Mobile Broadband Now 24% of All U.S. Consumer Connections

About 24 percent of all U.S. broadband consumer connections already are mobile, and in just six months in 2009, mobile broadband accounts in service grew 40 percent, the Federal Communications Commission reports.

Of 113 million broadband connections in service in the United States in mid-2009, about 35 million were mobile broadband connections, the Federal Communications Commission reports.

Compared to the beginning of 2009, when there were 25 million mobile broadband subscriptions in service, mobile broadband grew 40 percent in just six months.

There were 94 million residential connections in service at mid-year 2009, of which 71 million
were fixed-technology connections and 23 million were mobile wireless.

Mobile broadband connections are growing much faster than fixed connections are, but the ironic result is that average consumer broadband speeds might appear to be slower than they actually are, since in 2009 most mobile connections operated slower than most fixed-line connections.

That will change once fourth-generation networks become more widespread, and more consumers actually subscribe to 4G services. Right now, virtually all mobile broadband services operate at 3 Mbps or less. That should not be the case once 4G networks start to be used.

full report here

Analytics is Key for All Targeted Advertising

Mobile analytics are crucial for the future of mobile advertising for drop-dead-simple reasons. The whole point of targeted and location-based marketing is that companies pay to create impressions and leads at the times when such pitches are likely to have an impact, and rarely, if ever, at other times.

That old adage about "half my advertising investment being wasted; I just don't know which half" is being challenged by targeted approaches, when it is possible to eliminate the "wasted half."

The long-term repercussions on the advertising ecosystem are hard to predict, though. One might argue that new targeting techniques will drive incrementally more spending, or incrementally less.

Is Unified Communications a Ponzi Scheme?

Gartner VP Nick Jones says he is "an unashamed unified communications skeptic for a mixture of technological and business reasons." That might exaggerate the attitude most potential buyers might have, but there is little doubt the value proposition sometimes is a bit unclear.

"UC looks to me like an ill-assorted mix of technologies that vendors want to sell in a single bundle because it’s convenient for them, rather than because they’re what your employees actually need," says Jones. To be sure, the return on investment for full-blown UC solutions has often been difficult to illustrate.

In recent days some attention has shifted to video conferencing, audio conferencing and related solutions that essentially can be proven in by reduced spending on physical travel, coordinating remote work teams or enabling sales and marketing activities on a more affordable basis than has been possible in the past.

In fact, some might argue that one issue is the relative easier task of identifying point solutions that unify some business processes, without requiring a shift to a completely new architecture. Under those conditions, it is easier to point to incremental advantages from unifying some specific processes, but not all.

The other issue is the new complexity social media and social networking represent. It is not always immediately obvious how to integrate those tools with existing email, messaging, voice and mobility solutions in a specific enterprise context.

"UC is a dinosaur in a world of fast-moving little furry mammals; the leading edge of communication and collaboration is happening in the consumer space driven by companies like Facebook, Twitter, Skype, Fring, Nimbuzz and dozens more," he argues.

These are better, cheaper and more fashionable than UC and there is no way the so called “enterprise” vendors can keep up with their rate of evolution, Jones argues.

Mobility can be equally challenging, sometimes as mobility relates to enterprise integration, sometimes related to the more-dispersed nature of work, where integration "backwards" to the enterprise phone system might represent less value in a highly-distributed, mobile-reliant enterprise. In many cases, hosted services might be viewed as a more flexible, less costly and more effective alternative.

Also, UC is technically unachievable because many communications channels such as SMS and MMS aren’t accessible to enterprise servers, the only place where everything actually comes together is on your mobile handset, Jones argues.

In part, his observations intentionally are intended to provoke a sharper debate about unified communications, to present one side of a debate on UC merits. But lots of observers might agree the questions remain germane in many cases.

Is Unified Communications the biggest scam since Ponzi?

Execs Talk About Who They’d Buy And Why

On July 29th senior corporate development executives from Cisco (Derek Idemoto), Facebook (Michael Brown), Google (Amin Zoufonoun), Microsoft (Fritz Lanman), Twitter (Jessica Verilli) and Yahoo (Taylor Barada) convened at Startup2Startup to talk about what kinds of companies they want to buy, and why.

The panel was moderated by CODE Advisors founder Michael Marquez, who was also a former corp dev executive at both Yahoo and CBS.

Merger Mania: Corp Dev Execs Talk For An Hour About Who They’d Buy And Why:

College Tuition: The Next Bubble to Burst?

This is a major problem. Those of you paying college tuition already know this.

Those of you who only casually think about what is best for the nation might come to the conclusion that there's a "bubble" here that has to burst.

Alternatives can, and must be found.

Web TV Heats Up

The Wall Street Journal’s Sam Schechner and Spencer Ante weigh in on what Apple and Amazon’s pricing moves mean for the ongoing battle for online media.

MarketWatch’s Dan Gallagher discusses videogame publisher Take-Two, which saw shares jump today after reporting surprise earnings from a new title.

Prepaid Market is Segmenting

Long viewed as a niche for credit-challenged or immigrant workers, the prepaid space is developing some new niches.

While some consumers will remain satisfied with low-end, low-cost prepaid services, many more will require higher end voice, messaging and data services, and access to more-advanced devices. That is likely going to lead to some pressure on postpaid plan penetration, as millions of users downgrade to prepaid plans.

Yankee Group :: Research Report

Android Mobile Web Usage Climbs, Others Fall

Android's U.S. market share is growing at a huge rate in all categories, Quantcast data indicates.

While Apple's iOS still holds the lion's share, Android is growing fast, and iOS is dropping. Whether you look at the numbers by the month, the quarter, or the year, Android growth is obvious.

