New e-reader will set off a price war

Borders is getting in on the action with its release of the Kobe e-reader. At a price point of $149, this is the most least expensive e-reader out there. While it does not dote the features present in the Nook or Kindle, its a great value for those those who simply want a no-trills reading alternative. Coupled with the ipad's release, e-reader manufacturers need to make lower-cost devices in order to continue to appeal to the public. Barnes and Nobles is expected to launch a $199 Nook Lite later this year and Amazon will almost surely follow suit.

The Kobe e-reader is simplistic in design and erogromic, making it feel more natural in your hands. The "quilted" back appears to double as a trademark selling point and extra grip. It sports a single usb and SD card slot, with an on-board memory offering of 1 gigabyte (about 1,000 books). Consumers can create a Kobe account to buy books for the device. However, there is an absence of 3G or wi-fi capability, instead offerring bluetooth as your wireless solution. It has an excellent expected battery life of 2 weeks or 8,000 pages.

Some of the cons for the device are that it only supports e-Pub and PDF formats. There is no web browser, games, apps, etc. that are found on devices such as the Nook. At this point in the e-reader market, you are getting exactly what you paid for. For consumers the Kobe is a step toward the right direction. It may even be worth waiting to see how the other e-reader giants respond to the Kobe. With its first pre-orders sold out till early July, the competition will need an answer...

Rural Wireless Carrier forming

In an age of National cell phone carriers, Atlanta Tele-Network is one step closer to forming out of the ashes of some former Altell assets. Once complete, they will won the license that will serve 800,000 people in rural Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Illinois, Ohio, and Idaho. The company headquarters will be in Little Rock, Arkansas, the former headquarter city of Altell. In September, Frank O'Mara, former Altell CMO was chosen t run the wireless carrier. O'Mara created "My Circle", a popular feature in Altell's service that other carriers such as T Mobile, Verizon, and AT&T copied. Many former Altell employees are also expected to board ship to this new carrier as well. Check out their website for more information: http://www.atni.com/index.html

Nokia to sell Ipad type device

Phone maker Nokia is not wasting time this time around putting out a product to rival Apple. When the iphone originally launched, it took Nokia nearly 2 years to produce a touch screen device. Nokia plans to have a tablet device available later this year. The device will either run on Microsoft Windows software or Meego operating system. Meego was created through a joint vneture between Nokia and Intel. Other handset makers such as Samsung and Hewlett Packard are expected to follow suit as well.

The Buzz on Google

It seems like everyone wants to get its share of action in the social networking platform. Google has recently launched "Buzz", which allows its users to share their status updates, photos, videos, and other things. Built into its gmail service, Buzz will gain a moderate following from those who use their email system. Your network is of friends is essentially built out of those who you correspond through email the most.

There is nothing groundbreaking about Buzz that will distinguish it from Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, or the scores of other social networking sites. Its holds its advantage in simply the fact that it has millions of users of its gmail service. If anything, Buzz will add a little more content to its gmail users who already benefit from features such as google calendar, documents, reader, etc.

Windows 7 coming to a phone near you...

Finally, it looks like Microsoft may actually have a contender in the smartphone war that is worthy of attention. Last year, they unveiled Windows Mobile 6.5 which sported the new honeycomb interface. Other than that, the OS remained sluggish, unstable, and simply not able to stand in the class of Android, Apple, etc. Microsoft seems to have started completely from scratch on this one. The user interface is brand new and the touch screen is mandatory on all Windows 7 devices.

They have finally begun to incorporate their other electronics into this one device. For instance, the Zune interface has been picked and placed into the music and video capabilities of the OS. Xbox live will also be available on this OS. You will have the ability to be tied to your Xbox 360 profile and have access to achievements and gamer points for games that you can play on your phone.

Windows 7 will finally give Microsoft a OS that is completely recognizable and standard. In the past, manufacturers like HTC could put their own custom interface. No matter what company manufacturers the device, the look of the interface will be the same. Slated for release around holidays 2010, mobile users definitely have something to look forward to.

Seeking a buyer- Cricket

Looks like there's another consolidation in the wireless industry headed this year. Leap Wireless, who owns the pre-paid service, Cricket is has hired Goldman Sachs to help them merge with another carrier. In the past, fellow pre-paid provider, MetroPCS has expressed interest in a possible merger. The company has also spoken with AT&T and Verizon Wireless.

It seems doubtful that AT&T would make a bid to buy the company as they would have to make an investment in switching their towers over from CDMA to GSM technology. AT&T is already struggling with their current inability to handle their service traffic thanks to the popularity of the Iphone. However, this move can't be ruled out since it would bring in more customers that could help bridge the gap made by the Verizon/Altell merger. On the flip side, Verizon is still in the process of working out the knicks in their merger with Altell. Their only interest acquiring Leap would most likely be acquring more customers as well. Either way, both companies would have to divest a significant portion of their share because of regulatory actions. It seems unlikely that either company would want to go through the effort.

The most likely scenerio remains a merger with MetroPCS. These two rivals do not have a very good history however. They have been known for their pot shots at each other. It would be great to see a company such as U.S. Cellular acquire the company as well. An acquistition could give them a huge boost in markets such as St. Louis, where the brand has had opportunities for growth. Time will tell.

An end in sight for the Iphone exclusivity?

Recently, there has been a lot of rumors and speculations about AT&T and Apple's contract. Their relationship over the past few years has continued to be a strained one, the past few weeks, even turned a bit ugly. AT&T has announced that it will be charging a premium to its customers who use an incremental amount of data on their Iphone. The effect of the overload of data has caused several issues throughout AT&T's network. Apple has also reaped the benefits of opening up availability of the Iphone to several markets overseas. Stocks in Apple have soared to double over the past year.

On Wednesday, Apple will be making an announcement on new products, which many believe will be the unvieling of the new apple tablet. Many also believe that Apple will take this opportunity to publicly state their intention to move past the carrier. Verizon Wireless would be an obvious choice, even though Apple has yet to launch a CDMA compatibile device. With that door open, hopefully that will mean that other carriers such as Sprint, US Cellular, etc. will get the option to carry the handset. Until then, we will at least keep our fingers crossed for Wednesday.

Reading the future --- Palm

This has been a good year for Palm. Earlier this year they launched the Palm Pre, which has enjoyed good reviews and had the power under the hood to be a strong rival to Apple's Iphone. The most recent Palm creation, the Pixi is a solid smartphone for first time users. Despite all the hype and Palm's improvements in their products, it seems as though this is merely a delay of the inevitable.

Their products simply lack the 3rd party application support that competitors such as Apple, Blackberry, Microsoft,and Google have. Blackberry has continued to be the favorite in the business smartphone world, where Palm once stood in the 1990s. They have successfully marketed to the new wave of young and hip smartphone users with the Blackberry Storm and Storm 2. Google's Andriod format continues to make huge improvements from the original G1 to the Motorola Driod. Their market share is virtually invisible in the smartphone market with the other giants in the game. Simply put, Palm's reinvention came too late. Its partnership with Sprint, is almost reminincist of watching two ships sinking slowing, perhaps one faster than the other.

A buyout seems to be the most likely future for this old schooler. It would hardly seem necessary for Apple, Blackberry, Google, or Microsoft to make an offer. Nokia seems to be a better suitor for such an acquistion. Whatever the case, Palm's time is coming to end. Althought it will be sad to see them go, the smartphone segment has been revolutionized by the iphone and it is an exciting time in the overall industry.