Despite the tremendous growth in mobile usage and the substantial investment by many businesses in the space, the mobile web is still in its early stages. We believe that great mobile advertising products can encourage even more growth in the mobile ecosystem. That’s what has us excited about this deal.

Though perhaps the most visible, AdMob is not the largest mobile ad network. According to an August compilation of Nielsen data by Mobile Marketer, here’s the reach of each of the top mobile ad networks (monthly unique users):

1. Millennial Media: 45.6 million
2. Yahoo!: 36.1 million
3. Google: 31.9 million
4. AOL/Platform-A’s Third Screen Media: 28.6 million
5. AdMob: 25.7 million
6. Microsoft: 25.4 million (doesn’t include the new Verizon deal)
7. Jumptap: 23.4 million
8. Quattro Wireless: 23 million

You can find more information about this acquisition at google.com/press/admob

Sky News political editor David Speers talks to News Corporation chairman and CEO Rupert Murdoch about paywalls, politics, and more. Murdoch wants to charge users for access to its news services.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7GkJqRv3BI

This is already being done on the Wall Street Journal, with plans for other Murdoch properties to soon follow. Ultimately, Murdoch feels that Google has been stealing this news and doesn’t care if they’ll be losing traffic to their websites as the news source by blocking Google.

“The people who just simply pick up everything and run with it, and steal our stories. We say they steal our stories — they just take them without payment. There’s Google, there’s Microsoft, Ask.com … there’s a whole lot of people.”

Google chosen to respond today, telling the Telegraph that they don’t care if Murdoch wants to block its sites from being found via search and/or Google News.

A spokesman for the search giant said: “Google News and web search are a tremendous source of promotion for news organizations, sending them about 100,000 clicks every minute.”

“Publishers put their content on the web because they want it to be found, so very few choose not to include their material in Google News and web search. But if they tell us not to include it, we don’t.”

Google’s response is essentially using tactics like robots.txt and meta tags to block its search engine from crawling the news results.

This argument isn’t over and may continue for some time. I see Google as being the chosen option by users over paid news for the foreseeable future, however, wonder how the tables will turn (or rather, how Google will evolve) if larger news sources such as CNN start to opt out of search results.

The status page Rackspace has put up for Cloud Files has up confirms there’s an issue with the service today. I contacted support and they confirmed that “the backend is experiencing no problems” and that “this was simply an unanticipated load on the system so we’re adding more hardware to handle the increased traffic”.

My thoughts are consistent with my other posts. The entire point of “cloud” is that your data’s receiving the highest level of uptime possible out there. This hasn’t been proven yet. I’m shocked that the response was that of “we didn’t know about the load we would receive”. This service’s sole existence is so that your data can be under heavy load. That’s why we choose a cloud service over a single point of failure.

Instead, Rackspace has in effect created their own single point of failure. They took a service out of  “beta” prior to scaling their systems up to speed to handle “live” traffic. With the media attention they’ve been attempting to drum up against competitor Amazon (AMZN), a wise business owner would be ready to handle a surge of usage traffic upon the successful launch of a competing product.  You don’t launch a system, and then say: “Whoops. We  got our  competition’s business. Time to scale up”. By then you’re positioned to lose those new clients back to your competitor again.

I’ve said it before. I’m a huge fan of Rackspace as a brand, their technical support ideals and values, etc. But these types of performance issues are amaturish for a company of their age and place in this world. They’re a tech leader in their space and better than this.

Their speeds may be twice that of Amazon S3, but I think Amazon has a more stable service. All of the big ones have been hit at one time or another, that’s not the complaint. I have been using Rackspace’s Cloud Sites service for 6+ months and it’s had many issues with their supposedly stable cloud. Every time I think a vendor has nailed it, something like this goes and happens to have me questioning “cloud” and what it means again.

Sadly, I don’t think we’ve made it yet. At best my data is safe. But uptime isn’t something I’d bet my life savings on if you’re shopping for it on Cloud. It’s overpriced data storage and has never proven itself to be as “stable” as any of my cPanel linux builds to this day.

Am I the only one out there that feels this way? I’m not mad. I’m disappointed.

With the widespread use of email and online streaming becoming common use, will this affect businesses in the U.S. severely in this dark economic time? Services like Netflix and Blockbuster run services that rely primarily on the U.S. mail system in order to reach its subscribers and deliver new content. With one less day available for delivery, this could potentially drive the costs of doing business up for these services, translating to higher subscription fees for the consumer.

