Technology Industry Faces Major Disruption

The technology industry is in the midst of a huge wave of growth, innovation and disruption, driven in large part by mobile devices and the "cloud social graph," causing huge challenges for incumbents of every sort, including Intel, Microsoft and Research in Motion, for example.

Google, Apple, Facebook, Samsung and others such as Amazon are taking over, argues Jean-Louis Gassée. Technology disruptions 

The Top 20 iPhone And iPad Apps of 2011

From social magazines to music discovery apps to console-quality games that players can hold in the palms of their hands, there are hundreds of new titles in the iTunes App Store that will inform, organize, and entertain virtually anyone who owns an iOS device.

Here are 20 of the best iOS applications of 2011, according to Techcrunch. The Top 20 iPhone And iPad Apps of 2011

Flipboard arguably has been the most-significant consumer content consumption app.

Top 10 Feed & RSS Technologies of 2011

News and activity feeds have become increasingly important ways people keep track of news, issues, products and people they care about.

Here's one list of 10 important feed tools. Top 10 Feed Technologies of 2011

"Percolate turns brands into curators," the company says. Marketers might be able to use the service to discover feeds full of content and then distribute those feeds to Percolate users. to consume.

Feedly.com is designed to run on mobiles, tablets or PCs. 

Cross motion sensing and analytics and you'd get Shopper Tracker

If you combined Kinect, the Microsoft motion-sensing device, plus Google Analytics, the dashboard for website usage statistics, you'd understand Shopper Tracker.

Shopper Tracker uses spatial recognition software, heat sensors and proprietary algorithms to analyze customer movements, such as which store shelves are most popular, which items are most touched, which taken and then put back. Spying on Your Buying



Shopper Tracker: tracking real world conversions like web analytics

Technology Reshapes Software, Marketing

One often hears it said that "content marketing" has "been around forever" in the form of newsletters, brochures and custom publishing. So what accounts for the explosion of interest in "content marketing" now?

One way or the other, though it would be a mistake to attribute everything to widespread changes in technology, that would seem to be the best answer. 


In the software business, it often is said that dramatic changes in computing technology now mean a new start-up can launch with about 10 percent of the capital investment required a decade ago. Dramatically lower startup costs


In fact, some venture capitalists say underlying computing costs, resulting from a combination of lower hardware and software tools, mean a software company can be launched for 10 percent of what would have been required in 2000. Venture capitalist Mark Suster says that when he built his first company in 1999 it cost $2.5 million in infrastructure just to get started and another $2.5 million in team costs to code, launch, manage, market and sell our software.



“So it’s not surprising that typical “A rounds” of venture capital were $5 to $10 million,” Suster says. “We had to buy Oracle database licenses, UNIX servers, a Sun Solaris operating system, Web servers, load balancers, EMC storage, disk mirrors for redundancy and had to commit to a year-long hosting agreement at places such as Exodus.”



With the introduction of open-source software, most notably what was called the “LAMP” stack, including Linux (operating system), Apache (Web server software), MySQL (instead of Oracle) and PHP.



“Suddenly infrastructure software was nearly free,” he notes. “We paid 10 percent of the normal costs for the software and that money was for software support.” The point is that a 90-percent disruption in cost spawns innovation. Infrastructure costs 90 percent lower


At the risk of oversimplifying matters, those same technology trends explain why content marketing has gained new prominence.



You may not be able to afford to buy a television network, but nothing's stopping you from creating your own YouTube channel, the argument legitimately can be made.



The cost of launching a newspaper or magazine is prohibitive, not to mention risky. But blogs can be set up for free or very affordably. And every trend in media represents a vast multiplication of channels and sources. All mass medium have been fragmenting for decades, starting with cable TV, then satellite radio, then, most importantly, Web-based media.



Consider the role of “search.” Some 90 percent or more of buying decisions begin with a Web search. Throughout the purchase cycle, users are searching for information, recommendations, research, reviews, authority and credibility.



And once they find the information they seek, they're sharing it with others involved in the purchase decision: a friend, a spouse, a colleague, or their boss, or perhaps they're throwing that information out to a trusted network to vet it, or to validate their position in the decision-making process. Why PR is Poised to Own Content Marketing


Now you can add tablets and smart phones to the list of reasons why fragmented media environments, explosive amounts of new content and always-with-you content consumption devices mean the role of content in all marketing processes has suddenly assumed such new importance.



