Showing posts with label wireless. Show all posts
Showing posts with label wireless. Show all posts

Monday, September 15, 2008

Mobile Phone: The Key to Teen's Social Life


Below is the complete article posted today on TMCnet by Jyothi Shanbhag focused on the influence of the mobile phone on today's teens.

It's a terrific illustration of why companies must change their recruiting strategies to reflect that which is important to GenY and to communicate with them in the manner that gets their attention.

In Tim Sanders book, Love is the Killer App, Sanders talks about the importance of ROA versus ROI. We all know what ROI means....what about ROA (Return on Attention)? Sanders says that getting someone's TIME is not nearly as important as getting their ATTENTION. I get that.

I give people my TIME all the time....but do they have my ATTENTION? When they really have my attention, they also have the opportunity to begin building trust with me (the first step to developing a great recruiter/candidate relationship).

How are you going to get the ATTENTION of GenY in your recruiting efforts? And when you do, what will you do to begin building their trust and attracting them to your corporate vision?

Full article below:
A study was conducted online among 2000 teenagers across the U.S. who use mobile phones. More than 100 questions were asked on mobile phone usage, attitude, desires and aspiration for the future mobile and communications industry. A growing wireless segment, teens view their cell phones as more than just an accessory.

"A quarter of a century of wireless innovation, new products and customized features has transformed our everyday lives," said Steve Largent, president and CEO, CTIA - The Wireless Association. "Teens are a pivotal segment of wireless users. As the first generation born into a wireless society, how they use their cell phones and what they expect of these devices in the future will drive the next wave of innovation in our industry."

According to the Harris Interactive study (Teenagers: A Generation Unplugged), second to clothing, teens say a cell phone tells the most about a person’s social status or popularity, outranking jewelry, watches and shoes. The study also found that cell phones are fast becoming a social necessity among teens. A majority (57 percent) view their cell phone as the key to their social life.

Four out of every five teens (17 million) carrying a wireless device (a 40 percent increase since 2004), it's not surprising that six in ten teens (57 percent) credit mobility for improving their quality of life. Over half of the respondents (52 percent) agree the cell phone has become a new form of entertainment and one-third of teens currently play games on their phone. On a more serious note, 80 percent of teens surveyed said their cell phone provided a sense of security while on the go, confirming the cell phone has become their mobile safety net when needing a ride (79 percent), getting important information (51 percent), or just helping out someone in trouble (35 percent).

"Teens have created a new form of communication. We call it texting, but in essence it is a reflection of how teens want to communicate to match their lifestyles. It is all about multitasking, speed, privacy and control," said Joseph Porus, vice president & chief architect, technology group, Harris Interactive. "Teens in this study are crying for personalization and control of exactly what a wireless device or plan can do for them."

“Teens expect mobile technology to change the social fabric of their world and they have laid the future at the feet of this technology like no other," Porus added.

Porus also said, "To our knowledge, no other industry carries these hopes; while teens are interested in cars and music and movies, it is mobility that will change their future!"

The Harris Interactive study highlights on future trend occurrence as to what teens would like to change about wireless services and devices. Eighty percent of them expect secured data access to the user only, 66 percent expect accessibility to personal health records and 63 percent want to bring users closer to global issues impacting teens' world.

The study found that teens are excited and open-minded about the wireless possibilities. The survey found that teens' ideal future mobile device would feature five applications - phone, MP3 player, GPS, laptop computer and video player.

Teenagers would be more than happy with shock and water proof, endless power, privacy screen, flexible material with different shapes and sizes and artificial intelligence in their mobile handsets.

“In the future, mobility for teens means mobile banking, mobile voting, location based services, personal entertainment - the sky is the limit for how mobile our lifestyles can be," Largent said. "We've certainly come a long way in 25 years and expect teens to be a growth driver for the industry and have a major impact on the wireless landscape for years to come."

Jyothi Shanbhag is a contributing editor for TMCnet. To read more of Jyothi's articles, please visit her columnist page.

Source: TMCnet
Author: Jyothi Shanbhag (TMCnet Contributor)

Monday, May 19, 2008

Director, Sales (Seattle, WA) Wireless Terminals

Apply only if you have a track record of experience selling wireless handsets in the carrier environment!

Responsibilities:
Create new business and customers, promote and sell our wireless solution (CDMA/UMTS terminals) to US wireless service providers.

The company will provide competitive base salary, commission incentive plan, benefits package, good working environment, and a broad and flexible career path. Develop and execute sales strategy, manage the sales and customer relationship within defined product/ business area, maintain and maximize a high level of customer satisfaction, focus on selling to US wireless service providers with our CDMA/UMTS products.

