CTIA show

LAS VEGAS--Former Vice President Al Gore sought to link the democratic effects of information sharing with the growth of the wireless industry as the solution to all of life's problems.

Well, perhaps not all of life's problems. But in his address to CTIA 2009 attendees on the final day of the show, Gore made the case that previous revolutions in communications technology--such as the printing press and the radio--have dramatically improved access to information that has made the world more scientifically advanced and productive, and that modern wireless technology is capable of doing the same thing over time.

Former Vice President Al Gore also gave a keynote address at the Web 2.0 Summit in November.

(Credit: Dan Farber/CNET)

"Information is the dominant strategic resource of the economy in the 21st century," Gore said, drawing an analogy to the 1970s and the strain put on the economy by the dramatic rise in the price of oil. Information, on the other hand, has become cheaper and cheaper, with advances in processing power and wireless networking saving businesses untold amounts of money and giving average people a wealth of information at their fingertips.

Gore's hour-long speech touched on many of his usual themes about the environment, which won him the Nobel Prize in 2007. He also called on attendees to focus less on short-term business concerns and more on making the kinds of investments that will pay off in the long run at the expense of a short-term hit, such as adopting energy-efficient technologies.

Wireless technologies can be used to help monitor the health of the planet, he said, pointing to disappearing polar ice caps and rising temperatures. He also made sure to make several references to how wireless devices--namely the iPhone, produced by the company he oversees as a member of Apple's board of directors--have transformed the political process, allowing President Obama to tap a decentralized network of contributors to his successful campaign last year.

Gore's speech was originally supposed to be closed to the press, but he apparently changed his mind a few weeks ago. He did not allow photographs to be taken at the event, however.

Gore also declined to take any questions or address mounting concerns surrounding two journalists for his Current TV venture. American reporters Laura Ling and Euna Lee are being detained in North Korea and are set to be tried for allegedly conspiring to perpetrate hostile acts against the Communist state.

As CTIA comes to a close, we pause to select the best products from the show. The scene in Las Vegas was much quieter than in past years, and it lacked any high-profile announcements like the Palm Pre. But, there were a few products that deserve recognition as the Cream of the Crop from CTIA 2009.

Best phone: Samsung Impression

(Credit: Kent German/CNET)

For the third year in a row, Samsung takes the title of the best phone in CTIA. While the Samsung Impression can't quite compete with the hype of last year's Instinct or 2007's Upstage, it is the most practical of the three. And in a year where messaging phones were all the rage, it stands out in a crowded field as the one of the best-designed messaging phones we've seen in a while.

The keyboard is spacious and tactile, and while the handset isn't quite sexy, it has a pleasant, minimalist shape that feels nice in the hand. Yet the Impression's biggest draw is its gorgeous active-matrix organic light-emitting diode display. As Samsung promised, the display is positively brilliant with bright colors and vibrant graphics. Features are decent, even if they're not groundbreaking.

Inside you'll find a 3-megapixel camera, a full HTML browser, Bluetooth, Samsung's TouchWiz interface, 3G support with access to Cellular Video and AT&T Music, a personal organizer, AT&T Navigator, and a speakerphone. No, that won't knock your socks off; in fact, you might even see it as somewhat boring. But as we said before, the Impression's story is more about functional features and an intuitive design rather than flash and glam. And at a very quiet show, it deserves its prize. The Impression will be out soon with AT&T; we should have a review shortly.

For more on the Impression, see our photo gallery and video.

Best smartphone: HTC Snap

(Credit: Bonnie Cha/CNET)

Aside from rising importance of applications, the other theme of CTIA 2009 was messaging. We saw a slew of new messaging devices debut at the show, and it extended to smartphones. While the Nokia E71x and Samsung Propel Pro were nice additions to AT&T's lineup, the HTC Snap stood out for its Inner Circle feature.

With a simple press of a button, Inner Circle brings e-mails from a preselected group of people to the top of your in-box so you can read and reply to them immediately. The capability isn't the wave of the future, but it does help prioritize your e-mails based on your preferences.

In addition, HTC, once again did a nice job on the design. The Snap is a beautifully constructed and sleek smartphone. The QWERTY keyboard also features good-size buttons for easy messaging. Finally, don't be fooled by its diminutive size, as it's packed with features, including Windows Mobile 6.1, push e-mail, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, 3G, and a 2-megapixel camera. We look forward to checking out the U.S. version of the Snap, the HTC S522, when it's released in the summer.

