Verizon Wireless to eliminate one-year contract option on April 17th | BGR

Verizon Wireless is eliminating its one-year contract option. After April 17th, a customer purchasing a new device must either sign a two-year agreement and pay the standard advertised price, or pay the full cost of a handset. Some might see the move as "anti-consumer" in some way, but apparently few customers actually opt for a one-year contract when they can choose to pay full price for a handset, with no contract, or get a substantially-subsidized device with a two-year contract.

In the European Community, regulators recently have decided to require one-year contracts, and some mobile providers already have begun to do so, perhaps because of the competitive situation in the United Kingdom. Vodafone trails behind both the T-Mobile/Orange joint venture, Everything Everywhere, and O2, and has been seeing competition from MVNOs at the low end. Retailer Tesco has been offering 12-month deals, for example.

Vodafone's one-year contracts start at £35 a month and so far come with four high end handsets - the HTC Desire HD, RIM BlackBerry Torch, Samsung/Google Nexus S, and the Nokia N8. Other models will also be included in the scheme as it evolves. Vodafone has had12-month terms for SIM-only contracts for some time.

There's no magic here. Consumers can pay full price for their devices and buy service with no contract. But most consumers want subsidized phones, and the two-year contract terms are set at levels that arguably simply recoup the cost of the subsidies. The one-year plans obviously represent less generous subsidies.

Market dynamics also are different in the EC nations and in the U.S. market. In the EC, virtually all providers use a single air interface, so a phone purchased for service with one carrier can be shifted easily to another carrier. In the U.S. market, the air interfaces remain split. A CDMA phone that works on Verizon or Sprint networks will not work on AT&T or T-Mobile networks. For that reason alone there is less opportunity to switch providers.

Still, the point is that no-contract service, one-year or two-year contract plans simply represent different combinations of value and price.

Verizon Wireless to eliminate one-year contract option

Jumio Seeks "End of Cash"

Jumio The End of Cash from Jumio Inc. on Vimeo.
Facebook co-founder and Jajah co-founder are backers.

Why Coupons Are Interesting to Mobile and Social Advertisers

Consumer product goods marketers allocated the largest share of their coupon distribution to free standing inserts during 2010, according to a new study from NCH Marketing. FSIs accounted for roughly 88 percent of CPG coupons in 2010, with all other forms of media comprising the remaining 12 percent.

The amount of that activity probably explains the new interest in distributing some coupons by mobile devices, where the shopper's context and preferences can, in principle, be used to target the messages. 

In-store handouts represented five percent of coupons, followed by direct mail (2.4 percent), magazine (2.2 percent), other (including all digital formats – two percent), and in/on-pack and cross-ruff (one percent).

While distribution demographics for grocery CPG coupons were similar to overall results, a slightly higher percentage (13.2%, or 7% more) were distributed by non-FSI means. The largest difference in the breakdown of non-FSI coupon media was an 11.5% higher percentage distributed via in-store handouts (5.8%).

The average face value of a CPG coupon in 2010 was $1.46, up 6.6% from $1.37 in 2009. Average CPG coupon face value has risen year-over-year each year since 2006, when it stood at $1.18. Between 2006 and 2010, average value rose almost 24%.

Read more here

YouTube is going "Live"

"YouTube Live" now has begun to roll out in beta (of course), integrating live streaming capabilities and discovery tools directly into the YouTube platform for the first time. The YouTube Live browse page (www.youtube.com/live) will attempt to feature "the most compelling live events happening on YouTube" and add events to user calendars.

The beta allows certain YouTube partners with accounts in good standing to stream live content on YouTube.

YouTube Blog: YouTube is going LIVE

Facebook Won't Become E-Commerce Force, Analyst Says - Digits - WSJ

Facebook is not going to be a major e-commerce player, says Forrester Research analyst Sucharita Mulpuru.

A social-network presence, she found, was less effective at customer acquisition and retention than e-mail and paid search.

The study found that the average Facebook metrics are a one percent click-through rate and a two percent conversion rate. E-mail marketing, by comparison, has an 11 percent click-through rate and a four percent average conversion rate.

Facebook Won't Become E-Commerce Force, Analyst Says - Digits - WSJ

Study Shows Games are Top Tablet Pursuit

A new study by AdMob has found that games are the application getting the most use on tablet devices. The study found that 68 percent of tablet users spend at least 1 hour a day on their tablet, and that 77 percent of respondents have decreased the amount of time they spend on their desktop or laptop after they started using a tablet.


Tablets are used widely for playing games, searching for information and emailing. Of those pursuits, you might have guessed that email and search would be leading activities. But you might not have thought that playing games would be the single most popular use for a tablet.

About 84 percent of respondents said they played games on their tablets, while 78 percent searched for information and 74 percent used email. About 42 percent used a tablet for shopping and 46 percent used a tablet for reading e-books. About half said their tablet use was for consuming entertainment content.

Some 82 percent of respondents said they primarily use their tablet at home, and more than a third say they use their tablets more than they watch TV.

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Google Rolls Out Check-in Deals

Google Latitude, Google's location-sharing mobile app, is launching checkin offers nationwide, giving users the ability to unlock discounts with a handful of launch partners.

Google’s initial list of partners includes Arby’s, Macy’s, RadioShack, Finish Line, Famous Footwear, Great Clips, Naturalizer, Tasti D-Lite, Quiznos, Wireless Zone, Cellairis, PostNet and American Eagle Outfitters.

Google Rolls Out Checkin Deals for Latitude Nationwide