Sprint to Sell HTC EVO 3D on June 24, 2011

Sprint will be selling the "HTC EVO 3D" and "HTC EVO View 4G" on the June 24, 2011, representing the first smart phone able to view and record full motion video in three dimensions, while the EVO View 4G will be the first tablet able to use the Sprint national 4G network.

The "glasses-free" 3D smart phone will be available for $199.99, and HTC EVO View 4G, the first 4G tablet in market, will be available for $399.99, with a new two-year service agreement or eligible upgrade.

Customers can pre-order HTC EVO 3D or HTC EVO View 4G at any participating Sprint Store with the purchase of a $50 Sprint gift card (per device).

On June 24, Sprint Stores nationwide will open doors at 8 a.m. local time for customers to get a jump-start on purchasing these hot new devices.

HTC EVO 3D and HTC EVO View 4G, Make Debut Exclusively from Sprint on June 24

Browser is Top Smart Phone App Used in 5 European Countries

Mobile Benchmark Data for the European Market 3 Month Avg. Ending March 2011 Total EU5 (UK, DE, FR, ES and IT), Age 13+ Source: comScore MobiLens
	Reach (%) of Mobile Subscribers
	EU5	France	Germany	Italy	Spain	UK
Sent Text Message	82.4%	82.8%	78.8%	79.7%	80.9%	90.0%
Used Application (excl. pre-installed)	30.3%	28.1%	26.5%	28.4%	29.6%	39.3%
Used Browser	31.0%	31.3%	24.6%	27.8%	28.7%	42.7%
Listened to Music	25.6%	22.7%	26.6%	23.4%	32.3%	24.4%
Accessed Social Networking Site or Blog	19.8%	19.5%	13.3%	18.3%	18.1%	30.2%
Accessed News	14.9%	14.1%	12.3%	13.9%	11.5%	22.0%
Played Games	25.6%	15.4%	24.2%	29.0%	27.7%	32.2%
Used Smartphone	34.5%	30.4%	27.6%	37.9%	39.8%	39.2%

Europe Sees 40 Percent Growth in Mobile Banking Through Smartphones - comScore, Inc:

Groupon has Issues, But not the Ones People Focus On

Since Groupon filed its notice of initial public offering (form S-1), there have been scores, perhaps hundreds of negative articles written about Groupon's business model and prospects. But though there are issues, the most-frequently-raised issues might not be the key concerns. Groupon is, of couse, in a "quiet period" and unable to respond.

But executives at Yipit as a daily deal aggregator of over 500 services, has a different view, after talking to hundreds of daily deal sites, big media companies, white label providers, local merchants, journalists, daily deal users and daily deal non-users. Local merchants do like the service, and the amount of discounts is not an issue for firms with high fixed costs.

Yipit Blog

EchoStar to Debut Small Cable Operator VOD

EchoStar Technologies will introduce a new video-on-demand solution aimed at smaller cable TV operators. The new "Aria" system features a high-definition digital video recorder with a high-resolution interactive program guide, a video-on-demand service.

The set-tops also will be "SlingLoaded," incorporating the ability to view at-home content at remote locations. The single-server solution supports Apple iOS, Google Android, BlackBerry and Windows mobile devices. The system also provides a remote DVR programming feature.

EchoStar Slings Over-the-Top Pitch - 2011-06-05 10:00:00 | Multichannel News

Samsung, LG, Motorola Top U.S. Device Share, comScore Reports

Whatever else you might say about developments in the smart phone market, it has to be noted that Android has succeeded in the marketplace, perhaps beyond what its detractors had hoped for. As recently as August 2010 you could still find some people suggesting Android would not threaten Research in Motion, for example. See http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/08/25/android_to_conquer_all_not/. Before that, people were arguing that little of the actual cost of a smart phone is driven by the cost of an OS license, so Android would not get much traction. Before that, some were arguing that mobile operating systems were more complicated than they seemed, and that Google would struggle to get it right.

In less than a year, those predictions seem to be catastrophically wrong, for RIM. And though the conventional wisdom now is that Apple and Android are the top-two smart phone operating systems to contend with, the conventional wisdom seems to be right. All of a sudden, it seems an arguable point that RIM and Nokia might not make it. Given RIM's historic dominance of the enterprise, and Nokia's prominence globally, both might have seemed unthinkable just a couple years ago.

