Joe Wilcox

Like the Consumer Electronics Show in January, CTIA Wireless is shaping up to be another tradeshow of promises. Why can't vendors announce a connected product and imminently ship it (barring FCC approval)? Samsung will ship Galaxy Tab 8.9 and 10.1 tablets this summer. HTC and Sprint are targeting similar delivery time for the EVO 3D smartphone and EVO View 4G tablet, announced today. Yesterday, Sprint started taking preorders for the Samsung-manufactured, Google-branded Nexus S 4G, which is "coming soon."

The competitive landscape could change whole lots before HTC, Sprint or Samsung get any of these products to market. There is the aftermath of the devastating 9.0 earthquake in Japan, which could cause component shortages as soon as next month. On Sunday, Deutsche Telekom announced sale of T-Mobile USA to AT&T for $39 billion. Apple's iPad 2 goes on sale in 25 more countries on Friday. The iPhone 5 is expected in summer, too. 

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The oft-promised BlackBerry PlayBook is finally coming, April 19. You can believe Research Motion this time, as Best Buy already is taking preorders. For more than six months, RIM made announcement after announcement but released no product.

"Previews of the BlackBerry PlayBook have generated tremendous excitement and we know that customers are eager to get their hands on one," Craig McLennan, RIM's Regional managing director for North America, said in a statement. Well, considering how many ways RIM announced the tablet over the past six months or so, is it any surprise there is anticipation? I was beginning to wonder if PlayBook was a phantom product RIM hauled out just for tradeshows (The company made the launch announcement at CTIA Wireless, which starts today).

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I can't say that I like the old one. But the new? You simply have to share what you think about it. One of the things the social web is good for is telling vendors where to put their new logos. Many an online social mob has forced vendors to give up a new logo or other branding change. Remember last year's online revolt against the new Gap logo?

So what's your reaction to the new Chrome logo (OK, Google calls it an icon)? Does it appeal to you? Please answer in comments, or email joewilcox at gmail dot com.

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Talk about timing. Today, Google and Sprint made two significant announcements ahead of tomorrow's official opening of the CTIA Wireless trade show: Nexus S 4G and Google Voice. Perhaps it's time the carrier and Android developer got cozier -- now that AT&T plans to buy T-Mobile USA. T-Mobile has been Google's premiere US Android provider, going back to their launch of the first smartphone running the OS, the G1, in September 2008. How quickly times change.

Google Voice is the bigger of the two announcements. The service will be available to any Sprint customer who wants it, and Google Voice will replace Sprint voicemail for subscribers making the switch.

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As the new work week opens up, AT&T and T-Mobile USA customers have plenty to say about the proposed merger. Yesterday, Deutsche Telekom agreed to sell T-Mobile USA to AT&T for $39 billion -- $25 billion of it in cash. Last night I posted a long analysis about what the merger could mean to subscribers of both carriers, also asking Betanews readers: What do you think of the merger? Whoa, did you answer.

"I have been a loyal customer of T-Mobile for over nine years," Reese Burton writes by email. "Even with Verizon getting the iPhone I did not want to change from T-Mobile. However, if everything in your blog comes about, I will change from AT&T to Verizon. I don't know what Verizon's plans are, but they have to be better than AT&T."

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Surely there are easier ways for T-Mobile USA to get iPhone than to sell out to AT&T. Or for AT&T to dramatically improve the reach of its high-speed network or to increase its cache of Android handsets. Kidding aside, today's merger announcement between AT&T and T-Mobile is simply stunning. It's an atomic blast occurring right before one of the biggest wireless tradeshows of the year -- CTIA, which officially opens on March 22nd.

The real question: What does it mean for you the AT&T or T-Mobile customer?

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If you're not asking the question, you should. It makes sense out of Amazon imminently launching an app store to rival Google's Android Marketplace. Why else does Amazon need its own Android app store? Well, there's an answer to that question, too. Read on.

Firstly, in the short term, any Android-based Kindle isn't about Amazon competing with iPad or other Apple iOS devices. Amazon's ambitions are much larger: Capitalizing on the enormous Android ecosystem of applications and devices and extending its core competency as a retailer. Amazon already does this on Android and other mobile operating systems with the Kindle app. But Amazon sells more digital content than just ebooks. Android Kindle -- as device or app -- would allow Amazon to better bundle other digitally downloaded products, like movies, music and TV shows.

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Well, holy wholesale pricing, Batman. AT&T is having a fire sale on first-generation iPads. Pricing is sure to tempt someone and the discounts even cut below Apple's sale pricing. What? Is sold-out iPad 2 so much in demand that AT&T practically has to give away older 3G models?

When iPad 2 went on sale one week ago -- gasp, it feels so much longer because of shortages -- Apple and AT&T cut prices of the older model by $100. After the discount: $529, $629 and $729 for the 16GB, 32GB and 64GB models, respectively, with 3G and WiFi.

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Motorola's hot, Android 3.0 "Honeycomb" tablet goes on sale next week -- heck, some retailers are already taking preorders. Amazon has it for $599, Costco $589.99 and Staples $599.98. Surprisingly, BestBuy only lists the $799.99 unsubsidized XOOM with WiFi and Verizon 3G.

