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Reality Check: Mobile barcode marketing and advertising campaigns – the need for best practices and industry guidelines

Editor's Note: Welcome to our weekly Reality Check column. We've gathered a group of visionaries and veterans in the mobile industry to give their insights into the marketplace.Mobile barcodes have gone from niche engagement tool to center-stage digital marketing vehicle, breathing life into traditional...

Reality Check: Google's social election

Editor's Note: Welcome to our weekly Reality Check column. We've gathered a group of visionaries and veterans in the mobile industry to give their insights into the marketplace.Hello from the nation's heartland and home of Google Broadband – Kansas City. The last week of...

Reality Check: Fee vs. free – navigating mobile 2D barcodes

Editor's Note: Welcome to our weekly Reality Check column. We've gathered a group of visionaries and veterans in the mobile industry to give their insights into the marketplace. Mobile 2D barcodes are rapidly becoming a mainstay of major brand marketing campaigns worldwide. But, if you’re...

Reality Check: Q2 postpaid wireless – experiments, projections and pressure

Editor's Note: Welcome to our weekly Reality Check column. We've gathered a group of visionaries and veterans in the mobile industry to give their insights into the marketplace.One of the great things about summer, especially this year’s Midwest rainfest, is watching things grow. Trees,...

Reality Check (Special Edition): The mobile American revolution

Editor's Note: Welcome to our weekly Reality Check column. We've gathered a group of visionaries and veterans in the mobile industry to give their insights into the marketplace.Despite having previously been late adopters of new mobile technologies, the United States has taken the lead...

Reality Check: Still an Android world

Editor's Note: Welcome to our weekly Reality Check column. We've gathered a group of visionaries and veterans in the mobile industry to give their insights into the marketplace.June is a special month in the wireless industry. For the past four years, it has usually...

Reality Check: Finding a voice for 4G wireless

Editor's Note: Welcome to our weekly Reality Check column. We've gathered a group of visionaries and veterans in the mobile industry to give their insights into the marketplace.Fourth-generation wireless mobile broadband technologies such as Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX) and Long Term Evolution...

Reality Check: Why wireline matters to wireless

Editor's Note: Welcome to our weekly Reality Check column. We've gathered a group of visionaries and veterans in the mobile industry to give their insights into the marketplace.Whenever we talk about the wireline business, about a third of you respond positively, and about a...

Reality Check: The view of 4G from the tower

Editor's Note: Welcome to our weekly Reality Check column. We've gathered a group of visionaries and veterans in the mobile industry to give their insights into the marketplace.You’ve heard them all on television and radio: “AT&T, the nation’s fastest mobile broadband network, is getting...

Reality Check: Is 2011 the year of prepaid?

Editor's Note: Welcome to our weekly Reality Check column. We've gathered a group of visionaries and veterans in the mobile industry to give their insights into the marketplace.“This time, it’s for real.” If I have heard that phrase once, I’ve heard it a thousand...

Reality Check: The Apple effect – it's everywhere

Editor's Note: Welcome to our weekly Reality Check column. We've gathered a group of visionaries and veterans in the mobile industry to give their insights into the marketplace.Several companies provided earnings and further guidance last week. Interestingly enough, all of these earnings results were...

Reality Check: The economics of HD voice

Editor's Note: Welcome to our weekly Reality Check column. We've gathered a group of visionaries and veterans in the mobile industry to give their insights into the marketplace.Communications service providers, especially wireless network operators, have struggled with poor voice quality for years. Many have...

Reality Check: AT&T Mobility beat the spread, so let's go buy Apple

Editor's Note: Welcome to our weekly Reality Check column. We've gathered a group of visionaries and veterans in the mobile industry to give their insights into the marketplace.The telecommunications earnings season began with a bang this week with Verizon Communications Inc. (VZ), AT&T Inc....

Reality Check: Google's shareholder value challenge

Editor's Note: Welcome to our weekly Reality Check column. We've gathered a group of visionaries and veterans in the mobile industry to give their insights into the marketplace.As many long-term Reality Check and Sunday Brief readers know, Google Inc. (GOOG) is one of the...

Reality Check: Voice over LTE – Balancing technology choices with commercial imperatives

Editor's Note: Welcome to our weekly Reality Check column. We've gathered a group of visionaries and veterans in the mobile industry to give their insights into the marketplace.Mobile World Congress 2011 represented the debut for voice over long term evolution (VoLTE) technology among leading...

Reality Check: Mobile content – what we need to work out for elegant delivery

Editor's Note: Welcome to our weekly Reality Check column. We've gathered a group of visionaries and veterans in the mobile industry to give their insights into the marketplace.It is clear that consumers with mobile broadband plans have huge pent-up demand for video content. The...

Reality Check: Standing up for standards

Editor's Note: Welcome to our weekly Reality Check column. We've gathered a group of visionaries and veterans in the mobile industry to give their insights into the marketplace.The terrible human tragedy arising from the massive earthquake and subsequent tsunami in Japan could have been...

Reality Check: Anchoring among consolidating network operators

Editor's Note: Welcome to our weekly Reality Check column. We've gathered a group of visionaries and veterans in the mobile industry to give their insights into the marketplace.My last three columns explored the wave of consolidation that is washing over the wireless industry and...

Reality Check: Seven trends to track in mobile handset market

Editor's Note: Welcome to our weekly Reality Check column. We've gathered a group of visionaries and veterans in the mobile industry to give their insights into the marketplace.Wireless handsets have been around for decades, but this market has perhaps never had a more promising...

Reality Check (2-fer): It's trade show week – The question that should be on everyone's mind (and) Boy, was I wrong!

Editor's Note: Welcome to our weekly Reality Check column. We've gathered a group of visionaries and veterans in the mobile industry to give their insights into the marketplace.With the new year comes the parade of trade shows, including the Consumer Electronics Show (Las Vegas...

Reality Check: Here come the fast apps

Editor's Note: Welcome to our weekly Reality Check column. We've gathered a group of visionaries and veterans in the mobile industry to give their insights into the marketplace.Understanding the interplay between the wireline and wireless worlds is important as value shifts occur. You can’t...

Reality Check: Love your smart phone? Make sure it doesn’t steal more than your heart

Editor's Note: Welcome to our weekly Reality Check column. We've gathered a group of visionaries and veterans in the mobile industry to give their insights into the marketplace.I fell hook, line and sinker into the mobile Internet with my first iPhone nearly three years...

Reality Check: Who's winning the data wars on the ground

Editor's Note: Welcome to our weekly Reality Check column. We've gathered a group of visionaries and veterans in the mobile industry to give their insights into the marketplace.Greetings from Kansas City, where we are preparing to host the Big XII basketball championships. Last...

Realty Check: Smaller and greener: The base stations of the future

Editor's Note: Welcome to our weekly Reality Check column. We've gathered a group of visionaries and veterans in the mobile industry to give their insights into the marketplace.At the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona last month, smart phones and tablets weren't the only feats...