Not only is it harder to get attention, and keep it, the cost of “going direct” to the audience, without using gatekeepers, is easier than ever. It would not be inappropriate to argue that technology platforms are the fundamental enablers for content marketing’s rise, as technology advances likewise account for new global interest in mobile payments, mobile wallets, mobile commerce and mobile banking.



Marketing, no less than telecommunications, television, audio, print media, banking and retailing are being reshaped and disrupted by fundamental technology changes.

U.S. Broadband Penetration Unchanged at 84% of Internet Households

Internet use in the United States seems to have remained flat at 82 percent of Americans, the  Center for the Digital Future at USC Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism reports. Also, broadband penetration remains at 84 percent of U.S. homes who use Internet access services.

The expense of using the Internet is cited as a reason for not going online by seven percent of respondents to the latest Center for Digital Future study.

Internet use dipped slightly to an average of 18.3 hours per week, the first time the weekly use has declined, but for the first time, home use of the Internet has passed 12 hours per week

The largest percentages of users reported going on the Internet at least weekly (several times a day, daily, or weekly) to browse the Web (79 percent), use online banking (47 percent), get product information (46 percent), visit social networking and video-sharing sites (46 percent), play games (39 percent), download or watch videos (39 percent), download or listen to music (38 percent), listen to online radio (22 percent), and pay bills (22 percent). Study of Internet behavior

A large majority of respondents report more than one computer in their home; the households with three or more computers (17 percent) and four or more computers (15 percent) reached an all-time high.
 
In seven years, the percentage of computer owners who have a laptop has increased from 18 percent to nearly 75 percent of users.

The number of hours that Internet users report they are online at work remained unchanged from the previous study, at 12.9 hours per week. But Internet users continue to report increasing active use of the Internet at work.  For the third year in a row, the hours that users said they are actively using the Internet at work has increased to 9.2 hours per week, a new high for the Digital Future Project.

43% of Firms Will be Blogging in 2012

Some 43 percent of all companies will be blogging in 2012, according to estimates by eMarketer and others. If nothing else, those sorts of statistics illustrate the explosion of ways firms can get their messages out to potential customers, as well as the explosion of all kinds of "user generated" content.

Those blogs are used for a variety of business purposes, including the creation of content marketing that can be propagated on social media.

Some 70 percent of respondents say they use social media as a way of assessing what people think about a company.

About 61 percent say they use social media to prospect for new customers.

Breaking such forecasts out by firm size, some 65 percent of small business owners now publish a blog for their company, for example. Small business blogging

Apple Patent Infringement Strategy Backfiring?

Is Apple's aggressive patent warfare strategy about to backfire? After winning legal cases that have blocked sale of Android devices in Australia, will Apple become a victim of similar legal actions?


Motorola won the first of two patent-infringement cases against Apple’s European sales division based in Ireland, granting Motorola an injunction against all of the infringing products in Europe. 
 

The products Apple can no longer sell in Germany include the:

• iPhone
• iPhone 3G
• iPhone 3GS
• iPhone 4
• iPad 3G
• iPad 2 3G
• function

Motorola filed the suit in April 2011, which is likely the only reason the iPhone 4S is not included in the injunction, as it wasn't launched at that point. Europe-wide injunction

At issue is a Motorola patent for cellular data transmission, part of wireless data transmission standards that are encumbered by an agreement to license the patent on "fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory" terms. 

The ruling suggests that, at least in Germany, raising a "FRAND" defense against standards-essential patent infringement claims could be a difficult proposition, and may force Apple to accept Motorola's licensing terms for "past infringement."

The FRAND defense has worked for Apple elsewhere, including in lawsuits brought by Samsung in The Netherlands and France. 

The basic argument is that suing over standards-essential patents instead of working out a FRAND agreement amounts to violation of anti-competition laws. Without some legal barrier to suing over such patents, they could potentially be used as a club to thwart any would-be competitors once they have built products incorporating a particular technology standard. Motorola wins lawsuit

The European patent in suit, EP1010336 (B1) "Method for Performing a Countdown Function During a Mobile-Originated Transfer for a Packet Radio System," is part of the General Packet Radio Service standard upon which 2G and 3G data services operate. 

