Are "Smart TVs" a Threat to Cable TV?

Internet-connected TVs pose some problems for cable TV operators, satellite and telco TV providers. Obviously, in making direct access to Internet video a lot easier, Internet-capable TVs create more danger for linear video providers in a strategic sense, allowing people to view video on their home TVs without a lot of work.

To the extent that cable operators always have seen the set-top decoder as a gateway device, the widespread availability of TVs and third-party devices that make it easier to watch Internet video on a home TV also threaten to weaken the hold linear video providers have over their customers.

Netflix streaming looks to be emerging as a primary case in point.

"Smart TVs" Add The Best Of The Internet To Your TV - PCWorld

The Future of Social Shopping

For a retailer with the ability to mine data, social sign-ons, especially to sites such as Facebook and Twitter, offer quite a lot of additional data and context about customers and shoppers.

Social sign-on, which allows consumers to log in to their Facebook account instead of registering on an ecommerce site, has advantages for users as well, especially in terms of ease of use. Social sign-on is sort of the equivalent of a merchant storing your phone number so when you forget your affinity card while shopping, the retailer can still look up the information.

Social sign-on gives retailers access to much-richer profile information, presumably at a point in time when a shopper is going to make a purchase of some type.

The Future of Social Shopping - eMarketer

T-Mobile UK Says "Use Your Fixed Line for Video"

"If you want to download, stream and watch video clips, save that stuff for your home broadband," T-Mobile U.K. says. On February 1, 2011 T-Mobile U.K. will be realigning its fair use policies so that mobile internet service will have fair use of 500 MBytes a month.

That doesn't sound like much a bucket of usage, but most users, in most markets, consume something like 200 Mbytes a month on their mobile phones.

In fact, T-Mobile U.K. seems quite sure that level of fair usage will allow people to do all the things they normally do, such as using email or checking social media updates and using websites.

That level of usage, of course, does not cover watching of videos, downloading of big files or playing interactive Internet-based games. As often is the case, uses who exceed the 500 Mbyte usage cap will be limited in ability to download, stream and watch video clips, but will have normal use of email, web and other activities that are not so bandwidth intensive.

If you want to know what the long-term value of a fixed-line service is, it is broadband access. T-Mobile U.K.'s advice to "use video on your fixed connection" is just one bit of evidence.

T-Mobile - Help & Support

Programmers Signal Resistance to Streaming

With the caveat that enough revenue would fix any potential problems content owners have with Comcast’s streaming of video content to iPads and other tablets precipitated a flurry of legal correspondence in the first week of January 2011, as several cable network groups made it clear that they had not signed off on any such arrangement, Mediaweek reports.

The initial warning shots took the form of reminders that such distribution is not authorized by existing affiliate agreements, but apparently stopped short of threatening immediate legal action.

It is easy to imagine further conflict between rights holders and operators. There's just too much money at stake.

Apps Irk Cable Nets

Verizon to Offer iPhone Unlimited Plans?

Verizon Wireless will offer unlimited data-use plans when it starts selling the iPhone around the end of this month, the Wall Street Journal reports. Though Verizon has said in the past that some form of pricing that better matches usage and retail cost was going to be necessary, the possible move would offer differentiation from AT&T plans which are capped.

At one level the moves are simply part of the on-going chess match over customer acquisition and retention that all the mobile carriers must contend with on a daily basis. AT&T has taken steps to shore up its iPhone customer base from defection to Verizon, in part by offering recent attractive upgrade prices that come with two-year service contracts.

"Unlimited" or non-capped plans would provide existing AT&T iPhone customers a reason to switch providers, especially when such customers would have to buy new phones for the Verizon network.

At another level the move shows confidence about the network's ability to handle an expected surge of data traffic, as well as the ability to shift some existing demand from the 3G network to the new 4G network.

The customer benefit the Verizon unlimited service plan and AT&T device upgrade offer also suggest that despite occasional arguments about lack of competition, the mobile markets are more than workably competitive. It is a reasonable argument that AT&T "had" to offer $49 iPhone 4 handsets, and Verizon was "compelled" to offer unlimited service, even though both moves will hit earnings.

Verizon to Offer iPhone Users Unlimited Data Plans - WSJ.com: (subscription required)

Video Games Move to General Purpose Platforms

Dedicated game-playing units still are popular. But these days the biggest growth might be gaming on mobile and other devices.

T-Mobile USA Targets Lower End of Smartphone Market

T-Mobile USA appears to be planning an aggressive targeting of lower-cost smartphones as a way of securing its customer base.

Chief Executive Philipp Humm said many of his smartphones will eventually be made up of Google-powered phones costing less than $100, half as much as the smartphones typically available at U.S. carriers. In October, to lower the cost of monthly bills, Mr. Humm introduced a limited data plan that costs $10.

With Verizon and AT&T staking out the high-end device segment, and T-Mobile USA the lower end, Sprint has to figure out where it wants to play.

T-Mobile Smartphones to Head Down Market - WSJ.com (subscription required)

Dave Michels responds:

Gary, 

This doesn't make any sense to me. Networks are like roads (not cars) and staking our "high" or "low" end doesn't work. Even expensive toll roads have junkers. 

T-mobile is clearly accommodating the low end with some of their devices (Optimus T) and new data plan, but they also have their "4G" with a large footprint and some very highend phones from HTC and Samsung. 

A good carrier will have good solutions for the high-end, low-end, and business sectors - not one target. 

To truly embrace the low-end, there is much more work to be done. Tmo is still requiring a 2 year contract with data (albeit $10 data) on their entry level smartphones. Two years on a sub $100 device is robbery and the run away success of the Apple Touch shows these smartphones can be very useful (games and other apps that don't require a connection) without a data plan (wifi only). 

I was thinking recently that the carriers are really over complicating things - so this headline caught my attention.' 


--Dave Michels


Good insight, as always. I think the point has to do with customer segmentation, not the actual networks or devices. Most observers would say Verizon Wireless always has tried to occupy the "high end" of the mobile market, while Cricket has tried to dominate the "local voice line substitution" market, for example. Virgin Mobile has targeted the "younger, hipper user." T-Mobile USA in recent years has targeted a younger demographic. 


It is true that the networks, per se, are not highly differentiated. But the customer segments can be.