Carrier IQ. That name has scared the smartphone market witless in the last month, but is it really all that important and what exactly does this software do? Carrier IQ is nothing new. Actually the concept of tracking phone usage goes back to the earliest data networks. The problem that Carrier IQ has now is that everyone has a smartphone… and they never knew that their dumb phone was being tracked as well.

Starting back in 2003, when we first used our NEC 525 device as a tethered modem to a laptop, AT&T would send us a report of our “minutes used by data” and included a pretty good report on what data was sent and received. They used our dropped call reports to figure out where to strengthen the network. They used our text messaging levels to find out where to build additional capacity for that service. They even used our network data speed reports to find out where to build their 3G networks of the future.

Fast fowarding to today, Carrier IQ lets the operators know how you use your device, the exact same thing that’s been happening for years. The catch is, now we are doing more with our devices than ever before. It may seem like Big Brother is watching via Carrier IQ, but IQ is only a name for a program to figure out how to make the network you are on work better for you tomorrow.

Carrier IQ and programs like it are needed by carriers simply to make our experience on their products better. Think of it like this: Carrier IQ for restaurants – it would say that a person walked into Red Robin, waited 15 minutes for a table, ordered a cheeseburger and fries, waited 12 minutes for food, ate it in 17 minutes and had 2 fry refills. The person then left, leaving a $2 tip. There’s nothing in that data that makes it identifiable, but Red Robin could certainly see that a faster service time might lead to a better tip and a higher level of satisfaction.

Next time, hopefully the industry will explain this better and not give people the option to remove themselves from the program. The data collected is completely anonymous. The program doesn’t affect the functionality of your device at all. The program won’t let the FBI show up at your door tomorrow and search your house for illegal downloads. The program won’t even let your phone company know who you were texting – wait… they already know that…

As a part of the failed merger with AT&T, T-Mobile is due a bit of cash and something much more valuable – spectrum. Spectrum is that illusive commodity that cellphones transmit over, and unfortunately, they aren’t going to be making more of it. AT&T was in the wonderful position of having some of the frequencies that T-Mobile uses in the 1700 & 2100 AWS bands. If the merger had gone through, AT&T could have used these airwaves to compensate for the locales that they did not have enough of their 700mhz bands to run a proper LTE network. Fortunately for T-Mobile, AT&T lost that merger bid and is now ‘selling’ T-Mobile part of the AWS frequencies where they currently have the capacity in the 700mhz bands to operate efficiently. AT&T has a bulk of these spectrum chunks in major markets thanks to a deal with Qualcomm late last year. Qualcomm sold AT&T the unneeded spectrum after deciding that MobileTV was just not going to be a profitable deal for them.

What does all this mean to you? If you are an AT&T customer, nothing. You will go unchanged as AT&T never had a device in their arsenal that used the frequencies in question. Basically, until an LTE network would have been run out over them, these bands were used for ‘free roaming’ for T-Mobile subscribers. For you T-Mobile users, this deal will strengthen the signals in major cities like Seattle, San Fransisco and Washington D.C. Other cities that will gain better access are Boston, Houston, Baltimore, Atlanta, San Diego, Kansas City, San Jose, San Antonio and Salt Lake City.

As 2012 comes roaring in, we have been watching our heating and cellular costs rise and rise again. Does it really have to be this way? Is there something cheaper that we missed? Is it worth the sacrifice of the quality of service to save a buck?

With cell providers offering unlimited this and unlimited that, how much is all that unlimited being used? Exactly how much of that 2GB data plan are you using? What if I only want text messaging? Unfortunately, the carriers just don’t care about you since that wouldn’t be a Benjamin Franklin out of your pocket every month.

To bring this around quickly, we have gone completely VoIP using home and office WiFi and the $30 T-Mobile/Wal-Mart unlimited data plan as our walk around town coverage. Before attempting this, we highly recommend taking the cheapest prepaid handset you can get your hands on to do a little network speed testing with. Remember, you want at least a 3Mbps connection to have a quality call experience.

