Posts by Julie Ask (bio)

Julie Ask | September 22, 2008, 12:57 AM
OneWebDay in San Francisco by Meraki

Monday will be OneWebDay in San Francisco. Efforts around Gavin Newsom's vision to create an access cloud around San Francisco stalled a while back when plans that involved Earthlink ran into snags in the approval process. And, eventually Earthlink left the business of Muni Wi-Fi.

A new initiative with Meraki has been gaining momentum throughout the city. Rather than renting space from the city, they are mounting infrastructure on rooftops of private homes in part to minimize infrastructure costs. There's a lot more to their story if you check their website.

On OneWebDay Meraki will be installing infrastructure in the Tenderloin district of San Francisco on the 22nd. This neighborhood looks to be underserved. Most of San Francisco looks to be well covered by Wi-Fi (I blogged years ago about how I could see 20+ networks from my home and I'm sure the situation is even worse now with 802.11n) and is not in need of a Municipal network. Citizens without access are, however, in need of a low cost solution. Meraki looks to be an innovation and right-sized solution for some of the problems cities are looking to solve.

Julie Ask | September 11, 2008, 08:56 PM
My "Fun" Blackberry

RIM made a bunch of announcements today. MySpace, Tivo, Slacker ... they already had Facebook. Years ago the only people you saw using a Blackberry were overly serious investment bankers from Wall Street. It's fun now. It comes in colors. It has fun applications and a decent camera.

I was at a business dinner last night in San Francisco. There were a lot of suits around, but also some jeans - it's the left coast after all. There was an executive named Greg sitting next to me. He couldn't put his Blackberry down for more than a few minutes. He kept picking it up, pressing a few buttons, and then setting it back down. I glanced over a few times ... it wasn't email he was checking - it was his Facebook account. He was posting and checking to see what his friends were doing.

My friends are getting Blackberries now ... I think it's a sign that a device is mainstream when middle-aged women with children are regular users of a device or a service. And, they come in fun colors loaded with fun stuff to do.

Julie Ask | September 10, 2008, 12:56 PM
What's Hot at CTIA? Social Networking for Starters

CTIA seemed a bit quiet yesterday, but granted that was a day before the show floor opened. I'm glad I was around yesterday because I got the chance to see some really cool stuff - in addition to the nano-chromatics announced by Apple. For those of you who didn't see the new Nano's, there were some cool new additions. One of my favorites was use of the accelerometer - you shake the iPod and it shuffles. Hopefully, this functionality will come over to the iPhone. I'd like to train my iPhone with some simple gestures to dial, hang up, look up where my friends are, etc. So much fun potential lies ahead.

Aside from Apple, Verizon, Intercasting and Yahoo! all had some announcements around social networking. I just published some research on social networking opportunities for operators and handset manufacturers (it's posted on our site). There is also a summary in RCR.

Social Networking applications can be addictive, and they are not just for twenty-something's. Our research shows that those who use social networks online frequently have much higher data usage and buy more mobile applcations than others their age or other cell phone users. Right now, it's mostly about "following" activities with some communication and "sharing."

Aggregation of feeds is a good first step, but there is so much more potential if someone (a carrier? an infrastructure player? an online media company? a handset ODM?) can put together the pieces to leverage the PIM, network intelligence, handset capabilities, online media consumption, communication behaviors, etc. Putting the infrastructure in place such as Verizon is doing with Intercasting is a good move.

I also saw Yahoo's OneConnect on the iPhone. They take aggegration a step further with integration of Yahoo! contacts and communication apps. It's really well done.

Have had a sneak preview of some other applications and devices coming through the pipeline - I'm beginning to see some consumer experiences that are very compelling and likely to drive adoption.

Julie Ask | August 28, 2008, 01:12 PM
Using Location to Give Context to Content

I saw my first really good example today of using location to add context to content. It was simple, but good ... and to me I define good as useful/providing some utility.

I received an email from Orbitz alerting me to the fact that the Republican Nat'l Convention is in Minneapolis/St. Paul at the same time I will be there, and as a result, there could be a lot of traffic on specific highways.

There is a time component i.e., the dates I will be there. There is the location component. They know what highways are near the airport. They've predicted the impact of an event co-located in the city I'm visiting. It's well done.

