of mobile phone software that runs the youth-oriented Sidekick device from T-Mobile. Microsoft has also made some executive changes in the Windows Mobile group designed to better focus on consumers.

Add to: Slashdot Digg del.icio.us reddit newsvine Y! MyWeb

Mobile Music Adoption Revenues Set to Reach $17.5bn by 2012

HAMPSHIRE, UK--(MARKET WIRE)--Feb 26, 2008 -- The total value of the global mobile music market is expected to rise to more than $17.5bn by 2012, driven by rental music services and full-track downloads, according to a new report by Juniper Research.

According to report author Dr Windsor Holden, "I think it's fair to say that 2007 marked the tipping point as far as mobile music adoption was concerned. Far more subscribers began downloading and subscribing to music content in developed markets, and it must be said that that the publicity surrounding the iPhone launch undoubtedly contributed to consumer awareness of mobile music services per se."

However, the Juniper report also argues that current prices for ringtones are unsustainable and that the market for such services may already have peaked in a number of developed markets, arguing that competitive pricing allied to a steady migration to ad-funded and/or self-generated ringtones will lead to a gradual decline in global ringtone revenues.

"With some operators now offering full-track downloads at a comparable price to iTunes, there is little justification for a ringtone retail price point that is in many cases two or even three times this level," said Holden. "Furthermore, those aggregators whose portfolios are largely dependent upon the polyphonic ringtone will be unable to survive in the medium term unless they both rethink their pricing strategies and substantially diversify their product portfolios."

Other findings from the Juniper report include:

-- The China/Far East region will remain the largest regional marketplace for mobile music services, accounting for around 43% of sales per annum over the next five years-- Ringtones, which accounted for 62% of the mobile music market in 2007, will account for just 38% by 2012-- The report argues that more operators should emulate the Vodafone model and introduce similar subscription-based music rental services

Juniper Research assesses the current and future status of mobile adult services based on interviews, case studies and analysis from representatives of some of the leading organisations in the growing mobile adult services industry.

White papers and further details of the study 'Mobile Music Services: Ringtones, Ringback Tones and Original Recordings (4th edition)' can be freely downloaded from http://www.juniperresearch.com. Alternatively please contact John Levett at john.levett@juniperresearch.com, telephone +44(0)1256 830002.

Juniper Research provides research and analytical services to the global hi-tech communications sector, providing consultancy, analyst reports and industry commentary.

Contact:

Contact: John Levett john.levett@juniperresearch.com +44(0)1256 830002

Source: Juniper Research Limited

Unicast Partners with AdMob to Power Rich Media Mobile Web Sites

NEW YORK, Feb. 26 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Unicast, a division of Enliven Marketing Technologies Corporation (Nasdaq: ENLV), today announced that AdMob, the world's largest mobile advertising marketplace, has partnered with Unicast to power mobile web pages through the Unicast Rich Media Mobile platform for its advertising customers.

Unicast and AdMob have collaborated on more than 10 rich media mobile ad campaigns to date, creating successful executions for major brands including Land Rover, SCJohnson, Adidas and more. These mobile marketing campaigns include rich multi-page mobile web sites featuring data capture, video streaming, interactive store locators and wallpaper and ring tone download capabilities. Unicast's business intelligence reporting tracks user interactions on the mobile sites, in order to provide marketers with deeper insight into user behavior and brand engagement.

An example of one of the Adidas mobile web sites can be viewed here: http://mobile.unicast.com/adidas/index2.php

Unicast's Rich Media Mobile technology is a hosted delivery and tracking solution for optimized rich mobile web page content. This solution helps advertisers to provide a richer experience for audiences that are both media and mobile savvy. The Unicast platform provides the tools for advertisers and agencies to quickly and efficiently create, deliver, and measure the effectiveness of rich media mobile ad campaigns. These campaigns can be tracked with real-time reporting, and the metrics can be tied to the reporting interface for rich media online and in-game ad performance metrics. This provides a true cross-platform solution for the efficient management of mobile marketing campaigns.

One of the key features of Unicast's Rich Media Mobile technology is the ability to dynamically detect the type of media a user's mobile phone can play, and then offer the advertiser's content in the appropriate format. This provides seamless integration for marketers and an enhanced experience for end users. Currently, Unicast Rich Media Mobile is compatible with many devices across the major US wireless carriers, including AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, and Verizon.

"We have extended our technology into the mobile marketing arena at a key inflection point, just as mobile marketing is emerging as a vital element of a fully integrated digital media strategy," said Jason McKay, President of Unicast. "We continue to invest in the development of our digital marketing technologies to deliver best in class rich media products to address the critical growth areas of the marketplace. We are excited to partner with AdMob, as they are truly an industry leader and a pioneer in the emerging market for the delivery of mobile solutions for advertisers and agencies."

"AdMob's clients leverage mobile marketing to reach their customers in a highly personal and interactive way," said Tony Nethercutt, AdMob Vice President of sales. "We have partnered with Unicast in response to the significant demand for rich mobile websites to support mobile advertising campaigns, and believe that Unicast's robust platform will make it easier for advertisers to deliver this rich experience."

