Small Business Will Spend More on Mobile, Video Advertising in 2011

Researchers at Ad-ology say small businesses will spend more in 2011 on mobile and video advertising.

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Tablets will be Used for Email, Multimedia, Personal Information Management

The top three uses for future tablet owners are email, personal information management and multimedia consumption (audio, video and gaming), In-Stat predicts.

“Last year’s small crop of tablets was being touted as potential e-readers; a way to compete against the extremely popular Amazon Kindle lineup,” says Stephanie Ethier, Senior Analyst. “But this next generation of tablets is clearly being marketed as consumer multimedia consumption devices positioned to compete squarely against the Apple iPad.”

If the In-Stat predictions prove correct, the tablet will emerge as a device positioned about half way between a smartphone and a PC, as well as half way between an iPod and a PC. the notion of an iPad being an "iPod on steroids," or an "iPod with a bigger screen" will be resisted in some quarters. But the notion has resonance.

In-Stat - Press Releases

No Need to Depict iPhone, Verizon Wireless Believes

Some might wonder, in this Verizon Wireless ad for the iPhone, where the iPhone is. Of course, some might ask who in the potential audience does not know what an iPhone is, or what it looks like, or what it can do. In that case, there isn't so much value showing the device, is there?

Orange Looking at Video Sharing?

France Telecom's Orange is in talks to buy a stake of between 30 percent and 50 percent in video-sharing web site Dailymotion, Reuters reports. All you need to know is that Dailymotion often known as the "YouTube" of Europe. Whether Orange might consider an ad-supported or subscription or on-demand viewing model is not clear, but all would be feasible.

At the moment Dailymotion relies on advertising.

Orange seen eyeing stake in Dailymotion -report | Reuters

Mobile Payment Business Gets Starbucks Jumpstart

Starbucks has launched a nationwide mobile payments capability integrated with its existing Starbucks Card program. One can argue the merits of introducing a "single retailer" mobile payment capability compared to a more-universal approach, but Starbucks clearly wants to move now, and not have to wait for more-universal mechanisms to develop. Also, Starbucks has chosen a cheaper-to-deploy, less complicated approach as well.

The other angle is that Starbucks likely is less interested in mobile payments, and more interested in customer loyalty. If that is the case, then a universal mobile payments solution is not the point. Mobile payment using iPhones and BlackBerries, and soon Android devices, is more about loyalty than ease of payment.

As for why the United States lags nations such as Japan, there are lots of reasons generally offered. But it probably is noteworthy that "NTT DoCoMo owns more than 80 percent of the Japanese market, so they can dictate requirements to phone manufacturers and dictate a single standard," says Conrad Sheehan, CEO and founder of mPayy. In South Korea, which has three carriers, SK Telecom owns 50.5 percent of the market.

Further, NTT DoCoMo issues its own "DCMX" Premium and Gold cards to provide its customers credit lines, while SK Telecom has the "Moneta" service, Sheehan said. In essence, the leading South Korean and Japanese mobile operators already are in the banking business. That isn't true in the U.S. market.

But there are other reasons why mobile applications are more advanced in those countries. Landline access to the Web is much more expensive in those countries than it is in the United States. Ironically, one of the frequent complaints about U.S. fixed-line broadband is that it is "too costly." That might not be the case, but the perception exists.

Technology News: Handheld Devices: The Long Leap to Clear Mobile Payment Hurdles

Google to Launch Groupon Competitor

Google is preparing to launch "Google Offers", the search giant’s Groupon competitor.

Google Offers apparently looks and operates much like Groupon or LivingSocial. Users receive an e-mail with a local deal of the day. They then have the opportunity to buy that deal within a specific time limit. Once enough people have made the purchase, the Google Offer is triggered.

One might still wonder whether Google might yet consider buying a Groupon-like company that already has momentum in the market. One might argue about whether Google "has to," or "should" do so. What is not contestable is that Google believes social buying and "offers" capability is important to its overall moves into mobile applications and revenue models.

The simple reason is that social buying (offers) is intrinsically related to local advertising and mobile advertising. And those businesses are significant growth areas for Google. Also, such mobile offers increasingly will be related to transactions, buying and paying. And Google believes "mobile money" is one of its top-three objectives.

Google to Launch Groupon Competitor

Web-based Email Declines, Mobile Email Grows

In November 2010, the number of visitors to web-based email sites declined six percent compared to the previous year, while email engagement declined at an even greater rate, says comScore. Over the same time period, the number of users using email on their mobile devices grew by 36 percent.

In November 2010, more than 153 million people visited web-based email providers. In terms of engagement, overall time spent in the email category declined nine percent, while total pages viewed dropped 15 percent.

Despite such declines, however, it should be noted that email remains one of the most popular activities on the web, reaching more than 70 percent of the U.S online population each month.

Email Evolution: Web-based Email Shows Signs of Decline in the U.S. While Mobile Email Usage on the Rise - comScore