Ten Predictions For The E-Reader/E-Book Market In 2010

Ten Predictions For The E-Reader/E-Book Market In 2010

This has been a breakout year for e-readers and e-books—device sales will have more than tripled by the end of this year, and content sales are up 176% for the year. But next year will be anything but boring. Here are Forrester’s predictions for 2010:

1. E Ink will lose its claim to near-100% market share for e-reader displays. Next year will see the first devices that are marketed as “e-readers” but that don’t exclusively use E Ink displays. Competition will come in three forms: 1) cheaper substitutions for E Ink that use the same electrophoretic display technology; 2) dual-screen devices that have both an E Ink and an LCD screen; and 3) devices that use an entirely different display technology, such as transflective LCD or OLED.

2. Dual-screen mobile phones and netbooks will eat into e-reader demand. Most consumers don’t read enough to justify buying a single-function reading device, and according to Forrester’s data, more consumers already read e-books on mobile phones and PCs than on e-readers. Consumer electronics manufacturers will tap into the growing digital reading trend by launching new versions of their devices with reading-optimized screens. Mobile phones like the Samsung Alias 2 already have secondary E Ink screens, which could be repurposed for reading rather than typing or time-telling. Netbooks will also launch with dual E Ink/LCD screens, like the Asus EEE PC prototype that debuted at CeBIT in 2009. Since some e-readers will launch with dual-screens, too, like the E Ink/LCD Entourage Edge, the main difference between these devices and dual-screen netbooks will be software and marketing.

3. Apps will make non-reading devices more e-book-friendly. E-readers like the Kindle have catalyzed demand for digital reading: e-books have been around for more than a decade, but no one bought them before Amazon (NSDQ: AMZN) made it convenient to buy and consume them. But the market for e-books is not limited to e-readers. This year gave us oodles of apps for the iPhone (Gizmodo called e-books the new fart apps), the B&N app for smartphones and PCs, and the beginning of apps for portable gaming devices like the Sony (NYSE: SNE) PSP and Nintendo DS. Next year will see more e-book apps on more devices. These apps will make it easier to view reading content on non-reading-optimized devices, which will provide a “good enough” experience for the majority of consumers who don’t read enough to justify buying a single-function e-reader, and will provide multiplatform convenience for consumers who do own e-readers.

4. eReaders will get apps, too. As anyone with an iPhone knows, apps are where the magic happens: They make the device infinitely more useful. iRex Technologies, which has a B2B e-reader business in Europe and is launching its first consumer-targeted e-reader in the U.S. in December, will release an SDK (software development kit) so that software developers can make their own apps for the iRex DR800SG. We wouldn’t be surprised to see Amazon launch a Kindle app store, too. What kind of apps, you say? We think anything from a social-reading app from Goodreads to an enterprise app from Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) or Oracle would make e-readers vastly expand the possibilities for consumers and businesses.

5. Amazon will launch a suite of new touchscreen e-readers. Awkward Kindle keyboard, begone! We think 2010 will bring several entirely new e-readers from Amazon, featuring touchscreens, color (by the end of the year), and flexibility (e.g., displays that don’t require a glass backpane, so they’ll be less prone to breakage). These new devices will keep Amazon in the news and top-of-mind for consumers who are considering buying e-readers.

6. B&N will steal market share from Amazon and Sony. This year was a setup year for B&N, and 2010 will see its efforts start to pay off. In 2009, B&N acquired Fictionwise, launched its own eBookstore and reading app for mobile phones and PCs, announced partnerships with e-reader manufacturers Plastic Logic and iRex, and launched its own Nook e-reader (which it promptly sold out of). In 2010, B&N will rack up significant sales of Nooks and e-books, as some consumers look for an Amazon alternative. Sony will launch its own new devices, and will work on improving the software and book-buying experience. B&N will end up taking market share from both Amazon and Sony, but Amazon will retain its dominant position as market leader.