ABOUT ENLIVEN MARKETING TECHNOLOGIES

Enliven Marketing Technologies Corporation (formerly Viewpoint Corporation) is a leading Internet Marketing Technology Company, offering Internet marketing and online advertising solutions through a powerful combination of proprietary visualization technology, and a Premium Rich Media advertising platform for the creation, delivery and reporting of PRM. Enliven's family of brands include Unicast, the Internet Marketing and Advertising Technology Group, and Springbox, the Creative Digital Marketing Solutions Group. The company's technology and online advertising solutions are leveraged by some of the world's most esteemed brands, including AOL, GE, Sony, and Toyota. More information can be found at www.enliven.com. The company has approximately 140 employees with offices in New York, NY, Los Angeles, CA, Austin, TX and London, England.

FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENTS

This press release contains "forward-looking" statements as that term is defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and similar expressions that reflect Enliven's current expectations about its future performance. These statements and expressions are subject to risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause Enliven's actual performance to differ materially from those expressed in, or implied by, these statements and expressions. Such risks, uncertainties and factors include those described in Enliven's filings and reports on file with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Copyright (C) 2008 Enliven Marketing Technologies Corporation. All Rights Reserved. Enliven, Viewpoint, Unicast, and Springbox are trademarks or registered trademarks of Enliven Marketing Technologies Corporation.

Contact Press: Ann Charles Enliven Marketing Technologies Corporation 212-201-0821 acharles@enliven.com Jay Kolbe Weber Shandwick 212-445-8215 jkolbe@webershandwick.com SOURCE Enliven Marketing Technologies Corporation

More stories about

• AdMob
• Mobile web
• Unicast Partners

Silicon Valley Losing Middle-Wage Jobs

The California region is losing its middle-class work force at a significant rate, according to an annual report that tracks the economic, social and environmental health of the region that is the nation’s technology heartland.

The 2008 Index of Silicon Valley — which this year was sponsored by Joint Venture: Silicon Valley Network, a public-private partnership, and the Silicon Valley Community Foundation, a nonprofit — found that from 2002 to 2006, middle-wage jobs fell to 46 percent of the work force, from 52 percent.

At the same time, while the percentage of higher-end jobs rose slightly — to 27 percent from 26 — lower-wage jobs expanded to 27 percent, from 22 percent of the work force. In all, more than 50,000 middle-income jobs have disappeared over the four years measured by the study.

The vanishing jobs — defined as those paying $30,000 to $80,000 — represent workers who had been in the lower part of the white-collar pyramid, including secretaries, clerks and customer support representatives. The picture was blurred, however, by growth in some blue-collar, middle-income professions like electricians and plumbers, and several white-collar areas like computer support technicians.

The consequence of the shift may undercut some of the basic mechanisms of the Valley economy, according to the authors of the report, by making upward mobility more difficult.

“If you lose the middle, it’s harder to support the top,” said Doug Henton, an economist at Collaborative Economics, a research and consulting firm in Mountain View, Calif., that helps prepare the annual report.

The short-range outlook for the region appears to be more positive, with the overall pace of job gains outpacing the nation’s.

For example, for the first time since 2001, when the dot-com sector was imploding, median household income rose. Silicon Valley added 28,000 jobs, for an increase of 1.7 percent in 2007. Over all, the region is far more wealthy than the rest of the country, with per capita income 57 percent higher than the national average.

Despite fears of losses in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks, the region continues to see a healthy in-flow of talent from outside the United States. More than 17,000 foreign citizens moved to the region last year, reversing a decline since the number peaked in 2001 at above 30,000.

Forty-eight percent of the households of the region speak a language other than English in the home.

Reflecting the changing boundaries of what is defined as Silicon Valley, this year the authors of the report added all of San Mateo County’s work force. It was the first change to the definition of the region by the study, which was first published in 1995. By moving the northern border of the Valley past the San Francisco airport, the area now reflects more of the biotechnology orientation of companies like Genentech. The region does not include San Francisco.

Venture capital investment continued to climb at a healthy clip during 2007, rising by 11 percent. Sixty-two percent of the so-called clean tech venture investment for California was invested in Silicon Valley during the year.

The Valley continues to stand apart because it is a center of technical innovation, said Russell Hancock, president of Joint Venture. But he also said it was unlikely that the region would be unaffected by a recession or the subprime mortgage crisis.

Still, the researchers behind the study said the Valley was distinguished by the flexibility of its economy and its ability to adapt to changing conditions.

“What we’re talking about is a Valley that continues to reinvent itself, and it’s not in any one sector,” Mr. Henton said.

One notable category in which the region lags behind its international competitors is home broadband networks. Only 51 percent of the region has access to broadband Internet — defined as more than 200 kilobits per second. In contrast, 65 percent of the households in Japan and 94 percent in South Korea are wired to at least that speed.

More Articles in Technology »

Industry hoping for action on data security bill this year

By Andrew Noyes CongressDaily February 19, 2008

The window for advancing a comprehensive federal data security bill is closing, but stakeholders are holding out hope that narrowly crafted proposals to improve government information security compliance and fight cybercrime might still get traction this spring.

A joint hearing of two House Oversight and Government Reform Committee panels Thursday examined one such bill, introduced last year by Information Policy Subcommittee Chairman William Lacy Clay, D-Mo., and co-sponsored by Government Management Subcommittee Chairman Edolphus Towns, D-N.Y. The legislation, which Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Henry Waxman, D-Calif., has also supported, would update the six-year-old Federal Information Security Management Act to establish requirements for securing personal or sensitive data.

