Mobile Virtual Network Operator, or more simply MVNO. It seems the buzz would have you believe that within a few years we’ll all be carrying Captain Crunch, Corona or Pepsi mobile phones. Maybe we well. Seems kind of fun to me. As our global society continues to be obsessed with promoting the hottest brands on everything we own from our feet to our ears, why not have a branded cell phone that goes beyond just the case! I have two thoughts on this subject. One, I think the carriers need to take control of this more or they’re going to loose out on more revenue then they need to and two, big brand companies out there like Louis Vuitton and Disney could take the experience much further.

Let’s start with the carriers. The infrastructure costs related not only to the networks themselves but also the customer management and billing systems is enormous. It seems a waste to make the MVNO build out this infrastructure or worse yet give up this potential outsourcing revenue to a third party such as Visage Mobile, who will provide these systems for the MVNO to integrate with whatever carrier they’d like. The carriers themselves should setup their systems to be flexible enough to manage these MVNOs and take a large cut of the revenue rather then just the whole sale rates of the network usage. Additionally, economies of scale can be created by leveraging large call centers to support multiple MVNOs keeping the costs down for everyone.

Regarding the MVNO’s themselves I think the big opportunity is integration. Let’s take the Louis Vuitton brand for example. If they were to create an MVNO that was super high end, they could not only drive customers to their stores and product lines, but create a need for increased purchases. For example, if LV setup the service to be high-touch customers would be coming in to their store every time they had a problem or wanted to change their plan. Now, given the market, I’d jack up the price of those cell phones to the point that they were disposable so that when that customer walks in with a problem the store person just gives them a new phone and sends them on their way. Not to mention make sure they have the latest mobile holder that came out this week. Big brands becoming MVNO’s open up lot’s of opportunities to better integrate themselves with their customers. They can immediately increase customer insight on buying habits, etc. by monitoring their calls and or web sites visited from their mobile phone (all in aggregate of course to protect privacy). Additionally, they have a way not to directly contact their customer based on their preferences. For example, Disney could do everything from send SMS coupons for Disney Land to the latest program guide for ABC’s lineup.

I’m still looking forward to Apple coming out with a mobile phone and possibly an MVNO play too, but I’m even more curious about when The Quaker Oats Co. is going to have Captain Crunch cell phones for kids!

Over the holidays I found myself in many lines, whether they were to buy something or mail it at the post office. On the occasion I was trying to ship a package I found out that I did not have the right form. Unfortunately, I waited for over half an hour before learning this and had to start over at the end of the line once I had the correct form. I’m guessing something similar has happened to you where you didn’t have what you needed to perform the transaction when you reached the end of the line or found out you were in the wrong line all together. In scenarios where these types of lines exist, the organization should employ an individual (could be someone rotating out of one of those boring seat jobs) to talk to people in the line in order to make sure they a.) have everything they need for when they’re at the counter and/or b.) are in the correct line.

Now exhausted, I will be recharging today and ready to go on Tuesday. My thanks to Alaskan/Horizon airlines for safely getting me back to Missoula at what I feel is a very fair price given the circumstances and same-day booking. Seattle-Tacoma airport should follow in PDX and LAS and provide free wi-fi. Portland TSA staff should be more courteous. Thanks to my buddy Travis for grabbing me at the airport this afternoon - we’ll go flying our own planes again soon.

Well I am pre-dating this post as Seattle-Tacoma (SEA-TAC) airport doesn’t offer free wi-fi internet access like Portland and Las Vegas do. I didn’t feel like signing up for a Cingular account so I took the opportunity to recharge a bit (6am - 9am) waiting for my last flight in this 24 hour trek from Las Vegas to Missoula.

We arrived here in Portland after 2am(pacific) and the TSA folks kicked us out of the gate, so we have to wait in the lobby area and go through security AGAIN sometime after 4am. As I’m without a phone (a.k.a. alarm clock) and people are paranoid these days, I have to stay awake until 4:30am (pacific) to get to the gate for the 5am flight to Seattle, Washington. Sleeping on these tiny planes is essentially not an option and now I cannot sleep at the gate to ensure I don’t miss yet another flight - they should fix that.

I arrive in Seattle, Washington at 6am (pacific) and board a flight to Missoula after 9am to arrive at noon. As it looks like the sleep option is out, I’ll probably be sleeping most of Monday if I don’t get too bogged down with work - thank goodness I have no meeting scheduled.

One might find it odd that three people all missed their flights out of Las Vegas, have no recollection of the night prior and are now stuck in Sin City but that’s what has happened. To make things worse, one bright individual has a dead cellular phone, no charger, no watch and no flight until Thursday unless bouncing around the country. Guess who that is?

Of course how would one get themselves into that kind of situation deserves some clear thought and sharing of photos which will come soon - until then just know that sometime in the next couple days I will get back home.

Some highlights of our last “set it off” event, partying at The Palms at a club called Rain. We had a VIP host walk us past the lines and got us in the club; had a few drinks and then I somehow convinced the hosts they needed to suck up to us. Soon they were actually fighting over who got to service our crew, which grew to include some other Montana buddies who I found were in town.

Darin, Dan and myself have no recollection of the end of the night or how we got back to our hotel, but all three of us missed our flights that next day. Here are a couple photos inside:

The pyrotechnics and sound system was amazing. The middle dance floor was surrounded by a “moat” and seating around that for an outer mingling area, then like a stadium, levels of VIP booths and private rooms.

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As I have to stay awake but cannot really “think” I figured I would take some time to post a few photos to share the Vegas experience. I’ll post some technology highlights soon but here are the folks with Montana ties (some live in California, Vegas or Missoula).

