Find my Phone! (For a Price) - 24 Sep 2010 - by gins

In the tug-of-war between the mobile operator and the handset vendor for the hearts and minds of the subscriber, the two are now battling it out on a new front... in-cloud mobile services for consumers such as backup, remote data wipe, and the ability to locate a lost phone.

The recent rash of announcements in this space are in fact only the latest campaign in a field pioneered by Apple with its MobileMe, Microsoft with in-cloud services tied to Windows Mobile 6.5, MOTOBLUR, and some early (and not too intuitive) offerings by the mobile operators. But the stakes are higher now, with the newest bunch of Android phones, tablets, and the potential for the operator to lose and never to regain subscriber mindshare.

This last summer, RIM announced BlackBerry Protect and Samsung announced their 'Dive' service for Bada OS phones. Neither are yet available. More recently, screenshots were leaked all but confirming the same functionality on Microsoft's soon to be released Windows Phone 7 platform. And earlier this month, HTC, as part of its Android Sense relaunch, announced a website where users will be able to locate, lock/wipe, and manage data on their phone.

Not to be left by the wayside, last week Verizon jumped back into the fray with 'Mobile Recovery', an OS-agnostic solution for remote lock-and-wipe as well as an Apple-like locator function. On this surface, this is smart, but the question is how many subscribers actually subscribe to the operator's Total Equipment Coverage program at $8/month and a $89 deductible per claim. Still, it is a noble effort, and if marketed correctly (i.e., free to premium subscribers, as opposed to the graphic above inferring that this program is cost-free), VZW could gain some mindshare for their other services such as app stores. The question is how effectively it will compete against vendor offerings, some of which are free.