Netflix Now Competes with HBO, Showtime, Starz

Virtually everybody believes that online video competes with multichannel video services, for user engagement and time if not yet so much revenue.

The corollary is that Netflix competes with Blockbuster, Redbox But one might argue Netflix increasingly also competes with the "premium" networks such as HBO, Showtime and Starz.that historically have made a business out of showing movies.

Netflix soon will have as many subscribers as Starz and Showtime put together. At the very least, Netflix growth is going to cap premium channel growth. One can argue about how much Netflix competes with the "basic" channel subscriptions most Americans buy.

So far, one might argue that is a lesser, hard to quantify level of competition. Right now, Netflix has largely vanquished its DVD rental competitors and might be viewed as cannibalizing the premium channels next.

iPad Faces Pricing Challenge

Two thirds of people who are thinking of buying an iPad in the next 12 months are expecting to pay less than the current lowest retail price, according to Strategy Analytics. About 66 percent say they will pay less than $500 or €500, and half of those say they want to pay less than $300 or €300.

Strategy Analytics surveyed nearly 5000 consumers across the United States and four major European markets as part of the study.

One might draw several conclusions. Consumers already are conditioned to expect price declines for any digital appliance over time. They already expect to see "newer" models, every year or so, that maintain current prices for models with new features, but also expect current models to be sold at lower prices.

But the findings might also illustrate demand for lower-cost alternatives. Given Apple's historic emphasis on selling at premium prices, that would also suggest there is a relatively-big market for lower-cost tablets. Though the analogy is not exact, one might point to an eventual market where Apple has less share, but more share at the high end of retail pricing, while Android devices have more of the market overall, and dominate in the "value" and mid-range parts of the market.

Already we are seeing a proliferation of (mostly Android-based) tablets arriving on retailers’ shelves, often at iPad-undercutting prices. Staples is offering a 10″ Viewsonic, Android 2.2 device at $400.

iPad Faces Pricing Challenge

Wireless Now the Majority of Broadband Connections

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development reports that Korea (95 percent), Sweden (76 percent), Japan (75 percent) and Norway (73 percent) have the highest wireless broadband penetration in terms of subscribers per 100 inhabitants.

Among the countries which have been able to report complete data, standard mobile broadband subscriptions usually represent the majority of wireless broadband connections.

Satellite and terrestrial fixed wireless subscriptions represent a small share of wireless broadband subscriptions. Its penetration rate is slightly higher only in the Czech Republic (6.5) percent, the Slovak Republic (three percent) and Ireland (two percent).

Broadband Portal - Press Release (June 2010 data)

Why SMS Marketing Still Makes Sense for Small Business in a Smartphone and Tablet Market

The mobile phone is the first piece of technology that people started carrying with them all the time. It's the most-personal technology tool most people use and though it always has been used to "communicate," it also now is used as a "social tool" to keep in touch with people and content each user cares about.

And since most people still do not use any form of mobile broadband, voice and text remain the universal common denominators for any marketing campaigns aimed at mobile users. It might not be the most "sexy" channel for mobile marketing. That position increasingly is occupied by video and display advertising for the mobile channel. But voice and text remain the universal tools in terms of reach, and the ability of a small entity to afford the creation and execution of a campaign.

Not many smaller businesses can spend $1 million on a single display campaign, for example. Most can afford text campaigns built on their own internal databases.

Why SMS Marketing Still Makes Sense for Small Business

Is the Next Great Wave of Internet IPOs About to Hit?

The last big wave of Internet initial public offerings happened a decade ago. Some think the next great wave is about to break. Facebook, Twitter, Zynga, Groupon,Facebook, LinkedIn, Yelp, Hulu and eHarmony are some of the possible candidates to lead the wave.

That likely is going to bring more luster to the Internet stock sector, app venture capital activity, some predict. Some likely will argue a second great IPO bubble would be a more-apt description. Either way, it is possible that the next generation of Internet leaders will be funded in the wake of any IPO wave.

We might not see the full impact of those start-ups for as much as another decade. The trick, one might argue, is not to get "bubbled" by the possible wave.

