Multichannel Video Providers Might Be in For a Tough Time

Bernstein Research says the cable and satellite industries face a "new normal" of years, perhaps decades, of reduced discretionary consumer spending, compared to the "boom" times that preceded the economic meltdown.

That is going to pose quite a management challenge, since the annual price increases service providers have been able to push through will be much more difficult.

Bernstein Research Senior Analyst Craig Moffett notes that video subscribers have recently declined for the first time in recorded history and said that it was likely more than just the downturn in new housing.

Some think a few more quarters of data will be needed to confirm a possible trend, but if the slowdown does continue, service providers and programmers alike are going to have to rethink their prospects.

Up to this point, programmers have said they need higher fees from distributors to fund the cost of more original programming. Fees paid to sports programmers have been a salient example of the trend, but not the only example.

If distributors cannot raise their prices, there will be new questions about whether the higher fees can be paid to the programmers, and new questions about whether the annual price increases can be counted on to fuel continued distributor revenue growth as well.

That will make the business case for broadband access investment more difficult, as entertainment video has become a significant part of the revenue mix for fiber-rich telco access networks.

To compensate, distributors might have to turn to higher broadband access prices, higher voice prices, or both. You can make your own guesses about what consumers might do if voice or fixed-line broadband access prices rise.

Moffett: Where Will Money Come From For Pay TV Price Increases?

Laptops are Most Common Mobility Tool

Laptops are the most widely provided enterprise worker mobility tool, but only 28 percent of employees have one provided to them by their employer.

Similarly, mobile phones, smartphones, PDAs, netbooks and tablets are reserved for only a small minority of the work force.

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Yankee Group :: Research Report

21% of Enterprise Employee Time is Away From Primary Location

Employees spend more time away from their primary office than you might think. While heavy business travel is restricted to a minority of employees (only 11 percent spend more than 20 percent of their work week traveling for business), employees have a host of other reasons to spend time away from their office and colleagues.

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On average, 21 percent of employees’ work week is spent away from their primary work location (not including the daily commute), and that number rises to 37 percent for executives.

Whether taking a business trip, using public Wi-Fi in Internet cafes and libraries or working remotely from home, employees are spending an increasing amount of time working in mobile and indeed multiple locations.

Yankee Group :: Research Report

JPMorgan to Test iPhone, Androids as Alternatives to BlackBerry

JPMorgan Chase & Co. may soon let employees use iPhones for corporate e-mail, making it an alternative to Research in Motion Ltd.’s BlackBerry at the bank for the first time.

JPMorgan is testing the Apple Inc. device and smartphones based on Google Inc.’s Android software. The bank is the second-largest in the U.S. by assets and has about 220,000 employees worldwide.

It's just another sign of changing times in the smartphone business.

JPMorgan Said to Test IPhone, BlackBerry Alternatives

People Want Behaviorally-Targeted E-mails

Few consumers ever say they "like" advertising. But most are willing to put up with it if there is some tangible reward for doing so.

Email marketing, for example, can be "spam."

But consumers say they want emails that are relevant to them. Information on sales and promotions for products the customer is interested in has been one of the most popular and easily-implemented solutions.

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Based on research e-Dialog recently completed, consumers also ranked behaviorally-targeted or 'task-based' e-mails as something they want to receive. These range from abandoned shopping cart messages to alerts from financial services companies about account balances or even reminders.

People Want Behaviorally-Targeted E-mails

iPad And iPhone App Buying Patterns

The iPhone and iPod touch are for games. The iPad is for a lot more. And people are spending a lot more, per app, on iPad apps than iPhone apps.

About 82 percent of the top 50 iPhone or iPod touch apps are games, compared to 36 percent of the top 50 iPad apps.

The top iPad app categories among the top 50 are Games (36%), Content (28%, includes news, video), Productivity (20%), and Utilities (16%, includes weather).

The top iPhone app categories among the top 50 are Games (82%, includes gag apps) and Utilities (18%, includes weather, social networking).

The average top-25 paid iPhone app was $1.51, versus $5.79 on the iPad (almost 4X difference).

Apple App Store Analysis: Here's The Difference Between The iPad And The iPhone

Consumers Show Interest In Tablet PCs

The iPad has been a huge hit with consumers, says Forrester Research. Only a couple of months after the launch, 1.3 percent, or 2.5 million, U.S. online consumers report that they already own an Apple iPad, and an additional 3.8 percent (7.4 million) say they intend to buy one.

The success of the Apple iPad has created a halo around tablets in general: About 14 percent, or 27 million, U.S. online consumers say they intend to buy some kind of tablet in the next 12 months, more than any other type of device.

The Data Digest: Consumers Show Interest In Tablet PCs | Forrester Blogs