"'Pretty Good" Year forBroadband Plan

Blair Levin, former executive director of the FCC's National Broadband Plan, says that it has been a "pretty good year" for the plan. Spectrum allocations, Universal Service Fund reform and rights-of-way reform are the key areas where work remains to be done.

Levin said he thought the debate had gone "off track" on the spectrum reform issue. He said the issue to resolve is not whether to reallocate spectrum, but how to reallocate it on an ongoing basis to serve evolving needs.

Asked whether broadcasters are sitting on underutilized capital, he said some are and some aren't, but that the market should determine whether, post cable and Internet, there was still a need for 25 or 30 TV stations in New York. For the 25th broadcaster in New York, it may be more valuable to sell the spectrum, he suggested.

The thing about big policy proposals and plans is that any changes are going to help some industry segments and firms, and hurt some segments and firms. The National Broadband Plan isn't different in that regard. Firms and industries that reckon they will be harmed will fight, vociferously against the changes.

Levin: 'Pretty Good' Year forBroadband Plan

Cloud Computing Creeps into Enterprise

As has been the trend recently, end users are bringing new technology to their workplaces, and cloud services seem to be the most-recent new developments. About 20 percent of 573 C-level executives in 18 countries say they have personally purchased a cloud service without the IT department’s knowledge.

While 60 percent of companies report they have policies in place that prohibit such actions,
respondents say there are no real deterrents for purchasing cloud services by stealth. In fact, 29 percent report there are no ramifications whatsoever while another 48 percent say it is little more than a warning.

The survey also shows private cloud deployments are growing, especially where critical, differentiating internal operations and customer services are at stake. Today, 43 percent of companies report they use private cloud services, while an additional 34 percent say they will begin to do so in the next six to 12 months.

The survey, conducted by Kelton Research on behalf of Avenade, also shows that 74 percent of companies are using some form of cloud services today, a 25 percent growth in adoption since Avanade’s September 2009 survey.

Facebook is Big, Statistically

Content Is Currency

In explaining why content marketing is important, I have in the past argued that all buyers these days, both in their roles as consumers and buyers of business products, routinely search online for information when they've decided they need to buy something to solve a problem they have.

The issue for suppliers is that such buying processes start before any supplier's selling process can begin. If that is the case, suppliers need to be visible and credible during the research process, when buyers are making decisions that will eliminate most solutions and suppliers.

But there is another angle: people are very busy, and must contend with a very-chaotic and rich media environment. In other words, people now are bombarded incessantly with messages, making it harder to get attention.

Content becomes the conduit to earn consumer attention, the currency, if you will, that creates the marketer's side of the value exchange, argues Jason Heller at MediaPost.

MediaPost Publications Content Is Currency - How Wealthy Is Your Brand?

Netflix is the Big Story for Online Streaming in 2011

Among the consumers who participated in the most recent CBS Vision research, 43 percent are now Netflix users. A year earlier, Netflix users were such a small percentage of respondents that CBS grouped it into the "other" category, says CBS Chief Research Officer David Poltrack.

Turning to the streaming of full-length TV programs, as opposed to movies, Poltrack said that Netflix has now almost caught up to Hulu.

The latest survey suggests that users are not too interested in getting Internet access from their TVs, at least among households that subscribe to multi-channel digital TV services and also buy broadband access.

One might hypothesize that widespread use of Wi-Fi, connected smart phones, tablets and notebooks have something to do with those new findings. It doesn't add much value to access the Internet from the TV screen if you have a tablet or smart phone or notebook or netbook handy that can do so.

MediaPost Publications Netflix, iPad Lead Streaming TV Rally

A New Way to Measure "Sharing"

 AddThis has launched a new way for publishers to track the sharing that happens in its simplest form, namely copying and pasting a URL from the address bar and then sharing it out to a social network, email or instant message.

For AddThis, which is owned by Clearspring, that could represent a huge new trove of data that the company can provide to web publishers.

Clearspring CEO Hooman Radfar says that the company has “seen up to 10 times greater sharing from the address bar versus the sharing buttons.”

With a network that now reaches more than 1.2 billion unique users per month across 9 million sites, that’s a ton of sharing that had previously been going uncounted.

Measurement tools of that sort are important for media properties, as what used to be called "pass along readership" can allow publishers to claim bigger audiences, which then allows higher advertising rates.

Read more here

Despite 4G, 3G is Where the Growth Is

WCDMA HSPA connections will reach 500 million worldwide by the end of June, making it the fastest-growing wireless technology ever, according to new Wireless Intelligence data. Furthermore, LTE, the next-generation mobile broadband technology, has now reached one million connections only a year and a half after the first commercial network launches.

