Prepaid Market is Segmenting

Long viewed as a niche for credit-challenged or immigrant workers, the prepaid space is developing some new niches.

While some consumers will remain satisfied with low-end, low-cost prepaid services, many more will require higher end voice, messaging and data services, and access to more-advanced devices. That is likely going to lead to some pressure on postpaid plan penetration, as millions of users downgrade to prepaid plans.

Yankee Group :: Research Report

Android Mobile Web Usage Climbs, Others Fall

Android's U.S. market share is growing at a huge rate in all categories, Quantcast data indicates.

While Apple's iOS still holds the lion's share, Android is growing fast, and iOS is dropping. Whether you look at the numbers by the month, the quarter, or the year, Android growth is obvious.

If the trend continues, Android will have the majority of the U.S. mobile browser market within a year according, Quantcast data suggests.

Android mobile web usage climbing while others fall

Mobile and TV are the Growth Areas for U.K. Internet Users

Mobile web use and television are sharply growing new activities for U.K. Internet users.

Some 31 percent of U.K. web users said they went online using mobile phone in 2010, compared to 23 percent in 2009, eMarketer reports. Among younger users (ages 16 to 24), an estimated 44 percent browse the internet on their phones. In addition, researchers reported, 2.7 million people used wireless hot-spots in early 2010.

TV also is a growing application, with roughly 17 million people streaming television content from the web. The U.K. Office for National Statistics recently found that 52 percent of male web users had used video-on-demand services like the BBC iPlayer and Channel 4’s 4oD, compared to 23 percent of women.

The UK Online Population: One Big Happy Family? - The eMarketer Blog

What Big Brands Are Spending on Google

Advertiser search spending on Google show a large number of smaller firms use search ads, in addition to a relatively small number of firms spending more than $1 million a month, Ad Age reports.

Some 47 advertisers that spent more than $1 million in June; 71 spent between $500,000 and $1 million, and 357 spent between $100,000 and $500,000, a study finds.

In addition to those direct-billed customers, there are many more thousands of small self-serve advertisers that make up Google's $23 billion global annual revenue.

What Big Brands Are Spending on Google - Advertising Age

Android Overtakes iPhone OS Globally

Google’s Android Operating System has overtaken Apple’s iPhone OS and become the world’s third most popular OS.

Android had 17 percent market share during the second quarter.

Android also is on track to overtake RIM’s BlackBerry OS and become the world’s second biggest platform behind Nokia’s Symbian OS, Gartner says.

According to Gartner, the Android OS has already overtaken the BlackBerry OS in the US.

Android Overtakes iPhone OS

Is Cable Finally Facing Disintermediation?

Under what conditions would a consumer be able to get rid of their multichannel video service and use alternate technologies?

The answer is more complicated than might first appear. Part of the answer requires knowing what functional substitutes actually exist for the types of content any single user actually wants to watch, when they want to watch, and how much that content is worth.

Only after that is determined does technology actually matter. It increasingly is easy to substitute a stand-alone digital video recorder for the same function provided by a multichannel video provider's own set-top decoder, for example.

So consider the decision matrix for a user who cannot live without the convenience of a DVR. "Cutting the cord" might make sense for a user who only wants to watch what is available over the air, who can get decent signal reception, and knows how to use Netflix to watch movies.

That option will not work, even if a user wants to do so, if any of the essential programming is "cable only."  To use but one example, a user who demands Fox News or Fox Business must typically buy an "expanded basic" package just to get those one or two channels.

Neither is available on a streaming basis. If that consumer does not actually have to "see" the programming, but only "hear" it, the one available option is to buy Sirius XM service.

Alternatives slowly are growing, but you get the point: technology alternatives are viable only when the content one wishes to see actually is available through alternate channels.

The decision might be a lot easier if a user's favorites are those TV series available on Hulu, for example.

But there again, the "when I want to watch" issue has to be considered. Hulu content will typically be time delayed by 24 hours. If a user really views some show as an "appointment," that 24 hours can be a long time.

Nor will content owners be in a huge rush to make alternate viewing to easy. Content companies make $30 billion a year licensing content to cable, satellite and telco video providers. They aren't dumb.

Content owners are not going to make it too attractive to watch that licensed content if it means damaging the existing $30 billion.

The point is that technology increasingly is available to create alternate channels. But technology is not sufficient to cause robust alternate channels to develop.

Ping Users Top One Million in First 48 Hours

Apple says more than one million users have joined Ping, its new social network for music which lets users follow their favorite artists and friends to discover what music they’re talking about, listening to and downloading.

Apple reached the million-registered-users mark in less than 48 hours since its launch.

Ping Users Top One Million in First 48 Hours