Greetings from Kansas City, where the big news was the opening of the two new Trader Joe’s this week (their branded coffee isn’t bad!).  There’s a lot of analysis this week in The Sunday Brief about Google.  The bottom line is 3-6-9 months ago, people overreacted to Google’s “low” earnings which were unfounded, and they have overreacted to this week’s 2Q earnings, which are good, but largely driven by favorable exchange rates and “below the line” interest on their $39 billion cash and marketable securities stockpile.

I have a tremendous amount of respect for Google, and love the toothbrush analogy Larry Page used in the beginning of the conference call.  I do not have a tremendous amount of respect for those who follow Google, but industry analysts, the tech media, and the Wall Street folks (many of whom receive the email version of The Sunday Brief).

Welcome your thoughts and comments.  Click here to see this week’s Sunday Brief.

Have a great week!

Thanks for your continued interest in The Sunday Brief.  Between the RCR posts and your continued referrals to this website, we saw over 10,000 unique readers last week.  That’s pretty good for a boring telecom blog.

Many of you have asked me to write on the new data plan prices.  In the attached article, I explain the overall economics of data (which is largely misunderstood by most non-telecom folks), and talk about the margin implications to the wireless operators.  While many of you will question my cost assumptions (which may be a bit rusty), the point is that the threshold (gross) margin is 50% or so on a product with minimal billing, (direct) marketing and customer service costs.  Data, and specifically 4G data, is the new cash cow.  It’s hugely profitable for the low end (casual) plans, and with a “breakage” assumption, enormously profitable at the high end plans.

As a former telecom exec turned low-latency applications developer, the “rationing” concept is a whammy.  So many applications are based on a “free” or “unlimited” concept.  This is slowly being erased (and for good reason) by the carriers.  What to do for a next chess move – more caches?  Let’s start the conversation

Here’s this week’s Sunday Brief.  Thanks again for your support, trackbacks, and referrals.  I have also attached the table in the PDF below as a .png file – Jim

Accompanying data table:

Happy extended weekend, everyone!  Lots of difficulties converting this to a normal post and not enough time left in the weekend to learn it.  So it’s back to the PDF format.  If you would like to be added to the mailing list directly, please contact me at jim@mobilesymmetry.com and I will add you within the month.

Hope everyone is doing well.  Please, if you have not registered for a Mobile Symmetry account, please do by clicking here.  It’s a perfect time to set up a self-maintained directory for that list you have to administer – the swim team, club, association, or any other group that needs to me mobile connected.  Plus, it’s a killer Caller ID/ Calling Name app.

Also, our Android app is out (Blackberry by the end of the week – they promise!).

Have a safe and happy Fourth of July!

Oh, by the way, please Register for Mobile Symmetry and set up a group at www.mobsym.com.  I know there’s more work we have to do on User Interface, but also please download the Android Market app (search Mobile Symmetry or Mobsym).  We are trying to get over 1,000 downloads by the end of the week.

Thanks – have a great week!  Thanks in advance for the comments!  - Jim

Enjoy – yes, I’m back, and writing as vociferously as ever.  If you want to get on the direct mailing list, please send a note to jim@mobilesymmetry.com and I’ll add you to the list.  - Jim

(Posted from Las Vegas at the COMPTEL show).

Unfortunately, my skills at translating from Word to WordPress are not keeping up as my full time job is getting the business going (and our growth has been great).  So here’s the PDF of this week’s post.  Enjoy – and please sign up for Mobile Symmetry at www.mobsym.com.  We all have groups that need better organization – this is a very easy way to keep everyone informed.

I will likely blog as well about the telecommunications opportunities that I saw while in India.  With the subscriber base growing by over 2 million users per month (really), and with number portability fully implemented, it’s not hard to see gains for just about everyone.

Welcome your comments on the blog and on Mobile Symmetry.

This week’s article focuses on Sprint, simply put because they announced earnings, and the cable/ telecom 4Q roundup awaits Comcast and T-Mobile earnings announcements.  I think you will find it thought provoking as it’s a chronicle of the struggles challengers face in a duopoly environment.

Have a great week!  As the article states, I’ll be abroad this week, so next week’s post might arrive at a unique hour.

Welcome your comments and thoughts.  Have a great week!

Enjoy the article – welcome your comments.  – Jim