iPad's Great, But How Good is It as a Blender?

What Makes a Video "Go Viral"?

sme_bw2010_scott_stratten_v2 from Michael A. Stelzner on Vimeo.

85% of Software Firms Say They Sell Cloud Software Now

Cloud-based software seems already to have become a significant product for a majority of 100 software executive respondents recently surveyed by Sand Hill Group.

Fully 85 percent of respondents said their company already has a cloud product or service offering in the market.

Some 43 percent of the executives forecasted that their revenues will be dominated (81 - 100 percent) by cloud-based services and products in five years.

Some 61 percent of respondents from companies with revenues less than $250 million are driving towards cloud-dominated (81- 100 percent cloud revenue) business in five years. The larger companies will grow cloud revenues more slowly. About 16 percent of the large company respondents indicated that their revenues will be in the range of 1-20 percent in five years, and 67 percent said it would be between 41-60 percent.



The survey data shows clearly that Platform-as-a-Service is still in its infancy. Enterprise customers already have a rich suite of on-premise development tools and question the value of the platform in the cloud. They also have concerns about vendor lock-in, architectural re-design efforts, and the readiness of PaaS platforms to handle enterprise production applications. Furthermore, CIOs are waiting to see which platform will emerge as the dominant one before committing. In the near term, PaaS will be a favorite for early adopter and progressive companies.

The most popular form of cloud service is "software as a service." SaaS is a dominant delivery model with more than 93 percent of executives indicating that SaaS generates the highest revenues for them, among cloud services. However, PaaS is a strong favorite to dominate in the next three years with 85 percent of executives indicating that PaaS will generate the highest revenues.

Once PaaS reaches mainstream adoption, however, it will be a sweet spot for many product and services vendors. Half of enterprise software comprises of custom software developed on software development platforms. PaaS is where almost half of the tools, custom development, and migration revenues will be generated.

The survey was conducted betwen January and February 2011. See this for more detail.

Tablet market seen surging to $49 billion by 2015

The tablet computer market will become the third largest consumer electronics sector, after televisions and personal computers, forecasts Strategy Analytics, forecasting 149 million units will be sold in 2015, growing eightfold from 2010.

Gartner forecasts even stronger growth of 294 million units for 2015.

Tablet market seen surging to $49 billion by 2015 | Reuters

Will High Gas Prices Help or Hurt Online Sales?

Economics is supposed to be a science, but one wonders whether that is entirely accurate. Consider the question of whether higher gas prices are going to help, or hurt online commerce. One point of view is that consumers will drive less, and spend more online.

Michael McNamara, Vice President, Research and Analysis for MasterCard Advisors SpendingPulse, thinks online sales will benefit. "Based on what we've observed in the last three to four years, high gasoline prices typically result in consumers consolidating shopping trips, shopping closer to home, and making fewer trips to the brick and mortar locations as we get to Saturday."

"On the other hand, we've seen the e-Commerce channel benefitting somewhat from this trend," he says.

According to comScore, an increase in gas prices may actually trigger a decrease in non-essential, or discretionary spending. Instead of forgoing car trips and using the money that would be spent on gas towards online purchases, consumers are more likely to decrease online spending and use those funds towards the purchase of gas.

"I think it's fair to say that rapidly rising retail gas prices are cause for concern for the retail e-commerce sector," says Andrew Lipsman. "As disposable income shrinks, so too does discretionary spending as manifested in online retail."

"All other factors being equal, we should anticipate a two-percentage point decline in e-commerce spending growth rates versus what we would have otherwise seen.

See http://blog.comscore.com/2011/04/will_rising_gas_prices_threate.html

News Center MasterCard Advisors

Sprint, LightSquared, Clearwire in Advanced Talks About Infrastructure Sharing

Sprint Nextel is in advanced talks to rent space on its wireless tower network to LightSquared and Clearwire, the Wall Street Journal reports. For LightSquared, the deal accelerates the pace of its national terrestrial network construction.

Sprint will be paid by Lightsquared partly in cash and partly in spectrum, which will allow Sprint to deploy a new 4G Long Term Evolution network without waiting for spectrum auctions or deactivation of its Nextel iDEN network.

