Monday, January 7, 2008
AOL Enhances BlueString, XDrive: More Cloud Computing
AOL announced major enhancements to its leading personal media products with new features in BlueString (www.bluestring.com), a free Website that enables users to easily upload, store, consume, manage and share digital media. Both are examples of a growing move to Web-based apps, storage and social networking.
AOL also says it will release a new beta version of Xdrive (www.xdrive.com), a "personal hard drive on the Internet" allowing consumers to store, access, share and backup their files. Both products are scheduled for general release in the first quarter of 2008.
Also, a series of embedded applications called, "My Memory Gallery," which allow consumers to access and use BlueString on Facebook can be found at http://apps.facebook.com/mymemorygallery.
Generic versions of these applications will soon be available for inclusion on blogs, other Websites and personal homepages.
BlueString will include an enhanced user interface based on Adobe Flex and Adobe AIR enabling simple drag-and-drop of photos, videos, and music across online and offline storage, and eliminating the need for consumers to explicitly upload files before they create with or share their digital media.
BlueString also will offer consumers the ability to access personal photos, videos and music from a variety of third-party media sites and popular photo, video and music-sharing sites.
The new Xdrive beta will feature a simplified and easier-to-use design. Also built on Adobe AIR, this version of Xdrive will integrate the consumer's desktop directly into the online application, giving users the ability to simply drag and drop files directly from the desktop into Xdrive.
The updated version of Xdrive will also be fully integrated into AOL Mail, allowing users to send attachments larger than the current 16 MB limit, creating a seamless email experience for people sending files up to 5 GB.
Labels:
Adobe,
AOL,
AOL Mail,
BlueString,
Xdrive
Gary Kim has been a digital infra analyst and journalist for more than 30 years, covering the business impact of technology, pre- and post-internet. He sees a similar evolution coming with AI. General-purpose technologies do not come along very often, but when they do, they change life, economies and industries.
Microsoft Online Video Initiative
Microsoft Corp. says it now has partnerships with Walt Disney Co., NBC Universal and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. giving Microsoft the ability to sell online videos to Xbox 360 game consoles.
Labels:
Microsoft,
online video,
Xbox
Gary Kim has been a digital infra analyst and journalist for more than 30 years, covering the business impact of technology, pre- and post-internet. He sees a similar evolution coming with AI. General-purpose technologies do not come along very often, but when they do, they change life, economies and industries.
Yahoo Launches Mobile Developer Program
Yahoo has announced a new mobile homepage and an updated version of Yahoo Go, the company’s downloadable mobile program. It also is launching a developer platform that will allow outside applications to be built for both offerings. And no, Yahoo executives are not pitching the moves as a response to Google's Android and Open Handset Alliance initiatives.
The idea is to make the company’s mobile destinations a one-stop shop for wireless users, in part by by opening them up to third-party applications.
The idea is to make the company’s mobile destinations a one-stop shop for wireless users, in part by by opening them up to third-party applications.
Labels:
Android,
mobile Web,
Yahoo
Gary Kim has been a digital infra analyst and journalist for more than 30 years, covering the business impact of technology, pre- and post-internet. He sees a similar evolution coming with AI. General-purpose technologies do not come along very often, but when they do, they change life, economies and industries.
Vodafone Data Plan Prices Slashed
In what appears to be a major bid to ignite the mobile broadband market, Vodafone NL has reduced data plan bundle prices as much as 50 percent for domestic usage and up to 85 percent for international use in 42 countries. That sort of thing might ultimately have direct implications for U.S. high-speed mobile services as well. And the reason is that if it appears WiMAX or any other mobile broadband alternative is getting traction, incumbent mobile service providers have a potent weapon: pricing.
While no carrier would be thrilled about slashing its prices in the manner Vodafone has done, the fact remains that incumbent mobile providers have and texting revenues to prop up their revenue streams. Upstart mobile broadband providers will have less margin to drop their prices. Which leads one to wonder what will happen when Clearwire and Sprint fire up their new WiMAX network on a continental basis (assuming Sprint perseveres).
All discussion of technology advantages and attributes will become irrelevant if the pricing leadership changes in any significant way. Pricing also is key to creation of some potential new mobile Web business with different pricing and use cases than today's mobile devices provide.
In other words, will WiMAX develop as a cable replacement, 3G replacement or foundation for mobile devices other than phones? In the first or second cases, pricing policy is pretty simple: offer comparable service at lower prices. In the last case, the issue is whether a sustainable business can be built around non-voice devices: cameras, game platforms, music players, navigation, mobile Web. In that case, prices probably have to be quite aggressive.
So part of the equation and business model is whether a WiMAX network can be built cheaply enough, and operated efficiently enough, to offer such lower pricing. In any event, it appears at least some leading mobile providers aren't going to wait to find out.
