A group of PC makers and wireless industry players announced a new effort aimed at embedding HSPA modems into laptops. The initiative, organized by the Euro-focused GSM Association, aims to spend up to $1 billion promoting “ready to run” laptops that will be able to connect to HSPA networks “out of the box.”

The new Mobile Broadband initiative overtly puts itself forward as a “compelling alternative” to Wi-Fi hotspots, but its other, unnamed adversary is WiMAX. As the WiMAX World trade show gets underway today in Chicago, and vendors across the board roll out WiMAX service plans and gadgets, industry players continue to evaluate where to put their monies and efforts. Thus, the GSM Association and the companies behind the Mobile Broadband initiative likely are attempting to bolster their base while luring potential converts.

“It looks a lot like the initiative is designed as a defensive move against WiMAX branding,” said Steven Hartley, senior analyst at research and consulting firm Ovum.

Mike Thelander at Signals Research agreed, adding that the new Mobile Broadband initiative also appears to rely on the same essential business model that many WiMAX proponents have been pushing. Thelander said one of the selling points for WiMAX has been providers’ attempts to distance themselves from two-year contracts and device subsidies, thereby allowing per-day and per-session billing models. Although the GSM Association’s Mobile Broadband announcement didn’t contain any specific information on the business model, Thelander said it may well rely on the same principles in order to foster simple, flexible mobile broadband connections.

“At a higher level, it’s getting a smaller piece of a bigger pie,” Thelander said, explaining that operators may forgo the small number of two-year contracts they could score in order to cash in on a larger number of one-time connections.

A $1B push

In order to grow that pie, the companies behind the Mobile Broadband initiative — which include 3 Group, Asus, Dell, ECS, Ericsson, Gemalto, Lenovo, Microsoft, Orange, Qualcomm, Telefónica Europe, Telecom Italia, TeliaSonera, T-Mobile, Toshiba and Vodafone — plan to allocate a combined $1 billion to promote and market the Mobile Broadband logo. The first phase of the initiative involves pre-installing HSPA modems, along with the Mobile Broadband logo, into a range of notebook PCs.

“Today, 16 of the world’s largest technology companies have committed to change the way people get online forever,” said Michael O’Hara, CMO of the GSMA. “This commitment is manifested in a service mark that we expect to see on several hundred thousand notebooks in the shops by the holiday season. The Mobile Broadband badge will assure consumers that the devices they buy will always connect — wherever Mobile Broadband is available — and that they can expect a high standard of simplicity and mobility.”

Further down the line, initiative members said they will work toward a “wider strategy” to embed the technology into cameras, MP3 players, refrigerators, cars, set-top boxes and other devices.

“A harmonized brand approach to Mobile Broadband is a significant step forward in reducing customer confusion,” said Thomas Teckentrup, general manager of Toshiba’s computer systems business in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

Red lights

Amid the rhetoric, Ovum’s Hartley sounded a note of caution. Several, in fact.

“For a sticker to drive user buying decisions it needs industry wide support,” he said. “The GSMA will need to quickly get other laptop manufactures such as HP, Apple, Sony, Panasonic, NEC, and Fujitsu on board.”

Hartley also questioned whether the initiative was even necessary.

“The ‘Mobile Broadband’ badge is designed to help make it easier for buyers to identify devices which can connect to mobile data networks as easily as handsets do for voice,” he said. “But surely it is already in the best interests of device vendors and operators to do this anyway? Of the sixteen companies involved in the initiative’s launch all are already working together on embedded products. How does a sticker help?”

Finally, Hartley raised doubt on whether external HSPA modems would ultimately be more useful to users, as they are generally less expensive than an embedded modem and are not tied to a specific machine.

“A modem can be pooled for enterprise use, but a laptop is per person,” he pointed out.

Thelander however took exception to critiques of the internal modem. He said internal modems can perform better since they can spread antennas over a larger area, and generally cause fewer problems since manufacturers are able to test them.

Nonetheless, the Mobile Broadband initiative offered the financial motivations behind the announcement. According to a study commissioned by the GSMA and Microsoft and implemented by Pyramid Research, a total of 79.5 million laptops, worth $50 billion, will ship this year in the mass-market, $500 - $1,000 price range the group is targeting with its effort.

  Email Article   |   Print Article   |   Permalink  |  More from: aa_Default_category |

---

Post a Comment

Name (required)
Email (will not be published) (required)

[Post a comment to this article] [Hide]