Somewhat oddly, given that Sprint relies on Clearwire to build the 4G WiMAX network Sprint is using, the deal also will allow Clearwire to finish national network construction at lower cost, as well.

Sprint in Talks to Share Network - MarketWatch

LTE could become available on 900/1800 MHz in EC by end of 2011

Long Term Evolution could be available in the United Kingdom sooner than many had thought, following a decision by the European Commission to open up existing airwaves used for 2G and 3G devices, making them available for use by LTE devices.

The EC decision states that the 900 and 1800 MHz spectrum must allow use of these frequencies for LTE devices by the end of 2011. So some network operators with spare capacity in those frequency bands could light LTE networks now, without waiting for a spectrum auction.

thinkbroadband :: LTE could become available on 900/1800MHz by end of 2011

Web 3.0: A Web of One?

Web 3.0, when it arrives, will be about using all sorts of personal data to create a customized "Web of One" experience. At least that's the hope.

How to Measure Your Facebook Engagement

Whether "engagement" on Facebook or any other social network actually can be measured, people keep trying.

Many businesses set up a Facebook fan page and look to their fan growth rate as the primary success metric. But number of fans isn’t really the full story. You need to track and measure how much your fans are actually consuming, engaging with and sharing your content.

Perhaps more accurately, brands and organizations need ways to measure proximate measures that we believe illustrate "engagement."

Some studies show that a whopping 90 percent of Facebook users don’t return to a fan page once they click the "Like"button.

How to Measure Your Facebook Engagement | Social Media Examiner

"It's Not About You"

"It’s not about you" might be the best single piece of advice a person ever can get. But most sales efforts are less effective than they might otherwise be because sales personnel focus so much time and effort on the products they are peddling, rather than listening to customers talk about problems they have.

Sales teams focus on their own needs and desire for success, and the customer is just a means to that end. Customers have their own problems, and frankly, yours are less important.

Sales personnel worry about their own image; they ought to worry more about the customer's need to succeed.

If you want to be successful in business, make it be about them. Not you. It's really good advice.

The Key Ingredient for Social Media Success: Social Slam Recap | Blue Kite Marketing

Apple Sues Samsung Over Tablets, Smart Phones

Apple is suing Samsung, alleging the Galaxy line of phones and tablets infringe on a number of the company’s patents and trademarks.

The suit, filed on Friday in U.S. District Court in Northern California, alleges patent and trademark infringement, as well as unfair competition. Apple is seeking injunctions, actual damages and punitive damages, as well as a finding that the alleged infringement was willful

The smartphone industry is filled with patent actions, including an ongoing battle between Apple and Nokia, suits between Microsoft and Motorola, as well as a suit by Oracle against Google. See this, for example.

Apple Sues Samsung, Saying Galaxy Phones and Tablets Too Close To iPad and iPhone Design | Ina Fried | Mobilized | AllThingsD

RIM Trying to Get Nortel LTE Patents Google Wants?

Research in Motion is weighing a bid of its own for a patent portfolio covering Long Term Evolution, among other wireless technology patents owned by Nortel, that Google already has bid $900 million for, Bloomberg reports.

RIM apparently wants to keep the intellectual property out Google's control. The 6,000 Nortel patents and patent applications appear to cover the important LTE platform and wireless video.

A group of technology companies, including mobile-phone makers, may also bid on the patents to stop Google, Bloomberg reports.

There apparently is concern Google could gain too much influence, and possibly revenue streams, over other handset manufacturers using any of the protected property. Also, ownership of patent portfolios often is used as a defense from the endemic patent fights technology firms seem to launch at rivals these days.

RIM Said Weighing Bid to Top Google Offer for Nortel Patents - Bloomberg

Twitter in Talks to Buy TweetDeck

Twitter is in advanced talks to buy TweetDeck Inc. for around $50 million, the Wall Street Journal reports.

TweetDeck is a popular third-party application programs that help Twitter users view and manage their tweets. TweetDeck has emerged as a favorite of heavy users of Twitter, letting people track tweets about multiple topics at the same time. The program, which many people download and use on their desktop computers, also lets people write tweets longer than 140 characters, among other features.

