Apple’s Wi-Fi Strategy: Hiding in Plain Sight?
03/09/2009 07:10
A year ago, during an earnings call, Peter Oppenheimer, Apple CFO, laid out Apple’s view of the iPod: “We view the iPod market as bigger than the market for simple music players. We believe one of the iPod’s future directions is to become the first mainstream Wi-Fi mobile platform.” Certainly the iPhone’s impact on the mobile Web has received the lion’s share of attention and deservedly so. But what of Apple’s ambitions vis a vis evolving the iPod Touch? There’s been a flurry of very interesting data lately about the impact that Apple is having on the Mobile Web. According to AdMob’s January Mobile Metrics Report, Apple devices accounted for 29.1 percent of U.S. Wi-Fi Internet access requests, split roughly 60/40 between the iPhone and the iPod. But what is very interesting is the rate at which the iPod Touch is growing as an Internet device. Over the Christmas holiday, the iPod grew 3.4X over the November numbers and sustained these levels into January. So what does this mean for service providers? It opens the door to a wide range of companies to provide Mobile Web services without having to buy (or consume) spectrum or pay any handset subsidies. Leading companies, like Cablevision, are building out wide areas of Wi-Fi coverage to do just that – delivering mobile broadband services, at data rates that are faster than 3G, and system capacities far greater than any of the cellular carriers. It’s safe to say that Apple is executing on its ambition to make the iPod the first mainstream Wi-Fi mobile platform. We live in exciting times, indeed! That’s my .02! Martin Suter Martin Suter is vice president of business development at BelAir Networks, a provider of broadband mesh solutions for Wi-Fi, WiMAX, 4.9 GHz Public Safety and 5.9 GHz ITS networks. Previously, Martin was the CEO at Cohda Wireless, where he raised the company’s profile and negotiated a licensing deal with a Fortune 100 vendor in its core franchise. Prior to Cohda, he was vice president of business development at MeshNetworks Inc., a classic tech transfer/disruptive technology success story that achieved a major liquidity event for its investors in Q4/2004 with its acquisition by Motorola. Martin also was responsible for building several high profile alliances with and for leading technology companies, including Fujitsu, Microsoft, Netscape, Sun Microsystems, and Teradata. Additionally, Martin has successfully negotiated technology transfer, distribution and/or licensing deals with companies like 3Com, BioChem Pharma, Dow Chemical, Exodus, Fujitsu, IBM, Microsoft, Motorola, Netscape and Sun.
User Comments !
Nationwide Wi-Fi is just a stop on the path toward LTE. South Korea was the hot-spot capital of the world; now most people get better bandwidth and full moblity with HSPDA en route to LTE. Mobility is the killer app.
Posted by: ProfAHK | March 09 2009 14:06:34
Those are interesting statistics. I am not surprised that Apple is in this position. They develop quality products and usually over deliver. Mobile is the way to go. When I travel to Hong Kong I am amazed at the amount of mobile web users. If companies make it affordable it will be a big hit in the US.
Posted by: mtb | March 15 2009 05:23:07
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