Apple Still Leads in Enterprise

While Android smartphone usage within the enterprise nearly doubled during the second quarter of 2012,  iOS continues to be the dominant smartphone platform, led primarily by the iPhone 4S, a Good Technology study suggests. 

On average, the two most recently released iPhones and iPads drove the majority of activations between April 1 and June 30, 2012. The iPhone 4S was the top device, driving nearly twice as many activations as any other smartphone, with 30.8 percent of activations for the quarter.

Apple iOS device activations still account for more than twice the number of Android activations in the enterprise when it comes to overall platform activations. iOS accounted for 70.8 percent, Android was 28.3 percent and Windows Phone 7 was 0.9 percent.

Corporate use of Android smart phones nearly doubled quarter over quarter, capturing 36.9 percent of total activations, led by the popular Samsung Galaxy SII, which ranked fifth in “Top 10” devices this quarter at 4.6 percent. 

Other “Top 10” Android devices include Samsung’s Galaxy SII and the Motorola Droid Razr which claimed the fifth and sixth spots. Both of these Android smartphones outpaced the original iPad and iPhone 3S, which ranked seventh and eighth, down slightly from their respective fifth and sixth place spots last quarter.

Additionally, while tablet adoption by the enterprise continued to grow—dominated by the iPad, which accounted for 94.5 percent overall tablet activations— smart phone usage still outnumbered tablet usage by three to one, accounting for 73 percent of total mobile device activations. 

Android saw another increase in this category for the quarter, as Android tablets captured 5.5 percent of total tablet activations, up from 2.7 percent last quarter.

U.S., Korea, Japan Represent 90% of LTE Subs

Operators in the United States, South Korea and Japan have established themselves as the early leaders in Long Term Evolution, jointly accounting for almost 90 percent  of the world’s LTE connections in the second quarter of  2012, according to Wireless Intelligence.


It is estimated that global LTE connections topped 27 million at the end of the second quarter, up from around 10 million at the end of 2011.


U.S. operators accounted for 47 percent of the total, followed by South Korea (27 percent) and Japan (13 percent). 


Wireless Intelligence estimates that the number of global markets with live LTE networks has grown from 30 at the end of 2011 to over 40 six months later, with LTE launching for the first time in 2012 in major markets such as India and Russia. 


The world’s largest LTE operator is currently the US market leader, Verizon Wireless. The U.S. number-one first launched its next-generation network at the end of 2010 and it is now live in 337 regional markets, covering nearly 75 percent of the US population (233 million POPs). 


Last week, Verizon announced that it had sold 3.2 million LTE devices in Q2, bringing its cumulative total past 10 million, and representing over 12 percent of retail postpaid connections. Its major rivals are playing catch-up. 


AT&T launched LTE in September last year and is currently live in 47 markets, with plans to complete rollout by the end of next year. It claims its 4G-branded network (HSPA+/LTE) covers 260 million of the population; it had a third of its postpaid smartphone subscribers (2.5 million) using its '4G' devices by Q2. 


Number-three US operator Sprint switched on its first LTE networks in 15 markets earlier this month, while several US regional operators have also launched, including the two largest, MetroPCS and Leap Wireless. 


Meanwhile, the South Korean market leader SK Telecom announced this week that it had surpassed 4 million LTE subscribers, adding the last million in just 44 days (it hit the 3 million mark on 6 June), with an average of 41,000 LTE users signing up per day in July. 


It is targeting 7 million in total by year-end. The operator also claims to be the first in the world to launch multi-carrier LTE, planning to roll-out the technology across Seoul and six other metropolitan cities this year. 


Japan’s largest operator, NTT Docomo, launched LTE in December 2010 and also this week announced it had hit the 4 million milestone. The Xi-branded network passed the 4 million subscriber mark on 22 July, around one and a half months after reaching 3 million. 

Google Fiber Offers "Free" 5 Mbps Broadband Access in Kansas City

Google Fiber, which is launching service in Kansas City, Kan. and Kansas City, Mo., will offer consumers a "free" broadband access services, offering downstream speeds up to 5 Mbps, with a 1Mbps upload speed, with free service guaranteed for at least seven years.


 Users have to pay a one-time $300 "construction fee," optionally payable in 12 monthly payments of $25), plus applicable taxes and fees. 


The "standard" symmetrical 1 Gbps upload and download service, with no data caps, requires a one-year contract and costs $70 a month, plus taxes and fees. 


