“Smartphones accounted for 29 percent of all prepaid device sales in 2011, compared to just 5 percent three years ago, according to new survey data from marketing research group the Stevenson Company,” GigaOM writes.
Prepaid consumers generally pay full price for new handsets, unlike contract subscribers who get sizable discounts on their smartphones.
In 2011, 50 percent of all mobile phone purchases — both prepaid and postpaid contract plans — were smartphones and the gap between prepaid and contract users is closing, researchers found. Customers are also purchasing their prepaid services from other retailers like Walmart, not directly from the operators.
“Stevenson drilled deep into the demographic data and found that half of prepaid buyers had a household income of $35,000 or more, compared to 76 percent of postpaid buyers, and more than 55 percent of prepaid buyers owned their own home. Income and credit are no longer the sharp dividing lines between prepaid and postpaid,” the article states.
It’s Apple versus Nokia, RIM and Motorola in the battle for the new standard in smaller SIM cards. Nokia contends that Apple has bypassed the standards-setting process, ignoring rules for its own interests, so the phone manufacturer is fighting back.
“Nokia holds more than 50 patent families covering SIM related technologies that we believe may be essential to Apple’s proposal,” the company said in a statement. “We have informed ETSI that, if Apple’s proposal is selected, then Nokia will not license its relevant patents to that standard.”
Nokia seems more concerned about how the rules have been followed or broken and less worried about intellectual property. The company says Apple doesn’t even have the proper patents for its proposed design.
The tech giant has said it won’t require royalties if its proposal is accepted. However, “Nokia’s decision to withhold any of its patents that are ‘essential’ to Apple’s SIM design, should it be selected, would make life difficult for all ETSI members, not just Apple, when it comes to deciding on a future SIM card design,” GigaOM reports.
Nokia claims Apple’s behavior isn’t in the best interest of the industry or consumers, but hasn’t said which aspect of Apple’s design it objects to. Moreover, the article points out that a prolonged standards battle over this critical mobile technology doesn’t benefit consumers.
Taiwan’s Hon Hai Group, the owner of Apple products-maker Foxconn, invested $1.6 billion in the LCD producer, Sharp.
The deal initially seemed questionable since Sharp is expected to lose $3.49 billion this fiscal year and has only been operating at 50 percent capacity.
However, to some, the move indicates the iTV is soon to come.
A report from Daiwa Capital Markets analysts states: “We expect Apple to debut the iTV by the end of this year, and it is likely to adopt Sharp’s 10th generation TFT production line to produce TFT LCDs for iTVs. We believe Hon Hai will have better vertical integration for the Apple iTV following its stake acquisition in Sharp’s plant in Sakai.”
And according to Pelham Smithers, managing director of London-based Pelham Smithers Associates, the Sharp plant “is the most efficient plant at making 60-inch TV screens and as such, it could be the future of smart television,” adding “if anybody knows what Apple is going to be up to in the future, it’s Hon Hai.”
The researcher Simply Measured has found that brands are getting 46 percent more engagement on average with the help of Facebook’s Timeline.
Topping the list of brands in percentage of change, Livestrong saw its engagement increase 161 percent, while Toyota experienced a 156 percent jump.
The jump in numbers may be inflated since the results are based on only 15 brand pages, but it is weighted to take into account the engagement per post.
The data also shows that responses to status updates fell with the new format, but users are interacting 65 percent more with videos and photos.
“Facebook reported that a week after introducing Timeline, some 8 million brands — roughly one-fourth of the brands on Facebook — had upgraded to the new design,” explains Mashable. “Those that didn’t will be ported over to Timeline on March 30.”
A source familiar with Google matters is saying the Internet giant is planning to launch a new commenting system to rival Facebook’s popular third-party comment platform.
“You can’t go anywhere these days without running into a site that is using Facebook’s third-party comment platform, and it looks like Google wants in on the action,” reports The Next Web.
The service will incorporate the Google+ platform, Web services and Web search. “A third party Google comment system would ensure that users are further plugged in to their Google accounts, and one step closer to Google+,” suggests the post.
It remains to be seen whether people will want to use the commenting system and how the offering will affect services that are solely dedicated to commenting, like Disqus and Livefyre.
The Federal Trade Commission has submitted a 73-page report concerning privacy practices of commercial data-collectors, asking Congress to pass privacy legislation and telling data aggregators to implement “Do Not Track” buttons in Web browsers this year.
