TechAddress

How Disney Mobile Is Succeeding In Japan (After Failing In the U.S.)

Fri, 22 Aug 2008 20:30:15 +0000

Source:TechCrunch
Ning, the build-your-own social network platform, has removed all widgets created by premium developer WidgetLaboratory. The news has come without warning and is being met with outrage by a number of users who have spent hundreds of dollars on the widgets to build up their social networks.
WidgetLaboratory has posted a notice to its site […]Source:TechCrunch
Disney embarked on a cellular phone business in the US as early as June 2006 but pulled the plug at the end of last year, citing delays in the spread of 3G networks as the major reason.
In March this year, Disney carried out another attempt, but this time in Japan, where the brand has been […]

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Wireless: Virgin Mobile IPO fails to pop

Thu, 11 Oct 2007 21:12:05 +0000

Source:Valleywag

Is any company as prone to fits of overenthusiastic hiring and then desperate firing as AOL? Even in the go-go ’90s, America Online binged and purged on employees. A veteran employee who claims to have survived 35 — 35! — rounds of layoffs throughout the years put together a partial listing of some of the bigger cuts. But from everything we hear, next week’s bloodletting will be, as they say, off the chart. The list, after the jump.

November 1996: 300 (AOLwatch)
March 1999: 850 (Mozillazine)
January 2001: 750 (ZDNet UK)
August 2001: 1200 (ZDNet UK)
July 2003: 50 (ZDNet UK)
December 2003: 450
December 2004: 950 (Slashdot.org)
October 2006: 700 (Maya Reynolds)
December 2006: 500 (CRN)
December 2006: 450 (Washington Post)
February 2007: 600 (Washington Post)

Know of more? Leave a comment.

Source:Valleywag

Some IPOs — like Google and Vonage, which has fallen 85 percent since going public — fall flat. Virgin Mobile, with its cherry brand name and backers, should have had a sparkling debut. And yet it didn’t.

Virgin Mobile, unlike the big carriers, rents a wireless network rather than owning one, essentially gussying up and reselling Sprint’s service under its own name. It’s a challenging business model, known in the trade as being a “mobile virtual network operator” or “MVNO.” Disney and Amp’d, among others, have failed to make a go of it.

Renting one’s network means lower capital costs, and according to the Wall Street Journal, Virgin has 4.83 million subscribers and actually made a small profit this year. Virgin Mobile has plenty of revenue, but with a flat IPO today and loads of debt, it is unclear if it can make itself into a viable company.

Disney Mobile shut down last month and Amp’d burned through hundreds of millions of dollars with nothing to show for it. History does not look good for Virgin, but with strong name recognition among their target market and clever advertising, we don’t put it past Sir Richard to succeed where others have failed.

(Photo by AP/Jacques Brinon)

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Virgin Mobile USA: Last MVNO Hero

Thu, 11 Oct 2007 16:30:22 +0000

Source:GigaOM
If you had to pick one mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) whose success has spawned dozens of copycats (most of them failures), then you have to go with Virgin Mobile USA. By focusing on the younger demographic, the company has snagged about 4.83 million customers.

A joint venture of Sprint (S) and Richard Branson’s Virgin […]

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Pipex to build UK WiMAX network with NSN

Thu, 05 Apr 2007 15:00:03 +0000

Okay so they got off to a slow start, but Nokia Siemens Networks is doing its very best to convince the world that it is not flatfooted, firing off press releases by the dozen it seems. Yesterday they announced a deal with ad-supported MVNO, Blyk. Today NSN is saying that they will be building a nationwide WiMAX networks for Pipex Wireless, a UK-based company backed by Pipex and Intel Capital. Pipex Wireless owns a national spectrum licence in the 3.6 to .2 GHz frequency range and claims that it is the first service provider in the UK to offer WiMAX using licenced spectrum.

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