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Good news!

The activities consumers used to perform on a desktop relating to eCommerce are moving to the smartphone platform.  Based on analysis from eMarketer and the Luxury Institute, affluent smartphone users are pioneering this transition from eCommerce activities that traditionally were performed at home on a desktop to performing those activities at the point of sale or other “remote” locations.

Bad news!

These changes are only going to hasten the demise of the feature phone with limited access to web browsing as lower socioeconomic strata demand the functionality of the smartphone platform.

Good news!

This migration will continue to support the move from landline data connections to wireless data connections.  The associated migration of the value from those landline data connections will continue to bolster the data revenues of wireless carriers as seen recently with revenue reports from AT&T and Verizon.

Bad news!

As the classic quote goes:

“The road to hell is paved with good intentions; the road to heaven is paved with good deeds.”

Wireless providers are going to need to step up and provide the coverage that will make these increased data revenues move from just the affluent to the general population ( the good deeds mentioned above… ). 

Opinion…

Having full strength of coverage, but not being able to connect to the Internet will have consequences.  Backhaul strategies from the tower to the Internet need to move to the forefront.  Focusing on “just” the speed from the device to the tower is a lesson that carriers should be learning today and not repeating tomorrow. 

How do you view the situation with network speed vs backhaul?

Post your comments below or email (John.Myers@BlueBuffaloGroup.com) / twitter (@BlueBuffaloGrp) me directly.

Ahhh yet another partnership for content…. This one is between Comcast and Blockbuster for DVDs by mail ala Netflix.

Jeff Baumgartner’s analysis shows many of the aspects of the partnership including the available tiers of service between the two content providers.

However, I have questions about how Comcast and Blockbuster are going to ensure that the revenues of this relationship can be properly assured.  Linking the proper account information will be key to this situation to match the proper information between the two organizations.

NOTE – Comcast is clearly in the driver seat with this partnership.  However, Comcast will still have the obligation to make sure that their customers are properly billed.  If the revenue assurance, in particular billing assurance, has issues; customer experience and satisfaction may suffer and/or the partnership may cost more than the ‘promised’ value to Comcast provides.

How do you view the situation with Blockbuster’s partnership? And the associated assurance of the revenues?

Post your comments below or email (John.Myers@BlueBuffaloGroup.com) / twitter (@BlueBuffaloGrp) me directly.

This week Verizon and Google put together a proposal on Net Neutrality.  Many in the “free as free beer as opposed to free speech” Net Neutrality crowd found the announcement to be a little less than they expected from Google.

Grant Gross’ analysis was excellent in terms of laying out the FCC role ( or more to the point, lack of a role… ) in the proposal. My favorite quote from the piece was/is:

"The agreement is even worse than previously thought, as it would remove rulemaking authority from the FCC and force them to give deference to a technical body," said Gigi Sohn, president of digital rights group Public Knowledge. "To have Google give in like this at the 11th hour is hugely disappointing."

Verizon’s position is not surprising to me.  They want to provide the backbone that makes companies competitive ( they also want to charge for it… ).  Google surprised me a bit just as they did other groups.  However, I think this shows that Google is seeing where the US stands in terms of broadband access speeds.

I believe the issue that for “free as free beer” Net Neutrality groups like Public Knowledge is that Google is starting the view Internet access as something that can be a competitive advantage rather than just a given.  Telecom carriers aren’t purposefully NOT implementing bandwidth… They are just looking for the business model that makes viable.

How do you view Google’s “change”/adjustment in Net Neutrality position?

Post your comments below or email (John.Myers@BlueBuffaloGroup.com) / twitter (@BlueBuffaloGrp) me directly.

I found a recent piece from Monica Alleven to have an interesting component to it.  The piece focused on the performance of the various ESPN mobile content offerings since the demise of the Mobile ESPN MVNO (mobile virtual network operator) a few years ago.  In the piece, Alleven says the following:

“Shelving its MVNO doesn’t seem to have hurt ESPN Mobile.”

This seemed curious to me since I didn’t particular view the MVNO play to be part of ESPN’s core competencies, but rather a distraction.

While price was the main reason I didn’t embrace Mobile ESPN, I found the fact that I had plenty of relatively free substitutes to Mobile ESPN content via equivalents (ie mobile web browser, desktop access).  To this day I continue to ( …and according the Alleven’s piece many others as well… ) access the ESPN website via iPhone provide just as much value to ESPN as they attempted to gain with their MVNO (ie eyeballs and clicks).

NOTE – The ESPN “Devil/Angel” logo was just too good to resist… ;)

In an era where the movie Avatar is making significant amounts of money, buzz and accolades because of the new fashion it presents its content – 3D, IMAX, blue…; there is a new way to look at content presentation – the small screen of the smart phone and/or the net book.

In this, many are consuming content ( …music, short-video, movies, gaming… ) on something not bound by a cable or a set of walls.  These content consumers have a huge appetite for both the content and the bandwidth that allows them to access that content anywhere.  Below shows some of the avenues for content access and their growth rates between now and 2013 compliments of Morgan Stanley via eMarketer.

NOTE – Even as telecom organizations promote the usage of their wireless data networks via new subscribers and up-sell opportunities to existing customers with the message of “unlimited data plans”; many telecoms are currently looking for ways to ‘curb’ their customers usage of the data network to prevent an “AOL-esqe” situation when AOL opened their network to unlimited usage in the 1990s.