Category Archives: Devices

iFixit: Why I Paid Double to Replace my Mac’s Fat Battery

A couple of weeks ago I was working at the pool on a hot day, while my son played with friends. That evening I noticed my Mac was looking a bit fat, it rocked as I typed because the base was bowed. Checking online showed my batteries were reaching the end of the line. I […]

What is it that you do?

I’m asked this question surprisingly often, “Alan, what is it that you do?” My stock answer is, “I wander the world helping people.” Which generally results in a wry smile from those who know me; else a questioning or annoyed look from someone who was expecting a straightforward answer to a straightforward question. When I […]

Music in the Home. HomePod, Sonos, and Amazon Echo.

Apple announced their HomePod yesterday, a $349 home speaker. The positioning is interesting as the focus is on audio performance, not all the voice control stuff. Which is there, just secondary in its positioning. Some Apple fans have been comparing the HomePod’s performance to Sonos Play 1 ($99), when Sonos Play 3 ($299) is a […]

Verizon Powerful Answers Award

Verizon have just launched their Powerful Answers Award, its a global challenge to inspire and reward innovative solutions that address society’s biggest challenges in education, healthcare, and sustainability utilizing Verizon’s network, device and platform technologies. A total of $10 million in cash prizes will be awarded. You don’t need to be a geek that is […]

New Report: The Services Domain. Market Status, Case Studies, Analysis, and Recommendations

An operator is composed of three domains: Network, IT and Services.  Historically we’ve treated the services domain as something that can be solved by a piece of technology, called the SDP (Service Delivery Platform).  This has resulted in the industry’s slow response to the competitive threats of web-based service providers, which are now starting to […]

SDP Asia, Mobile VAS, Smartphone Apps & OS, and Convergent Billing Conference. 27-30 March 2012 Singapore

The 6th SDP Asia Summit is being held in conjunction with 3 other conferences: Smartphone Applications & Operating Systems (OS) Asia 3rd Mobile Value Added Services Asia OSS/BSS & Convergent Billing Asia The report “The Services Domain. Market Status, Case Studies, Analysis and Recommendations” report discusses the importance of the services domain to the future […]

Broadband World Forum Summary Day 1: FTTH is now Global, but we’ve got to Stop Wishing Business Models and Start Building Viable Business Models on Top

The Broadband World Forum continues to grow with attendees from 120 countries, 280 speakers (most were operators), 150 sponsors and exhibitors, 400 service providers and over 7500 attendees.  Gavin Whitechurch and his team deserve much respect for transforming BBWF into the Broadband event of the year.  At the session I chaired on next generation broadband […]

SDP World Summit and Broadband World Forum

We’re reaching an interesting stage in operators’ attempts to remain relevant to customers beyond voice and internet access, which still remains a nice business, yet commoditization continues, albeit at a slower pace than most have predicted.  The slow pace shows the strength of state-granted duopolies / oligopolies.  Though we’re seeing a mounting chorus in the […]

Recent Workshops

A common theme on many of my projects is providing either at the start or end of a project an in-depth workshop. The focus of these workshops is varied: providing a fast-track understanding on new technologies or business models; separating hype from reality; explaining the unsaid agendas of the suppliers and service providers; providing a […]

Where Next for Apple?

I’m often asked where Apple is going with respect to its devices and services.  A key to understanding Apple is in general they do not lead on new concepts; rather they copy, but copy much, much better.For example, they were not first to market with MP3 players, but when they did enter that market they […]