Facebook Valuation

You can decide for yourself whether there is a bubble building (again) in the Internet app space.

Global mobile data subscriptions to double in 2011

During 2010, mobile broadband subscriptions surpassed the half-a-billion mark globally. But Ericsson estimates that this number will double before 2011 ends. The greatest number of subscriptions, around 400 million, is expected to be concentrated in the Asia Pacific region, followed by North America and Western Europe with more than 200 million subscriptions each.

Mobile broadband adoption has accelerated with strong growth of smartphones, connected laptops and tablets, supported by the introduction of high- performance networks. Smartphones' users are increasingly using applications and internet services on the go. Global mobile data traffic continues to grow rapidly, with Ericsson announcing in August 2010 that it had tripled in just one year.

Global mobile data has nearly tripled in the last year, growing more than 10 times faster than voice, according to Ericsson measurements. According to Ericsson statistics, global measured mobile data traffic stands at nearly 225,000 terabytes per month as of the second quarter of 2010.

Mobile broadband currently accounts for only 10 percent of total mobile subscriptions but a rapidly increasing majority of the traffic, Ericsson says. Mobile data traffic continues to grow exponentially even after the historic cross over point in December 2009 when data first exceeded voice, as reported by Ericsson earlier this year

Global mobile data traffic nearly triples in 1 year - Ericsson

http://www.marketwire.com/press-release/Mobile-broadband-subscriptions-to-hit-one-billion-mark-in-2011-NASDAQ-ERIC-1378254.htm

Groupon Expands Local Commerce Platform to India, Israel and South Africa | Business Wire

Groupon has launched of Groupon India, Groupon Israel and Groupon South Africa by means of the firm's acquisitions of daily deal sites SoSasta, Grouper and Twangoo.

Groupon negotiates discounts with popular businesses and shares them with subscribers by means of free daily emails. The deals are activated only when a minimum number of people agree to buy, encouraging subscribers to share the promotion with family and friends.

By guaranteeing a large number of new customers, Groupon has created a new marketing vehicle for local merchants, and also has pioneered a new channel for mobile and local advertising.

Groupon Expands Local Commerce Platform to India, Israel and South Africa | Business Wire

Google Goggles "Reads" Ad Images

The Google Goggles 1.3 client for Android can scan barcodes almost instantly. But all versions of Goggles can now recognize print ads in popular magazines and newspapers.

"The next time you're flipping through the pages of your favorite magazine, try taking a picture of an ad with Goggles," Google says. "Goggles will recognize print ad and return web search results about the product or brand."

This new feature of Goggles is enabled for print ads appearing in major U.S. magazines and newspapers from August 2010 onwards.

Official Google Mobile Blog

IPhone May Cost Verizon $5 Billion in Subsidies in First Year

Verizon Wireless, set to get Apple Inc.’s iPhone Jan. 11 after four years of waiting, may spend $3 billion to $5 billion to subsidize customer purchases of the device in 2011 alone, based on the expected $400 per iPhone subsidy Verizon will absorb.

While the smartphone will help Verizon add more subscribers this year than rival AT&T Inc., currently the exclusive U.S. carrier for the iPhone, it will also crimp profits, said John Hodulik, an analyst at UBS AG.

Hodulik said Verizon may sell 13 million of the devices with an estimated $400 subsidy this year, which would add up to a total of $5.2 billion. Of course, some observers say Verizon Wireless will not sell nearly that many devices.

Verizon will sell only five million to seven million iPhones in 2011, argues Dan Hays, PRTM director. Still, a hit to earnings of $2 billion to $5 billion in a single year suggests significant competition in the mobile business. Executives in non-competitive industries do not willingly sacrifice $2 billion to $5 billion in earnings.

IPhone May Cost Verizon $5 Billion in Subsidies in First Year - BusinessWeek

Intuit Mobile "Go Payment" Push: No Charge and a Free Card Reader

Intuit will offer its "GoPayment" mobile payment service with a free credit card reader and no monthly service fees to business owners who sign up by mid-February. “By offering a free card reader and no monthly service fees, we want to give more small businesses a head start in the New Year by enabling them to take mobile payments without any upfront investment,” says Chris Hylen, general manager of Intuit’s Payment Solutions division.

GoPayment is compatible with more than 40 popular mobile handsets and a range of credit card readers, Intuit says. This includes a free credit card reader from ROAM Data, which works on a variety of iPhone, Blackberry and Android devices, to make it easier for the cost-conscious new business owner to start taking mobile payments.

“We expect the point-of-sale mobile payments market in the U.S. to grow to $55 billion by 2015, up from an estimated $1 billion in 2010,” says Gwenn Bézard of Aite Group.

read more here

TV as "an App"

If you take a look at this sample Internet TV interface, you will almost immediately sense something important: entertainment video, with some important advances in content availability, could someday become an "application" accessed from an icon on a mobile or fixed device. 


That doesn't mean "application" in the sense of a program, but as a gateway or portal to an entire menu of streaming services. 


You can figure out why a cable operator wouldn't like that. 