The bill proposes a broader definition of "personally identifiable information"; strengthened reporting and auditing requirements, and calls for privacy impact assessments for agency purchases of lists containing potentially sensitive information from commercial data brokers.

Karen Evans, OMB's e-government administrator, told lawmakers in written testimony the FISMA bill could "seriously impact established agency security and privacy practices while not necessarily achieving the outcomes of improved privacy or security."

But Cyber Security Industry Alliance President Tim Bennett said Tuesday that while OMB has been "proactive in addressing shortcomings and trying to improve federal agency information security practices," its guidance has been "uneven" and too focused on compliance with memoranda and circulars. Bennett, who also testified at the hearing, said congressionally mandated enhancements could make existing OMB rules more meaningful.

Waxman is "committed to helping [the FISMA bill] move forward," an aide said. A spokesman for Oversight and Government Reform ranking member Tom Davis, R-Va., said: "It's going to be tough getting it on the schedule but we can hope for the best. We want the legislation to come before the next breach, not after."

A Senate-passed bill by Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., and ranking member Arlen Specter, R-Pa., that would give federal prosecutors tools to fight identity theft and cybercrime could be introduced in the House. Staffers for House Democratic Caucus Chairman Rahm Emanuel of Illinois and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., recently discussed the legislation with CSIA Chairman John Thompson, who is CEO of computer security firm Symantec, Bennett said. Other representatives from CSIA have been making the rounds on Capitol Hill.

"The bad guys are moving quicker and getting more sophisticated every day and we don't have time to lose," Bennett said. "These are issues that we think would be foolish to postpone until the next Congress. Let's at least have some incremental improvements."

Update: BlackBerry network goes down again

When RIM's network goes down, so does service to end users

February 20, 2008 (IDG News Service) BlackBerry users in North America were complaining of service problems again this morning.

Users of the BlackBerry outage newsgroup began reporting problems at around 6 a.m. on the U.S. East Coast related to scheduled maintenance on Research In Motion Ltd.'s (RIM) network. The issue appeared to get progressively worse, initially affecting about half of users in the Americas but eventually affecting all users, according to users of the newsgroup.

RIM said it was not a system-wide outage. "RIM did perform regularly scheduled maintenance on BlackBerry Internet Service that took longer than originally expected and some BlackBerry Internet Service customers may have experienced slower delivery of e-mail earlier today," the company said in a statement.

The problem affected only users of BlackBerry Internet Service and not BlackBerry Enterprise Server customers, RIM said. BIS customers sign up for the service through their mobile operators. Enterprises often use a different setup, installing a BES to deliver corporate e-mail to BlackBerry devices.

While messages to and from both BIS and BES users pass through RIM's network operations centers, in this case, only the network components that handle BIS customers were affected.

One user posted a note that he said came from his AT&T Inc. representative. The note called it a national BlackBerry outage that could affect e-mail delivery for up to half of new BlackBerry users.

At noon on the East Coast, one user reported that AT&T said the problem was fixed but that e-mail messages might still be delayed until the backup of messages was sent out.

Some users of the newsgroup said that they were able to receive messages all morning, although they were often delayed.

RIM did not immediately comment on the issue.

Messages sent to and from BlackBerry devices pass through network operations centers that are operated by RIM. When RIM's network goes down, so does service to end users.

The company had an outage just last week that lasted for about three hours and left users unable to send or receive messages or access the Internet. That outage followed one that occurred in January, but that one was due to a problem with AT&T's network, so it affected BlackBerry users as well as iPhone and other AT&T mobile data customers.

RIM's most notorious network problem happened last year, with an outage that lasted overnight for many users in North America.

Helping the CIO conquer eDiscovery

The already overburdened CIO has another big job on his plate. It's called eDiscovery, and it has been mandated by the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure requiring companies to turn over all electronic data in a court case. Just how does a CIO tackle these issues? SearchCIO has just put together an Executive Guide to help CIOs navigate these waters.

For more on this timely topic:
- See this SearchCIO article

More tech stories from the FierceCIO network:
> Blackberry goes down again. Article
> Dell remains committed to AMD. Article
> Blast-proof WiFi gear from Aruba. Article

Are you ready for change?

As a CIO, you have to keep up with change, so keep looking ahead and patch problems as they arise. There are always new projects and multiple demands for integration but there is a way to deal with it all, according to Dario Scagliotti, the CIO of worldwide auto manufacturer Pirelli. Automobile makers from around the world use Pirelli tires which are manufactured in 12 countries and sold in 120.

Pirelli has experienced phenomenal expansion and growth into new markets. And the job of keeping all its tires on the ground is a tough one that is aided by technology. "At the end of the day, a tire is a tire. It doesn't vary from country to country. So it's extremely crucial, as a commodity, for production to have extremely cost-effective manufacturing and logistics. Especially when you have an operational group spread out all over the world, but with a need to manage it centrally," Scagliotti told CIO.co.uk.

Scagliotti has some suggestions for IT shops with a global reach to follow. Here are just a few:

• Linking inventory and production to demand reduces inventory costs by 20 percent.
• Managed inventory levels increases sales by five percent.
• Improved dealer and customer service heightens brand loyalty.
• Real-time information improves corporate decision-making and agility.

