Facebook 2009 Revenue Was Almost $800 Million

Facebook’s revenue in 2009 was nearly $800 million, and the company turned a part of it into a solid net profit, according to Reuters. That's a big deal for a company that, for the longest time, had no obvious long-term revenue model.

The number is significantly higher than earlier estimates of $500 million revenue in 2009, and even the projected $710 million revenue in 2010. Facebook, as usual, declines to comment on any of these numbers, but sometime in 2009. Facebook seems to have became cash-flow positive.

Facebook 2009 Revenue Was Almost $800 Million [REPORT

How Does iPad Affect Smartphone Browsing?

For people who keep track of statistics such as smartphone operating system market share, device behavior and trends, the iPad and other tablets are going to complicate matters. Should these devices be tracked with smartphones, with PCs, or as a separate category.

Some might argue a tablet is like a smartphone, and should be included in smartphone stats, if the same operating systems are used for both the tablet and smartphone devices. Others will argue that will distort the smartphone data.

So far, it seems iPad usage is someplace between PC and smartphone usage, perhaps suggesting it might be a separate category.

"Among the 14 percent of our iPhone client users who use an iPad, their average session length is 12 percent longer than the average iPod Touch or iPhone users," says Kate Sellers Blatt, iPass director. Some other data suggest iPad owners use the Internet more than they do on their smartphones, but still far less than on their PCs.

Morgan Stanley estimates that iPad browsing activity already is greater than BlackBerry or Android smartphone activity, on a global basis.

If casual and anecdotal evidence is any indicator, most people use their iPads quite heavily in indoor environments, on couches, for example. Mobile devices also are used indoors, sometimes as much as half the time. But there are some indications iPad use is indoors as much as 90 percent of the time.

For the moment, I think it is more useful to consider tablets a separate category from smartphones or PCs, at least for tracking purposes.

Quantcast Blog

Google Might Try to Act More Like Apple

Google is reported to be planning a unified user interface that will be imposed across Android products, ending the fragmentation that dogs the system, but also restricting partners' development of their own user experiences. That shift in philosophy would pull Google closer to the way Apple operates.

The top priority for the next Android update, codenamed Gingerbread, reportedly is to homogenize the user experience and address criticisms of fragmentation. This could severely curtail the freedom of licensees to create their own user interface overlays, most famously, Motorola's Motoblur and HTC's Sense.

It's probably a toss up at this point which approach is better. Apple has proven that absolute uniformity of experience is no barrier to wild acceptance. On the other hand, a uniform approach to user interface will tend to dampen the pace of innovation to a degree.

Google does have a big stake in preventing Android fragmentation, which makes it much harder for developers to create applications guaranteed to run on any Android device with a specific version of the operating system. On the other hand, the HTC "Sense" user interface is quite a differentiator, so handset suppliers might not like the restrictions on their freedom of movement.

As with all engineering decisions, there will be trade offs. A uniform UI is better for software developers, but arguably worse for hardware developers. Most consumers seem to indicate by their buying preferences that a standard UI is, if not a "good" thing, then at least no barrier.

In the battle between "open" and "closed" approaches to development, "closed" seems to be getting more traction these days.

Google risks OEM wrath with unified Android UI plan - Rethink Wireless

FCC Power Grab Will Face Huge Legal Challenges

Despite strong bipartisan objections from a majority of congress, the FCC voted to move ahead to take public comments on FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski’s “third way” proposal to reclassify broadband providers under Title II common carrier status.

It’s truly amazing how we got to such a state of affairs. The FCC had gotten everything it wanted from Comcast before it even issued a ruling, and the entire reclassification movement is incoherent because it is based on a myth to begin with.

The whole thing is a manufactured crisis based on irrational hysteria over the DC Circuit ruling on the Comcast-vs-FCC case.

The courts have ruled many times in favor and against the FCC, yet the reclassification movement acts as if the DC Circuit ruling against the FCC was some earth shaking event that permanently strips the FCC of its authority unless the FCC does something extraordinary to counter it. The reality is that an FCC acting brashly to bypass the court’s ruling would likely result in a nasty rebuke from the courts.

The court has been very clear that it would reject any power grab by the FCC that would “free the Commission from its congressional tether”. With 74 congressional Democrats signing a letter opposing reclassification and the majority of Republicans on board, it’s clear that the FCC doesn’t even have the support of congress much less explicit authority. Furthermore, it appears that the FCC may be violating a legal precedent set in the Midwest Video II case.

Digital Society � Blog Archive � FCC third way – Shattering the congressional tether

Not Much Actual Video Cord Cutting Going On, Nielsen Says

Consumers who really have stopped buying multi-channel video and watch online video instead are young and light TV viewers, a new analysis by Nielsen suggests.

Young, emerging households, younger college graduates and  lower to middle income consumers who may not be fully convinced of the need to pay for digital cable represent the core group abandoning their multi-channel video subscriptions and substituting online video.

Nielsen data shows that these individuals are typically light TV viewers who watch 40 percent less TV per day than the national average. And while they stream about twice the average amount of video, they still only stream about 10 minutes per day, hardly an indication of a monumental shift to online-only viewing, Nielsen says.

The number of people per month viewing online video increased six percent year-over-year, the study shows.

Online video streaming still only accounts for less than 2.5 percent of total video consumption across all demographics.

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Tablets Becoming a User's Second PC

Tablets will be used as a second computer, primarily for media consumption, with a laptop becoming their principal computing device, Forrester Research analyst Sarah Epps says.

Tablet computers like Apple's iPad will outsell netbooks by 2012 and surpass desktops by 2015, growing at a 42 percent compound annual growth rate between now and 2015. She estimates there will be about 3.5 million tablets sold in 2010.

By 2015, only laptops will have a greater share of the market, with 42 percent, versus a projected 23 percent market share for tablets.

Big Smartphones, Small Tablets

One wonders how big smartphone screens can get, and small tablet screens can get. The Sprint HTC Evo 4G and Verizon's Motorola Droid X have huge screens of about 4.3 inches and 4.4 inches, respectively.

The Evo 4G measures 4.8 by 2.6 by 0.5 inches and has a 4.3-inch touchscreen. T-Mobile's HD2 phone, also built by HTC, has similar dimensions--4.7 by 2.6 by 0.4 inches--as well as a 4.3-inch display. The Droid X, slated to debut next week, is even bigger than the Evo 4G or HD2, and has a 4.4-inch screen. By comparison, Apple's new iPhone 4 is relative petite with its 3.5-inch LCD.

The Dell Streak, an upcoming tablet device, will feature a 5-inch touchscreen. While the Streak will have 3G broadband and Wi-Fi, as well as a front-facing camera for video chat, it's definitely not a smartphone, according to Dell.

There are boundaries for how big a phone can be, and still be usable, though. One might argue the same thing is true of tablets. There is some point at which they likely are too small to be highly useful. Right now, it's hard to say where the line is, though.

Weight and battery size are other issues. To drive a larger screen you need a bigger battery. That adds both heft and weight to any device, but especially for a phone.

Supersized Smartphones: How Big Can They Get? - PCWorld