Another Step Towards "Personalized Media"

Facebook Online Video is a Commerce Play

The video itself is arguably less important than providing traction for Facebook Credits, Facebook's way of monetizing sales of products using the payment method.

U.S. Mobile Market Share Shifts Since 2006 Drive Consolidation Talk

Though no early deal likely is possible, in part because Sprint and T-Mobile USA do not appear to agree about the respective valuation of their firms, you can see why the discussions apparently are "on again," after having been rumored in the past.

It isn't simply that AT&T and Verizon Wireless are substantially bigger than Sprint and T-Mobile USA, it is that recently the two bigger firms have accelerated away from the two smaller companies, in terms of subscriber growth. In the mobile business, market share has been directly related to profitability, not just gross revenue.

Mobile Offload Will be 39% of Mobile Bandwidth Consumption in 2015

About 39 Percent of smartphone and tablet traffic will be offloaded to fixed networks in 2015, Cisco now predicts. That isn't a complete answer to the question of the relevance and value of fixed networks in the future, but it is part of the answer. Smartphones consume 24 times the bandwidth of a feature phone, handheld gaming consoles 60 times, tablets 122 times and notebooks or netbooks about 515 times the bandwidth of a typical feature phone.

4G Handsets on Track, Verizon Says

Most 4G networks have launched with the lead devices being PC dongles, for a simple reason: 4G smartphones have been relatively few and far between. That will change over time, as subscriber numbers grow, but the easiest device path remains PC dongles.

"A year ago, people didn’t believe that there would be LTE smartphones in 2011," says Verizon CTO Tony Melone. Verizon has promised smartphones in the first half of 2011 and still is on track to do so. Most networks based on Long Term Evolution have been grappling with the issue of how to support voice, in terms of protocols, and Verizon is no exception.

Verizon CTO confirms LTE issues, sticking to first half of 2011 releases

LTE Value: Different for Providers Than Consumers

For most end users, fourth-generation networks, whether using Long Term Evolution, WiMAX or HPSA-Plus, are probably about faster speeds and therefore better experience. For mobile service providers, the primary advantages, for the moment, arguably are more about ensuring there is enough bandwidth to meet growing mobile broadband demand.

That might change over time, as new applications are developed. But, at least for the moment, mobile service providers likely view 4G as important primarily because it provides lower-cost bandwidth to be sold, and not so much because it is faster than 3G, or even clearly offers a differentiated end user experience.

LTE pull is capacity, not speeds: Telstra - Communications

"Do Not Track" Unintended Consequences

While the U.S. Congress considers 'Do Not Track' legislation, a policy that has the consumer protection value "do not call" has had in the voice area, there always are some unintended consequences.

The European Union, meanwhile, also has announced that starting in May 2011, websites will be required to get explicit consent before collecting information from its users. Privacy is of growing importance, of course.

Still, even pro-consumer regulations can have negative consumer implications. To the extent that "do not track" also dampen demand for all manner of "targeted advertising" efforts, some companies in the advertising and technology spaces will be negatively affected.

But consumers, in some cases, might also find that if ad support is more difficult, some useful application providers might have to consider charging for app use where they might previously have been more inclined to offer "no incremental charge" access. It's hard to say right now how big the impact might be.

"Do Not Track" could cost consumers | Mercatus

Sirius Canada Uses Fonolo

Fonolo, the company that makes it easier and less frustrating to call large companies, announced today that Sirius Canada, the country's leading audio entertainment company, has signed an agreement to use Fonolo to improve the calling experience for its subscribers.

Fonolo's visual dialing solutions enable callers to connect directly to the right agents, bypassing phone menus and eliminating hold times. This technology, first pioneered with Fonolo's award-winning consumer service, now empowers businesses to improve the customer experience while reducing call center costs. Since October of 2010, Fonolo has been available on the Sirius website, contributing to a notable rise in caller satisfaction.

News

"Content is King" Again?

Over the past several decades, lots of observers have debated whether "distribution" or "content" is "king" of the ecosystem. Earlier in the history of the cable TV business, when networks were more limited in capacity, shelf space was limited, cable had few competitors and so "distribution" seemed to be "king."

As capacity has ceased to be such a choke point, and as competitive distribution mechanisms have flourished, though, one might have argued that "content" once again grabbed back some of the power.

That of course has lots of implications for distributors, but it would be very hard to find many examples of "distributors" having the upper hand in the professional video ecosystem. On the other hand, one might well argue that user-generated content remains an area where distributors such as Facebook and Google continue to have significant power, compared to content providers.

Studio executives seem to recognize in ways they did not generally seem to believe a couple of years ago that online distribution is a valuable channel they will use. They just don't intend to allow distributors to take a disproportionate role in the ecosystem, and that also includes protecting existing cable, satellite and telco distribution channels from cannibalization.

Netflix spooks Hollywood more than ever | Media Maverick - CNET News

A Great Way to Waste 2 3/4 Minutes

Jen Aniston, Smartwater, lots of yellow lab puppies, dancing babies and other time-wasting images....

U.S. Mobile Sustainable Market Share Might Require Consolidation

Huge fixed costs explain why the number of facilities-based access providers seems always to be a small number, no matter what regualtory frmaework is employed, economists at the Phoenix Center for Advanced Legal and Economic Policy Studies  have argued. In fact, the starting point for analysis should always be that there were be only a few facilities-based providers of any communications or video service, notably in the terrestrial facilities business, and especially when referring to networks using some form of wired access. See read more here

By direct implication, excessive competition will, over the longer term, "always" revert to a small number of providers, in large part because only a small number of providers can actually invest and make a profit. To be sure, the analysis is a bit different in a multi-product market, than in a single product market. In other words, the hurdle rates for a fixed-line provider with just one product will have different dynamics than markets where each contestant sells three to four anchor products.

