A Different Take on "3 Screens"

A decade ago, the phrase "three screens" normally referred to movie theater screens, TVs and PCs, and was an attempt to capture the importance of the PC as a display device for entertainment video. 

That is not untrue, but these days the notion of three screens has other implications. Looking only at the way people consume Internet news, "three screens" now refers to the process whereby tablets, PCs and smart phones all are widely used access methods. 

Perhaps the biggest behavioral change is the shift to tablet-based consumption, which not tracks phone consumption quite closely. Sample data from the U.K. market for July 2012 suggests that tablets and phones are the most-used devices during "non-working" hours, while PC access is the most used method during workday periods. 

Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer Wants Focus on "Users"

At some level, you wonder whether it could really be so simple that Yahoo has to focus on its products, and what users want to do with those products, as the way out of the mess Yahoo seems to be in. At another level it seems blindingly obvious 

"I want you thinking about users," Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer repeatedly has told Yahoo workers. That tells you something about all the other strategies Yahoo has seemed to cycle through in recent years. None, apparently, focused simply on products people want to use. 

Mayer's "near-singular emphasis on products and users" is a departure, many would argue. That's probably as good a critique of the immediate past strategies as anything. Trying to better "monetize" products that don't provide clear value and a compelling reason for using those products is bound to be challenging in the extreme. 

In the end, fixing Yahoo won't be as simple as "focusing on products and users." Revenue models  still will matter. But it is refreshing to hear a simple and fundamental call to focus on user experience first. 

Over the Top Messaging is Becoming a Problem in Western Europe

Text messaging services offered by carriers face growing challenges in Western Europe, with less robust growth even in Eastern and Central European markets that had been growing faster. Virtually all observers might agree that high charges for cross-border messages are the problem that over the top messaging solves for end users. 

Affluent Asia-Pacific Mobile Users are Heavy Mobile App, Skype Users

Over the top VoIP services such as Skype are a major draw for users around the world who need to make cross-border calls, for obvious reasons. And users in China, Malaysia, Indonesia and India are no different. While much Skype usage originates and terminates on PCs, mobile usage of Skype seems might be quite prevalent as well, in those four countries.

Some 44 percent of surveyed mobile consumers with mobile Internet in Malaysia use over the top VoIP services, as do 38 percent of respondents in India, with 69 percent of VoIP-using respondents saying they use Skype, Analysys Mason says.

It isn't clear whether that refers to any use of Skype or other over the top calling apps, or the percentage who use mobile VoIP. In fact, it seems rather doubtful that mobile VoIP constitutes "most" of the Skype usage in those countries.

Much could depend on whether those relatively affluent consumers responding to the Analysys mason poll are akin to "early adopters" with behavior patterns quite different from those of mainstream users.

The impact of over-the-top (OTT) communications services, such as WhatsApp Messenger and Viber, is growing, but used unevenly.

About 11 percent of smart phone owners use mobile VoIP applications regularly, compared with only five percent of mobile users as a whole. 

Usage of over-the-top services [Source: Analysys Mason Connected Consumer Survey 2012

1 Various questions; Denmark, France, Germany, Poland, Spain, the UK and the USA; n = 7485.

Of 107 million mobile VoIP users expected by 2012, more than half will reside in North America and Europe, owing to the fact that 3G, which is required for mobile VoIP to be effective, has been rolled out in those regions, according to Juniper Research.

But Juniper Research also agrees that the Far East and China will account for most of the remaining mobile VoIP growth, followed by the rest of Asia-Pacific.



 Africa and the Middle East, the Indian subcontinent, and Latin America will round out the remaining growth, with roughly equal percentages, Juniper has predicted. 

“Affluent” consumers in emerging Asia–Pacific countries spend 48 percent more time using communications  and media services than those in Europe and the United States, a study by , Analysys Mason suggests. On average, survey respondents with Internet connectivity in major emerging APAC markets spent 13  hours a day using telecoms and media services, compared with 8.8 hours for consumers in Europe and the United States.

