U.S. Broadband Penetration Unchanged at 84% of Internet Households

Internet use in the United States seems to have remained flat at 82 percent of Americans, the  Center for the Digital Future at USC Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism reports. Also, broadband penetration remains at 84 percent of U.S. homes who use Internet access services.

The expense of using the Internet is cited as a reason for not going online by seven percent of respondents to the latest Center for Digital Future study.

Internet use dipped slightly to an average of 18.3 hours per week, the first time the weekly use has declined, but for the first time, home use of the Internet has passed 12 hours per week

The largest percentages of users reported going on the Internet at least weekly (several times a day, daily, or weekly) to browse the Web (79 percent), use online banking (47 percent), get product information (46 percent), visit social networking and video-sharing sites (46 percent), play games (39 percent), download or watch videos (39 percent), download or listen to music (38 percent), listen to online radio (22 percent), and pay bills (22 percent). Study of Internet behavior

A large majority of respondents report more than one computer in their home; the households with three or more computers (17 percent) and four or more computers (15 percent) reached an all-time high.
 
In seven years, the percentage of computer owners who have a laptop has increased from 18 percent to nearly 75 percent of users.

The number of hours that Internet users report they are online at work remained unchanged from the previous study, at 12.9 hours per week. But Internet users continue to report increasing active use of the Internet at work.  For the third year in a row, the hours that users said they are actively using the Internet at work has increased to 9.2 hours per week, a new high for the Digital Future Project.

43% of Firms Will be Blogging in 2012

Some 43 percent of all companies will be blogging in 2012, according to estimates by eMarketer and others. If nothing else, those sorts of statistics illustrate the explosion of ways firms can get their messages out to potential customers, as well as the explosion of all kinds of "user generated" content.

Those blogs are used for a variety of business purposes, including the creation of content marketing that can be propagated on social media.

Some 70 percent of respondents say they use social media as a way of assessing what people think about a company.

About 61 percent say they use social media to prospect for new customers.

Breaking such forecasts out by firm size, some 65 percent of small business owners now publish a blog for their company, for example. Small business blogging

Apple Patent Infringement Strategy Backfiring?

Is Apple's aggressive patent warfare strategy about to backfire? After winning legal cases that have blocked sale of Android devices in Australia, will Apple become a victim of similar legal actions?


Motorola won the first of two patent-infringement cases against Apple’s European sales division based in Ireland, granting Motorola an injunction against all of the infringing products in Europe. 
 

The products Apple can no longer sell in Germany include the:

• iPhone
• iPhone 3G
• iPhone 3GS
• iPhone 4
• iPad 3G
• iPad 2 3G
• function

Motorola filed the suit in April 2011, which is likely the only reason the iPhone 4S is not included in the injunction, as it wasn't launched at that point. Europe-wide injunction

At issue is a Motorola patent for cellular data transmission, part of wireless data transmission standards that are encumbered by an agreement to license the patent on "fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory" terms. 

The ruling suggests that, at least in Germany, raising a "FRAND" defense against standards-essential patent infringement claims could be a difficult proposition, and may force Apple to accept Motorola's licensing terms for "past infringement."

The FRAND defense has worked for Apple elsewhere, including in lawsuits brought by Samsung in The Netherlands and France. 

The basic argument is that suing over standards-essential patents instead of working out a FRAND agreement amounts to violation of anti-competition laws. Without some legal barrier to suing over such patents, they could potentially be used as a club to thwart any would-be competitors once they have built products incorporating a particular technology standard. Motorola wins lawsuit

The European patent in suit, EP1010336 (B1) "Method for Performing a Countdown Function During a Mobile-Originated Transfer for a Packet Radio System," is part of the General Packet Radio Service standard upon which 2G and 3G data services operate. 

Basically, that means that all Apple products that use 3G data, including all iPhones and all 3G-capable iPads, use the patented technology.

Sprint orders all OEMs to Remove Carrier IQ

Sources at HTC have told Geek.com that, as a result of the lawsuits targeting Carrier IQ, Sprint, and other CIQ-using OEMs, Sprint has asked all of their partners to get rid of Carrier IQ.

Starting with the high-volume and high-profile devices on the network, each of the OEMs has been asked to quickly release binaries that do not contain Carrier IQ so that over-the-air updates can be pushed to those devices as quickly as possible.

