Guy Kewney

Why are 3G handsets and data cards so awful? Answer: because the handset makers are deliberately making it impossible to show how bad they are, by making the tests meaningless. Its easy to understand why a 2-year-old toddler might throw mud onto the breakfast plate before trying to eat it. Its rather harder to understand […]

Have you ever seen a highway accident about to happen? Thats how I feel about e-mail on phones. Just about anyone will tell you that the killer app for mobile data is e-mail. What they dont tell you is who is going to die as a result. You want a list? I can give you […]

For those who didnt believe last weeks story in this column about the nightmare of IT staff in mobile data, heres an even less plausible tale… Ive found something which can genuinely drive mobile revenue up. The trick is simple: Find something which makes voice calls more expensive, but makes people want to pay for […]

“Billing on expectations” is the new buzzword. Heres how it works. Youre a phone network operator, and you want your customers to spend more on wireless data, so you get a bunch of songs, tunes, pop videos, wallpaper and teleshopping portals. Thats easy … isnt it? Well, it involves going to companies in Hollywood and […]

One has to ask whether the music business would know the butter side of a slice of toast from the crumb side. Watch the current dispute—a fierce one—that is just breaking out. The massed ranks of the GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) operators are lined up against the massed ranks of anti-copying software-patent holders. […]

Heres a mystery: why has Ericsson—which doesnt make phones—sued Sendo, which does, for using Ericssons GSM cell phone patents without payment? On the face of it, the mystery is no mystery. Sendo, a tiny phone maker from Britains second city, Birmingham, has been using Ericsson patents in its GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) phones. […]

Its honestly not true that wireless works by magic. I mention this just in case youre one of the people working for the French government, who clearly think it does. They have decided to legislate against people whose phones ring in movie theaters. The way the French see it, its easy. Just set up a […]

It really isnt the case that some people will print anything Intel tells them. Im sure of it. It cant be true. It is the case, however, that Intel did get a lot of free publicity for its “initiative” on wireless mesh networks last week. If we are to believe Intel and its representative on […]

The word on the street is that Microsoft will leak a rather low-key public beta test of its “Magneto” wireless e-mail product at CTIA next week—or maybe not until June. Im trying very hard to make sense of Microsofts failure to release it at Cannes 3GSM last month. Here are the excuses people have given […]

See over there, at the Realeyes3D booth? Whos that geek shooting down attacking biplanes with his phone? Going “yakka-yakka-yakka-yakka!” and whooping with delight? Yes. It was me. What did I come away with after the 3GSM World Conference in Cannes, France? One powerful, almost overwhelming impression: The days when the world could talk about a […]

There is a widespread failure to understand Microsofts latest announcements, with hysterical focus on Nokias announcement that it is licensing Windows Media player for its phones, some enthusiasm about “Peabody,” minor interest in the fact that Nokia is going with Exchange for e-mail, and blank disregard of the apparently boring announcement that Microsoft has released […]

DAVOS, Switzerland—Nicholas Negroponte, wandering around this city, was trying to get people excited about the idea of a very small, very cheap PC, costing $100. A favor, if you like, for the poor countries at the World Economic Forum, from the rich. Nothing wrong with the idea, as another delegate to the WEF (World Economic […]