The rate of WCDMA HSPA adoption in its first six years is ten times greater than the take up of GSM mobile phones when they were first introduced in the mid-1990s, says the firm. 

There are now more than 19 million HSPA connections being added each month and it is predicted that the industry will reach 1 billion HSPA connections by the end of 2012. LTE networks are also being rapidly introduced, with 1 million connections already and 300 million expected by 2015.

http://www.mobilebusinessbriefing.com/article/hspa-based-mobile-broadband-connections-set-to-pass-500m

Play a Game, Win a Prize: One Take on Mobile Advertising

Kiip: An Introduction from kiip on Vimeo.
Mobile advertising often does not take advantage of the unique attributes of the medium, ranging from availability of a camera to the touch interface. But lots of thinking is going into how games can be used as an advertising or promotions medium. A "play a game, win a prize" approach is one way to approach it.

How Small Businesses Use Mobile

Perhaps surprisingly, navigation and GPS are the most-used mobile apps.

Most TV Available Online, Mobile in 2 Years

Executives from Disney, Turner, and Comcast were in unanimous agreement that we are only two years away from 75 percent of TV content being available online and on mobile devices. As with many other applications, services or features, one has to avoid attributing unstated adjectives. "Online" or "mobile" does not mean "free" or "at no incremental cost." That's a mistake often made when terms such as "peering" or "dumb pipe" are discussed. There is no reason to assume that "peering" means "settlement-free," or that "dumb pipe" necessarily is preced by the adjectives "low gross revenue, low margin or commodity."

At the Elevate Video Advertising Summit, Matt Strauss from Comcast Interactive Media, Jeremy Legg from Turner, and David Preshlack of Disney and ESPN predicted that TV "everywhere" was imminent, and that in the same time frame the networks will be almost completely agnostic about where and when their video content is being viewed.

"For us, in the broader context of what we’re doing, we’re beginning to migrate everything to Internet video," said Strauss.

The business issues will be key. Content owners are not going to give away mobile or online access without being compensated. Distributors will try to minimize the additional rights payments. But consumers likely will have to pay, one way or the other. Such payments might happen directly, as in an incremental fee when buying other linear services, or as a new fee for online-only or mobile-only access.

In other cases the additional payments might be made indirectly, as in the case of bigger broadband access buckets of use that accommodate the extra video consumption. The point is that universal access will involve new payments to content providers, which will mean costs passed on to consumers.

The payments might be more of an incremental issue if the new distribution rights require prior, "tied" purchases to cable TV, satellite or telco TV subscriptions. Payments will be larger for "online only" or "mobile only" subscriptions not tied to purchase of other products. But the new attitude on the part of major content owners means something will happen.

Television Executives Predict Bulk of TV Content Will Be Available Online and Via Mobile Within 2 Years

Mobile Payments Conference Call for Speakers

I'm soliciting speakers for the Mobile Payments Conference to be held Sept. 8 and 9, 2011 in New York. 


We anticipate session content including:
* retailer programs
* mobile wallet services and platforms
* mobile payment approaches
* terminal and device choices
* payment ecosystems
* business and revenue models


If you want to speak, or suggest a firm or speaker you'd like to hear, please ping me. 

The second Mobile Payments Conference will grow to feature a fuller look at wallet business models and transaction models, with additional attention to retailer strategies that have become more public, as well as a deeper look at the retail terminal perspective, now that some leaders now will strive to achieve a critical mass of users.

As we did at the last conference, we will use a highly-collaborative setting designed for maximum participant conversation. In part, that means using an approach very akin to a graduate seminar. We keep presentations short, and, since most attendees are subject matter experts in some part of the ecosystem, we structure the physical setting and time allocations to maximize conversations, as would be expected in a seminar setting.

Contact Gary Kim at garykim.denver@gmail.com  to participate or recommend speakers and topics. Contact Marla Ellerman at marla@mmtmagonline.com for information on sponsorships and exhibits. 

Apple Plans New "Spaceship" Campus

Apple wants to build a new headquarters, and "It looks like a spaceship just landed there,' says Steve Jobs, Apple CEO.

It's one giant circular building that would hold 12,000 people.

Apple: The Company's Plan For A Gorgeous New Campus

Apple To Start Releasing New iPhones And iPads Every 6 Months?

Apple is going to accelerate its iPhone and iPad release schedule to two upgrades a year to better compete with the onslaught of competitors, says Adnaan Ahmad of Berenberg Bank.

Ahmad also thinks Apple will soon release a 'cheap' iPhone priced in the $300 range (before subsidies) to fight off cheaper competition. At that rate, a subsidized device could sell for $50 to $100.