Twitter has encountered some static recently because developers fear Twitter now wants to clamp down on third-party apps that compete with features Twitter believes should be a core part of Twitter itself.

Google has encountered somewhat similar issues recently over new releases of Android, which some developers say Google develops in "too closed" a manner.

Twitter in Talks to Buy TweetDeck - WSJ.com

HP TouchPad to Feature Music and Video Streaming

HP's new "TouchPad" tablet will come with a music syncing solution, using cloud servers to sync and remotely store music. The music app also will ensure that the music the user is most likely to listen to is cached locally on the device.

The service reportedly also will allow TouchPad owners to stream music that they don’t yet own, and might also support streaming of music to HP smart phones.

None of that is too surprising, given the heavy content consumption use tablets get. 

TouchPad to include smart-caching cloud-based music syncing, video store

Verizon to Announce Additional 4G LTE Cities This Week

Verizon Wireless earlier this year identified 59 markets that will 4G Long Term Evolution (LTE) network service by the end of 2011.

These newly named areas, added to the 39 initial markets launched in December 2010 and 49 markets announced at the Consumer Electronics Show in January 2011, mean that consumers and businesses in at least 147 U.S. cities will have access to the fastest, most advanced 4G mobile network in America.

We are told to watch for the latest set of cities with service on April 21, 2011. http://twitter.com/VerizonWireless/status/59968063570837504

Verizon Announces Additional 4G LTE Cities for 2011, 145 Markets by the End of the Year

Verizon Simplifies DSL-Based Broadband Pricing, Eliminates Contracts

New Verizon broadband access customers now can buy copper-based service without a contract, and the packaging is a standard offer, not a promotion. The simplified new approach features just two double-play pricing tiers. Note that the offers require buying Verizon's voice service as well.

The first tier offers speeds between 500 kbps to 1 Mbps.  The second tier features the highest optimized speeds that customers qualify for. Those speeds will range between 1.1 Mbps and 15 Mbps, depending on distance from a DSL access multiplexer and the condition of the access wire.

Verizon’s "Enhanced High Speed Internet" bundle costs $59.99 per month.

The "basic HSI bundle" costs $34.99 per month. Verizon offers triple play offers with both access options. The DirecTV portion of the triple play does require a two-year contract, but comes with discounted service for the first year.

Consumers who order a bundle online will save $5 per month and receive a free wireless router.  Consumers who order stand-alone HSI service online can also save $5 per month, lowering the basic HSI offer to $14.99 per month with a qualifying voice package, Verizon says.

All bundles feature up to four gigabytes of online storage, nine email accounts per household, 10 megabytes of personal Web space to accommodate a blog or a web page.

Additionally, customers who order an Enhanced HSI bundle have access to Verizon Wi-Fi at no additional charge, allowing them to connect to Wi-Fi hot spots offering access in airports, hotels, bookstores, coffee shops and more.

read more here

Business Use of Email, Desk Phones Dropping

Business use of email and desktop phones seems to be declining, a new survey suggests. Only 35 percent of workers expect to use email more in the future compared to last year, while  use of office landline phones is also likely to decline by about eight percent, a new study by GigaOm Pro suggests. 


The survey also suggests that alternative workplace forms of communication, including texting, mobile phones, social networks, video communications and instant messaging are growing. 

Those are a few of the important conclusions one might draw from a recent online study of 1,000 technology-empowered workers in the United States,  exploring the rise of new communication tools in the workplace, conducted by GigaOm, and sponsored by Skype. 

See more here: study. 

What Would Apple Do to the TV or Set-Top Box Market?

"The problem with innovation in the TV industry is the go-to-market strategy," Apple CEO Steve Jobs has said. "The TV industry has a subsidized model that gives everyone a set top box for free, So no one wants to buy a box."

"That pretty much undermines innovation in the sector," said Jobs. "The only way this is going to change is if you start from scratch, tear up the box, redesign and get it to the consumer in a way that they want to buy it."