Last week, when Opera Software announced Opera Mobile 9.7 for business partners, the Norwegian company also mentioned that a version for consumers would come "soon." At CTIA 2009, Opera told CNET that "soon" means May.

Everything is the same but the rendering.

(Credit: Opera Software)

What sets Opera Mobile 9.7 apart from the current 9.5 beta version for Symbian and Windows Mobile phones is the inclusion of Opera Turbo, a rendering and compression engine that shrinks data down to 80 percent. What's more, the Turbo engine uses the exact same server engine as Opera Mini's, Opera's proxy browser for Java phones.

This is interesting. An effort to speed up Opera Mobile using Opera Mini's rendering servers means that the full-Web Opera Mobile was simply not fast enough for Opera's liking--or, perhaps just not as fast as some of the competition. Opera showed off side-by-side versions of Opera Mobile 9.7 in action, one with the Turbo feature on, the other with it off. Turbo-ized surfing was indeed much faster when squeezed through the server, though photo quality predictably took a hit. Yet if speed is what you're after--especially over shaky EV-DO, EDGE, or other 2.5G cellular networks--Turbo gives you options. Yet, does feel in one sense like Opera is taking a step back. Does this mean that Web surfers don't really want the full mobile Web, or that speed trumps all else?

As I mentioned, Opera Mobile 9.7 alpha is still a bit raw. For one thing, you have to manually turn the Turbo booster off in a buried advanced-options menu. Switching back and forth between Turbo and regular settings would be a pain for users who might easily forget. Why turn it off? The Turbo enhancement is terrible for AJAX-heavy Web pages like Google Maps and for streaming video, both of which require high image quality. Eventually, Opera says that the Opera Mobile browser will be able to autodetect the page type and switch Turbo on and off automatically, making the exchange seamless, though that may not happen by the time the beta is released to the public in May. Hopefully, it will be perfected when the general release drops, probably some months later.

Thursday I told you about the launch of Zer01, a new VoIP carrier. At the time, however, information was slim since the carrier's Web site was out of service, which isn't a great sign. But it's back up and running now, and I got a chance to meet with CEO Benjamin Piilani at CTIA.

First on my list was to ask how the carrier isn't a Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO), even though it depends on major wireless carriers to operate its services. As Piilani explained it, while MVNOs buy capacity from a carrier and resell it later, Zer01 has its own IP backbone and only uses carrier networks to interconnect or roam.

As I mentioned in my previous post, starting July 1 Zer01 will offer unlimited voice, data and messaging for $69.95. According to Piilani, unlimited will mean just that--you'll even be able to use Zer01 devices for laptop tethering. The price includes all takes and fees less a $30 activation fee. Zer01 will not require a contract or credit check.

Use the HTC Touch Diamond with Zer01.

If it foes live, the $69 price would be cheaper than major carriers. Only T-Mobile charges a bit less with an unlimited plan of $85 per month. The service will be nationwide, though Piilani acknowledged that like a standard wireless carrier, coverage will not be perfect everywhere.

All Zer01 services operate as data, which means that you won't be interacting with a standard cellular network. Also, each Zer01 device gets a fixed IP address and it opens a separate VPN session to the company's servers when placing calls or using data.

Partner carriers will get a share of Zer01's revenues, though Piilani declined to give details on the carriers and the revenue split. Zer01's services will work across the entire GSM spectrum including GPRS, EDGE, UMTS and HSDPA.

At present, Zer01 supports only Windows Mobile smartphones, but it promises to support more operating systems in the future. Also, while it has just five devices in its lineup for now--the Pharos Traveler 117, the Pharos Traveler 127, the HTV TyTN II (aka the HTC Kaiser), the HTC Touch, and the HTC Touch Diamond, you can use your own unlocked smartphone if you wish. All that's needed is a Zer01 SIM card.

After a second pass, I have to admit that Zer01 certainly sounds intriguing. I still wonder how exactly they're going to pull it off, so we'll have to wait and see what happens.

The Shortcovers e-book reader that's available now for BlackBerry, iPhones, and Google Android phones sounded like a good idea when we first heard about it back in February. It still is a good idea, but falls a little short in the execution.

