the smartphone wars

Smartphone users book more upscale hotels than (lowly) Web users. Who needs that Priceline Negotiator?

Smartphone users are upscale when it comes to booking travel, according to a Priceline study.

Priceline sampled its Hotel and Rental Car Negotiator iPhone, iPad and iPod touch application activity over two weeks. According to the study, mobile consumers will wait until the last minute to book, often until once they arrived at their destination.

“Smartphone users are an upscale bunch,” said John Caine, senior vice president of Priceline, Norwalk, CT. “Our research shows that today’s smartphone customers book more upscale hotels than Web customers.

What do you want from Google? I mean really want? I mean that's about to alter your very being, exposing the chasm between you and the other, between now and the past?

If you said faster desktop search, give yourself a 100 Grand bar.

And what better to show off the new (almost available) instant search? Someone cool. Someone the kids just love. Only, he wasn't available. So here's a video from some guy from 50 years ago.

And where the hell my rap patrol? I start typing in "99 problems..." and the Google auto-magic went blank when I typed in "bitch" -- which is the actual lyric I was, you know, *searching* for.

I hope you enjoy this site beyond the smartphone rankings. If you wish to leave a comment, please do so. To create content, it's fairly easy to create an account.

As it says on the home page: The Smartphone Wars presents stories and commentary on the economic, cultural and personal impacts of smartphones, location-aware services, hyperglobal connectivity and the real-time social mobile web. Together, these are altering human sense of place and time and have set in motion a rapid global redistribution of wealth, power, jobs, opportunity, access and everything everywhere forever. A Great Leveling. Our job is to ensure your safe passage through the smartphone wars.

My goal for this site is to provide the absolute best writing on the personal, political, communal and financial impacts of the global spread of smartphones and the real-time social mobile web.

Again, welcome and enjoy!

I am attempting to compile a directory of businesses (and business models) that survive primarily due to the smartphone (think Yelp, for example).

It's a pretty basic directory, but I do try to capture estimated value and business model type for posterity. However, wonderful as I am, I just don't have the time to update this regularly. So, now, ANYONE can add to it.

Just register on the site (create a username and password) and you can then add your own product or company or app; add a video or other information.

Have at it...

http://www.brianshall.com/smartphone-business-directory

(HOW TO: If you create a user name and password, on the home page you will then have a MY ACCOUNT section on the bottom right. There is a CREATE CONTENT link. Go and create.)

From Fox News:

UPDATE: TechCrunch reported on this two hours ago. I missed it. Course, I'm sure they didn't convey this with my panache.

___________________________________

When I get that "personal" letter from Brand X executive at mega-corp, I always always always think...they are doomed. Some group of people, likely with the aid of outside consultants, decided, given all the shit flying right at them that maybe, just maybe, they could make it all bright and sunny by 'reaching out' to normal people, like normal people.

In the smartphone wars, dear reader, the big money will come by destroying existing industries, not building new ones. Keep that in mind. And now, for a very special edition of AT&T writes to Brian, the letter in full:

David Fine   Dear ----   September 8, 2010 I am writing to thank you for choosing AT&T for your wireless service, and to update you on exciting plans we have to make your wireless experience even better. You already know that AT&T covers 97% of all Americans. And as an AT&T customer, you have access to the nation's fastest mobile broadband network; a mobile broadband network that allows you to talk and browse the web at the same time; and seamless access to over 20,000 AT&T Wi-Fi hotspots - more than any other U.S. wireless provider. But you may not know the extent of our plans to improve your experience. In 2010 alone, we plan to invest between $18 and $19 billion in our wireless and wireline networks across the country. In fact, we've invested more in our networks over the last three years than any of our U.S. competitors. We've already upgraded our cell sites to enable faster mobile broadband speeds when paired with expanded backhaul, and we plan a similar upgrade at the end of the year that will enable even faster speeds. We're not stopping there. We are also adding thousands of new cell sites, expanding mobile broadband coverage to millions of customers, installing enhanced fiber backhaul, and increasing the capacity of our data network. Not only do these enhancements provide a better experience today, but they also enable a seamless migration to our next generation of mobile broadband - LTE. What this means to you is simple: better coverage where it matters most, and fast access to information on the go. Your satisfaction is always our number one goal. If you have any needs or questions about what AT&T can do for you, I invite you to stop by your local AT&T store, visit att.com, or come tell us what you think at www.facebook.com/ATT. Again, thank you for being our customer. Sincerely, David Fine Vice President and General Manager AT&T - Illinois & Wisconsin Region

When you think of Europe what's the first thing that comes to mind?

Okay, after women who don't shave their armpits. What after that?

Associations. Correct. They sure do know how to form various groups then get corporations and universities and various government bodies to send them to meetings. And, apparently, there's an EISA association.

Who are they, you ask? What do they do?

I have no fucking clue. But, their product of the year is a smartphone. The Samsung Galaxy S smartphone, to be exact. (Speaking of the Galaxy S, in my smartphone rankings -- which never lie! -- they only crack the top 10 by virtue of being tied with several others. Thus, I remain skeptical about how the Samsung is going to be the dominant Android smartphone on the planet. I think there are too many superior smartphones, even for Android. Admittedly, not all have the distribution reach of Samsung but I just don't see it.

Anyway, the EISA product of the year...

And if you think I'm way off base re Samsung Galaxy S sales, just so you know: Verizon has a buy-one get-one free sale for their version, the Fascinate, going on right now.

I find these videos out of North Korea somewhat fascinating. Like a quick trip to Amish country. I wonder if it would be possible to keep the nation and its people cordoned off -- forever. And give them, free of charge, all our technology from fifty years ago (excepting the bomb, of course).

Be quite the sociological study.

Blackberry is corporate? As the people of French Canada might say: Go Habs!

Everyone else would say, of course. That's what Blackberry has always been about. Even is their larger, growing market share went to "consumers", it is and has always been the case that Blackberry was designed for the man or woman who was, in a word, professional.

Wore a suit. Worked in an office. Serving some higher master. Only now, thanks to Blackberry, with a much much longer leash.

Those days are over, my friends. Check out the new commercials (one below) for the Blackberry Torch? The theme? Personal freedom. Passion. Creativity. YOU -- which is a little different from the HTC slogan of YOU -- serve only that which you love. The animal lover. The photographer. Woman with her own business (clothing, naturally). And everyone's favorite liberated nerd, the bike courier. All free. All self-employed, essentially, as is the way of the world. All even more enabled by Blackberry. Nicely done, if you ask me.