Our testing has yielded some pretty fantastic results so far, but time will tell. We will keep this running for a few more Weeks with a few different options and see where it ends up.

Stay tuned for more next week…

The massive success of the Republic Wireless beta program leads us to a question. How long will it be until we see another WiFi based solution? Sure, the Republic launch was anything but perfect and there are still plenty of bumps to smooth out, the fact is consumers are tired of paying for things they don’t use.

Take the average family of 4, with Mom and Dad toting their iPhones, the kids have last year’s phones and their $200 a month cell bill. Then we add into that a whopping $60 a month for home internet. The we add another $35 for a home phone. Finally, we round it out with a $100 a month cable bill. It adds up to nearly $400 a month, or almost $5000 a year.

When you take that same family and charge $95 for the four cellular lines and the 5th line for home use, you have that total down 25% from the original number – or loosely translated – a Disneyland Vacation every other year.

While the world of WiFi powered cellphones isn’t for everyone, there are enough “non-power” users in the world to warrant a few of the majors taking a serious look at VoIP options or other WiFi methods like T-Mobile’s WiFi calling feature.

The consumer market won’t continue to support $200 to $400 a month family cellphone bills. The consumer will also get tired of the cutbacks and loss of contract benefits also. It won’t be long before spending $400 on an unlocked device like an iPhone 4s after the 4Ls hits the market that will work on a WiFi based system like Republic’s.

For now, Republic has you covered if you were lucky enough to get in on the beta, or T-Mobile’s $30 prepaid plan or the similar offering from Virgin Mobile might just do the trick. Remember unlimited services aren’t always easy, but just about anyone can find a free solution to anything, if they just look hard enough.

While nothing official has trickled out of Overland Park just yet, our mini trolls are reporting that Sprint’s LTE offerings will not feature an unlimited data option and will be required for LTE devices – regardless of the availability of the service in the user’s area. The yet to be announced pricing may come as a shock to some that are just getting used to paying a $10 ‘premium data charge’ after years of not having the additional fee or even better, for just changing from an old phone to an older phone.

The initial speculation is that Sprint will offer up a 3GB, 6GB and 12 GB chunks of data for $20, $35 and $60 additional to your $69.99+$10.00  plan. This would put an unlimited talk, text and almost data plan on Sprint at $129.99 ($99.99+$10.00+$20.00) plus taxes and fees with 3GB of data.  Overages should be set to run $10 per GB just like the big 2 with no talk of throttling in the near future.

Also to lend right along with the talk, data only plans will be offered for MiFi and Sticks at 3GB for $49.99, 6GB for $74.99 and the monster 12GB pack for $99.99. It’s good to hear also that Sprint should be doing away with the ridiculous $.25 per MB overage charge and going to the flat GB charge as well.

It’s also being stated that Sprint will not be allowing existing users to be grandfathered in to the system as ‘unlimited’ users, but for non-LTE handsets the added charges are not being applied. Feature phone and 3G devices will continue at the same rates they are at today after the LTE launch this summer.

We’ll do our best to stay on top of this for you and let you know if any confirmation of this pricing or terms are relayed to us from Sprint directly.

#9 – Sprint and T-Mobile reach agreement to partner in LTE network launch. With LightSquared all but squished by the feds, Sprint is going to need some additional resources to escape the WiMAX and head to the LTE land of promise. To speed up this venture, Sprint and T-Mo will partner up in overlapping markets to launch the 800Mhz band LTE Advanced system well before AT&T and Verizon.

#8 – RIM design engineers finally figure things out and make a good piece of hardware again. RIM abandons their current line, the QNX phone and the problems of the past and comes back with the next generation Curve in the form of a BlackBerry laptop/smartphone – like the Motorola Atrix. The dual core powered monster will allow the user to clip their BlackBerry OS T (OS Ten for those that are counting) device to a full 12″ laptop dock and access their entire device right from the big screen, keyboard toting docking station. When the road warrior is ready to head out with a fully charged BB, they pop it off and hit the road with the same amazing battery life and push notification system that made Berries great to start with.