And as this forecast from In-Stat suggests, most of the future WiMAX market is going to be mobile, not tethered.
Pre-paid Vodafone mobile users in the U.K. last summer also found themselves offered new lower pricing of £2 per Megabyte for mobile data rather than the original £7.30 per MB. While not a complete flat rate plan, it's a possible step in that right direction.
Gary Kim has been a digital infra analyst and journalist for more than 30 years, covering the business impact of technology, pre- and post-internet. He sees a similar evolution coming with AI. General-purpose technologies do not come along very often, but when they do, they change life, economies and industries.
Sunday, January 6, 2008
Which Road for Australia?
It isn't yet clear which road Australian regulators have in mind for that country's contestants. An inter-modal framework such as that used in the United States is one option. So is the intra-modal, robust wholesale access model prevalent in Western Europe. In Australia, it would be Telstra that builds the fiber-to-home network that other competitors would have wholesale access to.
At some point, the log jam has to be broken or consumers and businesses in Australia are not going to have access to the bandwidth they are going to need. Up to this point Telstra has been able to rely on wireless and new Internet access services to offset declines in voice revenue. But nobody really thinks that can go on forever.
Neighbor New Zealand already has opted for an "operational separation" regime that separates wholesale network operations from retail sales operations for all players in the market that want to take advantage of the wholesale access network.
At some point, the log jam has to be broken or consumers and businesses in Australia are not going to have access to the bandwidth they are going to need. Up to this point Telstra has been able to rely on wireless and new Internet access services to offset declines in voice revenue. But nobody really thinks that can go on forever.
Neighbor New Zealand already has opted for an "operational separation" regime that separates wholesale network operations from retail sales operations for all players in the market that want to take advantage of the wholesale access network.
Labels:
Telecom New Zealand,
Telstra
Gary Kim has been a digital infra analyst and journalist for more than 30 years, covering the business impact of technology, pre- and post-internet. He sees a similar evolution coming with AI. General-purpose technologies do not come along very often, but when they do, they change life, economies and industries.
How Much Bandwidth is Enough?
It sort of depends on what sort of end user you are, as this analysis by Motorola suggests. Power users require more than lighter users, to be sure. The issue for a network engineer, of course, is that a network has to be engineered for the needs of the most-demanding user, not the least-demanding user. Which suggests that the supply of bandwidth will continue to climb, though it isn't so clear that power users will escape the requirement to pay more money for the privilege.
Motorola thinks about six percent of users require 58 Mbps by 2010, while a quarter of households will require 40 Mbps service. About 44 percent of households will be able to get by with just 19 Mbps.
Motorola thinks about six percent of users require 58 Mbps by 2010, while a quarter of households will require 40 Mbps service. About 44 percent of households will be able to get by with just 19 Mbps.
Labels:
access bandwidth,
Motorola
Gary Kim has been a digital infra analyst and journalist for more than 30 years, covering the business impact of technology, pre- and post-internet. He sees a similar evolution coming with AI. General-purpose technologies do not come along very often, but when they do, they change life, economies and industries.
Unbundling Price Impact Unclear
The American Cable Association, which represents 1100 small, independent cable operators, has called for unbundling of cable channels, though the large cable operators and programmers oppose such rules. On the face of it, unbundling seems to offer an antidote to higher retail prices.
The thinking is that allowing users to pay just for what they want will drive lower prices. Oddly enough, it probably wouldn't. Once consumers start toting up the costs of discrete channels, and assuming most people have seven favorites, costs might be higher than what they are paying to receive lots of channels they don't watch.
Advertising is the reason. When cable channels are carried on the most-popular "expanded basic" tiers, they have a larger number of eyeballs to sell advertising against. Take away that access and advertising becomes a much-smaller revenue possibility, which then means programmers will raise their rates for carriage. So prices go up.
To be sure, smaller video providers do have to pay higher wholesale rates to get program access, but programmers counter that volume discounts account for the higher wholesale costs.
Smaller operators also object to "tying" policies that require carriage of lesser-viewed channels to get access to the most-popular, "must have" channels. The policy obviously is helpful to programmers, as they gain shelf space for niche channels.
Supporters of tying policies say program diversity clearly will suffer if tying policies aren't allowed. There are elements of truth to that claim. Lesser-viewed channels might be forced to on-demand distribution, which will reduce potential revenues, again compelling those channels to raise prices.
Distributors don't like tying policies since scarce shelf space gets eaten up by channels with low viewership.
Sometimes the obvious solutions actually produce results counter to what people think.
Gary Kim has been a digital infra analyst and journalist for more than 30 years, covering the business impact of technology, pre- and post-internet. He sees a similar evolution coming with AI. General-purpose technologies do not come along very often, but when they do, they change life, economies and industries.
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