Or would it? I question whether services like this would be affected as heavily with the new streaming options with iTunes and Netflix. Microsoft Xbox, Sony Playstation and the new Blu-ray and DVD players have cutting edge support for streaming movies and television episodes from these services. Will this ultimately replace the need for the mailed discs when a subscriber could just pull up a movie on-demand…without waiting for something via postal mail?

The streaming services will have lower overhead in the end for the business leasing the content, getting rid of the need for warehouses full of discs, postage fees and lost or damaged discs. The cost of doing business actually goes down by leaving the postal service model.

The next consideration is alienating your subscribers who cannot afford or do not qualify for high speed internet service yet. Not everybody has high speed access yet and that may put people off. So would the loss of another day really hurt these services? Will it annoy the subscribers? Would the ability to pay a slightly higher rate on postage be worth it?

Other news:
USPS asks for 5-day delivery, office closings
USPS 5-Day Delivery Week Could Hurt E-Commerce
USPS Wants Flexibility to Move to 5-Day Delivery Week

Both General Motors Corp and Chrysler LLC said that unless they received an immediate infusion of cash they would fail soon.  It is being said that Washington will have little choice but to offer this help to the U.S. automakers, as they account for 1/10 of American jobs.  Bankruptcy is not an option and an intervention is likely to happen either legislatively or from the administration.

My question to the public is simple.  If the bailout money had not shown its face, what would these automaker executives have done, then?  Just died off?  Hundreds of thousands of jobs lost to the United States?  Where does this responsibility fall onto the U.S. government to “bail out” companies that fail to sell?  Honda, Toyota and Kia seem alive and somewhat well…they’re even good for the economy too.

Should my own business concepts fail, would I be entitled to a reimbursement check from the feds as well?  What makes these companies (other than the fact that they’ve been around for decades) worthy of bailout when the American way is commerce and healthy competition?  By doing this, the U.S. government is enabling immunity from the economy to these larger automakers, yet stifling the ability for younger/smarter companies to move up the ladder in terms of marketshare.

While I understand the impact not helping the automakers would have on jobs, I don’t feel the top executives at the automakers are responsibly planning for the money’s use.  The Big Three automakers asked for a combined $34 billion in loans and credit lines on a day when they reported that in November they suffered a further dramatic slump in sales.  General Motors asked for $18 billion in loans and credit lines from the federal government, saying it urgently needs $4 billion of the money by the end of December to pay its bills.

Chrysler LLC, the smallest and most financially fragile of the Detroit automakers, requested $7 billion by the end of this month, saying that without the aid its cash could fall below the minimum level needed to operate in the first quarter of next year.

To pay its bills.  For one month.  Seriously?  I cannot believe we’re entertaining spending that much money (money we don’t actually have, remember…it’s borrowed) on jobs for americans that would last a period of 30 days.  We’re better off not granting that money to the automakers, and instead using it for reform within our economy to replace the jobs lost from the automakers.  Not only would it strengthen the economy, but it would help replace jobs lost.

The “bailout” money was intended to be a cushion for the financial industry, which are the lifeblood of our economy.  They need the help to stay afloat so that the financial infrastructure does not collapse.  It wasn’t until they announced the bailout options for AIG that I first heard about the automakers asking for hand outs.

One idea a friend of mine had was to allow the American public to “buy out” their mortgages at ten cents on the dollar (or whatever the appropriate fraction is), which would not only help to stabilize the finaicial institutions, but at the same time provide a better safety net for the American homeowners who are losing their pensions, 401K, IRA, etc.  This would give them a bargaining chip for finance management going forward.

Another person I’ve talked to recently stated that the U.S. government would be better off giving each american $100k, as opposed to giving the money to automakers as a band-aid that would only help in the short term.  Once the money is give, then the automakers crumble anyways…the money’s gone and cannot be recovered.  All for a temporary solution.

So what’s going to actually help our economy?  Continuously bailing out companies that do poor business, fly expensive jets with golden parachutes and bonuses galore?  I think not.

