U.S. Users Spent 68 Hours Each Online in April

According to the latest Nielsen Online figures, the average U.S. Internet user spent nearly 68 hours online during the month of April. That's a bit more than two hours a day.

The average user visited 104 separate domains and viewed 2,361 pages.

Millennial Impact

One of the arguments to be made about where buying preferences are moving is that the Millennial generation, and to some extent "Generation X" gradually are assuming positions of influence and authority on the buying side of virtually every communications and information technology.

To simplify the argument, Millennials and in many similar ways Gen Xers, are "different" from their baby boomer parents, the lead edge of which is starting to retire.

Baby boomers essentially are digital immigrants. They have learned to use digital technology. Gen Xers have been using it for quite some time, in some cases not since they were born, but very close to it.

Millennials are totally "digital natives." They never have known a world where the Internet, PCs and mobiles did not exist.

So note that baby boomer spending is less than that of Gen X, and dropping. Gen X is growing to replace the baby boomer economic activity. By 2017, Millennials will be spending more than baby boomers are today.

Therein lies the argument that service providers and application providers might well find they are selling very-different products and services to Gen X and Millennial users than they sell today when baby boomers are doing a great proportion of the buying of all manner of communications and software products.

That might explain why Web 2.0 concepts and ways of creating and using software now are emerging in the enterprise space, as similar concepts have emerged in the consumer space.

2Q IT Spending Even with 1Q

Overall IT spending in the second quarter appears to have been at about the same level as the first quarter, a ChangeWave survey finds. About 11 percent of respondents said their company had spent "more than planned," up one percent since February.

Another 27 percent say they've spent "less than planned," unchanged from the previous quarter.

"Things haven't gotten any worse," ChangeWave notes.

Looking ahead to the third quarter, 24 percent of respondents say their company's IT spending will decrease or that there'll be no spending at all. That's one point worse than the previous survey. In addition, only 15 percent say spending will increase, unchanged from the last survey.

The softness in projected spending is occurring across companies of all sizes, although once again things have stopped getting worse, ChangeWave notes.

We asked respondents about their IT spending outlook for the entire second half of 2008 (July-December), and 28 percent think their IT budget will be less than first half of 2008, "a whopping eight points worse than previously," ChaneWave says.

Only 18 percent of respondents think their company's IT budget will be greater than it was in the first half of 2008. Another 44 percent say their IT budgets will remain the same.

Verizon to Add 25 HDTV Channels

Verizon FiOS TV will add more than 60 new channels to the lineup, including high-definition sports and multicultural content.

Verizon plans to expand its lineup to offer by the end of the year up to 150 HD channels, which will include all available major HD programming.

Other Verizon HD choices include hundreds of video-on-demand (VOD) titles per month, with 1,000 HD VOD titles by the end of the year.

Verizon will roll out the new content, region by region, to areas where FiOS TV is available, beginning in early July. The new channels will be activated in FiOS systems across the country over the following few months.

Included in the new content will be more than 25 high-definition channels, bringing the total number of HD channels to between 52 and 65, depending on the customer's location.

$55 Billion Health Vertical Spending

The hospitals, physicians, pharmaceutical companies, and insurance providers that make up the $2.3 trillion US healthcare system will be spending $55 billion on telecommunications services over the next five years, says Insight Research Corporation.

Spending by the US healthcare industry on telecommunications services will grow at a compounded rate of 8.4 percent over the forecast period, increasing from $7.5 billion in 2008 to $11.3 billion in 2013.

VoIP Market Revenues $44 Billion in 2013

The global consumer VoIP market grew from approximately 16 million in 2005 to over 50 million in 2006, says In-Stat. By 2011, 38 percent of broadband households worldwide will subscribe to VoIP services.

As a result, consumer VoIP revenue will grow from $15 billion to nearly $44 billion over the next five years.

Europe is the region where VoIP use is most extensive, In-Stat says. So incumbent service providers in other regions where VoIP is less a factor might want to pay attention to the adoption triggers in Europe.

For an incumbent telecom provider, there are lots of good business reasons for delaying full-blown VoIP marketing. A full-scale switch from legacy TDM to VoIP probably harms revenue, no matter what approach or packaging route is taken.

But there comes some point where the switch has to be made. So looking at the European triggers is an exercise worth conducting.

Cisco Ranks Top E-Tailers

The top 10 overall e-commerce sites, in rank order of flawless execution that make online shopping exceptionally easy for consumers are Amazon.com, Best Buy, Sears, Circuit City, Quelle, Otto, Macy’s, FNAC, Bol.com and Argos Home Retail Group, says Cisco Internet Business Solutions Group.

But mobile shopping and social networking are redefining the online experience, Cisco says. "Two big take-aways emerged," says Lindsay Parker, Cisco Internet Business Solutions Group director. "Most significant was mobility." The second big thing was importance of social networking, Parker says.

"We accessed the sites using mobile devices and found that of the 45, 42 percent allow viewing of product information," Parker says. "Many appear to have refortmatted for mobile screens."

"But only 15 percent support transactions," she notes. And only 10 percent support SMS communications. On some sites, customers can use SMS capabilities to check inventory and be notified when an order is ready for pickup.

On transaction side, "Amazon does a terrific job in terms of ease of use," says Parker. The Amazon site "clearly is designed for mobile navigation and completing transactions."

"Amazon really shows what a good mobile site looks like," Parker says.

From social networking angle, Parker was surprised that only 17 percent of sites provided connection to communities on the site, a place where you could interact with other customers, or with Facebook.