The eventual plan is to remove Carrier IQ from all of the devices on Sprint’s network.

This is being done as soon as possible and, according to our source at HTC, anyone who is working with Sprint in testing labs have even had their vacation time over the holidays seriously restricted. Sprint orders all OEMs to remove Carrier IQ

With other handset suppliers and carriers backing away from Carrier IQ, you have to wonder what the prospects for the company are, in the future. Apple dropped Carrier IQ

Carrier IQ also faces government scrutiny, which almost certainly means the company will have to drastically revise its revenue model, once restrictions, voluntary or otherwise, start to become a business factor.

Once again, we see how much impact regulatory actions now are having on the shape of the communications business.

Live TV On Android Devices in-Home, for Some Time Warner Cable Subs

Time Warner Cable expects to let subscribers watch live TV on Android devices over in-home Wi-Fi early next year, as it does today for Apple iOS phones and tablets.
TWC Eyes Live TV On Android Devices

The application is available to video customers with standard or higher subscriptions, and can only be used by customers with a compatible Navigator set-top or DVR.

Analog users and owners of Motorola set-tops cannot use the application. The app allows users to view up to seven days of content and can also turn the Android phone into a remote control.

Isis Weighing Europe Launch?

Isis, the mobile wallet venture owned by AT&T, Verizon Wireless and T-Mobile USA, is looking to expand internationally. Jaymee Johnson, an Isis spokesman, says potential deals could involve use of the brand or the platform.

“The underlying equity partners in ISIS give us some degree of visibility and awareness beyond the U.S.,” Johnson says, obviously referring to Vodafone Group Plc, which owns a large minority stake in Verizon Wireless, and is based in the U.K., while T-Mobile USA is owned by Germany’s Deutsche Telekom AG. Isis looking to Europe?

Apple to launch eight-inch iPad in 2012?

Though former Apple CEO Steve Jobs is consistently on record as belittling the idea that a tablet with a screen less than 10 inches is desirable, Apple is likely to launch a 7.85-inch iPad prior to the fourth quarter of 2012, DigiTimes argues.

That might be one of the first tangible examples of "post-Steve" thinking at Apple. As fastidious as Steve Jobs always was about every little detail of Apple products, it is impossible to conclude anything else.

Global shipments of tablet PCs are expected to reach 60 million units in 2011, of which 70 percent will be Apple's iPads.


Some might even argue that a seven-inch e-book reader is not actually a "tablet." There arguably some differences in lead applications, with e-books obviously weighted towards consumption of print style content, and larger tablets more optimal for video consumption and web browsing.

Some might argue that the apparent sales success of the seven-inch Kindle Fire from Amazon, and some might argue, large-screen smart phones, Apple might now think it has to have a product in the seven-inch to eight-inch form factor.  Apple to launch 7.85-inch iPad in 2012?

Verizon Strikes Spectrum, Resale Deal with Cox Communications

Verizon Wireless and Cox Communications have agreed to a deal that would give Verizon Wireless all of Cox’s advanced wireless spectrum in exchange for $315 million and an agreement to sell each other’s services.

Verizon Wireless will get a 20MHz block of wireless spectrum from Cox, while Verizon Wireless and Cox will resell each others residential and commercial services. The deal is similar in scope to one Verizon Spectrum Co., owned by Comcast, Time Warner Cable, and Bright House Networks.

The deal is said to be very similar to one that Verizon struck with Comcast, Time Warner Cable and Bright House networks in early December 2011. Verizon, Cox in spectrum, resale deal

Aside from the other potential ramifications, such as a bigger move by those cable operators into the wireless services market, the deal essentially changes the strategic landscape which since 1994 or so has had Sprint aligned most closely among the mobile companies with leading cable operators.

The deals also would seem to remove the leading U.S. cable companies from the list of potential investors or buyers of assets including Sprint and Clearwire, as well as from the ranks of potential wholesale customers of LightSquared, Sprint or Clearwire.

The deal also means a significant strategic change for the leading cable companies, which since 1994 have worked with Sprint as a wireless partner. The deal seems to signal that the leading cable firms are "changing horses" for reasons that have to be related to both long-term strategic concerns and evaluations of the respective strengths of potential partners.

