Orange Makes Big Bet on NFC, Mobile Payments

Orange, the key France Telecom brand, has announced that it will roll out near field communications-enabled handsets across its whole European Union footprint starting in the second half of 2011.

Orange Makes Big Bet on NFC, Mobile Payments | Mobile Marketing and Technology

Mobile Can Help or Hurt Retailers

In the absence of measures taken to use mobile shopping to their advantage, broadly-defined mobile retailing will hurt, rather than help, most retailers. The reason is simple. Web-equipped mobile users easily can check prices, availability, product reviews and other information on products while they are in stores. And people are doing that.

About 30 percent of respondents surveyed by the GfK Roper Poll say that, while at a store looking at a product, they tried to find a better deal elsewhere, using their phone. About 33 percent say that while out shopping, they emailed or texted someone to tell them about an experience at a store, such as finding a great deal or a great gift.

The study, sponsored by Sapient, also found that 30 percent of respondents own a smartphone capable of supporting such activities.

About 19 percent of respondents used their phone to post something on Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, or other social networking sites about their holiday shopping experience.

Mobile Marketing and Technology

Mogreet Launches MMS Ad Network

Mogreet has launched a Multimedia Messaging (MMS) ad serving network giving brands the ability to deliver video and picture content to virtually any mobile phone and any wireless carrier, says James Citron, Mogreet CEO.

Mogreet’s interactive Multimedia Messaging (MMS) provides marketers with the largest MMS reach in the mobile world, allowing access to nearly any mobile phone in North America, Europe and Asia, including both smartphones and feature phones.

Among its first customers is Cha Cha, the online question and answer service that handles about a billion queries a year. It would be hard to argue that video and rich media have more impact than simple text, nor the proposition that reach for any visual campaign is wider for MMS than for any other channel.

Mobile Marketing and Technology

20% Will Buy a Table in Next 3 Years

More than 20 percent of Americans currently surveyed by Harris Interactive say they plan to own or buy a tablet device within the next three years, according to a new online survey conducted in November by Harris Interactive and sponsored by Fuze Box. Harris Interactive also estimates there are nine million people who already own a tablet device.

Adults who own or plan to buy a tablet computer in the next three years plan to use their tablet for a variety of applications. Browsing the Internet (78 percent); email (75 percent); reading e-books/newspapers (53 percent) and social networking (50 percent) are expected lead applications.

Some 43 percent expect to watching TV or movies, while 37 percent expect to use their devices for work.

Mobile Marketing and Technology

FCC Net Neutrality Order: No Transparency

Does the public have the right to see the FCC's net neutrality proposal? Net Neutrality probably ranks as the most controversial issue in the communications sector right now, but nobody will be able to see the order in advance. In fact, nobody will be able to read the order until after it is passed.

The lag between passage and publishing is normal for the FCC. What is different is the secrecy in advance of a vote.

Why is FCC's 'net neutrality' order still a secret? - CNN.com

AT&T Says it Has the Fastest Network

AT&T cites a study by Global Wireless Solutions to back up its claim that the AT&T network is 20 percent faster than its closest competitor.

Mobile Broadband Out Performs Competitors | AT&T

Google Still Hunting for a Social Coupon Network

Google, whose $6 billion buyout offer was spurned by Groupon, is in talks with much-smaller rivals, the New York Post reports.

The news is not unexpected. Having determined that social couponing capability is key to local advertising, Google has to get into position, one way or the other.

Google shopping for Groupon wannabe - NYPOST.com

Facebook: The Case for Commerce Is Emerging | ClickZ

There is a growing expectation that Facebook will emerge as a key platform for commerce-based business models.

To the extent that sales originate through traffic, then Facebook already has achieved critical mass. Referral traffic began to clim when the 'Like' button was launched, some would argue.

Referral traffic to retailers and brands from Facebook began to climb. In August 2010, a few commerce brands even had more referral traffic from Facebook than Google.

Facebook as a meaningful source of referral traffic for e-commerce is a trend, and a case for commerce is emerging.

Facebook: The Case for Commerce Is Emerging | ClickZ

Digital Divide is Not Based on Access

In the District of Columbia and other urban areas, unlike rural areas of the United States, "lack of adoption of digital resources (computers and broadband) generally is not due to lack of availability of broadband," says a new strategy paper by the District of Columbina CTO.

"The District currently has three large wireline broadband providers and many smaller ones, as well at least six major wireless broadband providers (both 3G and 4G); together, these providers furnish service in all areas of the city," the report notes.

"Rather, individuals and households in areas where broadband service is available typically choose not to subscribe for one or more of three leading reasons²usability, affordability, and perceived value/relevance."

That's a different problem than the "there is no access" argument some have insisted is the issue, and will be tougher to remedy.

Digital Divide Strategy

3 Metrics to Prove Social Media Marketing is Working

Ultimately, all marketing channels must prove their worth. Right now, social media are in their infancy, and so are being widely nurtured despite clear evidence of return, simply because some investments initially are strategic, and only later are tactically justifiable.

At some point, though, social media will have to demonstrate return on investment in the somewhat imprecise way all other channels must: on lead generation and customer acquisition, even though those metrics are hard to attribute to any specific channel when multiple channels are used.

