17% of Global Workers Telecommute

About 17 percent of workers around the globe, particularly employees in the Middle East, Latin America and Asia, telecommute frequently, and nearly 10 percent work from home every day, according to a new Ipsos poll sponsored by Reuters. About one in five workers worldwide telecommute

Ipsos surveyed a total of 11,383 online connected employees from 24 countries. 

Telecommuting is primarily taking place in emerging markets: those working in the Middle East and Africa (27 percent), Latin America (25 percent) and Asia-Pacific (24 percent) are considerably more likely than those in North America (nine percent) and Europe (nine percent) to telecommute ‘on a frequent basis.’

More specifically, employees in of India (56 percent), Indonesia (34 percent), Mexico (30 percent), Argentina (29 percent), South Africa (28 percent) and Turkey (27 percent) are most likely to be pursuing this form of employment.

On the other end, those in Hungary (three percent), Germany (five percent), Sweden (sixc percent), France (seven percent), Italy (seven percent) and Canada (eight percent) are least like to telecommute ‘on a frequent basis.’

Those with a high level of education are most likely to telecommute on a frequent basis (25 percent) followed by those under the age of 35 (20 percent) and those with a high household income (20 percent). 

Are Android Users Subsidizing iPhone Users at Verizon Wireless?

Subsidies Verizon Wireless is paying to entice consumers to buy Apple iPhones might also be penalizing Android devices, some now argue. Though top Android devices cost as much as Apple iPhones, high-end Android devices often sell for prices $100 to $200 higher than the iPhone.

In other words, Verizon is trying to recoup some of its cash flow and operating margin by making Android handset users pay more for their devices than Apple iPhone users.

Verizon is betting that buyers who want the high-end Android phones will pay, so they're marking those models up.

John Hodulik, an analyst at UBS AG has estimated that the iPhone subsidy could be as high as $400 per iPhone customer. If 13 million of the devices get sold in a year that implies a which $5.2 billion hit to earnings. Some argue that devices should not be subsidized, since doing so means consumers have to sign contracts. But iPhone subsidies are quite a big expense for firms such as Verizon Wireless.

From at least one perspective, contracts and subsidies offer value for consumers and service providers, with users getting devices they want at $400 lower prices, while service providers can smooth out recurring service revenues and reduce customer churn.

Apple has set a standard entry price of its newest smartphones at $199, with higher end models available with more storage. This year however, Verizon has set a new contract price for its high end Android phones at $299.

The implications are clear enough. If you like high-end Android devices, do not buy them from Verizon.

Both the Motorola Droid RAZR and the just released Google-branded Samsung Galaxy Nexus are $299 with a two year Verizon contract, and both are listed as costing $649 without a contract.

In contrast, Apple's 16GB iPhone 4S is offered for only $199, even though it costs the same $649 without a contact. Apple is getting a $450 subsidy, compared to just $350 for Android licensees Motorola and Samsung.

Verizon's $199 Android phones, including the Samsung Droid Charge, Motorola Droid 3 and Droid Bionic, cost $499, $459 and $589 respectively without a contract, making their subsidies worth just $300 to $390, or $150 to $60 lower than Apple's, one might note.  

The closest Verizon's phones currently come to an iPhone subsidy appears to be the HTC Thunderbolt, which is being offered for $149, a $420 subsidy compared to its $569 full retail price. However, this involves a special promotional discount of $100, making the "sale" price of Android models still higher than regular price of any of Verizon's iPhones. Verizon Wireless can do what it wants, of course. But consumers should also do what they want.

75% of Enterprises Use Social Media for Customer Service

Businesses use social media for a variety of reasons. Some 96 percent of respondents told Booz  & Company that they are using social media for “advertising and promotions.” 


Some 88 percent use social media for public relations.  Some 75 percent use social media for  customer service.  Social value in business 

Tablet, E-Reader Ownership Doubles in One Month: Unprecedented

The share of adults in the United States who own a tablet of some sort nearly doubled from 10 percent to 19 percent between mid-December 2011 and early January 2012.

The ownership of e-readers also surged from 10 percent to 19 percent over the same time period. Tablet ownership doubled in two months

That is an unprecedented growth rate for any consumer electronics device. Tablet ownership also had been on a strong adoption path earlier in 2011 as well, but doubling in 30 days from a base of 10 percent seems never to have occurred before.

To be sure, 10 percent adoption historically has been an inflection point: it is the point in an adoption process that represents critical mass, after which adoption accelerates.

You'll have to click on this chart to view it in more detail, but it is one of the most useful bits of historical evidence you can use to estimate how long it might take an application, service or device to reach 10 percent penetration of U.S. households, for example.

There are some caveats. Not every innovation succeeds. This chart only shows you what happened with the most-popular consumer electronics services and products.

The reason for sharing the chart is that a panel I was recently on was asked how long it might take for near field communications technology to be adopted by a significant number of U.S. consumers.