If the trend continues, Android will have the majority of the U.S. mobile browser market within a year according, Quantcast data suggests.

Android mobile web usage climbing while others fall

Mobile and TV are the Growth Areas for U.K. Internet Users

Mobile web use and television are sharply growing new activities for U.K. Internet users.

Some 31 percent of U.K. web users said they went online using mobile phone in 2010, compared to 23 percent in 2009, eMarketer reports. Among younger users (ages 16 to 24), an estimated 44 percent browse the internet on their phones. In addition, researchers reported, 2.7 million people used wireless hot-spots in early 2010.

TV also is a growing application, with roughly 17 million people streaming television content from the web. The U.K. Office for National Statistics recently found that 52 percent of male web users had used video-on-demand services like the BBC iPlayer and Channel 4’s 4oD, compared to 23 percent of women.

The UK Online Population: One Big Happy Family? - The eMarketer Blog

What Big Brands Are Spending on Google

Advertiser search spending on Google show a large number of smaller firms use search ads, in addition to a relatively small number of firms spending more than $1 million a month, Ad Age reports.

Some 47 advertisers that spent more than $1 million in June; 71 spent between $500,000 and $1 million, and 357 spent between $100,000 and $500,000, a study finds.

In addition to those direct-billed customers, there are many more thousands of small self-serve advertisers that make up Google's $23 billion global annual revenue.

What Big Brands Are Spending on Google - Advertising Age

Android Overtakes iPhone OS Globally

Google’s Android Operating System has overtaken Apple’s iPhone OS and become the world’s third most popular OS.

Android had 17 percent market share during the second quarter.

Android also is on track to overtake RIM’s BlackBerry OS and become the world’s second biggest platform behind Nokia’s Symbian OS, Gartner says.

According to Gartner, the Android OS has already overtaken the BlackBerry OS in the US.

Android Overtakes iPhone OS

Is Cable Finally Facing Disintermediation?

Under what conditions would a consumer be able to get rid of their multichannel video service and use alternate technologies?

The answer is more complicated than might first appear. Part of the answer requires knowing what functional substitutes actually exist for the types of content any single user actually wants to watch, when they want to watch, and how much that content is worth.

Only after that is determined does technology actually matter. It increasingly is easy to substitute a stand-alone digital video recorder for the same function provided by a multichannel video provider's own set-top decoder, for example.

So consider the decision matrix for a user who cannot live without the convenience of a DVR. "Cutting the cord" might make sense for a user who only wants to watch what is available over the air, who can get decent signal reception, and knows how to use Netflix to watch movies.

That option will not work, even if a user wants to do so, if any of the essential programming is "cable only."  To use but one example, a user who demands Fox News or Fox Business must typically buy an "expanded basic" package just to get those one or two channels.

Neither is available on a streaming basis. If that consumer does not actually have to "see" the programming, but only "hear" it, the one available option is to buy Sirius XM service.

Alternatives slowly are growing, but you get the point: technology alternatives are viable only when the content one wishes to see actually is available through alternate channels.

The decision might be a lot easier if a user's favorites are those TV series available on Hulu, for example.

But there again, the "when I want to watch" issue has to be considered. Hulu content will typically be time delayed by 24 hours. If a user really views some show as an "appointment," that 24 hours can be a long time.

Nor will content owners be in a huge rush to make alternate viewing to easy. Content companies make $30 billion a year licensing content to cable, satellite and telco video providers. They aren't dumb.

Content owners are not going to make it too attractive to watch that licensed content if it means damaging the existing $30 billion.

The point is that technology increasingly is available to create alternate channels. But technology is not sufficient to cause robust alternate channels to develop.

Ping Users Top One Million in First 48 Hours

Apple says more than one million users have joined Ping, its new social network for music which lets users follow their favorite artists and friends to discover what music they’re talking about, listening to and downloading.

Apple reached the million-registered-users mark in less than 48 hours since its launch.

Ping Users Top One Million in First 48 Hours

Regulatory Strategy Now Becoming More Important for Apple, Google, Others

The Texas attorney general's office is conducting an antitrust review of Google Inc.'s core search-engine business, a sign of widening government scrutiny of the Web giant.

The move is one more sign of the growing importance all sorts of regulatory issues now pose for technology companies that historically have not paid much attention to regulators, though Microsoft and Intel long ago became aware of the importance of regulatory affairs.

Texas's top prosecutor has inquired about allegations by several small companies that Google unfairly demoted their rankings in search results or the placement of their advertisements on the search engine, Google said Friday.

But with the increased awareness of regulatory downside has come an awareness that regulatory action can help a company as well.

In April, the Federal Communications Commission invited comments on a proposal that cable and satellite operators let viewers use any "smart video devices" available in stores to connect to their TV service. It says it wants to "foster a competitive retail market" in the devices.

If implemented, it could have far-reaching implications. Among other things, the FCC hopes such a mandate would prompt electronics manufacturers to make devices offering both Internet video and traditional TV services.

That could create a much-bigger opportunity for Apple, Google and other firms as well.

To the extent that the set-top decoder is the physical embodiment of the ability to access applications and services, the new rule would open the door for third-party devices, or integration of new features directly into set-top decoders, in ways not possible up to this point. Where the decoder that now enables multichannel video services also effectively blocks access to Internet video, that could change if the new FCC rules are adopted.

Telcos, cable, mobile and satellite companies long have been acutely aware of the role regulations play in enabling or disabling business models. That is something technology firms only recently have learned.

The Case for Femtocells

Though in some cases a femtocell will only boost voice performance inside a building, that might be worth doing, in some cases. How many of you have neighbors talking on their porches on their mobiles?