#7 – Gaps in Android security and functionality lead to lost market share being split between Apple and Microsoft. As quickly as Android climbed to the top, it begins its climb back to reality. With smartphone sales beginning to droop due to the carriers dropping their 12 month upgrade programs, people are looking much harder at what they will spend money on for that 20-24 month period. Issues like the infamous “Non-Sending Text Messages” “Random Resets” and simply not getting the latest version that’s compatible with this app or that – will result in many leaving for the more stable Apple and Microsoft offerings. We look to see a smartphone (non-tablets, so no nooks and fires in these numbers) breakdown similar to this at the end of the year:

Apple – 35%   -   Android – 30%   -   Microsoft – 20%   –   RIM – 10%   -   Others – 5%

#6 – Mass customer exits to prepaid and other options from the big 4. We see consumers being given less and less and paying more and more for their cellular bills. While most people don’t even need to worry about the 2GB cap or throttling or what have you, the perception is everything. When Virgin Mobile offers you unlimited everything for $35 and Sprint charges you $79.99 plus tax for the same, what would you do?

#5 – Upstart Republic Wireless expands their offerings and begins mass sales to any and all. Republic Wireless struck us as brilliant this year, but then failed to wow us with their ‘limited beta’. This was mainly due to the fact that they weren’t ready for the demand that the beta launch created. Some that ordered are still waiting for devices, have order questions or just got ignored completely. This year is the break out time for them though. The $19 a month tag probably won’t survive past the beta, but for the WiFi loving crowd – or the person that doesn’t need a ‘superphone’ in the real world, Republic is a PERFECT solution. We see them launching wave two of the beta early this year, hopefully by March. Then rolling into the full service setup by mid-summer. Look for pricing to stay in the $20-25 a month range even after they go public.

#4 – Skype for Windows Phone prompts carriers to rethink ‘data only’ plans. While we don’t have the exact numbers from last year, in 2010, Skype boasted a total account list of 560 million subscribers. When Microsoft purchased Skype, it became ‘real’ and more and more street cred was lent to it. Currently, Skype is available for Android and iOS. When Microsoft builds Skype into Windows Phone and makes it part of the ecosystem, the carriers will start to see how a data only network (meaning networks like Verizon and Sprint can lose their CDMA networks for smartphone users) could support Skype and other VoIP solutions. Voice over LTE is already a hot topic and many have already tested it, but the Skype user base is big enough that the Big 4 might just want to install Skype as bloatware from here on out and offer FREE calls world wide to any Skype users.

#3 – Illegal tether’s begin to be banned from cell contracts and prepaid services. The data monger – we all know one. The one that replaced their home internet line with a cellphone by the window. Sure, for that once a year guy with Cyanogen on their device we will turn a blind eye, but for that 100GB per month monster – we want you out. You are the one that led to throttled speeds. You are the one that led us down the path to overage charges. You are the one that nobody wants on their network. So, to help us all out, the carriers will start a national database of excessive data users. This will be published to all major providers and their MVNO’s so the repeat offenders will not be able to continue to drive pricing up for the meager data chompers.

#2 – The patent wars reach settlements with Google and Microsoft inking a deal for $20 a device to go to Microsoft. Microsoft is smart. They aren’t suing to prevent phones from coming into the country – they just want a buck from everyone that does. Unlike the injunction seeking Cupertino giant, Microsoft works throughout the year with Google and Android to tighten up the OS and make things right by taking a bit of cash from the advertising giant. Apple continues to sue the pants off everyone and everything…

