24% of U.S. Mobile Users Possibly Are No Longer Voice Centric

About 13 percent of U.S. mobile phone owners say they "never" make calls on their devices. Altogether, about 24 percent make calls once a week or less, according to Lightspeed Research. That's a shocking statistic for devices known as "mobile phones."

One might draw several conclusions from the results. It is possible that, for many users, the mobile is helpful, but not something that adds value on a daily basis. The other likely conclusion to be drawn is that text communications are, for many users, a preferred or reasonable substitute for voice, as email has displaced a huge amount of voice communications.

If so, the findings indicate the clear emergence of usage patterns centered around texting or mobile Internet activities rather than voice, and the importance for mobile service providers of migrating revenue models to primary reliance on data-related services and applications.

In many cases, it would seem to make sense to lead with data plans and features, and then add on voice only afterwards. It also would seem to make sense to plans and devices specifically optimized for text and Web applications.

That would be a reversal of historic practice, where voice plans lead and text plans or data plans are an add on.

But the practice would not be without precedent. Most BlackBerry users likely are more interested in mobile email than mobile voice. They want the voice feature, as many users buy primarily for voice, but want the texting feature. Most iPhone users likely value mobile Web access as much as voice or text messaging.

The point is that mobility has become a multi-product business, with lots of different ways to create devices and service plans that appeal to different user populations.

Will Skype and Google Voice Dominate Mobile VoIP?

Skype, the global leader in PC-based VoIP, has been preparing for mobile-based VoIP as well, but Google Voice might wind up being the market leader in mobile VoIP, says Jeffrey Lindsay, Sanford A. Bernstein analyst.

"It's probably the biggest current threat to Skype," says Lindsay. Ultimately, Google might grab as much as 60 percent market share in the mobile VoIP space, he predicts.

40% U.S. Mobile Broadband Adoption

To the extent that U.S. consumers are not using mobile broadband, availability is not the problem.

Well over 90 percent of locations now are 3G enabled.

ComScore says the United States caught up with Western Europe in the adoption of 3G in June 2008, with 28.4 percent of American mobile subscribers having 3G devices versus 28.3 percent in the largest countries in Europe.

U.S. 3G penetration went past 40 percent in the first quarter of 2009, says wireless data analyst Chetan Sharma.

Enterprise C Suites Now are "Digital"

A generational shift is occurring in U.S. enterprise "C" title ranks, but one trend already is clear: the Internet has become the top information resource. Some 81 percent of respondents 50 or younger are on the Internet daily while 62 percent of executives older than that did so.

Also, most C-title executives at firms making more than $1 billion in annual revenue have shifted their information-gthering strategies away from traditional media and to Internet-based media.

When consuming "traditional media" at work, 70 percent of respondents say they get that information online. When consuming "traditional broadcast media" at work, 69 percent use the Internet.

C-suite executives do their own searches. That is a sharp break from the way most such executives probably worked decades ago, when "middle managers" gathered information and passed it up to the C suites. These days, the C suite knows it can get information directly, and does so.

Also, video and social communities are growing in importance, the survey reveals. About 33 percent of 50-and-under executives view work-related videos "daily," while 31 percent use a Web-enabled mobile device to search for information related to business.

The mean age of all executives taking this survey was 46.7 years. But there remains one glaring exception to the trend: only one percent of those over the age of 50 provide daily contributions to a work-related blog. Another four percent in this age group say they contribute several times a week, the Forbes Insights study found.

In contrast, 35 percent of executives ages 40 to 49 say they maintain a work-related blog daily. That figure increases to 56 percent of the executives under the age of 40.

That probably matches what you would have guessed: younger and "middle-aged" people have gotten comfortable with the new technologies while older people tend to resist. That same pattern was found for computer use, Internet use or email in the ealier days as well.

Overall, about three percent of surveyed executives over 50 participate in Twitter or another microblog. In contrast, 34 percent of the executives ages 40 to 49 participate. Among users under the age of 40, 56 percent of the executives under 40 participate.

The top three research topics that C-level executives seek are competitor analysis (53 percent), customer trends (41 percent), and corporate developments (39 percent).

Of those executives in sales and marketing, 76 percent say they seek customer trends. Of those executives in finance, 63 percent said they seek competitor analysis. Of those executives in IT, 59 percent seek technology trends.

The study, "The Rise of the Digital C-Suite," is based on a survey of 354 executives at U.S. companies with annual sales in excess of $1 billion. It also included one-on-interviews. Nearly half held C-level titles, such as CEO, CMO, and CIO; the others held senior-level titles, such as EVP, VP, and director. A total of 12 percent identified themselves as working in sales and marketing.

http://www.forbes.com/forbesinsights/digital_csuite/index.html

U.S. Will Leap Over Europe in Mobile Advertising Within 2 Years

Alex Moukas, CEO of Velti, the top European mobile ad company, said he fully expects the U.S. to leap ahead of Europe in mobile advertising within two years. That would be a switch, as U.S. practitioners have lagged their European counterparts up to this point.

So far this year, mobile advertising is the second most-popular marketing channel, following the Web.