"I’m sure smarter people than us will figure this out, but that’s why we say Apple TV is a hobby," Jobs said. Of course, if Apple were to tackle the TV appliance business, you can be sure they would tear up the existing framework. It isn't clear whether it is the display (the TV) or the set-top which is the bigger problem.

Some of us would say it is the set-top, simply because the "best" TV in a world that requires a decoder is a "dumb" device that does not interfere with any of the features the "set top" might want to provide. The big problem with that approach, though, is that most people get their "TV" service from a company that imposes its own "set top box" on the user.

To really break through, an attacker would have to build a box so elegant and interesting, so capable that it replaces the box the service providers demand. That requires quite a lot of business logic, and quite a few agreements with service providers that might love to be rid of the capital expense a decoder requires, but do want the customer control, marketing and content security advantages the box provides.

But Apple might be the only company, inside or outside of consumer electronics, that could figure that out.

Don't Be So Sure Apple Won't Start Selling TVs

Social Media Works for Small Business

A survey of 3340 largely small business managers and owners finds the respondents believe social media has helped them close business. Some 72 percent  of marketers who have been using social media for more than three years report it had helped them close business. More than half who spend 11 or more hours per week also believe they have gotten the same results.

Of course, that likely is a self-selecting sample. Almost by definition, a business that continues to invest energy and time in social media believes it works.

About 48 percent of the self-employed and small business owners with two or more employees believe they have closed business because of social media.

Even with a minimal time investment, the vast majority of marketers (81% or higher) indicated their social media efforts increased exposure for their business. Owners of small businesses (2 to 100 employees) were more likely than others to report greater exposure was a direct result of using social media. (89 percent of respondents reported benefits).

By spending as little as six hours per week, 52 percent of marketers reported lead generation benefits with social media.

Small businesses were more likely than others to strongly agree that qualified leads were generated (21% strongly agreed, compared to 14% or less with other types of businesses).

Also, a significant percentage of participants strongly agreed that overall marketing costs dropped when social media marketing was implemented. The self-employed (59 percent) and small business owners with two or more employees (58 percent) were more likely than others to see reductions in marketing costs when using social media marketing.

The largest group who took the survey was self-employed (33 percent) followed by people working for a company with up to 100 employees (30 percent). Some 19 percent of people taking the survey worked for businesses with 100 or more employees.


Social Media Marketing Industry Report 2011 from Michael A. Stelzner on Vimeo.


read more here

netTALK "DUO" Now on Dell.com

netTALK.com's Voice over Internet Protocol service is now being sold at Dell.com. As with some other appliance-based approaches, the device plugs into a router and derives VoIP service directly, without requiring use of a PC. The service offers free nationwide calls to any phone in the U.S. and Canada from anywhere in the world.

The suggested retail price for the devise is $69.95, including the entire first year of phone service and only $29.95 each year after.

I'm not among those who think voice now is a true commodity, like sugar, flour or unleaded gasoline. Most of us can point to instances where we use one form of voice rather than others, to communicate with different people, with whom we have different relationships, in different places, about different things.

A unit of one true commodity is literally interchangeable with a unit of that same commodity produced or delivered by any other entity. Skype video between Asia and North America is not interchangeable with mobile service used locally or within a single nation. Both of those usage modes are different from a desktop business phone using IP telephony between various global locations, or a consumer's home phone used mostly in "inbound" mode.

All of those use cases are different from a Facebook or other web app that is enabled with voice.

Nor are the revenue cases similar. A minute of use on a high-end telepresence system might not cost any more than a simple peer-to-peer Skype video session. But the total cost of ownership is quite different. A minute of mobile voice does not generate the profit margin of a minute of domestic landline voice, in most cases.

That said, it might be hard to find an observer who really believes voice services, overall, are high-margin products anymore. They can be, but the overall trend is towards less margin. A mobile customer with a 400-minute monthly bucket, costing $40,. who only uses 100 of those minutes has an effective cost per minute of 40 cents a minute. That would be a high-margin product.

A user on a prepaid plan with calls to India at one cent a minute would be paying less, after adding in any per-call charges, and depending on the length of any particular call.

netTALK DUO Now Available on Dell.com