Send resume to Dennis @ wirelessheadhunter@gmail.com

Saturday, May 17, 2008

Wireless Recovery - Marketing Yourself

Source: WirelessJobs.com ( by Harry Daniel Richards)

I was laid off from my job in March of 2008. It was the most painful separation I have ever experienced and since I came to LA 5 years ago to work for this company, I am feeling very disconnected. I was responsible for the companies wireless technology and have been in wireless since 1985.

This the longest time I have ever been unemployed since I graduated from college in 1977. In this time, (spent wandering around through my network looking for a job) I have learned a couple of things.

1. I will never be able to retire as long as I am married to my wife of 30 years - I am driving her nuts
2. I will never be able to retire regardless of who I am married to - I am driving myself nuts
3. I need to simplify my life - its amazing how much money I have spent on stuff I don't need
4. My kids are all out of high school and need to move out
5. Watching other people go to work is depressing when you have no where to go
6. Listening to other people complain about their jobs is infurating when you don't have a job
7. Your resume is never good enough for those people who review them and want you to pay for improvements
8. A lot of the jobs posted on job boards aren't real and are really scams for people who want you to pay them
9. My professional network isn't as good as I thought it was
10. I spent the first part of my career being underqualified - now it seems I am over qualified. When was I qualified?
11. My wife needs to go to work
12. I don't market myself very well

Number 12 is the most painful piece, since I have been responsible for wireless sales and marketing a couple of times in my career. However, all the jobs I have had in the last 15 years have been a result of knowing people so I didn't have to send out resumes and interview - just show up and go to work.

So now the journey begins to learn how to market myself better and here's what I have done so far.

Hooked up with a professional coach - I didn't know they were out there, but I need someone to get me on track, help me plan and hold me accountable. I miss the structure of a job

Went to a local university and met with the Dean of Business (and facility) I am offering to lecture on wireless technology and business in general

Get business cards that identify me as a "Technology Consultant" and start attending some events

Wrote a white paper on mobile marketing to send to ad companies to generate some interest

None of it has generated anything yet, but I have just started to focus on the self marketing aspect so it will probably take some time. I don't really want to start my own business again so what I am really looking for is a job. Nothing fancy, don't need to rule the world or be a CTO, but need something to do for the next 15 years or so.

What I am going to try and do is use this blog to track my efforts. Anyone that wants to jump in is welcome.

Anyone that wants to give me a job is more than welcome!

Dan

Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Director, Product Development (T-Mobile = Bellevue, WA)



T-Mobile is recruiting for a very 'cool' position called Director of Product Management for the Connected Life Team in Bellevue, WA.

The Connected Life Team includes “My Faves” (“connecting to the people who matter the most.”). Essentially, they're searching for a person who can leverage a variety of voice and data technology products to solve real customer problems and at the same time, supports the T-Mobile brand promise of enriching personal relationships. This individual must have a passion for social communications and community.

email resume to: tracey.gomora@t-mobile.com

Thursday, November 29, 2007

Hipcricket's Hip to Your Wireless Jive


So, what's a HipCricket (very cool name) and why are they growing (adding jobs)?

I found Tricia Duryee's Seattle Times article about HipCricket this morning, and since I'm a wireless geek, and, since I do my share to burden the world with text messages each day, I thought I'd share.

What does HipCricket do? According to Tricia,

"They help radio and TV stations make their one-way media become interactive by allowing listeners and readers to send text messages to the station in response to advertising. At the same time, the system is used to increase the effectiveness of the ads. In doing so, the stations' can charge more."
If you don't think this business model is on its way to being "big biz", then you probably don't know the difference between a text message and an IM.

In a report published Tuesday by Seattle-based M:Metrics, 94.9 million mobile subscribers said they sent a text message in the three months ended September, or about 44 percent of U.S. cellphone users.

Hey, my daughter alone sent 1400 text messages last month. Between the two of us we probably thumbed-out almost 2000 of those bad-boys. And, no, it's not just because we're freaks. Ok, maybe we are, but at least we're in good company with 94 million other texters.

If you're Jobless in Seattle, or, maybe you're just another wireless geek interested in working for a hip company...check out HipCricket.