Campaigns sending traffic to site increased 10.46 percent in June, says Millenial Media. The study also found that the average number of monthly page views per user was 99 page views.

Verizon Wireless to Voluntarily Limit Exclusive Handset Deals

In a wise and fairly clear attempt to head off more regulations, Verizon Wireless now says it will allow small wireless carriers to use its popular and "exclusive" handset models after six months. Smaller wireless providers have been complaining that exclusive handset deals represent unfair competition.

"Any new exclusively arrangement we enter with handset makers will last no longer than six months, for all manufacturers and all devices," Verizon Wireless CEO Lowell McAdam has told key Congressional lawmakers.

Some consumer advocates also object to handset bundling, for similar reasons. But some economists have pointed out that bundling promotes competition and innvoation, as it provides incentive to introduce new features and models. "Exclusivity arrangements promote competition and innovation in device development and design," McAdam says. "This new approach is fair to all sides."

It isn't immediately clear whether the new policy also applies to wholesale customers.

Online is the Only Growing Ad Business

ZenithOptimedia has raised its forecast for Internet advertising to10.1 percent global growth globally in 2009, up from the 8.6 percent it predicted in April 2009. By 2011 ZenithOptimedia expects online to account for 15.1 percent of all ad expenditure, up from 10.5 percent in 2008.

Most of this growth will come from paid search,. In the United States search advertising to grow 20 percent in 2009, while traditional display grows three percent and classified grows 1.8 percent.

The Internet is the only medium ZenithOptimedia expects to grow in 2009.

Does National Broadband Policy Make a Difference?

How important are national broadband policies in explaining broadband adoption rates?

Apparently not so important, according to economists at the Phoenix Center for Advanced Legal & Economic Public Policy Studies.

In fact, "91 percent of the differences in fixed broadband adoption rates in the 30 OECD member countries can be explained by reference solely to differences in income, education, population age, and other demographic factors that bear little relationship to broadband or telecommunications policy," the Phoenix Center says in a new study.

That isn't to say government regulations and policies are unimportant. It's just to say that such policies explain about nine percent of adoption rate results.

Big Brand Marketing: What's Up, What's Down?

At a time when big brand marketing budgets have been cut about 20 percent on average,some channels, at many companies, are getting more funding: social media, Web site development, online advertising, and email marketing.

Traditional media is taking a hit, though. About 67 percent of big brand marketers say they have decreased spending on TV, print, radio and magazines (click on image for larger view).

About 52 percent say they have decreased spending on direct mail.

But 47 percent of respondents say they are spending 47 percent more on social media. About seven percent say they are spending less.

About 44 percent are spending more on Web sites, while 22 percent say they are spending less. Online advertising is being hiked at 40 percent of firms, while declining at 27 percent of companies. Email marketing is up at 38 percent of firms and down at 11 percent of big brand companies.

Perhaps significantly, the top two reasons why spending is being cut, the logic is a combination of tight budgets and inability to track ROI or track results.

That is important going forward as the recession will end. Budgets will grow again. But the desire for quantifiable returns of some sort will remain. And that will favor online and mobile campaigns.

60% of Marketers Shifting Spending to Social, Mobile, Online

Six in ten marketers surveyed by Forrester Research say they will increase their interactive marketing budgets by shifting funds from traditional media. Among the channels, it looks like direct mail will be among the biggest losers.

About 40 percent of respondents say they will be cutting it in favor of social, mobile or online. But 35 percent of marketers also say newspaper advertising budgets will be pared. Some 28 percent say they will shift budgets away from magazines while 12 percent say they will shift funds from TV campaigns.

But you might not see most of the movement until the current recession ends, as ad budgets overall are so tight that marketers cannot experiment much.

Among the interactive channels, Forrester sees social media and mobile marketing spending expanding significantly between 2009 and 2014, with social media jumping by 34 percent on a compounded annual basis and mobile marketing increasing by 27 percent.

But these are young channels, at least as compared with relatively mature interactive mediums such as e-mail, display advertising and search. Social media’s increase reflects a starting point of $716 million in 2009 (seen as increasing to $3.11 billion by 2014). Mobile marketing expenditures stand at 319 million this year, and are seen as jumping to $1.27 billion by 2014.

In comparison, online display advertising, which currently stands at $7.83 billion, will rise by 17 percent annually, ending up at $16.9 billion in 2014. Search marketing, which currently sucks up $15.39 billion in spending, will jump by 15 percent, to $31.59 billion, and email, now at $1.25 billion, will increase 11 percent, to 2.08 billion.

Social Networking Ad Spend up 13 Percent in 2010

After about a three percent dip in 2009, U.S. ad spending on social networks is expected to climb 13 percent in 2010, with another eight percent rise in 2011, researchers at eMarketer say.

Nokia, AT&T to Unveil Phone for Social Networking

AT&T plans to sell the Nokia Surge, a handset optimized for social networking and messaging, starting July 19, 2009. AT&T will sell the Surge for $79.99 with a two-year service agreement and after a mail-in rebate. Without the contract, the phone will sell for $130.