“The agency also for the first time turned its attention to offline data brokers — which buy and sell names, addresses and other personal information — calling on them to create a centralized website providing consumers with better access to their data,” reports the Wall Street Journal. “The agency also wants legislation requiring data brokers to give consumers the right to see and make corrections to their information.”
The Digital Advertising Association, representing over 400 companies, has agreed to the FTC’s “Do Not Track” button request. However, certain associations make different distinctions on tracking; for some, “Do Not Target” is favorable, allowing data collection for market research and product development.
But all of this may not make an impact without legislation from Congress because the FTC can only monitor companies that voluntarily accept its guidelines. “The FTC can then use its authority to prosecute ‘deceptive’ behavior if companies that agree to the guidelines don’t live up to their promises,” the article explains.
Ipsos and Reuters released a poll of 19,216 adults from 24 different countries that found 85 percent of people connected online communicate via email and 62 percent use social networking sites.
Indonesia ranked highest for social media, with more than 80 percent using networking sites. Argentina, Russia and South Africa were next with about 75 percent utilizing social media.
Surprisingly, the U.S. had an average of only six out of ten people using social networking sites even though the most popular platforms were developed in the States. Japan was the lowest for social media at 35 percent.
The poll also found that the U.S. and Japan has not strongly adopted voice-over IP — audio conversations over the Internet — compared with Russia, Turkey and India, all of which had about three times the usage.
Email was highest in Hungary (at 94 percent) followed closely by Sweden, Belgium, Indonesia, Argentina and Poland.
While email usage remains high, social media has been gaining ground with more than half of the people worldwide using popular social media platforms. “It is true interconnection and engagement with each other,” said Karen Gottfried, research manager at Ipsos Global Public Affairs. “It is not just about a message back and forth but building messages across communities and only the meaningful messages stick.”
If Skype and free-texting apps that use Wi-Fi weren’t enough of a threat to the data revenue of major wireless carriers, new start-ups are infringing further, offering free data solutions on Clearwire’s network.
“FreedomPop, a company funded by Skype founder Niklas Zennstrom, will sell an iPhone case that gives consumers free access to 1 gigabyte of data from Clearwire Corp.’s 4G wireless network,” Bloomberg writes. “Another Clearwire partner, United Online Inc. (UNTD)’s NetZero, is offering 200 megabytes a month for free for as long as 12 months — so long as users buy a wireless modem, which can take the form of a small USB stick that plugs into the device.”
Last quarter, Verizon and AT&T took in a combined $12.2 billion from data but the free approach could change this. Starting off with free offers, the competing services can entice budget-conscious consumers who are frustrated by rate increases from AT&T and others.
“What Skype did for voice, Clearwire and partners want to do for data,” Bloomberg reports. “The idea is to undercut the prices for the service plans that let smartphones and tablets surf the Web and download applications.”
“There’s a growing awareness among American consumers that there are cheaper alternatives to the top four [wireless carriers],” says Emily Smith, an analyst at Pyramid Research.
Dr. Raymond Soneira, president of DisplayMate Technologies, has published the results of an extensive shoot-out between the iPhone 4, iPad 2 and new iPad with a focus on display technology.
The article specifically provides “a combination of objective praise and critical analysis of the Retina Display on the new iPad.”
Soneira explains some interesting specs regarding the Retina Display, questions what level of resolution is really necessary for a consumer device, draws comparisons to other tablets such as the Nook and Kindle Fire, offers suggestions for improvement and addresses features including power consumption, camera capability, color saturation and accuracy, and more.
In his conclusion, Soneira writes: “…the new iPad’s picture quality, color accuracy, and gray scale are not only much better than any other Tablet or Smartphone, it’s also much better than most HDTVs, laptops, and monitors. In fact with some minor calibration tweaks the new iPad would qualify as a studio reference monitor. So we have also awarded the new iPad the Best Mobile Picture Quality Award, which was previously held by the original Motorola Droid.”
A new report conducted by mobile security firm Lookout found that the average American loses his/her mobile device once a year, totaling to a combined value of $30 billion in losses for 2011.
The study also found that people in Philadelphia were most likely to lose their handset, that most phones were lost between 9:00 pm and 2:00 am, and people misplace their mobiles most often in coffee shops, bars, and offices.
“Lookout has created an interactive website — Mobile Lost & Found — to show its findings,” reports Digital Trends. “The website displays statistics for other countries besides the U.S. and also gives more information about its methodology.”
