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Most Economicially Competitive Countries
Source: Global Competitiveness report 2007-2008, World Economic Forum
A friend of mine at Hong Kong operator Hutchison (branded "3" there) has relayed that tens of thousands of Hong Kong residents have signed up for a tracking service enabling them to monitor the 
movements of their spouses. The "Follow Me, Follow You" service offers subscribers unlimited "spot searches" to track a person's location by identifying the location of their mobile signal. Nothing really new here--this is location based services originally positioned as a means to locate the whereabouts of your children. Launched in 2005, the service requires both finder and findee to consent to the searches being carried out in this global city of 7 million people. This takes texting your secret lover to higer quantum level. Kind of like "prisoner's dilemma" with your spouse!
In Flagrante Delicto
This interested me since another friend at a competitor to Hutchison advised me in 2005 of a "secret 
service" they offer with ringer tones. This operator cleverly adapted the ring back tone phenomenon (where a caller hears a custom ring tone which is usually a slice of music instead of the trill we're used to) for philandering spouses visiting their lovers across the border in the mainland. Since HK calling ringers were different than when you were roaming in China, this operator offered a solution for those visiting the mainland potentially having an afternoon delight--a ring back tone that was the same as though you were still physically in the home network.
Should you receive a call during a mainland flagrante delicto, your calling spouse would think you're in Hong Kong. The intriguing commercial aspect to this was my mate came up with the idea by culling their billing records for those MALE customers who were most often across the border during the day as reflected by their calling records, then via a telemarketing call offered this special service. At a high monthly premium close to US$10, they had a closure rate over 75% and a user base of "over 10,000." That is a million $ revenue stream, all without the consuming public knowing of this "elite" service. Sound way to make quota with a high margin revenue stream to boot.
Some say "Hong Kong is the marriage graveyard" for gueilos ("white ghoasts"=westerners). Be cautious out there mates & mate-esses, this could happen to you (click here). An example of unfettered capitalism offering a technical solution appealing to all the facets of human foibles.
OK. Now its your turn. Do you think Hong Kong is "marriage graveyard." Do you think either Hutchison or the "secret service" provider has crossed a moral/commercial 
line? Did my mate violate privacy rights by offering a service to consumers who recognized "value?" Comments are very welcome, please! If you liked the post, please dig, delicous, or stumble to spread the word! Thanks for your readership.
China Unicom is to be Cracked
As I reported about the inevitability of it in my September 15, 2007, post "China Shakes Up Telecoms Market: Mobile is the Driver", the Chinese government has signed off on the restructuring of China's telecoms market. South
China Morning Post reports that China Mobile will merge with fixed-line company China Tietong, which is currently a subsidiary of the national railway.(That's partially how T Mobile Germany started folks, its technology was seated in the German Railway system.)
China Unicom will be split into two companies. The GSM business is to be merged with landline operator China Netcom while rival landline operator, China Telecom will get the CDMA piece as a starter kit to enter the mobile market.
Chang Xiaobing, Unicom's chairman, is expected to lead the merged China Unicom GSM and China Netcom company. China Mobile chairman Wang Jianzhou, who is expected to retire shortly, will be replaced by Xi Guohua, who is currently a vice-minister of the Ministry of Information Industry. No word on which executive in China Telecom, often overlooked in media reporting, will be taking the helm.
"There will be three full-service telecoms operators and the new merged entities will be able to provide fixed-line and mobile communications services," a source said, adding that the reshuffle will occur after the Beijing Olympics.
No details were added about plans for the 3G licenses--although the buzz over the last year has anticipated restructuring would be linked to the allocation of the licenses. The widely expected result is that Unicom's GSM and CDMA operations would go down the WCDMA and CDMA routes respectively while China Mobile would be required to support the home grown TD-SCDMA technology. Given that China Mobile is a board member of the GSM Association, I wonder how that will play with the international standardistas?
Avoid being "Me, too!"
The challenge for both China Telecom and China Netcom will be to compete against the established rival China Mobile without being viewed by consumers as just a "me too" wirless service. Both converged companies have a service portfolio of the old guard: wireline, DSL and cable services. The only new media component of their poftfolio, especially China Telecom, is is IPTV.
Notwithstanding the restructuring, how nimble can these re-formed operators be against China Mobile?
OK. Now its your turn. What do you think of the China's government market intervention? Will this 
impact the share value of CMCC? Will this help or hurt mobile users in China, including offering more innovative services, or even providing the iPhone a new distribution channel beyond CMCC?Comments are very welcome (please!) with the objective of building a community who engages in a conversation. And if you liked the post, please dig, delicous, or stumble to spread the word! Thanks for your readership.