Monday, November 19, 2007

Mobile Browser Developer - Dallas, TX

Mobile Browser Developer - Dallas, TX (Contract)

Self-driven person with good software architecture background in C/C++, COM, .NET, or JAVA-middleware and/or UI frameworks. The perfect candidate will have Browser framework experience (Mozilla for example)

Experience required:

Strong C/C++ background;

Microsoft COM (Component Object Model) and/or CORBA (Common Object Request Broker Architecture);

XML (Extensible Markup Language)

ECMA (Java Script)

Record of architecting and/or leading middleware projects based on the technologies above;

Frosting on the cake:

XUL (XML User-interface Language)

CSS (Cascading Style Sheets)

XBL (XML binding language)

RDF (Resource Description Framework)

JAVA

Embedded devices experience

Interested? Please forward your resume to Dennis@WorldLink-US.com

Thursday, November 08, 2007

Mossberg on Phone Freedom

Vindu pointed me to an article and video by Walt Mossberg (from a few weeks ago) that's just too interesting controversial to pass up. No nothing new. But I'm finding this phone-controversy-thing more appealing these days.

Everybody's jumping on the "phone freedom" bandwagon - that's not new. But having worked for years on the carrier side of the business, I gotta tell you, I've never thought about it as much as I have of late.

The reason? I'm no longer in the carrier business and now I'm in the situation of having my family tied to one carrier while I'm tied to another (I will confess, it felt very strange standing in an AT&T store earlier this week). I apologize in advance to my T-Mo buds.

While I am happy with my new Curve I'm not happy to be living the life of the two-carrier family. Sure, I could sync everybody up with the same carrier, but it'll cost me. New phones...new plans...it ain't cheap. Hence Hank's rant.

Hank's vid provides some pertinent examples of why our lack of phone freedom doesn't make sense, when you consider the other things in our lives that we can't seem to live without. Computers. Yep. Hi-speed Internet. Fo 'sho.

It's a 6 minute listen, but Hank's worth the listen.

Here's to all the other two-carrier families. I'm now feeling your pain.




Checkout jobs in Austin at itzbig.

Thursday, October 25, 2007

Facebook's Moskovitz: Open up the wireless garden

As reported in SeattleTimes.com:

Standing where the mature, wireless CEO typically stands, young Dustin Moskovitz (Facebook co-founder) took the stage yesterday and offered his two cents to the CTIA attendees:

"...to remain successful wireless carriers must give developers greater access to their networks."
Great advice, and good luck with that.

All sarcasm intended.

Hey, look how long it took for something as simple as number portability to happen (no, I don't really believe it was all that simple). But now we're asking for the carriers to embrace a spirit of openness with regard to their networks?! C'mon, Steve Largent's ancestors are going to turn over in their graves if you keep talking that way!

Sarcasm aside, I applaud you, Sir Moskovitz - with you all the way, dude.

And I'm encouraged by the talk about Apple recognizing the importance of openness, and their plans to open up the iPhone in February to outside developers. And, that Google continues to be an outspoken advocate of open access (obviously, to their long-term benefit).

Hey, I'm on the carrier side of the biz, but I just can't see how openness would negatively impact the industry long-term, especially as it pertains to job growth for all things wireless.

As you'd expect, I'm an advocate for anything that is good for job growth ... specifically, wireless job growth.

So, while I don't expect that we carriers are going to open the proverbial network kimono overnight (given our history of maintaining the so-called walled gardens that restrict users from buying or using applications previously unapproved or those the carrier isn't selling), I am encouraged.

Here's to baby-steps toward openness.

Wednesday, April 11, 2007

Wireless Twitter Fodder

Rubel twittered about this only moments ago: Twitterment

Just type in the word that you want Twitterment to search, and it will display the results of every person that has recently included that word while posting in Twitter (wow, that was a mouthful).

Here's an example....I'll search on the word "wireless:"


The results show that 278 "twitters" have recently included the word "wireless" in their twitter post. Wow. That's a lot.

Then, it gives me a graph on the hourly trends for the word "wireless:"


I know, it's overkill. But hey, since we're talking about fodder here.

Anyway, it also shows me "Daily Trends" graph, and the Google Map of where the folks are located.

To top it off, it gives me a visual of all the Twitters who are twittering the word "wireless:"


I didn't want to kill my Google allotment of server space by showing you all 278 Twitters, but here's the last 5 "wireless" entries.

So, there you have it....more Twitter fodder.

And you can blame Rubel.

Now, I gotta figure out a way to include this in my recruiting toolkit.

Any RF Engineers out there twittering about "wireless?

The Father of Wireless (and Wireless Jobs)


Martin Cooper. Just an average genius working for the man at Motorola .

But on April 3, 1973, Dr. Martin Cooper placed a call to rival Joel Engel, head of research at AT&T's Bell Labs, while walking the streets of New York City talking on the first Motorola DynaTAC prototype.

And so the levers of cell phone obsession began to turn.

10 years later, the Brick was born, and those who had the cash dropped almost $4,000 for the 10-inch, 28-ounce anchor created by Coop and his team of engineers at Moto.