At a fundamental level, the deals seem to signal a belief by U.S. cable executives that it simply is too late, too hard, too unrewarding to create a "cable-owned" wireless company. The way the deals appear to be structured also imply that cable companies will simply resell Verizon Wireless for a period of years before considering any further retail branding under their own brand names, if indeed that ever is seen as the better and more logical approach to the market.

For Verizon Wireless, the deals also seem to signal a willingness to use the cable partnerships to create new quad-play services "out of fixed network region," to the extent that Verizon Wireless would have the right to bundle cable partner video, fixed broadband or fixed network voice in areas where Verizon does not operate its own fixed networks.

UK Consumers Not Buying "Super-Fast" Broadband

There are two distinct, and different "problems" nations and policymakers face when promoting use of very-fast broadband access. First, the physical capabilities must be put into place.

But an equally-important issue is consumer demand for such services, especially when high-speed services already are widely available.

In the United Kingdom, for example, the government is pushing new fiber-to-cabinet networks supporting speeds roughly defined as access at 24 Mbps or so.  U.K. Super-Fast Broadband

However, just four percent of U.K. households subscribed to superfast services in June 2011, compared with 40 per cent in Japan and 10 per cent in the United States, although higher than in Germany (three percent), Italy (1.5 percent) and Spain (2.2 percent). Lagging adoption

To be fair, the networks still are under construction, so not every potential consumer is able to buy such services.


But 25Mbps or faster services already are available to the 48 percent of UK households passed by Virgin Media's cable service and about 20 percent of premises passed by BT's fiber to the cabinet superfast services.

Overall availability of high-speed fixed-line broadband networks in the United Kingdom does compare favorably to other European countries, though, so mere ability to buy is not the issue. By June 2011, 59 per cent of households had access to Virgin Media or BT’s superfast services. Ofcom: UK consumers not buying super-fast broadband

10 Key Mobile Trends of 2011

One of the big trends of 2011 was “more powerful devices,” such as the HTC Edge, the first quad-core mobile phone with a quad-core 1.5GHz processor, says Josh Lovison,  a digital strategy consultant.

That, in turn, is leading to the leading edge of the “docking” trend, where smart phones will be able to use various peripherals that make smart phones usable in some of the ways notebook PCs are used. Motorola’s Atrix phone is an example.

ASUS also has designed a keyboard dock for its upcoming tablet, the Transformer Prime, which allows it to operate much like a laptop in both form and function.

Changes in data plans and the advent of Long Term Evolution, as well as patent wars and Android’s rise, are other notable developments.

Mobile apps being rendered dynamically also was a new trend. Facebook, for example, made a recent update that retains some static user interface elements are native code specific to a device, but almost all of the dynamic content displayed is a rendered page of its website, within the app. It's a hybrid between "app" and "web app."

Mobiles also are displacing dedicated gaming devices as the preferred way to engage with gaming content and games.

According to stats from Flurry, 2011 will be the first year that gaming revenues on mobile devices (iOS and Android) exceed revenues from specialized gaming handhelds such as Nintendo's 3DS or Sony's PSP.

Voice search, which got attention because of Apple’s “Siri,” has been available on Android devices for nearly two years as well, and represents an advance for ease of use on mobiles when searching. Easier search will mean “more search.”

Near field communications remains a buzzword and hype generator, but it will take some time to become a useful mainstream capability for payments and other mobile apps. Key mobile trends

Free Gaming Explodes

New data released by Pando Networks, a leading game delivery network for free-to play mobile games, indicates a huge increase in the number of people downloading free-to-play game games, growing 450 percent from 2009 to 2011.

More than 38 million people will download an online game using Pando services in 2011, and more than 70 million people have done so since 2009.

The increase in people downloading games is being driven by several industry factors including the transition from a “paid” to a “free-to-play” business model. Free gaming explodes

LTE Prices Will Drop 60%

Mobile broadband services using Long Term Evolution will experience a substantial 60-percent decline in retail prices between now and 2016, according to Tariff Consultancy, on the way to gaining 250 million users worldwide by the end of 2016.

LTE Mobile Broadband Pricing 2012 evaluates pricing from around 30 fourth-generation LTE mobile broadband providers which are mainly located in Europe, North America and the Asia-Pacific regions of the world.



LTE is currently promoted as a premium product, with an average theoretical download access speed across all LTE providers is in excess of 80 Mbps, with the most common download speed cited being 100 Mbps.



