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As the rumors swirl about a new iPhone model, there’s speculation that the phone will include a GPS chipset. The original iPhone simulated GPS though some Google technology, as described in this Business Week article by Arik Hesseldahl. He believes that Apple might wait on true GPS, and add it to the 3rd generation iPhone in 2009.

I think that we will see a GPS-enabled iPhone this month. Om Malik claims the new iPhone will have new GPS capabilities because of FCC regulations. Emergency 911 services are just one way that GPS can help mobile phone users.

Google engineers have been working hard on the company’s Android platform for mobile phones. This is a Linux-based system that can be used in a wide ranges of devices, from low-power basic models to CPU-intensive touch screen devices.

It’s about advertising revenue

Google, Apple and advertisers really want mobile phones to produce ongoing revenue streams, and the easiest way to do that is by placing advertising on the devices.

The Android platform will let Google serve ads onto these phones in a seamless, personalized manner. GPS chips help content providers find and serve appropriate ads based on the user’s location.

Apple and Google saw early indications that users wanted accurate location-based mobile services within the first 3 months of iPhone service in the US, according to another Om Malik article. Google Maps usage on iPhones rose quickly, while YouTube usage lagged.

The first generation iPhone suffers from its slow EDGE connection to AT&T’s network. Users want to access location-based services when they are on the move, away from WiFi networks. YouTube is a connection-intensive application, and a good indicator of user acceptance for bandwidth-intensive, media-rich location-based service.

Related posts and pages on billso.com

• Our iPhone page has over 25 articles from billso.com
• 29 April 2008: New iPhone will be subsidized, faster and thinner
• 22 April 2008: Android vs iPhone

More Americans are dropping their landlines, according to reports in Ars Technica and USA Today. One in every six US households have no landline service:

Even among households that had both landlines and mobile phones, 22.3 percent received “all or almost all” calls on mobile phones. So-called “wireless-mostly” account for 13.1 percent of all households.

This is just more bad news for the ILECs and RBOCs, as well as Hawaiian Telcom.

It’s possible to use DSL or a cable modem to keep a landline number at home, of course. Eat Our Brains wrote an article on this back in 2006. Ars Technica mentioned naked DSL, which helps smart consumers reduce their telecom costs by getting DSL service without a landline voice number.

Meanwhile, a recent survey indicates that 20% of Americans have never sent an email message. Half of these respondents were over 65. Also, 56 percent had no schooling beyond high school.

The poll indicated that 18% of American households do not have Internet access in the homes.

See this PC World article for more details.

Related posts on billso.com

• 22 February 2008: Customer lock-in
• 18 August 2007: HawTel to offer naked DSL and faster downloads

Hawaiian Telcom, commonly referred to as HawTel, is the state of Hawaii’s ILEC and the succesor of several companies, including Verizon Hawaii, GTE, and the Hawaiian Telephone Company.

The Carlyle Group purchased Verizon’s Hawaiian units, except for its mobile phone service, in 2005.

• 25 July 2008: Fixing the DNS security hole with OpenDNS
• 5 February 2008: HawTel replaces CEO with turnaround specialist.
• 11 June 2007: HECO tests smart electric meters
• 7 June 2007: PC Magazine: HawTel, Time Warner Oceanic provide slow Internet connections
• 21 March 2007: About e-commerce 3: The broadband connection
• 16 November 2006: HawTel claims that system problems are consultants’ fault

From the New York Times: Spring announced another quarterly loss today of 18 cents a share or US$505 million. The news is bad, as it looks like the mobile telecom is losing some of its biggest customers:

In the first quarter, the company lost 1.1 million subscribers; the total number dropped to 52.8 million.

Analysts do not seem spooked, although Sprint’s CEO is considering a sale of Nextel. The recently announced Clearwire joint venture may help prospects in the near-term, but not right now.

Related posts on billso.com

• 8 May 2008: Google bets big on Sprint and Clearwire’s WiMAX venture
• 6 May 2008: T-Mobile’s parent may buy Sprint
• 22 February 2008: Customer lock-in
• 20 January 2008: Nokia, Sprint announce layoffs
• 27 August 2007: Wireless providers gird themselves for battle
• 14 June 2007: Clearwire signs WiMax deal with DirecTV, EchoStar
• 5 February 2007: Wireless from the inside out

The mobile phone is an excellent device for two-factor authentication. Most Internet users already have a mobile phone. A user might not notice that they’ve lost a dongle. security token or smartcard. That’s one reason adoption has been difficult for multifactor authentication schemes.

JanRain announced on 9 May 2008 that it is launching a phone-based multifactor authentication service, CallVerifID, that works with its myOpenID service.

The phone verification service lets a user designate a specific phone number that JanRain’s partner, PhoneFactor, will call when their username requires verification. The user can press the pound (#) key on the phone to confirm the login, or use the incoming call to report that their username has been compromised.

Users can designate a mobile or landline number for their verification calls by setting up their myOpenID account preferences with the appropriate number.

The system isn’t perfect. Someone could still learn the users OpenID URL and passphrase, and arrange to intercept the confirmation phone call somehow. This might take a greater level of physical access than stealing a security key or snooping a keyboard. The call verification system could easily be improved by asking the user to enter or speak a second passphrase on the phone.

As Chris Messina pointed out in December 2007, several large Internet content companies have announced that they will support OpenID. Their implementation has been delayed. for several reasons, including branding, although ma.gnolia finally came through in March 2008.

CallVerifID is more evidence that OpenID can become a trusted authentication platform for content and blogging sites, and perhaps for e-commerce sites as well.

See CenterNetworks and Mashable and for more details.

Mobile phone image courtesy of besto-Baker on Flickr, through a Creative Commons license.

Related posts and pages on billso.com

• OpenID
• 10 May 2008: Why use OpenID?
• 30 April 2008: Updating WP-OpenID to support ID Selector