**As published in Mobile Marketing Magazine**

NEW ORLEANS — At CTIA, the heads of America’s four largest carriers paid lip service to their respective pet projects and, in some cases, their favorite the-sky-is-falling scenarios of the day. Following extended commercial-like keynotes from each executive (complete with those obligatory sizzle reels), they all joined together on stage to field questions from one of the country’s most bombastic and outlandish TV personalities, Jim Cramer of CNBC, who came on stage calling mobile the “fastest-changing industry in the world.”

It could and should have been fireworks, but alas, nary a fuse was lit. Other than the occasional spat over which network is faster, better, greater — ad nauseum — disagreements were few and far between. And that’s unfortunate for the hundreds of millions of customers who send their money to AT&T Mobility, Sprint Nextel, T-Mobile USA and Verizon Wireless every month. Read more

*As published in Mobile Marketing Magazine
Absent the sensational sideshow that became of Mike Daisey’s play “The Agony and Ecstasy of Steve Jobs,” there are real issues at stake. Poor working conditions at the Chinese factories that build and supply mobile equipment, electronics and gadgets to the masses have been well documented.

Following a couple years of growing interest and unfavorable media exposure, Apple became the first technology company to join the Fair Labor Association. Apple subsequently ordered its largest supplier, Foxconn, to submit to an independent audit by labor rights experts led by FLA president Auret van Heerden.

FLA’s investigation uncovered significant problems. “The nearly month-long investigation found excessive overtime and problems with overtime compensation; several health and safety risks; and crucial communication gaps that have led to a widespread sense of unsafe working conditions among workers,” FLA wrote in its report released Thursday. Read more

Apple revealed a slightly thicker iPad yesterday, featuring a 9.7-inch Retina display spanning 2048 x 1536 panels. The device runs on Apple’s new A5X chip with quad-core graphics and sports a 5-megapixel iSight camera featuring a 5-element lens. Pre-orders began shortly after Apple’s event in San Francisco, with deliveries and in-store availability beginning March 16.

Apple is also introducing its first LTE-equipped device with the iPad. Versions will be available for AT&T and Verizon’s unique LTE bands. Pricing for the new iPad remains identical to the previous generation device, which is now available at a $100 price cut. Wi-Fi only iPads began at $499 and cellular-equipped iPads start at $629.

A series of on-stage demos highlighted the new display and faster processor. With 3.1 million pixels, or 256 pixels per inch of display, the new iPad features 1 million more pixels than an HDTV, a feat that only Apple could (or would) exclaim as “resolutionary.” Phil Schiller, EVP of Worldwide Marketing, said the iPad has the “highest resolution display ever on a mobile device.” Read more

BARCELONA — The wireless industry was almost treated to news of another major carrier acquisition this week, but the would-be suitor’s board of directors walked away from the deal at the final hour, according to The Wall Street Journal. Sprint CEO Dan Hesse presented his board with a plan to acquire MetroPCS for up to $8 billion, but the board balked, ending a deal that had been in the works for several months.

Perhaps it was the fear of announcing a major deal during a mobile trade show — in retrospect, something that didn’t turn out so well for AT&T after it announced plans to acquire T-Mobile USA almost a year ago — but I think the board will eventually be vindicated for having avoided another catastrophe. Read more

BARCELONA — What a difference a year makes. Maybe.

Nokia was in dire straights this time last year. Having just announced a nearly universal reset of its business and betting its future on Microsoft’s Windows Phone platform, the company’s future was bleak but at least it had a new plan and operating system that could turn back the tide.

Today, Nokia continues to talk about its strategy and deep partnership with Microsoft, but only one of the two devices introduced here at Mobile World Congress are running on Microsoft’s OS. The other device is the 808 PureView, which features a hard-to-fathom 41-megapixel sensor, Carl Zeiss optics and Nokia’s pixel over-sampling technology. The 808 PureView runs on the latest version of Symbian, a software with a future so narrow that Nokia dumped it (and 3,000 related employees) on Accenture last April. Read more

BARCELONA — Android is growing at “break-neck speed” with 850,000 new devices activated every day, Google’s mobile head Andy Rubin announced in a blog post today. The mobile operating system’s year-over-year growth is now at 250 percent, he added, surpassing 300 million total devices to date.

Today, more than a billion apps are downloaded every month, Rubin continued. And in the 54 weeks that have passed since last year’s Mobile World Congress, the number of apps in the Android Market have tripled to more than 450,000.

The first Android-powered device was released in late October 2008. Since then, more than 800 devices have been launched on the platform. Google’s Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt will no doubt elaborate on this tremendous growth trajectory when he returns to the MWC stage tomorrow evening.

BARCELONA — To get a sense of how massive Ericsson’s presence is in the mobile industry, consider that half of all smartphone traffic flows through their equipment and services.

The Swedish juggernaut also has a significant jump on its competition with LTE technology, which is growing rapidly in North America and South Korea. Out of more than 325 million LTE subscribers worldwide, Ericsson covers 250 million of those customers. And over the course of 2011, the company’s market share in network infrastructure grew from 32 percent to 38 percent. Read more

During my hiatus from writing on this site, I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about what I can add to the mobile conversation. The mobile industry and the billions of people it impacts don’t need another mouthpiece or outlet to rave about the shiniest new gadget, network upgrade or app release.

News matters, but who does it matter to? Surely it matters to the Apples, Ericssons and Qualcomms of the world, but what about the 99.9 percent of us who don’t own stock or collect a paycheck from those companies? We have no special interest in their success, and yet most of the news in this space is presented and viewed through the eyes of them — the empowered carriers, device and chipset makers, infrastructure vendors, app developers and venture capitalists.

It’s easy to overlook all the customers, employees and factory workers that make this an industry at all. But I would like to change that in my own little way. I have no illusions about how the media machine works, nor do I expect one of the most powerful and deep-pocketed industries on our planet to change its ways. But we can hope and try to make things better.

I won’t stop writing about major news from Apple, the big U.S. carriers or Google anytime soon. But I want to tell more stories — about how mobility is changing our culture, how people increasingly use mobile devices to do their job, and where and why mobile fails to connect the haves and the have-nots. Mobile is a game changer — it has enabled a global leveling effect and progress on many levels — but not for everyone.

BARCELONA — HTC unveiled a trio of new smartphones tonight, marking a new flagship series and the first quad-core device for the Taiwanese company. The One series — X, S and V — is expected to ship in early April, sporting Android 4.0 and the fourth generation of HTC’s Sense user interface.

The HTC One X features Nvidia’s Tegra 3 quad-core chipset, a 4.7-inch display, an 8-megapixel camera and Beats Audio. The HTC One S packs a 4.3-inch display, a dual-core 1.5GHz processor and an 8-megapixel camera in a 7.6mm thin form factor. Finally, the HTC One V features a 3.7-inch display, a 1GHz processor and a 5-megapixel camera.

One of the more positive developments to hit the mobile industry of late is the immense media exposure being placed on the working conditions of those who build the devices that delight us and infuriate us. Media interest in this topic has been gaining for years, but it seems to have hit a new crescendo in the last couple months.

Device makers of every kind operate with virtual impunity. And yet we hear stories of mass suicides, debilitating ailments and poisoning — all a direct result of building the products we can’t get enough of. Not only has it become more difficult for journalists and consumers to ignore this reality, but also Apple and hopefully many companies to come. We all know that buying products built in China and other countries that treat millions of workers like modern-day slaves comes at a price that lingers well beyond the cash register. We vote with our pocketbooks, the saying goes, and this is what our money supports. Read more