Mobile 'apps' to be $58 billion market

Mobile applications downloaded from online stores will be a $58 billion worldwide business by 2014, as tablet computers such as Apple's iPad stoke the surging market, Gartner predicts.

The figure marks a huge increase on the $5.2 billion spent on mobile applications in 2010, technology consultancy Gartner said, predicting there will be 17.7 billion application downloads this year, more than double the 8.2 billion in 2010.

By the end of 2014, Gartner forecasted that over 185 billion applications will have been downloaded since 2008.

Mobile 'apps' to be $58 billion market

Payment Methods Changing

Consumer use of cash and checks are declining, use of debit cards and other payment systems climbing, while use of credit cards is flat, according to Nilson Report data.

That explains, only in part, why there now is interest in mobile payments.

Information Workers Are Not Quite Ready For Desktop Videoconferencing

Forrester Research's latest survey of North American and European business technology users shows that the workforce overall has little interest in and access to desktop video.

There’s a disconnect between what vendors and executives are pushing and what information workers are looking for, says Forrester analyst T J Keitt. Right now, most of the desktop video conferencing technology is not widespread.

For example, while 33 percent of workers surveyed said their company has desktop video systems, only 15 percent said they had access to them. In addition, it’s the upper-level executives who are most interested in the technology, and who use it most.

Forty-two percent of directors use desktop video conferencing, 40 percent of vice presidents and 38 percent of owners or CEOs, according to Forrester By contrast, only seven percent of individual workers say they use the systems.

In addition, for the time being, interest among those individual workers is low. About 72 percent of workers said they didn’t want desktop video conferencing, compared with 13 percent who don’t have it but do want it. Another 13 percent use it, and while 2 percent said they have desktop video conferencing but don’t use it.

Forrester analyst T J Keitt says “Forrester’s workforce data reveals that most of the workforce doesn’t have access to and isn’t bullish on using desktop video for business purposes.”

The study surveyed more than 5,400 information workers. Fifty-six percent of businesses have deployed a room-based or desktop-based video-conferencing system, Keitt said.

Information Workers Are Not Quite Ready For Desktop Videoconferencing - Forrester Research

Is iPad Driving Netflix?

One might be tempted to note the quick rise of streaming on Netflix and assume people have suddenly decided to watch TV on their PCs, or have quickly gotten the hang of configuring "net TV" boxes.

There's some truth to those notions, but a more-obvious guess is that many of those tablet devices are now being used to watch Netflix. In that sense, Netflix could be one of the most-successful app store subscription products yet seen.

The Triple Crown

Who wins and who loses when carriers tweak loyalty programs

Sprint announced it will change its Premier loyalty program starting April 1, 2011. In the past, loyal customers of ten years or more, or customers who paid at least $69.99 on an individual plan or $99.99 on a family plan each month were offered the ability to upgrade their handsets every 12 months, as well as other benefits and discounts.

Earlier, Verizon Wireless also ended its "New Every Two" program, which offered customers a credit of $30 to $100 towards a new phone. So will those carriers suffer customer churn? IDC doesn't think so.

IDC: Who wins and who loses when carriers tweak loyalty programs

Kindle Content Sales Top Book Sales

"After selling millions of third-generation Kindles with the new Pearl e-ink display during the quarter, Kindle books have now overtaken paperback books as the most popular format on Amazon.com," says Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon.com.

"Last July we announced that Kindle books had passed hardcovers and predicted that Kindle would surpass paperbacks in the second quarter of this year, so this milestone has come even sooner than we expected, and it's on top of continued growth in paperback sales."

None of that stops some analysts from worrying. A study by market-research firm iSuppli last year estimated the total cost of materials for the 3G Kindle at $155.56, about $33 less than the $189 selling price for the device.

Since iSuppli’s estimates do not include the cost of software, licensing, royalties, manufacturing expenses (Amazon outsources production of the Kindle) and a cut for the wireless carriers, and well are marketing expense, analysts suspect Amazon likely sells the Kindle at a slight loss.

Many analysts assume the Kindle operates on a razor-razorblade model, which is the tactic of selling one good (like razors) at a discount, and a second good that it dependent on it (like razorblades) at a higher price. For Amazon, this would mean selling the Kindle at a discount in order to make money on e-book sales.

Amazon therefore uses the reverse of the model employed by Apple. Apple sells content only so it can boost sales of its devices; Amazon sells hardware only to boost sales of content.

Amazon Media Room: News Release

Nearly Half of Mobile App Users Report Clicking on Mobile Ads by Mistake

According to a new survey conducted online by Harris Interactive on behalf of Pontiflex in December 2010, 47 percent of mobile app users say they click/tap on mobile ads more often by mistake than they do on purpose.

Given that mobile advertising models typically charge advertisers for clicks, the survey findings indicate that a large portion of mobile ad dollars are wasted.

In a related December 2010 survey, 71 percent of mobile app users stated that they prefer ads that keep them within the app they are using, instead of ads that take them out of the app to a mobile web browser, further reinforcing the need for mobile advertising to move away from a model based on clicks.

Marketwire Survey Finds Nearly Half of Mobile App Users Report Clicking on Mobile Ads by Mistake