Apple’s Textbook & Education Plans – Part 1
Posted on February 3, 2012
A couple of months hence shall mark the 100th anniversary of the Titanic disaster. In response, I’ve been reading several books including Charles Lightoller’s memoirs, purchased from the Kindle store for ninety-nine cents. Lightoller was the ship’s senior surviving officer. His story is so incredible that fiction editors would likely reject the plot as too improbable. As playwright Oscar Wilde put it, “(audiences) will believe the impossible, but never the improbable”. More to the point, the experience of reading the e-book on an iPad via Kindle’s App hints at the potential for Apple’s iTextbooks and iTunes- U initiatives.
Download six minute audio narration here.
At age thirteen Lightoller apprenticed aboard a four-masted “three-skysail yarder.” Being an unfamiliar term, I put my finger on “skysail” to summon iPad’s dictionary which described it as “a light sail above the royal”. The definition was not useful since I was also unfamiliar with the meaning of “royal” sails. Fortunately, iPad’s dictionary also provided links to Google and Wikipedia. The Wikipedia link connected to a full explanation including photographs and diagrams identifying all the sails of a clipper ship. Read more…
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Fulfilling a Steve Jobs Vision
Posted on November 28, 2011
Today’s podcast is a twenty-five minute interview with Ulik Broida who is the Vice President of Marketing at Israel-based Wavion, which is a subsidiary of wireless equipment maker, Alvarion. Wavion specializes in Wi-Fi access points designed for outdoor use.
Earlier this month the senior founder at Trilogy Partnership disclosed that Steve Jobs was originally seriously considering whether Apple could build a nationwide Wi-Fi network for the iPhone. Since Wi-Fi spectrum is unlicensed Apple could build its own network thereby avoiding the possibility that the iPhone user experience would be dependent upon cellular carriers. Presumably, with the iPad on the drawing board, Jobs could see that much of Apple’s future growth would depend upon the availability of reliable wireless service at reasonable fees.
Download 25 minute audio interview to iPod, iPhone, or iPad.
According to Trilogy’s John Stanton, who spent a lot of time with Jobs during iPhone gestation, “(Jobs) wanted to replace carriers. He and I spent a lot of time examining whether a new carrier could be created synthetically with a national Wi-Fi network using unlicensed spectrum.” Jobs eventually partnered with AT&T, partly because the carrier agreed to subsidize the iPhone subscriber costs. Nonetheless, Stanton concluded, “If I were a carrier, I’d be concerned about the dramatic power shift that occurred.” Read more…
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Twenty Months Ahead of GigaOm
Posted on September 1, 2011
Last week market researcher GigaOm critiqued the CATV industry with an article entitled “Forget TV, broadband is the future of cable.” Apparently their analyst was prompted by what he termed a “surprise” comment from Time-Warner Cable’s CEO that “broadband was becoming the company’s anchor service.” The analyst then proceeded to explain that profit margins were higher in broadband and it’s really the prime service consumers want anyway.
Download two minute audio narration to iPhone, iPad, or iPod here.
Such conclusions fail to be news for Inside Digital Media subscribers since we provided much the same analysis in our December 5, 2009 podcast/post entitled “Cable Operators Will Abandon TV.” That’s nearly two years before GigaOm.
If you want market knowledge ahead of your competitors subscribe to our podcasts here our regular newsletter here – all at no charge. Read more…
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Creating Effective QR Code and Watermarking Campaigns
Posted on August 16, 2011
The key is to start at the end and work backward.
Consider the example of a print advertising campaign enhanced with QR Codes, Digital Watermarks, or other embedded signaling. Whatever the signaling methodology, the technology itself is not the strategy. Instead it is merely a tactical weapon to trigger a desired consumer response.
Download seven minute audio narration to iPhone, iPad, or iPod.
There are basically four steps. First, is to identify a concrete action the advertiser wants consumers to take. Second, is to design an ad that will capture attention. Third, is to determine what embedded signal payoff might motivate consumers to initiate the intended action. Fourth, is to minimize the “friction” encountered to complete such action.
