A Predictable Story, Given High Gas Prices and Earth Day

Some stories are predictable. Gas prices rise 100 percent and we start seeing stories showing gas signs and stories about what people are doing to avoid driving. That's not unusual or unexpected. Stories get written around seasons, important events, weather and news of the day.

So it is that Bob McCandless, CEO of BrightCom, a telepresence and video conferencing manufacturer, argues that "one reason why sales are falling at gas stations in the midst of increasing prices is due to the rate of enterprises becoming aware and adopting telecommuting solutions including telepresence and video conferencing to help minimize executive and employee travel."

Whenever gas prices get this high, we see stories about how telecommuting and related underpinnings of telecommuting are helpful.

BrightCom: Telepresence Relieves Pressure at the Pumps - PR.com:

Sony Announces “Sony Tablet” with Android 3.0 in 2 Form Factors

The new “Sony Tablet” to be available in the fall of 2011 will feature two form factors, including S1 (codename) which is optimized for rich media entertainment and S2 (codename) which is designed for mobile communication and entertainment.

The “Sony Tablet” will use Android 3.0. The S1 uses a relatively standard a 9.4-inch display. The
S2 has two 5.5-inch displays, in a clam shell configuration that is intended for more-mobile use, as the folding screens will collapse into a smaller overall package.

Sony Announces “Sony Tablet” with Android 3.0

IP Could Change Conditional Access and Need for Dedicated Decoders

 

OfferedApp Blends Social Shopping with Ad-Supported Apps

The idea of giving consumers something of value in exchange for the right to send or show advertising is not new. In fact, communication service or app providers have periodically experimented with the idea for years. The idea of offering free voice calls in exchange for listening to a few seconds worth of ads has been tried more than once, for example.

More recently, social shopping sites have plumbed a slightly different idea, aggregating groups of potential buyers before triggering an offer. A firm called "OfferedApp" works in both veins, offering users "free" apps that normally sell in app stores, in exchange for the right to show those consumers advertising. It's sort of like Groupon, but with the twist of offering free access to "paid" apps in return for the right to deliver advertising.

http://www.offeredapp.com/

Optimum Link: Stream PC Content to TV, Using the Network

The executives at Cablevision Systems Corp. long have had a reputation within the U.S. cable industry of doing things just a bit differently than most. That also extends to applications and services that allow consumers to display PC-delivered content on their TVs.

"Optimum Link," a new service available to Cablevision subscribers, offers the ability to view online content on the subscriber's TVs for $4.95 a month. The feature is included with the "Optimum Ultra" package.

Optimum Link obviously can be used to view videos, pictures, music and other web content, for example.

"If you have iO TV and Optimum Online you can send images and more from your computer to your TV with Optimum Link," Cablevision says. "Just download the Optimum Link software, follow the simple instructions, and turn to iO TV Channel 641."

This is a "service" version of capabilities consumers can obtain using some gameplaying consoles and dedicated set-top boxes, and is conceptually in line with the "network DVR" concept Cablevision fought so hard to create and offer.

Optimum Online - TV - Optimum Link

How long does it take for a Facebook post to beoome stale? - Social Marketing - BizReport

After one hour and 20 minutes a post on Facebook will have already attracted 50 percent of its total "Likes" and comments, a study by Visibli has found.

By the seventh hour 80 percent of "Likes" and comments have been left and 22 hours later 95 percent of all activity already has occurred.

In essence, that means that if you want maximum exposure post every one hour and 20 minutes but if you want to reach as many on your social graph as possible, one post a day will suffice.

How long does it take for a Facebook post to beoome stale?

How long does it take for a Facebook post to beoome stale? - Social Marketing - BizReport

After one hour and 20 minutes a post on Facebook will have already attracted 50 percent of its total "Likes" and comments, a study by Visibli has found.

By the seventh hour 80 percent of "Likes" and comments have been left and 22 hours later 95 percent of all activity already has occurred.

In essence, that means that if you want maximum exposure post every one hour and 20 minutes but if you want to reach as many on your social graph as possible, one post a day will suffice.

How long does it take for a Facebook post to beoome stale?

Normal People Don't "Share," They "Send"

Facebook has replaced its "share" button with "send" button. You might wonder why. Most likely, it's an attempt to leverage user behavior. People who have been using email for a long time are used to "sending," though the notion of "sharing" is not so well entrenched a behavior.

The "Send" button forwards the current Web page a user is on to a Facebook friend or Facebook group. Facebook probably guesses, and probably correctly, that the former "share" function will get more use as a "send" function.

Because Normal People Don't "Share," Facebook Introduces The "Send" Button

U.S. Smartphone Market is a Bit Like Fashion

Smartphones and other mobile devices are a bit like fashion, introducing a great deal of volatility.

According to The Nielsen Company’s monthly surveys of U.S. mobile consumers from July 2010 to September 2010, consumers planning on getting a new smartphone had a very clear preference: A third (33 percent) wanted an Apple iPhone.

Slightly more than a quarter (26 percent) said they desired a device with the Google Android operating system. And 13 percent said they wanted a RIM Blackberry.