Shortcovers is attractive and modern-looking with a nice, legible default font throughout and a menu system you can find your way around. What it trips on are the details. For instance, thumbnail images draw you in on the page of featured e-books, but are excluded from the actual content. Sometimes the only freebie you get is the acknowledgments, a big let-down when you're hoping to learn more about the book than whose husband or wife suffered through its making. Also, the reading experience leaves much to be desired, especially when compared to the paragon of the Kindle's reading delight, or even the gorgeous iPhone e-reader, Classics. Rather than simulate page turning, Shortcovers emulates the Web metaphor of scrolling long passages and clicking arrows to advance to the next page. Also unfortunately, some spaces between words have been noticeably lost in the digital translation.

The app does have potential--there's the usual bookmarking to remember your place when you leave a read, and the ability to share favorites via e-mail or Twitter. Plus, the model to pay 99 cents for a book excerpt before committing to a $7-10 cost of an e-book is a fine idea, though of course, you can browse a title with much more freedom in a brick and mortar store before deciding to buy. If Shortcovers can overcome its shortcomings, its good looks and ambitious mobile platform penetration schedule will lend it a competitive chance.

All the cell phone news from CTIA 2009

LAS VEGAS--It seems there are going to be as many ways to run a mobile application store as there are stores themselves.

RIM's BlackBerry App World is a model of how mobile OS vendors are trying to balance consumer needs and carrier needs.

(Credit: Maggie Reardon/CNET)

One of the big topics this week at CTIA 2009 has been mobile applications, as Research in Motion unveiled BlackBerry App World and Microsoft talked about its forthcoming Windows Marketplace for Mobile. The dam has truly broken with mobile applications; for years, most consumers seemed indifferent to third-party applications, but now they are viewed as an essential part of any smartphone, just like they are on a PC or Mac.

Most of the credit for that trend has been prompted by the success of Apple's App Store, as both Apple's friends and enemies in the mobile world will readily admit. But few competitors are attempting to pull off Apple's my-way-or-the-highway approach, preferring to integrate the wireless carriers in a nod to the entrenched power those companies have in the mobile world.

Some might argue that's because they don't have devices with the consumer cachet of the iPhone. But it's clear after talking to several companies on the sidelines at CTIA that they think there's a way to make sure they offer quality software to their customers without cutting the carrier almost completely out of the equation, as Apple has done with AT&T.

Still, the burning question is whether the carriers and handset makers will permit software companies to do what they do best, or whether they will continue to try to put their stamp on mobile application development in order to avoid their possible fates as "dumb pipes" or widget makers.

"There's a big measure of trust there," said Morgan Gillis, executive director of the LiMo Foundation, which was created by a foundation of carriers and handset makers to develop software that provides a common underpinning for developers to write mobile applications. "We have to trust that the companies that build the devices and the operators that package this know what they are doing."

The idea of mobile application stores is not new, but the faster networks and more sophisticated devices available these days have created a way for users to download applications directly to their device, bypassing the PC altogether. There are various ways that mobile companies are approaching this new reality.

Apple's approach has been covered exhaustively. But Apple has a unique advantage compared with its competitors: its applications only have to support two devices that are essentially identical (the original iPhone and the iPhone 3G), and for the most part Apple works only with a single wireless carrier per country. Therefore, it can have a central application store and guarantee that those applications will work on any iPhone, and at the same time not have to worry as much about ensuring its carrier partners have unique ways to sell the same phone.

Billing strategies
But while RIM, for example, is launching BlackBerry App World with the money flowing outside of the carrier's control through an exclusive relationship with PayPal, co-CEO Jim Balsillie made it clear that he would find a way to make sure the carriers have a chance to participate in the billing for those applications. "Different carriers have different billing strategies, so it's quite frankly a bunch of work," he told The Wall Street Journal.

Microsoft is likewise steering a middle ground, with plans to let carriers offer their own "store within a store" inside Windows Marketplace for Mobile and giving users the option to choose how they want to be billed: directly via credit card or through their monthly wireless bill.

The idea that the carrier owns the billing relationship with the end user for almost all of the mobile experience is virtually sacrosanct for everyone but Apple and AT&T. But there is a concern among some in the mobile industry that carriers will extend that relationship to demand a role in creating software and services for end users marked with their own brand.

