Apple Dominates Holiday Mobile App Installs

Apple had 61.5 percent of the mobile app downloads, Android had 30.1 percent, according to Flixter. About 7.9 percent of app downloads over the holidays went to RIM devices and Windows Phone had 0.5 percent. The percentages were from 1,027,000 downloads over the holiday week.

Flixter Tells How Mobile App Installs Went Over The Holidays. | VOIP IP Telephony

Best Buy to Launch "Buy Back" Program?

Best Buy is reported to be planning a new "buy back" program aimed at keeping users who constantly upgrade their smartphones off-cycle, and who buy from Best Buy Mobile. The program reportedly will cost $59.99 at the time of handset purchase. Between months one and six of handset ownership, users can then trade-in their device to Best Buy Mobile for 50 percent of the phones full retail value.

Between months six and 12 the device can be turned in for 40 percent of its original value. Between months 19 to 25, users can get back 20 percent of the original retail value.

The offering likely will appeal to users who purchase new smartphones long before their two-year commitments have expired.

read more here

28% Say They Plan to Buy a Kindle

Some 28 percent of Internet users surveyed by J.P. Morgan in December say they either own a Kindle or plan to buy one in the next year. That's a significant number, even if actual behavior doesn't exactly track expectations.

The Kindle is already Amazon's top-selling product, with an estimated more than five million sold since August, and with that kind of buyer intent, the e-reader will continue to be a hot item in 2011.

The survey also bolsters the claim of Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos that iPad owners are buying Kindles: 40 percent of iPad users surveyed already own one, and 23 percent plan to buy one in the next year.

See http://www.businessinsider.com/ipad-owners-are-buying-and-loving-kindles-too-says-amazon-ceo-2010-12.

Almost One-Third Of Internet Users Plan To Buy A Kindle

Is Media Industry at a Crossroads?

When investment capital floods into any industry, you can be sure it is because of expectations of major growth. Conversely, when such capital does not get deployed, you can be equally sure that investors are skeptical about outsize returns.

So it might be said that a lack of fresh investment in "Hollywood" ventures signals lack of expectations. Still, many would argue that the entertainment industry remains at a critical inflection point.

That game-changer is already here in the form of technological innovation: new media, web-based streaming and the hardware that is catching up to these virtual-era breakthroughs. But all of those developments might lead investors to conclude that fresh capital is better deployed in companies that try to harness new media, not the legacy content creators.

Calling Netflix or Huffpo: After 2010, Hollywood Needs a Game-Changer

TV apps will be key focus at CES 2011 - Lost Remote

While new tablets, smartphones and 3D television sets will grab much of the attention at the upcoming Consumer Electronics Show, perhaps another important theme will be the surge of internet-connected sets and TV apps.

“TV manufacturers see the opportunity to provide that content built in,” says Jason Oxman, senior vice president of the Consumer Electronics Association.

TV apps will be key focus at CES 2011

Apple Leads Smartphone Installed Base, Android Leads in Share

According to November data from The Nielsen Company, the popularity of the Android operating system among those who purchased a smartphone in the last six months (40 percent) makes it the leading OS in terms of market share, defined as new sales. Apple still leads in terms of installed base.

But despite its surge among recent acquirers, when it comes to overall installed base of users, Android OS (25.8 percent) is still behind Apple iOS (28.6 percent). RIM Blackberry’s position is less clear: Its share (26.1 percent) puts it within the margin of error of both Apple iOS and Android.

Apple Leads Smartphone Race, while Android Attracts Most Recent Customers | Nielsen Wire

10 Huge Companies That Facebook Is Now Worth More Than

Facebook's recent investment from Goldman Sachs gives it a valuation of $50 billion, which makes it bigger, in terms of valuation, than Starbucks.

Facebook is worth more than United, American, Delta, JetBlue, and Southwest Airlines combined (About $32 billion combined market cap.

Valuations are what they are. But comparisons like this remind me of the Internet bubble at the turn of the century. Scary.

10 Huge Companies That Facebook Is Now Worth More Than

Facebook Worth $50 Billion?

Facebook has raised $500 million from Goldman Sachs and a Russian investor in a deal that values the company at $50 billion, according to the New York Times.

The deal makes Facebook now worth more than companies like eBay, Yahoo and Time Warner.

Goldman Invests in Facebook at $50 Billion Valuation - NYTimes.com

Wi-Fi Could Drive VPN or Mobile Broadband Demand

Firesheep allows anyone with a Firefox browser to hijack the sessions of anyone on the same Wi-Fi network using a few dozen popular content, commerce, and social-networking sites by snarfing cookies that pass in the clear.

A virtual private network connection that encrypts all data is the most-secure form of protection, but most people don't buy such service, which retails for $40 to $70 a month. Beyond that, Secure Socket Layer protection for email and HTTPS Everywhere for web browsing are helpful.

If a user wants security, and is willing to pay $40 to $70 a month, some of us might say "why bother?" with Wi-Fi and just buy a mobile broadband service. All the other tools to protect email and web browsing are available no matter what the connection, and a mobile broadband connection is arguably more secure than any public Wi-Fi connection is.