“Don’t forget, if you do happen to lose your phone, you can increase the chances of locating it by making sure you have the Find My iPhone app set up (for iPhone users, obviously); Android users, on the other hand, can use Where’s My Droid,” adds the post.
Hillcrest Labs says it has adapted its FreeSpace system to bring gesture recognition technology to Android and Windows 8 devices.
The company explains that the introduction of gyroscopes, accelerometers and other sensors has made phones viable candidates for Kinect-style movement recognition.
The FreeSpace motion engine is currently used in Roku set-top boxes and Smart TVs. Hillcrest Labs hopes to use the technology in phones and tablets by early next year.
According to SVP Chad Lucien, gesture recognition has wide potential. “In addition to being used in such obvious areas as gaming and augmented reality, sensors can detect when a phone is in a car, and can change the interface and aid indoor navigation by detecting where a phone has headed once it leaves GPS range,” he says.
“The Motion Picture Association of America released statistics today saying that Chinese theatrical revenue grew 35 percent to nearly $2 billion last year, making China the world’s third biggest film market behind the U.S. and Japan,” reports paidContent. “More quietly, though, a U.S.-based upstart VOD distributor, YOU On Demand, might be emerging as an even greater force for U.S. studio profits in China.”
YOU On Demand entered China under a 20-year exclusive contract from the government to run national VOD services.
The New York-based company, run by former professional wrestler Shane McMahon, drew attention last year when it signed Warner Bros. to the first VOD deal in China. Within the last month, the company announced agreements with Disney, Lionsgate and Magnolia Pictures. More studio partnerships are expected.
“YOU On Demand has been able to entice American studios with a ‘anything is better than nothing’ proposition, given the traditionally rampant piracy of U.S. video content in the region,” suggests the article. “Going forward, the company projects sizable revenue for its U.S. partners, who provide their video content on a revenue share basis under which they control a majority interest.”
New Paradise Laboratories, a Philadelphia-based theatrical company, is using social media to make its stories and characters available to the audience even before the show opens. This approach appeals directly to people who might not attend theaters but are active Internet users.
In their “Fatebook” production, NPL used Facebook, Twitter and Flickr to allow the audience to interact with the actors in character. The actual live show became the party where all the characters met.
In “Extremely Public Displays of Privacy,” one actor spent a year creating the character online that included pictures, songs and Facebook entries.
“What I loved the most was that I had a constant outlet for my creativity. I would follow my impulses. I was creating little pieces for my character,” explains actress Annie Enneking. “After the show closed, it felt like a little death.”
“In addition to molding the two characters’ lives online, the play also incorporated geo-location technology where a character guides you through a park,” reports Mashable. “Audience members could download a sound file for a 45-minute guided tour in a Philadelphia park. Online audiences can take a virtual walk online via YouTube. The third act completed the play with a real-time performance in Philadelphia where the theater is based.”
Can’t feel your phone vibrate in your pocket? You may soon be able to get a vibrating tattoo for your phone alerts. A new patent by Nokia outlines a magnetic ink for body tattoos that can connect to its smartphones.
“Ferromagnetic ink in the tattoo, applied to the body via stamp, tape, or ink, reacts to a smartphone’s magnetic field, meaning calls or voice mails received on a smartphone can then trigger a vibration in the tattoo’s magnetic ink,” Mobiledia explains.
Nokia hasn’t commented on the technology, leaving questions such as whether users can disable vibrations during sleep, Mobiledia points out.
There are also other up-and-coming haptic innovations reliant on magnetic vibrations that help blind students navigate computers and turn any surface into a touchscreen.
Market research firm Penn Schoen Berland recently polled 750 social network users ages 13 to 49 regarding their interests in social media and entertainment.
According to THR, 90 percent of respondents “view social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook as a new form of entertainment, and more than half say social media sites are important tastemakers in determining what to watch and buy. Perhaps more surprising, 80 percent of television viewers visit Facebook while they watch.”
“The poll found that a majority of 18-to-34-year-olds believe using social media while watching a movie in a theater would add to their experience, and nearly half would be interested in going to theaters that allowed texting and Web surfing,” reports THR.
“Millennials want their public moviegoing experience to replicate their own private media experiences,” says pollster Jon Penn. “Having dedicated social-media-friendly seats, or even entire theaters, can make the moviegoing experience more relevant and enjoyable for them.”