Average monthly user data allowances for LTE Mobile Broadband services are currently 22 GBytes per month, but can be as high as 80 GBytes per month, with allowances for LTE operators in North America being typically far lower.

Alastair Brydon says the most expensive LTE tariffs are between EUR39 and EUR67 in numerous European markets. These services provide download speeds up to 50 Mbps to 80 Mbps, with a 30GB monthly data allowance. While these prices are higher than equivalent so-called ‘superfast’ fiber-to-the-cabinet (FTTC) fixed broadband services, there is not a huge price premium. LTE pricing


These tariffs correspond to a minimum price per gigabyte that varies between EUR1.78 (in Denmark for a 30GB data allowance) and EUR2.67 (in Germany for a 15GB data allowance).



The price per GB is generally lower than most HSPA mobile broadband services, where operators provide significantly lower monthly allowances in general. For example, in the UK, where mobile network operators are facing significant capacity challenges, O2 now offers just a single HSPA mobile broadband service, with a 1GB monthly allowance for £10.21, which corresponds to a price per GB of EUR11.49. This is around five times greater than the price per GByte of these LTE services.



TCL research finds that the average price worldwide for a top of the range LTE Mobile Broadband service is currently 50 Euro per month, typically based on a post-paid, 24-month contract term.



The study shows that the average LTE Mobile Broadband price in Euro per gigabyte ranges from 0.5 Euro (Tele2 Sweden) up to 9.9 Euro (Omnitel Lithuania) per GB of data mobile user allowance.



But already there is evidence of price erosion from selected LTE Mobile Broadband providers. Telstra (Australia) currently offers its BigPond USB 4G Mobile Broadband product with an 8 GByte  monthly data user allowance for the equivalent of 30 Euro per month, against 38 Euro for a 4 GB monthly data user allowance reported at the time of launch.



And in Singapore M1 (Mobile One) is offering its Next Generation Mobile Network equivalent LTE service to existing M1 customers with a 40% discount off the monthly list price.



Tariff Consultancy anticipates that LTE mobile broadband pricing will decline as more operators worldwide adopt the technology worldwide. LTE prices will respond to competition


That might be consistent with pricing trends for broadband access generally, in virtually all markets. But the local patterns might vary, one could argue. In the U.S. market, buckets of usage and typical speeds are relatively limited, compared to what seems to be offered elsewhere. 


That creates at least some possibility that pricing could increase, for some packages, in the U.S. market, particularly as family mobile data plans are introduced, or as some providers upgrade from “pre-LTE” networks to more fully-compliant LTE networks.

Can Google Make Money selling Broadband Access?

Google says its objective in building a symmetrical 1-Gbps fiber to home network in Kansas City, Kan., and then Kansas City, Mo. is a serious business initiative, “not a charity," says Kevin Lo, Google Access general manager.

"It’s not a nonprofit. It’s not a dot.org initiative,” said Lo. “We expect to make money at it. It’s a business we expect to be in.” Google’s high-speed gamble in KC


Perhaps the U.S. company whose commercial activities are most similar to Google Access is Sonic.net, an ISP that over time has concentrated mostly on broadband access as its business, though it now also sells voice services. Sonic 1-Gbps network

6 Million Homes Now Use Wireless As Only Broadband Service

By the end of 2011, six million U.S. households will depend on a wireless or mobile platform (including 3G or 4G) as their only means of accessing the Internet, according to Strategy Analytics.

That means seven percent of U.S. homes are wireless-only for broadband, up about 430,000 homes over 2010 levels.

These “mobile-only” customers typically connect to broadband using 3G or 4G-enabled smartphones or PC dongles, and are unable or unwilling to use a wired broadband service such as cable, DSL or fiber, Strategy Analytics says.

The firm says there are two primary markets for such consumers. First, there are users in remote or underserved areas where dependable fixed broadband is unavailable. Secondly, there are cost-conscious casual users who use relatively small amounts of data, and for whom mobile data rates are ‘good enough.

Strategy Analytics forecasts that cable operators will claim a bit more than 50 percent of U.S. household broadband connections over the next five years, while telco-provided Digital Subscriber Line subscriptions will gradually decline in favor of fiber to home and mobile-only connections. 6 Million Homes Now Using Wireless As Only Broadband Service

LightSquared Proposes to Operate at Lower Power

In an effort to mollify concerns about signal interference with GPS systems and users, LightSquared now has proposed operating at lower power for a period of time. To the extent that transmitter power is what causes the interference, the lower mobile tower transmission power levels should help. Just how much help that move will have, has to be tested.