6 Reasons Groupon's Rejection Of Google Is Great For The Universe

Google Gains Market Share in U.S. Mobile Ads, Local Will be Dominant by 2014

Google will widen its lead in the $877 million U.S. market for mobile advertising, ending the year with a 59 percent share, according to research firm IDC.

Google's share will increase from 48.6 percent last year, before it bought mobile-ad network AdMob, IDC says. AdMob, which had an 8.4 percent share in 2009, was bought by Google in May. Apple may finish with less than 10 percent, IDC says.

None of that likely is as significant as a separate projection by BIA/Kelsey that U.S. mobile local advertising revenues will grow from $213 million in 2009 to $2.03 billion in 2014. That's about a 57 percent compount annual rate of growth.

But event that is not the most-significant implication. The eye-popper is that local mobile advertising already represents 44 percent of total U.S. mobile ad revenues in 2009, growing to 69 percent in 2014. Basically, mobile advertising, in 2014, is going to be dominated by various forms of local advertising, using the location features of mobile devices to target messages to end users in various ways.

See more on the shape of the mobile marketing market here: Mobile Marketing and Technology

Read more about mobile ad share here: Google Gains Market Share in U.S. Mobile Ads - BusinessWeek

Skype’s Move To The Web

Skype long has been a client-based service, but Skype now is planning on adding browser plug-in access as well, which should make the service available to many more people.

Skype is hoping to launch its web-based service in the first quarter of next year. Skype is reported to be talking to sites such as LinkedIn for integration.

Most proponents of IP-based voice have assumed such integration would happen, for some years. So it isn't so much the move to a "no client" access, but rather than the access will be happening on a major scale.

On the Internet, there might typically be few significant barriers to entry. But there are lots of barriers to gaining scale. Skype is about to become more dangerous for firms that compete against it directly, and some that compete indirectly.

More Details On Skype’s Big Move To The Web

QR codes on TV

I'm seeing more "quick response" codes on billboards and on magazine pages. I admit I haven't seen any yet embedded into TV commercials, but apparently Waitrose, a U.K. supermarket chain, is doing so. As always these days, the business value is to turn a "non-interactive" message into an interactive session by redirecting users to a webpage.

Waitrose now putting Android QR codes on its TV adverts

Tablets Cannibalizing Both Laptops and Netbooks

Logic would suggest that tablet devices partly represent a new product category, but also partly will cannibalize some other related products, such as e-readers, laptops or netbooks.

Conventional wisdom suggests that, to the extent there is product substitution, tablets will cannibalize netbooks, and a new survey by Google suggests there is some truth to that notion. About 9 percent of laptop shoppers, and 19 percent of notebook shoppers, indicated they at least considered buying a tablet instead.

One suspects there will be stronger substitution patterns over time as lower-cost tablets appear in the market. Looking only at device cost, and not capabilities, many consumers might conclude that a netbook or laptop costs $100 to $300 less than a tablet, thus providing the better combination of value and price.

A change in tablet retail price could change behavior, though, encouraging a wider range of notebook and netbook buyers to consider getting a tablet instead.

Tablets Cannibalizing Both Laptops and Netbooks

Yahoo To Launch Own Business Video Show

Yahoo will significantly increase its original video offerings in 2011 with a new business show on Yahoo Finance, scripted entertainment programming and with news video in a number of vertical areas, say Erin McPhearson, VP & Head of Originals and Video Programming, Yahoo!

Beet.TV: Yahoo's Big Video Plans: New Business Show, Scripted Entertainment and News Verticals

Why U.S. Has More Web and App Firms than EU

Large internal markets make a difference in most businesses, and Web apps, service and software companies are no exception, one might argue.

14% of wireless subs have 3G, and here comes 4G?

New fourth-generation wireless networks are the new thing in the infrastructure part of the mobile business, but TeleGeography notes that only 14 percent of the global wireless subscriber base is now connected to a 3G network, with the regional figure varying between 35 percent in Western Europe to just six percent in Africa.

You might wonder what that might mean for 4G penetration rates. Networks using 3G began to be deployed in 2001 and 2002, meaning nine to 10 years have passed. In general terms, that is about the time entirely-new generations of wireless technology tend to be deployed. New networks get deployed roughly once a decade.

