Digital Lifescapes

Mobile broadband access services have failed worldwide to capture the interest of mainstream consumers, with Internet users in most countries unwilling to pay a premium for such services, according to Parks Associates. Parks latest market study finds that only Internet users in the U.K. are willing to pay a significant premium -- 28 percent on average -- over the cost of a fixed connection for mobile broadband access, defined as a wireless high-speed service with which users can access the Internet anywhere at home and in other locations. U.S. consumers are willing to pay only a 6 percent premium for a basic mobile broadband service. Consumers in countries with advanced phone-centric mobile Internet services are even less interested in paying a premium for mobile broadband access. "Wireless broadband access services marketed by mobile carriers today resonate with road warriors and are having success in that segment," said Yuanzhe (Michael) Cai, director of broadband and gamin...

In its latest analysis of the Near Field Communication (NFC) market, ABI Research forecasts that by 2012, some 292 million handsets -- just over 20 percent of the global mobile handset market -- will ship with built in NFC capabilities. 2007 will be critical for NFC technology as key standards and operator trials complete the foundations for the first real deployments. "NFC in mobile phones promises a quicker and easier way to execute a host of key tasks by just waving the phone," says senior analyst Jonathan Collins. "Making payments, unlocking doors, downloading content, even setting up wireless networks and many other applications, can all be enabled from an NFC handset." But early enthusiasm for NFC adoption in handsets -- fuelled by its functionality and flexibility -- has been tempered by the complexity of the ecosystem required to support multiple, revenue-generating NFC applications. ABI Research believes that NFC will not become widely available in the hand...

Competition has become more cutthroat among next generation mobile and wireless broadband service providers, according to an Infonetics Research study about North American, European, and Asia Pacific operators. The study shows 65 percent of providers rating competition and customer retention as the most challenging of their business concerns. As competition increases, the contest becomes focused on the range of services offered rather than price, so creating new services is key to driving revenue, says Infonetics. "Beyond basic voice and access services, mobile and wireless operators are focusing on mobile TV and interactive video services like chat and blogging. Video based services represent a opportunity for operators to diversify their offerings and boost ARPU, but new media services present business model issues as well as technical challenges like streaming and download capabilities," said Richard Webb, directing analyst at Infonetics Research. Service providers indic...

Every day I receive press releases from PR people who are announcing a new product or service launch, and while most are well intentioned they rarely stimulate my interest because they're simply not newsworthy -- from my point of view, as an industry analyst and columnist. In contrast, every once in a while I will read about the retirement of a product or a complete product-line, and while the story is rarely offered to me by the source company -- as a press release -- I sometimes feel compelled to go in search of more information. Why? Mostly because I have a personal sense of attachment, or I seek the historical perspective. What's the story? As an example, when I read the headline "RIP - Dell Axim" on the MobilitySite I was immediately curious. You see, I own a Dell Axim X30 pocket PC, and I have used it extensively for several years. I've also purchased accessories, like the extra-capacity battery, folding keyboard, and SD memory expansion card. The X30 was ...

Nielsen//NetRatings announced that U.S. network television Web sites see an increase in time spent at home during TV's prime time, weekdays 8pm -11pm. At NBC.com in February, 40 percent of total time spent was during prime time, making it the number one Web site when ranked by the prime time index. Web properties ABC Primetime and Fox Broadcasting took the No. 2 and 3 spots, with a respective 30 percent and 26 percent of total time spent taking place between 8pm - 11pm. Other television-related sites that ranked high on the prime time index were TV Guide, Yahoo! TV and CBS Television. The overall total percent of time spent online at home during prime time was 13.7 percent. "Although online content is available on demand, whenever and wherever you need it, Americans still enjoy an evening of entertainment," said Michael Pond, media analyst, Nielsen//NetRatings. "Moreover, the advent of interactive television such as voting online for contestants on 'Dancing with...

The worldwide mobile TV broadcast market is expanding, as the number of commercially launched mobile TV broadcast networks will grow from 9 in 2006 to 13 in 2007, reports In-Stat. The current unavailability of wireless spectrum is the largest barrier to the launch of more mobile TV services, particularly in Europe, the high-tech market research firm says. Over the next 10 years, as more spectrum is made available -- in many cases when analog TV signals are shut off -- more mobile TV broadcast services will launch. Another issue limiting the market today is the small number of mobile TV broadcast enabled handsets available in many markets. While I recognize that most market research studies have uncovered inconsistent demand for mobile TV services, perhaps it's too soon in the process of market development to form conclusive opinions about what works well, and why. In a time of exploratory trials, it's expected that some business models will show promise, while others do not. Mo...

Communication Technology reports that several recent addressable advertising developments were presented at the Society of Cable Telecommunication Engineers' (SCTE) "Emerging Technologies" conference earlier this year. Recent developments include the following: - The SCTE has published SCTE 35 2001, which defines the Digital Program Insertion (DPI) Cueing Message for Digital Cable TV systems. - A second standard, SCTE 30 2001, defines the Applications Programming Interface (API) for Digital Program Insertion splicing. - The SCTE DVS 629 project is creating a standardized method for communicating between an Advertising Decision Service (ADS) and equipment that delivers the content to consumers. - CableLabs' OCAP includes an Enhanced TV, or eTV, specification that will eventually be used to make it possible for digital cable TV systems to offer truly interactive ads, simi...

