Il Blog di Raffaele Pignataro

25 years of mobile in US

2008-10-14T15:24:00.003+02:00

America this week celebrated the 25th anniversary of the first commercial cellular call made in the country, a milestone which also cemented Motorola's place in history.

The first commercial cellular call in the US was placed on October 13, 1983 to the grandson of Alexander Graham Bell in Germany from the president of Ameritech Mobile Communications at a ceremony held outside of Soldier Field in Chicago.

This transatlantic conversation launched the nation's first citywide commercial cellular system, supported by the Motorola DynaTAC 8000X, one of the world's first 'portable' handsets, which weighed in at nearly two pounds, was 13 inches long, and boasted only 30 minutes of talk time.

To be fair to Moto, which as it will never let us forget, later invented the RAZR, the DynaTAC was more portable than the world's first 'mobile' phone, which debuted on NMT-450 networks in Saudi Arabia, Sweden and Norway just a couple of years earlier.

Back then Nokia was only a rubber and cable manufacturer, when it released the Mobira Senator 450 through a partnership with Finnish television maker Salora. Perhaps 'mobile' was a touch misleading, though - the unit weighed in at nearly 10 kilos.

According to the CTIA, there are now more than 262 million wireless subscribers in the US, totaling around 83 per cent of the country's population.

Industry analyst said that there will be 4 billion mobile subscriptions worldwide by the end of this year.

25 Years, what a long time in this century... handsets becomes lighter, smaller, full of new functions, mpixels camera, mp3 player, radio, tv, fingerprint reader, gbytes of memory... but, anyway, they do the same thing of 25 years ago... calling :o)

RomeCamp 2008

2008-07-16T11:03:00.006+02:00

A Novembre a Roma si terrà un OpenCamp: una "non-conferenza", fatta di persone, discussioni, dibattiti, condivisione di conoscenza ed esperienze.

E' la prima volta che parteciperò ad un OpenCamp ma ne ho sempre sentito parlare e seguito gli sviluppi di alcuni dal web nei giorni successivi. Vale sicuramente la pena partecipare, per chiunque abbia il desiderio di impare e condividere con gli altri.

Si tratta di una esperienza che, se ben organizzata, consente a tutti gli intervenuti di andare via con un bagaglio di conoscenze ed esperienze aumentate e con la consapevolezza di aver offerto il proprio contributo, se pur piccolo.

Ulteriori informazioni le trovate sul BarCamp Wiki, che potete utilizzare per iscrivervi oppure sul Blog Ufficiale

Per quanto mi riguarda sto pensando di preparare qualcosa sull'evoluzione del Web 2.0 puntando lo sguardo però sul particolare mondo del mobile e, ancor più in dettaglio, sui Social Games.

The disposable mobile from BIC... we really need it?

2008-07-14T16:44:00.006+02:00

In the latest years, a lot of companies, specially in the US, tried to launch any type of disposable mobile phone.

It never worked out. Some got some results, but nothing "great".

It's also quite simple to understand why, I think!

In the last 10 years, the mobile phone become a really personal device. It's almost an extension of our body. We took our mobile phone everywhere, everytime, also when we really don't need it...

Our mobile phone is part of our memory, our contacts, people, friends, messages, pictures, songs, videos, mobile services... all in a small device to keep the self "personal world" with us.

It's clear that offering a disposable device makes nosense today, because you can use it just for calling or use some small services like sms, but it will never be YOURS.

It will works just for parents, to give a mobile phone to the kids, having complete control on it and without access to the "dangerous web"
Also for aged people, also if I have to say that my grandma has 89 years and uses a Nokia 3310 to call me.... so It's not necessary that the handset is "really simple" t let it use by old people.

Anyway I have to admit that if the disposable phone was available 10 years ago, probably today we were 5 years in the future about the mobile penetration and services.

Strange things... a lot of "flops", apparently no reasons to sell or buy this product, but the pen-industry choose to sell it in France at 49€ with 60 minutes of calls included.

Today you can find "real" mobile phones at the same price, but that will be YOURS forever...

Do you would buy one? :)

Here an artcile from an Italian site
http://www.ilsole24ore.com/art/SoleOnLine4/Tecnologia%20e%20Business/2008/07/bic-cellulare-orange.shtml?uuid=164c527c-4f3c-11dd-9d8b-8f9714c30f74&type=Libero

Here an article form Yahoo News
http://news.yahoo.com/s/pcworld/20080711/tc_pcworld/148255

Just an Edit:
The BIC-Phone will not be a really disposable phone, because if the users send the registration form to Orange it will be activated to be a sor of low cost device.
This is what Orange says "This handset is "not a throw-away product," but unless users mail off a registration form to the carrier and wait for the phone to be activated, the mobile (and the hour of calls it comes with) will be rendered useless in two months"

IPhone and Social Games

2008-07-14T00:25:00.007+02:00

I hope that all the Apple-fans will not be "offended" by this...

