Will Big Carriers Take Over CDN Business?

There's a general rule in the communications business that a specialist wants to find a niche that is unattractive to the tier-one telcos, but big enough to be very interesting for the specialist. Lots of services start out small, but then get big enough to draw the interest of the tier one providers, typically with unpleasant results for the niche providers.

Mobile phones, digital subscriber line (broadband access) and SIP trunking are just a couple recent examples of services the big tier one providers avoided until it was clear they were going to be significant.

One wonders whether the content delivery networks business, which has been such a niche, now is becoming big enough to matter to tier one telcos.

Light Reading Cable - IP & Convergence - Rumor: Akamai Got Kicked Out of France

Report Finds Windows Phone 7 Share Lagging Windows Mobile

Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 appears to be trailing the older Windows Mobile operating system in sales, according to trhe NPD Group.

For the fourth quarter of 2010, NPD Group put Windows Phone 7′s share at two percent of the market, dead even with Palm’s webOS but lagging Windows Mobile (four percent), Research In Motion’s BlackBerry franchise (19 percent), Apple’s iOS (19 percent) and current market leader Android (53 percent).

Android enjoyed a quarter-over-quarter growth of nine percent, while iOS and RIM fell four percent and two percent, respectively. Windows Mobile dropped three percent. NPD Group’s Top 5 smartphones included the Apple iPhone 4, Motorola Droid X, HTC Evo 4G, Apple iPhone 3GS and the Motorola Droid 2.

Report Finds Windows Phone 7 Share Lagging Windows Mobile

Google’s Android becomes the world’s leading smart phone

Google’s Android has become the leading global smartphone, according to Canalys. Shipments of Android-based smartphones reached 32.9 million, while devices running Nokia’s Symbian platform trailed slightly at 31.0 million worldwide. But Nokia did retain its position as the leading global smart phone vendor, with a share of 28 percent. The fourth quarter also saw the worldwide smart phone market continue to soar, with shipments of 101.2 million units representing year-on-year growth of 89 percent. The final quarter took shipments for the year to fractionally below 300 million units, with an annual growth rate of 80 percent over 2009.

Google’s Android becomes the world’s leading smart phone platform

Mobile Banking Growth Requires More Work on Value Proposition

Lacking any clear differentiated functionality, mobile banking appeals most strongly to those consumers already inclined to use the mobile channel, Forrester Research notes. Unfortunately, this segment is dominated by those already using online banking. As a result, banks are not realizing the full benefit of switching customers to cheaper servicing channels, but instead are seeing cannibalization of one low-cost channel (online) by another (mobile), says Forrester Research analyst Emmett Higdon.

Forrester reports that mobile banking has undergone rapid adoption, more than doubling from five percent of online users in 2007 to 12 percent in the second quarter of 2010. By 2015, this number is predicted to nearly double again, with one in five U.S. adults using mobile banking.

To reach one in five U.S. adults, as Forrester predicts mobile banking will do by 2015, U.S. banks will need to enhance today's functionality significantly to create a unique value proposition that resonates with both online and offline consumers.

Steady Mobile Banking Growth To Drive Demand For Better Functionality

Zipring Launches New VoIP Servicemo

North American consumers can now join the public beta of Zipring—a simple, inexpensive integrated Voice over IP (VoIP) phone service that works with any phone, mobile or Internet device, requires no contract and is free to try.

Unlike other Internet phone applications and devices on the market, Zipring is based on open standards so it can be used with any VoIP software or phone device. Additionally, because Zipring leverages the internet, it can turn any Internet-based device—such as an iPad, iPod Touch, laptop or desktop computer—into a phone and enable users to make and receive calls to that device using their dedicated Zipring phone number.

“Zipring works with any phone on the planet,” said Erik Lagerway, VP and GM of Commercial Communications at Ziplocal, the company behind Zipring. “While we offer a free iPhone app, the beauty of Zipring is that users are not tied to it. They can integrate Zipring directly with any VoIP app or device available to them, unlike Google Voice or Skype, and enjoy zero roaming charges and inexpensive calling without a contract.”

Among its many benefits, Zipring has zero roaming charges and does not require a contract. Zipring features include visual voicemail, call recording, voicemail to email, web-based calling and account management, and no contracts.

Google, Twitter, SayNow Create App to Alllow Tweeting by Leaving a Voicemail

A small team of engineers from Twitter, Google and SayNow, a company Google recently acquired, have created an app that allows anyone to "tweet" by simply leaving a voicemail on one of these international phone numbers ( 16504194196 or 390662207294 or 97316199855).

The service will instantly tweet the message using the hashtag #egypt. No Internet connection is required. People can listen to the messages by dialing the same phone numbers or going to twitter.com/speak2tweet.

