Verizon Open Devices: Not What You Might Think

About 90 percent of the devices now in certification process for the Verizon Wireless network are intended to be used for "machine to machine" communication, not traditional voice or mobile data, reports Unstrung. That includes sensors, tracking devices, temperature monitors, and other devices of an "instrumentation" sort. The first two devices already approved are a storage tank-monitoring device from  and a prisoner-tracking electronic ankle bracelet, Verizon VP Tony Lewis says. 

Other devices close to final certification are a wireless router for the insurance industry and a $69 speech and texting device. Verizon thinks the reason is simply that there has been pent-up demand for such devices, but up to this point would-be providers likely have been deterred by uncertainty. 

"The promise of 'machine talking to machine' was always there, but the question for vendors was 'what network' and how to get on it quickly and cheaply," notes Lewis. In-home sensors and health care-related products, as well as in-home sensors for heat regulation, energy mangement or security are obvious areas of opportunity as well.

Lewis argues that Verizon's open network plan now offers vendors a straightforward and affordable way to do so.

That's one reason some observers and Verizon itself now believe "mobile penetration" ultimately could climb to the multiple hundreds of percent range, though current U.S. penetration is under 100 percent. 

Harvard Documents Media Bias

If you have been in the journalism business as long as I have (I was in a graduate journalism program in 1982 and have been writing professionally since 1983), a new report by Harvard's Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government is no surprise. 

The study found that Democrats got more coverage than Republicans (49% of the stories vs. 31%). It also found the "tone" of the coverage was more positive for Democrats (35% to 26% for Republicans), reports Investors Business Daily.

"In other words," the authors say, "not only did the Republicans receive less coverage overall, the attention they did get tended to be more negative than that of Democrats. And in some specific media genres, the difference is particularly striking."

The problem has gotten worse over the past decade or so, it seems. Part of the training routinely reminded journalists that they should not join voluntary associations or even have investments under their own control in any companies they might write about. To be sure, the media environment has changed since the advent of 24-hour news channels, blogging and the Internet. Not in a good way, my professors would likely say.

Those "genres" include the most mainstream of media — newspapers and TV. Fully 59% of front-page stories about Democrats in 11 newspapers had a "clear, positive message vs. 11% that carried a negative tone."

For "top-tier" candidates, the difference was even more apparent: Barack Obama's coverage was 70% positive and 9% negative, and Hillary Clinton's was 61% positive and 13% negative.

By contrast, 40% of the stories on Republican candidates were negative and 26% positive.

On TV, evening network newscasts gave 49% of their campaign coverage to the Democrats and 28% to Republicans. As for tone, 39.5% of the Democratic coverage was positive vs. 17.1%, while 18.6% of the Republican coverage was positive and 37.2% negative.

Researchers have been studying such biases for quite a long time, since  the early 1970s at least. In 1972, "The News Twisters" by Edith Efron analyzed every prime-time network news show before the 1968 election and found coverage tilted 8 to 1 against Nixon on ABC, 10 to 1 on NBC and 16 to 1 on CBS.

In 1984, Public Opinion magazine found that Reagan got 7,230 seconds of negative coverage and just 730 seconds of positive; Mondale's positive press totaled 1,330 seconds, vs. 1,050 negative.

In 1986, "The Media Elite" surveyed 240 journalists at virtually every major media outlet and found that in presidential elections from 1964 to 1976, 86% of top journalists voted Democratic. A 2001 update found 76% voted for Dukakis in 1988 and 91% went for Clinton in 1992.

A 1992 Freedom Forum poll showed 89% of Washington reporters and bureau chiefs voting for Clinton in '92 and only 7% for George H.W. Bush.

A 2003 Pew survey found 34% of national journalists called themselves liberal and 7% conservative. By 7 to 1, they also felt they weren't critical enough of President Bush.

Euro Broadband Grow Rate Drops by an Order of Magnitude

It looks like the second quarter was sluggish for European broadband access providers, as it was for major U.S. telcos. European broadband providers added just over five million new subscribers, compared to nearly eight million in the prior quarter, say researchers at Strategy Analytics.

In the last 12 months, European broadband access providers added an about 30 million new subscribers, implying a quarter over quarter growth rate of 34 percent. In the second quarter, the top 10 providers, who account for just over 50 percent of the total European market, averaged a three percent sequential growth rate.