The "entertainment television and 1-Gbps service costs $120 a month, and includes a number of standard video channels. The nominal pricing of the video service is $50 a month. A number of the leading networks, including ESPN, Disney and Fox channels are unavailable at that price. 


But Google Fiber at launch will be a "beta" in some ways, so programming line-ups might change, over time. 


The standard package also includes a free Nexus 7 tablet, though, at least in part because the tablet provides remote control features, as well as the ability to eamlessly watch on your tablet in other rooms of  a customer's house.


Of course, users who want broadband access and television will have three different boxes, one for broadband, one for TV decoding, and a third to provide digital video recorder functions. 

There are some ways in which the Google video service offers advantages. There is no separate box or fee for HDTV viewing, for example. Many service providers charge extra for DVR functionality as well. Google video service does not have those add-on fees.

• 3Net
 
• A&;E
 
• Action Weather
• Animal Planet
 
• Antenna TV
 
• Bandamax
• BET
 
• BET Gospel
 
• Biography Channel
• BlueHighways TV
 
• Bounce TV
 
• Bravo
• C-SPAN
 
• C-SPAN 2
 
• C-SPAN 3
• CBS Sports Network
 
• Centric
 
• Chiller
• cloo
 
• CMT
 
• CMT Pure Country
• CNBC
 
• CNBC World
 
• Comedy Central
• Cooking Channel
 
• Create
 
• Crime & Investigation Network
• Current TV
 
• De Pelicula
 
• De Pelicula Clasico
• Destination America
 
• Discovery
 
• Discovery en Espanol
• Discovery Familia
 
• Discovery Fit & Health
 
• DIY
• E! Entertainment
 
• Encore
 
• Encore Action
• Encore Drama
 
• Encore Espanol
 
• Encore Family
• Encore Love
 
• Encore Suspense
 
• Encore Westerns
• Flix
 
• Food Network
 
• FOROTv
• G4
 
• GAC
 
• Galavision
• Game Show Network
 
• Golf Channel
 
• H2
• Hallmark Channel
 
• Hallmark Movie Channel
 
• Halogen
• HGTV
 
• History
 
• IndiePlex
• INSP
 
• Investigation Discovery
 
• ION Life
• KCPT (PBS)
 
• KCTV 5 (CBS)
 
• KCWE 29 (CW)
• KMBC 9 (ABC)
 
• KMCI 38
 
• KPXE 50 (ION)
• KSHB 41 (NBC)
 
• KSMO 62
 
• KUKC 48 (Univision)
• La Familia Cosmovision
 
• Lifetime
 
• Lifetime Move Network
• Lifetime Real Women
 
• Live Well
 
• LOGO
• MeTV
 
• MGM
 
• Military Channel
• Military History
 
• MLB Network
 
• MoviePlex
• MSNBC
 
• MTV
 
• MTV Hits
• MTV Jams
 
• MTV tr3s
 
• MTV2
• MTVU
 
• mun2
 
• NASA
• NBC Sports Network
 
• NFL
 
• NFL Redzone
• NHL
 
• Nick 2
 
• Nick Jr.
• Nickelodeon
 
• Nicktoons
 
• Olympics Channel 1
• Olympics Channel 2
 
• Outdoor Channel
 
• OWN
• Oxygen
 
• Palladia
 
• PBS Encore
• PBS Kids Sprout
 
• qubo
 
• QVC
• REELZChannel
 
• RetroPlex
 
• Ritmoson Latino
• Science channel
 
• Sho2
 
• Showtime
• Showtime Beyond
 
• Showtime Extreme
 
• Showtime Family Zone
• Showtime Next
 
• Showtime Showcase
 
• Showtime Women
• Smithsonian
 
• Spike TV
 
• Sportsman Channel
• Starz
 
• Starz Cinema
 
• Starz Comedy
• Starz Edge
 
• Starz in Black
 
• Starz Kids and Family
• Style!
 
• SyFy
 
• TBN Enlace
• Teen Nick
 
• Telefutura
 
• Telehit
• Telemundo
 
• Tennis Channel
 
• The History en Espanol
• The Hub
 
• This TV
 
• TLC
• TMC Extra
 
• TMC: The Movie Channel
 
• Travel Channel
• TV Land
 
• TVG
 
• Universal
• Univision Deportes
 
• Univision tlnovelas
 
• USA Network
• VH1
 
• VH1 Classic
 
• VH1 Soul
• WDAF 4 (FOX)
 
• WealthTV
 
• Weather channel
• WGN
 
• Youtoo TV

Mobile Tops Consumer Spending for Technology

Consumer spending on mobile products tops all consumer categories in 2012, according to analysts at Gartner, who point out that "the three largest segments of the consumer technology market are, and will continue to be, mobile services, mobile phones and entertainment services," according to Amanda Sabia, principal research analyst at Gartner.

