1. Customer-Centric Focus will kill the ‘Average’ Telco
Whether its actively warning customers about potential overage charges instead of gouging them on the punitive associated fees to informing a customer that they’ve already purchased a particular product when they mistakenly attempt to purchase it again, companies in the telecommunications and technology markets are quickly realizing that in order to survive the focus has to be on a company’s value to its customers, not the value of the customers to the company.
It’s a radical shift, and there will be many telcos who simply won’t be able to effectively make the transition. In this new customer-centric market, where customers need to feel as part of the team instead of just numbers of a ledger, the only way to survive and flourish is if your customers want you to survive and flourish.
2. Microsoft Introduces Surface Tablet
In an attempt to take on Apple’s juggernaut iPad, Microsoft has unveiled the Surface tablet in two incarnations: the RT and the Pro. The tablet serves as a new benchmark for multi-platform compatibility, bridging the gap between the company’s fledgling mobile platform and its well-established desktop iteration.
There are also rumours that Microsoft’s tablet strategy is more of a hit and fade, meaning that Microsoft has entered the tablet market simply to spur on production on Windows 8 tablets and bolster consumer interest in all its Windows 8 products. Once that goal is achieved, Microsoft will simply fade into the background.
3. FCC to Review Cell Phone Radiation Standards, Does It Really Matter Anyway?
Time and again, we here at TheTelecomblog have touched upon the sensitive issue of cellphone radiation. Whether it’s the risk of brain cancer, Wi-Fi making kids sick or the “changes in your brain cell activity” caused by holding a cell phone to your ear for a sustained period of time, we’ve made an honest attempt at uncovering how cell phones are increasingly affecting human lives.
However, the truth remains elusive, as almost all of these research studies have ended up being inconclusive, always stating that further investigation is required. Even esteemed global organizations such as World Health Organization’s have answered: we’re not quite sure.
While Governments and regulatory bodies such as the CRTC and FCC have passed the buck to scientists, the bottom line is that cellphones do impact us and the world around us, for better or for worse.
4. Corporate Security in a BYOD World
Gazing across the technological landscape there’s one disturbing trend that I have to admit I didn’t see coming, the BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) Movement. Since the inception of corporate IT there has always been a sharp demarcation between technology for business and technology for the general public, with IT departments content in the thought that the two would never meet…until now of course.
While the IT crowd struggles to manage this influx of free range unmanaged devices, desperately trying to come to terms with the control consumerization has had on the corporate technology sector, here are a few tips on how to recognize the extant threats and what you can do about them.
5. Samsung’s Galaxy S III SAFE for Enterprise Sector
In an effort to combat the security risks associated with the rampant BYOD movement, Samsung has taken steps to ensure that it’s new Galaxy S III smartphone will be enterprise ready and IT approved, officially making the phone the first to be branded and sold under the company’s SAFE program.
The new program, Samsung Approved For Enterprise (SAFE) is designed primarily to combat the explosive fragmentation of the Android platform, giving IT departments the tools and platform reliability they need to be able to incorporate the Galaxy S III into secure corporate networks, alleviating the threat posed by the BYOD phenomena.
6. Apple Employs Fragmentation in Forced Upgrade Strategy
While fragmentation is quickly turning out to be the upgrade strategy de jure for Android and Microsoft, it looks like Apple has finally joined the party. Long known and loved for the unmatched compatibility between the various generations of its devices, with the release of iOS 6 this past month Apple departed from its modus operandi, introducing features and upgrades with the new OS upgrade that will only be able on the iPhone 4S or better.
This means that despite the fact that Apple still actively markets older versions of its phones, those phones will have neither Siri nor the company’s new turn-by-turn navigation platform, and so if you happen to be holding an older iPhone model, you’re simply out of luck.