NOTE: to make chronological sense, I’ll be pre-dating some posts as I publish.

We got to attend some private parties hosted by Monster Cable and after party following the private Stevie Wonder concert. Some of the music stars hanging with Monster Cable group included Ludacris and M.C. Hammer. After a night out, we ran into Hammer at Fatburger and given some of the guys with us were from Monster, he agreed to my shameless photo request - usually I don’t ask when we hang out with stars (playing it cool).

Monster Cable hosted a private concert with Stevie Wonder and then an after party. During several evenings we hung out with some of their crew and were fortunate to gain invites to the private affairs.

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Here are some photos I took while on my trip. Enjoy!

From Airport

From Hotel Room

Walking the Strip

How many times have you received that email from a friend with a link to an online album of all the wonderful pictures taken on their camera from an event you attended? I am so frustrated by the difficulty that exists in online photo sharing. In the age of digital cameras, photo albums are larger then ever. Unfortunately, most of the pictures you want are from someone else’s camera. Yes, this is not a new problem and I do remember the day when one had to ask, “Can you make a copy for me?” I realize that was much more difficult then the process today where at least I can purchase a printed copy of the shared photo. But!, I want to have the original so that I can keep it forever and maybe modify it myself in Photoshop.

I have reviewed the major online photo services out there and have yet to find one that does not charge both users a large fee for this convenience. Now, you may be thinking, “where is the business justification for them providing that service?” Well, here are my thoughts on that:

1.) Unique differentiator
2.) Increased “eye balls” on your site as customers spend more time clicking through images and choosing, which ones to download. You could for example allow only one download at a time, after which you present a splash screen trying to up sell on other products.
3.) Bandwidth costs could be shared with the consumer by leveraging a peer-to-peer technology such as employed by Bit torrent.

Latest News - Service providers that DO allow downloads of the originals:
Google's Picasa
Smugmug

Service providers not allowing downloads of the originals:
Flickr
Fotki
Kodak Gallery (a.k.a., Ofoto)
Picturetrail
Pixagogo
PhotoBox
Photosite
PhotoWorks
Shutterfly
Simple Star
Slide
Webshots
Yahoo Photos

Now, there are a few ways to share the originals (e.g., uploading them onto your own web server). However, they’re too cumbersome. Another alternative is to use Hello, which is part of Google’s Picasso application suite. It allows you to share the originals, but your computer and your friends have to be online at the same time for the exchange. PiXPO does the same.

If anyone knows of a service that solves this problem, please let me know!

P.S., during the course of writing this entry, another friend of mine sent out pictures from a trip this summer. Argh! I want the originals!

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September 8, 2006 Update: Finally!!! It's arrived. Thanks to Google we will soon all be able to share original photos for download with friends. It's currently in "test" as it looks like they haven't committed to this product, but I'm hoping they do. Imagine when we all won't have to sit through camera after camer during group photos because everyone will be rest assured they can get the original file off of one of the cameras! And, it's FREE!

- A free download of the Picasa software for uploading your photos to the web in one or two clicks.
- Your own shareable Picasa Web Albums homepage showing all your public albums.
- Enough free storage to post and share approximately 1000 photos (an option for upgrading to more space is also available).
- Big, high-resolution pictures that set a new standard for online viewing. You can even download friends' photos off the web to print at home or view a full-screen slideshow.
- Fun easy-to-use online tools, like captions, comments, rotate, and zoom.

Learn more about what's new in Picasa here:
http://picasa.google.com/web/help.html

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Update: Snapfish allows sharring an original photo for download. It costs $.49 a pic.

Dear Snapfish Customer,

Thank you for writing to us.

Please find below how to download FREE pictures from Snapfish to your computer:

Images available for free download are of lower quality than the high-resolution versions we have stored on our computers. The High Resolution scans are used for making reprints when you order them, for creating Photo CD ROM's, and are available for purchase in direct download form as well.

You can use free images where you would view them with a computer, but they won't print high quality photos.

For Free downloads, we recommend that you download a picture from the "slide" view, as opposed to the "entire album" or "thumbnail" view, as the slide show view has larger images. Instructions are below.

A little technical information for customers who need it: the resolution of the "Slide View" photos is 384x256 pixels and the resolution of the thumbnail view is 96 x 64 pixels. The high resolution scans provided in high resolution download or with a Photo CD are 1536x1024 pixels.

All photos are in "JPEG" or ".jpg" format.

The instructions below cover FREE downloads for both Windows and Macintosh Computers. Please check our site for information and instructions on High Resolution Downloads at www.snapfish.com/helphiresphotos.

Gadget freak and technologist that I am, I could not resist the opportunity to hang out with friends in Las Vegas and explore 28 football fields of the latest electronics, software and mobile technologies. As one of my current ventures includes a component that may work with a lot of these products, a little R&D session with “the boyz” is in order, but I’m certain some poker, clubbin’ and brainstorming is in order too.

I’ll be in Las Vegas from Thursday - Sunday this week (Jan 5-8).

I just purchased the world’s lightest indoor R/C (radio-controlled) plane this week and it arrived today. As I had meetings out at my friend’s office, which has a warehouse adjacent to it, I decided to multi-task and drop my vehicle off for washing and oil change. My friend picked me up and we flew our planes this afternoon for a few hours - in between my phone calls.

My friend received one for Christmas and during his New Years party, upon my seeing it, I just had to have one. This evening I even tormented my kittens by flying it around in the living room - or at least trying to w/o crashing into plants, the tv, etc. I thought they would be scared but instead they just chased after it like any other toy I bring home for them.

Fun, fun, fun!