In my story two days ago about the official March 27 release, I asked Betanews readers if they would buy the $600 Wi-Fi-only XOOM. Yes, I also asked in February, but that was before iPad 2 was specked, priced, launched and sold out. Unfortunately, I asked the question again before another development. For a second time, AT&T has dropped the price on the original 3G iPad to $429, $529 and $629 for 16GB, 32GB and 64GB models, respectively. As I write the 32GB iPad 3G is sold out. There is no carrier comment. Now to those responses:

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One week ago today, iPad 2 went on sale. There are shortages, for which scalpers play no small part. Profiteers buying iPad 2s for resale on Craigslist, eBay or export to other countries are making it difficult for genuine buyers to get the tablets. It's time Apple put people who want to buy and use iPad 2 ahead of those who want to profit from shortages they help create. It's really simple: Put customers before profits.

From the profit perspective, a sale is a sale. Apple can let the scalpers buy up big chunks of tight inventory, knowing that genuine buyers will wait; there is no real tablet competition, so people will come back. That's more revenue, long term anyway, for Apple. From the customer service perspective, Apple would aggressively seek to deter scalping, while working even harder to make sure genuine buyers get their iPad 2s. Scalpers are technically customers, too, from the profit perspective. But the customers Apple should want more are those who buy iPad 2 now for personal or professional use and come back to buy more stuff later. These genuine buyers have potentially longer-term value to Apple than scalpers buying iPad 2s to ship to markets like China and Russia, where the tablet isn't yet available.

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Windows Small Business Server 2011 Standard Edition is now available through all Microsoft channels, including OEMs and volume licensing. The company announced all-channel availability earlier today. As the name implies, the server software is specifically intended for small businesses. There is a user account cap and prohibition against connecting to network domains (to prevent larger businesses from buying the lower-cost, integrated suite rather than separate products like Exchange and Windows Server).

Microsoft offers three SBS 2011 versions: Essentials, Standard and Premium Add-On. Essentials, which supports up to 25 user accounts, isn't yet available. Standard supports up to 75 user accounts, either people or devices. SBS 2011 Standard Edition retails for $1,096 with five client-access licenses (CALs). Additional five-packs are $361 -- or $1,447 for 20. Premium Add-On CAL packs retail for $457 for five or $1,831 for 20. Microsoft also provides a trial version of the software good for 90 days.

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Ethisphere has chosen its list of the 2011 Most Ethical Companies. Microsoft, which has a somewhat seedy reputation steaming from its European and U.S. antitrust cases, made the list of 110 companies. Many other successful tech companies -- Apple, Facebook and Google among them -- are absent. Of course, who would really expect Facebook to be regarded as ethical?

Microsoft joins the 36 companies new to Ethisphere's list. I'm not so surprised to see Microsoft on the list so much as not seeing it sooner -- at least since 2008 (that's how far back I looked). The company really cleaned up its corporate behavior during the new millennium and even has taken a leadership role among tech companies. It's what I heard Chairman Bill Gates pledge Microsoft would do when he testified in court in Spring 2002. I actually regard Microsoft to be a highly ethical company on many fronts. Then there is the shadow of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundations' philanthropic work.

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Way back when, Mozilla used slogan "Take back the web!" to promote Firefox. Internet Explorer 9 aims to do just that. Today at Microdoft's Windows Team Blog, Ryan Gavin pronounced, not 1, not 2, but 2.35 million IE9 downloads in 24 hours. It's an impressive number. Internet Explorer 9 has exploded onto the web, as Microsoft makes a grab to take it back from upstarts. We'll see if Mozilla can do as well when Firefox 4 officially launches next week.

Internet Explorer 9 is by far Microsoft's most ambitious browser since v3 launched to great fanfare in summer 1996. Microsoft browser development was ferocious and fast as the software giant sought to take the web away from Netscape. Microsoft would later win the browser wars but lose the fire in its belly. All realistic browser development stopped with IE6's release in October 2001 and didn't resume until after Mozilla launched Firefox in late 2004.

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Is it enough to take on iPad 2? For the tablet hungry, maybe given Apple's device is sold out everywhere.

The WiFi-only XOOM comes contract-free and will cost $200 less than the Verizon unsubsidized model or same as the subsidized tablet but without two-year data commitment. So buyers will pay $599 for the only Android 3.0 "Honeycomb" tablet currently available. Motorola also will get some marketing tail wind from Verizon, which is heavily promoting the XOOM on television.

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Less than a week after releasing Firefox 4 Release Candidate, Mozilla is preparing to certify the build as golden. A decision will come today. If the RC passes, and there are no show-stopping bugs uncovered later, Mozilla plans to officially release on March 22nd, according to a forum post by Damon Sicore.

"Firefox 4 RC1 has received a very warm welcome; it's time to make a decision to ship," Mozilla's Sicore writes. "As of now, there are no known issues that would stop us from shipping RC1 as final. At the conclusion of our regular 11:30 a.m. triage session on Wednesday, March 16th, release drivers will decide whether to ship RC1 as Firefox 4."

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