Average iTunes user only listens to 19% of music library

Cloud-based music storage has obvious attractions: it means a collection can be listened to on any number of devices, not just a dedicated MP-3 player.

But most iTunes users, at least, don't listen to most of the music they own. Music WithMe, which takes a competing approach to managing a music library on a mobile device, found that the average iTunes user only plays 19 percent of the music in the library.

Average iTunes user only listens to 19% of music library

eMarketer Predicts 88 Million Americans Will Redeem Online Coupons in 2011

About 50 percent of all adult Internet users in the United States, roughly 88 million people, “will have redeemed an online coupon or code for use either online or offline" by the end of 2011, eMarketer predicts.

And eMarketer sees only continued growth in the coming years. 88 million online coupon redeemers will become nearly 100 million by 2013, eMarketer projects.

“Consumer brands are accustomed to promoting their products in stores and in newspaper inserts,” says Jeffrey Grau, eMarketer principal analyst. “But as more shoppers make purchase decisions online before taking a shopping trip, brands are following them onto the internet.

eMarketer Predicts 88 Million Americans Will Redeem Online Coupons This Year

How Much Content Is Needed For Content Marketing?

"Buyers and influencers of high consideration B2B technology solutions typically use about three distinct content types during the awareness, the consideration, and the purchase phases of the buying process, a total of nine pieces," says Forrester Research analyst Daniel Klein.

But there's more: you are likely to have a minimum of three to four key buying influences for any moderately complex solution. "That means you’ll need to ensure that you’re applying the 3x3 to each buyer and influencer," says Klein. See http://blogs.forrester.com/daniel_klein/11-05-30-the_right_ratio_for_your_content_marketing_strategy_guiding_principle_number_three.

Does that mean any brand has to create 27 to 36 different content pieces? Actually, no, and the reason is the existence of the Internet. Buyers and influencing parties typically find 70 percent of the content that they consume on their own, says Klein.

All brands will create some of their specific content, but no brand should expect to create most of the content potential buyers will use. Also, "look for reuse or shared content," says Klein. That's the basic principle behind content curation: you don't have to create all the useful content, but you can aggregate and point to it.

Also, 3:1:1 is the simple but powerful ratio that should guide your content strategy, says Klein. Buyers and influencers of high consideration solutions find 70 percent of the content they consume on their own, 15 percent of the content that they consume is typically sent to them by marketers and the remaining 15 percent is delivered to them by sales (or an indirect sales channel.

The 70 percent of the content that they find on their own can take many forms. They find it via a search query, come across it while reading an online article, seek it out by coming to your website and through other means as well. Because this percent is so great, you can’t possibly control everything they find, but you can still help them find the content. That's what content curation is about.

How Much Content Is Needed For Content Marketing?

eBay "retail-as-a-service"

Online commerce will be sold as a cloud-based service if eBay creates a new "cloud commerce" platform-as-a-service for retailers, complete with an app-store fed by web developers. The company has bought shopping engine specialist Magento, and eBay already bought X.Commerce, an open-source platform group. The shopping giant had already owned 49 per cent of Magento, after it invested $22.5 million in March 2010.

eBay buy signals retail-as-a-service cloud

Verizon Personalizes Broadband, Video Packages

With a maturing market, service providers often find themselves facing different marketing challenges than in a younger, faster-growing market.

Though it has been emphasizing triple-play packages for some time, Time Warner Cable now will devote new effort to "broadband only" single-play customers, in part because most video customers seem unwilling to change providers just to get broadband services from a new provider.

Likewise, Verizon now is offering packaging with more variety for its triple-play prospects and customers as well, essentially offering end users to emphasize either broadband or video, rather than having to buy linear packages that essentially offer a "good, better, best" approach that assumes all customers value video and broadband equally.

In other words, a consumer really wanting the best broadband, but less interested in video variety, can buy a package built that way. Likewise, a consumer that wants the maximum video variety but is less concerned about broadband speed can buy that way as well.

It's hard to tell what the recurring revenue impact will be, but the customer churn should be lower. Verizon’s broadband packages increase by $5 for each 10 Mbps increase in speeds, while video packages increase by $10 as they step up from about 200 channel to nearly 400 channels.

"Choice" long has been one of the most-powerful marketing concepts. "Personalized" has likewise become key. Verizon seems to be wanting to reflect those values in its packaging.

Verizon’s Bundle Builder

Mobile Will Need to Become an "App Platform"

For European mobile operators, the next phase of business development will be about mobile service as a platform for web and other applications, displacing a more-recent phase where success hinged on new data revenues, smart phones, reducing operating costs and raising average revenue per user, says Declan Lonergan, Yankee Group analyst.

Clearly gone is the period where success could be built around text messaging, voice revenue and minutes of use.

Some executives rightly will be concerned, if only because the next phase of growth will depend on the ability to create a new revenue platform based on access and other elements of mobile service that can be sold to business partners, if not directly to end users.

Mobile Will Need to Become an "App Platform"

Apple iMessage Will Act Like BlackBerry Messenger

Apple's new iMessage service will act in a manner similar to BlackBerry Messenger. Depending on your point of view, that is a major alternative to carrier-provided text messaging, or not a factor. iMessages will be sent using the standard data connection, and could replace a text message, so long as the recipient also is on an iOS device.

