Every Leading Tablet Supplier Will Support Multi-Screen Formats

Leading tablet suppliers are going both smaller and bigger, depending on where they have been positioned in the tablet market, in large part because, as some have suggested, there is room in the market for devices of varying screen sizes.

Most 10-inch devices get used on couches, and many tablets essentially never "leave the house." In other words, a 10-inch tablet is an "untethered" device, not a mobile device. They aren't used when people are really "on the go." There are some exceptions.

Some people do carry their iPads "everywhere." Many business people substitute a tablet for a PC. But most people also carry a smart phone, which suffices for the quick Web and app experiences one typically wants to use when out and about.

Some might argue pricing differentiation is the reason for the "smaller device" demand. In that view, less-costly tablets allow more people to buy them. There certainly is logic to that point of view. It worked really well for Apple's line of iPods.

On the other hand, over time, it is likely that application differentiation also will occur. An iPod shuffle is better suited for listening to music than a full-size iPod, if you are running, for example. In that case, the application setting drives the purchase, not the cost of the device.

Something like that eventually will be true of the tablet market as well.

Most 10-inch devices get used on couches; they are not really "mobile" devices. A greater proportion of seven-inch devices likely are carried in purses, backpacks or pockets, and one might argue that is because a 10-inch device is too big to carry everywhere, or most places.

The other argument might be that, as more people carry a smart phone, there is not such a compelling reason to carry another web-capable device "on the go."

Maybe the "Mobile Payments" Hype is Misplaced; Maybe it is Really Mobile Commerce That is the "Revolution"

Making a mobile device act like a credit card or a wallet, as important as that might be, might not be the "big" change coming to retail commerce. A potential shift from cash or credit or debit card payments would be a key change for many in the ecosystem, to be sure.

But it just is possible that such a change winds up being only part of a broader transformation of retailing. Changing the way a customer pays for purchases is important, don't underestimate that. But it might be the visible, end user tip of a whole series of changes that might ripple through the backend of a retailer's business processes.

That is a lot less visible, and a lot less sexy, than using a mobile device to pay for a purchase. But it arguably is more important to the way retailers do business, retailing and commerce, than "mobile payments" are.

Not that any of the changes will be especially easy. Changing the way people "pay" will involve investments by retailers and, to some extent, users (they will need new devices), as well as a significant change in behavior.

On the other hand, the "smarter" and contextual value of transactions and behavior that could be gleaned from use of mobile devices could allow major changes to the rest of the retail operations, from marketing to inventory management to channel.

Zuckerberg Says "Mobile First" is Biggest Challenge

Facebook Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg says his hardest job right now is figuring out how to adapt the world’s largest social network to mobile devices, Bloomberg reports. Zuckerberg said the vast difference in user experience was the big challenge.

That, as much as anything, shows why "mobile first" is a strategic challenge faced by many application providers, and arguably is a challenge faced by many service providers as well, including those who provide access services.

Just how much global wireless revenue exceeds fixed network revenue varies from forecast to forecast, though all forecasts now show that wireless is a majority of revenue, on a global basis.

According to International Telecommunications Union estimates, mobile revenue is about 4.5 times bigger than fixed network revenue, and it has been that way for several years. In a literal sense, the global telecommunications business has become a largely mobile business, with some important fixed line applications and revenue sources, the ITU data suggests.

What Implications for Unified Communications if Today's Teens Don't Use Email, Twitter, IM?

To the extent that communication preferences tend to vary by generation and age, current communication preferences of teenagers might have implications for entirely "unrelated" business communications.

Consider what the implications might be for "unified communications," for example. The basic question might be the amount of "need" for unifying some communication modes that don't get used very much.

One study of U.S. teenager behavior suggests that a majority of them text and check Facebook everyday, but few, only about 11 percent, use Twitter daily.

At a high level, that only suggests that one app using point-to-multipoint or "multicast" communications is preferred, over another.

Clearly, multicast is an established way of sharing information, and getting information, whether Twitter is the preferred medium, or not.

You can draw your own conclusions about why Twitter has such low usage among teenagers.

Some might suggest the usage pattern has something to do with user interest in "news."

