Verizon, Sybase and Quickcomm team up to manage corporations' mobility needs. Their service just scratches the surface

Chen wants to help your company go mobile. Photo: Sybase

Telecom giant Verizon (VZ) says it is launching a suite of services to help corporate IT departments manage their fleets of mobile devices. Corporate clients can hire Verizon to track their inventories of phones and monitor billings, add and drop devices as employees come and go, enforce security policies on phones and even remotely deliver applications and data to employees' handsets.

Verizon is partnering with software company Sybase (SY) and Quickcomm, which specializes in telecom-expense management, to offer a one-stop shop for companies looking to outsource mobile operations.

Analysts' reports suggest there's a need for such tools: Forrester Research estimates that by 2012 nearly three-fourths of workers worldwide, or nearly 400 million people, will be using mobile devices for work.

But the Verizon offering, which today focuses more on devices and enforcing a company's computer policies on mobile devices, addresses only part of the opportunity.

Mobile apps for enterprises – not as easy as it sounds

A growing number of companies are eager to move desktop applications to mobile devices, and may even want to develop new, custom applications for their businesses that take advantage of mobile networks.

Michael Marcellin, a vice president of product marketing for Verizon Business, says such application management services are under development. The company says it hopes to offer support for enterprise apps in 2010.

Delivering enterprise apps – customized or off-the-shelf – to a diverse global workforce is no easy task: Workers likely will have dozens of different handsets of varying vintages, and if the company operates in multiple countries, workers also will use different carriers' networks.

Adding to the complexity: The vendor of the application in question may or may not have a mobile version of their software. Or they may not be ready to move to delivering the software over the Internet cloud, which is the way many mobile workers want to access their applications.

Sybase CEO John Chen says his company has been working on these issues for some time now, as part of an effort to diversify the database-management company's revenue stream.

A few years ago the company began pursuing enterprise mobility in earnest with mobile device management and delivery of mobile messaging services. "Enterprise mobility opened up a whole new world for us in terms of who we partner with," Chen says. "Companies with big names and big reach are working with us, and it is creating (wireless) franchise value for Sybase."

In addition to Verizon, Chen says, the company has done wireless technology work for companies such as Samsung and Western Union (WU).

Sweet spot: Software cred + mobility experience

Chen says Sybase's experience in the software world coupled with its new focus on wireless makes it an ideal partner for companies seeking to migrate, say, SAP (SAP) solutions to a fleet of smartphones.  (SAP is a Sybase customer and partner.)

Indeed, Chen says his firm will be instrumental in Verizon's move into application management. "We can help them with that next piece, application enablement and launching new apps," he says. "We have shown a commitment to mobility, and we understand the enterprise."

Whether Sybase – and Verizon – succeed (especially in providing high-end application development and enhancement services) very much remains to be seen.

Verizon says the initial offerings from its mobility suite will be available later this month in the U.S and 19 European countries. The service is offered by Verizon Business and  Verizon Wireless, a joint venture with Vodafone (VOD).  But Verizon's Marcellin says the telco is happy to manage wireless operations for clients that have wireless service contracts with rivals AT&T (T), Sprint (S) or T-Mobile.

Wireless carriers tout a new wave of wireless technology but it will be years before most consumers benefit — and before carriers make money.

4G Phone: Samsung's Mondi device operates on WiMax networks. Image: Samsung

Verizon Wireless, a joint venture of Verizon (VZ) and Vodafone (VOD), last week announced it had completed data "calls" using its flavor of so-called 4G technology, a new generation of radio upgrades that promises to improve the throughput  and capacity of wireless phone networks.

Rival Sprint Nextel (S) immediately responded with a flurry of news releases touting its 4G network, which uses a competing technical standard.  In proclaiming its ability to deliver peak downlink speeds of 10 Mbps, one release gushed: "At these speeds, Sprint 4G breathes new life into wireless Internet."

Um, wasn't that what 3G was supposed to do?

Okay, that was a little harsh. But some analysts say the wireless carriers and their suppliers are hyping 4G technologies way before the services –and devices–are ready for prime time.