For more:
- See this CIO.CO.uk article

IT jobs needed in recession

IT professionals that get themselves on the right projects before a recession are likely to be in a better position should one occur.

IT professionals are bound to feel the effects of the credit crisis sooner or later, whether or not the U.S. economy experiences a recession.

CIOs may well be reluctant to cut jobs, but they are still going to have to work with their chief financial officers to find places that expenses can be cut. However, cutbacks don't need to be a nuisance; they can also be an opportunity for an employee to get themselves aligned with the projects that are currently their organization's top priorities.

In fact, IT professionals who get themselves on the right projects before a recession—defined as two consecutive quarters of falling gross domestic product­—hits are likely to find themselves in a better position should one occur.

"The best thing you can do is find a way to get on cost-cutting projects, and be as central to helping your business survive as possible," Forrester analyst Alex Cullen told eWEEK.

For example, even in a recession, companies are still going to need to grow and keep their customers happy, Jim Lanzalotto, vice president of strategy and marketing for talent and outsourcing company Yoh Services, told eWEEK.

"Project roles related to customers and company growth are less susceptible to recession angst," he said. "We're projecting even higher IT requirements in meeting business priorities. We're seeing much more effort around IT/business projects and less around operations."

Being on top of IT metrics becomes increasingly important in quarters of slow growth.

Is your IT job safe? Click here to find out.

"[Companies] want to know where the efficiencies are and who are the most profitable customers, and where they can cut back without affecting them," said Cullen.

Meanwhile, during an economic slowdown, leveraging existing IT assets is everything to a company, as the CFO and CIO will be looking to get more from what they already have.

"If a company is looking across its IT department and asking where they're going to make good returns, the people involved in Web 2.0 projects have an opportunity to show how it can be used to do something cheaper than the company has been," said Cullen.

And for all of the talk about companies moving away from legacy systems, this is not something that will be on the mind of CIOs who are trying to reduce expenses. Instead, they'll be looking for IT professionals who can help build new functionalities into the existing systems.

"There's probably going to be an investment in terms of looking for legacy system people whose value is that they know how the systems work, but they'll be asking them so they can help transfer the knowledge for new uses," said Cullen.

Yahoo in negotiations with News Corp.?

Yahoo is reportedly in negotiations with Rupert Murdoch-owned media goliath News Corp. as the beleaguered web giant seeks to avoid the threat of a takeover by Microsoft. Both The Wall Street Journal and TechCrunch report Yahoo secretly is negotiating a deal with News Corp. to combine social networking site MySpace and related Murdoch-owned digital properties in exchange for at least a 20 percent Yahoo stake that would enable the company ward off Microsoft's advances and remain independent.

In a letter outlining Yahoo's decision to reject Microsoft's unsolicited $44.6 billion bid, CEO Jerry Yang urged shareholders to remain confident in the firm and its leadership, writing "Yahoo is a faster-moving, better-organized, more nimble company than it was just a few months ago … We have redeployed our resources to drive Yahoo's key strategic priorities, taking important steps to streamline our organization and close down or scale back businesses that don't support these critical growth initiatives." On Tuesday, Yahoo began layoffs of about 1,000 employees, a move announced last month in an effort to streamline and focus its business.

For the latest on the Yahoo/Microsoft saga:
- read this AFP article

AT&T: 95% of iPhone owners surf the mobile web

During his keynote appearance Thursday at the Mobile World Congress event in Barcelona, AT&T Mobility president and CEO Ralph de la Vega championed consumer choice, beneficial partnerships and technology integration as the essential components for digital content success, stating "Customers must be able to get content when they want it and how they want it." De la Vega also called Apple's iPhone "a game-changer," noting that since AT&T exclusively launched the device in mid-2007, mobile data consumption has grown dramatically. According to de la Vega, 95 percent of iPhone owners regularly surf the web, even though 30 percent had never done so prior to iPhone ownership. In addition, 51 percent have viewed videos via YouTube, and nine out of 10 rated the device better than their previous handset.

"There isn't a device that's easier to use," de la Vega said. "[The iPhone] proves that price resistance is only as strong as the user experience is weak."

Enhanced devices and improved user experiences are driving AT&T mobile data across the board. De la Vega said that 13 percent of all AT&T customers now own a 3G device, with another 12 percent owning integrated devices--subscribers on 3G devices yield ARPU 20 percent higher than 2G users, with owners of integrated devices generating ARPU that's 120 percent higher. At the same time, AT&T's decision to tie together its various music services under a single, one-touch access point increased mobile music revenues 400 percent in 12 months.

De la Vega repeatedly stressed the importance of AT&T's partnerships with manufacturers and content providers, listing off five principles vital to all of its deals: Companies and customers must benefit, both firms' interests must align, the agreement must play to each party's strengths, the deal must reflect market realities and the value proposition must resonate with consumers. "We need to structure deals in creative ways so everyone benefits," de la Vega said.