Additional insight:

Putting the Brakes on the Automaker Bailout
Deal Journal – WSJ.com : Automaker Bailout? Sure. Bank Bailout
Debating the American automakers bailout | Tampa | News | Word

	Financial Highlights (pdf – 96 KB)
	Chart Set (pdf – 143 KB)
	Additional Liquidity Initiatives Press Release (pdf – 70 KB)
	Earnings Webcast

GM Reports Third Quarter Financial Results

• Unprecedented economic and credit market turmoil dramatically impacts auto industry and GM results
• Market volatility results in $1.5 billion in non-cash charges for commodity and currency hedging
• Company anticipates soft U.S. market for remainder of 2008 and into 2009
• Emerging markets beginning to show impact of credit crisis

DETROIT - General Motors (NYSE: GM) today announced its financial results for the third quarter of 2008, reflecting rapidly deteriorating market conditions in the U.S., slowdowns in other mature markets around the world, and continued losses at GMAC Financial Services (GMAC).

During the third quarter the turmoil in the global credit markets resulted in the worst financial crisis in more than 70 years. The upheaval has had a dramatic impact on the auto business in particular, especially in the U.S. and Western Europe.

Tight credit, rising unemployment, declining income, falling stock markets, and continuing deterioration in the housing market in the U.S., resulted in an abrupt halt in consumer spending, with most consumers exiting the vehicle market. Many of those still intending to purchase vehicles were denied financing, or found the cost of financing prohibitive.

“The third quarter was especially challenging for the auto industry. Consumer spending, which represents close to 70 percent of the U.S. economy, fell dramatically, and the abrupt closure of credit markets created a downward spiral in vehicle sales,” said Rick Wagoner, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. “The U.S. government’s actions to help stabilize the credit markets and eventually ease the credit crunch are an essential first step to the economy’s and the auto industry’s recovery, but further strong action is required.”

GM reported a net loss of $2.5 billion or $4.45 per share for the third quarter, including special items. That compares with a net loss from continuing operations of $42.5 billion or $75.12 per share in the third quarter of 2007, which included a non-cash charge of $38.3 billion to establish a valuation allowance against some of the company’s net deferred tax assets.

On an adjusted basis, GM posted a net loss of $4.2 billion or $7.35 per share, compared with a net loss from continuing operations of $1.6 billion or $2.86 per share in the same period last year.

Revenue for the third quarter was $37.9 billion, down from $43.7 billion in the year-ago quarter, reflecting dramatic sales declines across the industry driven by unstable market conditions, instability in the credit markets and dramatic retraction in consumer demand, especially in North America and Europe.

GM recorded net favorable charges of $1.7 billion for special items in the third quarter. Included in the charges was a curtailment gain of $4.9 billion resulting from the UAW Settlement Agreement becoming effective. The curtailment represents the accelerated recognition of net prior service credits, largely relating to the 2005 GM UAW healthcare agreement, scheduled for amortization after January 1, 2010.

The curtailment was recorded because GM’s UAW retiree health plan will not exist after January 1, 2010, and therefore no further basis for deferring unamortized prior service credits exists beyond that date. The $4.9 billion curtailment gain was partially offset by a non-cash $1.7 billion settlement charge related to the elimination of post-65 salaried retiree healthcare coverage, including the cost of increased pension benefits that were announced in July as part of GM’s operating actions to improve liquidity as well as the recognition of accumulated deferred losses related to the healthcare plan.

GM Automotive Operations

GM reports its automotive operations and regional results on an earnings-before-tax basis, with taxes reported on a total corporate basis.

GM recorded an adjusted automotive loss of $2.8 billion ($947 million reported loss) in the third quarter 2008. The loss compares with adjusted automotive earnings from continuing operations of $98 million in the third quarter of 2007 (reported net loss of $1.6 billion).

The results reflect losses in GM North America (GMNA) driven largely by the U.S. industry volume decline of nearly 20 percent, and shifts in product mix. In addition, Europe saw rapid auto market contraction, leading to sharply lower GM Europe (GME) sales volume in the third quarter. GM Asia Pacific (GMAP) results were down due to commodity hedging charges and moderating demand in key markets including China, Australia and India. These losses were partially offset by very strong results in the GM Latin America, Africa and Middle East (GMLAAM) region.

GM’s automotive results in the third quarter include $1.5 billion of expenses related to mark-to-market changes in the value of GM’s commodity and foreign exchange hedging contracts, due almost entirely to falling commodity prices.

GM sold 2.1 million vehicles worldwide in the third quarter, down 11 percent year over year. Sales in GMNA were down 19 percent compared to third quarter 2007. GM global market share was 13 percent, down 0.7 percentage points compared with the third quarter of 2007, due largely to weakness in North America and Western Europe.

