Looking at the U.S. mobile market.

Oh, O.K. One more.

It seems to be an interesting morning for content, despite the election of a new pope (One colleague has already dubbed the former Cardinal Ratzinger "Pope Eggs"), the ongoing drama with a few drug mules in Bali and the iminent death of Queensland's longest serving and most infamous state Premier.

Despite that, the world goes on. Mike Masnick over at "The Feature" writes about traditional telco's and their lack of desire to really embrace the new opportunities Mobile Technology is bringing in favour of traditional cash cows.

In particular he references Verizon CEO Ivan Seidenberg's recent comments. One particular part stands out for me.

The statement that is really turning heads... was his angry statements concerning what subscribers expect from their mobile phones: "Why in the world would you think your (cell) phone would work in your house? The customer has come to expect so much. They want it to work in the elevator; they want it to work in the basement." Of course, you could easily place a good part of the blame for those expectations on Verizon's own co-owned subsidiary, Verizon Wireless, whose entire advertising campaign is based on the idea that subscribers should expect to use their handsets anywhere and everywhere.

I'm always up for a healthy slice of irony, even at this time of the morning.

I realise that the Australian market is nothing like the U.S. situation, however it begs the question about our own Telstra and the expectation of what they have planned for the future, especially in light of the government's push for full privatisation.

As always, feel free to comment.

TheFeature :: Seidenberg Shows That Cash Cows Die Hard

And then, as if to vex me, Telstra announces a Third Quarter profit based primarily on broadband, mobile and advertising earnings. Sometimes you just can't win.
Telstra's Third Quarter sales up 6.5%