Mobile services are expected to generate 37 percent of total worldwide consumer technology spending in 2012, $0.8 trillion, rising to almost $1 trillion by 2016.

Mobile phones will account for 10 percent of total spending in 2012, about $222 billion, rising to almost $300 billion by 2016.

Similarly, entertainment services including cable, satellite, IPTV and online gaming, will account for 10 percent of total consumer spending on technology products and services in 2012, at $210 billion, rising to almost $290 billion in 2016.

Gartner predicts that consumer spending on mobile apps stores and content will rise from $18 billion in 2012 to $61 billion by 2016, and that spending on e-text content (e-books, online news, magazines and information services) will rise from $5 billion in 2012 to $16 billion by 2016.

Consumers will spend $2.1 trillion worldwide on digital information and entertainment products and services in 2012, according to Gartner, Inc. This amounts to a $114 billion global increase compared with 2011, and spending will continue to grow at a faster rate than in the past, at around $130 billion a year, to reach $2.7 trillion by the end of 2016.

The $2.1 trillion consists of what the consumers will spend on mobile phones, computing and entertainment, media and other smart devices, the services that are required to make these devices connected to the appropriate network, and software and media content that are consumed via these devices.

Telefonica Suspends Dividend, Share Buybacks

Telefónica will cancel the payment of all remaining dividends and share buybacks for 2012, an action that shows the stresses now experienced by businesses of all sorts in Spain, as a result of the economic and financial crises roiling Spain.


Telefonica's suspension of dividend payments is a risky step, as it would be for any public firm viewed as a "value" stock paying hefty dividends. The problem is partly a debt overhang that has to be rectified, plus a complete lack of revenue growth for the remainder of the year. 


The company said it now anticipates no significant revenue growth this year, compared with a previous expectation of revenue growth of at least one percent.  Telefónica said it will resume its dividend payments in 2013, with a dividend of 75 European cents a share to be delivered in two tranches, in the fourth quarter of 2013 and second quarter of 2014.


That of course assumes Telefónica can fix its immediate problems, namely controlling operating costs and getting debt to below 2.35 times operating profit in 2012. 


Telefónica's Spain operations, in the second quarter of 2012, saw revenue drop 13 percent year over year, compared with a six-percnet decrease for the European unit overall.


Perhaps most shockingingly, mobile phone usage revenue dropped 18 percent. You might conclude either that people indeed are not as attached to their mobile phones as once was thought, or that the Spanish economic crisis is so bad people have no choice, or that substitutes are being used, such as lower-cost services using "SIM-only" approaches. 

London Olympics Bans Personal Hotspots

Big, temporary events always pose a problem for access service providers. Because the large expected increases in access network use are temporary, it is difficult to add enough temporary capacity to cope with all expected demand. One way to manage expected congestion is simply to allow connections to slow, degrade and essentially create blockages.


So it is that, in addition to banning such obvious things as explosives and weapons from Olympic venues, attendees are advised by the London Olympics that personal wireless access points and and 3G hubs (smart devices such as personal hotspot devices or the personal hotspot functions of smart phones are banned from Olympic venues.


Android phones, iPhone and tablets are permitted inside venues, but must not be used as
wireless access points to connect multiple devices, the London Olympics says. 


The ban will be hard to enforce, but organizers say that, in principle, offending devices will be confiscated. 

Satellite Still Makes Sense in Rural Areas, Frontier Bets

The Frontier Communications Corporation wholesale agreement with Hughes Network Systems to create a branded, satellite-based broadband access service shows that debates over "which access network is best" miss the point. A range of networks "make sense" for different population 


Frontier will sell satellite-based broadband services, branded "Frontier Broadband, to what Frontier estimates are several hundred thousand households and small businesses within markets previously unserved or underserved by all broadband providers, including cable.


Notice that Frontier did not brand the service "Frontier Satellite Broadband." It is broadband, provided to some potential customers that Frontier cannot reach using its fixed network. 


As the mobile network provides huge value, even though raw speed is not as high as is possible on a fixed network, so a variety of technologies and networks make economic sense for urban, suburban, rural and isolated potential customers. No single network is "best" for every scenario. 


Still, each type of technology tends to be regulated using different rules. 