"Amazon did that best, as well," says Parker. But 52 percent of sites did provide shopper reviews That's important because perhaps 50 percent of shoppers indicate they checked a review before buying online, she adds.

"One big change we see is that as you talk about customer experience, it is much more of a 'pull' world rather than a 'push' world," Parker says. "The consumer is more in control."

Retailers who figure this out will be well ahead, she adds.

Cisco expects mobile commerce to follow an adoption pattern similar to that of cell phones, an important fact since there are three times as many mobile-phone subscribers (3.3 billion) as Internet users (1.3 billion) worldwide.

The Cisco IBSG study assessed 45 retailers from North America and Europe in three categories (Global 500, Web 15 and Innovators) and looked at two aspects of online shopping from the consumer’s point of view. The first is “foundational” capabilities, which are nonnegotiable, “must have” characteristics. These include an intuitive graphical user interface, search capabilities and a convenient purchasing process. The second is “emerging” capabilities, which are the more sophisticated aspects, such as social networking and multichannel integration, that add even greater value to the customer’s experience.

Comcast to Boost Upstream in FiOS Areas

Comcast will boost upload speeds for its customers in Verizon FiOS areas June 5 or so, reports Broadband Reports.com.

The rumor is that 6 Mbps customers will see their upstream speeds boosted to 1 Mbps, while 8 Mbps customers will see their upstream speeds boosted to 2 Mbps.

As we understand, prices will not change. Competition works, apparently.

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40% GPS Mobile Device Growth Through 2012

Worldwide shipments of GPS-integrated mobile devices will grow at an annualized rate of nearly 40 percent over the next five years, reaching 834 million units in 2012, according to Parks Associates.

Mobile handsets and smartphones will constitute the majority of shipments up to 2012, but personal navigation devices will remain the most widely used and preferred navigation choice in the next three years, says Harry Wang, Parks Associates senior analyst.

“GPS will come to your mobile handset as a standard feature, but mobile carriers are still a couple of years away from turning GPS into a money-making, mass-market feature,” Wang says. Currently, consumers prefer PNDs thanks to the combination of a bigger screen, more versatile functions, and growing affordability.

Email Still Preferred for Communications with Businesses

No question: when it comes to interacting with a business or friends, email rules. An Ipsos survey recently found that 67 percent of consumers prefer email as a primary method of communications in their personal and business capacities, and 65 percent say they will continue to prefer email in the future.

Consumer opinion of the future importance of email registered far above future expectations for video conferencing (19 percent), instant messaging (17 percent), SMS text messages (12 percent) and Web meetings (12 percent).

Significantly, 65 percent of the demographic between the ages of 18 to 34 expect to favor email to communicate with businesses in five years. That makes sense: a retailer is not likely to be found on a "buddy" list. Nor are most major retailers likely to rush to publish such customer service "buddy" lists so consumers can contact them that way.

Craigslist Blocks VoIP

Craigslist.org does have a problem with spam. In its attempts to defeat spam, though, it also now seems to be blocking attempts by legitimate VoIP number users to authenticate the ads they want to place on Craigslist, reports Cory Andrews of VoIP Insider.

Craiglist apparently uses a telephone verification process that places an automated outbound call to a user placing a classified ad in certain categories.

The problem is that Craigslist is categorically blocking legitimate VoIP and Pre-paid cellular users from authenticating themselves.

The call delivers a unique code using text to speech, which is then used by the poster to authenticate the ad they are placing.

Craig’s uses a third party service, ReduceFraud.com, to screen out VoIP and Pre-paid cellular numbers, and will not deliver an automated verification call to VoIP numbers.

How do they check? "They check the DID number to see who owns the NPA NXX X number block, and if the DID number is owned by Level 3 Communications, they classify it as VoIP," says Andrews.

ReduceFraud.com is owned and operated by a California firm Telecentrex, who offers its own hosted VoIP service.

Consumers Pulling Back

The percentage of consumers who feel we are in tough times or a recession has increased since April, according to a monthly survey by The NPD Group, Inc.

In May, 58 percent of consumers said we are in a recession, compared to 55 percent in April.

What’s more, consumers are not only less optimistic about the economy, they are beginning to change their behavior in response.

How are consumers reacting? The survey respondents said they are planning to spend less on things like apparel and footwear. And with vacation season approaching, 49 percent of consumers said they plan to cut back on leisure travel.

“Consumers are finally starting to react to the price of gas and other rising costs and are shifting shopping intentions,” says NPD chief industry expert Marshal Cohen.

Channel Conflict Growing in Video Business

There's always some tension between the economic interests of content owners and distributors of that content. Cable operators make their money one way; programmers another. So when Time Warner Cable CEO fires off a warning, that's just part of growing tensions in the video entertainment ecosystem.

"There is a model today for financing TV programming where the cable networks rely on subscription revenue as well as advertising revenue," says Britt. "As cable companies, we are in effect retailers; we buy programming wholesale, we put it in a package, and we sell it to subscribers."

But programming moving direct to Internet distribution will upset the current arrangements, he warns.

"Programmers shouldn't think that if they put the same content on the Internet for free, at the same time we're showing it, that we're going to pay the same wholesale price as we were paying before," Britt tells the Wall Street Journal.

Global Software Piracy Scorecard

In 2007, for every two dollars spent on legitimate software purchases, one dollar’s worth of software was obtained illegally. In the highest piracy countries–those with 75 percent piracy or higher–for every one dollar spent on PC hardware, less than seven cents was spent on legitimate software, says the Business Software Alliance.

In developed markets, that ratio is eight times higher. By the end of 2007, there were more than one billion PCs installed around the world; nearly half have pirated software on them.