"No Ads" for iCloud Email

However Apple sees monetization of iCloud, "ads" does not seem to be among the approaches. While discussing Apple's free, new iCloud email service, CEO Steve Jobs said the new email service would not feature advertising.

"We build products that we want for ourselves, too, and we just don't want ads," said Jobs.

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Mobile Social Networking Grows 10%

The frequency of mobile social networking grew about 10 percent between the three-month period ended January 2011 and the three-month period ended April 2011, according to comScore MobiLens data.

Some 28 percent of U.S. mobile subscribers accessed a social networking site via mobile phone in April, compared to 25 percent in January.

Mobile Social Networking Grows

New Apple iOS Features

For some of us, Apple's new iCloud services are more interesting than updates to the Apple iOS, but there were new features announced at the same developer meeting where iCloud services were announced.

$12 Billion Personal Cloud Business?

Though Apple’s iCloud services are available “at no incremental cost,” analysts at Forrester Research estimate there is about $12 billion in annual revenue (by 2016), about $6 billion earned in the form of subscription fees,  to be earned by providers of “personal cloud” services that help people manage their personal and work-related information across the many devices they use.



More than half the U.S. online population, about 135 million people, have the challenge of managing their content across multiple PCs and smartphones, Forrester Research says.


Apple is innovating on par with the most notable startups in the personal cloud space, such as Dropbox, Box.net, and Evernote, and is ahead of Google, says Frank Gillett, Forrester Research analyst. Gillett We expects Amazon, Facebook and other major players to pursue personal cloud strategies as well.


Read more here: http://goo.gl/7zsqE

Apple Launches iCloud Services

Apple has launched  “iCloud,” a set of free cloud services that synchronize applications on  iPhones, iPads, iPod touch, Mac or PC devices. Content stored on iCloud is automatically and wirelessly pushed to all of a user’s registered devices when changes are made.

The free iCloud services include the former “MobileMe” services such as contacts, calendar and mail, The App Store and iBookstore.

Purchased iOS apps and books can be downloaded to all of a user’s devices, not just the device they were purchased on. Tapping the iCloud icon will download any apps and books to any iOS device (up to 10 devices) at no additional cost.

iCloud Backup automatically and securely backs up iOS devices to iCloud daily over Wi-Fi when users charge their iPhones, iPads or iPod touch devices. Backed up content includes purchased music, apps and books, “Camera Roll” (photos and videos), device settings and app data.
iCloud Storage seamlessly stores all documents created using iCloud Storage APIs and automatically pushes them to all of a user’s devices. When you change a document on any device, iCloud automatically pushes the changes to all your devices. Apple’s “Pages,” “Numbers” and “Keynote” apps already take advantage of iCloud Storage.

Users get up to 5GB of free storage for their mail, documents and backup.

iCloud’s “Photo Stream” service automatically uploads the photos a user takes or imports on any of their devices and wirelessly pushes them to all of a user’s devices and computers.

Apple’s “iTunes in the Cloud” lets users download previously purchased iTunes music to all of a user’s  iOS devices at no additional cost, and new music purchases can be downloaded automatically to all devices.

Marketing in the "Age of the Customer"

It would be easy enough to consider content marketing as a tactic, rather part of a strategy. But in the "age of the customer," content marketing is a tactic that fits with a fundamental strategic approach as well. That isn't to say content marketing is THE strategy, only that content marketing is a tactic clearly aligned with new market imperatives and strategies.

The issue is what provides sustainable advantage in an era. Previous sources of dominance were derived from core competence in manufacturing, distribution or information. Those sorts of competencies still are important, but arguably are not the unique sources of competitive advantage for most firms and brands.

The new context is that, in a digital world, competition can come from anywhere. Customers have real-time information about pricing, product features and competitors; they hold all the advantages. The only sustainable source of competitive advantage, the only defensible position, is to concentrate on knowledge of and engagement with customers, some would argue.

That might suggest a "customer obsessed" strategy, where budgets focus on processes that enhance engagements with customers, and prioritizes these over maintaining traditional competitive sources of advantage.

You might change the way you do research, says Josh Bernoff, Forrester Research analyst. You might spend less on surveys whose results come back too late to act on. You might invest instead in real-time listening to social media and the search for customers' unarticulated needs.

You might take cash from your email and advertising blasts and spend it on interactive content and mobile apps that create real connections.

The point is that there is a reason people talk so much these days about "engagement," "conversation" and "connections." Those are ways of responding to a market where customers have more power. It might be going too far to say that "brands" now are in the hands of consumers, but the shift in that direction is palpable.

Content marketing fits because it is one way to create and sustain brand engagement.

Empowered

Glass Half Full on Video Cord Cutting?

It would be hard to argue that there is any current and massive trend for U.S. households to substitute online video for linear subscription TV services. On the other hand, it also would be hard to argue that the trend is not in place.

Such substitution is only “nascent,” but could grow if content owners decide to provide the content in that way, said Time Warner

chief operating officer, Landel Hobbs. Though it remains largely true that Americans are not rushing to cancel their subscription TV services, as a survey by the Consumer Electronics Association suggests, neither would it be true to say the phenomenon is not growing.

But 10 percent of survey respondents say they are “very likely” or “likely” to cancel their linear video service. And about 14 percent say they “might” do so. That is consistent with many other recent surveys. CEA’s research suggests that 76 percent of U.S. consumers have no interest in cancelling their multichannel video TV service, with 51 percent reporting they are “very unlikely” to cancel TV service.

