‘America’s Mobile Comeback’
A decade ago, a tour of the world’s mobile-phone capitals might have started in Finland, home of Nokia, stopped in London to visit Sony Ericsson (itself a joint venture between a Swedish telecom giant and Japan’s gadget leader) to Korea for Samsung and LG, perhaps to Germany for Siemens, wrapping up at Motorola — the company that invented the cellphone — in the Chicago suburbs. […]
Today, the most important mobile corridor in the world is the one in Silicon Valley, California — the nine-mile drive between Google’s headquarters in Mountain View and Apple’s in Cupertino.
I wrote this piece a while back for SAY Media’s latest magazine issue about mobile, focusing on Apple and Google’s rise to dominance in mobile software.
One thing I didn’t get into, but noticed again last week on vacation in France, is how U.S. mobile service is finally leading, too. After a while where Europe’s excellent 3G service was making the U.S. look horrible, we’ve briefly taken the lead with 4G and LTE. The 3G iPhone data service I got in Paris through SFR was mostly okay, but nothing like the blazing fast Verizon LTE I’m getting used to in New York. Of course, LTE is already available in some European countries, and will soon be in Paris. But this week’s match goes to the Americans.
Check out my new site: The New Consumer, a publication about how and why people spend their time and money.