What's Woody Doing Now

Anyone Buying a Verizon iPhone?

It's 3am, February 3!  Have you placed your order?  I am just curious. 

Sorry, I am not buying one.  And, I am not up at 3am either! 

Mobile Justice Being Developed for Congo

The Mobile Justice sounds interesting.  We will have to see how it is implemented.  And more importantly, if it is used by the police and courts to bring them to justice.

Launch of the GSMA mWomen Program.

And we (US State Department) are developing an innovative program that addresses the particular needs of women. For example, we are in the early stages of developing an idea we are calling Mobile Justice to help women in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where sexual violence against women occurs at a horrific rate. In many parts of that country the police and court systems have disintegrated, so women who are attacked have no way to get justice. They can’t even realistically travel to the urban centers where courts have been reestablished. But these cell phones give women the ability to collect evidence and record and transmit their testimony, so women in rural areas may be able to bring justice to them.

  

 

Mobile Phones Are The Internet of the Poor

It's a fact the internet has changed your life.  That's whether you believe it or not, or whether you think it has or not, or whether you wanted it or didn't.  It did!

The mobile (cell) phone will change the lives of billions of poor people in the world.  It will change the world.

Millions of people are starting to use the mobile phone for banking and commerce. 

Jan Chipchase Goes to Washington | Blog | design mind.

"In a world of 8.6 billion people, there are approximately 5 billion active cellular subscriptions, and roughly 1.2 billion products sold, they're thinking about a phone like this (hold up Nokia 1110) that costs about $30, can survive the rigors of everyday life — knocks, heat, sweat, dust — can make calls, send text messages, access SIM card, an alarm clock, services and it has what is probably the world's most played game — snake. If it breaks, there's typically someone in the neighborhood who can fix it, often cannibalizing other devices.

"It is important to recognize that almost every adult on the planet, as well as lot of children, aspires to sole mobile phone ownership (sometimes of more than one) and that they will overcome considerable obstacles to owning one. The key differentiator of personal ownership of a mobile phone over alternatives such as the neighborhood phone kiosk, or sharing a phone amongst a number of people is convenience (not needing to go through another person, being able to communicate when you want) and privacy.

Meet My New Swiss Army Knife - The Cell Phone

A cell phone in US is used differently than a cell phone (mobile phone) in the rest of the world.  We are moving in different directions.  In the developing world, the mobile phone is your laptop, your tv, your newspaper, your radio, and even your flashlight.

Currents - The Triumph of the Ordinary Cellphone - NYTimes.com.

Forgotten in the American tumult is a global flowering of innovation on the simple cellphone. From Brazil to India to South Korea and even Afghanistan, people are seeking work via text message; borrowing and lending money and receiving salaries on cellphones; employing their phones variously as flashlights, televisions and radios.

And many do all this for peanuts. In India, Reliance Communications sells handsets for less than $25, with 1-cent-a-minute phone calls across India and 1-cent text messages and no monthly charge — while earning fat profits.

Compare that with iPad buyers in the United States, who pay $499 for the basic version, who might also have a $1,000-plus computer and a $100-plus smartphone, and who could pay $100 or more each month to connect these many devices to the ether. Not for the first time, the United States and much of the world are moving in different ways. American innovators, building for an ever-expanding bandwidth network, are heading toward fancier, costlier, more network-hungry and status-giving devices; meanwhile, their counterparts in developing nations are innovating to find ever more uses for cheap, basic cellphones.

Bloom Box's Skeptics Are Looking At The Trees Instead Of The Forests

First, the skeptics need to think past our tiny and shiny seas or our borders.  Globally, the real market is not the US and other developed countries.  The market (profitable) is going to be the developing world.  The world who does not have a power-grid nor can they afford a power-grid.  (I do not think their is enough copper in the world for a world-wide power-grid.)

Second, the Bloom Box technology needs to be viewed as the next mobile/cell phone-like technology.  The number of mobile phone connections worldwide will increase from 4 billion to 6 billion by 2013.  The growth or continuing market is not the US but developing markets outside the developed world. 

The Mobile Marketer pinpoints the growth:  The growth in the number of connections is attributed to a couple of reasons. First, the integration of mobile into previously unconnected devices and then, subscriber enrollments in emerging and developing markets.

So, market for Bloom Box will be equally outside the US.  In developing nations for mobile phones, there is no choice between land line versus mobile phone.  The same will exist for the Bloom Box, there is no competition with any established power companies.  It just a matter of pricing and or cost.  

Watch CBS News Videos Online