Best Buy to Sell Branded 4G Mobile Services

Best Buy will offer its own branded mobile broadband services using the Clearwire. network. The deal is noteworthy to the extent that Best Buy is the first major wholesale customer that is not an investor in Clearwire.

Best Buy has tried selling its own branded communications services before, in particular broadband and voice services for small businesses. That effort was modestly successful, one might argue.

Best Buy hopes to fare better with consumer-focused communications services, namely mobile gadgets.

Best Buy partners with Clearwire for 4G service - Rethink Wireless

Cars are Where People Listen to Music

Though it might seem that MP3 players are the dominant way people consumer music, the car stereo is the most popular device to listen to music, followed by the home stereo and the PC, Forrester Research says.

About a third of U.S. adults regularly listens to music on a MP3 player, and eight percent listen on their mobile phone. Many observers have suggested that the iPhone is the next-generation replacement for the iPod. The usage statistics so far do not generally support that contention. Most people seem to use their MP3 players.

The Data Digest: Which Music Devices Do People Use

Android 2.2 for Evo 4G

The version 2.2 update for the Android operating system will start to be pushed out to Sprint Evo devices the week of August 3 or so.

Android 2.2 brings with it a number of new features, including the ability to turn the phone into a Wi-Fi hotspot, improved performance, and new widgets for the home screen.

Android 2.2 comes to Evo 4G next week

Location-Based Apps Still Early on Growth Curve

A new analysis by Forrester Research can be viewed as an excuse not to dive into location-based services, or location-based advertising, at the moment.

Only about three percent of people surveyed by Forrester Research say they use location apps, such as check-in apps, frequently or at least once a week.

Some 84 percent of respondents say they don't even know what the apps are.

None of those findings should surprise anybody, at this point. LBS still is in its infancy. Not many people use any new device or application, at first.

Growing Channel Conflict Between Programmers, Distributors

Despite competing efforts by YouTube, SeeSaw, Hulu, MSN and others to aggregate catch-up TV online in this way, U.K. broadcasters are keeping control of their own inventory for online viewing, including "catch up" services that allow users to view shows they recently have missed.

U.K. broadcasters ITV, C4 and Five each sell their own video ads on either their own sites or on YouTube and SeeSaw (C4 and Five).

The point is that channel conflict between content companies and distributors continues to grow as the online channel becomes more important.

BSkyB, for example, also recently got exclusive rights to HBO content, while Virgin Media, which has on-demand rights for content it shows on its cable network, apparently does not have those rights for mobile or Web distribution.

Virgin Media Names VOD Player Line-Up

Top 10 Global Broadband Providers

If the number of fixed-line broadband subscribers were the measure, Comcast and Time Warner Cable would rank among the world's top-10 largest Internet service providers.

The 10-biggest broadband ISPs in March 2010 had 191 million total subscribers, representing 39 percent of the world’s 492 million broadband customers.

KT of South Korea, the world’s tenth largest broadband ISP, is the only new member of the top ten ranking, having displaced Telecom Italia, which is now the 11th largest broadband ISP globally.

Just two providers, China Telecom and China Unicom, accounted for 20 percent of global broadband subscribers.

Broadband provider rankings: The Rise and Rise of China

53% of Mobile Customers Use Data

About 53 percent of mobile users now use mobile data services or applications of one sort or another, Validas reports. That is up from 42 percent in 2009. The typical user consumes 145 Mbytes a month, compared to  96.8 MBytes in 2009. The typical smartphone user consumes 415 Mbytes, up from 139 Mbytes in 2009.

Mobile PC broadband users consume 1.5 Mbytes a month, up from about 1.4 Mbytes in 2009.

Feature phone users consume about 68 Mbytes a month, up from 46 Mbytes.

Verizon Wireless posted the largest percentage increase in mean data usage per user from 48 MBytes to 147 MBytes.

T-Mobile users consume 121 Mbytes, typically. Sprint users consume about 133 Mbytes, primarily because more Sprint customers now consume 50 Mbytes or less each month.

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