The phone will use an advanced Web browser with Flash support to view sites in full HTML or watch YouTube videos. Additionally, AT&T will supply the phone with their popular network features, including AT&T Navigator for GPS navigation, AT&T Music for Napster music support, and AT&T Video Share for one-way video conference-like calling.

Nokia is not positioning this phone against their high-end Nseries or Eseries smart phone devices, but more as a mid-range smart phone, which many of us would argue is the sweet spot for users who are big on social networking but unable or unwilling to spend much more for a smart phone.

The Symbian S60-based smart phone features a full QWERTY keyboard, a browser with Flash and supports IM, text or e-mail, sending multimedia messages, AT&T Video Share and updating and connecting to popular social networks.

The Surge also features a 2.0 megapixel, GPS capability, AT&T mobile music and AT&T video share. Through the pre-installed JuiceCaster users can share videos and pictures from the Surge to sites including Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Flickr.

The "Nokia Surge hits the sweet spot between a quick messaging phone and a smartphone because of its low-price and strong feature set," says Michael Woodward,AT&T VP.

The Surge also features a microSDHC expansion slot and Bluetooth with stereo audio support.

France Telecom Gets Aggressive About Content

Many observers think telcos, which have no legacy core competencies in content, will not be much of a factor in the video market to the same extent that cable operators have become. France Telecom suggests those views might be wrong.

Last year, France Telecom launched five channels featuring films and TV shows from several major U.S. studios. France Telecom subscribers could get Warner Brothers "Harry Potter" movies or "The Sopranos" on their TVs.

France Telecom also has exclusive rights to popular soccer matches by France's Ligue 1 to create a mini-ESPN that French consumers can get only by signing on with Orange.

And the move seems to be paying off. In the last year, sports and TV offerings have helped boost Orange's TV customer base by 69 percent.

There are a couple of ways this could play out in the U.S. market. DirecTV, which does own exclusive National Football League programming, might wind up wholely owned by a U.S. telco. Beyond that, firms such as Verizon and AT&T already offer exclusive content.

AT&T iPhone customers recently had the chance to watch AT&T National golf tournament coverage on their iPhones, for example.

http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/content/jul2009/db20090710_654693.htm

Will Google Voice, Google Wave be Business UC Contender?

Some people might not think Google Voice and Google Wave are contenders in the business unified communications business. But executives at Cisco Systems are not among them.

Officials at Cisco Systems Inc. say they are closely watching Google Inc.'s aggressive foray onto their unified communications turf and plan to respond quickly by boosting the capabilities of Cisco's offerings.

Cisco's announcement in late June that it plans to offer at least some pieces of its IP voice technology as a hosted service could be viewed as a direct response to Google's recent move to start limited release of its Web-based Google Voice and Google Wave communications tools.

Though Google Voice and Google Wave might be seen primarily as consumer offerings, they could provide value for smaller businesses. And as often is the case in communications, tools that start out in the consumer space frequently wind up adding more features over time, ultimately becoming useful for more business users, and even larger businesses.

Google Wave, which has been in development for about two years, promises to give users a single platform for accessing e-mail, instant messaging, blog, wiki, multimedia management and document-sharing tools.

http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/340831/Google_s_Unified_Tools_Pose_a_Threat_to_Cisco?source=rss_newssaid.

Wireless: Fixing What Isn't Broken?

The Federal Communictions Commission says it wants to examine exclusive wireless carrier deals with handset makers because it may be "anti-competitive. But Bernstein analyst Craig Moffett says "it’s laughable" assertion.

Moffett argues that the Federal Communications Commission and the Department of Justice are wasting their time reviewing the wireless market. Wireless providers don't have market power, handset manufacturers increasingly do.

Apple has taken any power that AT&T has had, Bernstein argues.

Wireless prices are falling as carriers compete, handset makers are gaining more power in the ecosystem and the wireless game is about apps, a game carriers cannot control.

"The argument that handset exclusivity is anticompetitive also comes at a curious time," says Moffat.

"Indeed, a case can be made that handset makers – well, Apple, actually – have played one carrier off against the other in virtuoso fashion, and are on the brink of stealing the wireless business from the wireless carriers," says Bernstein.

Moffett says iTunes provides a better analogy.

"Apple’s direct-to-consumer end run around the wireless industry is in many ways simply a repeat of its brilliant negotiation with the music industry at the dawn of iTunes back in 2001," Moffat says. "Less than a decade later, Apple has managed to capture considerable value from the music industry as it sells ever more iPods."

Customer loyalty is to Apple, not AT&T.

"Something more profound than just short term economics is afoot," he says. "Apple has radically tilted the strategic playing field away from the network operator in favor of the device manufacturer"

"Remarkably, Apple has so thoroughly stolen the customer relationship – who would argue that Apple iPhone customers’ first affinity is to the device rather than to the network – that the network is not only irrelevant, it is rather a source of derision," says Moffat.

The iPhone seems to be doing just fine at "wrecking" the wireless business without the government’s help.

http://seekingalpha.com/article/148431-forget-the-feds-apple-is-doing-just-fine-wrecking-the-wireless-business?source=feed