AT&T Reports Ap 22: What to Look For

AT&T reports first quarter results on April 22. I suspect most of us will be watching for any weakness in wireless net additions or average revenue per user. Everybody expects residential voice lines to decline, so the issue there might be a slowing of the rate of loss. Business customer revenues likely will be considered a success if growth essentially is flat.

A consumer landline loss in the 10 to 12 percent range is probably to be expected, while enterprise segment revenue likely will be off a couple to several points. None of that would be unexpected.

Video entertainment subscribers should grow, but will not likely have a material effect. Broadband net additions will be less robust than in the first quarter of 2008.

Canadians Heavy Online Video Consumers

In February 2009 21 million Canadians viewed more than 3.1 billion videos online, says comScore. The average Canadian online video viewer spent 10 hours viewing videos in February, up 53 percent from their average viewing time last year.

Shift in Unified Communications Value?

By the end of the year, or at least within the next couple of years, we all might have a different perspective on unified communications, traditionally viewed as something involving business phone systems, instant messaging and conferencing apps.

There are several reasons, among them a view that the "value of traditional desk phone and desktop PC is diminishing." Remote workers and mobility might become the lead value proposition for some buyers. For others, there might be an equally strong shift to IP-based conferencing as the lead application, based on "economic uncertainty as companies look to cut cost" in areas such as travel.

Integration of communication functions directly with business applications is an on-going and underlying trend that likewise could shift attention on UC value.

http://horizonwatching.typepad.com/horizonwatching/2009/04/primer-on-unified-communications.html

97% of Business Communications Now is Email

As much as 97 percent of all business communications now occurs using email, says Bakbone. And though some executives would not place much credence on the financial impact of email outages, which some estimate can cost a 500-person enterprise about $1.5 million in lost productivity, the cost of paying employees who cannot use basic business communications such as email has been calculated by multiplying the total hours of downtime per year by $18,000 per hour.

For an enterprise of any size, that cost can range from “up to $100,000” to “up to $500,000,” Bakbone says. Then there is the cost of information technology resources that must be consumed to get email systems back in operation.

Whether one considers such soft costs significant or not, the typical email outage lasts 69 minutes, and annual email outages can total 32.1 hours a year, Bakbone says.

http://www.itbusinessedge.com/offer.aspx?o=03830006em0420

Sampling Works at iPhone App Store

Encouraging potential customers to sample your wares is a time-tested demand stimulation technique, and it seems to work on the Apple App Store as well, an analysis of data by Flurry indicates. Among the strongest marketing plays in the App Store are free trials of a game or application.

There's not much surprise about why this works. Potential buyers unfamiliar with a company or application can see for themselves whether any particular app is useful or entertaining before committing to a purchase.

66 Million U.S. Consumers Now Multi-Task

Over 66 million consumers are using the Internet while camped out on their sofas watching TV, according to market research firm In-Stat. About a third of male respondents to a recent survey say they "sometimes" do so. About 25 percent of female respondents say they use a PC while watching TV.

One-fifth of all respondents reported doing instant messaging while watching TV.

That's both good news and bad news. The good news is it suggests there might be some upside for content, application providers and service providers in the area of integrating PC, mobile or Web features with the TV experience.

The bad news? One reason some people might be time-sharing is because the TV content is not that compelling, compared to alternative pursuits such as using the Internet.

$5 Billion Less Consumer Spending on Mobile, Broadband, TV?

Though first quarter financial results are not yet available to confirm the possible existence of the trend, about 15 percent of respondents say they will cut back spending on subscription-TV, broadband, and mobile services in response to economic pressures, an In-Stat survey finds. Precisely what that means is the question.

If any significant trend of that sort emerges, U.S. consumers could cut spending on mobile, broadband and pay TV services by nearly $5 billion due to economic turmoil, In-Stat says.

Will consumers drop mobile, broadband or multi-channel video subscriptions completely, or simply shift consumption to more-affordable subscriptions? The former would cause a greater hit to revenue and a risk that customers do not return later, the latter might "simply" pressure on average revenue per user.

In the fourth quarter of 2008, a slowing rate of growth could be seen for at least some services, but it was hard to separate purely-economic effects from product maturation. So far, mobile service providers have seen a shift to prepaid services from postpaid.

It wouldn't be unusual to see consumers dropping some premium services or postponing upgrades in the face of a tough recession. What would make news is negative growth for subscription services other than wired voice, which has been declining, at least for some providers, for years.

We'll find out soon enough what is going on.