GMNA

GMNA revenue and earnings in the third quarter reflect dramatic industry deterioration and a sharp fall in consumer spending driven by the weak U.S. economy and a very harsh credit environment. Earnings were impacted by lower volumes, rapid shifts among U.S. consumers away from trucks and SUVs toward smaller cars, and unfavorable mark-to-market adjustments on commodity hedging.

GME

GME revenue was down 15 percent in the third quarter amid industry-wide volume declines ranging from 10 to 35 percent in certain major markets including the U.K., Spain and Italy. Overall GME sales volume was down 12.3 percent year over year, while up 10 percent in Eastern Europe. Earnings were largely impacted by the lower volumes, and unfavorable mix and negative pricing. In addition, unfavorable foreign exchange relating to the weakening of the British pound and the mark-to-market of commodity hedges negatively impacted earnings. Results were partially offset by favorable structural cost performance.

GMAP

Results in GMAP were impacted primarily by unfavorable mix and negative pricing. In addition, GMAP results were impacted by unfavorable hedging, which was largely offset by the favorable foreign exchange impact of exports.

Industry sales for the region were down by 134,000 units or 2.7 percent in the third quarter. Despite the slowdown, GM reported a 2.6 percent increase in sales volume, and modest gain in market share. Markets in the GMAP region are expected to remain soft through the fourth quarter, with further slow downs anticipated in Australia, China, South Korea and India as the contagion of the faltering U.S. economy and tightening credit conditions expand to other regions around the world.

GMLAAM

GMLAAM saw double-digit revenue growth, up 15 percent, and earnings, up 37 percent, in the third quarter, fueled by strong demand for Chevrolet and Cadillac products. GMLAAM sales volume was up more than 3 percent compared to the same period last year. Sales were especially strong in key South America markets, including Brazil, Chile, Ecuador and Peru, each setting all-time GM quarterly sales records. The region is on track for another year of record sales, although the effects of the global economic slowdown on credit availability and consumer behavior are likely to result in some moderation of demand in the fourth quarter.

GMAC

On a standalone basis, GMAC reported a net loss of $2.5 billion for the third quarter 2008, down $900 million from the year-ago quarter. GM reported an adjusted loss of $1.2 billion for the quarter attributable to GMAC, as a result of its 49 percent equity interest.

GMAC’s automotive finance operation experienced pressure from lower used vehicle prices and weaker consumer and dealer credit performance. GMAC’s ResCap operations reported further losses as a result of adverse market conditions, which drove high credit-related provisions and weak revenue. GMAC’s Insurance business remained profitable.

Cash and Liquidity

Cash, marketable securities, and readily-available assets of the Voluntary Employees’ Beneficiary Association (VEBA) trust totaled $16.2 billion on September 30, 2008, down from $21.0 billion on June 30, 2008.

The change in liquidity reflects negative adjusted operating cash flow of $6.9 billion in the third quarter 2008, driven by the industry-wide slowdown in vehicle demand and compounding credit crisis, especially in North America and Europe. During the quarter, GM drew the remaining $3.5 billion of its secured revolving credit facility and made $1.2 billion in payments to Delphi as required by agreements between the companies as part of Delphi’s bankruptcy proceedings.

GM expects adjusted operating cash flow in the fourth quarter to be much improved versus the third quarter, and more consistent with the first half of the year. Improvements in fourth quarter cash flow are largely driven by anticipated improvements in working capital in North America relating to sales allowances, and lower fourth quarter finished vehicle inventory in Europe.

Improving its liquidity position remains a top priority for the company. In response to deteriorating market conditions, GM announced today that in addition to the $15 billion in liquidity initiatives it outlined in July 2008, it has identified $5 billion of incremental liquidity actions. Cumulatively, GM has announced actions aimed at improving liquidity by $20 billion through 2009. To date, $10 billion in internal operating actions have either already been completed or are on track for full execution by the end of 2009.

Even if GM implements the planned operating actions that are substantially within its control, GM’s estimated liquidity during the remainder of 2008 will approach the minimum amount necessary to operate its business. Looking into the first two quarters of 2009, even with its planned actions, the company’s estimated liquidity will fall significantly short of that amount unless economic and automotive industry conditions significantly improve, it receives substantial proceeds from asset sales, takes more aggressive working capital initiatives, gains access to capital markets and other private sources of funding, receives government funding under one or more current or future programs, or some combination of the foregoing. The success of GM’s plans necessarily depends on other factors, including global economic conditions and the level of automotive sales, particularly in the United States and Western Europe.

