Mobile Phone Money

DanteLee.com Blog: My Favorite iPhone Apps For Business Travel

via www.dantelee.com

If you have an iPhone and you're an entrepreneur who travels quite a bit, these apps suggested by Dante Lee are just the ticket. Better yet, all but one are free.

Entrepreneur Connect Groups: Which smartphone is best for running your business and why?

Entrepreneur Connect Groups: Which smartphone is best for running your business and why?

A few votes have been submitted on this Entrepreneur Magazine poll. Looks like the iPhone is favored for running a business. I use mine a lot--it can't do everything but it comes pretty close.

Roundup: Smartphone Gift Guide | Wired.com Product Reviews

via www.wired.com

Between carrier options, basic features, and little discussed extras, here's what you need to know about buying a smartphone with all of the competition in a fierce market for your money.

Buddy, Can You E-Mail Me 100 Bucks? - BusinessWeek

via www.businessweek.com

Mobile person-to-person transfers are coming. Who needs cash or plastic for that matter?

Windows Mobile: Greatest app story ever told - Crave at CNET UK

Windows Mobile is the Frankenstein's monster of mobile phone operating systems  -- hideously misshapen, yet powerfully intelligent, it spends its time outrunning the fiery torches of disgruntled users and mobile phone reviewers. It doesn't have the cachet of the iPhone, the ubiquity of Symbian or the geek chic of Android, and it's the calling card of suits who wear pleated trousers and mobile phone holsters -- it's so square it makes BlackBerrys look cool.

via crave.cnet.co.uk

But to we really want the Windows experience on a mobile-sized device? Are the applications as good as on other mobile platforms? This article tells all.

Wal-Mart to Offer No-contract Mobile Phones

The holiday mobile season is heating up already. Wal-Mart has decided to enter the fastest growing segment of the mobile market at very competitive prices. Makes you want to reconsider your iPhone contract. Read the Boston Globe article here.

Too Smart for the Recession

Even during an economic downturn, smartphone sales are strong as ever. Take a look at this article.

Making Money Using a Mobile Phone for Human Powered Search

Ever thought about becoming a digital concierge? Well that's the thought behind services like Mahalo, ChaCha, 4INFO and many others who respond to text or voice message questions with SMS responses that filter through all the junk and give you human-based answers to your inquiries. How do these services make money? Well most plan to provide advertisements along with their answers to your questions but most will make deals with mobile phone carriers or other larger businesses in an effort to become that organization's information provider of choice. You can do the same thing on a smaller scale by getting a 1-800 number and offering your services to local hotels or other convention centers who understand the convenience you can provide for their events and clientele.

Here are a few articles that provide more background on the subject:
What is the Future of Human-Powered Search?
Wall Street Journal: How Does Cha Cha Make Money?
TradeVibes Mahalo Overview and other human-powered search competitors

Many of these services have secured tens of million dollars in investment funding; whether a large, scalable human-search model can make serious money remains to be seen but the outlook remains promising. I'm convinced that the real money for niche mobile entrepreneurs is in providing targeted search services for your local market. You can also make some money in your spare time by becoming a consultant for many of the new services who are looking to grow the depth and breadth of their responder talent.

Why We Hate Mobile Phone Plans

I read this great article about the trouble and frustrations so many of us have when it's time for a new mobile contract or when we're considering how fed up we are with our current service. I finally cancelled my iPhone contract in order to save money and use my Tilt exclusively for phone and mobile internet service. I'll keep the iPhone for use as a portable entertainment device until I'm completely ovetaken by an uncontrollable urge for the next new, shiny thing from the Apple overlords.

Can the iPhone Be Dethroned?

Multi-touch, high-resolution, pinch and swipe simplicity...for all its deficiencies, these few qualities have made the iPhone king of the consumer mobile phone market. With the latest 3G model, third-party applications, and synchronization with business email, will it be long before the iPhone becomes King of All? Mobile Magazine has more on Why Competitors Have Failed to Usurp the iPhone 3G.