Will Video Follow Music?

There are reasons to believe the video industry will not follow the music industry as the shift from physical media to online and mobile delivery occurs.

But it has to be worrisome that the great age of compact disc music resembles the great age of DVD sales and rentals.

Kaspersky Believes Android Will Get 80% Share

Computer security expert Eugene Kaspersky predicts Google's Android smart phone operating system will come to dominate the market, reducing Apple and BlackBerry to niche players. Android could wind up with 80 percent of the installed base, Kaspersky maintains.

Kaspersky argues there is only “one company, one operating system which follows Microsoft's strategy of the 1990s” when its Windows computer operating system became dominant on personal computers.

Of course, that view assumes the mobile computing market will mirror the desktop computing market, and many would contest that notion.

Kaspersky believes Android will dominate mobile market - The China Post

Google Search Gets More Social

Google is changing its search results algorithms to return more "social" results. To that end, Google will add new emphasis on results created by people that are a part of one's social networks.

Social search results will now be mixed throughout results based on their relevance (in the past they only appeared at the bottom). This means you’ll start seeing more from people like co-workers and friends, with annotations below the results they’ve shared or created.

Official Google Blog: An update to Google Social Search

"Last Year was Boring; Not 2011" at Mobile World Congress

Lots of new technology, devices and networks are part of the reason.

Debit Card Rule Will Harm Community Bank Customers

People who use debit cards issued by community banks will face higher costs and increased restrictions if a proposed Federal Reserve regulation goes into effect, according to a new survey of members of the Independent Community Bankers of America (ICBA).

The proposed Federal Reserve rule would implement the Durbin amendment of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. That amendment limits interchange fees to the tune of about $12 billion a year.

That means issuers will raise other fees, and impose new charges, to recoup the losses. An end to "free checking" is among the likely changes.



Survey: Fed Debit Card Rule Will Harm Community Bank Customers - pymnts.com

Are Handset Vendors Service Providers?

There used to be a clear division of labor in the mobile business. Handset vendors and device manufacturers focused on designing the best possible hardware, using specifications provided by the mobile network operators. More recently, software has emerged as a key differentiator. But the "service" was provided by the mobile operator.

But all that is changing. Handset vendors are trying to shift in the direction of providing an "experience" for their end users that necessarily has handsets providing some "services."

Think about Apple iTunes, App Store, MobileMe, iAd and FaceTime. All are services provided directly by Apple to end users, irrespective of network.

If you are thinking there is an inevitable shift of value and revenue towards the "over the top" services and apps delivered over broadband access services, you are right. That's what a loosely-coupled network, such as the Internet, implies. That is not to say fixed or mobile operators do not have a role in the value chain. They always will. The inevitable point, though, is that there is no reason why most of the newly-created value will remain in the "access" part of the ecosystem.

Mobile operators will have an easier time of this than fixed operators, but no access provider can hope to capture much more than a fraction of the new value and revenue created by application providers. That's what "layers" mean. Applications do not have to know much about the physical layer to "work." Nor will future application provider business models need to "know" much about the physical and lower layers of the software stack.

In the evolving ecosystem, even devices will become application providers.

Are Handset Vendors About to Become Service Providers? | VoIP SurvivorVoIP Survivor

Smartphones are Top U.S. Consumer Electronics Items in 2011

Consumers in the United States are more likely to buy a smartphone in 2011 than PCs, mobile phones, e-readers, media tablets and gaming products, according to a recent survey by Gartner.

U.S. smartphone sales are expected to grow from 67 million units in 2010 to 95 million units in 2011. By comparison, mobile PC shipments are forecast to total 50.9 million in the United States. in 2011, up from 45.6 million from 2010.

Gartner Survey Shows U.S. Consumers More Likely to Purchase a Smartphone Than Other Consumer Devices in 2011

How Twitter Pitches Potential Advertisers

"Social" Business Invoicing Using PayPal

Tradeshift declares invoicing social from venturecup.tv on Vimeo.

