Joseph Palenchar

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Retailers As The Next Wireless MVNOs

During the 1990s, when retail sales of pagers were booming, multiple retailers — mainly car stereo retailers — resold paging service under their own brand name. Departing from more traditional private-label arrangements, these retailers billed customers for monthly airtime service and fielded customer-service calls. The retailer, in effect, was the carrier. Today, history has... More

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Component Audio’s Distribution Challenges

Can the component-audio industry survive without nationwide retail chains and online stores? By their actions in recent weeks, many component-audio suppliers think not. Thiel opened up Amazon.com, its third online retailer to date. Bowers & Wilkins struck a deal with Best Buy to sell select products through freestanding Magnolia Audio Video stores well as through the Magnolia... More

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iPads As Smartphone Complements (II)

A Wi-Fi-equipped iPad would be a natural complement to a smartphone equipped with an embedded mobile Wi-Fi hot spot, but consumers won’t have as many good options to pair the two as I had hoped. To great fanfare earlier this year, Palm unveiled the Palm Pre Plus and Palm Pixi Plus, both with embedded hot spot. AT&T, however, has disabled the hot spot feature in its versions of the... More

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Navigation: How We Got Where We Are

Anyone selling car navigation systems or portable navigation devices (PNDs) must thank at least two people — Bill Clinton and Stanley Honey — for their roles in fostering the industry. Stanley Honey was one of the founders of Etak (now Tele Atlas, which is part of TomTom) and he was the visionary behind the world’s first consumer-oriented car-navigation system, the... More

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Select Smartphones Will Complement Apple’s iPad, Not Compete

Some analysts have questioned whether the Apple iPad has a niche in a market where smartphones are commonplace and cellular-equipped netbooks are gaining market share. I think I’ve found one, and it could reduce demand for 3G-equipped iPads that will be delivered to U.S. consumers who pre-ordered on Friday, April 30, and will be available for sale in Apple retail stores that day at... More