Concrete Consumer Action
Normally the ultimate objective is to get consumers to buy the advertiser’s product or service. But shoppers are constantly hounded to “buy.” Another mere voice in the crowd is more likely to be resented than appreciated. Instead, methods of engagement or intermediate calls-to-action often get better results. Read more…
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New IPO in Wireless ISP Industry
Posted on June 29, 2011
A maker of radio transceivers and related hardware for the Wireless ISP industry recently filed papers with the Securities & Exchange Commission seeking authorization to sell stock to the public. Silicon Valley based Ubiquiti Networks plans to offer $200 million worth of stock. Some of the shares will be sold by existing shareholders which includes a venture capital firm as well as members of management. The venture firm has held the shares less than 18 months. As yet, there is no indication of the price at which public shares will be sold.
To download three minute audio narration now click here.
We have no opinion on the merits – or demerits – of the Ubiquiti Networks stock offering.
As the table below illustrates, revenues have grown rapidly. The company’s fiscal year ends tomorrow. From Fiscal 2008 to Fiscal 2010 sales grew from $22 million to $137 million. For the first three-quarters of Fiscal 2011 sales were up 34% from $97 million to $130 million.
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Wireless ISPs Echo Radio Common Carriers
Posted on June 21, 2011
Prior to the advent of cellular telephony about thirty years ago, a limited form of mobile telephone service was provided by two categories of FCC-authorized common carriers. First, and most familiar, were the telephone companies dominated by Bell. But there was a second class – almost forgotten today – termed Radio Common Carrier (RCC).
To download seven minute audio narration to iPhone, iPad, or iPod, click here.
RCCs were small operators who were not permitted to offer landline service. Typically the businesses evolved as a branch of even older family-owned companies involved in telephone answering or two-way radio dispatch services. At the dawn of cellular telephony radio paging was their main revenue source because the available frequencies could accommodate thousands of paging units, but each channel could handle only a single simultaneous telephone conversation. In the pre-cellular era, mobile telephone service was much like the party-lines common in rural areas during the 1930s and 40s. Read more…
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Third Internet Pipe
Posted on June 20, 2011
Earlier this month, the CEO of Time-Warner Cable publicly recognized the primacy of Internet access over traditional video services. Glen Britt said, “People are telling us that if they are down to their last dollar, they’ll drop broadband last.” Consequently, he anticipates a future marketing emphasis on “Single Play” Internet access as higher priced “Triple Play” bundled Internet-TV-Voice packages become less attractive to subscribers.
Download four minute audio narration to iPhone, iPad, or iPod.
Yet it appears Britt wants to implement “Single Play” in a manner failing to save consumers money. For example, he predicted consumption-based pricing which means the more Over-the-Top (OTT) video subscribers watch, the more they will pay. Additionally, he wants to charge subscribers a premium for OTT-videos merely to have them available for mobile devices. Representing consumer interests, David Pogue of The New York Times laments metered pricing “is one crazy, scary development” that could strangle the promise of cloud computing in the cradle. Read more…
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All Media Shall Become Interactive
Posted on June 13, 2011
Today we interact with Internet media nearly as routinely we checked our wristwatches to read time-of-day fifteen years ago. While the conversion might seem radical to consumers from 1996, the advent of portable connected devices such as smartphones and tablet computers implies an even more fundamental change in the future. In short, all media shall become interactive – not just Internet media.
Download audio narration to iPhone, iPad, and iPod — ten minutes.
The underlying force is a previously latent demand from sponsors for more effective advertising. As John Wanamaker put it about a century ago “Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don’t know which half.” Yet during the past decade, Google AdWords introduced a new paradigm. The service generates more than $25 billion annually by only charging sponsors for ads that are actually used by the consumer. At Google, advertising is targetable, accountable, and can be convincingly tracked. It is only a matter of time before sponsors will demand the same of all their advertising campaigns in whatever medium, whenever possible.
Significantly, app-enabled mobile devices are empowering traditional media to adapt to such a transformation because the portable units are evolving into cognitive prosthetics. Much as experienced amputees routinely use mechanical prosthetics as artificial limb extensions, habitual smartphone and tablet owners are starting to use the devices as convenient intelligence aids. They help users gain more information that would otherwise be unavailable, or difficult to obtain. For example smartphones can find price comparisons merely by scanning bar codes and other implanted signals off shelf merchandise labels. Specifically, a price-comparison app reads the barcode or embedded signal to (1) identify the merchandise and (2) display a website where up-to-date prices for the item from all merchants are complied. Read more…
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