The obvious example is minimum market share in the fixed-line market where entertainment video, voice and broadband access are the anchor products. An executive from a rural cable TV provider, at a time when the sole product was "cable TV," once was asked what would happen if the company's penetration rate of homes dropped from 70 percent to 65 percent. "We'd be out of business" was the reply, so sensitive was that firm to the arrival of a single competitor, when there was but one product.

In today's market, where three products are key, the hurdle rate can be far lower, in part because even a smaller number of subscribing households might buy two to three products, allowing any single contestant to survive or thrive on a smaller base of customers. In other words, were that same company able to sell voice, broadband access and video, meaning three separate revenue streams, even shrinkage of video customers substantially below 65 percent would not be a catastrophy, provided an equivalent or greater revenue stream could be generated from sales of the additional products, even to fewer numbers of customers.

Still, there are limits. Consider a sample market where entry costs are equivalent for all facilities-based contestants at 15 units. Where one firm operates, it gets 100 percent of possible profits. Where there are two contestants, profit falls to 40 units. Where there are three contestants, profit falls to 20 units per firm. With the potential entry of a fourth firm, profits drop to 12 units, leaving the fourth firm under water. The fourth firm rationally decides not to enter the market.

The particulars of each real-world market will diverge from the hypothetical example, but the point is that there are some clear limits to the potential profitability of contestants in the fixed-line access business, even when triple play services are possible.

Verizon Wireless has the highest market share in the U.S. mobile market. It also has the highest profit margin. AT&T is second in share, and second in margin. Sprint is third in share, and third in margin.

Why You Should Buy A Xoom Instead Of An iPad

There are a handful of features that some think are enough to justify buying an Android tablet over an iPad, argues Steve Kovach of Business Insider. Apple iPad fans probably won't be swayed by the arguments.

Why You Should Buy A Xoom Instead Of An iPad

Sprint and T-Mobile USA in Merger Talks?

Deutsche Telekom AG has held talks to sell its T-Mobile USA unit to Sprint Nextel Corp. in exchange for a major stake in the combined entity, Bloomberg said. “In general, all options are open in the U.S. -- the sale of the whole business or of parts,” Deutsche Telekom Chief Financial Officer Timotheus Hoettges said read more

Talks have been on and off, and a deal may not be reached, sources suggest. Such rumors have floated before, and observers have noted the high risk of integration, with any new entity operating multiple different networks (GSM, CDMA, iDEN, WiMAX). Of course, Sprint has said it will shut off the iDEN network, and almost certainly will light a new Long Term Evolution network. Granted, it is typical for any major carrier to support at least two networks concurrently. Supporting four networks would be quite challenging, in terms of gaining scale economies from any merger of T-Mobile USA and Sprint. read more.

On the other hand, the reason such rumors or talks have happened is that the U.S. mobile market arguably has too many contestants for a stable market structure. Indeed, there are two schools of thought on a potential merger between Sprint Nextel and T-Mobile USA.

On the one hand, notes Bernstein Research analyst Craig Moffett, the U.S. wireless market is “crying out for consolidation.” In most local markets, there are as many as seven different price actors, Moffett said. Most observers say that amount of competition in a capital-intensive business such as mobility is not stable over the long term. A merger would create three major facilities-based providers, allowing the new entity to compete more evenly with AT&T and Verizon Wireless.

But among the big issues are the chores of integrating incompatible networking technologies, since over the long term it will be difficult to obtain operating economies without reducing the number of supported protocols. read more.

The rumored talks might not lead to an actual deal. Citigroup analyst Michael Rollins reportedly estimates the odds of a deal as being under 30 percent. He also cites the significant integration risk; and he says there is only a 50 percent to 60 percent chance that regulators would approve such a combination. Some might well note that, historically, mergers between weaker partners often fail, over the long term, to close a gap with a market leader. Sometimes, the result is simply a larger, but still weaker contestant unable to close the gap with a market leader.

Still, the current market structure likely will remain unstable for both Sprint and T-Mobile USA so long as both remain independent entities. The market share gap between either of the firms and AT&T and Verizon Wireless is substantial and consequential. There is a reason neither Sprint nor T-Mobile USA have rights to sell the Apple iPhone or iPad. So long as AT&T and Verizon have something on the order of 30 percent to 33 percent share, the other two contestants, with shares in the 11 percent to nine percent range, will face hurdles.

PayPal Explains How to Use Payments in Android Apps

PayPal explains how to embed PayPal mobile payments features into Android apps. If you are interested in the process, this 30-minute video will explain how it gets done.

Mobile Marketing and Technology

Low Banking Usage in Sub-Saharan Africa Creates Mobile Opportunity

Sub-Saharan Africa has the lowest deposit institution penetration in the world standing at an average of 16.6 percent compared to 63.5 percent in other developing countries, the African Development Bank says. “It is this gap in the financial services market that is creating a unique niche for mobile phone banking to develop on the continent, enabling a growing number of people to access financial services for the first time,” ADB says.

Even Africans with bank accounts often face high charges for moving their cash around, due to high transaction costs. It is this gap in the financial services market that is creating a unique niche for mobile phone banking to develop on the continent.

Mobile Marketing and Technology