It's part of the broader trend of experimentation with mobile remittances, mobile payments, mobile banking, online payment, online banking, online money transfer and shopping.

"Why You Shouldn't Start a Company"

By serial entrepreneur Christian Lanng, Tradeshift CEO. 

Intel Moves Ahead with MeeGo, Despite Nokia Shift

Intel says it is moving ahead to commercialize MeeGo, the smartphone operating system Nokia recently abandoned in favor of Windows Mobile.

Big changes in Mobile Carrier Billing Will Affect Payment Possibilities

In most businesses, it makes a difference whether a firm's direct costs are 40 percent or 10 percent. Up to this point, revenue splits of about 60 percent for the merchant and 40 percent for a mobile carrier have sharply limited the types of products that can be sold using the mobile device and carrier billing.

In other words, products bought and billed directly to the mobile statement have imposed higher transaction costs, by far, than use of credit and debit cards, for example. Zong knows all about carrier billing, but has been predicting there would be significant movement on the charges, as Zong volume has grown. That appears to be happening.

The carriers are dropping the revenue splits to closer to 10 percent, from 40 percent. “The carriers won’t go below 10 percent for digital or virtual goods, but they will lower their rates for physical,” says David Marcus, the CEO of Zong.

Zong Sees Mobile Payments Coming for Physical Goods Sooner Than You Think

Google Sees Both Loyalty and Advertising Angles to Mobile Payments

There's little question at this point but that Google intends to use near field communications in ways that might use the payment function, but almost certainly will focus on advertising, couponing, loyalty and other elements of the retail shopping experience.

In fact, payments as such might not be Google's primary interest in near field communications. Google might see much more upside in working with advertisers to extend offers to phones, perhaps including couponing and other offers as part of the ads.

Google's Eric Schmidt Reveals NFC Smartphone Plans: It's All About Advertising | Fast Company

Mobile Users are Task Oriented, Tablet Users More Entertainment Oriented

Research to date on tablet advertising has typically found that placements that take advantage of the full features of the device—like video, 360-degree views, striking photos and interactivity—appeal most to users. An Adobe-sponsored study found flashy iPad ads were more engaging and effective than their static print counterparts, and earlier research from UM and Time Inc. indicated that videos were the most desired feature of iPad ads.

On smartphones, by contrast, users seem to prefer to keep it simple. A Pontiflex survey conducted by Harris Interactive found that very few smartphone users preferred ads that were like commercials or that featured video. Just 15 percent of all adults liked such ads on their phone, vs. 63 percent who preferred more basic coupons, deals or newsletters.

So it appears the flashy video ads are better suited to tablets, while coupons are better suited to smartphone users.

The Differences Between Mobile and Tablet Advertising - eMarketer

Mobile Banking in Africa to Hit U.S.$22 Billion By 2015

The International Telecommunications Union estimates mobile subscriptions across Africa more than tripled to 333 million since 2005. The World Bank said Sub-Saharan Africa averages just 163 bank accounts per 1,000 adults — compared to an average 635 in developing countries.

In 2006, Kenya had only 450 bank branches and 600 automatic teller machines, or less than two bank branches per 100,000 people. Read more here.

Taking the overall population as the potential target market, the penetration rate of mobile telephony in Uganda is now 35 percent, while in Liberia, it was around 31 percent in 2009. In Cameroon, where MTN and Orange have a duopoly, the penetration rate was around 38 percent in June 2010. In Kenya, mobile penetration is 50 percent, while in Rwanda, it was about 25 percent in early 2010.

South Africa’s Wizzit is another start-up. Its operations are guaranteed by the South African Bank of Athens. Managing Director Brian Richardson will not disclose the number of subscribers, but says the operation turns a profit.

“I do believe the bank-led model will win at the end of the day,” he says.

Mobile Banking in Africa to Hit U.S.$22 Billion By 2015