7. E-book content sales will top $500 million in the U.S. In the first three quarters of 2009 (through September), U.S. e-book content sales have more than doubled from a year ago: Wholesale revenues reported to the AAP for January through September 2009 top $109 million, compared with $52.4 million for all of 2008. And these numbers tell only part of the story: AAP data represents wholesale, not retail, revenue; what the retailer collects from the consumer could be more (or less) than what the retailer pays to the publisher. In addition, AAP data represents only a subset of trade e-book publishers, and it excludes major markets like education, libraries, and professional electronic sales. This means that AAP data, while directionally useful, far under-reports the true size of the e-book content market. Considering the growth rate of e-book trade sales (up 176% year-to-date), we think it’s reasonable to project overall e-book revenue will top $500 million in the U.S. in 2010.

8. E-textbooks will become more accessible, but sales will be modest. If you’re holding your breath waiting for the electronic textbook market to take off, slowly start exhaling, because it won’t happen in 2010. Despite the hullabaloo from Amazon about the Kindle DX, the device is a dud for textbooks. Students who have tested them at Northwestern and at Suffolk University that we’ve spoken to complain not just about shortcomings of the device, but more importantly, about the lack of content—they say they wouldn’t mind shelling out for a new device if they could get all their textbooks on it. In 2010, this isn’t likely to happen. Why? Publishers aren’t ready to relinquish control over how their content is sold and displayed. For example, the publisher-owned CourseSmart has a substantial content catalog for online subscription but isn’t available on portable devices other than iPhones, and won’t be available on new, textbook-optimized devices like the Entourage Edge because of the proprietary format and DRM that CourseSmart uses.

9. Magazine and newspaper publishers will launch their own apps and devices. Magazine and newspaper publishers aren’t satisfied with the way their content looks and acts on the Kindle and Sony Readers—they want color, video, interactivity, the ability to sell ads and control the subscriber relationship. Old media moves slowly, but in 2010 we’ll see them crawling towards some solutions. Time Inc.‘s John Squires is spearheading an effort to get other magazine publishers together in a joint venture, which would sell access to digital versions of their magazines that could be consumed on portable devices. The publishers hope this will give them more leverage with partners like Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) and Amazon, and will help them develop standards around how to display magazine content and ads. On the device front, the Hearst-funded FirstPaper promises to launch a newspaper-optimized eReader (we’ve seen it, it’s nice), and will focus on helping publishers with the back-end processes of getting their content and ads onto multiple portable devices, not just its own.

10. China, India, Brazil, and the EU will propel global growth, but the U.S. will still be the biggest market. Right now, the U.S. is the biggest market for e-readers and e-books, and that won’t change in 2010. But the rest of the world will start to catch up. At least five new e-readers will launch in China (distributed through China Mobile), and two in India, which currently doesn’t have any homegrown products. Brazil has latent demand that some entrepreneurial company will tap into, and Europe, too, shows potential for e-book growth. According to a recent Forrester survey of 14,536 online consumers in the UK, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands and Sweden, 4% of consumers in these countries reported having paid for e-books in the past month, and 19% said they’d be willing to pay for e-books in the future.

Have your own predictions? Post them here or tell us about them on Twitter @srepps and @jmcquivey.

Sarah Rotman Epps and James McQuivey are analysts at Forrester Research, where they serve, and contribute to the Forrester blog for Consumer Product Strategy professionals.
http://paidcontent.org/article/419-ten-predictions-for-the-e-book-market-in-2010/

Wolfram 'search engine' goes live

A web tool hailed as a significant rival to search giant Google has gone live to the public.

It aims to give people direct answers to queries rather than send them to other sites where they may find what they are seeking.
The system is the brainchild of British-born physicist Stephen Wolfram.

Source : http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8052798.stm

Carole Lamarque has invited you to see a page from Fast Company:

Fast Company:

Is The Netbook Phenomenon Over? In a Way, Yes

BY KIT EATON New research by IDC points to falling sales of the chip that drives the majority of netbook PCs--Intel's Atom CPU. One suggestion is that the first quarter 33% drop is a sign that the netbook's rise to fame is on a down trend. In truth, that's not quite right. But the situation is complex.