Euro operators team to define mobile ad metrics

Five of Europe's largest mobile operators announced an agreement to develop common mobile advertising metrics and measurements in conjunction with the GSM Association trade alliance's GSMA Mobile Advertising Programme. The carriers--Vodafone Group, Telefonica O2 Europe, T-Mobile International, FT-Orange Group and 3--will conduct a feasibility study to develop a consistent and audited data aggregation model in order to deliver cross-operator metrics to media and advertising partners. Priority one: Defining a range of metrics to describe the mobile audience and measure the effectiveness of mobile advertising. The study will focus initially on the U.K. market, with all five British operators working with the GSMA to develop proof of concept for cross-operator mobile media planning. "The power of the mobile as a marketing tool can only be realized if advertisers can clearly see and understand the benefits compared to traditional media," said T-Mobile UK director of marketing Phil Chapman in a prepared statement.

For more on the mobile advertising study:
-read this release

Nokia Search adds Google results

Nokia announced an agreement with Google to integrate the web services giant's search engine with its Nokia Search application. Launching in select markets via the Nokia N96, Nokia N78, Nokia 6210 Navigator and Nokia 6220 classic devices, Google search will eventually be extended to all Nokia handset models, spanning over 100 global markets and more than 40 languages. The Nokia Search service promises direct access to content and local information from the handset's active screen, engaging maps, messaging and browser applications in one click.

Google search services were previously available on Nokia Internet tablets--last year, Nokia's N95 8GB became the first mobile device to fully support Google-owned user-generated video site YouTube. "Adding Google to Nokia Search provides mobile users with a fast, relevant and comprehensive search experience that will be familiar to the people who use Google to search the web from their desktop," said Google VP of engineering and products for mobile Vic Gundotra in a prepared statement. "Google search combined with the high quality applications on Nokia devices help make information available to Nokia device users wherever they are and provide an excellent overall experience."

For more on the Nokia/Google search deal:
-read this release

Will the lights go out for IT?

It's probably too warm in your back office where the server and all of its components reside. That should come as no surprise. IT energy consumption in the United States is growing dramatically, according to a new report by the Technology CEO Council. And every kilowatt hour of energy used by IT replaces 10 kilowatt hours of energy that would have been used elsewhere. This doesn't mean the lights will go out tomorrow. It does mean, however, that IT, like every big energy user, must figure out a way to lower the thermostat, so to speak. That's doubly hard because most IT systems need to operate 24/7. That has become a way of life.

IT currently uses about six percent of all U.S. electricity, up from two to three percent in 2000, according to the report by John Laitner, director of economic policy analysis at the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE). Dell CEO Michael Dell joined others at a press conference recently on the growing importance of green technologies. He said computer users should expect to see more energy-saving devices entering the market in the near future.

"As an industry, we have begun to take up the [environmental] issue in a serious way," Dell said. "It's an issue that customers care about." In addition to the ACEEE report, the Technology CEO Council released its own report called "A Smarter Shade of Green." It lays out the group's environmental policy principles, including:

• The U.S. government should invest more money in green research.
• Governments across the world should reduce tariffs on green technologies.
• Companies shouldn't wait for government mandates or incentives but should adopt energy-efficient strategies on their own.

For more on technology and energy conservation:
- See this Techworld article

Economic stimulus deal spurs tech

President Bush is expected to sign the $168 billion economic stimulus bill this week that could save businesses tens of millions of dollars this year on the purchase of IT equipment. The legislation, intended to give a boost to the ailing economy, includes a provision that accelerates the first-year depreciation of capital equipment bought during 2008 to 50 percent of the purchase price. And that includes technology products. Another provision, aimed at small and midsize businesses, increases the amount of capital equipment purchases that can be deducted on 2008 corporate tax returns from about $125,000 to $250,000.

"It's a tremendous incentive for people to buy now-it's as if someone put a for-sale sign on every asset," said Tom Ochsenschlager, vice president of taxation at the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants in New York. Ochsenschlager told ComputerWorld that tax payments are like saying,"'You've got to do it now. You've got to stimulate the economy now.'"

There are plenty of ways the stimulus package will help businesses. Bartlett Cleland, vice president at the Information Technology Association of America in Arlington, Va., said the tax breaks may prompt many smaller companies to replace aging IT equipment. "Small businesses rely on IT a lot heavier than some big companies do," he said. "Arguably, the encouragement to purchase would be greater in the small business situation."

For more on the economic stimulus plan:
- See this ComputerWorld article

CIO strategy: Use eBay

Just what does a CIO do with aging equipment that is still usable but not the best available on the market? Palm Beach Community College in Florida came up with an idea about what to do with an IBM zSeries server that cost $500,000 in 2005. Last month, the school sold it on eBay for $40,000. Tony Parziale, CIO at the Florida college, had decided to move some of the school's business applications from the z890 machine to an Intel-based server that he felt could deliver the same level of processing services at a much lower cost. And that meant he no longer had any use for the $500,000 machine.

Yet he had a problem because resale brokers offered him just $15,000 for the nearly-new IBM. At the end of January, he made a deal on eBay that served his needs and was good for the buyer who wanted a slightly used IBM at a very good price. Corey Donovan, vice president of computer equipment reseller Vibrant Technologies, said it's "pretty rare" for zSeries systems to turn up on eBay, partly because of the resale restrictions IBM puts on the systems.

For more on ways to recycle your old equipment:
- See this ComputerWorld article

Protect desktop data, too

You've got your systems secured, or so you think. You have the best anti-hacking software available to keep the bad guys out, that much is for sure. And yet, like many CIOs, you haven't taken the steps to protect data on desktops, laptops and other portable storage devices.