Basically, that means that all Apple products that use 3G data, including all iPhones and all 3G-capable iPads, use the patented technology.

Sprint orders all OEMs to Remove Carrier IQ

Sources at HTC have told Geek.com that, as a result of the lawsuits targeting Carrier IQ, Sprint, and other CIQ-using OEMs, Sprint has asked all of their partners to get rid of Carrier IQ.

Starting with the high-volume and high-profile devices on the network, each of the OEMs has been asked to quickly release binaries that do not contain Carrier IQ so that over-the-air updates can be pushed to those devices as quickly as possible.

The eventual plan is to remove Carrier IQ from all of the devices on Sprint’s network.

This is being done as soon as possible and, according to our source at HTC, anyone who is working with Sprint in testing labs have even had their vacation time over the holidays seriously restricted. Sprint orders all OEMs to remove Carrier IQ

With other handset suppliers and carriers backing away from Carrier IQ, you have to wonder what the prospects for the company are, in the future. Apple dropped Carrier IQ

Carrier IQ also faces government scrutiny, which almost certainly means the company will have to drastically revise its revenue model, once restrictions, voluntary or otherwise, start to become a business factor.

Once again, we see how much impact regulatory actions now are having on the shape of the communications business.

Live TV On Android Devices in-Home, for Some Time Warner Cable Subs

Time Warner Cable expects to let subscribers watch live TV on Android devices over in-home Wi-Fi early next year, as it does today for Apple iOS phones and tablets.
TWC Eyes Live TV On Android Devices

The application is available to video customers with standard or higher subscriptions, and can only be used by customers with a compatible Navigator set-top or DVR.

Analog users and owners of Motorola set-tops cannot use the application. The app allows users to view up to seven days of content and can also turn the Android phone into a remote control.

Isis Weighing Europe Launch?

Isis, the mobile wallet venture owned by AT&T, Verizon Wireless and T-Mobile USA, is looking to expand internationally. Jaymee Johnson, an Isis spokesman, says potential deals could involve use of the brand or the platform.

“The underlying equity partners in ISIS give us some degree of visibility and awareness beyond the U.S.,” Johnson says, obviously referring to Vodafone Group Plc, which owns a large minority stake in Verizon Wireless, and is based in the U.K., while T-Mobile USA is owned by Germany’s Deutsche Telekom AG. Isis looking to Europe?

Apple to launch eight-inch iPad in 2012?

Though former Apple CEO Steve Jobs is consistently on record as belittling the idea that a tablet with a screen less than 10 inches is desirable, Apple is likely to launch a 7.85-inch iPad prior to the fourth quarter of 2012, DigiTimes argues.

That might be one of the first tangible examples of "post-Steve" thinking at Apple. As fastidious as Steve Jobs always was about every little detail of Apple products, it is impossible to conclude anything else.

Global shipments of tablet PCs are expected to reach 60 million units in 2011, of which 70 percent will be Apple's iPads.


Some might even argue that a seven-inch e-book reader is not actually a "tablet." There arguably some differences in lead applications, with e-books obviously weighted towards consumption of print style content, and larger tablets more optimal for video consumption and web browsing.

Some might argue that the apparent sales success of the seven-inch Kindle Fire from Amazon, and some might argue, large-screen smart phones, Apple might now think it has to have a product in the seven-inch to eight-inch form factor.  Apple to launch 7.85-inch iPad in 2012?

Verizon Strikes Spectrum, Resale Deal with Cox Communications

Verizon Wireless and Cox Communications have agreed to a deal that would give Verizon Wireless all of Cox’s advanced wireless spectrum in exchange for $315 million and an agreement to sell each other’s services.

Verizon Wireless will get a 20MHz block of wireless spectrum from Cox, while Verizon Wireless and Cox will resell each others residential and commercial services. The deal is similar in scope to one Verizon Spectrum Co., owned by Comcast, Time Warner Cable, and Bright House Networks.

