London 2012 Summer Olympics Streaming Stats

After a slow start on Friday and Saturday, Sunday was the day that the streaming of Olympics video  In the United States accelerated, with several networks reaching 34 percent of overall bandwidth, while volume grew by more than 100 percent over the initial two days of events,  Procera reports.

How Big are Google Fiber Subsidies?

Google says it aims to make a profit offering Google Fiber services in Kansas City, Kan. and Kansas City, Mo., despite offering symmetrical 1-Gbps broadband access at $70 a month, and free access at 5 Mbps for a minimum of seven years (users of the free service pay the
$300 drop installation and connection fee). 


Some have wondered whether Google Fiber can achieve its goals, and if so, what the "secrets" of its cost savings might be. It appears there are some savings, though it is not by any means clear how important those savings might be. 


Google gets free central office space; free power; no charge for access to the City’s assets and infrastructure; no charge for rights of way, permits and inspection fees; settlement-free interconnections with anchor institutions; free marketing and direct mail, and even free office space for Google employees. 


Some might argue that Google has shifted much of the cost of its business to the Kansas City taxpayers, some would argue. Some of those savings mostly affect the one-time cost of network construction. 


The free facilities will save some money, and the ability to avoid paying for power likewise will help control operating costs. Google also will presumably gain some benefit on the marketing front. 


Still, none of those categories would seem to offer a decisive cost advantage. Also, Google Fiber is talking on some costs for which it will receive no revenue, especially the free 5 Mbps it plans to offer for seven years. 

O2 Mobile Network was Swamped by Tweets During Olympic Bike Race

O2's mobile network was to blame for a disruption of timing  reports in the Olynpic cycling race, after a surge in tweets from spectators' smart phones disrupted transmissions from cyclists reporting their positions on the course. 


"There was a capacity issue with Box Hill at the weekend," an O2 spokesperson said. 


The London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (LOCOG) was picking up race data from location-reporting transmitters on the bikes. This data was then supposed to be sent to the Olympic Broadcasting Service (OBS), using the O2 network. 


But congestion of the data network apparently prevented many of the reports from being sent. 

Growing Interest in Image Capture for Mobile Banking and Payments

Though much legitimate attention now is paid to communications methods such as near field communications or barcode scanning as a way of enabling mobile payments or other financial transactions, image capture might be getting much more attention for a wide range of banking and payment operations.

PayPal, for example, has acquired card.io, a San Francisco-based company that provides technology for developers to capture credit card information by using the camera on a smart phone.


And virtually all the leading U.S. banks now are using or adopting image capture technologies that allow a mobile phone camera to take a picture of a financial record as part of a transaction, says Jim DeBello, Mitek Systems CEO. Depositing a check remotely is one example of how image capture can be used to facilitate a transaction. 


For any consumer, the value is pretty simple and obvious: a check deposit can be made remotely, with no need to go to a physical location, stand in line and wait to make the deposit. 

Insurance companies are interested in image capture for similar reasons of convenience, but perhaps more for creating instant rate quotes for consumers who snap a picture of their driver's license and auto vehicle identification number, and get an automated rate quote, for example. 


Many retailers also may want to use image capture to allow users to make remote payments, as they now use electronic banking services. In other cases, a retailer might want to enable use of image capture for providing an instant quote to a potential customer.


A consumer might be able to take a picture of a current credit card statement and then have a potential new supplier make an automatic quote for switching the account. 


Some 60 million U.S. consumers have a checking account, but use no other banking services, says DeBello. That means it might be possible to encourage those users to adopt new services, or use new products, if doing so were as easy as taking a picture. 


Perhaps a prepaid mobile user could take a picture of an existing prepaid card and add more value to the account. 


For virtually any company that normally has to process large amounts of paper, the image capture capability could streamline transactions of many types. 

"Computers" Hardly Matter for Apple, Anymore

Apple doesn't call itself "Apple Computer" anymore for a very good reason. It makes its money, and profit margin, selling phones, as Wings of Reason illustrates. 

Is "Mobile First" Now Affecting Financial Returns?

Is "mobile first" now affecting application and device provider financial returns? You might argue so. 


 “What we’re seeing is that the non-mobile-centric Four Horsemen, Amazon and Facebook, aren’t seeing the same big profits as the two mobile-centric ones, Apple and Google," says  Yankee Group Research VP Carl Howe.  

Facebook’s overall revenue in the second quarter of 2012 hit U.S.$1.2 billion, up 32 percent and beating estimates, but the company posted a net loss of U.S.$157 million vs. income of U.S.$240 million posted a year earlier. 

Amazon, for its part, announced a 96 percent drop in net income, to U.S.$7 million, primarily due to investments in and subsidies for its best-selling Kindle Fire mobile device, 


But Google and Apple, which you might argue have head starts in terms of their "mobile first" strategies, are doing better, financially. 

In fairness, Amazon does, as a matter of strategy, emphasize big investments that provide strategic value, even if it hits quarterly earnings. You might argue that is simply what happened in the second quarter. 

Facebook frankly admits it has to create a mobile strategy, but has yet to do so in practice. 

Some People Just Don't Want to Buy Cable TV

Would lower prices-even prices 50 percent lower-convince you to buy a product you really did not want? That seems not to be the case for some 33 percent of survey respondents who have abandoned their video entertainment subscriptions, according to TechBargains. 


Prices arguably are getting to be a major irritant for most consumers who buy video entertainment services. But not for all. Some consumers simply do not see value in buying video entertainment services at all, no matter what the price.