56% of U.K. Mobile Subscribers Use Text Messaging Daily, 47% Use Voice Daily

The findings won't surprise you but European mobile users now spend more time texting than using voice; and much more time texting, using multimedia messaging, instant messaging and email than they do voice, the Yankee Group says.

Netflx Misses On Revenue And Subscribers

Netflix posted second quarter 2011 earnings that beat expectations, but on light revenue and middling subscriber numbers.

U.S. subscribers came in at 24.6 million, and global numbers were at 25.6 million, about in line with expectations.
Subscribers on hybrid plans -- DVD and streaming -- declined a little bit during the quarter, possibly because Netflix raised prices.

Netflx Misses On Revenue And Subscribers

It's Hard to Avoid Becoming an End-to-End Service Provider

It may not always seem like it, but wherever an enterprise information technology staff is responsible for providing applications or communications to end-users, it takes on the mantle of being a service provider.

If, or more normally when, a user calls to report a problem with the app that they use, they’re not calling to report a congested network or server with memory exhaustion or any of the other components that make up the delivery chain, what they are concerned about is the experience they receive at the point of delivery. This makes IT responsible for delivering an end-to-end service, even when there are no agreed service levels.

As more services move to cloud-based mechanisms, it does not take much understanding or imagination to assume similar pressures will arise even for consumer services. It is hard to imagine an application provider or service provider selling a gaming, video or other service and not being called upon to provide some level of service assurance beyond "best effort."

Of course, a strict network neutrality regime that prohibits anything but "best effort" service will be a key problem, in that regard.

End-to-end service assurance

The Top 25 "Most Social" U.S. Cities

Some of the cities where social applications are most often used are probably obvious. But lots of communities are not.

http://www.businessinsider.com/here-are-americas-25-most-social-cities-2011-7?op=1

U.S. Debt Downgrade Seems Inevitable at This Point

All three major credit-rating firms have threatened to lower their top triple-A rating on U.S. debt if the White House and Congress don't come to an agreement to raise the debt ceiling. We now have a total of eight days to get legislation written and passed, and in any case, the rating agencies will require both spending cuts that seem unreachable, as well as some reasonable assurance that actual will to get spending under control exists.

At the moment, neither of those requirements seems to exist. Get ready: U.S. debt is about to get a historic downgrade.

Why Tablet Commerce May Soon Trump Mobile Commerce

Mobile commerce and mobile app use now has become a sort of bifurcated phenomenon. Traditionally, "mobile" tended to refer to use of mobile phones to support some category of usage. These days, "mobile" apps and usage refer both to mobile "small screen" devices and "larger screen" tablets, plus notebook and other "large screens" used in an tether-less context.

And there now is some thinking that widespread use of tablet devices could change user behavior in the e-commerce area. Ownership of tablet devices in the U.S. market, for example, is estimated by Forrester Research to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 51 percent from 2010 to 2015. So why might that matter?

Arguably most e-commerce takes place on PC type screens, though more commerce, especially digital content sales, happens on mobile phones and smaller screen devices such as iPods. So the obvious question is how behavior could change as more users have tablet-sized screens with them in a mobile and untethered context. Inside the home or office, it is likely that more e-commerce will start to occur on tablets simply because those are the devices people carry with them.

Outside the home or office, there might be greater e-commerce activity, though one suspects much of that activity will consist of digital goods purchases, ranging from books to music to games to digital products used in the context of gaming.

Forrester expects that as tablet device ownership and usage grows, consumers will also adopt tablet commerce rapidly, as this simple and portable device both expands the opportunities that consumers have to shop and has the potential to make the experience of shopping more engaging.

Furthermore, the most-innovative web retailers will also accelerate the tablet commerce trend by using tablets to supplement existing sales tools (e.g., kiosks, POS devices, even sales associates) in stores.

Why Tablet Commerce May Soon Trump Mobile Commerce

Google+ "Real Names" and Identities is an Issue for Some

Google has come under some criticism by users for not allowing pseudonyms of various types, such as names using odd characters or fake names. Google VP Vic Gundotra acknowledges the issue, but says the issue is not "use of pseudonyms.

He says, instead, it is about having common names and removing people who spell their names in weird ways, like using upside-down characters, or who are using obviously fake names, like 'god' or worse. That might be a design philosophy aligned with Google+ efforts to connect real people in natural ways. That task arguably is harder, or subject to "gaming," if "non-real" or "non-natural" names are used.

Gundotra says Google has made some mistakes, in that regard, while doing the first pass at Google+ and that they are learning. The issue is different from the "anonymous" poster or anonymous identity considerations that in some cases can be important.

Robert Scoble - Google+