IP Carrier

Wednesday, March 9, 2011

"Cloud services...will touch every aspect of the software ecosystem, be it developers, vendors, buyers, users, service providers, and the channel," IDC says. That also means a shift to cloud-based computing is going to affect other ecosystems as well, particularly the communications ecosystem, since remote computing obviously increases the wide area communications and networking intensity of all computing applications.

"The cloud has moved from being on the periphery of both IT buyers and IT vendors to being a core issue for both parties," said David Bradshaw, IDC research manager. "IT buyers are looking for ways for cloud to increase agility while reducing cost, while many IT vendors, not least the software vendors, are scrambling to get their cloud offerings into the market before it is too late."

IDC - Press Release - prDK22728011:

Android Grows 1580% in Western Europe in 4Q 2010

Shipments of smartphones in Western Europe in the fourth quarter of 2010 increased to 25.6 million units, 99 percent higher than in the fourth quarter of 2009. Feature phone shipments declined to 33.1 million units, down 25 percent from the same quarter of 2009.

Android grew 1,580 percent year-over-year to 7.9 million units, up from 470 thousand units a year ago. The Apple iOS increased 66 percent in the fourth quarter of 2010 from the same quarter of 2009.

"The Western European mobile phone market will be dominated by smartphones, and Android will be the king of the hill," said Francisco Jeronimo, European mobile devices research manager, IDC. "

Android surged from four percent to 31 percent market share in less than a year to become the market leader in the fourth quarter of 2010 and the fastest growing operating system ever.

IDC estimates at that Android will grow at a 37 percent compound annual growth rate between 2010 and 2015 in Western Europe, overtaking the overall market growth in the period and that of its direct competitor, the iOS from Apple.

IDC - Press Release - prUK22729011

Secondary Market for Groupon Coupons Emerges

Sites like DealsGoRound, CoupRecoup and Lifesta give consumers a place to sell Groupon and other coupons. The emergence of a secondary market for social shopping instruments shows just how much activity now occurs.

Lifesta charges sellers 99 cents plus 8 percent of the sale price to sell a coupon. DealsGoRound levies a flat 10 percent of the sale price and CoupRecoup is free to use. CoupRecoup cofounder Aren Sandersen said the site is not charging, but is “looking to find revenue options at the end of this year.’’

Market for ‘Groupon remorse’ allows users to unload coupons - The Boston Globe

Cookies, Warnings as Competitive Disadvantages

European Union websites, starting on May 25, 2011, will have to ask permission to install "cookies" on user machines. Too late, it seems, website operators are discovering that they likely are going to face greater end user refusal, and consequently less ability to monetize user engagement, compared to similar and competing sites that do not have to comply with the EU rules.

'If we are suddenly required to put big pop-up boxes warning people that they are going to be tracked, even if they are for benign reasons, the user won't read the warning and will just go to a US site that does not have that same warning," says Nick Halstead of Mediasift.

"Do Not Track" is being considered in the United States as well. But there are unintended consequences, as EU websites apparently are about to discover.

BBC - dot.Rory: Cookie madness or consumer protection?:

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.

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

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....