Official Google Blog: Some weekend work that will (hopefully) enable more Egyptians to be heard

Coupon and Group Buying Sites Might Change Retailer Budgets, Campaigns and Channels

Shopkick Inc., which makes a smartphone app that offers shoppers rewards and discounts for entering stores, said it has attracted 750,000 users since the app made its debut in August 2010, the Wall Street Journal reports.

The growing use of, and popularity of, such group buying offers might, if it continues, rearrange retailer advertising, promotion and media spending. If the purpose of at least some advertising and promotion is to get shoppers into stores, the coupon sites are doing that.

Moreover, about 10 percent of them use the app at least once a day, said Shopkick, which has signed Target Corp., Best Buy Co., Macy's Inc. and other retailers to its service.

The retailers pay Shopkick to be included in the app and featured in special promotions. Though it declined to be specific, the high profile start-up said that each store visit by a user of its app costs a retailer "less than $1."

Mobile Apps Draw In Shoppers, Marketers - WSJ.com (subscription required)

Android Tablets Start to Take Market Share

No surprise here: as Android tablets appear in the market, Apple is going to lose some market share.

App Battle Heats Up

Whether mobile apps are as strategic as most people think, or not, there is little question more resources are going into the battle.

Mobile 'apps' to be $58 billion market

Mobile applications downloaded from online stores will be a $58 billion worldwide business by 2014, as tablet computers such as Apple's iPad stoke the surging market, Gartner predicts.

The figure marks a huge increase on the $5.2 billion spent on mobile applications in 2010, technology consultancy Gartner said, predicting there will be 17.7 billion application downloads this year, more than double the 8.2 billion in 2010.

By the end of 2014, Gartner forecasted that over 185 billion applications will have been downloaded since 2008.

Mobile 'apps' to be $58 billion market

Payment Methods Changing

Consumer use of cash and checks are declining, use of debit cards and other payment systems climbing, while use of credit cards is flat, according to Nilson Report data.

That explains, only in part, why there now is interest in mobile payments.

Information Workers Are Not Quite Ready For Desktop Videoconferencing

Forrester Research's latest survey of North American and European business technology users shows that the workforce overall has little interest in and access to desktop video.

There’s a disconnect between what vendors and executives are pushing and what information workers are looking for, says Forrester analyst T J Keitt. Right now, most of the desktop video conferencing technology is not widespread.

For example, while 33 percent of workers surveyed said their company has desktop video systems, only 15 percent said they had access to them. In addition, it’s the upper-level executives who are most interested in the technology, and who use it most.

Forty-two percent of directors use desktop video conferencing, 40 percent of vice presidents and 38 percent of owners or CEOs, according to Forrester By contrast, only seven percent of individual workers say they use the systems.

In addition, for the time being, interest among those individual workers is low. About 72 percent of workers said they didn’t want desktop video conferencing, compared with 13 percent who don’t have it but do want it. Another 13 percent use it, and while 2 percent said they have desktop video conferencing but don’t use it.

Forrester analyst T J Keitt says “Forrester’s workforce data reveals that most of the workforce doesn’t have access to and isn’t bullish on using desktop video for business purposes.”

The study surveyed more than 5,400 information workers. Fifty-six percent of businesses have deployed a room-based or desktop-based video-conferencing system, Keitt said.

Information Workers Are Not Quite Ready For Desktop Videoconferencing - Forrester Research

Is iPad Driving Netflix?

One might be tempted to note the quick rise of streaming on Netflix and assume people have suddenly decided to watch TV on their PCs, or have quickly gotten the hang of configuring "net TV" boxes.

There's some truth to those notions, but a more-obvious guess is that many of those tablet devices are now being used to watch Netflix. In that sense, Netflix could be one of the most-successful app store subscription products yet seen.

The Triple Crown

Who wins and who loses when carriers tweak loyalty programs

Sprint announced it will change its Premier loyalty program starting April 1, 2011. In the past, loyal customers of ten years or more, or customers who paid at least $69.99 on an individual plan or $99.99 on a family plan each month were offered the ability to upgrade their handsets every 12 months, as well as other benefits and discounts.

Earlier, Verizon Wireless also ended its "New Every Two" program, which offered customers a credit of $30 to $100 towards a new phone. So will those carriers suffer customer churn? IDC doesn't think so.

IDC: Who wins and who loses when carriers tweak loyalty programs

Kindle Content Sales Top Book Sales

"After selling millions of third-generation Kindles with the new Pearl e-ink display during the quarter, Kindle books have now overtaken paperback books as the most popular format on Amazon.com," says Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon.com.

"Last July we announced that Kindle books had passed hardcovers and predicted that Kindle would surpass paperbacks in the second quarter of this year, so this milestone has come even sooner than we expected, and it's on top of continued growth in paperback sales."

None of that stops some analysts from worrying. A study by market-research firm iSuppli last year estimated the total cost of materials for the 3G Kindle at $155.56, about $33 less than the $189 selling price for the device.