Indeed, many carriers globally still are building out their third-generation networks, and are only now starting to see returns on their investments, which included substantial payments for additional spectrum licenses.

3G all over again?

"Yay, Verizon made a test call on LTE," deadpans Jane Zweig, CEO of the Shosteck Group, a telecommunications consulting firm. LTE stands for Long Term Evolution, and it is the technology Verizon and many other incumbent phone operators are using to transition to yet another generation of broadband networks.

Zweig, whose firm has predicted that global wireless giant Vodafone won't make a return on its 3G investment (including spectrum) until 2013, sees 4G as a replay of 3G: a long, painful slog that will take many years to get up and running–and many more after that to produce financial gains for the carriers.

"Let's replay 3G," she says. "Where are the devices? What is it that people are going to do?  How much is the build out going cost? What's the resturn on investment. Is this a vendor dream or a carrier's nightmare?"

The carriers' 3G experience in the U.S. and abroad certainly offer clues as to how long it will take for 4G to become pervasive (and useful) to consumers.

When carriers started rolling out 3G systems in the early part of the decade–Japan's NTT DoCoMo (DCM) in 2001 became the first operator of a 3G network; Verizon followed two years later as the first major carrier in the U.S. to offer 3G–there was a lot of excitement (ample press releases, white papers and briefings by breathless executives) but not a lot for consumers to do with the network.

Some road warriors procured wireless data cards to hook their laptops up to the new network, but the first wave of 3G phones didn't offer much of a multimedia experience.

If you build it…

A few executives at U.S. wireless operators admitted at the time that 3G mainly allowed them to handle high volumes of voice calls at peak times. Not exactly what the futuristic data network was intended for.

Along came Apple's (AAPL)  iPhone: More than five years after 3G launched in the U.S. consumers finally had a device that showed them the power of mobile broadband networks. (Ironically the first iPhone ran on AT&Ts (T) less robust EDGE network, sometimes referred to as a 2.5G network.)

Other 3G devices started hitting stores, and today there's a real consumer case for 3G: almost a decade after carriers pledged billions of dollars to acquire wireless spectrum and build out networks. And, still, as Zweig and other analysts point out, 3G coverage in the U.S. remains spotty and service problems persist.

Will 4G help? Many operators (and the vendors that hope to sell them expensive new gear) are already touting 4G as the solution to issues of data overload they are now facing as consumers spend a growing amount of time downloading applications and doing heavy-duty computing on their mobile devices.

But as with 3G, fully formed 4G systems–the networks, the devices, the applications–are years away. Telecom executives like to quote the 1989 movie Field of Dreams: "If you build it, they will come." They'll come, alright, just not any time soon.

There’s a theory favored by savvy Apple watchers that the first generation iPhone — greeted with such hoopla last year — was not actually the real thing.

That iPhone – the one that hundreds of thousands of Americans queued up to buy for up to $599 apiece, the one that Time magazine named the Invention of the Year, the one that six million people purchased before Apple finally stopped making them in May – was just a trial balloon floated by Steve Jobs to test the airwaves.

According to this theory, the real iPhone – the one aimed at the broadest possible market here and abroad — would start at $199, the magic price point at which consumer electronics devices seem to take off and become mass market phenomena. It would have built-in GPS location tracking, "push" e-mail, and wireless syncing with corporate enterprise networks. Most important, it would run hundreds of third-party applications available through an online App Store and operate over so-called third generation (3G) cellular networks that are two to five times faster than the one used by that first, prototype iPhone.

If this theory is true, then the real iPhone era begins on Friday, July 11, at 8:00 a.m.

That's when the iPhone 3G goes on sale at Apple (AAPL) and AT&T (T) outlets in the United States and at the stores of Apple's cellular partners in some 20 other countries around the world. (Strictly speaking, the era begins early Thursday, when the device goes on sale at 12:01 a.m. New Zealand time. Given how the Earth turns, that corresponds to 8:00 a.m. July 10 at Apple's New York City flagship store and 5:01 a.m. at its Cupertino headquarters.)