Thanks

Source : http://www.fastcompany.com/blog/kit-eaton/technomix/netbook-phenomenon-over-way-yes

m.humo.be: persbericht

Michel Georgis, Executive Vice President Consumer Business Unit & CEO Proximus: “Proximus is blij met deze innovatie die zowel bestaande gebruikers van mobiel internet als Humo lezers die nog geen mobiel internet gebruiken zal aanspreken. De M.humo.be is een mooi voorbeeld van een multi media site, waarop alle voordelen van het beste 3G netwerk van België tot zijn recht komen“

m.humo.be: persbericht

Yannic Beckers, Algemeen Directeur Paratel: “Innovatie is belangrijk, maar het moet werken. Het bouwen van een mobiele multimediasite vergt specifieke kennis. We hebben voor dit project echt ons ding kunnen doen: een volledige one-stop-shop aanpak. Ik ben fier op het resultaat.“

m.humo.be: persbericht

Gaetan Van Maldegem, Country Director Coca-Cola Benelux: “Voor Coca-Cola zijn innovatie en creativiteit belangrijk in al onze marketingcampagnes zowel offline als online. Door als eerste te adverteren op m.humo.be gaan we nu nog een stap verder. Coca-Cola en m.humo.be sluiten bovendien perfect bij elkaar aan: Coca-Cola is aanwezig op de vele evenementen, concerten en festivals die HUMO aan zijn lezers zal aanbevelen. Onze steun aan m.humo.be laat ons ook toe de link te leggen tussen het offline en online gebeuren.“

m.humo.be: persbericht

Aimé van Hecke, CEO van Sanoma Magazines Belgium: "We zijn verheugd om te kunnen blijven innoveren, ondanks economisch moeilijke tijden. Op mobiel internet verwachten mediagebruikers naast innoverende technologieën ook relevante inhoud. De lancering van M.humo.be is voor Sanoma Magazines Belgium een nieuwe strategische stap in de publicatie van onze sterke content op nieuwe platformen. We hebben deze innovatie kunnen waarmaken dankzij de samenwerking met sterke partners zoals Coca-Cola, Paratel-Enmovi en Proximus."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GnpM4w9A5RQ

m.humo.be: persbericht

Die ochtend op uw gsm
Humo gaat mobiel

VIDEO DEMO : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GnpM4w9A5RQ

Vandaag lanceert het weekblad Humo één van de allereerste Belgische multimediasites voor gsm's: m.humo.be, de mobiele tegenhanger van www.humo.be.

Mobiele websites staan aan de vooravond van de doorbraak. Ter illustratie: van de 200 miljoen gebruikers van de socialenetwerksite Facebook surfen er al meer dan 30 miljoen via hun gsm, en die groep is haast 50 procent actiever dan pc-gebruikers. Sites aangepast aan dit nieuwe medium, met de klemtoon op gebruiksgemak en toegankelijkheid, hebben de toekomst.

Met m.humo.be bedient Humo de lezer meer dan ooit op zijn wenken. Wie op koopjesjacht is, kan zich in drukke winkelcentra laten gidsen door Humo's muziek-, boeken-, film- en dvd-selectie. Wie op de valreep wil weten of er nog wat te beleven valt die dag, is één klik verwijderd van Humo's agenda of, voor thuisblijvers, Humo's tv-gids. Populaire rubrieken als Uitlaat zijn in een handomdraai te volgen. Met andere woorden: instantinformatie en -entertainment voor de mobiele surfer, overal en altijd.

m.humo.be is op zich helemaal gratis. Gebruikers hebben alleen een gsm met internettoegang nodig en een gsm-abonnement dat mobiel surfen mogelijk maakt.

Om de lancering te vieren, presenteert Gunter Lamoot, winnaar van Humo's Comedy Cup 2005, elke werkdag exclusief op m.humo.be een nieuwe aflevering van zijn '2½ Minuut Lamoot Show'.

Sanoma Magazines Belgium ontwikkelde het state-of-the-art platform van m.humo.be met de steun van Coca-Cola, Paratel-Enmovi en Proximus.

Twitter Traffic Explodes.. And Not Being Driven by the Usual Suspects!

° Worldwide visitors to Twitter approached 10 million in February 2009, up an impressive 700+% YOY
° 18-24 year olds, the traditional social media early adopters, are actually 12% less likely than average to visit Twitter
° 25-54 year old crowd that is actually driving this trend
° 45-54 year olds are 36% more likely than average to visit Twitter, making them the highest indexing age group, followed by 25-34 year olds, who are 30 percent more likely.

