Year End Awards

Joseph Laszlo | December 23, 2004, 10:12 AM

Everybody else is wrapping up the year with best of's and worst of's and awards and stuff. I resisted, honest I did, but okay, I'll give in and present my first ever ad hoc awards for technology achievement...

Bravest Networking Move: Verizon's FIOS. The capital outlay to do what I'm beginning to believe Verizon is serious about doing is vast, the risk high. But they're finally building the network of the future, and it's almost enough to make me want to move to Westchester.

Best Suggested Brand Name for a Merged Corporate Entity: "Sextel" [Engadget]

Weirdest Branding Decision: Probably Verizon's iobi (that's pronounced "I owe Bee")

Biggest Brand Implosion: AT&T Wireless. My telecom-nostalgia means I'll always have a soft spot for AT&T, but their amazingly bad performance during the Cingular merger, culminating in quarters of net subscriber losses, was astonishing to watch. Can AT&T rebuild the brand as an MVNO? I think it'll be tough.

Trend of the Year: Companies stopping doing what they're most famous for. AT&T leaves the consumer telecoms market...IBM sells off the PC business... next thing you know Coca Cola will decide to stop making fizzy sugar water.

Vaporware of the Year: Michael's [Gartenberg's Weblog] totally right. The Phantom from Infinium Labs.

Prettiest Gadget: Motorola's stunning RAZR phone. Sorry, iPod Mini.

Handiest Gadget: WiFi Finders...any of them, preferably with an LCD and/or an open/WEP protected indicator. There's a comparison on Engadget.

Funnest Game I've Actually Played: Hands down, Katamari Damacy [Gamespy]. The weirdest game, perhaps, that I have ever played, too. And one of the most amazing translations of an incomprehensible Japanese concept into English. As with many others who write about the area, my hat is off to Namco for being bold enough to create a masterful export version of this brilliant game.

Funnest Game I Haven't Actually Played: I'll give a nod to City of Heroes [Gamespy], which proves that an MMORPG doesn't need to be about killing rats and giant wasps for the first 20 hours of play, and that you don't need an economy at all to be fun.

Best Rumor: *INSERT WIRELESS OPERATOR NAME* to buy *INSERT ANOTHER WIRELESS OPERATOR NAME* My prediction: at some point in the future, at least one of these rumors will be proven true.

The "It's Finally Two Years From Now" Award for Networking Technology Made Reality: VoIP. VoIP. VoIP!

The "It's Just Two Years Away" Award for Most Hyped Networking Technology: It's a close one, given Michael Powell's [Reason magazine] love of broadband over powerlines, but I'll say WiMAX was even more hyped this year.

The Ottoman Empire Award for Great Power in Decline: If I was giving out awards last year, this one would've surely gone to AOL. Ditto this year. There's no easy solution to AOL's predicament. The "Yahoo-ization" of AOL has begun, spearheaded by young Turks within the organization. Not sure yet if even that will restore the sick man of the Internet.

And if all this wasn't enough, I'll wrap up with a quick prediction for 2005, no extra charge: In 2005, telco video efforts will get a lot of attention, but cable operators rolling out branded wireless services (most likely via an MVNO, probably with Sprint/Nextel) will be the more important next battle in the bundling wars.