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AT&T has been riding the iPhone craze to becoming a leader in the telecom space. However, that exclusivity will not last forever. So, they are looking ahead and trying to be pro-active about their future success. The iPhone development was unprecedented in that the phone was made without AT&T input. They were luckly in that Steve Jobs and company did a fantastic job with the phone. Can you imagine what it would have looked like for AT&T and the rest of the mobile space if iPhone had bombed. It has allowed AT&T to take a $900 million hit on profits while still growing through its voice and data plans. 

However, AT&T has learnt from this experience and has decided not to rest on its laurels. Here is an interesting article from CNN Money on what AT&T is doing to keep its leadership position. One of the technologies they are working on is to transfer videos from the iPhone to TV with just a flick of a finger on the iPhone. Now, that would be cool. However, it is going to take some time for that technology to be available.

I am certainly glad that AT&T is taking some concrete steps to insulate its future. I get a feeling that AT&T is looking in its crystal ball and is not liking that it is so tied to the pipes and spectrum. It see Apple capturing a share of revenue through its app store to which AT&T has no access. It also sees that its capital-hungry investments in infrastructure which has laden it with huge debt could become millstone around its ability to grow. Finally, it sees that mobile phone carriers are fast becoming utilities which can have far-reaching consequences. It recognizes the signs of time and wants to diversify into being able to provide a complete experience to the user while at the same time reducing its dependency on the spectrum and other capital intensive investments.

Citi today announced that it has partnered with Firethorn Holding, LLC, a Qualcomm company to provide a mobile application for its Card holders to access their account information on their cell phones. This rollout is to be on the AT&T and Verizon Wireless networks. The application will allow card holders to check balances in real time, review their transaction history and rewards points on their cell phone via a secured and encrypted connection. You can read the press release from Verizon Wireless here.

Today, using technology airlines have pretty much automated the pre-flight process except for one thing: the boarding pass. As Greg Kumparak at Mobile Crunch says:

I’ve never lost a ticket, yet I consistently fear that I will. It’s just such an abnormal thing in our daily lives – when else are we given something to hang on to for a few hours that is so easy to lose or destroy, yet so significant in the success of our plans? Lose that ticket, and there’s a good chance queues and regulations might just make you miss your flight. Miss your flight, and you’ll be making up for it your entire trip.

Now, airlines have finally solved that issue and in the process saved thousands of trees. Both Continental and American Airlines are piloting programs wherein any cell phone that can receive and view web pages can be used to receive your digital boarding pass which TSA will scan to verify your identity. The Continental program has been in place since December at Boston’s Logan International Airport, Washington’s National Airport, Houston Airport and Newark International Airport. American Airlines is piloting their program at Chicago O’Hare, Los Angeles International and Santa Ana’s John Wayne/Orange County airports starting today. Now, if you are flying these airlines from the airports mentioned, just remember to charge your cellphone and don’t put it through the x-ray machine until your boarding pass has been verified.

Verizon Wireless and Walt Disney Parks and Resorts today announced a multi-year agreement where in Verizon Wireless will provide wide-ranging mobile services to Walt Disney Park and Resorts visitors. Starting next year, visitors to Disney who use Verizon Wireless phones will be able to download an application to their phones that will give them up-to-minute information on shows, restaurants, Disney characters inside both Disney World and Disneyland parks. At the Epcot center, visitors in early in 2009 will experience the Kim Possible World Showcase Adventure, an ultra-interactive show using wireless device from Verizon Wireless called the “Kimmunicator”.

Verizon will make some basic services available to all the 90% of visitors of the park who bring cell phones with them while the enhanced services will be available only on the Verizon phones.

That’s right browser wars are coming. Only this time, they are coming to a mobile phone near you. So far we have Microsoft Mobile IE,  Apple’s Safari, Opera, Google’s Chrome and the Blackberry’s proprietary browser. Add to that mix the recently announced and currently undergoing alpha testing, Fennec, the mobile browser from Mozilla, the maker of Firefox open source browser.