The Analysys Mason conclusions were drawn from an online survey of 4,000 consumers 18 and older in China, India, Indonesia and Malaysia.

The caveat is that the survey sample arguably over-selected for “relatively affluent” consumers, Analysys Mason notes.

On average,  total exposure to telecom and media apps and services was highest in Malaysia (14.6 hours each day), followed by Indonesia (14.2), India (13.3) and China (9.9).



The survey also found that usage of mobile content and apps was high among connected consumers, which is probably no surprise. In China some 78 percent of respondents used mobile apps, while and 79 percent of respondents in India said they use mobile apps.

More than 56 percent of survey respondents used a smart phone.

About 11 percent of respondents that buy both fixed and mobile broadband services are planning to give up their fixed broadband service, but that is balanced by13 percent of respondents that have only mobile broadband who report they are considering also buying fixed broadband.

Starbucks Adds Square for Mobile Payments

In a move that in one sense shows the scale of Starbucks mobile payments operations, and might ultimately suggest other opportunities, Starbucks is outsourcing its mobile payment operation to Square. 

Users will simply use the Pay with Square app in place of the current app. At least so far, the advantage for Starbucks might be more tactical than strategic. Some think Starbucks will get better rates on each payment, than it had been able to do using its prior in-house method.

Others might suggest that the cost of supporting the mobile payment operations has grown to the point where outsourcing that particular function makes more sense than doing it in house. 

Basically, the Pay with Square app will be used by Starbucks in a "stripped down" version, allowing users to display a Square bar code that works with the existing Starbucks bar code scanners. 

Starbucks has said nothing about using the Square credit card dongles, or changing out its current point of sale infrastructure. 

In similar fashion, many of the full Square analytics features will not be used, since Starbucks seems comfortable with its own analytics. 

But the move does suggest Starbucks sees some future upside to using Square. What isn't clear is whether that is a tactical decision, such as often made by firms when they switch from an in-house or proprietary application to a "standards-based" alternative, or something more. 

Apple, Samsung, Android Still the Story in Second Quarter 2012

Apple, Samsung and Android remain the story in the global smart phone business in the second quarter of 2012, according to IDC.

In the second quarter, Android had 68 percent market share. All other operating systems lost 15 percent market share, compared to the second quarter of 2011. 

The IDC figures also show Research in Motion's market share decline from an 11.5 percent share in 2011  to 4.8 percent over the last 12 months, Symbian dropping from 16.9 per cent to 4.4 percent.




Smartphone OS World market shares Q2 2012 and 2011

Tablets Indirectly Threaten HP's Business Model

Tablets are not a direct cause of HP's strategic disarray. PCs and the consumer hardware business arguably are the problem, clashing with HP's ability to become a pure-play enterprise services supplier. 

But tablets represent both a threat to the PC revenues and a device that relies on the cloud services that HP might alternatively focus upon. The problem remains that HP is a firm with conflicting pressures and interests. 

HP is still the biggest maker of PCs in the world – excluding tablets – but Steven Milunovich at UBS Investment Research reckons the tech giant should get rid of its PC hardware business and focus on services related to cloud computing and business products. 

Of course, that course has been at least temporarily rejected. Former CEO Leo Apotheker proposed doing so and was dumped. New CEO Meg Whitman reversed course. And now Milunovich essentially argues Apotheker was right. 

Doing two things stops HP doing either well, he argues: "HP lacks the pure enterprise focus of IBM and EMC yet will have trouble competing for consumers without strong tablet and phone businesses like Apple and Samsung," 

So, indirectly, tablets represent the latest twist in the rather lengthy story of HP vacillating about its strategy. Without a robust tablet and smart phone business, the consumer business looks vulnerable, longer term. But since the PC and printer business is about half of HP, the continual debate about remaining in the consumer and enterprise businesses 
is tough to resolve.