The theory is that teenagers actually are little interested in news, and Twitter is a medium ideally suited for news distribution.

In fact, that is the main reason many other users engage with Twitter.


The study also confirms what you already knew, namely that teenagers hate talking on the phone. 


Only four percent of them consider talking on the phone their "favorite" way of talking to friends.

They instead prefer commenting publicly on each other's Facebook profiles or texting.

Email and instant messaging also are not so favored. Oddly enough, that might have at least some implications for unified communications. 

Why unify all tools if email and instant messaging are not preferred or used? Granted, teenagers are, for the most part, not in the workforce as they will be in a decade. But it current habits do not change, they won't prefer to use IM and email when at work. They will text and post, the study might suggest. 

"Bundling" Occurs 2 Ways, at Wholesale and Retail Levels

Lots of consumers doubtlessly would prefer to buy their video content one program at a time, or one "channel" or "network" at a time. It isn't so clear, yet, that either video distributors or programming networks would prefer to sell that way.

In fact, traditionally, programming contracts have carried stipulations about how content could be packaged, and those terms generally prohibit a la carte sales of programs.

Programming networks, in fact, prefer to bundle networks when they sell to distributors, as it allows them to "force" a distributor to buy a new network, or a network with little viewership, because doing so is a requirement for getting rights to air a popular network.

Currently involved in a major contract dispute with Viacom, DirecTV is trying to remind its customers that it, DirecTV, disputes proposed Viacom pricing and bundling because prices would rise.

Email "Overload" Isn't a Myth, But Can't be Replaced, Either

"Email overload," like message overload of any sort, is a problem, but likely is not a truly "solvable" problem, either. Some would say other one-to-many messaging formats work better. If you are on the receiving end of all those messages, you might not agree, though. And that's probably the bigger problem: most people have to do more work, more collaboratively, with more people, much faster.

Email might not be the best medium for all types of messaging, as one-to-many often works better. But not all communications can be handled that way.

According to Dawna Ballard, associate professor in the Department of Communication Studies at UT Austin, “The feedback loops in organizational communication are becoming more compressed, leading to an increase in the quantity of work, which in turn requires faster communication with a greater number of people in the same time frame as before.”

Telefónica Digital Launch "Wanda" for Mobile Payments

Telefónica Digital and Visa Europe have launched what they call "a wide ranging strategic partnership" to drive new business opportunities within mobile commerce across Telefónica's European footprint.  


The deal includes cooperation in areas such as mobile wallet, contactless payments (NFC), acquirer services for mobile point of sale, and merchant offers.

The agreement builds on Telefónica and Visa Europe's existing relationship in markets such as the United Kingdom and Ireland, establishing Visa Europe as Telefónica's preferred partner for the issuance of branded payments cards and the development of related mobile payment services, Visa Europe says.

Separately, MasterCard and Telefónica have a joint venture, called “Wanda,”created to lead the development of mobile financial solutions in 12 markets in Latin America.

Wanda will provide mobile payment solutions to the over 87 million Movistar customers in the 12 markets where it will operate. These mobile payment services will be linked to a mobile wallet or prepaid account that will allow for money transfers, mobile airtime reload, bill payment and retail purchases, among other services.

Mobile commerce is a key focus area of Telefónica's new Digital unit which was formed to drive business opportunities within the digital space. Within Europe, Telefónica has launched a mobile wallet service to customers in the UK and is working to launch mobile wallets across its other operating businesses.


The deal highlights one key aspect of growth strategy for tier-one European mobile service providers. The problem is that, if you are an executive leading a firm earning a score or two billion dollars a year, and you think you might have to replace perhaps half of that revenue over perhaps a decade's time, you really need big new sources to offset the loss of revenue of that magnitude.


And, as it turns out, at the moment there are just a handful of revenue generators theoretically capable of generating billions of dollars worth of incremental revenue each year, for a single service provider. Those opportunities are said to include mobile banking operations, in a broad sense; mobile advertising and machine-to-machine mobile services. 


After that, the potential list of new businesses fall off fairly dramatically, in terms of revenue opportunity. 


That is why Telefónica Digital's joint venture with Visa Europe is so important.