Partly by design, partly by happenstance, each generation of networks has had slightly-different lead applications. The first generation was an analog, voice-only medium. Networks built on 2G added text messaging and later email. The 3G networks originally were thought to be a platform for broadband-related new applications, but wound up becoming a way to use the mobile Web and connect PCs to laptops and other mobile devices.

Aside from offering significantly-higher bandwidth, how 4G will develop remains a work in progress. Most now suspect it will be streaming video that winds up being the unique "killer" app for 4G.

But it is worth noting that after roughly a decade, about a third of all users in developed countries actually are on a 3G network, and most users still use a 2G network.

At 30 September 2010 there were 694 million 3G users scattered across the world, compared to a total of 5.12 billion wireless subscriptions.

One might therefore suspect that although the marketing hype will be about 4G, the revenue is going to be driven by 2G and 3G for quite some time.

14% of wireless subs connected to 3G networks: CommsUpdate : TeleGeography Research

FCC Plans Dec. 21 "Net Neutrality" Vote

If you didn't have the context, it would be hard to glean from this formal statement just what the new rules will contain. Even if you have the context, the really-important issues are not the principles, but the implementation.

And then there is the nagging, sure to be tested in the courts issue of where the Federal Communications Commission has the legal authority to issue such rules.

read more here

QR Codes: Another Example of New Technology Adoptiion Process

New technologies nearly always are envisioned in the framework of some older technology. "Horseless carriage" is one example. People commonly used to refer to a refrigerator as an "ice box." The telephone once was seen as a way to send music to people.

The point is that truly-significant innovations rarely are fully understood at first. There is a period of trial-and-error where people try to figure out what to do with the new tools. Then there is a period where people just swap the new tools for the old tools.

Finally there is a transformation when wholly-new systems are built around the new technologies. But that easily can take a decade or more, though we seem used to the idea that some technologies can propagate faster than that.

Some of you might remember that there was an explosion of business investment in information technology throughout the 1980s that seemed not to move the needle on productivity measures. The measurable gains didn't seem to appear widely until the 1990s.

Some argue it took that long for entire information-manipulating processes to be redesigned for digital appliances and networks before the gains could be reaped.

Quick response codes (QR codes), two-dimensional barcodes, provide a recent example. Basically, when a user takes a picture of such a code, a smartphone or other suitably-equipped device can translate the code into a web address, and take the user to that site.

Some see this as a way to make non-connected printed materials (magazine pages, posters, billboards, t-shirts, hats) "digital." But it will probably take some time before we all figure out what QR codes really are good for.

One example: when it comes to exchanging contact details, business cards are still the method of choice for most business people.

Some think barcoded objects will replace business cards. But one can think of all sorts of good reasons why human interactions in settings where business cards are used are not conducive to use of QR codes as a substitute.

People trading cards don't know each other. They also are face to face in settings where holding up a camera and taking a picture is physically or socially undesirable.

Cocktail parties, inside meeting rooms, offices or exhibit stands are places where somebody might be asked for, contact information.

You might say the code could simply be printed on a hat, shirt or placard, but you quickly will understand that this is a non-viable channel. Few people probably want to broadcast contact details and fewer want to wear geeky clothing implying they are a "product" or "object," which is the inescapable notion.

One can make an argument that a QR code, printed on a card, will save a bit of keystroking when a recipient later can take a photo of the code, pull up a website and then cut and paste the information into a contact manager.

But if you have to carry and distribute the cards anyway, that isn't going to "replace" anything.

QR codes as a replacement for business cards might provide some value to some people. It hardly seems to provide obvious and immediate value for most people, though.

It does nicely illustrate the process of technology adoption, though. It is something people have to do, and not every conceivable application case will prove to be long lasting.

QR codes make business card information digital

Top 2011 Trends as Seen by JWTIntelligence

An entertaining, two-minute look at JWTIntelligence's pick for the top trends that could have a broad bearing on marketing and sales in 2011. It's entertaining.

Mobile Marketing and Technology