HP Touchpad a Deal at $99?

Lots of people obviously thought the HP TouchPad was a steal at $99. Is it?

AT&T Lawsuit Might Have Broader Implications

The lawsuit seeking to block AT&T’s takeover of T-Mobile USA shows a more aggressive antitrust stance by the U.S. Justice Department that limits prospects for other big telecommunications deals, antitrust analysts said.

Translation: It might not be possible for Sprint to merge with T-Mobile USA, or Verizon Wireless to buy Sprint, either.

That doesn't mean, in hindsight, that such a policy is always an optimal approach long-term. Think back to June 2000, when WorldCom wanted to acquire Sprint, a $152 billion deal. That combination of two long-distance concerns was seen to have undesirable anti-competitive concerns.

WorldCom went bankrupt and Sprint no longer is primarily a long-distance company. Would that merger have done much other than delay WorldCom's collapse? Probably not.

The point is that markets change. Long distance has for all intents and purposes disappeared as a discrete business for most providers of communications services, with the exception of small specialists such as Skype, which have huge traffic, but relatively small revenue. At least for the moment, though, some observers think the Department of Justice objection might make any significant mergers among the biggest four providers impossible.

Henry Levine, a partner at Washington-based law firm Levine, Blaszak, Block & Boothby LLP, which represents large companies in telecommunications cases.

“It’s a line in the sand,” he said. The suit signals “you cannot buy one of the major players in the market,” he said. A merger between number three wireless carrier and number-four T-Mobile might raise similar competition concerns, Levine said.

AT&T Lawsuit Marks U.S. ‘Line in the Sand’ for Telecoms - Bloomberg:

Mobile Search is Highly Contextual

Mobile devices are viewed, rightly, as an unusually important platform for targeted information because the use of mobiles is highly contextual, not just personalized. Mobile searches also are highly social, with results often being shared with others.

People often search for local information (a restaurant, store, gas station, or attraction) from their mobile device, research conducted by Microsoft shows. In a survey of 929 mobile searchers at a large software company, local searches tend to be highly contextual, influenced by geographic features, temporal aspects, and the searcher’s social context.

While location was reported to be very important, respondents looked for information about places close to their current location about 40 percent of the time. Users often were in transit at the time of a search 68 percent of our searchers) and wanted information related to their destination (27 percent of searchers); en route to their destination (12 percent) or near their destination (12 percent).

Additionally, 63 percent of participants’ mobile local searches took place within a social context and were discussed with someone else.

Mobile Search is Highly Contextual

Mobile and Video Emerge As Significant Online Ad Platforms in the U.K.

Mobile and video advertising is gaining traction, reaching a sizeable percentage of the total U.K. audience, comScore says. In June 2011, 63.1 percent of online video viewers in the United Kingdom were exposed to video ads. Among the total number of smartphone users in the same time period, 25 percent recalled seeing an ad while browsing the Internet or using an application on their devices. In comparison, 95 percent of fixed line Internet users were exposed to online display advertising.

Mobile and Video Emerge As Significant Online Ad Platforms in the UK

Online Advertising Reach in the United Kingdom March 2011 vs June 2011 Total Audience* - Home & Work Locations Source: comScore Ad Metrix**, Video Metrix** and MobiLens***
	Online Ad Audience
	Mar-11		Jun-11		% Change in Unique Audience
	Unique Audience (000)	% Reach	Unique Audience (000)	% Reach
Exposed
Fixed Line Internet Audience: Exposed to Display Ads	39,683	96.1%	40,020	95.3%	0.8%
Online Video Audience: Exposed to Video Ads	18,446	54.9%	21,233	63.1%	15.1%
Recalled
Smartphone Audience: Recall Seeing Web/App Ads	4,240	21.4%	5,415	25.4%	27.7%

Mobile App Consumption Now Exceeds Desktop and Mobile Web Consumption

Daily time spent by users with mobile apps now surpasses desktop and mobile web consumption, Flurry has reported. Mobile app use rivals desktop

Looking at mobile Web usage, users spend more than 2.5 hours a day interacting with Web content on their mobile devices.

When will mobile usage exceed desktop?

Peak mobile engagement with Web resources seems to mirror that of desktop PCs, namely that usage peaks in the early evening.

Like PC usage, which occurs nearly all hours when people are awake, mobile Web usage happens all day long. Usage pattern similar on desk, mobile

Odds of AT&T Getting Deal Approval Drop to 40%

Barclays Capital now says the odds of a successful AT&T acquisition of T-Mobile USA at about 40 percent, down from 75 percent.


Only a couple of days before the Department of Justice lawsuit opposing the deal, analyst sentiment that the AT&T purchase of T-Mobile USA will win regulatory clearance had dropped, at least among 32 analysts polled by Stifel Nicolaus & Co. analysts Rebecca Arbogast and David Kaut.

The observers rated their expectation for approval on a scale of 0-to-100 percent, and the average of their answers fell to 50 percent in August from 55 percent in July, the analysts said. Odds drop

Odds of deal approval drop to 40% from 75%

Mobile and Social Big in U.K., What Does it Mean?

New data from the U.K.'s Office of National Statistics illustrates widespread mobile usage, broadband mobile access, use of social networks and shopping activity. None of that is surprising. The more interesting question is what it ultimately will mean for new applications and businesses that assume the existence of such infrastructure, much as virtually all businesses assume the existence of electricity, running water, roads, postal service and air travel.

Among other things, one might presume that ubiquitous use of mobile devices, social networks, mobile broadband and comfort with shopping from a mobile will be key factors for emerging mobile payments and wallet ventures, not to mention other forms of mobile commerce, advertising and promotion.

Some 91 percent of young adults connect to social networking sites, and nearly half of all Web users accessing the Internet via their mobile phone. U.K. mobile social networking, Web use

About 45 percent of Internet users accessed the Internet via a mobile phone in 2011. You can see the full report here

In 2011, 32 million people (66 per cent of all adults) purchased goods or services over the Internet as well, an increase from 62 per cent in 2010.

Clothes and sporting goods were the most popular online purchase in 2011, with 46 per cent of Internet
users buying these items.

Those aged 65 and over were the only age group not to report clothes and sporting goods as the most
popular purchase. Instead, 29 per cent of Internet users in this age group favoured the online
purchase of "other travel arrangements" which includes flights, car rental and other transport tickets.

Access to the Web while on the move is a growing trend, with 4.9 million people connecting from wireless hotspots in 2011, double the numbers from 2010.

Social networking, likewise, is becoming more popular, with 57% of adult Internet users using online social networks in 2011, up from 43% in 2010.

Young consumers are leading the trend, with 71% of 16-24 year olds using their phone to access the Web, and an overwhelming 91% now using social networking sites.

Mobile and social to emerge as power channels for banking