France Telecom Considers Options as Growth Slows

France Telecom may sell some of its smaller European operations as growth slows on the continent, Gervais Pellissier, chief financial officer said.

Aside from France, Poland and Spain, “all the other countries are involved in this review,” which will examine opportunities for consolidation as well as possible sales of operations, he said.

The obvious story is that growth in Africa and the Middle East is much more robust than in European markets.

Smaller European markets rose 1.2 percent in the first quarter, compared with a 5.8 percent rise in Africa and the Middle East excluding Egypt.

France Telecom Reviews European Assets as Growth Slows - Businessweek

Amazon Tablet Seems to be on the Way

Many have speculated about whether Amazon might build its own tablet device. DigiTimes reports suggest such a device is on the way.

Taiwan-based notebook maker Quanta Computer reportedly has recently received orders from Amazon to build a tablet.

The device's monthly orders during the peak season are expected to reach about 700,000 to 800,000 units with shipping as soon as the second half of 2011.

Quanta receives tablet PC orders from Amazon, say upstream sources

PlayBook Runs Android Apps

Apparently the RIM PlayBook has an emulator that allows it to run Android apps. A wise move, one might suggest.

Gaming Market Revenue Models Now Must Change

There is no denying the value the Internet represents for users. There also is no denying the disruption the Internet brings to virtually every business it touches. It now appears the console gaming business is about to be disrupted.

"We as VC’s love when a market is undergrowing great change and that industry is shifting from packaged console-based gaming and going to a free-to-play model," says venture capitalist William Quigley, managing director of Clearstone Venture Partners.

"We also need new monetization models," he says, an obvious understatement when a category moves from selling products to enabling "free" usage. Payment and virtual goods seem good candidates for necessary innovation as the transition occurs.

Also, a lot of the dollars currently spent on traditional advertising are migrating to gaming, he notes.

In addition to cloud services and mobile applications, Quigley sees a decade-long wave of innovation ahead for gaming.

Here Come the Cloud and Gaming Funds

U.S. Television Ownership Drops

For the first time in 20 years, the number of homes in the United States with television sets has dropped. In its latest estimate, 96.7 percent of American households now own sets, down from 98.9 percent previously. That works out to 114.7 million TV households, down from 115.9 million in 2010.

There are a few potential reasons for the downward trend. The transition to digital TV. TV penetration first dipped after this transition and continued in 2010. Nielsen also says the cost of owning a TV is a factor. Lower-income and rural homes were particularly affected.

But new platforms might be having an affect as well. Nielsen data demonstrates that consumers are viewing more video content across all platforms.

However, a small subset of younger, urban consumers are going without paid TV subscriptions. The long-term effects of this are unclear. One might argue that the "no TV" behavior is temporary, reflecting a stage of life where discretionary income is more limited. Or, more disturbingly for some providers, younger consumers might value multichannel TV less than older age cohorts.

The issue is whether linear multichannel television is a product like any other, with a product lifecycle that now is past its peak, and starting to decline. It might once have seemed inconceivable that voice service was a normal product, with a lifecycle. But people have other communications alternatives, and some would say mobile voice is the preferred way of using voice communications.

The issue for the video entertainment ecosystem is whether a similar product lifecycle now is starting to assert itself in the TV business.

Television Ownership Drops in U.S., Nielsen Reports - NYTimes.com

Enterprises Looking to Managed WAN Services

A recent survey of executives and IT leaders at large U.S. companies by Boston-based market research firm, Chadwick Martin Bailey (CMB) indicates that enterprises are increasingly relying on managed network service providers.

For example, one large fast-food franchise wanted expertise in restaurant operations and the ability to deliver industry-specific solutions like managed PCI Wi-Fi security, digital signage, or employee video training over the WAN.

In large part, the desire for managed services is a resource issue. IT departments are stretched thin and need to free internal resources up from basic tasks to focus on more-strategic priorities.

Strong customer support is considered nearly four times as important as technical criteria such as the provider's network architecture), when evaluating suppliers, the study suggests.

Strong service level agreements, a provider's understanding of their unique business applications and related industry expertise also were considered important.

Combined, these top criteria account for nearly two thirds of all the weight in an enterprise's final supplier selection.

Improved IT security, simplified compliance and better application performance are among the reasons managed services increasingly are favored. Demand for managed services also benefits from a preference to avoid new full-time hires.

The survey also suggests enteprises increasingly favor specialty service roviders that have high-touch customer service, vertical market expertise, and offer managed applications specifically tailored to their business.

A  majority of respondents favor providers with managed WAN optimization technologies that overlay their existing slower WANs, providing WAN acceleration and Quality of Service (QoS) performance without the associated costs and complexities.

CMB surveyed 342 decision makers at large distributed enterprises with WANs ranging from 100 to more than 500 networked sites, and typically more than 5,000 employees. 

The study was commissioned by Hughes Network Systems.

read more here

Apple iPad Is Transforming Retail

About 41 percent of consumers who planned or were considering buying an iPad cited shopping as a primary reason for their interest, says eMarketer.

The iPad’s most dramatic impact for retailers might be its use in stores. Merchants are beginning to equip sales associates with iPads to aid customers with in-store purchasing decisions. Deloitte forecasts that in 2011, 25 percent of all tablets will be bought for business, and retailers will lead all industries in their adoption.

How the iPad Is Transforming Retail - eMarketer