Thanks to Cellular News for the artwork
Duh! Teens are “Super Communicators”
Research from the Pew Internet & American Life Project finds that that 93% of teens use the internet, essentially using the web as their social palate—the place where they can interact, share their creativity, and tell stories. 64% of online teens ages 12-17 have participated in one or more among a wide range of content-creating activities on the internet, up from 57% of online teens in a similar survey at the end of 2004.
28% of the entire teen population are super-communicators. These are teens who employ multiple 
communications options for dealing with family and friends, including wireline phones, cell phones, texting, social network sites, instant messaging, and email, and surprisingly they are more likely to be older girls. This breaks with the past “3 Gs” marketing perspective of the mobile industry, i.e., “Games, Girls & Gadgets” targeted at teenage boys.
The reality of the mobile business is that sub-twenties consume more sophisticated communications tools than a 40 year old corporate executive who is completely price elastic when it comes to communication costs. This is quite a disruptive influence which goes well beyond the mere “teen texting” phenomenon which is most often reflected in the media mobile advertising culture.
Result of the Bedroom Culture
Face it, kids drive the world. If you want to understand the future of technology, look to why and how technology enters into the lives of tomorrow’s customers. If you really want to see the future, examine how childhood has changed rather than how technology has changed.
Children and young people’s engagement and experience of “the world” has radically changed. The difference from children of the past is now their “world” isn’t the real world which most of mankind has experienced; it is the “virtual world.” New media and technology have clearly shaped their social life, but it hasn’t been the cause of this. It in fact is the result of something very different.
Consider how perceived risk has changed childhood. The rising concern of anything remotely or horribly risky befalling children has lead to the decline of kid’s street culture. When I was growing up in the 60s, the ringing pronouncement of my mother whether we were either in the US or France during my summers was “GO OUTSIDE AND PLAY!” I’m sure that even in cave man days, kids were either lashed to their mothers while gathering, or following their fathers while hunting. But today’s industrialized developed child socializes from the confines of his/her bedroom, which has made technology critically important to their cultural connections. Technology isn’t the cause, it is the effect.
As a result, most kids are fairly isolated. Digital technologies such as the mobile phone and easy access to the internet have enabled adolescents to overcome their experience of isolation through connected communication with their peers. Parents look as though mobile communications is a technology tool, while the children use it to gain freedom from parents/adult supervision and reach out. Kids engage in tribal behavior using a separate language as a code such as shortened SMS, thus avoiding any adult interpretation. Naturally these connection technologies make them passionate about the technology. It connects them with peers, enables them to be entertained. It gives them ways of interaction, experiment, to progress, to grow up.
Lagging Mobile Marketing Message
The rise and commercial attention on social networking services is a reflection of the reality that kid’s self expression is the biggest problem they have. The reflected results of the problem are the “confluent” use of technology and solutions to express themselves such as You Tube, My Space, Facebook, Flicker, IM, SMS, etc. They have created their space to do what they want, which is what we did when we played kick the can, sandlot baseball or spin the bottle. Mobile phone personalization through ring tones and skins expresses who they are. Kid social hierarchy is now through who you relate to and reflected in a buddy list, which is a new social status marker.
In order to broader capitalize and harvest this opportunity the mobile industry needs to be more responsive and reactive to this new evolution of consumers. It is a reflection that marketing to the mobile consumer is not effective to the young, male football viewers (from either side of the Atlantic), nor enterprise based aging baby boomers. It needs to be more engaged on these creative communicators, these Super Communicators which will shape the business in a few short years.
OK. Now its your turn. What do you think of the comfort of today's risk free kids? Do you think 
technology has enabled this or is a demand response to it? Is marketing of mobile communcations lagging this cohort? Comments are very welcome (please!) with the objective of building a community who engages in a conversation. And if you liked the post, please dig, delicous, or stumble to spread the word! Thanks for your readership.
Mobile Point View welcomes all the Mobilists 
spanning the globe to 2008's first Carnival of the Mobilists!
The last visit by the Carnival of the Mobilists to Mobile Point View was back in the heat of August when everyone was either cuttin' or catchin' waves. Like the fresh renewal of a New Year our contributors are boldly embracing topics of the mobile-sphere. The coverage is all over the mobile map--not surprising-since most of the world has been at rest the past fortnight with no hot buzz going. So like they do in Finland jump into the ice water, then get warmed up with the topics of the week. As host let me first toast all those who've contributed this week with a quick shot glass of Maotai , GANBEI, through my own submission...Mt. Everest Calling.