Verizon did nothing to assuage those fears by announcing plans to join the Joint Innovation Lab (JIL) this week, essentially signaling that it plans to make sure Verizon-stamped software appears on future handsets regardless of what operating system is running underneath the layer presented to a phone's user.

To be fair, there are valid reasons why carriers are so concerned about the types of applications that run on their networks. Modern wireless networks are more fragile than one might think, as demonstrated by the problems AT&T encountered when iPhone-bearing geeks descended on Austin, Texas, for SXSW 2009 and brought local AT&T data service to a crawl.

Still, Aaron Woodman, a director in Microsoft's mobile communications business, thinks carriers fundamentally understand the shift that has taken place in the mobile industry over the last several years.

Form vs. functionality
For years, the business of selling mobile phones was about making sure you had phones that looked good and ensuring distribution ran like a clock, Woodman said. But over the last decade, business phone users started to demand features in addition to style, and that trend has exploded with the consumer demand sparked by the iPhone.

"People all of the sudden were walking in and asking for core level of functionality, and that started to change the conversation from about sourcing devices to functionality," Woodman said. "That functionality is going to be very difficult for operators to provide with significant help from others. Expertise and experience (in one area) doesn't yield expertise and experience in another area."

Organizations like Symbian, which controls the world's leading smartphone operating system, believe the balanced answer is to create an "app mall" rather than an "app store," according to David Wood, executive vice president for research at the Symbian Foundation.

For example, Symbian will do the dirty work of processing, certifying, and hosting the applications, but will give its various partners their own storefronts within that mall to sell Symbian-certified applications as they see fit. Microsoft's approach is somewhat similar. This way, carriers can feel they still have the opportunity to sell their software and services to end users without operating system vendors having to cede control of the user experience on a modern smartphone.

As has been often stated, the beauty of the modern mobile computing market is that established business models and philosophies from the PC market or older cellular phone market aren't necessarily relevant: several executives will (privately) admit they are essentially making this up as they go along.

There's little doubt that Apple's iPhone has shaken up this market the way Apple's Macintosh shook up the personal computing market 25 years ago. But unlike the past, several companies--not just two--are going to dictate the future of the truly personal computer.

And since different people want different things from their mobile phones, there's room for more than one approach to selling smartphones and mobile applications. There is not, however, room for seven approaches, which means operating system vendors, handset makers, and carriers will have to be extremely vigilant about evolving customer perferences in a world where consumer tastes can change virtually overnight.

LAS VEGAS--In the-not-so-distant future, your cell phone provider will likely also be providing wireless Internet access for your digital camera, electronic book reader, or any other electronic gadget you may own.

During the CTIA Wireless 2009 trade show here this week executives from AT&T and Verizon Wireless described a new era in wireless in which their networks would be used not only for cell phones but also to provide network connectivity to everything from e-readers to personal navigation devices to heart monitors.

At a press event here on Thursday Ralph de la Vega, president for AT&T mobility, said that in a few years retail chains, such as Best Buy and Wal-Mart Stores, will be stocked with electronic devices that wirelessly connect to Internet.

"In the next few years, portable devices that aren't connected wirelessly to the Web won't sell," he said. "Wireless connectivity significantly increases the value of devices. And it's what people want."

De la Vega pointed to growth in the smartphone market as an indication that consumers are increasingly becoming more accustomed to always connected devices.

"It's like the PDA market," he said. "When you added wireless to a PDA, it became more useful. And the smartphone market was born. The same will be true of cameras, personal navigation devices or e-readers. And the companies that don't add wireless to their product won't be successful."

While an everything-connected world may sound cool, there are still lingering questions about how much this access will cost consumers and how users will actually pay for it. And if it wireless operators aren't willing to adapt their business models, it may be difficult to get consumers to sign up for pricey data services with lengthy contracts.

Glenn Lurie, president of AT&T's emerging devices business, said he realizes that that wireless operators will have to change how they do business.

"This is going to require a different business model," he said. "And we are going to have to break some rules to bring these devices to market in a customer friendly way."

An untapped market awaits
Today, nearly 85 percent of the U.S. population owns a cell phone. As this penetration rate approaches 100 percent, it's unlikely that cell phone operators will experience much new growth simply by adding new cell phone subscribers. Adding new devices, such as electronic readers and cameras, to the network greatly increases the addressable market. AT&T executives believe the market for connecting devices other than phones to their wireless networks could be as big $90 billion over the next five years.