Also, LightSquared only proposes to operate at lower power for a period of time, then would ramp power levels back up. Some might consider that an odd proposal. Perhaps the thinking is that GPS receiver manufacturers and end users would then have a transition period to wean themselves off devices that currently experience interference.  LightSquared proposes lower-power solution

Some might doubt this will help LightSquared. In principle, the new user has to demonstrate it does not interfere with other existing users. If interference again becomes a problem in the future, LightSquared could be barred from operating. Permanently lower power levels would seem to be a  different matter. 

Yelp More Important than Facebook?

Busy local and small businesses often have to make hard choices about which content marketing sites they have time to support with content efforts. Facebook might be "best" for most, but Yelp arguably is best for local businesses and restaurants, especially restaurants.

First of all, Yelp is all about local businesses, things to do, places to eat and be entertained. You can assume that when a user goes to Yelp, that user is trying to find someplace to go, or something to do, and wants information before making a choice.

In other words, the odds of converting a prospect into a customer arguably are higher than for a typical search.

Yelp combines social networking with community-generated reviews. Online since 2004, Yelp helps people find and share the best (and worst) of businesses. Yelp can help build exposure, allow businesses to monitor public opinion and research what potential buyers are looking for.

Yelp can support posting of discount offers, announcements and news about events.

Yelp might be more important than Facebook

Clearwire Raises $715.5 Million

Clearwire Corporation has raised $715.5 million in new capital, including a public offering of 201,250,000 shares of Class A common stock at $2.00 per share, raising net proceeds of $384.1 million, after underwriters' discounts and commissions.



In addition, Sprint has purchased 173,635,000 shares of Class B Common Stock and a corresponding number of Class B units in Clearwire Communications LLC, which will provide Clearwire with an additional $331.4 million in net proceeds. The total net new capital available to Clearwire following today's closings is $715.5 million.



"This equity raise is a critical step for Clearwire to achieve its long-term business plan of creating the first wide-channel TDD-LTE 4G network in the U.S.," said Erik Prusch, president and CEO of Clearwire.  Clearwire raises fresh capital


Some might have been skeptical Clearwire could raise that much, so quickly, or that Sprint would again up its investment in Clearwire. But all that has happened. 

Is Distribution King?

At various times, it has been argued that content, distribution, context or some attribute actually is the crucial bottleneck, choke point or nexus of value in the media business. 


Sometimes it has seemed that distribution was king; at other times content appeared to the gating partner in the ecosystem; while during the wildness of the Internet bubble it was argued that "context" was king. 


All absolute observations are likely wrong to some degree, no matter what the prevailing view. Some might argue that in some ways, especially where it comes to online video, that "ubiquity" is king. 


There is an argument to be made. Consider Netflix, which seems to have an for virtually every popular Internet-connected digital device you can think of.  Is distribution still king?


It is true that consumers now are more in charge of when and how they watch video content than ever before. That increasingly means that getting convenient gateways to content on the widest possible number of devices is an important strategy for distributors. In many cases, that means an app. 


As a result, the distribution companies that will win are those that recognize the need to be everywhere. 


When it comes to capturing consumers’ attention now, a piece of content is only as good as its distribution, some will argue. That is true. 


It also is true that even extensive distribution is of modest help unless the distributor has the "good content" most people want. So, as usual, you can make an argument that distribution is king, or that content is king. 

Facebook Represents 52% of Online Sharing

Facebook now controls a thin majority of online sharing, according to data released today by AddThis. Facebook makes up 52.1 percent of all sharing on the web for the year 2011 to date, up from 44 percent last year and 33 percent the year before.

The statistics were gathered through the ClearSpring-owned company's sharing plugin, which is used by more than 11 million sites.


Social sharing

SkyDrive For iPhone Launches

Microsoft has launched SkyDrive for iPhone, the company's cloud storage and document collaboration service that lets users upload, store, and share things like videos, pictures, and documents.

At sign up, Microsoft gives users 25 GBytes of free storage.