Some things about the new iPhone haven't changed. Physically, it's almost identical to the first. Same touch screen, same dimensions — except for the back, which is slightly bulgier and made of black plastic instead of metal.

Conceptually, it's still one device that combines three of today's most popular technologies — cellular communications, portable digital music and wireless access to e-mail and the World Wide Web.

And the fundamental breakthrough is the same: unlike most devices that combine several functions and do none of them well, the iPhone puts together three must-have functions and does at least two of them better than they have ever been done before.

Early reviews suggest that the one thing the first iPhone was not particularly good at — telephony — is much improved in the second version, thanks to a redesigned audio system and, perhaps, improvements in AT&T's network.

There's still no physical keyboard, so devotees of RIM's (RIMM) BlackBerry who were turned off by the lack of tactile feedback when dialing or texting on the first iPhone are not likely to be turned on by the second. The battery is still not user-replaceable, a shortcoming that may be even more important this time given the power demands of operating at 3G speeds. (One early reviewer who was getting nine hours of Internet use on the first iPhone clocked less than six hours on the second. See here.)

The built-in camera is the same under-2 megapixel device that can't do video. There's still no way to cut and paste text. And you are still married to AT&T's cellular network for the life of a two-year contract, at least in the United States. In fact, the bonds of that matrimony may be even stronger this time around, given the way AT&T has set up the in-store activation procedure, and will cost U.S. customers at least $10 a month more.

There are many small improvements. You can search address books, delete e-mails en masse, set parental controls and save e-mailed photos. (These improvements will also be available to owners of the original iPhone as part of a free software upgrade.)

Investors will note that Apple has made major changes in its business model. Rather than testing the waters with a handful of exclusive contracts — first with AT&T, then with O2 (TEF) in England, T-Mobile (DT) in Germany and Orange (FTE) in France — Apple has gone global this time, with deals in six of the seven continents and more than 70 countries. To do this, however, it has had to largely abandon the arrangement — unique among cell phone manufacturers — by which carriers sold the iPhone for full price and kicked back a share of their monthly revenue to Apple, which was accounted for in monthly increments over the life of a cell phone contract (usually 24 months).

Steve Jobs was able to dictate these terms — quite advantageous to Apple — because the carriers recognized that being first to sell the iPhone would win them thousands of new customers. In most of the new markets Apple is entering this year, it is acting more like a conventional cellphone manufacturer, taking its (sizeable) profits upfront and letting the carriers subsidize the device with voice and data plans as costly as local market conditions will allow. (See Canada's Rogers Communications (RCI), here for example, to see what kinds of problems this can lead to.) The price of the iPhone itself also varies widely, from as much as $888 for pre-paid phones in Italy to $75 in Mexico and free with certain data plans in the U.K.

Except for those costs, none of this affects the experience of the users.

For them, what will really distinguish this iPhone from the one that preceded it — and from every other smartphone out there — is the flood of software expected to be unleashed when the App Store opens on Friday. Apple has already demonstrated more than a dozen third-party programs for the iPhone, and over the next few months you can expect to hear about hundreds more: business apps that take advantage of the iPhones ability to "push" data down the network when it's available (rather than when it's requested); games that use the device's accelerometer to navigate virtual space; shopping and social networking programs that use satellite tracking to tell you what shops or restaurants and which of your friends (or enemies) are near the spot where you are, right now.

In the end, every successful computing device is ultimately a software "platform," a vehicle for the programs that give it its true value. This is where the real iPhone will stand out, and judging from the interest among the 4,000 third-party developers who have already signed up to write for it, it's got a good headstart.

[UPDATE: Below the fold, CdnPhoto's latest version of the map, with Spain and Poland removed because they are still at the rumor stage.]

Like many Apple (AAPL) watchers, the investors at IMO's Apple Finance Forum have been closely following this week's flurry of announcements of iPhone deals with carriers around the world. One of the contributors to the forum — a regular from Toronto who posts as CdnPhoto — has summarized the information graphically in a color-coded map of the world. With his permission, I've pasted it below.