My response, based on past work studying consumer electronics adoption rates, was that it can take quite a significant amount of time, between three and 10 years, to reach the crucial 10-percent-of-homes threshold, which seems to be the point at which any innovation really begins to accelerate, in terms of adoption.  Consumer adoption patterns

Also, the more complicated the ecosystem, the longer it will take. Apple iPhones and iPads did not take long to reach the 10-percent penetration mark, because they operate in a fully-developed ecosystem where all that is required is purchase of a product, to obtain the value.

Telco Video Subscribers Approaching 100 Million

Collectively, global telcos had a total of 94 million video entertainment subscribers at the end of the third quarter of 2011, giving them a 12 percent share of the video market. Given current growth rates the subscriber total will have passed 100 million at the end of 2011.


Of course, global statistics can obscure as much as they reveal. In the U.S. market, for example, neither AT&T nor Verizon competes on a national basis, and each is a relatively modest competitor. 


Comcast alone has 22.4 million subs, while DirecTV has 19.8 million. Dish Network has 13.9 million subscribers and Time Warner Cable has 12 million. 


AT&T has 3.6 million video subscribers, while Verizon Communications has about four million. Granted, Verizon ranks about seventh in size, while AT&T ranks eighth, but Comcast is about 5.5 times bigger than either AT&T or Verizon. 


That is not to discount the importance of video services for telcos, either in terms of gross revenue or as a key component of the triple play that now is a service provider mainstay. But all fixed line services collectively are unable to drive overall growth at either AT&T or Verizon. That role exclusively is played by mobile services. 

Telco Pay-TV Subscribers Approaching 100 Million

Rank	MSO	BasicVideoSubscribers
1	Comcast Corporation	22,360,000
2	DirecTV	19,760,000
3	Dish Network Corporation	13,945,000
4	Time Warner Cable, Inc.	12,109,000
5	Cox Communications, Inc.1	4,789,000
6	Charter Communications, Inc.	4,371,000
7	Verizon Communications, Inc.	3,979,000
8	AT&T, Inc.	3,583,000
9	Cablevision Systems Corporation	3,264,000
10	Bright House Networks LLC1	2,109,000
11	Suddenlink Communications1	1,268,000
12	Mediacom Communications Corporation	1,100,000
13	Insight Communications Company, Inc.	670,000
14	CableOne, Inc.	628,000
15	WideOpenWest Networks, LLC1	432,000
16	RCN Corp.1	335,000
17	Atlantic Broadband Group, LLC	258,000
17	Knology Holdings	258,000
19	Armstrong Cable Services	242,000
20	Service Electric Cable TV Incorporated1	217,000
21	Midcontinent Communications	204,000
22	MetroCast Cablevision	182,000
23	Blue Ridge Communications1	171,000
24	General Communications	146,000
25	NewWave Communications	141,000

Earned Social Media Works, Study Finds

What is the value of a "fan?" In other words, can we quantify the business value of social supporters of brands?


A study of Christmas and holiday promotions by Amazon, Best Buy, Target and Walmart suggests that social engagement can drive better results, at least as quantified by visits to retailer online sites.


The data suggets that earned social media impressions can stack up favorably against paid ads for brands that are effective with their social efforts, at least i terms of website visits. 


Using an estimated value for earned impressions of $3.55 cost per thousand, Walmart earned $417,000 worth of impressions while Best Buy earned $86,000 in impressions.


When looking at the lift received from promotions that started in November 2011, all four brands received a lift of 2.2 times or higher. Target received the highest lift between October and the end of November at 3.5 times.


For most retailers, a significantly higher percentage of fans and friends of fans visited the retailer’s website, as compared to the rest of the Internet. About 64 percent of Amazon’s fans visited Amazon.com, compared to 27 percent of the total Internet. 


For Best Buy, 18 percent of fans and 13 percent of friends of fans went to BestBuy.com, compared to eight percent of the total Internet. Earned social media:

Amazon Kindle Fire Content Sales Stronger than Expected?

RBC Capital analyst Ross Sandler polled 216 Kindle Fire owners and concluded that Kindle Fire tablets are making Amazon more money than was originally expected. Sandler originally had estimated that each Kindle Fire unit would generate about $136 in content purchases over the useful life of the device. Content purchases on Kindle Fire

But Sandler’s most-recent survey of 216 Kindle Fire owners suggests content revenue might be higher than that.

The survey found that roughly 80 percent of users already have purchased ebooks, with 58 percent of respondents buying more than three e-books within the first two months of owning the tablet.

Averaged out, that’s five e-books per quarter, which nets Amazon $15 per Fire owner per quarter, assuming an average selling price of $10 for ebooks. That further implies revenue from e-books of about $60 a year.

About 41 percent of Fire owners also say they have bought at least three apps. This will put another $9 per Fire owner per quarter into Amazon’s coffers, or $36 a year of net revenue (after splitting gross revenue with content owners).

That implies possible gross sales of about $30 a quarter worth of apps, assuming Amazon’s share of revenue is 30 percent.

Those figures suggest annual Kindle Fire revenue of about $96 a year. Over three years, that suggests $288 of revenue for Amazon, even if users do not buy any video or audio products, which seems unlikely.