Twitter seems to be just about everywhere these days, infiltrating pop culture and challenging traditional communication channels as people answer the simple Twitter question, “What are you doing?” Many people have hopped on the Twitter bandwagon - from businesses to celebrities to professional sports players to President Obama.

Over the past several months, comScore has watched how quickly traffic to Twitter has exploded. Worldwide visitors to Twitter approached 10 million in February, up an impressive 700+% vs. year ago. The past two months alone have seen worldwide visitors climb more than 5 million visitors. U.S. traffic growth has been just as dramatic, with Twitter reaching 4 million visitors in February, up more than 1,000% from a year ago.

Reuters reporter Alexei Oreskovic recently authored an interesting blog post about the demographics of Twitter users. What he discovered was that 18-24 year olds, the traditional social media early adopters, are actually 12 percent less likely than average to visit Twitter (Index of 88). It is the 25-54 year old crowd that is actually driving this trend. More specifically, 45-54 year olds are 36 percent more likely than average to visit Twitter, making them the highest indexing age group, followed by 25-34 year olds, who are 30 percent more likely.

The skew towards older visitors, although perhaps initially surprising for a social media site, actually makes more sense than you might think at first. With so many businesses using Twitter, along with the first generations of Internet users “growing up” and comfortable with technology, this is a sign that the traditional early adopter model might need to be revisited. Not only teenagers and college students can be counted among the “technologically inclined,” which means that trends are much more prone to take off in older age segments than they used to. And with those age 25 and older representing a much bigger segment of the population than the under 25 crowd, it might help explain why Twitter has expanded its reach so broadly so quickly over the past few months.

Source : http://www.comscore.com ° By Sarah Radwanick

All The Smartphone Mobile App Stores

All The Smartphone Mobile App Stores
By John Herrman, Apr 6 2009

° Two distinct kinds of app store:
° The primary store, which is the first and only source of an OS's apps - Apple
° The secondary store, which is built around an existing stock of third-party apps, and with preexisting developers in mind - BlackBerry, Microsoft, Nokia
° Google doesn't alienate users by destroying entire categories of apps, isn't forced to come into conflict with carriers because of overly liberal policies
° The newest BlackBerry mobile app store, is not spectacular
° Windows, non-exclusivity & app approval transparency, a 24-hour return policy and wide device support
° Nokia, will be the most open of all the app stores

It's been less than a year since Apple launched the iPhone App Store, but now virtually every mobile OS is showcasing its own take on the mobile application storefront. How do they all stack up?

The first thing you'll notice about these efforts—coming from such traditionally competitive companies as Palm, BlackBerry, Nokia and Microsoft—is just how similar they all sound. App World? App Catalog? App Market? Mobile Marketplace? This outward likeness actually runs pretty deep—these stores are advertising uncannily similar feature sets, for both users and developers:

Although it might not evident in the feature-by-feature breakdown above, there are two distinct kinds of app store: The primary store, which is the first and only source of an OS's apps (see Apple), and the secondary store, which is built around an existing stock of third-party apps, and with preexisting developers in mind (see BlackBerry, Microsoft, and Nokia). It's a combination of these different lineages and divergent policy choices that make the smartphone app store experience so varied.

° Apple's iPhone App Store
At least for now, the App Store is the standard by which all others are judged. Beyond that, it's given us a rough guide for what works. With a $99 dollar developer's fee and a novice-friendly SDK, the barriers of entry for an iPhone developer are fairly low. Distribution, payments and to a large extent marketing are managed by iTunes, which iPhone owners are necessarily familiar and comfortable with.

And, of course, there's the iPhone: This store may only serve one handset (and its very similar nonphone brother), but it's a wildly popular one. This makes the app store uniquely attractive to developers, because it provides access to the largest uniform app-buying market in the world. Microsoft can argue that Windows Mobile 6.5 will connect developers to x gajillion different customers through y zillion different handsets, but this variety is a curse: Handsets have different resolutions, processors, 3D hardware, input types and basic feature sets. A motion-sensing 3D game with a GPS social networking feature won't work on a lot of WinMo handsets, but a 2D, keypad-controlled Asteroids clone won't make a developer rich.

