Suprablog HQ

The global mobile economy is something that completely threw me for a loop this past weekend. I was at a three day seminar in Amherst, and in the 5,000+ audience, nearly everyone had a cellphone and was texting or calling or on the web. Thankfully they were not using them during the sessions, but still, that is a lot of money going into the hands of the mobile industry.

How could the mobile market be booming still with the price of milk skyrocketing? Well, in short, it’s just essential to have a phone. It doesn’t really matter if you can afford to eat, you’ll just die without a phone of some sort. I just bought a new UTStarcom TXT8010 from Verizon, and I actually go to bed with it beside me. It’s vital to have a cell, even just for an alarm clock.

My experience at the convention triggered an idea. A grand one.

What if everyone had a cellphone that contained all their information in it like a wallet? And what if all that information was secure by two ways: one, by using Suprasecure cloud computing, and two, by only operating when near the owner of the phone, much like many car keys on new cars are?

Sounds like a dream, no? It soon may become possible.

Now for the sales report. I chose Verizon not only for the fact that I use them, but nearly everyone I know has Verizon too. Word of mouth sales must be a contributing factor in sales as well as the “in” network for texting and calling. Here’s the facts for their wireless sales.

• 87.7 million total customers, up 27.7 percent; 85.2 million retail customers, up 27.8 percent; 1.1 million net customer additions, excluding acquisitions and adjustments, all retail.
• 27.7 percent increase in total revenues; industry-leading retail postpaid churn, 1.01 percent; data revenues up 52.6 percent; 28.8 percent operating income margin and 46.3 percent EBITDA margin on service revenues (non-GAAP).
• Integration of Alltel operations on schedule

I got all that information here. Good stuff that is. As for AT&T, the facts are below.

• 1.4 million net gain in total wireless subscribers to reach 79.6 million, up 6.7 million over the past year
• 1.2 million retail postpaid wireless net adds, the company’s best-ever second-quarter total — up 29.0 percent from results in the year-earlier quarter and up 31.8 percent versus the first quarter of 2009; record low postpaid subscriber churn at 1.09 percent
• More than 2.4 million iPhone activations in the second quarter, reflecting a record-setting iPhone 3GS launch; including iPhone, more than 3.5 million increase in 3G integrated devices in service (handsets with QWERTY or virtual keyboards in addition to voice functionality)

Just thought that was interesting. I have an AT&T cell phone as well, but sadly the LCD screen broke. The warranty is up on it, and the company will not even address the broken screen. Sad to say, I don’t like AT&T.

So there you have it.