Premium VOD on the Way

Early next year, Warner Bros. will start offering films for cable video-on-demand services 30 to 60 days prior to their arrival on disk. Sony will shorten its window for cable VOD too, but will offer the same films at the same time through its own Qriocity streaming service. The idea there is to test, and the studios hope, to create a new premium VOD window offering access to new-release movies at about twice what it costs to watch those same movies in theaters.

Time Warner Inc.'s Warner Bros. and New Line essentially will be making movies available for cable premium VOD as soon as theatrical exhibition ends.

One suspects many consumers would be happy to pay some premium for "earlier than DVD" access to new-release movies. Whether they deem such access to be worth twice what a movie theater ticket costs is what remains to be seen.

In the media: Premium VOD on the way

Yahoo! Gets Hyper-Local

Yahoo has launched "Yahoo! Local" in limited beta. The initiative is intended to provide a hyper-local content experience across desktop and mobile (currently available via the mobile web on iPhone and Android), enabling them to discover and contribute to the best local news, deals, and events nearby, all in one place.

The goal is to provide content about what’s happening in user neighborhoods, whether they’re at home or on the go. Yahoo is testing in 30 neighborhoods in San Francisco, Palo Alto, Mountain View, Sunnyvale, Brooklyn, NY as well as Birmingham, Ferndale, and Royal Oak in Michigan. You can access the new experience from your desktop or mobile phone by visiting: http://beta.local.yahoo.com.

Yahoo! Gets Hyper-Local

Usage Up, Users Up, Revenue Down: Primary Reason Service Providers Seek New Revenue from App Providers

While the number of mobile data connections in western Europe will rise by an average of 15 percent a year to 270 million in 2014, overall end-user revenue will fall about one percent a year, IDC estimates. That is the primary reason European and U.S. mobile operators insist they will have to move to two-sided revenue models that generate income both from end users and business partners using the mobile and fixed networks.

The alternative is raising access fees for most, if not all, users, in an environment where such moves face tough consumer opposition.

The greater usage, and greater number of users is propelling capital investments that will grow 28 percent from last year to about $3.7 billion, according to researcher Canalys.

Apple, Google Asked to Pay Up as Mobile Operators Face Data Flood - Bloomberg

Sprint CEO Says 4G First Mover Gambit Produced Modest Advantage

Sprint's motivation in launching the first North American fourth-generation mobile network was to seize a multi-year advantage over its mobile competitors.

As it seems to have turned out, that lead was much shorter than anticipated, providing a lead of just about two years, where a lead of perhaps three years once was deemed possible. And now Sprint Nextel will have to face the Verizon Wireless marketing machine.

Sprint's CEO was interviewed by Walt Mossberg at the All Things Digital conference in San Francisco, as reported by PC World, and admitted that WiMAX technology failed to provide the 4G lead it was supposed to. He did argue, however, that the failure was caused by Verizon's unexpectedly fast response in deploying Long Term Evolution.

Sprint CEO admits WiMAX gamble didn't pay off • The Register:

Connected E-Reader Sales: 6.6 Million Units in 2010

Worldwide connected e-reader sales to end users are forecast to total 6.6 million units in 2010, up 79.8 percent from 2009 sales of 3.6 million units, according to Gartner, Inc. In 2011, worldwide e-reader sales are projected to surpass 11 million units, a 68.3 percent increase from 2010.

'The connected e-reader market has grown dramatically during the past two years, driven by sales of Amazon's e-readers, primarily in North America," says Hugues De La Vergne, principal research analyst at Gartner.

North America is the dominant region for e-reader sales, accounting for sales of just over four million units in 2010. North America also will remain a key market through 2014, although its dominance will decline significantly as regions such as Western Europe and Asia/Pacific become the leading locations for growth.

Growth in North American and other markets will remain constrained by the success of media tablets, such as the Apple iPad, which will provide e-reader functionality in addition to more-robust PC-type support.

Gartner Says Worldwide Sales of Connected E-Readers on Track to Reach 6.6 Million Units in 2010

Smartphones Becoming "Data-First" Devices

A new analysis by network analysis firm Arieso suggests that smartphone users do not make more phone calls when they switch to using the devices, but obviously consume lots more data, suggesting that smartphone subscribers use their devices first and foremost for data consumption rather than making phone calls.

It appears the trend intensifies with new generations of devices, as well. Apple iPhone 4 users engage in 44 percent more data sessions, compared to iPhone 3 devics, for example, and also consumer 41 percent more data to their devices, and spending 67 percent more time connected to the network for data.

Google Android OS users also are particularly “data hungry”, scoring higher than both the iPhone3G and iPhone 4 in terms of data sessions, time connected to the network, and data volume (in kilobits per subscriber) uploaded and downloaded.

Android-powered smartphone users also score highest in both the “uplink data volume” and the “downlink data” categories. For example, Samsung Galaxy Tab users typically upload 126 percent more data than iPhone3G users, and HTC Desire users download 41 percent more data than iPhone3G users. The Tab, though, is a tablet PC, not a smartphone, and PC users virtually always consume more data than smartphone users.

Arieso reveals hungriest users of mobile data

New Zealand Telecom Faces Uncertainty

Telecom Corp. of New Zealand faces uncertainty about its future because of a big change in regulatory environment. New Zealand is structurally separating Telecom New Zealand into separate retail and wholesale businesses, which will mean New Zealand Telecom will henceforth be a retail marketer of service, but without ownership of its own facilities.

As in Australia, the issue is whether the new broadband network New Zealand wants to build will substantially involve the wholesale part of Telecom New Zealand or not. If the future wholesale company can substantially participate in building and operating the new network, it has a brighter future. But it remains unclear how big a role regulators might let the former Telecom New Zealand entity play in building and operating the new national broadband network.

'There is still plenty of uncertainty about its involvement in the UFB (ultra fast broadband),' said Craigs Investment Partners broker Belinda Stanley."

NZ Shares End Lower As Fiber Uncertainty Plays On Telecom - WSJ.com (subscription required)