#1 – The smartphone market begins to slow. Seeing smartphones in public has become more and more normal since the iPhone launched in 2007. Year over year, the market has grown exponentially and has no slow downs in sight. The manufacturers keep building bigger, better, stronger devices and the public keeps snapping them up. Unfortunately, this has just become too expensive for the carriers to continue to underwrite. We’ve already seen smartphones go from $500 on contract to free, but slowly those premium devices are beginning to climb back up that pricing rung. When the iPhone launched at $200 on contract it brought the price of everything to $200. Now that a 64GB model sets you back $400 on contract, $400 is the new $200. With the carriers eliminating that 12 month upgrade (see #7 above) people are going to think much harder about spending $700-1000 over 2 years to check their emails and Facebook page on the road. Parents are also going to start drawing the line with the ‘smartphones’ costing an extra $360 a year for kids and going back to messaging devices with touch screens – Samsung Rogue’esq? – as long as the carriers don’t require data for them. Face it, when the first “WiFi powered – semi-smartphone” hits the market, the kids will flock to it – or wait, isn’t that just an iPod touch with a cell radio for voice? Maybe a Galaxy Note with a texting capability? Yeah, their here…

So, to close out our list, we’re sure we didn’t go too far out on any limbs here, but it should be a great year for the cellular industry. Good luck to the carriers and their network expansions, the manufacturers and their quest for the perfect handsets and most of all to the consumers and their search for the perfect combination of both!

We’ve always been busy searching for the best wireless deals on the planet, or at least for the US population, and continue to try to find better and better deals. It began with the amazing $50 unlimited everything plans, moving to the $40 unlimited plans and finally settled up with Virgin Mobile and the 300 minute, unlimited text and data deal. Alas, we have finally pulled off one better – depending on coverage of course…

T-Mobile recently released their Samsung Exhibit II 4G device to the prepaid masses for a paultry $200. The price seems to have rocketed up to $350 on T-Mobile’s site, but you can still find it at Wal-Mart and Amazon.com for that under $200 price tag. With this release also came the 100 minute, unlimited text and data (5GB of 4G data before throttling) for $30.

This means with a simple app like SIPDroid or GrooveIP, for a lowly $30 a month, you can enjoy an all you can eat buffet of minutes, text and data. Using the service over WiFi when possible should protect you from those EDGE speeds or worse and linking up to Google Voice will give you free visual voicemail and texting as well – all from one number!

The 100 minute pack that cones with the plan will be great for emergency use when you’re stuck in a 2G area that isn’t fast enough to support a quality voice call or just in those shady coverage areas.

The best part of this deal though is that any T-Mobile device can be used on the $30 prepaid plan. Want to drop $650 on a Galaxy S II or an Amaze 4G? Go for it and still enjoy the $30 plan. Want to save a fortune and blow $100 on a Dart or Optimistic T refurb? You have that option too.

Overall, with a pretty simple setup, you can be rocking a $30 a month cell bill and never have to worry about higher prices again.

We’re big fans of free help for small business owners, and Amazon is helping out the small business universe on an almost daily basis. After offering two great Office editors in the last few weeks, Amazon has thrown a long tme favorite out to the masses in DataViz’s Docs To Go.

Docs became our favorite editor back when our staff was BBMing and track-balling all over town. While other editors may have caught up to the program in functionality, Docs still is one of the best interfaces we’ve used.

The premium version allows the unlocking of a few key components not found in the free model. Creation of new files, editing GDocs, and no annoying ads make for a much happier user experience.

The $14.99 app is free today in the Amazon Appstore. While we have a bit of trouble recommending any Office style editors at $15, the 3 free options that Amazon has sent out sure have made life easier.

In the recent months, tablets have become the rage. Honestly, we didn’t see how a little 10″ slab could replace a laptop computer, much less a powerful desktop, but it seems like a forgone conclusion that it will happen. With tablets launching with more powerful processors, larger amounts of RAM and storage and more importantly – better screens, the PC market will be hurting more than it is now by this time next year.