But the App Store is far from perfect. Apple, like all App Store owners, has the final say in what gets listed, delisted or banned, and they aren't afraid to remind us of this. Along with the typical risque/racist/infringing content prohibitions, Apple enforces strict and often limiting rules against apps that compete with the iPhone's native set—iTunes, Mail.app, Safari to name a few—and apps that their partnered carriers aren't too fond of, i.e video streaming and tethering apps. Now, all these rules are showing signs of loosening with OS 3.0, but as long as the App Store is the sole source of iPhone apps, any rules will seem like too many rules—especially if you're accustomed to a totally unregulated system like Windows Mobile 6.1's. Hence, the gray market.

° Android App Market
This second major entrant into the app store race represents a consciously different approach than Apple's, but not in that many ways. Immediately, we see a lot to compare: A single-handset userbase (at least for now), low costs for developers and a presence as the primary—though not sole—source of apps from Day One.

But the App Market is a different breed than the App Store. Most importantly, it's not the only place you can get apps. Google has been much more lenient about what they allow in their store since the beginning but in the rare case that they don't approve of an app, as in the case of tethering apps earlier this month, you can just go download an .APK file and sideload it onto your G1 anyway. This is a healthy middle ground for everyone involved; Google doesn't alienate users by destroying entire categories of apps, but isn't forced to come into conflict with carriers because of overly liberal policies. Google has also made their Market more friendly to consumers, with a no-questions 24-hour return policy.

Great! Then why is the App Market so underwhelming? Well, the G1 wasn't exactly a runaway hit, and the store got off to a slow start. Paid apps weren't made available for months after launch, and when they arrived they didn't benefit from the convenience and familiarity of a storefront like iTunes. Moreover, there's no guarantee that things will change that much in the coming months—more handsets from more manufacturers will boost Android's user numbers, but will lead to the WinMo-style toxic fragmentation that Apple so adamantly avoids.

° BlackBerry App World
The newest BlackBerry mobile app store, is not spectacular. RIM's is the beginning of this "secondary" app store concept, and it shows: You'll be hard-pressed to find anything here that wasn't previously available elsewhere. It is simply an aggregator for existing applications.

This was a given, as developers have been cranking out BlackBerry apps for years now. But App World was a great opportunity for RIM to give the lethargic dev community a shot in the arm. Instead of doing that, they've made the store almost hostile to would-be app writers.

Listing your wares in App World costs a hefty $200, which gives you the right to upload 10 apps, but doesn't come with any new SDKs or development tools. The payment system is PayPal, which is clumsy to use and a pain to set up. A minimum non-free price tier of $2.99, probably intended to filter out spammy apps and cover PayPal's transaction fees, discourages developers from even trying to make simple, useful apps, eliminating the $.99-to-$1.99 sweet spot that has been central to Apple's success. App World feels like an afterthought, and a reluctant one. UPDATE: It should be noted that the 70% dev revenue share figure in the chart is incorrect, and has been update to 80%—a marked advantage over the other stores.

° Windows Mobile Marketplace
With Windows Mobile 6.5, Microsoft will introduce the Windows Mobile Marketplace. So far, their announcements have shown an awareness of the pitfalls of both Apple's and RIM's approaches: They're emphasizing non-exclusivity and app approval transparency, a 24-hour return policy and wide device support, but also making sure to get big-name app and game developers on board to ensure that users actually have something new to look forward to at launch.

On the developer side, it's a mixed bag. As in every other store, the dev take-home is 70% of each sale, but the listing fees aren't great. $99 gets you five apps a year, but anything beyond that will cost an additional $99. I'm sure this will help vaccinate the Marketplace against the fart app epidemic that Apple has proven so prone to, but it'll do so at the expense of potentially useful free and $0.99 apps—again, a crucial price range. One important factor that's still TBD is the payment system. Microsoft says they'll support both credit card payments and carrier charges, but hasn't yet said how that'll look. In both cases the process will need to be as seamless as possible.