Though some of us spend more time tracking smart phone developments than feature phones, Samsung had 24.5 percent of U.S. mobile subscribers in the three months ending in April 2011, says comScore. Samsung is followed by LG with 20.9 percent share and Motorola with 15.6 percent share.

Apple jumped to the fourth position with 8.3 percent share of mobile subscribers (up 1.3 percentage points), while RIM rounded out the top five with 8.2 percent share.

Google Android ranked as the top operating system with 36.4 percent of U.S. smartphone subscribers, up 5.2 percentage points. Apple also gained share, capturing the number-two position with 26 percent of the smartphone market. RIM ranked third with 25.7 percent share, followed by Microsoft (6.7 percent) and Palm (2.6 percent).

Considering that only 32 percent of U.S. subscribers appear to own a smart phone, it is perhaps significant that 39 percent of all phone owners say they use browsers, while 38 percent download apps. About 28 percent use mobile social networking or check out blogs from their mobiles, while 26 percent play games on their devices.

Mobile Content Usage 3 Month Avg. Ending Apr. 2011 vs. 3 Month Avg. Ending Jan. 2011 Total U.S. Mobile Subscribers Ages 13+ Source: comScore MobiLens
	Share (%) of Mobile Subscribers
	Jan-11	Apr-11	Point Change
Total Mobile Subscribers	100.0%	100.0%	N/A
Sent text message to another phone	68.1%	68.8%	0.7
Used browser	37.0%	39.1%	2.1
Used downloaded apps	35.4%	37.8%	2.4
Accessed social networking site or blog	25.3%	28.0%	2.7
Played Games	23.7%	26.2%	2.5
Listened to music on mobile phone	16.5%	18.0%	1.5

comScore Reports April 2011 U.S. Mobile Subscriber Market Share - comScore, Inc

U.S. and European SMBs Buying Cloud Services

U.S. and Western European small and medium business technology buyers are allocating a larger proportion of their spending to cloud-based services, according to AMI-Partners research.

About 15 percent of U.S. SMBs were buying cloud services in 2010, but that will grow to 15 percent in 2015, AMI-Partners predicts.

At the same time, spending by Western Europe’s 11 million small and medium businesses on cloud services is set to grow at a CAGR of 12.6 percent between now and 2015. See http://www.ami-partners.com/index.php?target=news&mode=details&news_id=205.

U.S. SMB buyers are showing a strong inclination to purchase bundled cloud offerings as opposed to a stand-alone application, AMI-Partners says.

“A significant segment of U.S. SMBs prefer to deploy multiple cloud services in order to achieve flexibility, ease of IT management, and lower CAPEX,” says Donald Best of AMI.

The AMI research shows that 38 percent of U.S. SMBs have a strong preference for obtaining software as a service as part of a package or bundle, versus only 11 percent who are interested in a single service. One third of U.S. SMBs are interested in bundling multiple hosted infrastructure and remotely managed services offerings, versus nine percent of firms who only want a single service.

In Western Europe, adoption of cloud services (SaaS, IaaS and Managed Services) will double by 2015. A key contributor to the impetus of the Cloud is the proliferation of mobile devices, AMI-Partners says.

Nearly two thirds of Western European SMBs surveyed by AMI-Partners equip their employees with smart phones for business purposes, and tablet computers are also experiencing very rapid uptake, according to the study. Some eight percent of SMBs plan to purchase over 1.5 million tablets for their businesses in the next 12 months, the study also found.

“The cloud model’s flexible payment model (pay per user per month) makes access to technology affordable for resource-constrained small and medium businesses,” says Hugh Gibbs, VP Research, EMEA.. “But equally important is that the cloud model eases and speeds up implementation of technology."

About 70 percent of European small businesses have no dedicated IT staff resources.

AMI-Partners - News :: U.S. SMBs show strong preference for cloud ?bundling?

U.S. Small Businesses Will Spend $36 Billion on Marketing in 2012

Total marketing spending by U.S. small businesses (companies with fewer than 100 employees) will reach $36 billion in 2012, as an increased number of firms invests in advertising and promotional activities, according to Access Markets International Partners.

Spending is expected to be up four percent from 2010 levels.

AMI-Partners - News :: U.S. Small Businesses are projected to spend $36B on Marketing Activities in 2012