The number of incidents involving these kinds of devices is growing. Two recent examples include Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey and Georgetown University. Both faced data compromises that could have been avoided. If you are thinking about saving a few dollars by shaving down the security budget, think again. If you think it's unlikely this could happen on your watch, study these recent thefts.

Horizon notified about 300,000 members of the potential compromise of their personal information following the theft of a laptop containing the data on Jan 5th. Although a security feature on the stolen laptop deleted all of the confidential information on Jan. 23rd, it's unclear whether the thief accessed the data before then. The data on the laptop was not encrypted, but it was password-protected. That sounds like a job half done.

Meanwhile, the CIO at Georgetown University faced a different headache when a computer disk was stolen from a locked room. The disk contained Social Security numbers and other identifiable data for 38,000 current and former students. Ignorance is not bliss for the CIO and other IT executives. A theft is a theft by any terms. And letting your guard down may just be showing criminals the door to get in.

For more on securing it all:
- See this ComputerWorld article

How to get a new CIO job

Okay, you have been in your current job for five years, and there's no place to grow at your current company. Every time you apply for a new CIO job with bigger responsibilities and a bigger paycheck, you come in second, slightly behind the guy who gets the job.

It's frustrating, all right. But you are not alone. There are plenty of people who have experienced the same scenario. You have to make a few changes in your approach to the job hunt in order to land in your next position, hopefully one with a bigger salary and more responsibility. Here are a few ideas for ways to help you get what you are looking for:

• Write a different kind of resume. You don't have to include everything you have ever done in IT. A resume is a marketing device to get you an interview with a potential employer, not an oral history of your life.
• Make sure your resume is customized for the specific industry you are looking into, not a one-size-fits-all kind of biography. Drop the dates of your experience and education before 2000. The potential employer does not need to know exactly how old you are and it is illegal to ask.
• Make sure the resume is only one page. No one will spend time reading more than that.
• Use a professional resume writer or a recruiter who specializes in resume redesign. It's worth a few bucks to look more professional.
• Make sure you network. A job may come out of the blue from someone you knew well 20 years ago or played softball with when you had the time and no kids.

And remember, getting the next CIO job may not be as hard as getting your first CIO gig--it may be even harder.

For more on selling yourself for a new CIO job:
- Check out this CIO Magazine article

The 4G buzz is growing

Although the 4G standards are still undetermined, I expect to hear a lot of rumblings about 4G next week at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. Operators may still be in the midst of upgrading their networks to 3G, but vendors are already touting the benefits of LTE (long-term evolution), WiMAX and other 4G-type technologies.

LTE has certainly been in the headlines this week. On Wednesday, AT&T confirmed what everyone had suspected--it will use LTE as its 4G technology option. AT&T is the second major U.S. operator to back the technology. Verizon Wireless announced that it was adding LTE to its technology roadmap last fall.

The LTE/SAE Trial initiative, which is made up of vendors such as Alcatel-Lucent, Ericsson, Nokia, Orange, Nortel, T-Mobile and others, announced that it had completed its second round of LTE tests. Findings include field tests on prototype LTE systems showing that devices can achieve download speeds exceeding 100 Mbps and high performance systems using 4x4 MIMO antennas can push this to beyond 300 Mbps.

At FierceWireless, we are taking an in-depth look at 4G and what it means to operators. On March 5 at 2 p.m. EST, I'll be hosting a Webinar, "Mobile Broadband and the 4G Roadmap." My guests, which include Peter Jarich of Current Analysis and Arun Bhikshesvaran, Ericsson's CTO and head of Strategy and Business Development for North America, will talk about the various competing 4G technologies including WiMAX, LTE and Ultra Mobile Broadband. Click here to register.

But the Webinar is just the start. FierceWireless is also hosting a one-day conference at CTIA Wireless 2008 in Las Vegas. The conference, "The Path to 4G" will take place on April 2 and will examine all angles of the mobile broadband equation and educate both carriers and others in the wireless industry on the current and proposed next-generation mobile broadband options. Our panel sessions will delve into WiMAX, HSPA, LTE and UMB. I've put together what I feel is a compelling agenda and we are in the midst of signing up some very high-level panelists for the event. Check out the agenda here. -Sue

P.S. Several members of the Fierce team are heading to Barcelona for the Mobile World Congress. I'll be there along with Jason Ankeny and Brian Dolan. We will be bringing you all the news from the event. You can see our coverage here. In preparation, we've also put together a MWC preview issue which tells you what we think will be hot at the Congress and provides you with some helpful tips for Barcelona. Check it out here.

Verizon Wireless sells $4B in bonds

Yesterday Verizon offered $4 billion in bonds. The company offered the bonds in three separate tranches: $750 million for five years, $1.5 billion for 10 years and $1.75 billion for 30 years. The dollar amount is conspicuously close to the current provisionally winning bid for the C Block of spectrum in the 700 MHz auction. The current pricetag is just more than $4.74 billion.

A report from BusinessWeek also noted that Verizon Wireless paid one lobbyist firm $320,000 in 2007 to lobby the federal government on wireless airwaves use, employment issues and Net Neutrality.