Being the first post of the year, I knew somebody was going to lead with predictions, and the starter is Rudy De Waele at M-Trends.Org who goes out on a limb in Mobile and Wireless Trends for 2008. Admirably, Rudy encourages you to check out his prognostication powers and look at his 2007 predictions as well. Pretty sound analysis of the probable trends this year from my point view--although I think he missed one, which I'll address in a later post this week with my own predictions at Mobile Messaaging 2.0.
Chetan Sharma at Always on Real-Time Access takes on the same task in Mobile Industry Predictions 2008. Chetan's twist is that he surveyed his consulting clients to compile their perspectives in framing his views--very clever delegation of duties there, mate. Now class, let's compare and contrast Rudy's and Chetan's perspectives....
Martin Sauter of Mobile Society in Let's Prepare for 3GSM / Mobile World Congress, provides a practical initiative in preparation for the upcoming Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. He's opened a Wiki to share information about events and parties (always critically needed), job offers, apartments, etc. Great idea Martin, I've already posted an event I'm hosting introducing the "Mobile Barometer." If you contributed to the CoM last year and are going to Barcelona, this is the place to set up those meet and greet meetings. See you there!
Michael Mace at Mobile Opportunity declares his choice for the Mobile Device of 2007. Taking a partially contrarian view he outlines his criteria for the best mobile device and determines it to be....Check it out for the surprising cliff hanger conclusion.
John Puterbaugh of Nellymoser addresses the buzztopic of last year, social networks and mobility in Mobile 2.0 - The Social Web meets Mobility by shaking the foundation of Mobile 2.0 by boldly proposing his own definition of Mobile 2.0 in the context of Actant Networks, a thorough argument shfting the focus and purpose of Mobile 2.0.
Judy Breck of GoldenSwamp shows off her new and improved site, very kewl--love the bubbles, with A Phone with a Browser is Knowledge in My Pocket, covering the seemingly lost opportunity for educators to WAKE UP, smell the mobile browser effect brewing and embrace the educational power of the mobile phone in their students' pockets.
C. Enrique Ortiz provides a short wrap up of Mobile Payments News Stories of 2007. Having myself just completed a consultancy for a company centered on mobile transactions, CEO recognizes that 2008 will be time for traction in transactions and I agree.
Ajit Jaokar of OpenGardens debates Open Source vs Open Standards-Complementing or Competing?, a bits and bytes approach on how to address these issues. Way over the horizon for this commercially focused guy, but nonetheless interesting. Guest blogger, Frederik Ademar, at Vision Mobile Forum, explains how proxies are making an increasingly important contribution to the mobile web in Boosting Internet in Mobile - The Return of the Browser Proxies. Clearly the heady-ist contributions of the week.
Russell Shaw at Mobile Messaging 2.0, covers off the balance between personal liberties while texting balanced by the risk of your behavior against community safety in his "New Washington State Texting While Driving Law Strikes the Right Balance". Staying with the role of policy makers impacting mobile, Ben Whitaker of Masabists in "Did the NSA put a back door in our mobile security?" explains why we need to be aware of mobile key security and its potential threats by "big brother" as well as "little brothers" lurking outhere.
James Cooper of mjelly feels Ringtones have finally gotten sufficiently settled in the culture to issue the Top 10 Ring Tones of All Time. I'm shocked to find James excluded my ringtone, The Man from UNCLE theme, from his list. Jarkko Aho of BrandMobilePhones.com takes on Nokia for their subtle subordination of their own core brand message in Nokia No More Connecting People. Continuing with the Nokie theme, Tom Hanna at TamS 60 relays why it is irrelevant that Nokia's NGage platform is late to market in Nokia NGage Delayed-Why it Doesn't Matter
Andrew Grill explains why It's Not Just Privacy Concerns Preventing Mobile Advertising from Taking Off, addressing the convergence of LBS, advertising and Zone Detection in mobile phones.
Wow, no dearth of topics for the auspicious date of 1-7-08. Double 8's!! Best wishes for renewal and prosperity in 2008 and for visiting Mobile Point View.
Next week's CoM # 106 will be hosted by Xen Mendelsohn, whose insight of the mobile avatar sparkles, at Xellular Identify, http://www.xellular.net/. Visit her on the 14th. You can also post to CoM by sending your contribution to mobilists at googlemail dot com.
Visit again soon or subscribe to Mobile Point View.
Cell Coverage at the Top of the World
The world's highest elevation mobile phone base 
station has been launched on Mount Everest.
Built at an altitude of 6500 meters (21,450 ft which is about 4,000 ft below the summit), the mobile base station has been erected and serves subscribers and roamers on China Mobile, CMCC. 
