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Replace Your Home Office With A Cellphone: Deadbeat Carrier Creative Destruction In The Ongoing Mobile Computing Wars
I have personally tested the T-Mobile LTE service in a NYC subway (the 42nd street station) using what is currently the best (big brand) mobile handset available, the LG Optimus G Pro.
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The speeds I attained are phenomenal for a cell phone. This combo is more than capable of replacing a small business or home network Internet connection through FiOS or AT&T.
This is a similar LTE speed test performed in the AT&T store in Union Square, NYC.
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The majority of my work is now done off of smart phones, so I know this stuff fairly well. AT&T charges roughly 3x what T-Mobile would charge for about 31GB of bandwidth use, while T-Mobile delivered 2.5x the speed. Now, T-Mobile's network is not under load yet, and results can vary by location, weather, yada, yada... Long story short, if T-Mobile continues to focus on being a pure play pipe provider, AT&T and Verizon will need to get their shit together!!!
T-Mobile, if they play their cards right, can truly shake up the industry. If you did not already know, T-Mobile has eliminated carrier subsidies of handsets and has instead given a 0% APR (allegedly, although an implied rate could be built into the price of the hardware) loan to have the user pay for the device directly, and has reduced the price of its plans commensurately. T-Mobile has also dropped contract requirements totally and has made a big push into its pre-paid plans with an offer of unlimited data. It is this option that makes a lot of sense for power users and techies. Today's Android phones (ex. the LG Optimus G Pro) have more than enough oomph to power an office - and I mean it. I actually do it.
With a 14 - 32mbs always on connection, you can fully replace Microsoft Office, your overpriced DSL, FiOS, AT&T, etc. connection, and your overpriced cell phone carrier with a single phone, some inexpensive peripherals and a single $70 per month ($76 with all taxes and fees included) T-Mobile plan.
This is a very big deal, for if consumers start using their heads and pull out a calculator or two, AT&T and Verizon have an awful lot of price slashing to do, and the likes of the pretty but considerably less functional OEMs such as Apple have a lot of R&D and production ramping to do as well.
You have heard me predict this in the past.
April and May 2012 I opined on the carriers
The Death Of The Deadbeat Carriers, Part 2
This week I opined on Apple, et. al.
Is It Time To Buy Apple As A Valuation Play
Of course, this doesn't look to good for Microsoft or Intel, for the Android camp is encroaching on the Wintel camp much faster than the Wintel camp is returning the favor.
I have a lot of thoughts and ideas circling these developments. Institutional and professional subscribers (click here to subscribe) are welcomed to email or call me to discuss this further.
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Fuck, I refuse to even own a cell phone --- why would I want somebody ELSE to control ALL of my personal data?
Can anyone say "placing one's own head on the chopping block"?
Phones, apps and games. Is there anything else happening in this economy?
No much. You just left out bank fraud.
freedompop offers free national 3G/4G when you buy a hotspot device. anyone use them?
Can't beat wired for security and reliability. Plus I download gigs and gigs a month. Phones and tablets are still toys.
I do about 40 gigs a month on tmobile for the same $70.
Don't move to Canada......ack!
Yeah, wake me when really unlimited (no throttles, no caps) 4G is $50/mo or less.
I predict that in 10 (5?) years' time I will not own a PC or a laptop. The device in my pocket will be my computer and I will have wirlessly connected screens, keyboards and printers wherever I work, with data encrypted and synchronised to the cloud in real time. No more Windows. But I will still need my legacy "apps", principally Word and Excel.
So you are just another sheep who is willing to put all their personal data, and their identity, and their fate, into the supposedly "safe" and benevolent hands of others. I find that kind of attitude dangerously and pathetically naive.
I suspect that you do not understand cryptographic techniques. I am not an important person and my data is hard enough to decrypt that nobody will bother trying. I'm not saying that nobody could ever hack my data. But I do believe that the cost/benefit ratio is so high that nobody would even think of trying. There are bigger, juicier fish out there (some of them with no encryption at all).
Some of us might be reluctant to store data, even if encrypted using commonly available encryption methods, in the cloud. Particularly if it is sensitive data. I think of cloud storage the same way I think of storing PMs in a bank deposit box: not for me.
Not that I have any sensitive, encrypted data, of course...
You aren't going to have a choice. Adobe's moving to the cloud and Microsoft is right behind them.
http://www.extremetech.com/computing/155285-bring-out-the-gimp-adobe-pho...
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/25e6e32e-7506-11e2-8bc7-00144feabdc0.html
I'm already there
T-Mobile marketing strategy: Girl in skin-tight motorcycle suit sells phones.
http://www.djyoshi.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/icarly4g-bike.jpg
The T Mobile girl hasn't appear in commercials for months and has probably been fired. She was a little too bony for my taste anyway.
http://global.christianpost.com/news/carly-foulkes-t-mobile-girl-fired-a-new-direction-says-company-video-92841/
America has a new sweetheart anyway. I alway had a thang for red heads.
http://www.thefastertimes.com/advertising/2013/04/12/nation-furiously-masturbating-to-new-wendys-girl/
I'm sold!
Well... 'cept there's no service... and I've never owned a cell phone.
Works for me.
Does it come complete with keystroke logging and real time third party remote access of audio, video and GPS monitoring?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Bk9tuTaVCU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T17XQI_AYNo
EFF +100
yeah, what's more secure from hackers and goobermint? dsl/cable or mobile networks?
Lightning speeds are always attained for the first subscribers. As soon as another 500,000 subscribers opt in speeds will fall off dramatically.
T-Mobile fully populated hspa+ is as fast as AT&T LET in many areas, so I'm confident they'll blow the comp away. add to that the extra spectrum had from the Metro PCS acquisition and we're talking some real concern competition coming down the pike.
+1 Good point. I wonder if Sprint is doing this. I'd like to see Reggie comment on this (before I dump Boost Mobile for T-mobile pre paid).
I had a der-t-mobile phone stolen from my car a few years back.
Some punk downloaded a whole bunch of games and stuff that totaled a couple hundred bucks by the time I realized I was minus a phone.. until that point my phone had exactly 0 downloads in the many thousands of dollars of der-t-mobile use. They demanded payment..
Ameritech (at the time) said I would have been given a pass on that.
I told der-t-mobile gehen Pfund Salz and they sacrificed at least 4G’s of revenue on that position since.
If they change the paradigm a bit.. good for them, us or whoever.
i remember the good old days....
i had about 20 diff burners (prepaid cells) set up to make "advertisement" accounts on Kraigslist. yeilded about 500 bucks a day.... all through AT&T of course. The staff were all very helpful too. Assisting me with the best cellular options for my "projects". i learned something very interesting about Google too. When i got my W-2 tax statement from them, i noticed that they severely underreported my earnings. It was good for me tho (less I had to pay) i would be willing to bet that Google gets away with billions of Tax liabilities in this fashion. worth looking into?