Given all these browsers, there is bound to be a shakeup. However, on the flip side of it is the fact that there are so many mobile platforms, Windows Mobile, Apple iPhone OS, Google’s Android, Symbian and Blackberry OS. So, one could argue that each of these are walled gardens and therefore the browsers work in these walled gardens. However, two of the above-named browsers, Opera and Fennec are not tied to any specific platform, though they may not work on all platforms yet. Not to mention, all the big players, except maybe RIM, have the resources to quickly make their browsers platform independent. So, while I don’t expect the browser wars to start right away, I fully expect them in maybe late 2009, early 2010.

Sprint today reported its Q3 numbers and they were horrendous. It lost 1.3 customers during the quarter which reduced its revenue from $10.04 billion a year ago to $8.81 billion this quarter. This resulted in a quarterly loss of $342 million or 11 cents a share.

Sprint has been losing customers, almost a million every quarter for the last 3 quarters. At this rate, it is going to run out of money soon. Then the question arises as to what happens to it. It has tried selling its iDEN (legacy) network which has gone no where due to lack of buyer interest. Its investments in WiMAX has a while to go before they can pay off.

Sprint did take steps to reduce bankruptcy concerns for now by paying down some of its credit facility and increasing interest that it will pay on its new debt. However, that just buys its some breathing space for now. Falling ARPU down to $56 and shrinking customer base does not bode well for Sprint. With its burn rate of $7.8 billion a quarter and $4.1 billion in cash balance at the end of the quarter, it will end up using all of its $1 billion free cash flow in coming months. I think it is a matter of time and another shoe to fall before Sprint becomes an acquisition target or fails.

[Via New York Times]

So, finally, it is Election Day here in US. After almost two years of campaigning we will see the results tonight. It is a historic election which ever candidate wins. However, it is also a day of reckoning for technology, especially mobile technology. Will we see a lot of technical glitches like the 2000 & 2004 elections? Answer to that is most likely. In fact, even as I write this, there are reports of equipment failure.

We have already seen the power of the web being successfully used by both candidates, perhaps more effectively by Democrat Barack Obama’s campaign. The web has been successful in helping Obama’s campaign avoid public financing and break all fundraising records. It has also helped him build a formidible grass-roots movement. It may even help him govern by allowing him to communicate directly to the public, much like Franklin Roosvelt did with his fire-side, radio talks during Depression. His campaign has also uploaded several YouTube videos which have been watched 92 million times. Acording to TechPresident.com, a website that tracks technology use in presidential campaigns, his Facebook page has 2 million followers and his campaign has managed to get 8 million supporters through various social media sites. Compared to that McCain’s campaign has been relatively tepid in using social media. McCain managed to raise $217 million via the web compared to Obama’s haul of $600 million. McCain has 560,000 followers on Facebook and his YouTube videos have been seen only a third of Obama’s videos.

Earlier in the summer, Obama started organizing his text messaging campaign by asking supporters to sign up for text messages and he promised them that they would be the first to know his VP nominee. In that instant, the supporters were disappointed because traditional news media scooped them and there were some bungling on part of the campaign which resulted in supporters getting the message hours after the VP pick was known. However, it resulted in about 3 million supporters signing up. Since then he has constantly kept in touch with these supporters (I know as I am one of the subscribers), whether it be to remind voters to watch the Democratic convention, or the debates or to take advantage of early voting where possible or to ask for volunteers to make calls for his campaign. Compared to that, McCain does not have a text messaging campaign at all. On Oct 2, Obama campaign unveiled their iPhone applications which among other things helps users find contacts in battleground states that they can then call to ask them to vote for Obama.

Today though is mobile technology’s day to shine. Obama’s campaign can use this to get the vote out. The campaign has already sent out messages to inform the subscribers nationwide of their respective polling hours. I don’t live in a battleground state, so I don’t know for sure, but I would imagine that they would have already sent out several messages to get his supporters to not only vote, but also to encourage others to vote.

We are already hearing huge turnout effort. However, it is too early to get a sense of how effective mobile campaign was for the Obama campaign. I truly believe that today’s election is a watershed moment for mobile technology in USA. A few years back, American Idol got text messaging into the US consciousness. Today’s election will showcase the power of this technology. Today we will see if the technological divide between the two campaigns will set a new course of history or whether it will become a footnote in history.