Google in Talks to Buy Groupon

In a big move that would make Google a significant player local advertising, Google is in talks to buy local deals site Groupon, the Wall Street Journal reports.

Groupon's board of directors reportedly will meet by conference call Wednesday to decide how to proceed. The possible offer price 'is a big number,'' the Wall Street Journal reports.

Groupon specializes in coupon and other deals that are intended to drive consumers to local merchants. With Groupon, Google would also pick up contact information for about 12 million consumers. Groupon collects credit card information from users, as well as data it uses to personalize its offers, such as their neighborhoods and the kinds of businesses they have bought web coupons from in the past.

Google in Talks to Buy Groupon - WSJ.com (subscription required)

Women Prefer iPhones, Men Androids

Women planning to get a smartphone are more likely to want an iPhone as their next device, with slightly more males preferring Android.

U.S. Smartphone Battle Heats Up: Which is the “Most Desired” Operating System? | Nielsen Wire

Don’t Just Build An App. Build A Mobile Business

App developers need to understand that there’s more to a successful app than just a good product and a launch. Having a solid product is a great starting point but it’s precisely that — a starting point.

To cultivate success, you need to develop a business plan, think through marketing, distribution, monetization, and plan for the evolution of the product itself months down the road. If you want to succeed, you need to understand that you aren’t just building an app; you’re building a business on mobile.

Don’t Just Build An App. Build A Mobile Business

Is Social Media Over-Hyped?

1 Example of Mobile Enabling a New Business, Or At Least a New Sales Channel

A nurse in the aiport offering vaccinations and flu shots. You might have seen them recently.

Some of them seem to be using Apple iPads equipped with a "Square" attachment to collect payment with a credit card.

Mobile Enables New Businesses

Verizon Has Won the Marketing War for High-End HTC Devices

People ask me what device I'm using, and neither "HTC" or "Evo" rings any bells. If I just say "Droid," they seem to know what it is.

That's winning.

Verizon Wireless Lights 38 Cities for LTE

Verizon Wireless 4G LTE will be available in 38 cities on Sunday, Dec. 5, 2010. Cities include:

Akron, Ohio
Athens, Georgia
Atlanta, Georgia
Baltimore, Maryland
Boston, Massachusetts
Charlotte, North Carolina
Chicago, Illinois
Cincinnati, Ohio
Cleveland, Ohio
Columbus, Ohio
Dallas-Ft. Worth Metroplex, Dallas, Texas
Denver, Colorado
Ft. Lauderdale, Florida
Houston, Texas
Jacksonville, Florida
Las Vegas, Nevada
Los Angeles, California
Miami, Florida
Minneapolis/Saint Paul, Minnesota
Nashville, Tennessee
New Orleans, Louisiana
New York, New York
Oakland, California
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
Orlando, Florida
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Phoenix, Arizona
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Rochester, New York
San Antonio, Texas
San Diego, California
San Francisco, California
San Jose, California
Seattle/Tacoma, Washington
St. Louis, Missouri
Tampa, Florida
Washington, D.C.
West Lafayette, Indiana
West Palm Beach, Florida

Verizon Wireless Launches The World’s Largest 4G LTE Wireless Network On Dec. 5

4G Debate is Meaningless, Clearwire Says

The debate going on about who is or isn’t 4G is unimportant because whether it’s called 3G, 4G, WiMAX, LTE, or HSPA, all that matters, in the end, is getting a great price on a fast connection with a ton of included usage, Clearwire says.

Purists won't agree, but users don't care. There are good reasons for standards, but standards bodies are only one way "standards" get set. Sometimes the market sets the standards

The Chicken Soup Debate CLEAR Blog

Collaboration Will Become More People-centric in 2011

Collaboration used to be more a matter of sharing documents. Recently, collaboration has changed to become more people-centric. 'Need to know' becomes 'need to share'. The change can be illustrated by growing use of social networks and video collaboration, for example.

Collaboration Will Become More People-centric in 2011

Are Apps Overrated?

A new study, commissioned by promotion and experiential agency Moosylvania, found that the majority (80 percent) of smartphone users surveyed used apps. But of the 300,000 or so apps on the market only about a handful dominate.

While 30 apps were reported as the norm, most mobile users (85 percent of men and 75 percent of women) actually used only about 10 apps on a regular basis. This could be discouraging news for marketers, since an app only can work if it gets used, and works better if it gets used by lots of people.

Free helps too. Some 44 percent of app users said that all, or nearly all, of their apps were free.