The world market for mobile marketing and advertising is expected to be worth about $3 billion by the end of 2007, according to a recent study from ABI Research. By 2011, the value of this market will reach $19 billion, including mobile search and video advertising. ABI Research also expects some of the highest levels of spending to come in the broadcast mobile video space. By 2011, it will surpass SMS as a source of mobile marketing spending, due in part to mobile broadcast network presence in all major markets. In 2011, ABI expects spending for broadcast mobile video advertising alone to reach $9 billion. ABI believes that for this market to reach its full potential, carriers, advertisers and marketing companies must utilize multiple technologies and business models to bring their messages to mobile consumers. I believe that the key challenge, however, will be for all participants to view mobile as a new medium -- with new creative possibilities for rich-media target marketing. ...

Shipments of mobile broadband equipment built for data services grew 117 percent year over year, according to year-end numbers from Sky Light Research. Included in the mobile broadband category are companies who make proprietary data-based mobile broadband equipment like pre-802.16e, UMTS TD-CDMA, 802.20/FLASH OFDM, and OFDMA. Sky Light counts equipment built to the 802.16e (WiMAX-2005) specification as proprietary equipment until the commencement of mobile WiMAX certification, after which SLR will track mobile WiMAX as a separate category. Radios built to the 802.16e specification drove mobile broadband growth in 2006, despite the fact that only a handful of companies have announced general market availability and that 802.16e certification is still several months away. "The twofold uptake in mobile equipment last year validates carrier interest in deploying mobile solutions today; as standards-based products become commercial over the next 12 months, deployments will continue to...

New distribution channels for online music and video are beginning to have a significant impact on the old music and video industry players, reports In-Stat. Online sales of digital music represented 6 percent of the total worldwide music market in 2006, up from 4 percent in 2005, according to In-Stat's best estimates. By 2011, In-Stat forecasts that online sales of digital music will represent 26 percent of all music purchased worldwide. I believe that this assessment is misleading, when taken literally, since most market research analysts monitor the share of traditional record labels sales that occur via online channels -- they typically don't include independent recording artist sales that are direct-to-consumer. As a result, analysts tend to understate the online market, because these Indie sales are difficult to aggregate and quantify. Likewise, analysts that monitor the video industry have a similar tendency to understate the size and growth of the online sales channel. ...

Long ago, when I was first exposed to the mobile phone service provider business model, I recall that my "Aha! moment" was when it occurred to me that these phone numbers will actually be associated with a person, instead of a place -- which had been the case with landline phone services. Back then, I didn't fully comprehend the potential of this distinction to marketers. Likewise, when I became aware that, due to a public-safety policy requirement, mobile service providers would be able to identify the location of a mobile phone -- the benefit to marketers wasn't immediately obvious to me. Imagine being able to combine personal relevance, with real-time proximity, plus contextual significance, and you'll have the essence. Fast-forward to today, and not only do I see what's plainly obvious, I'm puzzled by the lack of market development that harnesses these key inherent attributes of the mobile sector value proposition. Why, you ask? Well, apparently, most...

Internet video's effect on television will ultimately be similar to television's effect on radio, according to the findings of a Yankee Group study. Radio survived the ordeal, but has never been the same since the transition. The emergence of internet video is fundamentally altering the relationship between content owners, service providers and consumers, introducing new innovative companies to the ecosystem and is empowering consumer choice. Companies have been trying to harness the power of the internet as a distribution channel for video for many years. Early endeavors such as Pop.com, Pseudo.com and the Den failed, but we know now that 2005 emerged as a tipping point for the internet distribution of video: - In its first 12 months, consumers purchased 45 million videos from iTunes. - YouTube averaged 13 million unique visitors monthly and delivered an average of 100 million streams per month to users. - During a 2-month trial in May and June 2006, ABC.com offered streaming ...

Today, more and more firms are taking an outside look into the marketing organization, seeking ways to optimize what has traditionally been thought of as a purely creative process. The danger is that these projects often get hijacked by technology initiatives that subsume the organization, according to a Forrester Research study. Firms should start marketing optimization by considering the following: Recognize that there's no single technology or service provider that can do it all -- Although many technology vendors and service providers claim to offer marketing optimization solutions, no single vendor does it all, and firms should be wary of vendors that make the claim. Evaluate the marketing process to identify optimization opportunities -- Firms taking an outside-in approach to marketing optimization should start by evaluating the marketing life cycle to identify optimization opportunities that: 1) improve the efficiency of marketing processes and 2) improve marketing effective...