The differences between Cooper's Brick and today's phone? Can you say, calendar, calculator, alarm clock, gps, video, web browser, and MP3 Player?

Dahl's article offers up a bit of history that I find seriously amusing:

Analysts in 1983 predicted that by 2000, there would be 900,000 wireless users in the United States.

Reality?

There were more than 100 million wireless users by the end of 2000, and 229 million at the end of last year. My family alone accounts for four of the 229 million (I'll be adding three more in the not-to-distant future).

Yes, my Blackberry is never far from reach. I exchange text messages with my team late at night and early in the morning (cut it out, Jen!) ; )

On the chance that I've misplaced it (along with my keys), I'm irritated 'til it's safely back in my front pocket.

I glance at my messages while driving to work (just kidding, Mr. State Farm Insurance Man!). I send my wife and children secret messages throughout the day. I am always connected.

Geez, thanks Mr. Cooper. No, really, thanks! We complain about being overly-connected, but if we're honest, most of us wouldn't have it any other way.

Don't get me wrong...I'm not saying it's healthy. But it's our reality (and I like it).

Reality also says that about one-fourth of all wireless calls have at least one problem (2006 study by J.D. Power and Associates). Whether it's dropped calls, disconnected calls, static, or interference, the problems exist. And if we're grumpy when we can't find our Blackberry, we're even grumpier when we drop a call.

Why?

Because we can't stand not being connected! Like I said, I'm not proud of this particular mental illness, but I'm not about to change. Even if that means I have to crawl on my roof line at midnight in the middle of a thunder storm, I'm going to make that phone call, by golly!

Even the Father of Wireless (Cooper) agrees with us. He's now 79 years old, owns six cell phones, carries three and pays the bills for 20. He was even talking on his cell phone for his interview with Dahl, explaining that he understands our obsession, our need, to have a signal:

"When you've got that phone, you feel connected, you feel part of a group,"
says Cooper.

"Who's the group? It's everyone in the world, on your cell phone."

Yep, Dr. Cooper still gets it.

Because the most important thing is being able to stay connected to the most important people in our lives.

Thanks Father Cooper Wireless.

Here's to 30 more years of wireless connectivity and the jobs that make it happen.


source: McClatchy Newspapers, Melissa Dahl

Tuesday, January 30, 2007

Airplanes: the next frontier for the wireless industry


Airplanes are the next frontier for the wireless industry, and a new technical report could make it more likely that the U.S. government will rescind the cell phone ban on commercial flights.

Recently, Dubai-based airline Emirates announced plans to become the world's first air carrier to allow passengers to make in-flight cell phone calls.

The airline, which obtained approval from air safety and telecommunications regulators in 25 countries in Europe, the Middle East and Asia, expects to allow usage on one of its Boeing 777s on a route in early February.

source: ParamusPost, 1/30/07

Wednesday, January 17, 2007

The Telecom Conundrum (not for the faint of heart)




It's almost as if John Madden is responsible for creating the diagram that sent this whole Telecom-thing in to a tailspin.

Ok, we need some clarity, and Stephen Colbert is just the guy to do it.

Honestly, if somebody explained the evolution of Telecom to you back in 1956, would you have believed 'em?

Click below and be prepared to crack up.




Top Blogs

Thursday, January 11, 2007

On Cell Phones and Wireless Payments

After seeing the demonstration that Visa just gave me at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, I'm pretty sure it won't be too long before many of us will be paying for everything from our groceries to our Dunkin Donuts wirelessly with our cell phones. Visa had a "pod" in the Near Field Communications [...]

CES: Wireless payments at the register with your cell phone are around the corner

by ZDNet's David Berlind --

Monday, January 08, 2007

10 Predictions for Wireless in 2007


Dean Bubley (Disruptive Wireless) put together a nice list revealing his 10 predictions for wireless in 2007.

Get the complete list with his commentary HERE (from Wireless.SeekingAlpha.com).

Here's a quick run-down:

1) Increased focus on manufacturers selling multiple "diverged" devices to users.

It only makes sense that Nokia (NOK), Apple (AAPL), Motorola (MOT) would want to offer multiple, simple, well-designed devices....strong margins should follow.

2) A lot of noise about VoIP over 3G.

Sure to steal much of the spotlight in '07.

3) Emergence of corporate-focused MVNOs

Dean says that he's waited forever, but that this could finally happen in '07.

4) Continued uptake of various dual-mode services & handsets, but they won't change the world

Dean posted last week about UMA/non-UMA developments and gave his predictions (I hope he's wrong). But he's predicting that this is still too much of a niche game.

5) Spectrum lobbying noise, regulation momentum and lawsuits ratchet up several notches.