How to stay safe at a public Wi-Fi hotspot

How Userful is Groupon?

How useful is Groupon, for people who aren't so attuned to the game of "finding deals?"

Amazon iHTC EVO Shift 4G is Coming

Touchscreen interfaces generally are well received by end users, but there are just some activities that seem to work better when a QWERTY keyboard also is available. So many users who might like the HTC Evo and other touchscreen devices might want to take a look at the HTC Evo Shift, which adds a keyboard.

Amazon is gearing up for sales already, though pre-orders apparently aren't possible, yet. Apparently devices will cost $200 when bundled with a two-year contract. And for those who prefer the no-contract route, the device will cost $500.

Amazon is teasing the yet to be officially announced HTC EVO Shift 4G

Why Use SIP Trunking?

Saving money and simplifying communications are the traditional reasons for adoting SIP trunking. The actual business cases tends to vary quite a lot, though, based on an organization's readiness to use IP telephony and the existing level of tariffs any organization already is paying.

SIP trunking eliminates the need to purchase dedicated ISDN gateways when a premises IP telephony system is connected to the wide area voice networks. In addition, the services more flexible in terms of use of "channels" and bandwidth.

Some will argue that eliminating overhead and processing improves performance. In practice, one doesn't hear end users mentioning that advantage very much. It normally comes down to "can you save me money?"

The Growth of SIP Trunking Solutions

9 Things Businesses Have Learned About Social Media

Someday, most businesses will use social media as they now embrace websites. Today, we are in the early stages of that transformation.

This is a reasonable summary of many of the issues organizations face only after they have started their social media programs, typically with Facebook or Twitter. Every organization experiments by adding new responsibilities to existing personnel.

Occasionally somebody gets "tasked" to do so, but almost always as an addition to existing duties. You can figure out what happens next. Organization executives are invited to help out, and that works for a little while, before the press of the business leads to waning participation.

Social media does not necessarily cost lots in terms of incremental out of pocket cost, But it takes time, and significant time if done properly.

In part, the generation of fresh content is part of the issue. A bigger issue is what happens when business partners or consumers actually start participating, or if an organization ramps up its optimization activities.

The other angle is that social media works best when lots of people within the organization are participating, and that can require a shift of organizational attitudes, support and practices that extend far beyond assigning somebody to "do it."

9 Things Businesses Have Learned About Social Media

Mobile Video Models Still Uncertain

It is easy to forget that Qualcomm, AT&T and Verizon have been offering subscription-based mobile TV since 2004, though the FloTV service will be shut down.

Some will argue that video subscriptions don't resonate with consumers, though cable operators and others tend to have a different view, suggesting that both on-demand access and subscription-based models have a role to play.

According to Yankee Group surveys, at the moment only 12 percent of smartphone users watch live TV through a service provided by a carrier, while 37 percent stream content through a Web site. That should not be surprising, since streaming from many websites, such as YouTube, is essentially "free." One might wonder why the percentage of mobile video usage is not even more skewed to "no incremental cost" sources, in fact.

When it comes to specific content consumers want, 58 percent of smartphone users buy or rent content through online stores and download it either directly to the smartphone or to their PC and transfer it to the smartphone.

That might be a more-important observation. Application-specific devices can succeed, of course. Personal navigation units and e-readers are examples. But Flo TV required a special-purpose device, though, and that might not match current user preferences for watching TV directly on smartphones.

With any content product, the availability of highly-desired content always matters. In addition to the apparent lack of interest in the Flot TV dedicated TV-viewing device, one might argue there were cost and choice issues as well.

Choice here meant that other devices could support video consumption, including iTunes matched with portable or mobile devices, plus availability on Flo TV of many content types users might have wanted, but could not get when using the service. Also, many users might have simply decided that existing game consoles, PCs and smartphones are reasonable substitutes for casual viewing.

Cost also might have been an issue. Few video subscription services aside from Netflix have gotten much traction, no matter which devices are used to support consumption

Yankee Group :: Research Report

Integrating Mobile with Existing Marketing Channels

Mobile doesn't make sense for any marketer if customers and prospects don't use the channel. But it is hard to argue with the proposition that just about everybody uses mobile these days, and more people are going to be using Web-enabled devices, meaning that more interactions with email and Web applications are going to be driven by mobile devices.

At the same time, there is little doubt that tablets now are becoming an established product category, meaning more overall usage will come from tablet devices that will offer different capabilities for marketers, both in terms of apps and apps using video and gaming.

Web analytics will inform a decision about how much mobile access a company's prospects and customers already are using.

If mobile visits are growing, consider optimizing a site for mobile. that generally includes advice such as removing JavaScript, Flash, ActiveX, and other proprietary technologies that might not support the mobile phone Web experience.

Site navigation can be tricky if it requires too many buttons and other "small" interface points.

Transaction-heavy sites might consider using WAP or smartphone applications that allow the user to complete regular transactions quickly and easily. The countervailing trend, though, is for heavier use of tablets. Tablets do not require such recrafting quite so much, with the salient exception that they encourage content consumption as well as mobile app access.

How Do You Integrate Mobile With B2B E-mail? | ClickZ