Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Is email growing or shrinking?

Both, it seems.

http://www.marketingcharts.com/direct/inboxcom-gmail-show-impressive-annual-growth-15170/?utm_campaign=rssfeed&utm_source=mc&utm_medium=textlink

And you thought net neutrality couldn't get more convoluted

Now interconnection agreements get tarred.

http://www.digitalsociety.org/2010/11/comcast-level-3-net-neutrality-the-new-fire-in-a-movie-theater/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=comcast-level-3-net-neutrality-the-new-fire-in-a-movie-theater

Interconnection now gets sucked up with "net neutrality"

Peering and transit agreements aren't net neutrality issues.

http://247wallst.com/2010/11/30/the-next-round-of-fighting-over-net-neutrality-nflx-lvlt-cmcsa-ge-vz-goog/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+typepad%2FRyNm+%2824%2F7+Wall+St.%29&utm_content=Google+Reader

Clearwire races towards target of 120m POPs - Rethink Wireless

So much for the couple of years headstart over other 4G providers.

http://www.rethink-wireless.com/2010/11/30/clearwire-races-towards-target-120m-pops.htm

Monday, November 29, 2010

Who Wins in Tablet Business?


Apple, Google, Motorola, Samsung and HTC could be early winners as tablets start to cannibalize the PC market, some might argue.

Dell, Hewlett-Packard and Acer could be losers, some think.

Verizon FiOS Broadband Penetration?

Analysts at Trefis expect the penetration of FiOS broadband to reach 81 percent of Verizon broadband subscribers by 2016, up from about 49 percent in 2010. In other words, of Verizon customers who buy broadband access, 81 percent will buy FiOS, while the remaining 19 percent will be on digital subscriber line platforms.

Entertainment Video Accounts for 37% of Peak-Hour Bandwidth

As much as 37 percent of peak-hour Internet traffic might be entertainment video.

Mary Meeker Internet Trends presentation

Is Level 3-Comcast Dispute a Typical Spat Over Peering Fees?

Thomas Stortz, Chief Legal Officer of Level 3, says Comcast has demanded, and is getting, payments from Level 3 related to delivery of Internet traffic from the Level 3 network to Comcast's network. It isn't immediately clear whether this is simply a commercial dispute between networks that exchange unequal amounts of traffic, or a possible violation of "Internet Freedoms" principles.

That's one of the difficulties with "network neutrality." It sometimes is difficult to separate out "content discrimination" from simple commercial agreements to exchange traffic between networks.

Stortz says taht “on November 19, 2010, Comcast informed Level 3 that, for the first time, it will demand a recurring fee from Level 3 to transmit Internet online movies and other content to Comcast’s customers who request such content."

“On November 22, after being informed by Comcast that its demand for payment was ‘take it or leave it,’ Level 3 agreed to the terms, under protest, in order to ensure customers did not experience any disruptions," says Stortz.

Microsoft in talks for new online TV service

Microsoft Corp has held talks with media companies to license TV networks for a new online pay-television subscription service through devices such as its Xbox video game console, says Reuters.

The maker of the Windows operating system has proposed a range of possibilities in these early talks including creating a 'virtual cable operator' delivered over the Internet for which users pay a monthly fee.

Netflix a Fast-Growing Rival to Hollywood and Cable - NYTimes.com

In a matter of months, the movie delivery company Netflix has gone from being the fastest-growing first-class mail customer of the United States Postal Service to the biggest source of streaming Web traffic in North America during peak evening hours.

All of that has to raise fears in the content business that a powerful new entity is arising in the movie distribution business as Apple's iTunes earlier grabbed a powerful role in distributing music.

At least in part, that explains why Hollywood studios hope to create a new distribution channel to replace lost DVD revenues.

A new "premium" form of video on demand, which would make new releases available in streaming format just 45 days or so after they start showing in theaters. In the past, newly-released movies have appeared on VOD services about 120 days after theatrical release.

Video-on-demand services often price such movies at a price of about $4.99. But studios think the new earlier release window could allow them to price movies at perhaps $25 a view. Whether consumers will have the same value perception is not so clear.

Some believe DVD sales have stagnated because consumers no longer view $20 to $30 DVD purchases a reasonable balance of value and price. Whether consumers will think earlier streaming access is worth that much is debatable.

Studios also like the better profit margins. Generally, studios get as much as 80 percent of that early VOD revenue, and much less for a DVD copy. DVD rentals might net a studio about 30 percent margins, for example.

But an equally-important issue is maintaining more control over the distribution process, and avoiding ceding power to Netflix in the same way Apple now influences music distribution.

Online, Mobile Commerce Big on "Black Friday"

The U.S online retail sector delivered double digit growth on Black Friday 2010 compared to the same period last year, according to analytics-based findings by IBM. The Coremetrics third annual Black Friday Benchmark Report indicates that online sales were up 15.9 percent, with consumers pushing the average order value up from $170.19 to $190.80 for an increase of 12.1 percent.