I think everyone noticed that in the last 3-4 days the whole web was invaded by words, articles, videos, blog posts, messages, images about the new IPhone 3G.

I have to be honest. I never liked the latest Apple products...

It's clear in my mind the first mac-os I used when I was at school and I used to wrote something for our school magazine. Apple was the first thinking to a graphical OS (and uncle Bill "was inspired" by it...), the first thinking to a computer without "nice things" but that never hangs... and a lot of other milestones in the computer-age but, for me, this is ended some years ago...

Please note that I'm referring just to the products that Apple launched on the market in the last years, from when Apple decided to change its marketing from a product-based to a brand-based, creating high brand-awareness and a real community around the brand.
I have an IPod nano just because one of my friends decided to give it to me as present in the last christmas. Before the Ipod I had my "chinese" mp3 player, 20GB, and I always listened music and organized my files as I preferred... when I started to use the IPod I was really scared from Itunes...

When I decided to change my "heavy and old" notebook, for some light and small, a lot of "Apple-addicted" friends, suggested me to buy a MacBook... I did some visits in some shops... it was heavy, not so "glamour", and the cost was really high compared to a "non-apple" notebook with the same power, longer battery life and lighter... so I decided to buy a Sony Vaio.

Anyway, leaving apart my personal feelings about Apple, I have to admit that their strategy is working really good... I saw hundreds of people out from shops to buy their Apple phone. Really crazy.

But it works.

And we have to just sit down and accept that IPhone will become a great "star" in the mobile market, and it will cause strategy changes in telecom operators, content providers and mobile services enablers.

The first thing that the content providers and telecom operators will have to do, is to provide full support to the IPhone, as soon as possible, specially to the new 3G version. The numbers will not be so high, but for sure the potential ARPU that the IPhone users can generate is really interesting in a VAS market that is quite flat.

The IPhone, thanks to its technological specs but mostly thanks to its "philosophy" and to the type of its owners, will cause some interactions also with the "Social Networks" world.

It's not a case that the social games on wirless had a new growth from when good smartphones were launched... but it was just because the smarphones had the possibility to access the web quite like a notebook...

Iphone is a completely different device... and need to be managed as something completely new creating contents and services just for it.

Now, with the "new-gen" IPhone, with AppStore and other software to use social networks easier, the things will change faster.

A great example could be discovered in one of the biggest Social Games provider: Fishlabs. Fishlab provides great casual / social games and for sure will be one of the most important actors in the next months about the growing of social games and, consequently, of social networks on mobile.

You can find here a short but nice analysis on the future scenery:
http://blog.playfish.com/2008/06/10/what-does-the-3g-iphone-mean-for-social-games/

Just to finish with a smile, see this funny video :)

Techmuch.com: Midway Launches MidwayArcade.com Casual Games Site for Pick-Up-and-Play Classics

2008-07-12T20:14:00.000+02:00

One of the most famous "classic arcade games" publisher in the US opens an electronic store:

Techmuch.com: Midway Launches MidwayArcade.com Casual Games Site for Pick-Up-and-Play Classics

Recessione... quale recessione?

2008-07-11T15:01:00.000+02:00

E' incredibile come il comportamento umano sia praticamente sempre lo stesso, a prescindere dall'ambito in cui ci si trova. La legge del "lipstick marketing" ci dice che in una fase di recessione, le persone saranno portate a non comprare più oggetti o servizi di lusso, ma comunque a concedersi qualcosa di appagante che sia però accettabilmente accessibile dal punto di vista economico in relazione, appunto, alla situazione di recessione/difficoltà: una donna comprerà quindi un rossetto (lipstick) piuttosto che comprare un costosissimo set di trucchi.

A quanto sembra questa cosa si sta verificando nel mondo dei giochi, in particola modo nel mercato statunitense, dove stando agli ultimi dati, i giochi stanno vivendo il ruolo del "lipstick"

Per chi è interessato qui trovate il report e l'analisi più dettagliata
http://www.giantrealm.com/gaming/recession--what-recession

Come in: Now OPEN!

2008-07-11T14:29:00.000+02:00

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