SkyDrive For iPhone

Large U.S. Banks Split on Retail Mobile Payments

Large U.S. financial institutions will be introducing more sophisticated mobile banking apps in 2012, with an emphasis on transactional services such as remote deposit capture and mobile person-to-person payments, which will account for the bulk of mobile investment in 2012.

The banks surveyed remain split on plans to support mobile point-of-sale payments. While the surveyed financial institutions demonstrated a clear understanding of what it will take to make mobile point-of-sale payments a reality, many articulated a chicken-and-egg scenario in which concerns about consumer demand and merchant acceptance are hindering greater investment from their own institutions.

Plans to provide support for mobile point of sale payments vary greatly, with two of the surveyed financial institutions currently piloting such offerings, three saying they planned to support them at some point and the remaining five saying they had no plans to support mobile point-of-sale payments in the foreseeable future.

The survey, conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Fiserv in September 2011, evaluated the plans of 10 banks and credit unions that in total hold more than a third of all U.S. deposit accounts. Fiserv banking survey

While financial institutions view the progress of non-traditional competitors such as technology and telecommunications providers as a validation of mobile payments, and as a promotional tool to build consumer and merchant interest, the majority of the financial institutions surveyed stated that such announcements have had no or minimal impact on their own mobile payments strategy. “This may put them at risk of delivering new capabilities too late,” says Fiserv.

In the near term, banks likely have little to fear from new competitors in the core banking services part of the ecosystem. But banking executives cannot be unaware that in Canada, Rogers, the provider of cable TV and mobile services, already has applied for a charter to become a bank.

The initial thrust there seems to be the issuance of branded credit cards. But nobody thinks it will end there. Porting those capabilities to mobile devices will likely come next. The white paper is here.

Free Gmail Calling within the US and Canada through 2012

Google has extended its "free domestic calls within the United States and Canada for 2012, says Vincent Paquet, Google Voice Group Product Manager. 


Users can use Gmail to call the rest of the world at low rates. Free calling within the US and Canada through 2012

You can  get the app here. 

NTSB Recommends Full Mobile Ban When Driving

The National Transportation and Safety Board will recommend that all 50 states and the District of Columbia "ban the nonemergency use of portable electronic devices (other than those designed to support the driving task) for all drivers." In other words, no more driving and using a mobile phones.

The agency also recommends the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration engage in "high visibility enforcement to support these bans." 


The NTSB also recommends targeted communication campaigns to inform motorists of the new law and enforcement, and to warn them of the dangers associated with the non-emergency use of portable electronic devices while driving. NTSB recommends driving ban

12 Mbps Satellite Broadband at the Cost of Cable?

I've been covering access technologies and businesses for a long time, and the new ViaSat (WildBlue) satellite broadband service, promising up to 12 Mbps, and priced in line with cable modem service, in a huge advance for satellite delivery.


HughesNet plans a launch of a new satellite in 2012 that should perform along the same lines.


The big issue, some of us would think, is whether HughesNet will match WildBlue pricing. The big issue, or course, is that satellite transponder capacity, even on such advanced satellites, will come with limitations, in terms of how many customers each firm can serve.


By some estimates, if the typical bandwidth served up is "up to 12 Mbps," WildBlue might top out at about 1.5 million customers in total. For satellite customers, and potential users in isolated rural areas, this is a very big deal.


WildBlue, a wholly owned subsidiary of Carlsbad, Calif.-based ViaSat, now is offering 12-megabit-per-second broadband for $50 a month in Colorado.


Keep in mind, WildBlue's existing 400,000 nationwide subscribers are paying $80 a month for 1.5 Mbps service.


WildBlue's new service will soft launch in a few other states, including Wyoming and Nebraska, in the coming weeks and should be available nationwide by the end of February. "Historically, satellite has been for the unserved," said WildBlue chief executive Tom Moore. "We think this will transform that marketplace." This is a disruption.

What Portion of Retail Payments Can Mobile Displace?

Mobile payments suppliers might hope to shift some significant portion, up to 74 percent, of retail transactions, one might argue, as debit card payments now represent that percentage of retail transactions.

Google the "Best" Content Marketing Platform?

“Google is quickly becoming the best platform for content marketers, argues Scott Maxwell, senior managing director and founder of OpenView Venture Partners.

