The Next Consumer BlackBerry - The Curve

Research In Motion is planning to release it's newest consumer device, named "The Curve", later this quarter. The phone will be exclusive to AT&T (Cingular). It will have most of the features seen in the Pearl, but will have a full QWERTY keyboard.

Some of the features of the new device are
- speaker independent voice recognition for dialing
- a media player and manager
- HTML browser with RSS
- trackball navigation
- 2 mega-pixel camera
- stereo Bluetooth support
- MicroSD slot that supports 4 GB cards
- 3.5 mm jack for standard stereo headsets

See the device at www.blackberrycurve.com

ATT (Cingular) 1st Quarter Results

ATT reported their 1st quarter results for their wireless division Cingular. Overall, the numbers were good, but ATT did not meet analysts' estimates.

Net Additions = 1.2 million (short of analysts' estimates of 1.3 million)
Total Churn = 1.7% (drop from 1.9% this quarter last year)
Post-Paid Churn = 1.3% (drop from 1.6% this quarter last year)
ARPU (Avg. Revenue Per User) = $49.21 (1.5% increase year over year)
Data ARPU = $7.88 (51% increase year over year)
Wireless Revenues = $10 billion (increase of 11%)

Wireless revenue represented one-third of ATT's total revenue for the first quarter.

BlackBerry 8830

The BlackBerry 8830 is the CDMA version of the 8800 which is currently available from GSM carriers Cingular and T-Mobile. Verizon and Sprint will both carry the 8830 starting this summer. Verizon will have it in May and Sprint is planning to have it available in June or July.

The device is a quad band device so it will be able to work overseas, making it BlackBerry's first CDMA device that will work internationally. It will also have a media player, a MicroSD slot, Bluetooth, full QWERTY keyboard, and built-in GPS.

Although Sprint will be the last carrier to launch the device, it will be worth the wait to hold off getting it from the other carriers. The reason is the phone will be unlocked from Sprint, while it is locked with other carriers. When traveling internationally with a Cingular 8800 or a Verizon 8830, you will be required to use the carrier's SIM card, meaning you will incur international roaming rates. Sprint gives you the option to use the SIM card of a local in country carrier, meaning you will be charged local per minute rates versus international roaming rates. This represents substantial cost savings for the international traveler. One caveat is that if you wish to keep the same number internationally, you will need to use the Sprint SIM card, incurring Sprint international roaming rates.

One cool feature about the MicroSD slot is it is located inside the battery cover. This makes it impossible to accidentally pop out and difficult to be stolen. The bad to this, is it won't be easily accessible, but security is key here.

Still missing from the 8830 is a camera/video recorder. Again, security is the reason for this.

Cingular 4th Quarter Results

Cingular posted record numbers in the last quarter that it will be known by that name. In 2007, Cingular will be re-branded as AT&T.

Wall Street measures wireless carrier by the normal financial data - revenues and net income, but the other measurements that are specific to the industry are ARPU, churn, and net subscriber additions. ARPU stands for average revenue per user and measures the average expenditure of a subscriber per month. Data ARPU is becoming another measurement that wireless carriers are tracking and represents the average expenditure that a subscriber spends on data services per month. Churn represents the number of subscribers that have left a carrier, so a very low churn number is desired. Net subscriber additions measures the number of gross subscriber additions minus the number of subscribers that left, therefore, a low churn number has a positive effect on net subscriber additions. The results for Cingular in the 4th quarter of 2006 are:

Revenue: $9.8 billion - increase of 10.2% over last quarter
Net Income: $782 million - up from $204 million last quarter, a 283% increase!
ARPU: $49.29 - an increase of 1%
Data ARPU: $7.19 - an increase of 53%
Churn: 1.8% - down from 2.1% last year. Postpaid churn is 1.5%
Net Customer Additions: 2.4 million, a Cingular record and an increase over 1.8 million during the same quarter last year. Cingular ended the year with 61 million total subscribers, the most of any wireless carrier.

Agreements that will aid Cingular (now at&t) in 2007 are exclusive agreements with MySpace and Apple, the combination of at&t allowing bundling opportunities, and increased investment in their high-speed wireless network, which currently lags way behind the competition.

AT&T to Start Re-Branding Cingular

AT&T will begin a campaign to rebrand Cingular starting Monday, January 15. Cingular will eventually be known as AT&T, not AT&T Wireless. The service will be referred to as "Wireless from AT&T". Executives want to use the same brand for all of the telecom services provided by the merged company. AT&T now provides local and long distance, wireless, internet and TV. AT&T will launch national advertising to let customers know that "Cingular is now the new AT&T." That feature products will end with the Cingular "Jack" spinning or swirling to morph into the AT&T globe. Other commercials are being created simply communicate the brand change. They will feature scenes where it looks like the Cingular "bars" are being illustrated and zoom out to show that it was actually the AT&T globe. As Cingular begins to officially change their name, subscribers will be notified about changes on their bills. AT&T will also begin taking advantage of Cingular's retail presence and advertising AT&T wireline service in stores that are located in AT&T service areas.

