Following up on the many emails, but not so many actual site comments from yesterday's post "Deadbeat Carrier Creative Destruction In The Ongoing Mobile Computing Wars" I bring you hard evidence that there's about to be a massive disruption in the telecomm space. We're not just talking Google Fiber here. The smallest, most upstart of carriers has broken the holy grail and did away with multi-year, hardware subsidizing contracts while at the same time materially boosting its bandwidth, coverage and throughput. This means that the price-gouging competitors are going to fave that Apple thingy, #MarginCompression.

As states in yesterday's post, T-Mobile's subway experience delivers Verizon FiOS speeds via LTE. Well, T-Mobile must have read that post for they turned LTE on in Brooklyn and that's what I'm using to make this very article. It's very fast, very cheap, its opening in more places than many would have thought. What does this mean? It means prices will probably collapse across the board, you know... #MarginCompression. It ain't just Apple, RIMM and Nokia!

For those who don't believe my, I come bearing gifts. First, a pretty charts...

Reggie Middleotns Carrier Cost Comparison

Wait until people realize how much they are actually paying for those "free", subsidized phones... Then things will really get interesting...

Reggie Middleotns Carrier Subsidy Cost Comparison

My next gift is your ability to generate your own chart with your own wasted wireless carrier dollar expenditures. Check it out..

Of course, this doesn't look to good for Microsoft or Intel, for the Android camp is encroaching on the Wintel camp much faster than the Wintel camp is returning the favor. 

I have a lot of thoughts and ideas circling these developments. Institutional and professional subscribers (click here to subscribe) are welcomed to email or call me to discuss this further.

Related articles...

US Cellular Carriers Are At Risk Of Being Marginalized Into Nothingness Unless They Learn To Think Outside The Box... Yesterday

The Death Of The Deadbeat Carriers, Part 2 

This week I opined on Apple, et. al.

Is It Time To Buy Apple As A Valuation Play

What Sell Side Wall Street Doesn't Understand About Apple - It's Not The Leader Of The Post PC World!!!

 I have personally tested the T-Mobile LTE service in a NYC subway (the 42^nd street station) using what is currently the best (big brand) mobile handset available, the LG Optimus G Pro.

20130522 140401 3799

The speeds I attained are phenomenal for a cell phone. This combo is more than capable of replacing a small business or home network Internet connection through FiOS or AT&T.

This is a similar LTE speed test performed in the AT&T store in Union Square, NYC.

20130522 143033 26462

The majority of my work is now done off of smart phones, so I know this stuff fairly well. AT&T charges roughly 3x what T-Mobile would charge for about 31GB of bandwidth use, while T-Mobile delivered 2.5x the speed. Now, T-Mobile's network is not under load yet, and results can vary by location, weather, yada, yada... Long story short, if T-Mobile continues to focus on being a pure play pipe provider, AT&T and Verizon will need to get their shit together!!!

T-Mobile, if they play their cards right, can truly shake up the industry. If you did not already know, T-Mobile has eliminated carrier subsidies of handsets and has instead given a 0% APR (allegedly, although an implied rate could be built into the price of the hardware) loan to have the user pay for the device directly, and has reduced the price of its plans commensurately. T-Mobile has also dropped contract requirements totally and has made a big push into its pre-paid plans with an offer of unlimited data. It is this option that makes a lot of sense for power users and techies. Today's Android phones (ex. the LG Optimus G Pro) have more than enough oomph to power an office - and I mean it. I actually do it.

With a 14 - 32mbs always on connection, you can fully replace Microsoft Office, your overpriced DSL, FiOS, AT&T, etc. connection, and your overpriced cell phone carrier with a single phone, some inexpensive peripherals and a single $70 per month ($76 with all taxes and fees included) T-Mobile plan.

This is a very big deal, for if consumers start using their heads and pull out a calculator or two, AT&T and Verizon have an awful lot of price slashing to do, and the likes of the pretty but considerably less functional OEMs such as Apple have a lot of R&D and production ramping to do as well.

You have heard me predict this in the past.

April and May 2012 I opined on the carriers

US Cellular Carriers Are At Risk Of Being Marginalized Into Nothingness Unless They Learn To Think Outside The Box... Yesterday

The Death Of The Deadbeat Carriers, Part 2 

This week I opined on Apple, et. al.

Is It Time To Buy Apple As A Valuation Play

What Sell Side Wall Street Doesn't Understand About Apple - It's Not The Leader Of The Post PC World!!!

Of course, this doesn't look to good for Microsoft or Intel, for the Android camp is encroaching on the Wintel camp much faster than the Wintel camp is returning the favor. 

I have a lot of thoughts and ideas circling these developments. Institutional and professional subscribers (click here to subscribe) are welcomed to email or call me to discuss this further.

All who have followed me over the last three years know I've taken a very strong stance on the mobile computing wars, their prospective winners, losers and the benefits/pitfalls to be had from such intense competition. Outside of possibly Goldman Sachs, the most controversial, blindly beloved company that I've called a short on was Apple. Now that I think of it, Apple has Goldman beat hands down. After first warning of impending margin compression with 18 quarters of October 2010, I've been reviled by every fanboi this side of the Valley. Now, it's vogue to say #MarginCompression!

For those who are not the type to pay for analysis, the following video and graphic contains everything you'd ever want to know about Apple past, present and potentially future. For those of you who are willing to pay for quality analysis, I answer the question that should be on everyone's mind, "Is it time to now buy Apple as a deep value play?" After all, the move that I've warned about has came and gone, or has it. Subscribers, see download links at the bottom of this article.