Consumers are also embracing mobile as a shopping tool. On Black Friday, 5.6 percent of people logged onto a retailer’s site using a mobile device, a jump of 26.7 percent compared to the prior Friday. That suggests users are using their mobiles inside stores, for example, perhaps for comparison shopping.

Jewelry retailers reported a 17.6 percent increase in sales.

But there also is some evidence that consumers know what they want, where to get it and are being very targeted in their efforts to find those items. People are viewing 18 percent fewer products on sites than they did last year, suggesting that they are shopping with a specific item in mind and quickly moving on.

Consumers appear increasingly savvy about their favorite brands’ social presence, and are turning to their networks on social sites for information about deals and inventory levels. While the percentage of visitors arriving from social network sites is fairly small relative to all online visitors—nearly one percent—it is gaining momentum, with Facebook dominating the space.

read more here

Survey Finds Little Video Cord Cutting So Far, But DVDs Have Suffered

An annual study of consumer video consumption habits and platforms conducted by Frank N. Magid Associates reveals that despite the increased use of alternative video viewing platforms (like video-on-demand, set-top boxes, instant streaming, and mobile apps), the vast majority of consumers intend to continue to maintain their traditional subscriptions with cable, satellite, and telco TV providers.

So far, online and other alternative video channels are mostly complementary to existing multichannel video entertainment services. Consumers using the greatest number of alternative platforms also tend to spend the most money on traditional subscription services, the study found.

But the study also suggests the potential is far greater.

Only 10 percent of consumers express an interest in trying TV show and movie viewing from the Internet to a computer or tablet screen. In contrast, interest surges in viewing this content on a TV screen via a computer connected to the Internet, and it climbs even higher for devices designed specifically to stream content to the TV, such as AppleTV and Roku.

"The average American's capacity to consume video content is impressive," said Maryann Baldwin, Vice President of Magid Media Futures. "As new video viewing platforms such as instant streaming and mobile apps proliferate, consumers are simply adding them to their portfolio of video viewing options. Our research indicates that this is definitely not a zero-sum game -- at least at this point, it appears that traditional subscription services and alternative viewing platforms can coexist with services like 'TV Everywhere' locking in revenues for traditional providers."

In addition, the study indicates that when the availability of Internet content has caused consumers to cancel their traditional service subscriptions, these circumstances remain the exception. Only a very small minority of consumers are even considering cancelling their subscriptions.

Only one percent of consumers report that they have cancelled their subscription service in favor of accessing content available on the Internet, and only 2.5 percent of consumers use Internet content exclusively.

In terms of future cancellations, only three percent of consumers report that they are even considering cancelling their traditional subscriptions without replacing it with a competing subscription, suggesting a relatively stable subscriber base for traditional providers.

Purchase and rental of DVDs continue to be most at risk from the growth in use of alternative video viewing platforms.

The online survey was conducted in October 2010 using a nationally representative sample of 1,208 adults age 12 years or older.

read more here

Redpoint Ventures on Future of Cloud Computing

 
Redpoint Ventures exec talks about software as a service, cloud investments, the big impact of Amazon on startup economics and mobility.

AT&T, Sprint Target Over-50 Texters

As growth in voice revenue slows, carriers are pushing data services and the over-50 market is largely untapped. Forty-two percent of Americans 50 or older sent any texts in a given month last quarter, compared with 85 percent for 13- to 34-year-olds, according to ComScore Inc.

“It’s a very attractive market for us,” said Michael Woodward, vice president of AT&T’s mobile-phone portfolio. “The opportunity has been to improve the rate at which people are attaching data plans and that starts with texting.”

To reach the older market, wireless carriers are offering lessons in how to text, introducing phones with oversized buttons and fine-tuning their marketing strategies. AT&T has boosted its advertising in media that draw older generations, including the AARP magazine from the over-50 advocacy group and the “Dancing With the Stars” series on Walt Disney Co.’s ABC.

Cloud Computing Gets Traction in Asia-Pacific Region

Close to 25 percent of Asia Pacific enterprises use some form of cloud computing, says Frost & Sullivan after a survey of Asia Pacific senior IT decision makers.

More than 50 percent of the survey respondents believe that cloud computing technology can help businesses reduce their infrastructure cost and lowers capital expenditure investment compared with traditional IT management.

About 23 percent of the respondents indicated using some form of cloud computing now, while 61 percent of the respondents are likely to increase their cloud computing spending in 2011.

IBM, Google and Microsoft had the highest mindshare in the public cloud computing space while IBM, HP and EMC/VMware were the top mindshare garners in the private cloud space.

Yes, Follow the Data. Even if it Does Not Fit Your Agenda

When people argue we need to “follow the science” that should be true in all cases, not only in cases where the data fits one’s political pr...