And it still raises regulatory hackles when contestants using different networks, and regulated under different rules, decide it makes sense to "cross the lines." That seems to be the case with the agency deals allowing Verizon to sell cable operator services, while cable operators can sell Verizon services.


Historically, the industry has seen strife over issues of which types of networks can receive funds from agencies that support rural communications, as well. Incumbent telcos have argued that it is unfair for competitive local exchange carriers or mobile carriers to receive support funds traditionally awarded only to fixed network telcos, even when the functional capability supplied by all of the contestants is precisely what the programs are supposed to support. 


Those debates are likely to become sharper in the future. 

Virgin Media Says 41% of New Customers Buy Broadband Access at 60 Mbps or Higher

Broadband customers on tiers of service offering speeds of at least 30 Mbps now represent 31 percent of its total broadband user base, according to Virgin Media. About 14 percent of all customers buy services at 60 Mbps or above. 


At least in part, that is because Virgin Media in April 2012 made 30 Mbps the entry level tier of service. 


Around 41 percent of Virgin Media new customers chose took speeds of more than 60 Mbps, while plans to double the speeds of four million users are well underway.


Virgin's experience confirms what most of you would suspect, namely that lower prices drive adoption of faster broadband access services. 


Virgin Media now sells service operating at 30 Mbps to 40 Mbps for £14.50 a momth. Also, says Virgin Media, the 30 Mbps service it sells is less costly than the 40 Mbps service marketed by BT.



Virgin Media services operating at 60 Mbps to 80 Mbps cost £18.50. Service at 100 Mbps costs £25.50 a month. 




Of course, Virgin Media's prices are lower than BT's prices, at each of the tiers. 

Amazon.com Launches a new Training Initiative

Amazon is launching a new, and as yet experimental, "Career Choice Program" for people who work at Amazon's fulfillment centers. 


The program is unusual. Unlike traditional tuition reimbursement programs, Amazon exclusively funds education only in areas that are well-paying and in high demand according to sources like the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, and funds those areas regardless of whether those skills are relevant to a career at Amazon.


Many of our fulfillment center employees will choose to build their careers at Amazon. For others, a job at Amazon might be a step towards a career in another field. We want to make it easier for employees to make that choice and pursue their aspirations. 


For people who've been with Amazon as little as three years, Amazon is offering to pre-pay 95 percent of the cost of courses such as aircraft mechanics, computer-aided design, machine tool technologies, medical lab technologies, nursing, and many other fields.

Square Near a Deal to Value It at $3.25 Billion

Square, the mobile payments supplier, is close to raising roughly $200 million in new funding, with an implied valuation of $3.25 billion, the NYTimes reports.


The funding represents the company’s third significant capital raising round in less than two years. In 2011, Square raised $100 million, valuing the company at $1.6 billion. Several months before that, Square had an investment at a $240 million valuation. All told, the company’s valuation has grown by 13.5 times in less than two years.


You can make your own determination about the appropriateness of the valuation. 

Apple: the Company that Used to Make Computers

These days, phones and other portable devices are what Apple makes and sells. The really surprising number, for some of us, is the dominance of "phones" in the revenue picture. 

Can 4G be Successful in India Even While 3G Isn't Established?

If India's Reliance Industries (Reliance Communications) does move ahead and build a national Long Term Evolution fourth generation mobile network, it will have to leapfrog third generation mobile networks just getting established in the Indian market.


By some estimates the total number of 3G subscribers in India is just about two percent of the total number of mobile phone users. India has 893.8 million cellphone users according to TRAI (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India).


So the big gamble is whether Reliance can leapfrog a whole generation of technology. Reliance's 4G network would be the largest of any outside the U.S. and Japan. 


India is expected to have more 4G wireless subscribers in four years—37 million—than Brazil, Russia or Indonesia, according to consulting firm Ovum. 

Looking at the broadband access market broadly, about nine percent of India's 1.2 billion people now have Internet access. Virtually everyone expects mobile to be the way most people in India get Internet access.


But what is unknown is whether 4G can leapfrog over 3G, at a time when even 3G is a very new service in the market, and such a small number of users (three percent, by some estimates) have smart phones. 


In May 2012, 3G adoption in India had reached perhaps 10 million to 12 million users. 





But some might argue the proper framework is not "3G" users but "Internet users." 

India has added 69 million Internet users between 2008 and 2011 and now has 121 million Internet users with a population penetration rate of 10 percent.

According to Mary Meeker, Kleiner Perkins  Caufield & Byers partner, India has 39 million 3G subscriptions as of the fourth quarter of  2011, with four percent penetration rate and 841 percent year over year growth. 