Verizon Communications' CEO Ivan Seidenberg said during a press conference here this week that he believes people in the U.S. will own multiple wireless devices and that eventually wireless penetration could reach as much as 500 percent in the next few years.

"I'm not saying that people will be carrying around five mobile phones," he said. "But you might have something in your pocketbook that talks to a thermostat or any number of devices that are connected wirelessly across the global Internet."

AT&T has created a special business unit to identify and help get emerging consumer devices ready for its wireless network. Lurie heads up the new business unit and has spent the past five months talking to a wide range of device makers from garage start-ups to established consumer electronics makers.

Verizon Wireless is addressing this new market through its Open Network Initiative, which was launched last year and is designed to expedite the process of certifying devices for Verizon's network. Verizon has already certified some 36 devices, including a smart-grid device that monitors energy consumption and a wireless tablet for the health care industry that serves as a portable medical chart.

Tony Lewis, who leads Verizon's open network, said the company is also talking to consumer electronics makers.

One product category likely to make its way onto carrier networks first is the electronic book reader. Sprint Nextel provides wireless service for the Amazon Kindle. And the product, which allows people to download books, newspapers, and magazines over Sprint's 3G wireless network, has been a huge hit with consumers. Now other e-book manufacturers are looking for ways to wireless enable their devices.

Verizon is currently talking to five e-book makers about making their devices available on Verizon's network, Lewis confirmed. AT&T wouldn't provide details, but executives hinted that an e-book deal could be in the works its network as well.

New business models needed
The notion of providing wireless connectivity for consumer electronics devices has been around for a long time. Chipmakers like Qualcomm have been developing chips just for this purpose. And Wi-Fi is also finally making its way into many consumer electronics devices.

But connected consumer devices haven't taken off yet, mainly because the carriers' business models are too restrictive. Today, wireless operators typically offer wireless service for a single device. The phones are sold through the carrier. And the operator subsidizes the cost of the phone in exchange for consumers accepting a contract.

But if consumers are expected to own multiple devices that connect to a carrier's network, they're not going to be willing to sign up for multiple services. This means that mobile operators are going to have to change how they do business.

"We can't expect people to have five different accounts," Tony Melone, CTO of Verizon Wireless, said during an interview this week. "There needs to be a mechanism that allows people to have some kind of account for multiple."

Executives from AT&T and Verizon acknowledged that multiple business models will likely co-exist. For example, Amazon, which uses Sprint Nextel's network for wireless service on the Kindle, pays Sprint for the data access and bundles that price into the cost of the product. As a result, Kindle users don't sign up to for an account with Sprint Nextel nor do they pay a dime for downloading books over the Net.

"The Kindle has a great business model," said Verizon's Lewis. "But it's not the only one out there."

AT&T's Lurrie said that how the service is monetized will depend on the device that is using the network. For example, Lurie said that most consumers would not want to spend an additional $10 a month for wireless service to upload photos to a digital picture frame. But they might be willing to pay for one-time use or even pay for several uses.

For all its talk of new business models and breaking rules, so far, AT&T seems to be following its traditional business model when it comes to selling Netbooks. Just as it does with smartphones, AT&T is subsidizing the cost of these mini-computers in order to get subscribers to agree to a data service contract.

And it appears the carrier is willing to deeply discount these devices just to get people using the network. Earlier this week, it announced a pilot program in Atlanta and Philadelphia where it will sell Netbooks for the cost of $50 to consumers who already subscribe to its broadband service. In exchange for this rock-bottom price, subscribers must agree to a two year contract for its $59.95 per month data service, which also provides access to AT&T's 3G network as well as its 20,000 Wi-Fi hotspots around the country.

But Lurie said that the company will not rely on subsidies alone to fuel adoption of these services.

"I don't think the subsidy model will drive the business," he said. "We will provide some subsidies, but we will be experimenting with all kinds of different business models."

De la Vega said the company is still in the early stages of figuring out the best way to monetize its services. But he said the old model alone will not be enough to grow AT&T's business in the new era of wireless where every device will be wirelessly connected.

"We need to be more flexible," he said. "This is a new frontier. And we need to approach it with new ideas. We can't be forced to go down an old path."

