AT&T and T-Mobile merger officially called off

Author: Riley Alexander, MD, MBA

In what should be viewed as a big win for consumers and choice in the mobile technology space, AT&T has rescinded its takeover bid of $39 billion for T-Mobile. A mix of consumer and grass roots activism coupled with a negative viewpoint from the justice department forced AT&T to re-consider. Had this merger went through, AT&T would have surpassed Verizon as the largest carrier in the U.S.

For more details, here is a good write-up from BusinessWeek.

About the author:

Dr. Riley Alexander is a pathology resident at Indiana University School of Medicine, blog "addict" and avid follower of technology. His primary interests revolve around how technology, especially mobile, will create increased efficiency, enhanced physician education and better delivery of care in the medical field. Dr. Alexander is a graduate of Indiana University School of Medicine with a combined MD/MBA, in partnership with IU's Kelley School of Business. Due to this, he is also very interested in management, healthcare policy and non-clinical aspects of the medical field and enjoys exploring non-clinical opportunities for medical students, residents and physicians. He completed his undergraduate education at IU-Bloomington.

Now that iOS 5 is out, what do you think?

Author: Riley Alexander, MD, MBA

I was very happy to get iOS 5 on my iPhone earlier this week...even if it seemed like it took 4 hours to install. So far, it seems to be a very worthwhile and great update. I was concerned with the speed bump given to the iPhone 4S that my iPhone 4 may suffer, but so far it actually seems like my user experience is faster than it was before. A very good surprise indeed.

A few sure-fire reasons to update:
1) The new notifications system FINALLY replaces the antiquated alert system of the past and is very welcomed. It's very nice to just have a little drop down menu appear while you're using the phone that you can ignore instead of the big blue badge. Going directly to an alert from the home screen is also very nice. Well done, Apple.

RIM in Serious Trouble?

Author: Riley Alexander, MD, MBA

I've said on here before that I feel like RIM is lost in the current smartphone market and they don't seem to have a cohesive plan with what to do with Blackberry in the age of the iPhone and Android. Unfortunately for them, it seems to be getting worse. RIM shares recently hit a 5-year low and their co-CEOs seem to negate that there's a problem--and that seems to intensify the problem to outsiders. With the Playbook essentially a flop and all of their iPhone/touchscreen devices being the same, they're stuck with essentially the same kind of phone (keyboard candy-bar style) and the same kind of client (corporate) that they've always had. And with many companies now allowing their employees to choose their phone, this client is no longer a given. To make matters worse, one of the new features of iOS5 will be iMessage--Apple's version of BBM. Essentially the only "killer app" Blackberry has.

Let the FCC know what you think of the AT&T/T-Mobile merger

Author: Riley Alexander, MD, MBA

As most of you are aware, AT&T has filed to purchase T-Mobile from its parent company, Deustche Telekom. This would, in essence, give AT&T a monopoly on the GSM mobile spectrum in the U.S. It is a merger that makes it hard to imagine of being to benefit to consumers in the long run.

If you're strongly inclined to voice your opinion on this matter to the FCC...well, you can. Through their Electronic Comment Filing System (found here), you can post your public filing/comment.

Note the link directs you to the appropriate filing, 11-65, in case you are wondering when you follow it.

White iPhone 4--It's real?

Author: Riley Alexander, MD, MBA

The white iPhone 4 has been something of a running joke ever since it was announced last June that it would release alongside the standard black iPhone 4. Well, almost 10 months later, it looks like it's finally going to arrive...or may actually already have in some places.

Now, the most important part of this announcement is that it seems to confirm the rumors circulating over the last couple of weeks that the iPhone 5 will not make it's usual June unveiling and will be pushed back to September. If Apple was actually set to unveil the iPhone 5 at WWDC in June, it is very unlikely they would even go to the trouble to release the white iPhone 4. They don't really want anymore negativity associated with the white iPhone 4.

Sprint taking a hit at the Exchange after the AT&T/T-Mobile Merger

Author: Riley Alexander, MD, MBA

I wanted to write this quick post as a follow-up to Dr. Kim's post the other day about the AT&T/T-Mobile merger, here. I thought it was fitting being he ended his post with "So, what's going to happen to Sprint?" Well, the reaction on Wall St. today is all negative--Sprint took a 14% loss just today and has propelled options trading on the company. Many felt that it's price before the merger is now overvalued as so many were expecting a Sprint/T-Mobile merger to come to fruition in the next year. 

I think most analysts were predicting Sprint to do everything it could to be the one to merge with T-Mobile so that it could more effectively compete with the much larger (and now even larger) AT&T and Verizon. With AT&T taking T-Mobile, Sprint is now a distant second to Verizon in AT&T in size and user base. Considering Sprint and T-Mobile seem to be the ones adding much of the mobile plan pricing competition to the market, one has to think that it's in the consumer's benefit for the struggling Sprint to push on...and keep added necessary competition to a still young mobile marketplace. 

The implications of Apple's new subscription model

Author: Riley Alexander, MD, MBA

There have been many articles written recently on this blog about the versatility of the iPad as a media consumption device--including medical textbooks and journal articles. Well, just very recently, Apple has announced some rather large changes that may affect this sector of iPad/iPhone usage in a large way--dictating terms of subscription.

This "term" is essentially that Apple requires all subscriptions based apps, of which many are some of the most popular in the App Store, that they have to at least offer the subscription from within the app--and therefore allow Apple to take a 30% cut of not only the app, but the media subscription--periodicals, journals, texts, music, etc.

Smartphones as the best business decision in medicine?

Author: Riley Alexander, MD, MBA

So says the most recent edition of Dark Daily. They are basing this assertion off of recent trends and results of a survey by research2guidance that can be found here (note: the white paper is free, but requires registration). The findings claim that the high rate of penetrance of mobile phones in the market and usage of apps will be the driving forces behind the business of mobile health. Surprisingly, 80% of respondents thought that diabetes would be the largest market--perhaps this is just a correlation with the rising prevalence of diabetes. I can't think of why it would make a "better" app market per se. What I wasn't surprised to see was the predominance that iOS and Android have in this space.

Though Dark Daily is primarily a management publication with a pathology focus, it has been very interesting of late to see how many of their articles have focused on the integration of mobile health. They seem to have a keen interest in relaying to pathologists and clinicians, alike, how important this growing medium is.