Further detail on the additional liquidity actions and GM’s current liquidity position and outlook will be disclosed in a Form 8-K filing with the Securities and Exchange (SEC) later today.

Forward Looking Statements

In these and following presentations and in related comments by General Motors management, we will use words like “expect,” “anticipate,” “estimate,” “forecast,” “objective,” “plan,” “goal,” “project,” “outlook,” “targets,” and similar expressions to identify forward looking statements that represent our current judgments about possible future events. We believe these judgments are reasonable, but actual results may differ materially due to a variety of important factors.

Among other items, such factors include: our ability to maintain adequate liquidity and financing sources and an appropriate level of debt; continued economic instability or poor economic conditions in the U.S. and global markets, including the credit markets, or changes in economic conditions, commodity prices, housing prices, currency exchange rates or political stability in the markets in which we operate; our ability to realize production efficiencies, to reduce costs and implement capital expenditures at levels and times planned by management; market acceptance of our products including cars and crossovers; shortages of and price increases for fuel; the ability of our customers, dealers, distributors and suppliers to obtain adequate financing on acceptable terms to continue their business relationships with us; significant changes in the competitive environment, including as a result of industry consolidation, and the effect of competition on our markets, including on our pricing policies or use of incentives; changes in the existing, or the adoption of new laws, regulations, policies or other activities of governments, agencies and similar organizations where such actions may affect the production, licensing, distribution or sale of our products, the cost thereof or applicable tax rates; the effectiveness of recent or future actions by the U.S. federal government, including the $25 billion loan program for automobile manufacturers and suppliers and recently enacted legislation relating to mortgage assets; costs and risks associated with litigation; the final results of investigations and inquiries by the SEC; changes in accounting principles, or their application or interpretation, and our ability to make estimates and the assumptions underlying the estimates, including the estimates for the Delphi pension benefit guarantees, which could result in an effect on earnings; negotiations and bankruptcy court actions with respect to obligations owed to us by Delphi Corporation, a key supplier and our obligations to Delphi; negotiations with respect to our obligations under the benefit guarantees to Delphi employees and our ability to recover any indemnity claims against Delphi; labor strikes or work stoppages at our facilities or our key suppliers such as Delphi or financial difficulties at our key suppliers such as Delphi; additional credit rating downgrades and the effects thereof; changes in relations with unions and employees/retirees and the legal interpretations of the agreements with those unions with regard to employees/retirees, including the negotiation of new collective bargaining agreements with unions representing our employees in the United States other than the UAW; possible downgrades for GMAC or ResCap by rating agencies; GMAC’s ability to maintain adequate financing sources; developments in the residential mortgage market, especially the nonprime sector; and changes in the competitive markets in which GMAC operates, including increased competition in the automotive financing, mortgage and/or insurance markets or generally in the markets for securitizations or asset sales.

GM’s most recent annual report on Form 10-K and quarterly report on Form 10-Q provide information about these factors, which we may revise or supplement in future reports to the SEC on Form 10-Q or 8-K.

“It’s going to be a very bad earnings announcement,” said David Cole, chairman of the Ann Arbor-based Center for Automotive Research. “It’s going to be bad enough to get everyone’s attention.”

The official earnings results – and the expected cutbacks – will be released around 11 a.m. in a broadcast to employees. GM has about 6,000 workers in the Lansing area at the Lansing Grand River and Lansing Delta Township assembly plants, Lansing Regional Stamping plant and a service parts warehouse.

General Motors will announce the report of official earnings, as well as the expected layoffs, around 11:00 AM in a company broadcast to employees.  General Motors currently has roughly 6,000 workers in the Lansing area.  The Lansing Grand River plant makes the Cadillac CTS, STS and SRX. The Delta Township plant makes the Buick Enclave, GMC Acadia and Saturn Outlook.

Many GM workers say they’re worried about the coming announcement from the company’s top executives. General Motors CEO Rick Wagoner says he’ll announce important changes to company operations when General Motors releases its third-quarter financial results today.