According to In-Stat, the move by NBC Nightly News to High Definition TV (HDTV) is part of a migration toward HDTV by all broadcasters whose markets are large enough to justify the investment. This is a long-term opportunity that will take several years to develop, but HDTV programming will eventually become the norm. In-Stat believes that several trends are supporting this drive toward HD production. In the U.S. market, over 80 percent of viewers for Broadcast Network programs are watching on a Pay-TV service. Digital Cable TV, Digital Satellite TV, and now the TelcoTV (IPTV) services are all charging additional monthly premiums to deliver HDTV content to their subscribers. These subscribers pay for an upgraded HD Digital set top box, as well as for the HD channels. For local affiliates, the network's prime time HDTV programming represents a revenue opportunity. The local TV stations can more easily justify payments for retransmission consent, because the Pay-TV services are char...

On January 30, 2007, Microsoft began selling its long awaited new Vista Operating System software. According to a recent Harris Poll, a full 87 percent of those online say they were "aware" of Vista. Microsoft has invested heavily in promotion, to get the word out about Vista, and their marketing machine appears to be running at full throttle. In December of 2006, one month before launch, only 47 percent of those online were aware of Vista's existence. So awareness has apparently skyrocketed since December. These are just some of the results of a Harris Poll of 2,223 U.S. online adults conducted online between March 6 and 14, 2007 by Harris Interactive. This survey was conducted about six weeks after the release of Microsoft's Vista Operating System and is the second Harris Interactive survey about Vista. An initial online survey was conducted between November 30 and December 11, 2006, before the launch of Vista, among 1,028 U.S. online adults. Similar questions were ...

Last year was remarkable for the development of WiMAX in the Asia-Pacific region, as a solid foundation was laid by the joint efforts of market regulators, operators and eager equipment vendors, reports In-Stat. From a lean base of 0.27 million in 2006, total WiMAX subscribers in 16 Asia-Pacific countries are expected to reach 31.43 million by 2012, the high-tech market research firm says. Granted, that seems like a very optimistic growth forecast, but I share the belief that there's a strong upside potential for service adoption. "In emerging countries where current household broadband penetration rates are extremely low, governments have quickly built a pro-WiMAX regulatory framework," says Victor Liu, In-Stat analyst. "One temporary setback, though, was WiMAX subscriber growth developing more slowly than expected in South Korea due to limited network coverage and lack of user devices." I also believe that two issues need to stay under close scrutiny. First, W...

DoubleClick has unveiled a dynamic online marketplace that directly connects buyers and sellers of online display advertising for maximum return and efficiency. Is this another disruptive development intended to remove advertising agencies from yet one more piece of the value chain? To sustain the growth of their online advertising programs and increase operational efficiencies, buyers and sellers are looking for new methods to generate additional revenue -- specifically one that fixes the known problems inherent within existing methods. Sellers find that existing channels often do not maximize overall yield, and that they are being left with significant volumes of unsold inventory. A recent study conducted by Forrester Research uncovered the fact that 25 percent of online advertising inventory is never sold. Another 15 percent is sold off as a remnant, and even more is undersold. In addition, buyers struggle to find the most efficient way to access and selectively target the online in...

EchoStar Communications Corporation and Google announced that the companies have entered into a partnership agreement to introduce the first automated system for buying, selling, delivering and measuring television ads on EchoStar DISH Network's 125 national satellite programming networks. Traditional advertising agency executives, and certainly their media buyer employees, are likely in mourning upon hearing this latest Google encroachment that signals yet another step towards sending their fundamental value proposition closer to a moribund state. It's hard for me to imagine that an ad agency can rationalize their legacy business model, and associated fee structure, much longer. Even if this first major trial of the highly-measurable Google approach isn't a huge success, the insertion of automation and meaningful accountability is sure to upset the status quo within the U.S. $60 billion TV advertising market. Google will have access to a portion of DISH Network's adver...

According to a new report from Infonetics Research, IPTV equipment sales, service revenue, subscribers, and service provider capex all posted phenomenal growth in 2006, and are expected to continue surging through 2010. The report, "IPTV Equipment, Services, Subscribers, and Capex," shows that worldwide IPTV equipment manufacturer revenue jumped 150 percent in 2006, easily passing the $1 billion mark. While the IPTV equipment market is expected to grow at a more moderate pace in coming years, all categories but one tracked by Infonetics are forecast to at least double or triple between 2006 and 2010. "IPTV subscribers and service revenue continue to grow around the world, as incumbent telcos have joined their upstart competitors in EMEA and Asia Pacific in rolling out high quality IPTV services. As is typical with early technologies, the geographic disparities in terms of subscriber uptake will be significant -- look no further than France, with its high penetration of I...

The number of U.S. homes receiving video, internet and voice services over direct fiber optic connections have doubled over the past year, according to a new study sponsored by the Fiber-to-the-Home (FTTH) Council and the Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA). According to the study, released during the "Digital City Expo" in Reston, Virginia, 1.34 million American homes are now connected to the internet via end-to-end fiber optic connections, with FTTH now passing 7.9 million homes. However, this milestone won't be grounds for a celebration, since that's still less than one percent of the U.S. addressable market. This growth compares to 671,000 connections and 4.1 million homes passed as of March 2006. Further, the study shows that fiber-to-the-home is being installed by a very wide range of incumbent and competitive providers, and not just large telephone companies (as some people might assume). Accounting for more than 430,000 FTTH subscribers are small rur...