Those same surveys for January 2011 to March 2011 show significant changes. According to the latest figures, 31 percent of consumers who plan to get a new smartphone indicated Android was now their preferred OS. Apple’s iOS has slipped slightly in popularity to 30 percent and RIM Blackberry is down to 11 percent. Almost 20 percent of consumers are unsure of what to choose next.

U.S. Smartphone Market: Who’s the Most Wanted? | Nielsen Wire

Developer Enthusiasm for Android, iPhone Pauses a Bit

Android has lost some of its momentum among developers, if not consumers, amid concerns about fragmentation, patent protection and open source credentials. However, the alternatives to the Google OS and Apple iOS are failing, as yet, to take advantage of these weaknesses. In fact, developer interest in the iPhone and iPad also has slipped a bit in recent days, an IDC study sponsored by Appcelerator has found.

Android loses momentum

Attention is the New Currency

 

You might argue it is hard to get attention from Millennials. Heck, it's hard to get anybody's attention, these days.

(Graham Brown mobileYouth) #Trends: Paid vs Earned Media

YouTube to Launch Streaming Video Service?

YouTube is launching a movie-on-demand service, TheWrap reports.

Major studios including Sony Pictures Entertainment, Warner Brothers and Universal are said to have licensed their movies for the new service, as have numerous independent studios, including Lionsgate and the library-rich Kino Lorber.

YouTube already sees 130 million monthly users, giving the site a huge potential buyer base.

YouTube Finally Goes Hollywood With New Movies on Demand Service

Mobile Banking Growing; Still in Single Digits

By 2015, more than 50 million U.S. adults could be using mobile banking services, says Emmett Higdon, Forrester Research analyst.

In a survey of 5,500 U.S. consumers Javelin conducted in November, 29 percent of respondents said they call their bank and 30 percent log into online banking when they receive an alert about their financial status from their bank, says James Van Dyke, Javelin Strategy and Research president.

Only four percent said they log into mobile banking. By comparison, of the survey respondents that were customers of Bank of America, 25 percent said they call their bank and 38 percent log into online banking. Another seven percent said they log into mobile banking.

Bank of America Looking to Trim Fat from Mobile Banking - Bank Investment Consultant

"UC is Free!" Might be Going Too Far

Per-seat costs for unified communications are down 50 percent since 2010, a comparison suggests. At Enterprise Connect 2011, 11 major vendors presented UC solutions, each with the four UC building blocks: IM/presence, conferencing (audio, web and video), mobility and extensibility.

Each supplier presented its UC pricing for the standard configuration. The per-user-per-year average prices for the UC-only configurations were down more than 50 percent from last year, to $38 per user per year (software, hardware and maintenance for 2,000 users for three years). Costs are dropping, no doubt.

UC is Free! @VoiceReport

Storage Failures Hamper Cloud Foundry

Cloud Foundry, the new cloud platform hosted by VMware, experienced problems with its storage infrastructure April 25, 2011. Cloud Foundry says the issues have affected its cloud controller system, limiting users’ ability to log in and manage their applications. Existing applications will continue to run, but are unable to recover if they experience problems.

“Early this morning we experienced multiple failures in a portion of our storage infrastructure,” CloudFoundry said in a notice on its web site.

Coming on the heels of the Amazon Web Services outage, at least some potential users will be reassessing their options.

Storage Failures Hamper Cloud Foundry

Netflix Now Has More Subs Than Comcast

If all that mattered was subscribers, Netflix would be a bigger company than Comcast, the largest U.S. cable company. In the first quarter of 2011, Netflix added 3.6 million subscribers, ending the period with more than 23.6 million subscribers in total. That was up 69 percent from the 14 million subscribers it had a year ago.

Comcast ended 2010 with 22.8 million pay TV subscribers. Of course, subscriber numbers are not the only metric. Comcast's average revenue per user is much higher. Netflix ARPU is about $12 per subscriber, per month. Comcast ARPU is somewhere north of about $82 a month.

read more here

Netflix Earnings Up 88 Percent, Adds 3.3 Million U.S. Subscribers

Netflix added 3.3 million U.S. subscribers in the first quarter of 2011, plus another 290,000 interantionally, to end at 23.6 million, which is slightly below the 3.7 million analayts were hoping for but still double the growth from a year ago.


Netflix saw a rise in domestic operating margins to 16 percent, from 14.9 percent in the fourth quarter, largely due to an increase in streaming-only subscribers and price increases on hybrid subscriptions. Margins should fall back to around 14 percent as streaming and marketing costs continue to rise (offset by declines in DVD shipping).

Netflix Earnings Up 88 Percent, Adds 3.3 Million U.S. Subscribers

Content or Context? Both, but Context Might be More Important than You Think

(Graham Brown mobileYouth) #Trends: Content vs Context

View more presentations from Graham Brown

Startups Often Succeed After Failing

One of the certainties about startups is that the initial idea fails, to be replaced by something else that does result in success.

Initial idea: Allow groups of people to band together to accomplish a goal called ThePoint
Eventually: Groupon

Initial idea: Web-based massively multiplayer online game called Game Neverending
Eventually: Flickr

Initial idea: Compare two people’s pictures and rate which one was more attractive
Eventually: Facebook

5 Awesome Companies That Emerged From Crappy Ideas