Truphone Boosts Credit July 1-14, 2008

New customers using Nokia handsets and signing up for the Truphone "VoIP over mobile" service from July 1 to July 14 will get $8 credit in their account, instead of $2. Right now the service is in beta testing, so Truphone only works with Nokia devices.

Truphone allows users of Wi-Fi-enabled mobile phones to make and receive regular telephone calls, and to send and receive SMS text messages, using only a Wi-Fi connection and the Internet. Although still in beta, it has already attracted tens of thousands of users in 149 countries.

This is equivalent to 133 free minutes (2 hours 13 minutes) to a landline in one of the Tru Zone’s countries or 80 free minutes (1hour 20 minutes) to a landline in one of the Outer Zone’s countries.

The credit also is enough to call for 26 free minutes to a mobile in one of the Tru Zone’s countries, or 16 free minutes to a mobile in one of the Outer Zone’s countries.

Dell Discounts for WildBlue Subs

WildBlue customers now can buy Dell computers at discounts available to members of the Dell. The discount program is effective immediately for all WildBlue subscribers, both residential and business, with potential savings of up to 12 percent on all Dell Inspiron desktops and notebooks. There are also discounts available for all electronics and accessories purchased with a new Inspiron desktop, Inspiron notebook, or XPS system.

Intel Predicts Computing Using Hundreds of Cores

Patrick Gelsinger, Intel SVP, expects a sharp acceleration in the number of computing engines packed on a single chip. Forget about dual core, or quad core.

He says products in the future will feature tens to hundreds of processors. Media processing is one application that comes to mind. Try protocol conversion of HDTV into some other protocol suited to Web display. Dual core doesn't cut it.

Now if they can just solve the heat and battery draw issues.

ITV Gap?

You can always count on one thing: whatever the service or application happens to be, the United States always is lagging, getting left behind, behind the curve.

It was said about mobile usage, about text messaging usage, about mobile penetration, broadband penetration, broadband prices, broadband speeds, rural broadband and sometimes VoIP.

Now some observers lament the U.S. lag in interactive TV. That's funny, since the U.S. market is about the most video-involved in the world. A couple of observations. Sometimes people don't use an application or service because they just don't see the value, relative to the price. Interactive TV is one of those sorts of applications.

Ask about digital video recorders and consumers vote with their wallets. Ask about over the top video and people vote with their mouse clicks. If people aren't wild about interactive TV, it probably is because it isn't compelling yet. Give people a compelling application and they'll use it. People like to vote for their favorite amateur singers or dancers.

There is no interactive TV gap. If compelling apps get developed, people will adopt them, rapidly. It's always interesting when pundits criticize consumers for not liking some app they think people should like. Give people something interesting and valuable. You won't find any gaps there.

It's All About the Content

Only three things matter where it comes to video on demand: content, content and content. No matter what anybody thinks today, if popular content is accessible on a VOD basis, and is priced and packaged in ways consumers find fair, VOD takes off.

In some ways, digital video recorders provide something of a precursor. Time shifting is a form of VOD. And there's no question but that prime time and scheduled TV are losing their impact as consumers create their own entertainment lineups.

Why is time shifting more popular than VOD? For the same reason any form of media consumption is popular: people easily can get the content they want. Today, there's a fair amount of free VOD content, such as karaoke, music videos and programs for children.

The reason time-shifted multi-channel video content gets higher viewership is that viewers think "that's the good stuff."

eMarketer estimates that VOD is available in one third of TV households today, and will reach over 60 percent of households by 2012. The issue is how much "good" content will be available that way, as well as over the top on the Internet.

ChoiceStream data from December 2007 shows there would be greater viewership of VOD if there were "more content of interest." And pay little attention to what consumers say they will do. Even if they say they aren't much interested in VOD, that's just because the available content is not what they really want.

Mobile Saturation in China

My how things have changed. In urban China, 98 percent of people already own at least one mobile phone. In urban India, 85 percent own a mobile while in urban Brazil 79 percent own a mobile.

Nortel Touts Telecommuting Benefits

Nortel says 10 percent of its employees work from home on a full-time basis while 80 percent are equipped to work from home. Employees who work from home one day a week save an estimated $500 a year on fuel costs.

And though some enterprises worry about productivity, Nortel estimates it gains a 15 percent increase in productivity among teleworkers, with 94 percent reporting 15 percent to 20 percent greater productivity

Annual real estate savings represent $9,000 for each full-time teleworker, working out to about $22 million annually in energy use and real estate spending.