For more on Verizon's bond issues:
- read this blog post from Across the Curve
- also read the lobbying report from BusinessWeek

Fujitsu to develop WiMAX chips in Taiwan

By Kathrin Hille in Taipei and Mariko Sanchanta in Tokyo

Published: December 3 2007 02:00 | Last updated: December 3 2007 02:00

Fujitsu, the Japanese electronics group, and the Taiwanese government will tomorrow announce that they will jointly develop WiMax broadband chips in Taiwan in a significant Asian alliance intended to commercialise the nextgeneration mobile technology across the region.

WiMax is a long-range, high-speed wireless internet access that allows operators to provide signal coverage over areas of up to 50km but has so far gained little traction.

Intel, which supplies the microprocessors in four out of five PCs, has been a leading force behind the spread of WiMax and hopes the spread of the technology will lead to a surge in devices, using the technology.

Intel will begin bundling its own WiMax chips in PCs from next year, suggesting it will dominate the laptop market with the technology.

Fujitsu could supply Intel's rival Advanced Micro Devices and may find a bigger market in mobile phones or infrastructure equipment as WiMax networks are rolled out.

The partnership between Fujitsu and Taiwan is a significant step in spreading the WiMax standard because most PCs and mobile phones are made by Taiwanese companies. Fujitsu is keen to conduct research and development in Taiwan because it would probably generate large orders from the island's hardware makers, which manufacture most of the world's networking gear, according to Taiwanese officials.

The joint venture will take the form of a joint research facility in Taiwan funded by Fujitsu and the Institute for Information Industry, Shen Jung-chin, a senior official at Taiwan's Ministry for Economic Affairs, told the FT. The institute is a technology research body jointly funded by government and industry in Taiwan.

Taiwan has become one of the world's earliest adopters of WiMax in an attempt to transform itself from a contract manufacturer and designer of IT and communications equipment into a technology pioneer.

The island's government has awarded six WiMax licences, under which operators are due to start services by the end of 2008, and has invested heavily in infrastructure, testing and research.

"The idea behind teaming up with Fujitsu is the same as the one behind the entire WiMax initiative," said a senior government official.

"Currently, we make most of the world's IT equipment, but others set the standards. By jumping in really early in WiMax, we hope to have a role in setting standards and be able to receive, rather than pay, royalties in the future."

Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008

Students tout WiFi co-ops as alternative to municipal WiFi

The initial excitement and advantages of municipal WiFi projects have been met with increasingly complex and insurmountable obstacles. At first it was just a few telecom and broadband providers objecting to their turf getting trampled, but soon issues like economics, politics, and the bigger picture began stopping many projects dead in their tracks. If you're the "hail Mary" type, though, a new proposal from students at MIT and the University of Cambridge could turn things around eventually. Dubbed "wireless cooperative," the proposal is based on the fact that many urban areas are already peppered with plenty of personal and business hotspots—they just need some finessing to go municipal.

Related Stories

• San Francisco to vote on municipal WiFi network
• In the land where VC money flows, nary a drop for massive muni WiFi network
• Fingerprinting WiFi could secure MAC addresses
• Microsoft dewires Portland

Penned as a seven page proposal titled "Architecting Citywide Ubiquitous Wi-Fi Access" (PDF link), students Nishanth Sastry, Karen Sollins, and professor Jon Crowcroft offer their wireless cooperative concept as an alternative to the expensive rollout of an ISP- or city-backed WiFi network. The idea is that current residential and business owners could open up their WiFi access points and implement controlled, secure tunneling practices to allow guest access but also protect all parties involved. The system would offer a trusted point on the Internet that guests could access via an encrypted tunnel, preventing any kind of unfortunate mingling or malicious activity between the host of an access point and its guests. The students state this should prevent, for example, a guest from taking advantage of any premium services that a host is paying for from their ISP. It should also prevent a malicious host from, say, feeding a phishing DNS to a guest.

There are a handful of obstacles for the vision of open, WiFi cooperatives, however. One of the most significant is that ISPs could chose not to support it, or if they do, they could increase fees for Hosts who choose to open up their access points. Another issue is simply a social one of participation. Many residential users are unlikely to want to open up their WiFi for free, let alone have the technical prowess or desire to manage such a system. Security concerns go without saying.

Is a wireless co-op a good idea? Sure. Will it ever become a viable alternative to municipal wireless networks? The Magic 8-ball isn't convinced, and neither are we. The significantly reduced cost barrier is inarguably appealing, but there is far too much second-tier red tape to put much faith in the concept. Ubiquitous Internet access may be in our future. A wireless co-op, however, may be too difficult to pull off on a widespread basis.

Mobile banking reality check

If last year was the year of overblown expectations for mobile financial services, then 2008 will be a year of the inked deal but still little progress on consumer uptake, according to senior analyst Emmet Higdon of Forrester Research. Mobile banking and mobile payments are still technologies in search of a problem, which could be just what the industry players are looking to figure out at next week's Mobile World Congress. "People expected mobile banking to take off much more quickly than it has," Higdon said. "People are trying mobile banking services and discovering that it's kind of neat, but it's hard to read transactions on that little, tiny screen."

Carriers and financial institutions are still trying to figure out what consumers are interested in doing financially on their mobile phones. Forrester's polling suggests that customers, themselves, aren't really sure what they want to do with mobile banking. The problem could be a lack of imagination. Right now, U.S. banks are encouraging users to use the exact same services on their mobiles that they can already use online. "That's fine," Higdon cautions. "But it doesn't make it compelling enough to make a large percentage of their customers to try or adopt these mobile solutions. We are still waiting to see how that experience on the mobile could be different. We are still waiting on that killer app for mobile banking."