° Nokia Ovi Store
You probably haven't heard much about this store, set to debut within a month, but it's kind of a big deal for the 40m+ Symbian S40 and S60 users that it'll serve apps to. It's planned to shoehorn into Nokia's new Ovi app suite, which we were introduced to with the XpressMusic 5800, and provide a go-to source for not just apps, but ringtones, wallpapers, and basically everything else that you might have found in a 2001 vintage carrier WAP store.

There has been a decided lack of fanfare surrounding this launch, probably because there just aren't that many Nokia smartphones in the US. But its success or failure will be informative: It will be the most open of all the app stores. For the time being, there is no developer fee, and app listings are free and unlimited. You can easily publish tons of different kinds of content—Flash Lite apps, Java apps, Native S60 apps, multimedia uploads and others—which will be subject to a vetting process that Nokia has assured will be minimal. As Nokia-averse Americans, we can view the Ovi Store as an experiment in laissez-faire app-mongering—a multi-handset, mixed-media, unfiltered feed of Symbian content.

° Palm App Catalog
And finally, we have Palm's App catalog. This is the store we know the least about, but that is already set for a different course than all the others. At launch, the only handset it'll serve will be the Pre—though Palm has indicated that other WebOS handsets are inevitable. It'll be the first—and likely exclusive—source of WebOS apps, and developers will be furnished with a solid, though fundamentally limited, SDK.

Palm's still-vague plan for the App Catalog will no doubt be central to the success or failure of the Pre, but we can make an educated guess at what to expect, assuming that Palm doesn't get taken over by idiots in the next couple months: Palm will vet the apps thoroughly, provide an in-house payment system, and make development simple and cheap (previewed Mojo SDK apps have shown great promise). The end result will probably look something like the iPhone App Store, but with one huge difference: there will be no local natively running apps—the Mojo SDK doesn't provide for that, just for what amount to turbocharged, locally-stored web apps. Granted, these web apps will have privileged access to some of WebOS's core functions, but it's doubtful that high-end gaming, as we've seen on the iPhone, will even be possible on the platform. These limitations (along with WebOS's multitasking advantages) will affect the nature and quality of the apps that are listed in the store much more than the Catalog's policies, though exactly how, we'll have to wait and see.

Still something you still wanna know? Send any questions about app stores, SDKs or the finest in fart-app technology to tips@gizmodo.com, with "Giz Explains" in the subject line.

Micro-Billing, Suits the World of Cellphones ° The phone rings and we pay

Micro-Billing, Byte by Byte, Suits the World of Cellphones

° The phone rings and we pay
° Consumers like the instant gratification of downloading on the go
° Phone industry has been charging for content
° Paying on the phone feels different, and more reasonable, than paying online

By MATT RICHTEL and BOB TEDESCHI
Published: April 5, 2009
LAS VEGAS — As the music, film, television, newspaper, book and video-game industries strain to find a way to thrive in the new digital marketplace, one seems to have figured it all out.

Piper Jaffray, a market research firm, expects cellphone downloads like music, videos and games to be a $13 billion market by 2012, compared with $2.8 billion this year.

Consumers are using their mobile phones to download tens of millions of games, songs, ring tones and video programs. And they shell out money for these items, even as they resist paying for similar digital goodies online using their computers.

It is a curious equation: pay for stuff on a tiny, low-resolution screen while getting some of the very same games and video free on a fancy widescreen monitor.

At its annual trade show in Las Vegas last week, the phone industry pushed new software stores, video players, games and content. Their efforts are based on a digital twist on Pavlov: The phone rings and we pay.

“There’s been no expectation that anything would be free,” said David Chamberlain, an analyst with In-Stat, a market research firm. “The telcos have been very careful not to give stuff away.”

By contrast, he said, “a lot of people on the Internet are wondering — why did we let all this stuff go for free?”

It may have to do with each industry’s origins. “Information wants to be free” has long been the rallying cry for many Internet pioneers. As the mythology goes, the designers of the Internet envisioned it as utopian and open — two words rarely used to describe the phone experience.

One example of the stark difference between the phone and the computer is the concept of micropayments. Newspapers and other content producers have examined the method — getting people to pay for content with a nickel here and a dime there — as a possible answer to their revenue problems on the Web.

