In U.S., New Smart Phone Buyers Increasingly Choose Android

Some 43 percent of all U.S. smart phone owners have an Android device. But if you ask only those who got a new smartphone in the past three months what kind of phone they chose, more than half (56 percent) told Nielsen they picked an Android device.

The preferences of these so-called “recent acquirers” are important as they are often a leading indicator of where the market is going.

Apple iOS remains popular in second place with 28 percent of all smartphone users, and the same percentage among those who recently got a new device.

In U.S. Market, New Smartphone Buyers Choose Android

Broadband Speeds Around the World

The latest data from Pando Networks suggests the "average" U.S. broadband speed, as experienced by  consumers, is only about 616 kbps. That's the actual "average" of user-experienced throughput, not headline speeds, and does vary significantly from location to location. Separate test by Ookla cited by the Federal Communications Commission show widely varying speeds in different cities, but running generally from 8 Mbps to 12 Mbps in 2010. Ookla tests

Recall the Technology Futures forecast that 40 percent of U.S. households would be buying services of about 6 Mbps, with 20 percent buying 24 Mbps and 20 percent buying services of about 1.5 Mbps. Average them all together and you wind up somewhere between 6 Mbps and 12 Mbps.

Pando Networks broadband speed survey

 

T-Mobile USA says 75 percent of 2011 were Smart Phones, 90% were Androids

T-Mobile's CMO Cole Brodman says over 75 percent of his company's phones sold in 2011 were smart phones, with 90 percent of those powered by Google's Android.

90 percent of T-Mobile USA 2011 smart phone sales were Android

Alcatel Lucent Talks About Mobile and its Business

Not every supplier of network infrastructure has to have a "mobile" orientation or solutions. To the extent that all traffic, no matter how the access is handled, has to flow quickly back into the network backbone, core infrastructure is relatively unaffected by the growing importance of mobile services.

But many firms have to start having such answers, especially when they plan in the access network. Here's some of what Alcatel-Lucent says.

Telstra LTE goes national in Australia, Articles | Mobile Business Briefing

Australian operator Telstra has launched the country’s first 4G Long Term Evolution networks in more than 30 regional and metropolitan areas.

The carrier said users in areas covered by the network can expect download speeds ranging between 2 Mbps and 40 Mbps, depending on distance from base stations and local conditions. This is 10 times faster than speeds claimed by Australian operators for 3G, according to Telstra.

Upload speeds should range between 1 Mbps and 10 Mbps, a three-fold speed increase compared to existing mobile broadband.

Some are going to argue that the LTE network will displace the need for optical fixed line connections. Undoubtedly, for some users this will be the case. There will be locations where a high-speed optical connection is not available. There will be some users so mobile that LTE will work. As video and other bandwidth-intensive applications become more popular, though, mobile networks will show their weaknesses, compared to fixed networks.

But there is one point we also should note. Telstra was quite intent on holding out for the right to light up its 4G network in return for agreeing to divest its fixed network. Simply, Telstra has bet its future on wireless, not fixed line services.

Telstra LTE goes national in Australia

Dish Network in Line to Get Hulu?

Hulu has not announced any decision on whether it will sell, or to whom it might sell. There are reports Dish Network was the highest bidder, coming in around $1.9 billion, topping both Amazon and Yahoo. Google bid much more, something in the range of $4 billion, but Google wanted special conditions. Google wanted more content for a longer period of time, and perhaps other concessions as well. Highest Bid For Hulu

But the bidders all figured out pretty quickly that the TV companies who own Hulu now want to phase out free ad-supported content completely. So as soon as the current set of Hulu contracts expire in a couple of years, it would be back to the negotiating table. In other words, aside from buying the brand, and some back office technology, the new owners would not be acquiring the existing set of content offerings, which is the whole point.

In April 2011 Jason Kilar, Hulu CEO noted that the company was on pace to approach half a billion dollars in revenue in 2011. In the first quarter, Hulu revenue grew approximately 90 percent over the first quarter of 2010. (Hulu did $263 million in revenue for all of 2010).

The content community will earn approximately $300 million through Hulu over the course of 2011. Hulu served approximately 50 percent more advertisers in the first quarter of 2011 than in the first quarter of 2010. Hulu revenue growth

Any new buyer would have to commit additional funds to get continued access to the content underlying that growth, though. 

Is Reed Hastings a Highly Unusual Business Leader?

Former Netflix co-founder says Reed Hastings is an extraordinarily bold leader, willing to risk the ire of millions of his customers to position the company for its future business, not its current business, says Marc Randolph, co-founder of Netflix. Essentially, the argument is that Hastings will once again sacrifice most of the company's current business to set the foundation for the next business.

What is unusual is the willingness to risk damage to the great bulk of its current revenue.

Randolph says the company had to make a similar decision earlier in the company's history, shutting down the DVD sale business at a time when it provided 95 percent of total revenue, to focus on the longer-term opportunity, which was rental, not sale.

"I would guess that 95 percent of our revenues were coming from the sales of DVDs," Randolph says. "Although this did pay some bills, it was obvious to us that this was not a sustainable business."

"It was inevitable that at some point in the near future we would have Amazon entering the DVD business," he said. "And then Walmart, all of which would have crushed our margins and slowly but surely driven us out of business."

Did Netflix screw up? I don’t think so.