Is Multitasking the iPad's Opportunity?

About 55 percent of users interviewed by the Yankee Group say they frequently surf the Web while watching TV. Slightly fewer say they use email while watching TV.

And if a new product category develops for devices such as Apple's iPad, that is the use case: people who want a convenient way to use the Web and email while watching TV, using the Wi-Fi connection in their homes.

That isn't to say some people might be able to use a tablet to replace a PC when out of the home, but that might be a subset of the tablet user audience.

Mobile Ad Spending Isn't Hype, But is Dwarfed by Online Spending

Everyone would agree that 2009 was not the best of years for advertising spending. But spending might not reach 2008 levels until 2012 or 2013.

Advertising might not reach pre-recession levels until mid-decade. There is at least some thinking advertising might not even reach pre-recession levels during the current decade.

Mobile advertising, Apple and Google expect, will grow fastest, from a low base. But online Web advertising still will be two orders of magnitude bigger than mobile advertising by 2014, Yankee Group predicts.

U.S. Media Usage Shrinks in 2009

Despite the general trend that Americans consume a bit more media every year, that was not the case in 2009, when U.S. media consumption actually fell about 17 percent in 2009, or about two hours a day, a huge drop.

The conventional wisdom is that media use should increase during a recession, as consumers shift more entertainment to the home, and substitute some amount of entertainment spending for travel, for example. But that doesn't seem to be the case, according to a new study by the Yankee Group.

The big exception was mobile media, which grew 39 percent in 2009.

"We believe the underlying reason is the economy," says Carl Howe,Yankee Group analyst. "It’s hard to spend all evening on the Internet or watching TV when you’re worried about making mortgage payments or trying to find a job."

Online activities decreased by 40 minutes, but TV and video viewing lost a full hour. Web browsing, email and social networking decreased 17 percent from their 2008 figure of 4.9 hours, but TV viewing declined by nearly a third, from 4.3 to 3.3 hours per day.

Music and reading declined the most. "The music, newspaper and magazine industries are all struggling for a reason," says Howe. "Consumers are spending less time with their media."

Listening to the radio and music fell half an hour to just 1.4 hours a day. Reading magazines and newspapers fared even worse; those activities combined total only 25 minutes a day, down from 40 minutes in 2008, says Howe.

Mobile is the only category that experienced growth. Consumers spent 40 minutes per day talking on mobile phones, up 12 percent from 2008. Mobile Internet use grew 36 percent to 11 minutes a day, and texting grew 55 percent to 27 minutes a day.

The Yankee Group findings contradict some other studies which indicate that TV watching was up in 2009. One of the differences is that Yankee Group includes both "at work" and "at home" consumption, while Nielsen only measures "at home" consumption.

But anyway one looks at the matter, consumers spend nearly half of every 24-hour day with media.

Respondents report they spend an average of 712 minutes, or 11.9 hours each day, with various types of media, with the greatest amount of time spent online, using Web browsing, email, instant messaging and social networking for an average of 4 hours and 13 minutes each day.

TV and video represents three hours and 17 minutes watching TV, pre-recorded programs on their DVRs, and DVDs and videos. TV watching takes up just over 2 hours and 19 minutes per day, on average.

Consumers report they spend an average of one hour and 26 minutes each day listening to the radio, CDs or MP3s, while all mobile phone activities consume one hour and 18 minutes on average.

Gaming time now exceeds reading. Consumers report spending an average of 36 minutes each day playing video games, but only 24 minutes reading newspapers or magazines.

Consumers routinely multitask while watching TV. "Two thirds of our respondents say they talk on the phone regularly while watching TV," says Howe. "More than half surf the Web or write email as well."

That is one reason why Apple and some observers believe the iPad will create a new niche in the market. People already have the habit of using the Internet while watching TV, so a more convenient device for doing so should be able to get traction, tablet supporters believe.

Interactive activities engage consumers in ways TV doesn’t. The top four activities on this list are all what the media industry calls “lean forward” tasks; that is, they engage the consumer interactively. Consumers naturally give cognitive priority to these “lean forward” activities over “lean back” ones like watching TV. What does that mean? It means that when consumers multitask, TV advertising takes a back seat to more interactive forms of engagement.

Former FCC Chairmen Talk Broadband

This video provides an excellent example of the old adage that having shared objectives does not mean policy proponents agree about the methods which will lead to achievement of the goals. Still, it is nice to see former Federal Communications Commission chairmen who pursued quite-different policies re-emphasize the importance of the end point.

YouTube Consumes 10% of Business Bandwidth, Study Finds

YouTube now consumes about 10 percent of business network bandwidth, while Facebook represents 4.5 percent of all consumed bandwidth, a new study by Network Box finds.

Windows updates represent about 3.3 per cent of all bandwidth used, Yimg (Yahoo!'s image server) 2.7 per cent of all bandwidth used and Google – 2.5 per cent of all bandwidth used.

When looking at traffic, rather than bandwidth consumption, Facebook is the top site visited on business networks. Network Box's analysis of 13 billion universal resource locators used by businesses in the first quarter of 2010 shows that 6.8 per cent of all business internet traffic goes to Facebook, an increase of one per cent since the last quarter of 2009.

Google vists represent 3.4 per cent of all traffic, Yimg (Yahoo!'s image server) 2.8 per cent of all traffic, Yahoo 2.4 per cent of all traffic and Doubleclick about1.7 per cent of all traffic.

The company also found that, of 250 IT managers surveyed about their biggest security concerns over the coming year,  the top concern was "employees using applications on social networks" while at work, with 43 per cent of respondents saying this is a major concern.

"The figures show that IT managers are right to be concerned about the amount of social network use at work," says Simon Heron, Network Box internet security analyst says.

Such measurements always are a bit imprecise, not in terms of URLs visited or bandwidth consumed, but in terms of business or personal use. Business users increasingly are using YouTube business videos for work, while some Facebook use undoubtedly also reflects business purposes.

HTC Incredible for Verizon Reviewed by Boy Genius Report

There's a nice detailed review by Boy Genius Report on the Verizon HTC "Incredible" here. link

You have to give credit to HTC for pushing the envelope on Android devices and design in general. The "Sense" user interface is interesting.

Revenue Sharing is the Heart of the Net Neutrality Matter

“The problem with mobile broadband so far has been most of the revenue it has generated has gone to over-the-top Internet content services, not to the operators,” says Pat McCarthy, Telcordia VP. “That’s what they are trying to change.”

And that is the heart of the matter as far as wrangling over network neutrality. Over time, consumers will have many options for buying customized wireless broadband plans, McCarthy says. And nearly everyone believes that will mean very-heavy users will have to pay more, in some way.

The key notion is that retail price will be related, in some way, to the cost of the services consumed. That doesn't necessarily mean billing by the byte, but probably a range of options for basic access that are similar to wireless voice plans, where users buy buckets of minutes or text messages a various prices, or unlimited use for higher prices.

Some have suggested pricing based on the value of services and applications and most providers tend to believe there should be the ability to buy optional services that maintain quality of service when the network is congested.

Standard users might get messages during peak congestion periods--perhaps rush hour or at a major sports or concert venue--that the network is congested, with their services shaped in some way. Premium users might get priority access and all users might be offered a temporary "power boost," for an additional fee, during the period of congestion.

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