Verizon to dominate Q2 wireless growth

Verizon Wireless is expected to far outstrip its biggest rivals AT&T Inc and Sprint Nextel in subscriber growth for its first full quarter selling the Apple Inc iPhone. That's the other contributing element related to Apple's record third quarter results.

Verizon Wireless is expected to add about 930,000 net subscribers in its second-quarter results to be issued July 22, according to the average of estimates from seven analysts contacted by Reuters.

Verizon to dominate Q2 wireless growth

Apple Posts Record Results

Apple posted record quarterly revenue of $28.57 billion in its fiscal 2011 third quarter ended June 25, 2011. These results compare to revenue of $15.70 billion in the year-ago quarter. Gross margin was 41.7 percent compared to 39.1 percent in the year-ago quarter. International sales accounted for 62 percent of the quarter’s revenue. Apple Reports Third Quarter Results 

The company sold 20.34 million iPhones in the quarter, representing 142 percent unit growth over the year-ago quarter. Apple also sold 9.25 million iPads during the quarter, a 183 percent unit increase over the year-ago quarter. The Company sold 3.95 million Macs during the quarter, a 14 percent unit increase over the year-ago quarter.

Apple sold 7.54 million iPods, a 20 percent unit decline from the year-ago quarter.

Just a couple of quick observations: iPad now is the second biggest revenue contributor for Apple, and Apple continues to show it is a "mobile device" company. Read more here.

With Cable Seemingly Winning the Consumer Market, How Much More Investment Should Telcos Make in Fixed Infrastructure?

The current discussion within the European Community about the investment impact of “net neutrality” rules is not a new debate. In the wake of the passage of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, dominant U.S. fixed-line providers argued, successfully, that mandatory wholesale rules, providing deeply-discounted rates for wholesale customers, would severely discourage investment in optical facilities. And, in fact, Verizon's FiOS effort did not get into high gear until after the Federal Communications Commission approved such rules.

These days, the EC argument revolves to a great extent around the impact “network neutrality” rules could have on incentives for broadband investment. Specifically, operators argue that restriction of services to “best effort only,” without the ability to create differentiated service plans involving quality of service measures, will be a significant disincentive to the high rates of investment EC officials would prefer to see.

Some will say the carriers are bluffing about requiring some path to revenue when investing in 100-Mbps or 1-Gbps access facilities. Some of us would disagree. The alternative is to invest in mobile facilities and applications instead. In fact, some recent global estimates of market share suggest telcos globally are losing the consumer market share battle to cable companies. In fact, looking just at triple-play accounts, it appears cable operators have roughly 66 percent market share. In other words, telcos arguably are losing the market share battle in the consumer market. http://www.digitaltvresearch.com/ugc/press/14.pdf

EC 'Broadband Investment Implications' Discussion is Not New

Are You Embracing the 5C's? | ClickZ

Google's "Zero Moment of Truth" campaign illustrates its thinking about real-time marketing, which includes the ability to engage with consumers wherever, whenever, and on whatever device they are using.

Are You Embracing the 5C's?

Cable Will Lead Triple-Play Market Globally

More than a quarter of the world’s TV households will subscribe to triple-play services (TV, broadband and telephony) by 2016, according to Digital TV Research. The firm estimates triple-play penetration was only about seven percent of households at the end of 2010.

What will stand out is the dominance cable operators hold in triple-play subscriptions.

Read more here.

Nothing Beats Experience

Nothing replaces experience, when considering how much money, time and effort to spend on search engine optimization techniques. And nothing is easier than following expert advice, unless the advice is wrong. Watch the video.

The God Complex in SEO

Google's Eric Schmidt Slams Apple Patent Infringement Lawsuits

"The big news in the past year has been the explosion of Google Android handsets and this means our competitors are responding," says Google executive chairman Eric Schmidt. 'Because they (Apple) are not responding with innovation, they're responding with lawsuits."

"We have not done anything wrong and these lawsuits are just inspired by our success," says Schmidt.

The comments follow the initial finding by the U.S. International Trade Commission that HTC infringed two of Apple's phone patents. The full ITC has not made a ruling on the matter, though, and HTC certainly will appeal.

If upheld, the decision could force other Android phone makers to pay significant royalties to their main competitor, or, worst case, prevent sales of Android devices in the U.S. market.

Whatever else one might think, Google's culture, which emphasizes providing the "best" solution in any category, would naturally lead to such thinking. Google's leaders tend to think they shouldn't win a market unless they do indeed have the best solution. So such lawsuits would tend to be seen as an attempt by a "not as good solution" to use other methods to slow down the superior solution's acceptance.

One doesn't have to agree that Android is, in fact, the best solution to understand the sentiment.

Google's Eric Schmidt slams Apple