It will be providing communications services for the relay of the Olympic torch and mountaineers who come to climb Everest.
The construction of the base station was started on October 25, 2007, and lasted more than 20 days. Because of the high altitude of the area, the construction work itself and the transportation of relevant equipment and materials were the two major difficulties for the builders. Let alone the temperature, where January is the coldest month on the mountain, with summit temperatures averaging -33 F ( -36 C ) and can drop as low as -76 F (- 60 C).
China Mobile previously completed the mobile communications network coverage between Lhasa and Mount Everest Camp, which now features a total of 17 base stations and 20 repeaters.
Given the amount of climber traffic on Mt. Everest, don't be surprised if you get a call from someone surmounting it. Can you hear me now?
Inflamed Thumb Syndrome
Under the category of "man bites dog" and the growing cultural phenomenon of government policy wonks 
seeking to reduce all risks in life striving to be an ultimate "nanny world," texters beware of:
Texting tenosynovitis, aka "Text Messenger's Thumb"
...que the ominous music, duh, duh, duh, dah....Seems two enterprising Kiwi physicians have published in the New Zealand Medical Journal an article on the dangers of mobile messaging! Citing treatment of a dental student who was sending over 100 SMS a day, the woman inflamed the tendons along the thumb and side of the wrist and filled the surrounding tissue with fluid. (Having spent a summer in college working at the Cleveland Clinic, here's the pathophysiology: Flexor tendons of the hand run in tight fibroosseous tunnels. Visceral and parietal layers of synovium lubricate and nourish the tendons. These layers usually are collapsed unless infection, which follows the path of least resistance along the tendon sheaths or inflammation, is present, thus causing the tenosynovitis. Impressed, eh ;)
Cannot be the Only Case
The physicians cite (see "case notes") two other documented cases of "texting tenosynovitis", one a school-aged child in Singapore and a 13-year-old girl in Australia. The authors of the journal report, Emma Storr and Mark Stringer, said tenosynovitis was likely to be more common than thought, given the popularity of sending SMSs. Do ya think ?
Clive Thompson of the New York Times seems to have been the first in the mass media to address this phenomenon. Covering an emerging medical phenomenon, he interviews Dr. Robert Bacon, an in house MD at Rogers--with growing reduction of employer medical coverage, a sterling idea there Rogers!
Dr. Bacon says he can recognize the symptoms of Text Messager's Thumb, right away: ''Employees coming in complaining of sore thumbs.'' [Wow, that's insightful doctor] Bacon, a chiropractor for Rogers Wireless Communications in Toronto, says that over 18 months he handed out 16 ''thumb braces'' to help employees who have inflamed the tendons that snake along the hand and wrist -- a painful condition known as ''tenosynovitis.''
The culprit? Our favorite super snack communication, the "incessant" ( a little harsh there Mr. NYT) ''text messaging.'' Seems with peripatetic students (between 12 to med school!) and workers sending messages all day long as they walk down the hallway or ride the subway around the world is creating a 21st-century centric health hazard: text messenger's thumb.
If our thumbs are feeling strained, it is an indicator of a clear cultural evolution from this writer's perspective. The thumb has become our most important digit. In Japan, where kids band together in ''thumb tribes,'' one company actually invented a phone-style keypad that plugs into your computer, because kids now prefer that to the traditional (and more ergonomic) qwerty keyboard. Even as I write this in a tethered state, I'm navigating the functions with a thumb pointer. Since young people are the most fanatic texters, the medical community is reflecting their worry that we're on the verge of a new tenosynovitis outbreak. ''They'll be developing workplace-style injuries before they've ever set foot in a workplace,'' says Andrew Chadwick, head of the British Repetitive Strain Injury Association. [Since the US is electing a president this year, I wonder where the front runners cover this in their health care plans?]
Virgin Mobile UK has even started an ad campaign called ''How to Practice Safe Text,'' offering shoulder-shrugging exercises and a phone-shaped squeeze toy in hopes of getting its subscribers to change their hand-crippling ways. Imagine what will occur when mobile phone use is available airborne and the airlines are including pre-roll thumb exercises before the movie.
Seems we're not biologicially evolving as fast as our technology.
Now, ask yourself this:"How do I ring a door bell?"
A) If it is by pushing it with your thumb, you're a "post-mobilian" human.
B) If you use your forefinger, you're a "pre-thumbian" human. 
Your turn, what do you think of the health threats of tenosynovitis? Comments are very welcome, and helpful! My objective is to build a community which engages in a conversation. And if you liked the post, please dig, delicous, or stumble to spread the word! Thanks for your readership.
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