The coming data traffic jam
If you don’t own a smart phone now, you probably will soon.
Here’s the picture from Wall Street: Nokia, which pretty much makes regular old cell phones, announced a 40 percent drop in revenues Thursday. On the same day, AT&T said they had a huge quarter with lots of new customers for the iPhone activated 3.2 million new iPhones last quarter. Meanwhile, research firm Strategy Analytics says smart phone shipments are up 43 percent worldwide.
Americans are ditching cell phones in favor of devices that can make calls AND check email AND update Facebook AND stream video AND you get the idea. In the process, we’re flooding the data networks these smart phones rely on. It’s lots of fun now, but is it sustainable? Can the networks do what we’re asking of them?
We check in with industry analyst Cheetan Sharma, whose clients include both AT&T and Verizon, about this issue. We also talk to Glenn Fleishman of Wi-Fi Networking News.
Also in this program, Foxconn says it will raise prices for the technology companies it works with. Foxconn builds popular products for Apple, HP, Dell, and others. We’ve been watching the situation with Foxconn for a while. Here are some links to past coverage:
Suicides in China (May 21)
More suicides at Foxconn (May 28)
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