In the near term, people can use proxy measures, such as traffic growth, but that ultimately is a just a proxy for the other measurable outcomes any business has to rely on. 

read more here

Market Power and Markets: Comcast and Level 3 Communications

"If it is left to the market entirely, then there shouldn't be any one player with significant market power," says financial analyst Tim Poulus, writing about the peering dispute between Level 3 Communications and Comcast. " And if so, regulation must be put in place."

"Hence, there is a reason for regulators to look at the Internet on a global level," he argues.

With all due respect, almost nothing could be further from the truth: perfect competition or imperfect competition or even regulated competition will always lead to market power, especially in highly capital-intensive industries.

That isn't to say regulation based strictly on market power isn't necessary at some point. Sometimes a virtual monopoly has to be broken up or limited to restore competition to a market once more.

But there always will be market power, so long as consumers are free to choose products they prefer, and so long as the ability to switch providers is there. The reason is about as simple as it could be. People will buy the better products.

Over time, that leads to highly-unequal market power. Look at the market share for just about any product or industry that has matured and you will always find an unequal distribution of revenue, customers or profit margin. Some of us would expect the market share of provider one to be roughly twice that of provider two, as a rule.

The market share of provider two would be twice that of provider three. And as you can imagine, when you are dealing with "doubling," it doesn't take very long to reach the "long tail," in terms of market share.

Apple might well achieve market power with the iPad the way it dominates both music distribution and iPods. That's the way markets are supposed to work: better products, offering higher value, drive out products with lesser value.

At some point, antitrust concerns will be raised of course, and then decisions to cap share growth can happen. Comcast already is subject to such caps. Level 3 has no significant market power. Furthermore, there are other issues than assessments of market power, such as contract law. Just because a firm might be deemed to have market power does not mean its lawful contracts can be voided.

What if Netflix Switched From Pigeons to Postage? - Seeking Alpha:

"Net Neutrality" Might Happen Tomorrow...We Still Can't Agree On What it Is

The Federal Communications Commission is supposed to introduce and possibly vote on new "network neutrality" rules on Dec. 21, 2010, and whether one is in favor or not, we still cannot agree on what it is.

For some, it is a freedom of speech issue; for others a simple matter of network management, with many views in between. One can argue that the FCC already has addressed the "freedom of speech" issue, that Internet service providers already agree, and that there is in fact no need for new rules. The FCC's "Internet Freedom" principles are widely accepted, and one might argue that if anything needs to be done, it is a simple matter of enforcing infractions, as the FCC already has done, twice.

There is, in short, widespread agreement that users have the right to use all lawful applications.

Of course, even with recognized "freedom of speech" rights, there are permissible "time, place and manner" restrictions. Among the issues for network service providers is that all networks will, under extraordinary load, have to "block access to the network." Though some will disagree, such blocking is a network resource fact of life. When a server gets taxed, what does that server do? It blocks additional requests for access until it can clear the existing load.

Back in the old days, when telephone networks got overloaded, what happened? New callers were blocked from access. "All circuits are busy, please try your call again later." All servers work the same way.

But this is complicated. All networks get congested, some times. Outright access blocking is one way to deal with the load. Shaping the traffic and prioritizing traffic are other ways to deal with the overload problem.

Some net neutrality advocates believe such shaping and priorities should never be allowed. Some opponents say such blunt force rules will foreclose creation of new services that users might actually want to have access to. Some might want first priority for any active voice, video or conferencing session, with other classes of traffic, such as bulk software downloads, email or web surfing traffic given lower priority.

We might see, soon, what new rules the FCC wants to implement, and then we will see what is likely years of litigation about whether those rules can be enforced.

But no matter what form any new rules might take, they will not dispense with the need to allocate resources under conditions of congestion. One hopes any such rules will not reduce the amount of innovation. Ironically, one of the stated reasons in favor of strong net neutrality provisions is the preservation of an innovative climate. The problem with such rules is that they preserve freedom for some by taking it away from others in the ecosystem.

Four takes on why net neutrality matters

Best Buy bundling free Verizon, Sprint, and AT&T MiFis with iPads

Best Buy is now offering an iPad bundle which includes a choice of an AT&T, Verizon, or Sprint MiFi, when purchased with a two-year data subscription. The bundle deal is good until Jan. 2, 2011.

This sort of bundle illustrates the upside for mobile service providers for sales of mobile-connected iPads and tablets, and also allows people to use their tablets on several networks, not just AT&T, in the case of the iPad.

Best Buy bundling free Verizon, Sprint, and AT&T MiFis with iPads, contract required | 9 to 5 Mac Best Buy bundling free Verizon, Sprint, and AT&T MiFis with iPads, contract required | Apple Intelligence

AdMob and Coca Cola Launch Campaign

The AdMob team at Google recently worked with the Coca-Cola Company to produce a live wallpaper celebrating the holiday season based on their annual holiday commercial. Live wallpapers are animated homescreen backgrounds that respond to both touch and phone movement, and can also react to the time of day and a device’s geographic location.

This is the first time the AdMob team has worked with an advertiser on creating this type of mobile experience.

AdMob and Coca Cola bring the holidays to your mobile phone - Google Mobile Ads Blog

Facebook and Twitter are Big

Facebook and Twitter both are big. Here's a look at how big the two firms are. You can click on the image for a larger view.