Apple's Going To Start Releasing New iPhones And iPads Every 6 Months To Compete With Android

Google Maps Tells You When Your Bus is Late, in Boston, Portland, Ore., San Diego and San Francisco

"Starting now, Google Maps for mobile and desktop can tell you when your ride is actually going to arrive with new live transit updates. We partnered with transit agencies to integrate live transit data in four U.S. cities and two European cities: Boston, Portland, Ore., San Diego, San Francisco, Madrid and Turin.

Know when your bus is late with live transit updates in Google Maps - Official Google Mobile Blog

Mobile Retail Users Skew Young, Rich

Mobile retail users skew younger and wealthier than the general mobile audience, according to Millennial Media and comScore. The highest percentage of mobile retail users, 36%, are between the ages of 25 to 34. That tends to be a common profile for many new applications, services and products, though.

Mobile Retail Users Skew Young, Rich

HTML5 Can Do Anything an iOS App Can Do, Financial Times Says

"Anything an iOS app can do, the web can do better, Rob Grimshaw, The Financial Times’ online managing director says. It had better, since the Financial Times does not want to do business with the Apple App Store under the prevailing terms and conditions

“We started off not knowing what could be achieved (in HTML),” Grimshaw said. “But, one by one, we found that all the things that could be done in a native app actually could be done in a HTML5 app - and we haven’t had to compromise on anything, though we were expecting to.

“We’ve benefited from our exposure in the app store - Apple were very good, they promoted our app quite heavily and we were very grateful. But app stores are not a panacea. There are something like 250,000 apps on Apple’s app store, 150,000 on Google’s - these are turning in to pretty crowded environments. The search and discovery tools are not that great and there are limited ways to market your app.

Interview: Financial Times’ Grimshaw: ‘App Stores Are Not A Panacea’

'Great Reversal' as world's forests stage a comeback

In 68 nations studied, forest area is expanding in 45 and density is also increasing in 45, said Pekka Kauppi of the University of Helsinki. "Changing area and density combined had a positive impact on the carbon stock in 51 countries." The point is that earlier forecasts of deforestation ignored density metrics.

That trend has been underway since at least 2006. See http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/11/061113-forests.html. That 2006 study found that forests were growing, reversing an earlier trend of shrinking forests.

Previous studies on the world's forests have tended to focus solely on forest area, often measured by satellite, but according to the US and European researchers compiling the report this misses out on the fact that in many cases more tree mass is appearing as forests get denser, with taller trees and more of them.

'To speak of carbon, we must look beyond measurements of area and apply forestry methods traditionally used to measure timber volumes,” says forestry expert Paul Waggoner. 'Forests are like cities: they can grow both by spreading and by becoming denser,' says Iddo Wernick, another study author.

For example, according to US Forest Service figures, US timberland grew by only 1 per cent over the period 1953 to 2007. But this figure doesn't reflect the true story: the volume of growing stock increased by 51 per cent, and overall national forest density was well up.

'Great Reversal' as world's forests stage a comeback

63% of Mobile Data Network Traffic on Wi-Fi, Femtos by 2015

The majority of mobile broadband traffic (63 percent) generated by smart phones, tablets and feature phones will transfer onto the fixed network using Wi-Fi and femtocells by 2015. This means that the annual mobile data traffic offloaded from operators’ networks via WiFi and Femtocells is forecast to reach nearly 9000 petabytes by 2015, which equates to 11 billion movie downloads, Juniper Research says.

63% of traffic to Move onto Fixed Networks via WiFi and Femtocells by 2015

$50 Billion in NFC-Based Mobile Payments in 2014

Global mobile contactless payment transactions using near field communications will reach nearly $50 billion worldwide by 2014, says Juniper Research. North America and Western Europe will account for 50 percent of global NFC payments market by value in 2014.

Press Release: NFC Mobile Payments to Drive Contactless Transactions to Reach Nearly $50 billion Worldwide by 2014

The Key to More Leads? Create More Targeted Conversion Opportunities! [Data]

The more landing pages a business has on its website, the more leads it generates, says HubSpot, after surveying 4,000 business managers and owners. Specifically, HubSpot found that businesses with 31 to 40 landing pages generated seven times more leads than businesses with only one to five landing pages.

And the numbers get even more impressive: businesses with over 40 landing pages generated a whopping 12 times more leads than those with only 1 to 5 landing pages.

To create more landing pages, create more offers. And most of the offers relate to content: Ebooks, whitepapers, industry research reports,

live or archived webinars or recorded videos, for example.

Free trials, product demos and personal consultations can also drive more landing page traffic.

The Key to More Leads? Create More Targeted Conversion Opportunities