According to revised projections from Magna Global, the number of U.S. homes with a DVR should pass the halfway mark and reach 50 percent of all TV homes or about 61.8 million households by the end of 2016, up from 32% or 37.9 million at the end of the third quarter of 2010
For the television and advertising industries, the DVR continues to represent both a blessing and a challenge. By allowing viewers to timeshift shows that they are not able to watch during the original broadcast, the DVR is helping TV networks hold on to viewers who would otherwise seek out other ways to watch these shows, or not watch them at all. At the same time, DVRs enable viewers to fast-forward through content that doesn't interest them, including commercials, potentially undermining television's longtime ad-supported business model.
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
DVRs Reach 50% Penetration of U.S. Homes
Gary Kim has been a digital infra analyst and journalist for more than 30 years, covering the business impact of technology, pre- and post-internet. He sees a similar evolution coming with AI. General-purpose technologies do not come along very often, but when they do, they change life, economies and industries.
Traffic Grows 25x, Mobile Revenue 2X
Since 2008, global carrier mobile revenues have increased two times while traffic increased 25 times, some would argue. If so, something will have to change. Mobile service providers will have to increase prices to end users, develop other revenue streams from business partners, offload traffic and further optimize their cost structures. In all likelihood, they will undertake "all of the above."
The big issue likely will be how to go about matching consumption to pricing. For many consumers, simplicity and predictability are key. For those customers, flat fees for unlimited usage represent the greatest amount of simplicity. It is not so clear those sorts of plans will be inexpensive, going forward.
And while "buckets" of usage have proven popular for voice services, it is much harder for end users to understand and track data usage, simply because different applications have such wildly-different bandwidth implications. Still, given enough access to consumption information, many users could prove receptive to usage plans that are based on the types of apps they want to use.
Pricing plans for texting, email and web surfing, without support for video, might prove attractive. Mid-range plans that allow some video will be desirable for other users. Finally, some plans that allow extensive use of video might be most valuable for a fourth bucket of users.
Gary Kim has been a digital infra analyst and journalist for more than 30 years, covering the business impact of technology, pre- and post-internet. He sees a similar evolution coming with AI. General-purpose technologies do not come along very often, but when they do, they change life, economies and industries.
Skype Mobile on Verizon: Mobile Really is Different
Skype apparently has withdrawn its Skype Mobile application which was written for tablet use on the Verizon Wireless 3G network. Verizon Wireless has said that Skype would be available on its 4G network, and some will wonder whether the change is a not-so-subtle way of making 4G stand out from 3G service.
The apparent change also is another example of why the mobile environment, and business, remains distinct from the PC-based Internet. On the fixed PC network, any lawful application will work on any access with adequate bandwidth, irrespective of the make and model of any device, or the brand used for Internet access. That is not true on mobile networks.
Gary Kim has been a digital infra analyst and journalist for more than 30 years, covering the business impact of technology, pre- and post-internet. He sees a similar evolution coming with AI. General-purpose technologies do not come along very often, but when they do, they change life, economies and industries.
Content More Important for Marketing
One can glimpse the growing importance of "content" as a prerequisite for much marketing, including mobile marketing, by looking at how people use their smartphones. The single most-used app is texting, which two thirds of users report they have used in a month. But the next five most-used apps all are content apps, ranging from the web to music.
Since the whole point of advertising or marketing is to reach potential buyers where those potential buyers are, mobile venues, especially content-related mobile venues, are growing in importance.
Since the whole point of advertising or marketing is to reach potential buyers where those potential buyers are, mobile venues, especially content-related mobile venues, are growing in importance.
| Mobile Content Usage 3 Month Avg. Ending Nov. 2010 vs. 3 Month Avg. Ending Aug. 2010 Total Mobile Subscribers Ages 13+ Source: comScore MobiLens | |||
| Share (%) of MobileSubscribers | |||
| Aug-10 | Nov-10 | Point Change | |
| TotalMobile Subscribers | 100.0% | 100.0% | N/A |
| Sent text message to another phone | 66.6% | 67.1% | 0.5 |
| Used browser | 34.5% | 35.3% | 0.8 |
| Used downloaded apps | 32.3% | 33.4% | 1.1 |
| Accessed social networking site or blog | 22.5% | 23.5% | 1.0 |
| Played Games | 23.0% | 22.6% | -0.4 |
| Listened to music on mobile phone | 14.7% | 15.0% | |
Gary Kim has been a digital infra analyst and journalist for more than 30 years, covering the business impact of technology, pre- and post-internet. He sees a similar evolution coming with AI. General-purpose technologies do not come along very often, but when they do, they change life, economies and industries.
Mobile Content Payment Further Unbundles Content
In a digital age, publishers have had to change to think on a per-article basis, especially as content micropayment systems come into wider use.
The change will only accelerate the trend to "unbundling" of discrete content items from the "products" brands have built. In other words, you won't have to "buy the magazine or newspaper," you will buy the stories you want.
There are similar analogies throughout the media business.
Gary Kim has been a digital infra analyst and journalist for more than 30 years, covering the business impact of technology, pre- and post-internet. He sees a similar evolution coming with AI. General-purpose technologies do not come along very often, but when they do, they change life, economies and industries.
Email, Web Browsing Drive Tablet Use
Sales of tablet devices will hit 58 million in 2014, In-Stat estimates.
“Although the consumer market is the primary target for tablets right now, the commercial market also represents a potential revenue opportunity for tablet OEMs,” says Jim McGregor, chief technology strategist.
Email and web browsing were the top two tablet uses by current owners at 68 percent and 66 percent respectively. Those facts might help explain growing business user adoption of tablets as well. As it turns out, lots of end users don't have much need for many PC features, don't create a lot of content, and mostly just need to surf the web and check email.
“Although the consumer market is the primary target for tablets right now, the commercial market also represents a potential revenue opportunity for tablet OEMs,” says Jim McGregor, chief technology strategist.
Email and web browsing were the top two tablet uses by current owners at 68 percent and 66 percent respectively. Those facts might help explain growing business user adoption of tablets as well. As it turns out, lots of end users don't have much need for many PC features, don't create a lot of content, and mostly just need to surf the web and check email.
Gary Kim has been a digital infra analyst and journalist for more than 30 years, covering the business impact of technology, pre- and post-internet. He sees a similar evolution coming with AI. General-purpose technologies do not come along very often, but when they do, they change life, economies and industries.
Telefonica Launches "2 Numbers, 1 Phone" Service
Many people use multiple mobile phone numbers, often to separate work from personal calling, or to reduce long-distance charges across national borders. Most often the use of different numbers requires use of separate phones, in other cases only different subscriber information modules.
Telefonica has introduced a "Second Line" service that allows use of two discrete numbers on a single phone and using a single SIM, with services provided by fonYou, a Barcelona-based cloud telephony company.
http://ipcarrier.blogspot.com/2011/02/fonyou-mobile-cloud-telephony-for.html
The Second Line service also enables visual voicemail, a real-time call register and advanced filtering and blocking functions for incoming calls.
The Second Line service also enables visual voicemail, a real-time call register and advanced filtering and blocking functions for incoming calls.
Gary Kim has been a digital infra analyst and journalist for more than 30 years, covering the business impact of technology, pre- and post-internet. He sees a similar evolution coming with AI. General-purpose technologies do not come along very often, but when they do, they change life, economies and industries.
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