Click the graphic once to view, twice to enlarge to printer quality...

 Reggie Middletonss Ultimate Apple Value Infographic

Subscribers, download the Q3 2013 valuation reports (click here to subscribe).

•  Apple 3Q2013 Valuation Update - Retail
  (Technology)
•  Apple 3Q2013 Valuation Update - Pro & Institutional
  (Technology)

The update from two months ago is also of value for those who haven't read it. It turns out that it was quite prescienct!

•  Apple 1Q2013 update - Pro & Institutional
  (Technology)
•  Apple 1Q2013 update - Retail
  (Technology)

See also:

What Sell Side Wall Street Doesn't Understand About Apple - It's Not The Leader Of The Post PC World!!!

 The short call - October 2012, the month of Apple's all-time high and my call to subscribers to short the stock:  Deconstructing The Most Accurate Apple Analysis Ever Made - Share Price, Market Share, Strategy and All

This crux of that article was to debunk the widely assumed notion that I was bearish on Apple's share price for 2 years. The reality of the matter was that the paid research and opinion clearly supported much of Apple's share price until right about the last earnings report and release of the iPhone 5, until I notably went bearish and Apple promptly lost 35%, or about 4 Dells with a LinkedIn thrown in to boot...

apple stock and front month options

Scotland is making a move for independence from the UK as a sovereign nation. Such an event is bound to be rife with political motivations and ramifications that I'm no where near qualified to gauge or judge. Yet, there is one thing that I can comment on with conviction, and that is the risks that abound in the banking system. You see, with so many political motivations running in several directions, the truth (or even a facsimile of it) will be hard to come by in such a situation, but I believe I can ferret out a nugget or two. Here are a few snippets from an article ran on CNBCcom today: Scotland Independence Could Lead to Cyprus-Style Banking Crisis

An independent Scotland is at risk of a Cyprus-style banking crisis, as its banking sector would be "exceptionally large" compared to the size of its economy, a U.K. government report has said.

"An independent Scotland would have an exceptionally large banking sector compared to the size of its economy - with banking assets of more than 1250 percent of Scottish [gross domestic product] - making it more vulnerable to financial shocks and the volatility of the sector," the Treasury report said on Monday.

The report pointed out Scotland's banking exposure would dwarf that of Iceland and Cyprus, two countries that faced severe banking collapses in recent years. Iceland's banks, for example, had assets equivalent to 880 per cent of GDP, while Cyprus, which faced a banking crisis in March, had total banking assets of around 700 per cent of GDP.

...for Scotland if its banks needed bailing out, posing significant risks to Scottish taxpayers, the report claimed.

The report as cited by the article then goes on to make more direct comparisons to Cyprus, not unlike I did two months ago, but with Ireland (see As Forewarned, The Irish Savers Have Just Been "Cyprus'd", And There's MUCH MORE "Cyprusing" To Come).

"At the end of September 2012, the two largest banks – the Cyprus Popular Bank and Bank of Cyprus – had assets in the region of 210 per cent and 175 per cent of Cyprus's GDP respectively."

"It is worth noting that, if Scotland became independent, its banking sector would be similarly concentrated (with two large players, Bank of Scotland and Royal Bank of Scotland and a number of smaller firms), and that an independent Scotland's domestic banking sector would be likely to be significantly larger than that of Cyprus (assuming no change to firms' domicile arrangements)."

While there's not a single doubt in my mind that this so-called research paper has distinct political ulterior motives at it heart, a fact is still a fact nonetheless. RBS is still a problem in terms of systemic risk. On Thursday, 11 April 2013 I penned, I Illustrate How The Irish Banking Cancer Spreads To The UK Taxpayer And Metastasizes Through US Markets! wherein I clearly illustrated that RBS is materially understating its liabilities AND even went so far as to include links to the SEC and the UK banking regulator so that US/UK taxpayers and investors can notify our erstwhile regulator(s) to the potential of financial shenanigans. The root of the problem is that RBS has materially under-reported its liabilities (in my oh so humble opinion.) Those that stress tested RBS (the same erstwhile professionals that allowed the Irish banks to pass their stress tests 3 months before they started collapsing) apparently overlooked humongous swaths of liabilities. The charge documents referred to in the aforelinked article are definitively not apparent in the recent bank stress testing’ conducted by the European Banking Authority, at least not in the summary results that the EBA have made available. For those who are still skeptical, I beg thee reference the RBS Stress Test download. I presented ample evidence directly in my previous articles, to wit:

What happened behind closed doors?

Ulster Bank gave a first floating charge in favor of the Central Bank of Ireland (an arm of the European Central Bank) and the Financial Services Authority of Ireland. U.S. investors would have had to rely on the contents of The Royal Bank of Scotland's 2008 Annual Accounts which apparently (in my opinion) concealed the existence of the CRO registered charges to the Central Bank of Ireland.

Ulster Bank RBS charge doc 2 Page 1

I even included a lawsuit filed in which investors apparently go the message, they just didn't have access to the analyst that I proffered...

rbs litigation

Anyone interested in RBS will be well served to review "I Illustrate How The Irish Banking Cancer Spreads To The UK Taxpayer And Metastasizes Through US Markets!" thoroughly! 

To give the prospective Scottish taxpayer a clue as to what surprises may lurk beneath, I post this tidbit from the afore-linked article...

The app below allows the UK Taxpayer to calculate for themselves exactly what their individual contribution (pro rata) is to the government bailout of RBS.

I've taken the liberty of pre-populating the input fields for you, but if you don't agree with the numbers then by all means insert your own!