The deal is said to be very similar to one that Verizon struck with Comcast, Time Warner Cable and Bright House networks in early December 2011. Verizon, Cox in spectrum, resale deal

Aside from the other potential ramifications, such as a bigger move by those cable operators into the wireless services market, the deal essentially changes the strategic landscape which since 1994 or so has had Sprint aligned most closely among the mobile companies with leading cable operators.

The deals also would seem to remove the leading U.S. cable companies from the list of potential investors or buyers of assets including Sprint and Clearwire, as well as from the ranks of potential wholesale customers of LightSquared, Sprint or Clearwire.

The deal also means a significant strategic change for the leading cable companies, which since 1994 have worked with Sprint as a wireless partner. The deal seems to signal that the leading cable firms are "changing horses" for reasons that have to be related to both long-term strategic concerns and evaluations of the respective strengths of potential partners.

At a fundamental level, the deals seem to signal a belief by U.S. cable executives that it simply is too late, too hard, too unrewarding to create a "cable-owned" wireless company. The way the deals appear to be structured also imply that cable companies will simply resell Verizon Wireless for a period of years before considering any further retail branding under their own brand names, if indeed that ever is seen as the better and more logical approach to the market.

For Verizon Wireless, the deals also seem to signal a willingness to use the cable partnerships to create new quad-play services "out of fixed network region," to the extent that Verizon Wireless would have the right to bundle cable partner video, fixed broadband or fixed network voice in areas where Verizon does not operate its own fixed networks.

UK Consumers Not Buying "Super-Fast" Broadband

There are two distinct, and different "problems" nations and policymakers face when promoting use of very-fast broadband access. First, the physical capabilities must be put into place.

But an equally-important issue is consumer demand for such services, especially when high-speed services already are widely available.

In the United Kingdom, for example, the government is pushing new fiber-to-cabinet networks supporting speeds roughly defined as access at 24 Mbps or so.  U.K. Super-Fast Broadband

However, just four percent of U.K. households subscribed to superfast services in June 2011, compared with 40 per cent in Japan and 10 per cent in the United States, although higher than in Germany (three percent), Italy (1.5 percent) and Spain (2.2 percent). Lagging adoption

To be fair, the networks still are under construction, so not every potential consumer is able to buy such services.


But 25Mbps or faster services already are available to the 48 percent of UK households passed by Virgin Media's cable service and about 20 percent of premises passed by BT's fiber to the cabinet superfast services.

Overall availability of high-speed fixed-line broadband networks in the United Kingdom does compare favorably to other European countries, though, so mere ability to buy is not the issue. By June 2011, 59 per cent of households had access to Virgin Media or BT’s superfast services. Ofcom: UK consumers not buying super-fast broadband

10 Key Mobile Trends of 2011

One of the big trends of 2011 was “more powerful devices,” such as the HTC Edge, the first quad-core mobile phone with a quad-core 1.5GHz processor, says Josh Lovison,  a digital strategy consultant.

That, in turn, is leading to the leading edge of the “docking” trend, where smart phones will be able to use various peripherals that make smart phones usable in some of the ways notebook PCs are used. Motorola’s Atrix phone is an example.

ASUS also has designed a keyboard dock for its upcoming tablet, the Transformer Prime, which allows it to operate much like a laptop in both form and function.

Changes in data plans and the advent of Long Term Evolution, as well as patent wars and Android’s rise, are other notable developments.

Mobile apps being rendered dynamically also was a new trend. Facebook, for example, made a recent update that retains some static user interface elements are native code specific to a device, but almost all of the dynamic content displayed is a rendered page of its website, within the app. It's a hybrid between "app" and "web app."

Mobiles also are displacing dedicated gaming devices as the preferred way to engage with gaming content and games.

According to stats from Flurry, 2011 will be the first year that gaming revenues on mobile devices (iOS and Android) exceed revenues from specialized gaming handhelds such as Nintendo's 3DS or Sony's PSP.

Voice search, which got attention because of Apple’s “Siri,” has been available on Android devices for nearly two years as well, and represents an advance for ease of use on mobiles when searching. Easier search will mean “more search.”

Near field communications remains a buzzword and hype generator, but it will take some time to become a useful mainstream capability for payments and other mobile apps. Key mobile trends