Deja Vu All Over Again?

Some might argue that Apple's invention of an amazing new product will prove to be "deja vu all over again."

Though any such analysis has to account for the intervening success of the iPod, which completely dominates market share in the MP3 player market, what happened in the PC business could happen in the tablet PC market, some will argue.

Namely, Apple could wind up a niche supplier of high-end devices, rather than the dominant provider in the segment, because of its insistence on a "closed" model.

This Android Chart Should Scare The Bejesus Out Of Apple

Mobile Access: People are Rational

One of the issues when looking at broadband access is the role of demand. People sometimes assume that more people would use broadband if more were available, which ignores the fact that most people do have access, and choose not to buy fixed broadband service, for example, much as most people choose not to buy the fastest-possible speed service.

The point is that consumers are rational: they buy services and products that have value.

Consider use of mobile Internet services. According to researchers at Pew Internet & American Life Project, minority Americans lead the way when it comes to mobile access, especially mobile access using handheld devices. Does that mean there is a "mobile broadband digital divide?" Hardly. The same percentage of European-descended Americans have mobile phones.

Sometimes, different segments of the consumer population will use some services, features or applications more than others. That does not necessarily mean there is a "divide" of any sort that is driven by disparate access to assets. It does mean some people find some services and applications more useful than others do.

Nearly two-thirds of African-descendedAmericans (64 percent) and Latinos (63 percent) are wireless Internet users, for example, a higher percentage than European-descended Americans. More Latinos and African Americans own mobile phones than European-descended Americans.

"Minority" Americans are significantly more likely to own a cell phone than their white counterparts (87 percent of blacks and Hispanics own a cell phone, compared with 80 percent of whites). Additionally, black and Latino cell phone owners take advantage of a much wider array of their phones’ data functions compared to white cell phone owners.

Statistical variances, in other words, are just that--variances--and not necessarily evidence of disparity of access.

Mobile Access 2010 | Pew Internet & American Life Project

60% of U.S. Adults Use Mobile Internet

About 60 percent of adult American adults are now wireless Internet users, and mobile data applications have grown more popular over the last year, according to the Pew Internet & American Life Project.

Pew defines "wireless Internet use" as going online with a laptop using a Wi-Fi connection or mobile broadband card, or using the Internet, email or instant messaging on the mobile phone.

Roughly half of all adults (47 percent) say they use a Wi-Fi connection, up from the 39 percent who did so at a similar point in 2009.

About 40 percent of adults use the mobile Internet, email or IM from a mobile device, an increase from the 32 percent of adults who did so in 2009.

Mobile Access 2010 | Pew Internet & American Life Project:

Digital Migration Hurts Traditional Media More Than Expected

The annual decline in 2009 revenues in several traditional media categories was more severe than originally forecast, according to PriceWaterhouseCoopers research. Most striking was the decline in out-of-home revenues, which fell approximately 13 percent in 2009, compared to a forecast of about seven percent. In addition, radio revenues declined about nine percent, compared to an approximately seven percent forecast.

The other two media categories which had a 2009 revenue decline more severe than originally predicted by PriceWaterhouseCoopers were newspaper publishing (approximately 12 percent compared to a forecast of slightly more than 10 percent) and consumer magazine publishing (about 11 percent compared to a forecast of about nine percent).

Digital Migration Hurts Traditional Media Revenues More than Expected

Mobile TV Revenues to Double by 2015

Global revenues from mobile TV, which totaled $3.2 billion in 2009, should reach $7 billion by 2015. Almost all of this growth will occur in streamed TV services, which currently account for the vast majority of mobile TV revenues, according to Juniper Research.

Broadcast TV services will undergo slight but steady growth, while streamed TV services will steadily rise for the next year or so and then sharply accelerate through 2015.

Mobile TV Revenues to Double by 2015

What Keeps Service Provider Executives Awake At Night? A Service Provider Survey by Metaswitch Networks - Thoughts on Carrier Evolution - Carrier Evolution

Service provider executives surveyed by Metaswitch Networks say uncertainty about new services and revenues, plus competition, remain the top concerns over the next decade. That has been true for most of the past decade, and the survey results confirm that the search for new revenue sources and the pressure of competition remain dominant facts of life in competitive and changing marketplaces.

The significant new difference is that telecom regulators—and what they might do—now are among the top three concerns. Of the three top concerns, though, only service innovation and the organizational response to competition are under direct control.

Click the image for a larger view. 

What Keeps Service Provider Executives Awake At Night? A Service Provider Survey by Metaswitch Networks - Thoughts on Carrier Evolution - Carrier Evolution

Apple's iPhone 4 Update Won't Fix Reception

Apple is working on an update for the signal strength display on iPhone 4 models. There is a problem with the way the iPhone 4 display signal strength, and the update will mean the display corresponds to the received signal strength.