General Motors Corp., reportedly on the verge of releasing enormous third-quarter losses and more cost-cutting measures, delayed this morning’s scheduled announcement.  Bloomberg News is reporting that the sale of General Motors’ stock also was halted shortly after 11 a.m. as the company prepares to disclose the earnings and cutback results.  Stock last traded at at $4.83 per share this morning after closing on Thursday at $4.80 per share.

GM’s use of $6.9 billion in cash last quarter pushed its reserves closer to the $11 billion minimum that the automaker says it needs to pay its bills.  Today’s outlook was the bleakest yet from the automaker, which has lost almost $73 billion since the end of 2004. As recently as Oct. 24, GM had said bankruptcy “is not an option.”

Last April, Citi set layoffs of 17,000 people, or about 5% of its more than 300,000 employees.  Circuit City announced a few weeks ago that they are closing 155 stores and cutting thousands of jobs.  The company said that it has been warned about being delisted from the New York Stock Exchange, due to a share price below $1 for over 30 days.  AMD, Intel Corporation’s arch nemesis, is declaring a layoff round of 500 employees as well.  Comp USA is entirely online now with shipping, having closed all of their retail stores within the past year.

Yet, companies like Best Buy, although repositioning a couple stores in our area to be near more densely populated areas, seem to be doing well.  The stores are packed, every time I’m in there and prices are as competitive as ever.

In the new presidency under Obama, we may begin to see an explosion of recession-proof jobs in 2009.  Several areas expected to remain strong include:

• education
• energy
• health care
• international business
• environmental sector
• security

Other planned layoffs…

Hewlett-Packard announced back in September that it will be laying off about 8% of its workforce – about 24,600 employees.

Legg Mason, Baltimore’s third-largest public company, and employed about 1,100 people as of January 2008, is planning layoffs.

Goldman Sachs announced October 23rd that it will be laying off about 10% of its work force as the downturn in the credit and lending markets continues.

Yahoo! is looking to cut 1,500 jobs as it struggles to deal with a crumbling economy that ate away at its third-quarter profit.  This represents roughly 10% of their 15,000 employees.

The state of Virginia is expecting ot lay off 570 state workers.  The job cuts are the worst in five years in Virginia.  The Democratic governor says the state is likely to be at least $970 million short this year and may be up to $1.5 billion short in the fiscal year that begins next summer.

Coca Cola is planning cuts in its IT department, which currently has about 1,100 employees.  They will be told in mid-November of the status of their position.  Pink slips will be handed out by the end of the year.

Sony Ericsson will lay off 450 employees at the company’s R&D department in North Carolina.  With plummeting profits over the past two quarters, the company has said it will have to cut workers from the payroll.

Yesterday AMD reported that it terminated five hundreds jobs worldwide in an effort to cut costs and achieve a $1.5 billion “breakeven.”  Stock prices have also fallen, closing at $2.65 per share as of October 28, dropping nearly 90 percent since early 2006.  Currently Intel Corporation owns roughly 80 percent of the microprocessor market, leaving AMD the remaining 20 percent.

Original article:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/11/technology/companies/11text.html?_r=2&em&oref=slogin&oref=slogin 

When mobile subscribers already pay for this as part of a service contract, this seems like double dipping in terms of where they’re getting their income.

I question what this will do to the growth of the mobile market just as it’s taking off?  The creative agency I work for, Quango Design + Marketing, doesn’t currently do work with text messaging outside of the mobile networks, but we do marketing that in some part could make use of web text messaging someday.  This type of hard cost makes it nearly impossible to integrate on a large scale unless cost is passsed on to the end user.

Will Free Web Text & txtDrop still remain “free”?  Text messaging & SMS is useful for more than just entertainment purposes.  Text 4 Deaf is a service that enables deaf users to remain connected in a number of ways.  Something of this size could be crippled (no pun intended) overnight by a change like this, or could require higher charitable donations in order to remain operating.  The other alternative would be higher rates to the users of course.

Something as significant as this change may seem like a simple choice to Verizon, but they have an opportunity to help shape the mobile market and be innovators, not stifle it by increases.  People are already paying for the right to receive these messages to their mobile providers (Sprint PCS, ATT and T-Mobile).

Verizon mentions:
“We want to find a way not just to create a toll but build the overall market together”

I don’t view this as building the market as much as I do see it as a toll.  Isn’t there a better way than double dipping on something you’re already profitable from in the service contracts?