U.S. SMBs Highly Likely to Buy Tech Support Services for Tablets, Other IT

U.S. small businesses are three times more likely than average consumers to use professional computer-related technical support services, compared to consumers, and significantly more likely to purchase additional support features when acquiring new equipment, Parks Associates says.

"SMBs waste dozens of hours per month troubleshooting technology issues," said Kurt Scherf, VP, principal analyst, Parks Associates. "Over 70 percent are involved with ongoing computer maintenance on a monthly basis."

About half deal with Internet access issues, 44 percent troubleshoot computer problems, 31 percent troubleshoot networking issues, and 27 percent deal with server problems.'"

There might be new opportunities for a variety of companies and channels. Apple, for example. recently announced JointVenture, a new support network for small businesses that combines remote and retail support for its iPads and Macs.

U.S. SMBs three times more likely than average consumers to purchase professional technical support for tablets, smartphones, PCs

Tech Company Valuation: 1999 and 2011

It's hard to say for certain whether we are in a dangerous valuation bubble for Internet companies or not, as we were around 2000.

It is clear there is an enormous wave of Internet innovation going on at the moment. But there will be excesses and failures, as well as some big new market leaders.

But one difference seems to be that all the emerging companies are applications and software firms. You'd be hard pressed to name a hardware company that is among the emerging firms.

Microsoft Strategy Chief: Tablets May Just Be A Fad

Microsoft's chief technical officer and strategic leader Craig Mundie told an audience in Australia that he's not sure if tablets are here to stay. Steve Jobs agrees with Mundie on one point: the iPad is not a PC. Beyond that, Apple and Microsoft do not seem to agree on much else.

Microsoft Strategy Chief: Tablets May Just Be A Fad

Google "Plus One" is Another Way Users Can Annotate the Web

NFC is Overhyped, says Sybase

Sybase is a leader in text messaging based mobile payments, so Sybase might be forgiven its public view that mobile payments using near field communications are over-hyped at the moment. The general observation is correct, as always is the case. Enthusiasm always outruns actual adoption when brand-new technologies are introduced.

Sybase says text-based payments more than doubled in 2010, so “mobile commerce is exploding." But the skeptical view about NFC is both a realistic assessment of what can happen in 2011, and a rational response for a leader using a rival method.

NFC is way overhyped, says mobile payment leader Sybase | VentureBeat

Microsoft Planning Mobile Payments Support

Microsoft Corp. is working on a version of its Windows Phone software with near field communications support, allowing creation and use of NFC-based mobile payments applications and services. What isn't immediately clear is whether Microsoft wants to provide NFC support without creating its own mobile payments solution, or will try to compete as a supplier of mobile payments or related services.

Microsoft Is Said to Plan Mobile Payments in Phone Software - Businessweek

Is a Wireless Duopoly a Good Idea?

Though the notion will strike some as obviously ill-fitting, until 30 years ago, telecom companies were regarded as natural monopolies. There are few places left where that remains the case.

That doesn't necessarily mean there is universal agreement about the best way to foster competition, or which patterns are stable and yet workably competitive. In some cases, network access still is seen as a sort of utility function, with competition between retail providers using a shared wholesale network now seen as the way to harness competition while minimizing investment in expensive access networks. That isn't the pattern in the U.S. market, however.

AT&T's proposed acquisition of T-Mobile USA, with no change in the Verizon Wireless footprint, which would result in nearly 75 percent of U.S. subscribers being served by just two national carriers. In some cases, duopolies arguably have provided workable, though not perfect competition.

In the wireless sphere, some will argue that the analog services duopoly was characterized by low rates of innovation, high prices and modest mass market adoption. Not until new competitors and digital services were unleashed did the mobile industry really reach ubiquity. So some will worry about a return to a national duopoly.

But some also will note that much innovation and competition in the wireless space now is conducted by application and handset providers, and that access is just one element. It will not be a terribly easy analysis to figure out what the "market" is, or how the dynamics of competition now work.

Mallinson: Working through mobile competition pipedreams - FierceWireless:Europe