Mad Money’s Jim Cramer coming to OU
Jim Cramer, money maven of the rolled-up shirt sleeves and sound effects, will visit the University of Oklahoma next month. Cramer, host of CNBC’s “Mad Money,” will tape an episode of the show before a live audience of OU students on Oct. 30. He also will be the keynote speaker at a dinner for OU business students and alumni on Oct. 29.
OU President David L. Boren said Michael Price, the former Wall Street money manager who the OU business college is named for, arranged Cramer’s visit.
“Jim Cramer’s visit will give OU students an excellent opportunity to hear one of the most prominent personalities on Wall Street,” Boren said.
Anyone have any questions they would like to ask Mr. Cramer? Submit them in the comments.
Don Mecoy
Business Writer
Put down the phone
The Insurance Information Institute answers a question I was wondering about — where is it illegal to use a cell phone where driving and where is it illegal to text while behind the wheel. Neither is illegal in Oklahoma. Some Democratic members of Congress have urged states to pass bans on texting while driving or face loss of federal highway funds.
Six states–California, Connecticut, New Jersey, New York, Utah, and Washington–plus the District of Columbia, ban the use of hand-held cell phones while driving.
The dangerous practice of texting while driving is banned in 14 states–Alaska, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Louisiana, Maryland, Minnesota, New Jersey, North Carolina, Utah, Tennessee, Virginia and Washington, plus the District of Columbia.
A study by the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute found that texting while driving increased the risk of accidents by more than 23 times.
iPhone won’t stop a bullet
This guy is seriously fed up with Apple, and he takes it out on his iPhone.
Don Mecoy
Business Writer
The new phones are here!
AT&T uploaded a short video of its Fort Worth, Texas, distribution plant processing the new iPhone 3GS models. Customers are expected to line up Friday to buy the new gadget. The AT&T store at Penn Square Mall will open at 7 a.m. today, and the Apple Store there will open at 8 a.m. Mall doors open at 5 a.m. if you really want to get your geek on.
Don Mecoy
Business Writer
“I’m not a mathematician”
Obviously.
Hear a Verizon customer attempt to explain to customer representatives the difference between 0.002 dollars and 0.002 cents.
Don Mecoy
Business Writer
Unplugging the telephone
I got my new AT&T phone book this week, and for the first time in my life, I’m not in there. My family this year joined the growing number of Americans who have opted to forego a landline telephone. We’re now totally on cell phones.
In making the switch, we moved our former residential number over to one of our cell phones. That has helped with many of the calls we would otherwise have missed, but it has left us receiving the odd telemarketing call now and again. But overall the experiment has been a success.
But I do sort of miss seeing my name in the phone book.
Don Mecoy
Business Writer
Texting volume triples
Local AT&T spokesman Andy Morgan tells me that over the past year, the number of text messages moving over AT&T’s wireless network more than tripled — from 18 billion in the third quarter of 2007 to 55 billion in the third quarter this year. A recent Nielsen study suggests that some U.S. consumers now use their cell phones for text messaging more than they do for talking.
I know one of those consumers.
I recently asked my wife if our teen-age son ever used his telephone to make a call. I know he sends and receives hundreds of messages a week. Perhaps what he needs is a device that does nothing but send and receive text messages. If it’s cheaper, I might buy one.
Don Mecoy
Business Writer
Information overload
Ah, data.
Don Mecoy
Business Writer
New kid on the (wireless) block
The impending entrance into the Oklahoma City wireless market by Verizon Wireless has been trumped by Cox Communications.
The long-time cable television, Internet and wireline phone provider in the Oklahoma City and Tulsa markets said Monday that it will launch its own branded wireless telephone service next year, even going to far as to build its own 3G network.
I spoke to Cox spokeswoman Jill Ullman in Atlanta, and she was mum on what Cox will call the service or any other details such as a launch date or what it will cost subscribers. That will come later, she said.
Cox withdrew in April from a joint venture with three other cable providers and Sprint that lasted only a year. That was the Pivot service that it launched in Spring 2007 to much fanfare.
“The dynamics of a joint venture had some constraints, and we believe that by going at this on our own we won’t have any of those experiences,” Ullman said. “We know that we learned a lot through our relationship with Pivot and the biggest learning from that relationship is that our customers want us to control the entire customer experience.”
I asked telecommunications analyst Jeff Kagan in Atlanta for his views on the new Cox wireless service, and here’s what he told me:
“If done right I think they can compete and be successful. They have to market correctly. They have to have products that are part of a bundle and stand alone wireless, as well. Many of the questions about Cox’s potential success come from the mis-steps from the last attempt by the cable television industry to enter wireless over the last couple years. If the lessons were learned, Cox could be successful. I think a section of the marketplace would like that to happen.”