Glass Half Full on Video Cord Cutting?

5 Percent of EC Consumers Buy Internet Access at Speeds of 39 Mbps or Above

There’s a clear gap between very high speed fixed broadband in the European Union countries and the availability of such connections. Only five percent of consumers buy fixed line broadband access at speeds of 30 Mbps and above, although 29 percent of households could buy service at such speeds if they wanted to, according to a new European Commission report.

The point is that there is more to ultra-fast broadband adoption than sometimes seems important. As it turns out, few U.S. customers actually buy services running at 50 Mbps or above, and most of the customers who do buy are probably business customers.

You might argue that the only real problem is that the faster services are too expensive. That’s true, but also difficult to change, as it would be difficult to find any cost savings, in any part of the fixed-line broadband access business, that would allow pricing of 50 Mbps or 100 Mbps services to be sold at similar prices as today's 20-Mbps services.

5 Percent of EC Consumers Buy Internet Access at Speeds of 39 Mbps or Above

Mortgage Origination Forecast

Housing is an important economic indicator. Mortgage issuance is related to housing purchases. So this forecast by the Mortgage Banking Association isn't pretty.

Mobile Users Warm Up to the Check-In

Checking in to location-based services on a mobile phone is still not a mainstream activity, but adoption is increasing, especially among smart phone users.

According to comScore, seven percent of all mobile users and 18 percent of smart phone users accessed check-in services in March 2011.

Users of check-in services were more likely than the overall smartphone population to be female, under 35 years old and full-time students.

Mobile Users Warm Up to the Check-In - eMarketer

NRF Finds Willingness to Use Social Commerce

The National Retail Federation reports that people are more willing to dabble in social commerce than many retailers realize, with 42 percent of those who shop online saying they at least occasionally "follow" a store on social media. More than 56 percent of Facebook users have clicked through to a retail site, while 67 percent of Twitter users have done so.

Perhaps the biggest finding is that these consumers are open to skipping brand sites entirely, with 35 percent saying they would be willing to make a purchase directly from Facebook, and 32 percent right from Twitter. Those findings obviously run counter to some sentiment that people on Facebook are in a socializing mood, not a shopping mood.

But other studies do suggest that social shopping is something users will do. Shoppers are willing to interact with retailers through a variety of social networks and retailers have limitless opportunities to capitalize on the momentum, according to the 2011 Social Commerce Study, a joint research project by Shop.org, comScore and Social Shopping Labs. The report, which evaluates shopping directly influenced by social media, polled 1787 adult online shoppers in April 2011. See New_study_evaluates_consumer_behaviors_attitudes_toward_social_commerce_.php.

According to the Shop.org survey, 42 percent of online consumers have "followed" a retailer proactively through Facebook, Twitter or a retailer's blog, and the average person follows about six retailers. While shoppers' reasoning for following a retailer varies, the majority of respondents (58 percent) said they follow companies to find deals, while nearly half (49 percent) say they want to keep up to date on products. More than one-third also follow retailers for information on contests and events (39 percent).

The NRF study, based on more than 1,700 online shoppers, found that those online shoppers who track retailers typically follow six stores, whether through Facebook, Twitter or a retailer's blog.

MediaPost Publications Online Shoppers 'Follow' Faves On Social Media 06/06/2011:

Facebook Accounts For 38% Of Sharing Traffic On The Web

Overall, sharing now produces an estimated 10 percent of all Internet traffic and 31 percent of referral traffic to sites from search and social.

Search is still about twice as big, according to ShareThis. Facebook appears to drive 38 percent of shared items, email about 17 percent and Twitter about 17 percent.

ShareThis Study: Facebook Accounts For 38 Percent Of Sharing Traffic On The Web

Ten Signs The Double-Dip Recession Has Begun - 24/7 Wall St.

In a technical sense, the U.S. economy left "recession" status and started growing again about July 2009. But the growth has been anemic. And consumers seem to think we never left the great recession of 2008 and 2009, and is again headed downward.

In other words, consumers think the second recession, or dreaded "double dip," already has begun. Economists say that the "Great Recession" began in December 2007 and lasted until July 2009. That may be the way that the economy was seen through the eyes of experts, but many Americans do not believe that the 2008 to 2009 downturn ever ended.

A Gallup poll released in April found that 29 percent of those queried thought the economy was in a “depression” and 26 percent said that the original recession had persisted into 2011.

This is a big problem since "expectations" drive behavior. Worse, there in all likelihood is no long-term hope of fixing the national deficit without a return to robust growth.

Ten Signs The Double-Dip Recession Has Begun - 24/7 Wall St.

65% of iPhone Data is Transferred by Wi-Fi

About 65 percent of Internet data consumed by Apple iPhone users in South Korea is transferred on a Wi-Fi network, South Korean researchers have found. By using Wi-Fi, users also saved 55 percent of battery power by doing so.

About 63 percent of the time, the mobile device can get a Wi-Fi signal, and users tend to stay within a single Wi-Fi zone for about two hours at a time.

http://research.csc.ncsu.edu/netsrv/sites/default/files/CoNEXT2010.pdf

Steve Jobs Had "iCloud" Idea in 1997

It's a good illustration that, sometimes, things developers want to do, cannot be done at a particular point in time. Sometimes it takes a decade or more for the all the background enablers to line up. Apple will announce "iCloud" today, June 6, 2011.