The software update will not fix the antenna reception problem, though. According to some wireless experts, there is an antenna design problem. Using a bumper seems to help.

Why Apple's iPhone 4 Update Won't Fix Your Reception Problem

Apple's IPad Getting Enterprise Traction

Despite its launch as a consumer device, the iPad, like the iPhone before it, is getting workplace adoption. That doesn't mean Apple is especially anxious to create enterprise products, but simply that the same attributes that appeal to consumers also appeal to business users.

Research in Motion and Microsoft are the two companies which have to worry about such trends, since those two companies tend to dominate corporate demand for smartphones and PCs.

Apple's IPad Wins Corporate Converts at Wells Fargo, SAP - Bloomberg

Twitter Has Changed the News Business

Public relations practitioners are already talking about ‘breaking’ news of an event (staged for commercial benefit) using Twitter, thereby bypassing any editorial scrutiny.

Click on image for larger view.

Of course journalists themselves are being side-stepped by bloggers and citizen reporters, some would rightly note.

These are people who have little interest in what is viewed as “old-school” media practices that require investment of more time when researching stories. Even journalists would admit to relaxing their own rules for their blogs, Twitter feeds and other interweb media.

Twitter breaks news, but will it break journalism? | memeburn

Cisco Cius is First "Phone" Tablet

Cius, the new Cisco tablet PC, might seem an odd product for the networking company to introduce, but think of it as a new form factor for a business phone and you will get the idea.

Aimed at a business user, rather than consumer, the Cius is designed to act as a portable communications and collaboration platform, working as a phone with a screen that works with Cisco applications such as Telepresence or WebEx, and with Cisco’s Unified Communications manager, or as a tablet.

When the tablet is docked it provides the screen, and the base has USB ports, a wired Ethernet connection, and, of course, a telephone handset and speakerphone.

In fact, the Cius is the first tablet device specifically designed to work as a "phone," not a device for consuming Internet media.

Unified Communications Strategies Blog � If Unified Communications Could be Fun - Cius Demo at Ciscolive

132 Announced LTE Network Launches

2011 will be the year when LTE goes live in a big way, as Verizon in the United States and DoCoMo in Japan will begin wide-scale roll-outs by the end of 2010.

Don't call it the "year of LTE," as that will almost ensure it won't be, but it is noteworthy that of the 132 networks have reported trials or plans to launch LTE commercially, some 32 more carriers have declared their intentions over just the last six months.

Verizon has also hinted at the availability of LTE-based handsets by May 2011," says ABI Research analyst Bhavya Khanna. That means LTE initially will be a PC dongle and PC card service, not a voice handset network, for at least half a year.

LTE Trials Pick up Speed as the World Prepares to Go 4G; ABI Research Reports - Yahoo! Finance

Lobbyists Swarm FCC Meeting

Two of the biggest proponents of net neutrality rules for broadband providers involved in closed door congressional committee negotiations have hired 112 former government officials to lobby as Congress and the Federal Communications Commission have both pushed new broadband Internet policies.

For the first three months of 2010, 74 percent of the lobbyists hired by both Google and Microsoft have previous experience in government, according to data obtained from the Center for Responsive Politics and lobbyist disclosure forms. This is a very similar number when compared to the percentage of former government officials hired to lobby for the top six telecommunications organizations.

Key net neutrality supporters hire former government officials to lobby — Making Government Transparent and Accountable - Sunlight Foundation Blog

Display Advertising Explains "Google Me"

Google's rumored launch of its own social network "Google Me" might seem curious, but there is a good reason why the move would make business sense: display advertising.

According to ComScore, Google sites place sixth among web publishers for display ad impressions at 25.8 billion, the equivalent of 2.4 percent of the total impressions for the first quarter of 2010. Facebook easily dominated the display ad market for the same period at 16.2 percent or 176.3 billion impressions.

Google's Display Advertising Plans Include Gmail, YouTube - Advertising Age - Digital

Mobile Accounts for 17% of European Mobile Connections

Mobile broadband accounted for 17.3 percent of the total number of European broadband connections in Europe at the end of 2009, " according to a new research report from the analyst firm Berg Insight.

The North American market has so far evolved at a slower pace, with mobile broadband accounting for just 7.1 percent of the total number of connections, says Berg Insight.

The number of HSPA/LTE mobile broadband subscribers (connected PCs) grew by 71 percent year-on-year in 2009 to reach 25 million and is forecasted to continue to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 21.6 percent to 81 million by 2015.

Berg Insight

More than 50 percent of applications are priced below or equal to $2.00 in all stores, with the exception of BlackBerry App World and Windows Marketplace for Mobile, says Distimo.

The average price of all paid applications and the 100 most popular paid applications in the Apple App Store for iPad ($4.65) is higher than in the Apple App Store for iPhone ($4.01).

Google Android Market has the largest share of free applications (57 percent) and Windows Marketplace for Mobile has the smallest (22 percent).