There was no hardware on hand in the booth, but this poster of the TXT8026 from PCD shows the goods.

(Credit: Nicole Lee/CNET)

Another new phone that's been announced by PCD, the TXT8030, was also here only in poster form.

(Credit: Nicole Lee/CNET)

PCD didn't have any major announcements at CTIA, but it did give us a brief sneak peek at what we can expect from them this year. All of the offerings appear to be messaging phones, with full QWERTY keyboards for easier texting. I apologize in advance for just taking photos of posters; they didn't have any real hardware on hand at the booth.

The first handset we saw was codenamed the TXT8026, which has a 2.2-inch color screen with a 1.3-megapixel camera, a microSD card slot, Bluetooth 2.0, an MP3 player, and measures around 3.8 inches long by 2.7 inches wide by 0.7 inch thick. This was one of the only new devices on display at the PCD booth, and I think it looks a lot like the Verizon Wireless Blitz.

A giant poster displayed both the TXT8021 and the TXT8020.

(Credit: Nicole Lee/CNET)

The other handset, which I think looks a bit more interesting, is currently called the TXT8030. The TXT8030 has a rotating angled keypad, with external music player keys and a speaker on one side, and a full QWERTY keyboard on the other. The TXT8030 also has a 2.2-inch display, a microSD card slot, a 1.3-megapixel camera, a music player, and it measures around 4.5 inches long by 2.4 inches wide by 0.5 inch thick.

There's still no sight of the actual TXT8020 here at CTIA, the swiveling messaging phone that we saw at CES, nor have we seen the TXT8021, which also looks a little like the Blitz. We did see a giant poster of the two phones at the PCD booth.

Of course, no word on pricing or availability on any of these devices, but we hope they'll come out some time this year. And considering they're all CDMA phones, we can at least narrow down the prospective carriers.

The universal mobile communications in-box is emerging as a trend at CTIA 2009 in Las Vegas. Variations on the theme combine visual voicemail, text messages, e-mail, calling, and call forwarding in one online deck that's as easy to manage as your e-mail in-box.

RocketVox is a slick, powerful freemium in-box that's a long shot against Google Voice.

(Credit: RocketVox)

Skydeck (Skydeck review) has a traditional e-mail layout that does calls, voicemail, text, visual voicemail, and call control for a fee. RocketVox is a great-looking private beta that manages e-mail from multiple accounts (including Gmail), IM, SMS, voice-to-text, VoIP calling, visual voicemail, faxing, conference calls, calendars, and screen sharing with a vague social networking angle. RocketVox is currently an AIR application that will graduate to a Web service later down the road, and will also take on a freemium model ranging from $10 a month to $25 for professionals.

The much lighter YouMail does a visual voicemail Web service and mobile management app, also with the in-box metaphor, but emphasizes social interaction and customization, like personalized greetings in addition to technical offerings like voice-to-text transcriptions. At CTIA, YouMail announced an upcoming iPhone app that has been submitted to the App Store.

Even Microsoft has been touting its online mobile backup and sync service, MyPhone. MyPhone is in very early beta stages and can't do too much at the moment beyond syncing photos and text messages in a searchable in-box, but it will become more capable as Microsoft nears its Windows Mobile 6.5 release, in which MyPhone will play a larger role. Look for contacts, calendars, tasks, multimedia content, and documents as the service matures.

A glimpse of the Google Voice in-box

(Credit: Google)

Despite the diversity, the forthcoming Google Voice--with its universal number, visual voicemail, and advanced calling features--could mow them all under when it enters public beta. Google has been effective at dominating much more established software providers with its technology, its brand clout, and its ability to integrate with other successful Google services.

Since Google Voice will be free, Skydeck, RocketVox, and YouMail are in big trouble on the voice transcription front. YouMail has a niche that Google could well blow open with its own customization features and on-phone management app. RocketVox is the most compelling solution of the bunch at this year's show, but it's going to have to really work some magic to counter Google Voice's advance. Ironically, Microsoft's less feature-rich MyPhone backup and sync service stands the best chance of gaining its own identity, if only because it will come preloaded onto Windows Mobile 6.5 phones and will provide a seamless, out-of-the-box solution for those phone owners. This is definitely a space we'll be keeping a sharp eye on in the coming months.