Is Internet Access a Common Carrier Service?

On May 6th America’s Federal Communications Commission announced a plan to classify the last mile of Internet access as a “telecommunications service”; it is currently classified as an “information service."

That raises a thorny question: is Internet access really a utility, rather than an information service? In other words, is broadband access more like electricity than television or radio or publishing? It matters how the question is answered.

Since the 1930s providers of telecommunications services in America have been obliged to agree on rates with the FCC. They cannot discriminate among customers or traffic, and they have to contribute to a fund that subsidises rural connections. The new plan promises to refrain from any price regulation; the FCC wants to ensure primarily that packets pass from point to point without preferential treatment."

Economics focus: From ships to bits | The Economist

Cellphones Now Used Mostly for Data

Liza Colburn uses her cellphone constantly. She taps out her grocery lists, records voice memos, listens to music at the gym, tracks her caloric intake and posts frequent updates to her Twitter and Facebook accounts.

The one thing she doesn’t use her cellphone for? Making calls.

Cellphones Now Used More for Data Than for Calls - NYTimes.com:

No Skype for Microsoft 7

Microsoft has been having a tough time in the mobile market, it is safe to say, and now Skype says it will not develop a Skype client for Microsoft 7, says Dan Neary, Skype Asia Pacific VP.

Microsoft 7 is the successor to the Windows Mobile operating system.

Neary did not give a reason why Skype is taking that path, but Skype's demurral can hardly be good news for Microsoft.

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Mobile Agencies Look Beyond Apps

Advertising agencies say branded mobile apps aren't the be-all, end-all for mobile marketing, and will be challenged by mobile Web browser functionality, which will allow apps to run within the browser context.

Despite the hype surrounding the mobile application space thanks to app-centric devices such as Apple's iPhone and iPad devices, mobile agencies suggest new technologies like HTML5 and Apple's iAd product could help turn marketers' attention away from the crowded branded app space.

Mobile Agencies Look Beyond Apps as Market Evolves

Android 2.2 Runs 450% Faster than 2.1

The new Google Android version 2.2 appears to be as much as 450 percent faster than version 2.1, according to test run by Android Police. To the extent that faster processing means lower latency for any number of operations conducted on a mobile device, that should be a good thing.

Android Police tests suggest, for example, that the HTC Hero gets a test score of about 2 million floating-point operations per second, often called simply "FLOPs."

The Nexus One running Android 2.1 gets about 6.5 MFLOPS to 7 MFLOPS.

The Android version 2.2 operating system seems to run at 37.5 MFLOPS. One practical result is that Flash-authored video should run much better, as Flash puts strain on processors. Much-faster processors should mean much-better video performance.

While real-life applications will most certainly not be 450 percent faster across the board, but it stands to reason that it will help most applications run faster.

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Broadcasters Are Serving Up Lots of Web Video

Aside from YouTube, online video offered by broadcast TV networks and Web-only media brands, followed by magazine sites and music labels, seem to be getting the most traffic, a new study by Brightcove and Tubemogul suggests.

About 51.75 percent of viewers are navigating to video directly from the publisher’s main site. Google search drives 39 percent of viewing,  followed by Yahoo at 5.58 percent, Bing at two  percent and Facebook at 0.40 percent.

In the first quarter of 2010, the broadcast TV networks sampled in the study streamed 380 million videos, with Web media brands coming up close behind at 326 million video streams. However, the native Web brands, which include both video-only and general entertainment and news sites, saw 300 percent annual growth of video views in the first quarter, compared to 44 percent growth for the broadcast sites.

For all of 2009, Web media sites grew twice as fast as broadcast TV sites (165 percent compared to 74 percent). At this rate, they will overtake the broadcast sites in video views later this year, the study suggests.

In the first quarter of 2010, magazine-affiliated sites streamed 190 million videos, up 90 percent. In fact, magazine sites are streaming as many videos as music label sites, which came in at 191 million videos, up 60 percent.

Newspaper sites aren’t doing nearly so well, streaming 136 million videos in the quarter and growing five percent.  Newspaper sites are trying to catch up, though, and had two billion video player pageloads in the quarter (pages which loaded with a video player, but were not necessarily clicked on), compared to 1.2 billion for magazine sites, 760 million for Web-only media, and 670 million for broadcast TV sites.

But newspaper sites are having a real problem getting their audiences to watch videos, the study suggests.

For every two billion videos they throw in front of users, only 136 million get viewed (6.8 percent). Broadcast TV sites are getting 380 million views for every 670 million attempts (56.7 percent).
Even magazine sites are seeing a 12.7 percent hit rate.

But newspaper videos get viewed "to the end" more frequently than videos on other sites. The completion rates for videos on newspaper sites are 41 percent, versus 39 percent for magazine sites, 38 percent for broadcast sites, and 29 percent for music label sites.

Google Android Strategy is Working, Despite Nexus One

Google's strategy of seeding the market for its Android operating system, unlike its experiment with device retailing (NexusOne) seems to be succeeding.

The Android operating system "continued to shake up the U.S. mobile phone market in the first quarter of 2010," moving past Apple to take the number-two position among smartphone operating systems, according to The NPD Group.

Based on unit sales to consumers last quarter, the Android operating system moved into second position at 28 percent behind RIM’s operating system (36 percent) and ahead of Apple’s OS (21 percent).

Google's effort to retail unlocked, full-price handsets using a Web-site-only approach does not seem to be working out so well, as one might have predicted. Both Sprint and Verizon Wireless have declined to sell the Nexus One, though the logical explanation is that the HTC "Evo" at Sprint and "Incredible" at Verizon Wireless are functional equivalents, at the very least.

And it might just be the case that the battle between AT&T and Verizon Wireless accounts for the change, as iPhone sales in the United States are exclusive to AT&T, essentially limiting sales, while Android devices are pushed both by Verizon, T-Mobile USA and Sprint.

Verizon also has been aggressive about offering "two for the price of one" sales of Android devices.

Smartphone sales at AT&T comprised nearly a third of the entire smartphone market (32 percent), followed by Verizon Wireless (30 percent), T-Mobile (17 percent) and Sprint (15 percent).

Exclusivity on AT&T’s network obviously limits the potential sales for Apple to some extent. Verizon has more than 92.8 million subscribers, none of which can buy an iPhone for use on the network.

It isn't so clear whether the range of Android models or prices are a meaningful contributor to Android sales volume, but one has to think so.

The NPD Group cites an average smartphone price of $151 in the first quarter of 2010, roughly half of the $299 price tag for a top-shelf iPhone. Apple offers subsidized models at $99 and $199, but most subsidized Android phone prices top out at $199 and go down from there.

The Samsung Behold 2 running Android is currently free with a service plan at T-Mobile, for example. With so many choices, consumers can find Android units for well under $99 these days and can shop around in a greater range of price points.

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