But the phone industry has had a micropayment system for decades. Ever since the local telephone company charged a customer an extra 35 cents to hear a recorded weather forecast, the phone industry has been charging for content.

Couple that pervasive billing culture with the ability of consumers to get what they want, whenever and wherever they want it (playing Tetris while waiting in line at Starbucks, for example) and you have a powerful alchemy. Piper Jaffray, a market research firm, published a report recently saying it expected consumers to spend $13 billion on downloads to their phones in 2012, up from $2.8 billion this year. The report called Apple’s popular iPhone application store “a tipping point in consumer consumption” over phones.

Apple’s payment model strongly resembles that of the phone industry. A consumer enters his credit card data once, and all subsequent downloads are automatically charged to that account.

By making the process convenient, Apple has been able to sell software applications that, accessed through a computer, would be free. LiveStrong’s calorie-counter app, for example, is free online but a version of it costs $2.99 in the iPhone App store.

But to some consumers, paying on the phone feels different, and more reasonable, than paying online. Sabrina Sanchez of Pleasanton, Calif., a mother of two teenage boys has found herself with mounting bills from downloaded navigation tools and games, like a Star Wars game that turns their iPhones into light sabers.

Ms. Sanchez said she finally started setting down rules in February when her 12-year-old racked up $25 in charges in a month.

“I don’t want him to get used to the instant gratification,” she said. “It’s like a slot machine.”

Ms. Sanchez said she and her children were much more likely to buy things like games on the phone than on the computer. “I have not bought a casual game on the Net. The kids have bought a couple, but not like on the phone.”

Content developers say consumers like the instant gratification of downloading on the go. By contrast, PC users have to go through a few more steps to pay for items online because, most of the time, they must enter credit card information for each purchase.

Research shows that the more steps a person must take to pay, the less likely he is to buy something. Besides, people have simply become used to paying for things on the phone.

One paid service on phones is TV shows, sold through services like MobiTV of Emeryville, Calif., which packages television programming for phones. About 5.5 million people in the United States are paying $10 or more for MobiTV from AT&T, Sprint and Alltel. “People can’t carry around a 48-inch plasma TV,” said Ray DeRenzo, senior vice president of MobiTV.

But there are others who question how much longer consumers will be willing to pay for content on the phone.

Paul Jacobs, the chief executive of Qualcomm, which offers a mobile TV service called MediaFlow, said the company expected before long to start offering broadcast channels free while charging only for premium programming, like cable shows.

Despite the success of paid phone applications, there are thousands of free applications available. One company, called GetJar, offers some 20,000 services, including games and productivity software, and has been getting 33 million downloads a month.

Apple has plenty of free applications too; Skype, which lets you make free calls over the Internet was downloaded one million times in the first 48 hours after it was introduced last week.

Still, providers of content for mobile devices remain happy about their ability to get paid. One is Kinoma, a Palo Alto, Calif., company whose $30 browser software lets mobile phone users surf the Web and organize their music, among other things.

Brian Friedkin, the company’s co-founder, said he had sold “many thousands” of downloads — though they are features that are free on a PC.

“It’s tough to say why mobile users are more willing to pay,” he said. “But it’s great for us.”

Source : http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/06/technology/06cell.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss

Mobile software, data fees in spotlight at CTIA

http://us.mobile.reuters.com/m/FullArticle/p.rdt/CTECH/ntechnologyNews_uUSTRE52Q4DE20090328

Gartner Says Worldwide Mobile Phone Sales Grew 6%

Gartner Says Worldwide Mobile Phone Sales Grew 6 % in 2008, But Sales Declined 5 % in the Fourth Quarter

Inventory De-Stocking Lifted 4Q08 Sell-In by More Than 17 Million Units in Fourth Quarter

Egham, UK, March 2, 2009 — The global economic downturn had a significant impact on the mobile phone industry as worldwide mobile phone sales to end users totalled 314.7 million units in the fourth quarter of 2008, a 4.6 per cent decline from the fourth quarter of 2007, according to Gartner, Inc. Manufacturers continued to struggle against low consumer confidence in both emerging and mature markets.