Reliance Communications has 3.2 million 3G subscribers(Q4 FY12), Idea has 2.6 million and Airtel has about 9 million 3G subscribers. Vodafone has 35 million data subscriptions including both 2G and 3G subscribers, including perhaps eight million or nine million 3G subscribers, Meeker estimates. 

She doubts that BSNL, MTNL, Aircel and Tata Tele have 15 million 3G subscribers between them.

But mobile Internet usage surpassed desktop Internet usage in India during the April 2012 May 2012 period. So it might not be unthinkable to argue that 4G could indeed leapfrog 3G, especially if the market is Internet access, not "mobile" Internet access. 

Netflix Sees Cable as Bioggest Competitor

Netflix believes its biggest competition comes from video entertainment subscription providers, namely cable, satellite and telco video providers. Lots of people would say Hulu Plus or Amazon Prime as Netflix's biggest immediate competitors, and that would be logical. 



Netflix notes that it competes for consumers’ viewing time with a variety of video services, including linear TV, DVRs, over-the-top (OTT) pure plays, and authenticated streaming offerings of the video entertainment providers and cable networks (cable operators, satellite TV and telco TV providers, and "TV Everywhere" offerings associated with those providers).


"We have yet to see HuluPlus or Amazon Prime Instant Video gain meaningful traction relative to our viewing hours, but as we continue to build a domestic profit stream they are likely to increase their efforts to gain viewing share," Netflix says. 


Netflix also believes "Redbox Instant" by Verizon will have a tough time breaking into the ranks of the top three providers. 


Still, Netflix believes its "biggest long-term competition for viewing hours will come from MVPDs and cable networks, both directly and through their TV Everywhere offerings."


The operant word is probably "long term."

300 Mbps Access is Great, But not a Consumer Offer

Comcast is readying a 305 Mbps high-speed access service to counter Verizon's 300 Mbps FiOS offer of 300 Mbps, costing $205 a month. Though some consumers might actually be willing to pay that much, most will not. 


U..S. access speeds are about 5 Mbps, some studies have suggested. At some level, it might be useful to calculate "cost per megabit per second," though no consumer buys access using that metric, opting instead for an assessment of actual monthly recurring cost, and headline speed. 


At the moment, U.S. offerings, overall, cost about $3.33 per megabit per second, with huge differences between urban FiOS access and rural digital subscriber line price-per-megabit-per-second, for example. 


Over time, we should anticipate that users will spend more money, per month, on broadband, simply because speeds and caps are correlated. And as more entertainment video gets watched, users will need larger caps. 


Mobile access makes a difference, though, especially as more consumers might opt to use mobile broadband, either in place of fixed access, or as a complementary form of access. 


But one problem is that "nominal prices" are not "effective prices" when most consumers buy a triple play bundle including broadband access, voice and entertainment video.


In  2010, for example, Comcast reported a monthly total revenue per video customer of $129 a month. By correlating the number of revenue generating units (RGUs) Comcast had at the time, one might suggest that the video portion of the bundle cost about $71 a month; the broadband access about $42 a month and voice service about $36 a month.

• Video (22.8 million customers at $71.37/mo)
• High-speed internet (17.0 million customers at $42.07/mo)
• digital phone (8.6 million customers at approx $36.15/mo)

That rather suggests to some of us that most consumers are not likely to spend much more than $40 to $50 a month for high speed Internet access, with a tendency over time for higher prices. 

Content Consumption is Now the Top "Purpose" of a PC

"Games" now are the number two most popular tablet activity, surpassed only by accessing the Internet, a study by Frank N. Magid Associates has found.


In fact, the list of top activities conducted on tablets shows the evolution of the personal computer, one might argue. In the 1980s, when PCs first were adopted in significant value, it was the spreadsheet and financial analysis that created the driver for adoption by businesses.


A variety of other business uses then developed, including desktop publishing. PCs became useful for consumers for other reasons, but included the ability to work and communicate "at home."But the new consumer killer application seems to be content consumption.

Significantly, the top apps on smart phones aren't all that different from what is done on tablets, the study also found. 


Of course, mobile devices are multiple-function appliances to a greater extent than tablets or PCs. Even so, calling is only a percentage of total activities smart phone owners now conduct on their devices. 


The big change is that content consumption activities apparently had grown to represent about half of all the time spend interacting with, and using, a mobile device, in 2011, according to comScore. 


The point is that the "purpose" of using a computing appliance has changed. For the most part, people rely on "computers" for media consumption.