Google Currents, for example, “pulls everything together for content marketers who want to easily distribute content to mobile,” he says. “Google Currents is a new application for Android devices, iPads and iPhones that lets users explore online magazines and other content with the swipe of a finger, and has launched with content from 150 publishing partners including CNET, AllThingsD, Forbes, Saveur, PBS, Huffington Post and Fast Company.

Content is optimized for smartphones and tablets, allowing users to intuitively navigate between words, pictures and video on large and small screens alike, even if you’re offline.

Users also can also add RSS feeds, video and photo feeds, public Google+ streams and Google Reader subscriptions already being followed. Uers also can use the trending tab to discover related content that matches their tastes.”

For content marketers, Google has added a self-service publishing platform that allows creators to pull content together and then to distribute it to Google Currents subscribers.

Not everybody will be convinced. “The average user is going to download the Currents app and, yup, write it off as a Flipboard clone (a content curation tool) ,” says Peter Smith at IT World. Flipboard clone?

“If you want a way to read RSS feeds, stick with what you've got,” he argues. “But if you're interested in a unique micro-publishing system (complete with Googly Analytics integration) and you're comfortable assuming your audience carries iOS or Android devices, then check out Currents.”

Verizon Wants to Compete With, or Buy Netflix

The reported Verizon Communications talks to create a new steaming media service in conjunction with movie-rental kiosk operator Redbox appear to be just one set of talks Verizon Communications is having with other potential partners. 


And though the Redbox talks obviously have been painted as a matter of Verizon "competing with Netflix, Verizon also appears to be talking to Netflix as well. On Dec. 12, 2011, there were rumors that Verizon was even thinking about buying Netflix. Verizon weighing Netflix Buy?

Verizon open to Netflix Most will not remember, but earlier in 2011 Verizon Communications had said it was open to featuring Netflix as a FiOS service. 


Most observers think the recent distribution deal with Comcast, Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks is part of a wider effort by Verizon to get into the streaming video business in a bigger way, especially for mobile users and people who live outside the Verizon Communications fixed network regions. Verizon Communications 


Of course, getting into the online video business sets Verizon up in more direct competition not only with Netflix, but with Comcast, Time Warner and other cable and satellite video providers, to an extent. Verizon Redbox talks

Army Navy Game "Prisoner Exchange"

One of the traditions at the Army-Navy football game every year is the "prisoner exchange," where Army cadets studying at the Naval Academy, and midshipmen studying at West Point, walk on the field with their host academy, and then switch sides to go sit with their "home" academy. 


This year, my son Dylan was a "prisoner" at West Point and was exchanged for West Pointers studying at Naval Academy.

Tebow Time, Again

I don't think anybody knows how to explain it, but the Denver Broncos pulled another fourth quarter or overtime win in their latest game against the Chicago Bears. 


As has been the story for most of the last eight games, the Broncos were trailing, in this case by 10 points, until the last three minutes of regulation play. 


Then the team exploded, tying the game, before winning in overtime. 


The national story is Tim Tebow, Broncos quarterback, but that isn't really what's happening. The whole team seems to play better, when it counts. 


There is a concept known as "leadership," and a different concept called "management." 


We often speak of talented "managers" in business. But "leadership" is what happens with squads of soldiers on the battlefield. 


 Management is authority because of a role: somebody is your boss, your president, a uniformed police officer. They have "bureaucratic" authority, because of their role.


Leadership is different. People follow leaders because of some intangible charismatic quality "leaders" have. 


Tebow has that, take nothing away from him. But the team is winning, and playing so well when it counts, because of a non-objective, but very real confidence in their leadership. We need more leaders, arguably fewer "managers." 

Google Wallet Coming to the UK For 2012 Olympics

Google Wallet apparently will launch next in the United Kingdom, in time for the holding of the summer Olympics starting June 27, 2012, French newspaper Les Echos reports.


It is believed that Google Wallet could debut in the first quarter of 2012. That will require convincing at least some top banks to participate, as well as retailers and at least one mobile service provider.


Google Wallet Reportedly Coming to the UK For 2012 Olympics


It would of course be helpful to have one or more providers of "daily deals" and other promotions. It isn't so clear that paying using a mobile is so much better than using cash or a credit card that people will have incentives to use a mobile wallet service.


But what does provide value for end users are incentives, coupons, discounts and special offers tied with use of mobile wallets. 


For retailers, the ability to target incentives at potential customers when they are in proximity to a retail venue likewise offers clear value.