Are Apps Overrated

The Top 5 Web Trends of 2010 and 2011

The mobile Web, the Internet of Things, location-based social networks, the real-time Web and structured data are the top five Web trends of 2010, as assessed by ReadWriteWeb, and are likely to remain key in 2011 as well.

Mobility was a top trend in 2010 and will continue to be a top trend in 2011, ReadWriteWeb says. As Android growth, tablets, the iPad and the launch of Windows Phone 7 have shown, mobility was, and will remain, a key trend to watch in 2011.

Internet of Things, or machine-to-machine communications, also will be key, as will location-based social networks.

The real-time Web, principally exemplified by the growth of Web-delivered video, also will continue to be a top trend.

read more here

Chrome usage jumps over 9% from October to November 2010

Between October and November, Internet Explorer dropped a full percentage point in terms of global installed base, a drop bigger than the last four months.

Firefox, meanwhile, fell 0.07 percentage points. Chrome gained 0.78 percentage points (one of its biggest gains to date), making it the biggest winner of the month.

Safari was up 0.22 percentage points and Opera dipped 0.08 percentage points.

Chrome usage jumps over 9% from October to November

No Matter What the ITU Says, There is 4G

Some will argue that because the new International Telecommunications Union has defined "fourth generation" networks they way they have, there actually is "no such thing" as an actual "4G" network in operation anywhere in the world, right now.

That's actually not correct. The WiMAX and Long Term Evolution networks now operated in the United States and elsewhere use different air interfaces, standards and protocols from "3G." And since the difference between first generation analog, 2G, 3G and now 4G networks is in fact that they represent entirely-new technology generations, it still is accurate to refer to LTE and WiMAX networks, as they now exist, as 4G. They aren't "fully compliant" with the formal ITU definitions, but easily would meet even an industry insider's definition of a "new network, running different protocols, standards and air interfaces," than the older generation of networks.

End users won't care even that much, as in many cases HSPA+ will offer faster downloads and more bandwidth than some 4G networks. Let the purists quibble. Lots of real revenue is going to be made, and lots of new applications and use cases created, by 4G networks that fall short of the full ITU definition. At this point, the business models and businesses do not have to wait for formal compliance. Real-world 4G networks will fashion real business models and earn lots of real revenue without complying fully with the full standards.

Oddly Enough, Rural-Urban Digital Divide is About to Get Worse

In just about any country, of any size, there typically is a gap between the typical speeds a city dweller can buy, compared to what a rural resident can buy, based almost entirely on the fact that rural infrastructure is much more expensive than urban infrastructure, for any number of reasons.

But the rural-urban broadband access "divide," ironically, is going to get worse as fixed-line providers and wireless providers roll out their faster-speed networks. The reason is logical enough: the places those faster cable, telco and wireless 4G and HSPA+ networks are being introduced are largely metro markets.

As Verizon, Comcast, Time Warner, Cox Communications and other cable opertors keep adding areas where it is possible to buy 50 Mbps access as a standard consumer service, and as wireless operators light faster 4G and HSPA+ networks, rural networks will find it virtually impossible to keep up.

So get ready for another round of complaints about the gap between rural and urban broadband networks. In fact, get ready for complaints that matters have gotten worse over the last year. That will be the unavoidable consequence of faster networks being activated in urban areas, both fixed line and wireless.

Verizon to Switch on 4G Network

Verizon Wireless will turn on its 4G wireless network Dec. 5, 2010 in 38 U.S. cities, though the new network will not support smartphones until the first half of 2011. Verizon's 4G network is not the first of Verizon's networks to support data communications, or even mobile broadband, but it will be the first that launches without any voice devices, as other 4G networks earlier have done.

There are a couple reasons for those choices. First, voice standards for 4G are less complete than you might think. Also, the primary advantage 4G offers over 3G is bandwidth for Internet access applications, not voice. Also, there is a "chicken and egg" problem." Device manufacturers have incentive to create hot new devices when there is an opportunity to sell lots of units.

But 4G uptake will be relatively slow at first, so handset development also will lag.

The new Verizon 4G network will support a pair of USB modems from LG and Pantech, making Verizon's 4G network initially a complement or substitute for fixed-line broadband connections or 3G dongles.

The devices will cost $99 with a $50 rebate and two-year data contract. Service costs $50 per month for 5 gigabytes of data, or $80 per month for 10 gigabytes.

Both modems are backwards compatible with Verizon's 3G network, so if users roam outside a 4G area, the connection will default to 3G. The deals immediately make 4G service a better deal than 3G service, which costs $60 a month, with a 5-Gbyte usage cap.

Verizon to switch on 4G network on Sunday, but not for smartphones