Ah, bundles. No one is bigger on bundles than Cox, which claims to have invented the concept.
“Sixty-four percent of our customers nationwide already take more than one service from us,” Ullman said. “We see that as a great opportunity. Our initial success will be in this base of satisfied customers. With more than 64 percent of our customers already subscribing to the Cox bundle, that is going present a great opportunity for wireless.”
Business Writer
Foolish Forecasters Missed It on iPhone
In case you missed it, Apple said it has sold more than 10 million iPhones this year. That beat its stated goal of 10 million iPhones for all of 2008, two months ahead of schedule. In fact, Apple sold 6.9 million of the phones in the latest quarter, which topped sales of RIM’s Blackberry at 6.1 million.
More than that, the success of the iPhone made some prognosticators who poo-pooed the phone look absolutely foolish. Thanks to the MacDailyNews blog, here are some of the worst of the forecasts of failure for the iPhone:
[iPhone] just doesn’t matter anymore. There are now alternatives to the iPhone, which has been introduced everywhere else in the world. It’s no longer a novelty.” – Eamon Hoey, Hoey and Associates, April 30, 2008
“We are not at all worried. We think we’ve got the one mobile platform you’ll use for the rest of your life. [Apple] are not going to catch up.” – Scott Rockfeld, Microsoft Mobile Communications Group Product Manager, April 01, 2008
Microsoft, with Windows Mobile/ActiveSync, Nokia with Intellisync, and Motorola with Good Technology have all fared poorly in the enterprise. We have no reason to expect otherwise from Apple.” – Peter Misek, Canaccord Adams analyst, March 07, 2008
“What does the iPhone offer that other cell phones do not already offer, or will offer soon? The answer is not very much… Apple’s stated goal of selling 10 million iPhones by the end of 2008 seems ambitious.” – Laura Goldman, LSG Capital, May 21, 2007
“The iPhone is going to be nothing more than a temporary novelty that will eventually wear off.” – Gundeep Hora, CoolTechZone Editor-in-Chief, April 02, 2007
“Apple should pull the plug on the iPhone… What Apple risks here is its reputation as a hot company that can do no wrong. If it’s smart it will call the iPhone a ‘reference design’ and pass it to some suckers to build with someone else’s marketing budget. Then it can wash its hands of any marketplace failures… Otherwise I’d advise people to cover their eyes. You are not going to like what you’ll see.” – John C. Dvorak, Bloated Gas Bag, March 28, 2007
“Even if [the iPhone] is opened up to third parties, it is difficult to see how the installed base of iPhones can reach the level where it becomes a truly attractive service platform for operator and developer investment.” – Tony Cripps, Ovum Service Manager for Mobile User Experience, March 14, 2007
“I’m more convinced than ever that, after an initial frenzy of publicity and sales to early adopters, iPhone sales will be unspectacular… iPhone may well become Apple’s next Newton.” – David Haskin, Computerworld, February 26, 2007
“The iPhone’s willful disregard of the global handset market will come back to haunt Apple.” – Tero Kuittinen, RealMoney.com, January 18, 2007
“The iPhone is nothing more than a luxury bauble that will appeal to a few gadget freaks. In terms of its impact on the industry, the iPhone is less relevant… Apple is unlikely to make much of an impact on this market… Apple will sell a few to its fans, but the iPhone won’t make a long-term mark on the industry.” – Matthew Lynn, Bloomberg, January 15, 2007
“I am pretty skeptical. I don’t think [iPhone] will meet the fantastic predictions I have been reading. For starters, while Apple basically established the market for portable music players, the phone market is already established, with a number of major brands. Can Apple remake the phone market in its image? Success is far from guaranteed.” – Jack Gold, founder and principal analyst at J. Gold Associates, January 11, 2007
“The economics of something like [an Apple iPhone] aren’t that compelling.” – Rod Bare, Morningstar analyst, December 08, 2006
“Apple is slated to come out with a new phone… And it will largely fail…. Sales for the phone will skyrocket initially. However, things will calm down, and the Apple phone will take its place on the shelves with the random video cameras, cell phones, wireless routers and other would-be hits… When the iPod emerged in late 2001, it solved some major problems with MP3 players. Unfortunately for Apple, problems like that don’t exist in the handset business. Cell phones aren’t clunky, inadequate devices. Instead, they are pretty good. Really good.” – Michael Kanellos, CNET, December 07, 2006
Jim Stafford
Business Writer
