Google Mobile Playbook

Predictably, the Google Mobile Playbook, which provides advice for businesses about how to go about creating and using mobile webistes, is optimized for viewing on a tablet. Too clever by about half. Some applications naturally are optimized for mobile use, others for content creation, others for consumption mostly in a relaxed setting. 


The key bits of advice:

• Define your value proposition by determining what your consumer wants to do with your business in mobile. Benchmark against others in your industry for ideas.
• Build a mobile website. Once you have a mobile website, check the
  stats and optimize based on consumer usage.
• Build an app for a subset of your audience after your mobile site
  strategy is in place. Don’t forget to promote your app.
• Assign a Mobile Champion in your company and empower them with a cross-functional task force.
• Set up a meeting with your agencies about what’s working and what’s not
  for your brand on mobile and tablets.
• Search for your brand in mobile, as a consumer would. Take 5 minutes
  and do this today. What’s working? What’s not?
• Separate mobile-specific search campaigns from desktop search campaigns so you can test, measure and develop messaging specific for mobile.
• Run rich media HTML5 ads to extend your branding message to reach the mobile audience.
• Assign everyone in your marketing org the action item of reviewing their programs through a mobile lens.
• Check out your tablet consumer’s experience with your brand. Take 5 minutes today and search for your brand on a tablet as a consumer would. What’s working? What’s not? Maximize the tablet environment with rich media creative.

Half of all March 2012 Bandwidth Consumed was Video

Half of all Internet bandwidth usage now is video.  You probably would have guessed that. 

Apple iPhone Might Explain AT&T, Verizon, Sprint Net Additions, Losses

You might say the Apple iPhone was the story in the first quarter of 2012, in terms of how AT&T, Verizon and Sprint fared in terms of net new additions, either positive or negative.

Sprint activated more than 1.5 million iPhones in the first quarter of 2012, about 44 percent of those representing new customers. Since Sprint added about 263,000 net additions, the role of the Apple iPhone is obvious.

In its first quarter of 2012, AT&T  added 187,000 new two-year contract customers, 180,000 of those involved tablets such as the iPad, suggesting an anemic 7,000 net phone additions to a contract user base of nearly 70  million.  AT&T reported 4.3 million iPhone activations, a 43 percent drop from the fourth quarter.

Still, the iPhone still accounted for about 78 percent  of the smart phones that AT&T sold for the quarter.

Verizon activated 3.2 million iPhones during the first quarter, down from 4.3 million iPhones in the previous quarter, which was part of Apple's record-setting launch quarter for the iPhone 4S.

Overall, Verizon reported sales of 6.3 million smartphones during the first quarter, meaning that the iPhone continues to represent just over half of the carrier's smart phone business.

Why Shared or "Family" Data Plans Make Sense

Shared data plans are coming. The leading service providers in the U.S. market have been talking about it for years.  And there are good reasons for doing so.


It wouldn't be the first time the industry has moved to family plans. It did so with voice and text messaging, for example. If you understand why service providers did that, you will understand why they will move to similar policies for mobile data.


The family plan was developed to solve one specific problem. Most adults already were buying mobile phone service, which left only one potential user segment that had not yet adopted, and could drive unit growth. That segment was children of the adult users.


Family plans made it possible for parents to equip their children with mobile devices at prices the adults could justify. And that was the primary way mobile service providers could drive adoption of additional units, when the adult user market was approaching saturation. There also were churn benefits. 


With most service providers already moving to mandatory mobile data plans for smart phones, one way to provide clear incentives for faster adoption is to reduce the incremental cost of adding additional smart phones to accounts where there are significant feature phones in use. 


With average revenue per user going down, the best way to increase revenue is to get more devices on the network, including smart phones and tablets equipped with mobile broadband capability. 


Family data plans will mean that the incremental cost of adding each additional device will be lower than at present. 

Google Drive Could Be Huge for Google, in the Enterprise

Google Drive obviously will be valuable to consumers who want to store and share content that anybody can view and annotate from any device with Internet access and a web browser. But there is at least some thinking that it could wind up being a useful enterprise tool as well, especially for collaboration.


Lots of what organizations do these days is share information, with internal and external audiences. Google Drive seems to have superior search capabilities (no surprise there). 


Google Drive, in one sense, is part of the evolution of application and device usage in the direction of content consumption. Google Drive might just turn out to be a product with value both for consumers and enterprises and mid-sized or smaller businesses. 

Google Drive is Launched: 5 Gbytes of Storage Free

Goolge has launched Google Drive, a consumer cloud storage service. 


Google Docs is built right into Google Drive, so users can work with others in real time on documents, spreadsheets and presentations. 


Once content is shared with others, users can add and reply to comments on anything (PDF, image, video) and receive notifications when other people comment on shared items.


If you have used cloud storage services before, you know the big advantage is that all the stored items are available from any device with Internet access and web browser capability.


Users can install Drive on a Mac or PC and can download the Drive app to an Android phone or tablet. Google also is working hard on a Drive app for Apple iOS devices.


All stored content can be searched by keyword and filtered by file type, owner and more.


The first 5 Gbytes of storage are free. Users can add additional storage as well. You can choose to upgrade to 25GB for $2.49/month, 100GB for $4.99/month or even 1TB for $49.99/month. When you upgrade to a paid account, your Gmail account storage will also expand to 25GB.



Drive is built to work seamlessly with your overall Google experience. You can attach photos from Drive to posts in Google+, and soon you’ll be able to attach stuff from Drive directly to emails in Gmail. Drive is also an open platform, so we’re working with many third-party developers so you can do things like send faxes, edit videos andcreate website mockups directly from Drive. To install these apps, visit the Chrome Web Store—and look out for even more useful apps in the future.

Galaxy Nexus now on sale in Google Play, Unlocked, for Use on T-Mobile USA or AT&T Networks

Google has started selling unlocked Galaxy Nexus (for HSPA networks ) from a new "Devices" section in the Google Play web store, allowing users to take advantage of Google Wallet, and the device, on either T-Mobile USA or AT&T networks, Google says. 


First available in the United States, Galaxy Nexus costs $399 and is sold without a carrier commitment or contract. You can use it on the GSM network of your choice, including T-Mobile and AT&T. It also comes pre-installed with the Google Wallet app which lets you easily make purchases and redeem offers with a tap of your phone. Best of all, we'll give you a $10 credit to get you started with your new mobile wallet.


Galaxy Nexus by Samsung runs the latest Android software, Ice Cream Sandwich, with Google mobile services, Google Play and new features like Android Beam and Google mobile hangouts. It also offers a 4.65” HD Super AMOLED display.