Girl Sells Spot in iPad 2 Line for $900, Nerd Pays Up -- Daily Intel

http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2011/03/girl_sells_spot_in_first_spot.html

The Secret to Apple’s Success

http://l2thinktank.com/blog/2011/03/the-secret-to-apples-success/

Amazon Terminates Affiliate Program In Illinois After New Tax Law

Amazon is terminating its affiliate marketing program in Illinois after the state passed a new law requiring ecommerce companies like Amazon to charge sales tax in the state, even if they have no physical presence there.

Amazon's nationwide associates program lets anyone earn money for referring customers to Amazon, and it is said to be a significant source of income for many small web publishers.

Ironically, the law is supposed to protect small in-State mom-and-pop businesses from larger retailers such as Amazon. Amazon has faced similar laws in a few other states, and typically dissolves all in-State marketing affiliations when such laws are passed.

One might cynically note that such laws are supported by Amazon's competitors (large national chains) and obviously by tax collection interests. But the unintended consequences always seem to include damage to some local businesses who are Amazon affiliates.

Amazon Terminates Affiliate Program In Illinois After New Tax Law

Netflix Not Threatened by Facebook Video

“Nobody goes to Facebook to watch movies,” Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos said. Netflix will eventually get shows from Warner Bros.’ sister company HBO by offering to pay the cable channel the “right amount,” he added. That's true. But one suspects the firm defense of Netflix positioning in online video is, at some level, part of the tug of war between Netflix bullish investors, and those who believe the valuation is too high.

Netflix Not Threatened by Warner-Facebook, Official Says - Bloomberg

Web players must help fund networks says new GSMA chief

Mobile operators have been arguing for some time that if over-the-top providers are going to take much of the revenue from the mobile data boom, they should also help invest in the networks to support it. It's the sort of thing that one hears in an ecosystem changing rapidly, with value and revenue distributions changing just as rapidly.

Franco Bernabe, former CEO of Telecom Italia and now the new head of the GSMA, says it is time to review the way networks are funded. Application providers won't agree. But it is hard to see how broadband consumption can keep growing, with matching investment, if additional revenue to build and upgrade the networks is not available. And one can argue such revenue will not be available if usage grows by two orders of magnitude while retail prices grow only linearly. 

For that reason, talk of two-sided business models will grow.

Web players must help fund networks says new GSMA chief - Rethink Wireless

BT UK Frustrated by Lack of FTTC Demand

Fiber access does not sell itself, BT has found. As it begins to market its new fiber-based access services, BT has found that consumer demand for 40 Mbps Internet access is less robust than some had anticipated.

"Cardiff has been given a head start by Openreach but some fiber-enabled parts of the city are proving to be a bit slow out of the blocks to take up the opportunities fibre presents," said Richard Hall,BT Openreach NGA Deployment Director for Wales.

"With the notable exception of Whitchurch, residents are proving slow to take advantage of the technology on their doorstep and so we are working with the local council to raise awareness and drive demand," he said.

In the U.S. market, service providers have not fared much better with sales of 50 Mbps or faster services, which largely remain products bought by business customers. Another typical U.S. market issue also could be a factor. Customers in these areas already can buy fast service from Virgin Media.

BT UK Frustrated by Lack of Superfast FTTC Broadband Uptake in Cardiff Wales − ISPreview UK

Kenyan Farmers Use Mobiles for Crop Insurance

Farmers in Kenya while purchasing seed and fertilizer for their crops can, at the same time, use their cell phones to scan a bar code on the products to purchase weather related crop failure insurance. They receive weather advisories on the same devises. Ultimately, if the rains are not sufficient or abundantly destructive they will receive payouts on those devises.



There are no forms to fill out nor claims to file. The entire system is automated on their mobile phones. This insurance scheme is the result of a partnership between UAP Insurance Company of Kenya, Safaricom Ltd., and two crop input providers (MEA Fertilizers and Syngenta Foundation for Sustainable Agriculture seed supplier).

African Farmers Insure Crops and Recieve Payments Via Cell Phones

One Take on Social Commerce, Location, "Local"

"Social media" is a different thing from "social commerce." In fact, "social commerce" is part of a broader complex of big applications coming that will combine the capabilities of smartphones with social and other applications to enhance or supplant lots of activities that people engage in the real world, where they are.

Apple Breaks Rules in Enterprise Market

Apple has broken the rules in the mobile business, music business and might finally have made a key breakthrough in the enterprise market.