Since iSuppli’s estimates do not include the cost of software, licensing, royalties, manufacturing expenses (Amazon outsources production of the Kindle) and a cut for the wireless carriers, and well are marketing expense, analysts suspect Amazon likely sells the Kindle at a slight loss.

Many analysts assume the Kindle operates on a razor-razorblade model, which is the tactic of selling one good (like razors) at a discount, and a second good that it dependent on it (like razorblades) at a higher price. For Amazon, this would mean selling the Kindle at a discount in order to make money on e-book sales.

Amazon therefore uses the reverse of the model employed by Apple. Apple sells content only so it can boost sales of its devices; Amazon sells hardware only to boost sales of content.

Amazon Media Room: News Release

Nearly Half of Mobile App Users Report Clicking on Mobile Ads by Mistake

According to a new survey conducted online by Harris Interactive on behalf of Pontiflex in December 2010, 47 percent of mobile app users say they click/tap on mobile ads more often by mistake than they do on purpose.

Given that mobile advertising models typically charge advertisers for clicks, the survey findings indicate that a large portion of mobile ad dollars are wasted.

In a related December 2010 survey, 71 percent of mobile app users stated that they prefer ads that keep them within the app they are using, instead of ads that take them out of the app to a mobile web browser, further reinforcing the need for mobile advertising to move away from a model based on clicks.

Marketwire Survey Finds Nearly Half of Mobile App Users Report Clicking on Mobile Ads by Mistake

Social Media Marketing by the Numbers

Social media marketing now represents about $1.7 billion in expenditures. Facebook gets 53 percent of that. Twitter gets only about three percent. But I'd watch Twitter.

Social Media Marketing by the Numbers L2: A Think Tank for Digital Innovation

Forrester Research Expects Digital Experience to Lead to Market Disruption

"Longstanding structural barriers to innovation are about to collapse," says Forrester Research analyst James L. McQuivey.  That belief flows from a conviction that economic assets might now, at least in part, because the cumulative impact of new digital technologies have made a world in which it is much easier for attackers to disrupt existing businesses, including even those with substantial barriers to such disruption.

That is the reason video industry executives are so worried about Netflix, for example. But something more than that is at play. Increasingly, the best products in many industries will build a digital relationship into the experience. In some ways, that is a linear extrapolation from what has been happening for at least a decade, namely that physical products have been incorporating more software as key parts of the overall product value. The typical way we say this is that "all companies are becoming 'experience' companies."

The relationships are probably easiest to see in products with some existing "content" component. That's why Sony began investing in content assets. But the iPod builds on iTunes as smartphones and tablets now build on app stores.

What is harder to see, but will become increasingly more obvious, is that most products, even those without a "content" component, will start to use content more frequently. Most companies create brochures, white papers, data sheets, press releases, websites, videos, podcasts and webcasts. Some create mobile apps and games. All of that is "content." What will change, over time, is the prominent use of other types of content as a routine part of the branding and relationship-building activities conducted by companies.

Retailer Video, Music Services: Means to an End

Observers might wonder about whether Amazon or Apple can catch Netflix in the online video space. Others, including major retailers, seem be in a second tier, despite their other assets. Sears Holdings Corp. became the latest traditional retailer to get into streaming and downloads on Dec. 28, 2010, when it launched movie service Alphaline Entertainment.

That followed Best Buy Co.'s launch last year of rental and purchase site CinemaNow and Wal-Mart Stores Inc.'s acquisition of streaming service Vudu last February for roughly $100 million.

The retailers say the ventures not only help them gain a foothold in the fast-growing digital entertainment business, but also give them an edge in selling Internet-connected televisions and movie players in their stores.

As with some other players, online video is a means to an end.

Retailers' Video, Music Services Spin Wheels - WSJ.com (subscription required)

India Mobile Banking Gets Boost from Bharti Airtel and Vodafone

“Mobile payments will be the next step for delivering financial services to hundreds of millions of 'underbanked' people or those who are under-served currently, both urban and rural customers, especially in emerging economies," says Gerhard Romen, Director, Mobile Financial Services, Nokia.

Recently, mobile banking got a huge boost with Bharti Airtel and Vodafone announcing separate partnerships with State Bank of India and ICICI Bank, respectively. While Bharti Airtel and SBI have formed an exclusive joint venture, Vodafone has agreed to become a "business correspondent" for ICICI Bank.

While Vodafone manages over 1.5 million retail points for acquiring customers and servicing them, Airtel is present across 5,101 towns and more than 5,00,000 villages. That's a big deal considering that 51.4 percent of 89.3 million farmer households do not have access to any credit from institutional or non-institutional sources. 

Only 27 per cent of farm households are indebted to formal sources. Only 13 per cent are availing loans from the banks in the income bracket of less than Rs 50,000. 

There's money in the mobile