Countries where the iPhone is now available, or will be this summer, are marked in red:

[E-mail subscribers: click here to see the map.]

Switzerland, Spain and Poland probably should be tinted a light shade of pink; these were rumors, not official announcements (see here).

Of course, if unlocked blackmarket iPhones were included, most of the world would be colored Apple red. See The iPhones of Equatorial Guinea.

For those who prefer their information in list form, here are the countries added in the past couple weeks:

For Vodafone (VOD) (link):

Australia

Czech Republic

Egypt

Greece

India

Italy (also Telecom Italia)

New Zealand

Portugal

South Africa

Turkey

For America Movil (AMX) (link):

Argentina

Brazil

Chile

Colombia

Dominican Republic

Ecuador

El Salvador

Guatemala

Honduras

Jamaica

Mexico

Nicaragua

Paraguay

Peru

Puerto Rico

Uruguay

For Rogers Wireless:

Canada

Rumors (link):

Switzerland

Spain

Poland

No word yet:

China

Korea

Japan

Russia

For updates, check APPLinvestors, which keeps a running tally here.

Updated version of the map below the fold:

News and rumors about the iPhone's global expansion keep rolling in.

Citing a source at Swisscom, Lausanne-based Le Matin Online reported on Thursday that Apple had concluded an agreement to bring the 3G iPhone to Switzerland this summer (link, in French). Swisscom, with 5.1 million subscribers, is the country's largest mobile carrier.

Meanwhile, France Telecom CFO Gervais Pellissier said on Wednesday that his company was in talks with Apple (AAPL) to extend their partnership beyond France and into "more than just two countries." He was responding to a journalist's question about whether the company was hoping to secure rights to sell the iPhone in Spain and Poland, the largest countries in Europe still without an iPhone carrier. (link)

Also on Wednesday, America Movil (AMX) confirmed that it had signed a deal to bring the iPhone to 16 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean. America Movil, based in Mexico City and controlled by billionaire Carlos Slim, has 159.2 million subscribers. (see here)

Earlier this week, Vodafone (VOD) announced that it had signed an agreement to carry the iPhone in 10 countries, Australia, the Czech Republic, Egypt, Greece, Italy, India, Portugal, New Zealand, South Africa and Turkey. The same day, Telecom Italia announced that it had also secured the rights to sell the phone in Italy, leading to speculation that Apple had abandoned its original iPhone business model and was no longer demanding revenue sharing in return for exclusivity. (see here)

But France Telecom's Pellissier said that his company was sticking to the terms of its original agreement, which gives it the exclusive right to sell the iPhone in France for another two and a half years. France Telecom is resisting pressure to lower the price of the original iPhone — as O2 and T-Mobile did in the U.K. and Germany, respectively — at least until the 3G iPhone arrives. "We’ll see with the next model,” said Pellissier, according to Macworld, adding that the arrival of a new iPhone “will boost sales.” Pellissier declined to give exact sales figures, but said his company had sold more than 100,000 since November, 2007.

According to Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster, exclusivity agreements may soon be the exception, not the rule. He notes that the Vodafone announcement, unlike press releases issued by the first wave of carriers, "did not reference any exclusive terms." He expects Apple will start to feel the impact of the loss of revenue sharing from these nonexclusive deals in 2009, but still views them as a net positive for the company.

"While we expected an international rollout in CY08 (with the exception of China), this announcement is both sooner and more expansive that we were expecting. … The iPhone's international rollout is about 6 months ahead of our original expectations."

On Tuesday, April 29, Rogers Wireless, Canada's largest cellular carrier, announced that it too had signed a deal to carry the iPhone "later this year." (link)

Meanwhile, stocks of first-generation iPhones are running low. Spot shortages continue in the U.S., and Engadget reports that O2 on Thursday posted a notice on its website that iPhones — both the 8G and 16G models — are no longer available in its stores. The 8G model was on sale in the U.K., but the 16G model sold at full price until the shelves ran dry.

[Thanks to reader David C. in Switzerland for the tip.]