Sling Media Subscription for Verizon Wireless 4G

Entertainment video might not wind up being the killer app for mobile 4G, but Sling Media seems to think it could be. Sling Media is offering subscriptions that allow users of some Verizon Wireless 4G smartphones the ability to watch their home TV on new 4G smartphones.

Some users might not think the offer is a reasonable way of using online video, but the offer has one important attribute: it probably is one of the first offerings that allows a Verizon FiOS TV user to watch all the "good stuff" he or she is paying for, on a mobile.

Sling Media - Sling Media Announces Subscription Offering for Verizon Wireless 4G LTE Customers

Amdocs: How the Business is Changing

Are "Smart TVs" a Threat to Cable TV?

Internet-connected TVs pose some problems for cable TV operators, satellite and telco TV providers. Obviously, in making direct access to Internet video a lot easier, Internet-capable TVs create more danger for linear video providers in a strategic sense, allowing people to view video on their home TVs without a lot of work.

To the extent that cable operators always have seen the set-top decoder as a gateway device, the widespread availability of TVs and third-party devices that make it easier to watch Internet video on a home TV also threaten to weaken the hold linear video providers have over their customers.

Netflix streaming looks to be emerging as a primary case in point.

"Smart TVs" Add The Best Of The Internet To Your TV - PCWorld

The Future of Social Shopping

For a retailer with the ability to mine data, social sign-ons, especially to sites such as Facebook and Twitter, offer quite a lot of additional data and context about customers and shoppers.

Social sign-on, which allows consumers to log in to their Facebook account instead of registering on an ecommerce site, has advantages for users as well, especially in terms of ease of use. Social sign-on is sort of the equivalent of a merchant storing your phone number so when you forget your affinity card while shopping, the retailer can still look up the information.

Social sign-on gives retailers access to much-richer profile information, presumably at a point in time when a shopper is going to make a purchase of some type.

The Future of Social Shopping - eMarketer

T-Mobile UK Says "Use Your Fixed Line for Video"

"If you want to download, stream and watch video clips, save that stuff for your home broadband," T-Mobile U.K. says. On February 1, 2011 T-Mobile U.K. will be realigning its fair use policies so that mobile internet service will have fair use of 500 MBytes a month.

That doesn't sound like much a bucket of usage, but most users, in most markets, consume something like 200 Mbytes a month on their mobile phones.

In fact, T-Mobile U.K. seems quite sure that level of fair usage will allow people to do all the things they normally do, such as using email or checking social media updates and using websites.

That level of usage, of course, does not cover watching of videos, downloading of big files or playing interactive Internet-based games. As often is the case, uses who exceed the 500 Mbyte usage cap will be limited in ability to download, stream and watch video clips, but will have normal use of email, web and other activities that are not so bandwidth intensive.

If you want to know what the long-term value of a fixed-line service is, it is broadband access. T-Mobile U.K.'s advice to "use video on your fixed connection" is just one bit of evidence.

T-Mobile - Help & Support

Programmers Signal Resistance to Streaming

With the caveat that enough revenue would fix any potential problems content owners have with Comcast’s streaming of video content to iPads and other tablets precipitated a flurry of legal correspondence in the first week of January 2011, as several cable network groups made it clear that they had not signed off on any such arrangement, Mediaweek reports.

The initial warning shots took the form of reminders that such distribution is not authorized by existing affiliate agreements, but apparently stopped short of threatening immediate legal action.

It is easy to imagine further conflict between rights holders and operators. There's just too much money at stake.

Apps Irk Cable Nets

Verizon to Offer iPhone Unlimited Plans?

Verizon Wireless will offer unlimited data-use plans when it starts selling the iPhone around the end of this month, the Wall Street Journal reports. Though Verizon has said in the past that some form of pricing that better matches usage and retail cost was going to be necessary, the possible move would offer differentiation from AT&T plans which are capped.

At one level the moves are simply part of the on-going chess match over customer acquisition and retention that all the mobile carriers must contend with on a daily basis. AT&T has taken steps to shore up its iPhone customer base from defection to Verizon, in part by offering recent attractive upgrade prices that come with two-year service contracts.

"Unlimited" or non-capped plans would provide existing AT&T iPhone customers a reason to switch providers, especially when such customers would have to buy new phones for the Verizon network.

At another level the move shows confidence about the network's ability to handle an expected surge of data traffic, as well as the ability to shift some existing demand from the 3G network to the new 4G network.

The customer benefit the Verizon unlimited service plan and AT&T device upgrade offer also suggest that despite occasional arguments about lack of competition, the mobile markets are more than workably competitive. It is a reasonable argument that AT&T "had" to offer $49 iPhone 4 handsets, and Verizon was "compelled" to offer unlimited service, even though both moves will hit earnings.

Verizon to Offer iPhone Users Unlimited Data Plans - WSJ.com: (subscription required)

Video Games Move to General Purpose Platforms

Dedicated game-playing units still are popular. But these days the biggest growth might be gaming on mobile and other devices.