The top five mobile phone vendors all experienced a decline in sales in the fourth quarter of 2008. The industry did experience growth for the year, with worldwide mobile phone sales to end users surpassing 1.22 billion units in 2008, a 6 per cent increase over 2007 sales.

http://www.gartner.com/it/page.jsp?id=904729

economic recession what to do

• economic recession what to do

Vodafone CEO, Vittorio Colao
The affordability question is a dangerouse one, as is The delay question. When our customers ask themselves if they can afford or if they should delay the purchase of our products, it impacts the fairly good telco sector. With mobile customer consuming 44min/user/day, telco’s achieve globally 7% mobile growth – 19% data growth.

Threats ::
° Regulation
° Capacity constraints
° Monetization challenge
° Commoditisation magnet

Solution:: Customer Value
° Speed ° Ubiquity
° Ease of use
° Relevance
° Trust ° Data protection
° Affordable

next generation mobile phonebook

• next generation mobile phonebook

The next generation phonebook will help you to find people & places. It brings the phonebook to life. The status is mentioned, it tells you if the person is in ‘meeting’ or on ‘silence’ mode, so you better send him an sms. Innovative applications allow the merger with the mobile directory data {Belgium 1207}, for 3€ a month per user you access phone numbers listed in the directory services, via the 3G network.

the network effect

• the network effect

GSMA Mobile Innovation
In the coming 10 to 15 years all electronic devices will be networked, we will reach a trillion networked devices, from the iPhone to your refrigerator.

Your relationship with your customer will change so will the business model, due to this ‘The Network Effect’.

The differentiation is no longer on the product itself but on the gathered data.

• * Jan data traffic through Opera browser up 18 pct m/m
• * Operators see data traffic crucial as voice revenues fall
• * Facebook, other networking services key sites on mobile

By Tarmo Virki, European technology correspondent

HELSINKI, Feb 25 (Reuters) - Global mobile data traffic through Internet browser firm Opera's mobile portal rose in January by 18 percent on the previous month, the fastest pace of growth since May 2008, Opera said on Wednesday.

Wireless operators are keen on raising revenue from Internet browsing and the social networking boom as revenue from traditional voice calls is declining.

Data traffic on mobile operators' networks rose on average 4.7 times last year, with some operators seeing traffic surge more than 10 times, boosted by the uptake of wireless data cards in laptops, according to telecoms equipment firm Nokia Siemens.

http://uk.reuters.com/article/governmentFilingsNews/idUKLP65246620090225

Economic Downturn Creates Opportunities for Mobile Advertising

In order to survive the difficult economic conditions, mobile operators and their advertising partners should bear in mind the following trends.

• Search advertising will become a key platform on mobile. Major online search players, such as Google and Yahoo!, are better placed to attract mobile advertising spend than new entrants or mobile-only players, at least in the short term.
• Producers of highly popular branded content will look to capitalise on brand by selling mobile advertising directly. For example, UK pay-TV provider BSkyB began offering mobile display advertisements in November 2008, served on its mobile sports and news syndicated services.
• Developing markets and 16–25 year-old users will be particularly responsive to mobile advertising. Attention has centred on targeting advertisements by subscriber interests or behaviour, but simpler targeting (by consumer age or level of market development) can be very effective as a lower-cost starting point.
• Ad-funded services and applications will be a significant growth area. As consumers tighten their budgets, ad-funded or ad-subsidised games, music, video and even messaging services on the mobile present excellent opportunities for advertisers to reach targeted audiences.

http://www.cellular-news.com/story/36139.php?s=h

Mobile content's 'long tail' disappears

Mobile content's 'long tail' disappears

Tim Green Oct 13 2008, 2:13pm

Research shows up to 92 per cent of songs in mobile stores have not been downloaded.

Research revealed to ME shows that consumers download just a small fraction of the songs available on full-track mobile services.

Remark : ME is a great publication, thanks Tim ° hope you had a very mobile time in Barcelona. Kevin Space would have said 'Always send the elevator back down'.

Full super article : http://www.mobile-ent.biz/news/31672/Mobile-contents-long-tail-disappears