Of course, European carriers may have a head start when it comes to rolling out mobile financial services. The fragmented carrier market in the U.S. has so far made it near impossible for the financial institutions and carriers to agree on standards for mobile payments and near field communications technology, according to Higdon. Some carriers want to use SMS as the backbone of financial apps while others are pushing downloadable applications and still others WAP.

Technicalities aside: What is that yet undiscovered financial application that will be so compelling that it drives users to the mobile handset? Mitek CEO James DeBello thinks his company's remote deposit application could be just the ticket. Three years ago the U.S. government passed legislation that allows banks to accept an image of a check instead of the paper check itself to transact the payment or deposit. Mitek took that concept and ran with it: Mitek's software allows users to take pictures of checks with their camera phones (if they are 2 megapixels or higher) and send those images to the banks for deposit.

Look for Mitek's representatives and other financial application developers seeking to crack the mobile banking code at Mobile World Congress next week. -Brian

Entertainment takes center stage at Mobile Backstage

The face of mobile content turns ruggedly handsome at Mobile World Congress--Academy Award winner and independent film pioneer Robert Redford will keynote Mobile Backstage, the one-day mobile entertainment conference produced by the GSM Association in collaboration with Billboard and The Hollywood Reporter. The event takes place Wednesday, Feb. 13.

Redford is no stranger to mobile--in late 2006, his non-profit Sundance Institute launched the Sundance Film Festival: Global Short Film Project, an initiative spotlighting three-to-five minute short films made exclusively for screening on mobile handsets. The project was showcased at last year's event in Barcelona. Also, in January, Verizon Wireless added short-form programming from cable's Sundance Channel to its V Cast Video service.

Redford's Mobile Backstage keynote promises to focus on the potential of the mobile platform as a channel for independent filmmakers to reach a worldwide audience. Mobile Backstage will also spotlight acclaimed actress and director Isabella Rossellini, who will discuss her role in a new series of mobile shorts titled Green Porno--a name no doubt guaranteed to land untold copies of this preview issue in subscribers' spam folders--as well as Black Eyed Peas rapper will.i.am, who will explore the future of mobile music.

Mobile Backstage spins out of Billboard's Mobile Entertainment Live! conference, a staple at recent CTIA-sponsored industry events. It remains to be seen whether Mobile Backstage will generate the same level of attention as its predecessors given the enormous scale of the Barcelona show. "Is the buzz surrounding the event bigger than the actual event?" asks John Puterbaugh, founder and chief strategist with mobile media and service delivery platform provider Nellymoser. "[Mobile World Congress] is covering a lot of key mobile entertainment topics as part of its regular track. The speakers are a very eclectic group right now. I don't know if the headliners are enough to set [Mobile Backstage] apart."

Speaking of eclectic, don't expect any one dimension of the overall mobile data experience to dominate the discussion and headlines coming out of Barcelona--Puterbaugh forecasts social networking, advertising, discovery and mobile TV and video among the hot topics at Mobile World Congress, but he doesn't anticipate anything revolutionary on the immediate horizon. "We're in limbo right now--moving from 2.5G to 3G was not a game-changer, and there were no new services that really blew people away," Puterbaugh says. "Until 4G comes around, we're not going to have those kinds of innovative new applications and services." -Jason

Be the first to comment

Competing with the iPhone

Unlike last year's show, which took place a few short weeks after Apple unveiled the iPhone, all is quiet on the handset front leading into the Mobile World Congress. While Motorola mulls whether it should spin off its beleaguered handset business, other phone makers wonder how they can begin to top last year's showstopper.

"One of the lessons of last year learned from iPhone is that there is a new bar for how loud you have to be to cut through the clutter," Compete's wireless research director Miro Kazakoff said. "If there were any likely hit phones coming out at the show this year, the industry would have heard something by now."

The only high-profile launch slated for the show is Nokia's S60 Touch UI, which the company will be demonstrating at its booth. Rumor has it that Nokia will be making use of accelerometers for the user interface--those are the same type of sensors that Apple uses in the iPhone to automatically adjust the screen display from normal to landscape mode. The S60 Touch UI is a testament to the growing number of touch sensitive phones on the market. The feature is close to becoming a requirement on high- end feature phones that look to compete with the iPhone.

Rumors of a Google-powered handset made by Dell have circulated recently, but many industry pundits have thrown cold water on the prospect of such a deal. Others, however, claim that Google will launch its Android operating system at the Mobile World Congress on a phone made by Dell.

Few phone launches have turned heads lately, but one exception was Garmin's GPS-based smart phone, the nuvifone, which the company unveiled last week. While the handset boasts an MP3 player, video functionality and other multimedia features, its core is GPS and location based services. Perhaps its most compelling feature is an application that lets users geo-tag photos to easily pass along directions to other nuvifone owners.

"As phones get more powerful and given the inherent nature of how hard it is to pack more functionality into one phone elegantly, we are going to see a lot more targeted devices and segmentation," Kazakoff noted. "It's not completely clear what form factors and functionality will go into each of these categories, but we are going to see a market where phones are built for and marketed to specific groups and various types of users." --Brian

Be the first to comment