AT&T "Might" Target Ads in Future

Might AT&T monitor the Web-surfing habits of its customers to target advertising at them? Maybe, says Jeff Bounds, Dallas Business Journal staff writer. But not without giving customers control over their information, protecting their privacy, giving them value and ensuring “ransparency, AT&T says. Customers would have to opt in to the targeted ad program. 

AT&T made the remarks in a letter to the U.S. House Committee on Energy and Commerce, which is looking into Internet advertising tailored to the viewing habits of specific customers. The letter from AT&T executive Dorothy Attwood, dated Aug. 13, says the company does not currently monitor the surfing habits of its users. But the company says it is considering that option.

It is fairly clear that incentives will have to be offered to users to gain their consent to be tracked online. Opt-in programs typically do not get high penetration without inducements of some sort, and one tactic that typically works is providing some clear sort of financial inducement. Users might be offered "no additional cost" access to desired content that otherwise would be purchased. 

And behaviorally-targeted ads would fit with that scenario, as one complaint most users have is that advertising they see is not relevant. Behavioral targeting would increase the likelihood that delivered ads have more relevance, reducing the irritation factor. 

Nobody knows yet how big targeted advertising will become, but just about everybody thinks it has nowhere to go but up. Still, lots of privacy and "control of data" issues must be resolved beforehand. 

Mobile Versus Fixed WiMAX?

Nobody yet knows what percentage of WiMAX customers will use the access technology in fixed mode, compared to mobile mode. If Motorola is right, about equal numbers of each, with a smaller percentage, perhaps up to 20 percent, operating in both fixed and mobile mode. 

Globally, it seems likely that fixed access will be much of the demand. In the U.S. market, though virtually all current users are in fixed mode, the new Clearwire operation should result in a growing percentage of mobile users. 

$8 Billion Connected Games Market Demands Low Latency

In 2013, online content and services for Internet-connected game consoles will generate over $8 billion in global revenue for Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo, the three console manufacturers, according to researchers at Parks Associates. For that to happen, users will rely on low-latency, high-bandwidth broadband connections. To sustain the low-latency response, it seems inevitable that some sort of packet prioritization will be necessary. 

No Slowdown in IT Spending: Gartner

Despite current economic concerns, worldwide IT spending will exceed $3.4 trillion in 2008, an increase of 8 percent from 2007 spending, according to Gartner researchers. But analysts also note that much of this growth is based on the decline in the U.S. dollar. The estimated worldwide IT spending growth expressed in constant currency is forecast to be approximately 4.5 percent.

“The U.S.-led economic downturn shows no sign of causing a recession in IT spending,” said Jim Tully, vice president and distinguished analyst at Gartner.

“Organisations are switching from company-owned hardware and software assets to per-use service-based models. This will impact the industry in various ways,” Mr. Tully said. “The projected shift to cloud computing, for example, will result in dramatic growth in IT products in some areas and in significant reductions in other areas.

Worldwide software spending is on pace for the strongest growth rate in 2008 at more than 10 percent. IT services spending ranks a close second with more than 9.4 percent growth.

“Most companies updated their software systems during the period 1997 through 2001, so we are in the middle of an upgrade cycle that should extend past the end of this decade,” says Joanne Correia, managing vice president at Gartner.

IT spending is dominated by services rather than products. Together, IT services and telecom services account for 70 percent of total IT market spending. Gartner analysts said the telecom sector has a major effect on overall IT market performance, accounting for almost $2 trillion in 2008. 

“Legacy telecom services have a dampening effect on sector growth, and therefore on the overall IT market,” said William Hahn, principal research analyst at Gartner. “The dominant size of the telecom services market guarantees that even with the forecast for relatively slow growth, it will still comprise over 44 percent of the IT market in five years time.”

The outlook for IT services market growth has improved despite macroeconomic uncertainty. “Spending in IT services is being supported by two main factors,” says Kathryn Hale, research vice president at Gartner. “Businesses are investing in improvements to internal processes aimed at reducing costs, while often maintaining some of the prior interest in innovation. The second factor is that globalization allows IT services providers to mitigate the risk of weakening demand by operating in more markets.”

The main area of hardware growth activity is PCs, which represents 60 percent of total hardware spending. Growth in PCs is stronger than previously expected, with no signs of a slowdown. The U.S. forecast has increased marginally while forecasts elsewhere, particularly Asia/Pacific and Western Europe, have increased significantly.