While not serving as a notice to pitch your PC to Goodwill and get a new tablet quite yet, if you are in the market for a new machine and portability and battery life are at the top of your list, you might want to check out a few options. The Android based software has come quite a ways in even the last few weeks with Adobe releasing 6 prime time apps including Photoshop Touch, Pronto (web design), and Collage (think Pinterest – and if you don’t know, you won’t care). There are plenty of excellent choices in ‘Office Style’ editors out there now with OfficeSuite Pro and QuickOffice HD topping our recommended list. For the bloggers out there, both Blogger and WordPress have fantastic mobile options available as well.

Web browsing has come quite a ways from the stock browser as well. Opera Mobile and Dolphin HD are complete packages for Android with the latter even offering downloading through sites like Filesonic and other sharing sites that normally are blocked or result in misdownloaded files in Android. The killing of Adobe’s Flash Mobile program doesn’t really mean that the Android development will stop, it more means that Flash is dying in favor of HTML 5, a lighter and easier to code system – which is fully supported in most major browser systems.

For keeping in touch from your PC, everyone has that webcam with Skype or another chat program. Many of these are supported in tablet format and most of those will support the front facing camera on your tablet as well. The biggest hurdle that tablets are facing now is can they sell anything with people knowing what’s coming next. Amazon seemed to say yes to this with the Kindle Fire – their $199, Android powered, 7″ reader/tablet. They launched it and pre-sold millions for the Christmas season. The only question is how many will stay sold with quad-core machines on the horizon already.

What is really needed for a tablet to have a good run on the market is something to set it apart. The iPad has the experience – which believe us – makes all the difference. Apple has a product that works and does it all perfectly. The issue for many is just that though, it only does what Apple wants it to. Anything else, requires some serious hacking, playing and risk taking. The Samsung Galaxy is a great middle ground to functionality and customization. Light, sleek and fast, they allow the user to customize home screens and offer the user whatever experience they want. Then you get to the lesser knowns, the Asus Transformer: a tablet with optional dock to turn it in to a full laptop with USB ports and all, the Acer Iconia, a thin little monster that used an aggressive price point to get a good share of the market, the Motorola Xoom, the first real challenge to the iPad dominated market – which would have done much better if the SD card slot and price would have worked at launch, $599 was just too much for that device – the $399 current price makes the Xoom one of the better deals on the market today. This brings us to our choice of tablets, the Toshiba Thrive.

The Toshiba Thrive tablet makes the best use of tablet real estate of anything else currently available on the market. The Thrive is offered in an 8GB, 16GB or 32GB model and isn’t the slender ‘tablet’ that the iPad or Samsung Galaxy is, but it builds in a few features that the average computer-ite will value. The Thrive offers a rear facing camera that is decent for note shots, but not really much in the way of ‘photography’, a front facing camera that works great for video chatting and then it gets interesting. The Thrive ships with a full size USB port for external media/input/storage, a replaceable battery and full sized SD card slot. This makes the move from a PC much easier as your existing hard drives, memory sticks and camera cards will fit right in to the Thrive‘s inputs.

While we know the move isn’t for everyone, it’s getting to be a harder decision for those looking to get portable. Laptops have gotten bigger and tablets are getting more powerful. It’s a tough choice, but one that needs to be looked at hard by small business owners and those looking for other options.

For those serving our country and their families, a cellphone or smartphone are probably the last thing on their minds. Unfortunately, that monthly bill always arrives and many times, the service men and women end up paying $1,000′s of in charges for a phone that sits idle in a backpack, or even more so, one that is left at home. To help in this travesty, Sprint’s prepaid brands, Virgin Mobile and Boost Mobile are offering our fighting forces and their families an amazing offer. The new Deployed Military Program will allow soldiers to place a ‘hold’ their account, phone number and payments until they return home safely to their loved ones.

While this isn’t a life changing event for many, the $50-100 a month this saves those in service to our country has to be appreciated on some level. So from those of us at getsmartphones.info and smartphonereport.info, thank you for serving our country and come home safe. For those interested in the program, contact Boost Mobile or Virgin Mobile customer service to be directed to a Deployed Military Program operator. If you are someone needing to refill your Virgin Mobile account, refills are available online here.