Apple never has been fond of selling to enterprises; preferring to sell to "people." These days, though enterprise workers are demanding the right to use their own smartphones, tablets and other gadgets, and it seems as though Apple finally has, despite breaking all the rules, gotten a permanent foothold in the enterprise market.

If so, Apple will have succeeded again, breaking the rules and refusing to pitch to "enterprise IT" and instead directly to users.

In A Post-PC Era, Apple Wants To Be Your IT Department - Brian Caulfield - Shiny Objects - Forbes

FaceCash verifies identity with a photo

FaceCash is a mobile payment system that verifies the identify of the user in part by using a bar code that can be displayed on a smartphone or self-printed card for making purchases at participating merchant stores. When that bar code is scanned, the merchant is presented with the consumer's picture for verification.

Assuming it's a match, the transaction proceeds and the consumer's funds are transferred instantly to the merchant; both sides get an online record of everything bought or sold.

Consumers can exchange money with each other this way as well. FaceCash is part of the ThinkLink network, and merchants need only an internet-connected computer and a barcode scanner, optionally available from Think for as little as USD 39.99; to use the service, they pay just 1.5 percent per transaction. For consumers, the free FaceCash application is available for iPhone, Android and BlackBerry phones. Users of other models can access the service through a mobile web browser.

Mobile payment app verifies identity with a photo - Springwise

Clearwire CEO, Two Other Execs Suddenly Resign

Three top-level departures on a single day at a public company is typically a sign of something important, no matter what the stated reasons for the departures are. At Clearwire, Bill Morrow who has resigned as CEO and as a director of the board, citing personal reasons. The company also announced that Mike Sievert, chief commercial officer, and Kevin Hart, CIO, are both leaving the company to pursue other opportunities.

John Stanton, chairman of Clearwire’s board of directors and former CEO of Western Wireless and VoiceStream Wireless, has been named CEO of Clearwire on an interim basis, effective immediately. Stanton will continue to serve in his role as board chairman. Erik Prusch, Clearwire’s CFO, has been promoted to the newly created position of chief operating officer. Hope Cochran, Clearwire’s senior vice president and treasurer, has been promoted to the position of CFO.

Given Clearwire's recent serious commercial and strategic disagreements with Sprint, which owns about 54 percent of the company, the resignation of all three Sprint members of the board last year, Clearwire's need for a few billions in additional investment by the end of the year, and its virtual halt to new network construction this year, it might appear that the board simply has concluded it has to change management in order to change course. The resignation of founder Craig McCaw as chairman in December 2010, and Intel executive vice president Arvind Sodhani this year (Intel was an early investor in Clearwire) now perhaps take on a different cast as well.

It is just speculation, but typically, when a company is facing a major quarterly financial miss, it is the chief financial officer who resigns. When there is a botched strategy, it is the CEO who leaves. But the departure of three "C" titles on the same day also suggests that a change of strategy is coming. Sometimes that level of departures indicates that a change of control is coming soon. Such changes typically take the form of takeovers or mergers that will replace the current management team.

In this case, a change of control seems unlikely, as Sprint already owns 54 percent of the company, though Sprint does not exercise management control. Though additional details are sure to emerge, the immediate conclusion one would draw is that Clearwire is about to change strategy in some key way, and that the three departing executives opposed the changes.

All of those executive departures, taken in isolation, might be explained. Taken as a pattern they suggest something significant is about to happen at Clearwire.

Apple iPad Still Overwhelming Choice of Buyers, Survey Suggests

FCC Chair to Commerce?

The White House is considering Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski as a potential successor to Gary Locke as Secretary of Commerce, according to The Hill.

Genachowski is among a list of names the White House has floated internally, along with U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk and others.

Sources: Net neutrality point man in the running for job in Obama's Cabinet - The Hill's Hillicon Valley

House Subcommittee Votes to Kill Net-Neutrality Rules

A U.S. House of Representatives subcommittee has voted to overturn the Federal Communications Commission's network neutrality rules. The vote is largely symbolic, at the moment. The full Energy and Commerce Committee has not yet scheduled a full vote of the whole committee, nor has the full House voted on the measure.

Were the measure to pass the full House, President Obama would likely veto the bill in any case. Nor is it clear the U.S. communications industry, in some important measure, believes it wants to risk harsher regulation under Title II rules that the FCC has talked about.

House Republicans Win Early Battle Over Net-Neutrality Rules (subscription required)

The Internet in 2020