In dueling press releases, Vodafone and Telecom Italia announced on Tuesday that they have both signed contracts with Apple to carry the iPhone in Italy — the first sign that Apple may be relaxing its demands for revenue sharing with individual carriers in exchange for exclusivity.

The biggest deal is the one with Vodafone. Having lost the bidding war to carry the iPhone in its home market to O2, UK-based Vodafone (VOD) got its revenge with this terse, two-sentence press release:

"Vodafone today announced it has signed an agreement with Apple to sell the iPhone in ten of its markets around the globe. Later this year, Vodafone customers in Australia, the Czech Republic, Egypt, Greece, Italy, India, Portugal, New Zealand, South Africa and Turkey will be able to purchase the iPhone for use on the Vodafone network." (link)

This is an important deal. Vodafone is the world's second largest mobile phone carrier, after China Mobile. At the end of 2007 it had, through wholly owned and partially owned subsidiaries, the equivalent of 252 million customers in 66 countries.

Only 10 of those countries are covered by the deal announced on Tuesday, but they include some big ones. India, for example, has a population of 1.12 billion that is snapping up mobile phones at a blistering pace. The number of mobile phones in Italy reportedly exceeds its population. Piper Jaffray's Gene Munster calculates that the Vodaphone deal nearly doubles the size of the iPhone's available market, from 153 million potential subscribers today to 293 million once the 10 new countries are on board.

But most of the important details were missing from Vodafone's press release. When does the deal start? Is it exclusive? Is there a revenue sharing agreement? Will Vodafone be selling first- or second-generation iPhones? (Some of the countries listed don't have a 3G network.)

All of which made us wonder why Vodafone spilled the beans on this day, and in this way.

We didn't have to wait long for an answer. It came in a press release from Telecom Italia (TI-A), which also announced on Tuesday that it had signed an agreement to carry the iPhone in Italy.

This marks the first time Apple (AAPL) has signed non-exclusive contracts with two carriers in the same country. European commentators are already asking whether Apple's partners in other countries will now revolt against what some perceived as onerous terms. "This is definitely a sign Apple is capitulating," Will Draper, an analyst at Execution told the Times of London. (link)

How many other non-exclusive deals are waiting in the wings? Probably just as many as it takes for Steve Jobs to comfortably beat his target of selling 10 million iPhones in calendar year 2008.

One of the questions left unanswered when Apple (AAPL) finally sealed the deal with Orange to market the iPhone in France — where it's illegal to sell a phone that's locked to a particular carrier — was how much customers who wanted to buy the device without a contract would have to pay.

Now we know, thanks to a court in Hamburg, Germany: a premium of 600 euros, or $880, which brings the total price of an unlocked iPhone to 999 euros or $1,478 (including 17.5% V.A.T.). iPhones sold with a two-year T-Mobile contract will cost 399 euros (about $590).

T-Mobile, Apple's German partner, had been served on Monday with an injunction temporarily blocking it from selling locked iPhones. Deutsche Telekom, which owns T-Mobile, is appealing the court order, but said this morning that it will comply — and it announced its new price points.

Orange has not yet announced prices and rates for France, where the iPhone goes on sale on Nov. 29, but will presumably follow T-Mobile's lead.

French law prohibits tying the purchase of one product to the purchase of another — a cellphone to a particular carrier's service plan, for example — which was one of the sticking points that delayed Orange's deal with Apple. According to today's New York Times, several European countries have similar laws on the books, including Belgium, Italy and Finland.

Germany's laws are less clear, but it was on the strength of the rules on the books that Vodafone on Monday won a temporary injunction.

The $880 premium is high, but not totally unexpected. Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster has estimated that Apple gets $18 a month from AT&T, or $432 over the life of a two-year contract — revenue Apple would have to give up if it were forced to sell unlocked iPhones in the United States.

T-Mobile and Orange also lose the monthly fees they were expecting when they negotiated what they thought were going to be exclusive contracts with Apple.

$880 minus $432 equals $448. Sounds like they basically split the difference.