About 2,000 company-owned retail stores and kiosks will be re-branded over the coming year, and employees will begin wearing AT&T-branded apparel in the coming months. Even sooner, Cingular customers will start hearing the AT&T name on Cingular voice greetings and begin seeing related messages in their bills. AT&T estimated that about 20 percent of the operating expense savings from its acquisition of BellSouth will come from moving the three operations to a single brand.

Source: www.phonescoop.com

The iPhone is Finally Unveiled

After years of buzz, Apple has finally announced the iPhone, a combination of a mobile phone, a widescreen iPod with touch controls, and an Internet communication device with email, web browsing, searching and maps. The phone operates similar to an iPod and a Smartphone. One cool feature is the iPhone's Visual Voicemail, co-developed by Apple and Cingular. This feature allows users to look at a listing of their voicemails, decide which messages to listen to, then go directly to those messages without having to listening to the prior messages. The iPhone has a full QWERTY soft keyboard. The touch keyboard will appear when users need to type and uses predictive text. The phone also includes a 2.0-megapixel camera.

iPhone also features Cover Flow, Apple's way to browse the music library by album cover artwork on an iPod. When navigating the music library, consumers are automatically switched into Cover Flow by rotating iPhone into its landscape position. iPhone's stunning 3.5-inch widescreen plays the same videos purchased from the online iTunes Store that users enjoy watching on their computers and iPods. iPhone is a quad-band GSM phone which also features EDGE and Wi-Fi wireless technologies for data networking. iPhone includes support for quad-band GSM, EDGE, 802.11b/g Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 2.0 EDR wireless technologies.

iPhone will be available in the US in June 2007, Europe in late 2007, and Asia in 2008, in a 4GB model for $499 (US) and an 8GB model for $599 (US), and will work with either a PC or Mac. iPhone will be sold in the US through Apple's retail and online stores, and through Cingular's retail and online stores.

Source: www.mobiledia.com

Cingular Launches Treo 750

Cingular Wireless has officially announced the Palm Treo 750. The long awaited device is the first Treo from Cingular to have either 3G or Windows Mobile. The 750 has been shipping in Europe for quite some time but faced delays getting certified in the US. While the Treo 750 is a 3G device (in both the US and Europe) it does not yet use HSDPA, the most advanced standard. Palm noted to MobileTracker that a software update will make the Treo 750 compatible with HSDPA and that the company hopes to be able to push that update to Cingular customers at a future date.

Features of the Treo 750 include:
- Quad-band GSM/EDGE plus UMTS 850/1900/2100
- Windows Mobile 5 Pocket PC phone edition
- 240×240 pixel touch screen
- 1.3 megapixel camera
- 60MB of user-available storage plus a miniSD card slot
- Bluetooth with A2DP support

Cingular will begin selling the Palm Treo 750 tomorrow. It will retail for $399.99 after a 2-year service contract. Cingular also carries the Treo 680 which is a paired down version that is being marketed more towards consumers.

Cingular Plans Live Video Sharing

Cingular plans to make video service commercially available in 2007, allowing users to send a live video stream to a recipient during a standard voice call. Beginning with a normal phone call, customers can hit one button to add a live video stream, allowing the called party to see what the caller is seeing while they're talking. The service also allows customers to switch the direction of the video stream during the same phone call.

For example, a couple in San Antonio would place a regular voice call to their parents in Miami, and once the call is connected, hit the camera button on the phone to start the video session. The parents receive an invitation asking if they want to view the live video stream, and once accepted, they begin seeing the video shot by the kids in San Antonio. The speakerphone turns on and the proud new grandparents in Miami can see a live video of their granddaughter taking her first steps or saying her first words.

Cingular is showcasing its 3G UMTS / HSDPA (Universal Mobile Telephone System / High-Speed Downlink Packet Access) network and recently deployed IMS (Internet Protocol Multimedia Subsystem) platform to provide the video service. Other companies participating in the demo are Alcatel / Lucent (Las Vegas 3G network and IMS platform) and LG Electronics (LG CU500v phone).

AT&T…The New Cingular

Wireless is expected to be the heart of the newly merged AT&T Inc. and BellSouth Corp., bundling multiple services with cellular and allowing advertisers to reach multiple media platforms through one company. And that wireless heart will be the nation’s largest carrier, Cingular Wireless L.L.C., under the AT&T brand.

The new AT&T eventually will mean the demise of the successful Cingular brand. The re-branding of Cingular will begin shortly, according to AT&T, and will take place over a period of months. AT&T offered few details about the transition, but indicated that it will do a co-branded campaign that is scheduled to start early this year and use the phrase “Cingular is now AT&T.” The company noted that it has already begun extensive new advertising that will transition the BellSouth brand name to AT&T.