So iPhone owners who are able to send iMessages to the people they most often text with might find the feature quite useful. Such users might be able to pay text messaging plans that save them money. Others will simply find they don't want to think about "how" to send a message. Also, lots of users are on unlimited texting plans in any case, so the "savings" actually aren't there.

Apple Attacked Mobile Carriers Today, But Also Gave Them A Gift

Apple's iOS 5: No More Syncing to a PC

With iOS 5, Apple finally has moved device set-up and updates away from the need to connect to a PC to accomplish such tasks. One assumes that eventually will happen with iPads as well.

Apple also has integrated Twitter, providing a single sign-on for Twitter use on the phone, and with any app you download, it will just ask you for Twitter credential permission.

There’s no need to re login. The practical advantages are that photos, maps, YouTube videos, web content and location details can be sent directly from inside the applications.

Twitter photos and @usernames can be autopulled into the phone’s contacts.

Apple's PC-Free iOS 5 Coming This Fall

"No Ads" for iCloud Email

However Apple sees monetization of iCloud, "ads" does not seem to be among the approaches. While discussing Apple's free, new iCloud email service, CEO Steve Jobs said the new email service would not feature advertising.

"We build products that we want for ourselves, too, and we just don't want ads," said Jobs.

Read more here

Mobile Social Networking Grows 10%

The frequency of mobile social networking grew about 10 percent between the three-month period ended January 2011 and the three-month period ended April 2011, according to comScore MobiLens data.

Some 28 percent of U.S. mobile subscribers accessed a social networking site via mobile phone in April, compared to 25 percent in January.

Mobile Social Networking Grows

New Apple iOS Features

For some of us, Apple's new iCloud services are more interesting than updates to the Apple iOS, but there were new features announced at the same developer meeting where iCloud services were announced.

$12 Billion Personal Cloud Business?

Though Apple’s iCloud services are available “at no incremental cost,” analysts at Forrester Research estimate there is about $12 billion in annual revenue (by 2016), about $6 billion earned in the form of subscription fees,  to be earned by providers of “personal cloud” services that help people manage their personal and work-related information across the many devices they use.



More than half the U.S. online population, about 135 million people, have the challenge of managing their content across multiple PCs and smartphones, Forrester Research says.


Apple is innovating on par with the most notable startups in the personal cloud space, such as Dropbox, Box.net, and Evernote, and is ahead of Google, says Frank Gillett, Forrester Research analyst. Gillett We expects Amazon, Facebook and other major players to pursue personal cloud strategies as well.


Read more here: http://goo.gl/7zsqE

Apple Launches iCloud Services

Apple has launched  “iCloud,” a set of free cloud services that synchronize applications on  iPhones, iPads, iPod touch, Mac or PC devices. Content stored on iCloud is automatically and wirelessly pushed to all of a user’s registered devices when changes are made.

The free iCloud services include the former “MobileMe” services such as contacts, calendar and mail, The App Store and iBookstore.

Purchased iOS apps and books can be downloaded to all of a user’s devices, not just the device they were purchased on. Tapping the iCloud icon will download any apps and books to any iOS device (up to 10 devices) at no additional cost.

iCloud Backup automatically and securely backs up iOS devices to iCloud daily over Wi-Fi when users charge their iPhones, iPads or iPod touch devices. Backed up content includes purchased music, apps and books, “Camera Roll” (photos and videos), device settings and app data.
iCloud Storage seamlessly stores all documents created using iCloud Storage APIs and automatically pushes them to all of a user’s devices. When you change a document on any device, iCloud automatically pushes the changes to all your devices. Apple’s “Pages,” “Numbers” and “Keynote” apps already take advantage of iCloud Storage.

Users get up to 5GB of free storage for their mail, documents and backup.

iCloud’s “Photo Stream” service automatically uploads the photos a user takes or imports on any of their devices and wirelessly pushes them to all of a user’s devices and computers.

Apple’s “iTunes in the Cloud” lets users download previously purchased iTunes music to all of a user’s  iOS devices at no additional cost, and new music purchases can be downloaded automatically to all devices.

Marketing in the "Age of the Customer"

It would be easy enough to consider content marketing as a tactic, rather part of a strategy. But in the "age of the customer," content marketing is a tactic that fits with a fundamental strategic approach as well. That isn't to say content marketing is THE strategy, only that content marketing is a tactic clearly aligned with new market imperatives and strategies.

The issue is what provides sustainable advantage in an era. Previous sources of dominance were derived from core competence in manufacturing, distribution or information. Those sorts of competencies still are important, but arguably are not the unique sources of competitive advantage for most firms and brands.

The new context is that, in a digital world, competition can come from anywhere. Customers have real-time information about pricing, product features and competitors; they hold all the advantages. The only sustainable source of competitive advantage, the only defensible position, is to concentrate on knowledge of and engagement with customers, some would argue.

That might suggest a "customer obsessed" strategy, where budgets focus on processes that enhance engagements with customers, and prioritizes these over maintaining traditional competitive sources of advantage.