Dean predicts that the lawyers will stay busy (2.5GHz licenses - spectrum neutrality - getting 900Mhz GSM ready for UMTS, etc....)

6) IMS confounds both its critics and its evangelists, but needs to improve integration ASAP.

The key lesson for IMS advocates to learn during 2007 will be integration - come down from your ivory towers & learn how to blend IMS with non-IMS - the real Internet, enterprise networks, SDP's, music & TV platforms and so forth. If the IMS community doesn't wholeheartedly embrace these areas of integration, in both the network and on devices, it will stagnate in 2008 and die in 2009. Isolation and "purity" is doom.

7) Navigation becomes rather more important on mobiles. Mobile search doesn't.

Handset-based navigation will become more prevalent (I agree).

Mobile search is going to take some time.

8) The City WiFi bubble bursts

Deano's not a fan of the muni-wifi. Seeing how I'm a fan of the T-Mo Hotspot, I guess I'm not either.

9) Flat-rate data becomes the norm, with browsing the killer app, driven by high-res screens

All Dean comments in numbers 9 and 10 - too interesting to summarize:

I'm still waiting for my trial X-Series phone, but I've been increasingly impressed with browsing experience recently. While cheap data tariffs are one critical driver, another has been largely overlooked - increasing screen resolution. The standard for mid-to-high end phones is now QVGA (320x240 pixels). This will increase, either with Nokia's weird 416x352 (or something like that) or more standardized full VGA (640x480). I'm a firm believer that there is no "Mobile Web," and that most people would much prefer a mobile broadband ISP experience, accessing the one, real, Internet. And of course, that means their favorite web brands & downloadable add-on client software too. The signs are already there at the end of 2006, but 2007 will be the year the mobile industry stops fantasizing about beating Google and Yahoo and Skype, and instead just gets on with optimizing their performance for their customers. Long live the Smart Pipe strategy . . .

10) No, No, No, No, No

OK, this post is already long enough, so I don't have time to detail my reasons for all of these, but I'm sure they'll crop up on the blog in coming months. Mobile IM won't replace SMS (sorry VoIP fans . . . ). Laptops with built-in HSDPA won't sell much (and even where they do, the cellular bit won't be activated by most owners). WiMAX will get a few more major operator advocates, but still won't be seen as a threat to "normal cellular." Mobile TV won't make much headway. Web 2.0 stuff like social networking really won't be a big deal in mobile outside Japan, Korea & maybe the US, unless carriers work out a way to give decent Internet access & capable devices to prepay users.

Oh, and maybe Apple's Phone-i (hey, Linksys got the iPhone brand . . . won't play music at all, but will be "just a phone." See point 1.

Friday, December 15, 2006

Top 3 "Wireless" Diggs for Week of Dec 10th, 2006

Unofficial USB Ethernet Adapter for Wii! [video]

Someone on the Nsider forums discovered a working USB Ethernet adapter for those who wish to use a Wired Connection rather than a Wireless one. The adapter is a: KINAMAX USB 2.0 to RJ45 Fast Ethernet 10/100 Base-T Network Adapter which can be founded at newegg.com for roughly $20-25. Awesome for those needing a cheap adapter!

read more | digg story


Wireless Wii Sensor Bar available

A third party company has released a wireless Wii sensor bar, available for purchase over the net.

read more | digg story


Apple may be its own Wireless Carrier for iPhone to be sold in Apple Stores

Apple Computer Inc. may serve as its own wireless carrier if it delivers an iPod-based cell phone next year and rely on the company's network of retail stores to sell service contracts for the device, UBS AG said

read more | digg story

Wednesday, December 13, 2006

Where are the wireless jobs?




How many wireless jobs posted today?


CrunchBoard: 5

GigaOM Jobs: 1

MobileWirelessJob: 0

WirelessDevNet: 1

Jobster: 1,999 (sure they are scraped, but hey, that's still a lot of jobs!)

T-Mobile: 354 (don't believe me? Count 'em yourself).

Monday, December 04, 2006

The Wireless War: Intel vs. Qualcomm


Qualcomm (NASDAQ:QCOM) announced that it has acquired two chip companies, one in the WiFi space and one in Bluetooth. The move would appear to put QCOM in competition with Intel for a piece of the wireless chip business.

Qualcomm's stock has been battered by concerns over antitrust actions due to the royalties it charges cellular phone makers. The stock is down from $53 in May to about $36 today. There has also been significant concern that new wireless technologies like the WiMax standard supported by Intel, Samsung, Motorola, and Sprint could damage Qualcomm's current lock on the broadband cell industry.

source: BloggingStocks.com