You might change the way you do research, says Josh Bernoff, Forrester Research analyst. You might spend less on surveys whose results come back too late to act on. You might invest instead in real-time listening to social media and the search for customers' unarticulated needs.

You might take cash from your email and advertising blasts and spend it on interactive content and mobile apps that create real connections.

The point is that there is a reason people talk so much these days about "engagement," "conversation" and "connections." Those are ways of responding to a market where customers have more power. It might be going too far to say that "brands" now are in the hands of consumers, but the shift in that direction is palpable.

Content marketing fits because it is one way to create and sustain brand engagement.

Empowered

Glass Half Full on Video Cord Cutting?

It would be hard to argue that there is any current and massive trend for U.S. households to substitute online video for linear subscription TV services. On the other hand, it also would be hard to argue that the trend is not in place.

Such substitution is only “nascent,” but could grow if content owners decide to provide the content in that way, said Time Warner

chief operating officer, Landel Hobbs. Though it remains largely true that Americans are not rushing to cancel their subscription TV services, as a survey by the Consumer Electronics Association suggests, neither would it be true to say the phenomenon is not growing.

But 10 percent of survey respondents say they are “very likely” or “likely” to cancel their linear video service. And about 14 percent say they “might” do so. That is consistent with many other recent surveys. CEA’s research suggests that 76 percent of U.S. consumers have no interest in cancelling their multichannel video TV service, with 51 percent reporting they are “very unlikely” to cancel TV service.

Glass Half Full on Video Cord Cutting?

5 Percent of EC Consumers Buy Internet Access at Speeds of 39 Mbps or Above

There’s a clear gap between very high speed fixed broadband in the European Union countries and the availability of such connections. Only five percent of consumers buy fixed line broadband access at speeds of 30 Mbps and above, although 29 percent of households could buy service at such speeds if they wanted to, according to a new European Commission report.

The point is that there is more to ultra-fast broadband adoption than sometimes seems important. As it turns out, few U.S. customers actually buy services running at 50 Mbps or above, and most of the customers who do buy are probably business customers.

You might argue that the only real problem is that the faster services are too expensive. That’s true, but also difficult to change, as it would be difficult to find any cost savings, in any part of the fixed-line broadband access business, that would allow pricing of 50 Mbps or 100 Mbps services to be sold at similar prices as today's 20-Mbps services.

5 Percent of EC Consumers Buy Internet Access at Speeds of 39 Mbps or Above

Mortgage Origination Forecast

Housing is an important economic indicator. Mortgage issuance is related to housing purchases. So this forecast by the Mortgage Banking Association isn't pretty.

Mobile Users Warm Up to the Check-In

Checking in to location-based services on a mobile phone is still not a mainstream activity, but adoption is increasing, especially among smart phone users.

According to comScore, seven percent of all mobile users and 18 percent of smart phone users accessed check-in services in March 2011.

Users of check-in services were more likely than the overall smartphone population to be female, under 35 years old and full-time students.

Mobile Users Warm Up to the Check-In - eMarketer

NRF Finds Willingness to Use Social Commerce

The National Retail Federation reports that people are more willing to dabble in social commerce than many retailers realize, with 42 percent of those who shop online saying they at least occasionally "follow" a store on social media. More than 56 percent of Facebook users have clicked through to a retail site, while 67 percent of Twitter users have done so.

Perhaps the biggest finding is that these consumers are open to skipping brand sites entirely, with 35 percent saying they would be willing to make a purchase directly from Facebook, and 32 percent right from Twitter. Those findings obviously run counter to some sentiment that people on Facebook are in a socializing mood, not a shopping mood.

But other studies do suggest that social shopping is something users will do. Shoppers are willing to interact with retailers through a variety of social networks and retailers have limitless opportunities to capitalize on the momentum, according to the 2011 Social Commerce Study, a joint research project by Shop.org, comScore and Social Shopping Labs. The report, which evaluates shopping directly influenced by social media, polled 1787 adult online shoppers in April 2011. See New_study_evaluates_consumer_behaviors_attitudes_toward_social_commerce_.php.

According to the Shop.org survey, 42 percent of online consumers have "followed" a retailer proactively through Facebook, Twitter or a retailer's blog, and the average person follows about six retailers. While shoppers' reasoning for following a retailer varies, the majority of respondents (58 percent) said they follow companies to find deals, while nearly half (49 percent) say they want to keep up to date on products. More than one-third also follow retailers for information on contests and events (39 percent).

The NRF study, based on more than 1,700 online shoppers, found that those online shoppers who track retailers typically follow six stores, whether through Facebook, Twitter or a retailer's blog.

MediaPost Publications Online Shoppers 'Follow' Faves On Social Media 06/06/2011:

Facebook Accounts For 38% Of Sharing Traffic On The Web

Overall, sharing now produces an estimated 10 percent of all Internet traffic and 31 percent of referral traffic to sites from search and social.

Search is still about twice as big, according to ShareThis. Facebook appears to drive 38 percent of shared items, email about 17 percent and Twitter about 17 percent.

ShareThis Study: Facebook Accounts For 38 Percent Of Sharing Traffic On The Web