This isn't mobile, but this is a great example of using context to deliver relevant content. I write a lot about location-based services and how to use an individual's current or future location to serve relevant content or ads. It's the kind of content I want on my cell phone.

Not sure who did this for Orbitz, but I'd be interested in hearing more about your technology.

Julie Ask | August 04, 2008, 04:34 PM
SinglePoint's Ad Insertion Technology

SinglePoint announced today their availability of dynamic ad insertion technology. Kudos to them for getting this done. Ads a layer of targeting to SMS that has been limited to content to date. Granted, there isn't much space in an SMS for much advertising, but it's a big step in the right direction in terms of increasing the relevance and value of the inventory.

Julie Ask | August 04, 2008, 12:44 PM
My Tivo Phone

I was reading this post on MocoNews this morning on Toshiba closing down their mobile TV subsidiary. I wasn't surprised - I think anyone in mobile video delivered to cell phones will need to have cash and patience to see this through. I found a link in the article to One-Seg and their 20 million-handset mark. This intrigued me. At the same time, MobiTV announced today that they had reached four million subscribers. (Congratulations!) The same article estimated MediaFLO's subscriber base at about 200,000. Also notable is the slowing in growth of mobile video add's.

So, a lot of interesting news around mobile video today. Our research confirms the waning to flat consumer interest in mobile video. At the same time, interest and consumption of video online has never been higher. People want to time-shift, place-shift, catch-up on what they've missed on TV and see UGC among other types. Certainly a PC offers a different experience than a handheld, but on a plane ... an iPhone-sized experience, I think, is a very good one. OneSeg seems to have hit on a winning experience with free service on a terrestrial network, DRM-free, and time-shifting by allowing consumers to record video on their devices. Ok, so they haven't exactly identified a revenue stream, but they have figured out how to get consumers to watch.

Julie Ask | July 31, 2008, 11:56 AM
T-Mobile Hits Market with New Services Targeted Towards Parents

T-Mobile announced a new set of services (Family Allowances) today targeted toward parents with children with cell phones. It allows parents to set limits on minutes, messages and downloads. Parents also have the ability to limit use to specific times of the day while still allowing for “necessary” calls (i.e., Mom calling). Our research has shown that these services address real pain points for parents and teens. Nearly one-sixth of teens surveyed reported that they argued with their parents about their cell phone bills and had issues with their bills being too high. On the flip side, approximately one-fifth of parents were willing to pay for a range of services giving them the ability to manage monthly expenses and limit usage by their children. At $2 per month, it should be a no-brainer to add this feature to their plans.

Julie Ask | July 25, 2008, 05:36 PM
Facebook Connect - Simplifying Mobile Use Cases

Saw this Facebook Connect write up today in the NYTimes.

The single username and password option is one that I like a lot and should facilitate ease of use.

I've been using Loopt and Loopt with Facebook and Facebook with Loopt, I think. I can post from within Loopt on my iPhone to Facebook. There is an application or widget within Facebook that lets me see where my Facebook friends are on a map IF they are signed up for Loopt. I've used Facebook to invite some friends to sign up for Loopt, but I haven't had any conversions yet. I'm still hopeful for a chance encounter with a friend who happens to be nearby.

What I'd like is for a single map on Facebook to show me where my friends are regardless of what application or service or cellular provider or handset, etc. they are using. I can accept that there are competing location applications on my phone for now, but I still do wish there were one map with all of this stuff on it.

Simpler will help - working through getting these applications running has been challenging and required some calls to customer service.

Facebook Connect looks to be a step in the right direction.

I just finished a large piece of research on the roll of cell phones in social graphs and networks. I think the kinds of applications and services described above have the potential to really drive data usage and adoption of high end handsets.

Julie Ask | July 24, 2008, 11:55 AM
AdMob iPhone Ad Units

AdMob announced new ad units for the iPhone today that take advantage of unique features of the touch screen user interface. They’ve done some cool stuff such as letting users slide the units to get more information as well as obtain more information (embedded XHTML mobile page) without leaving their existing session (Custom Canvas). This should be very attractive to both media companies and advertisers. Media companies don’t lose their audience while advertisers get more real estate and interactivity. One can also interact with the Canvas – fill out forms, play games, etc.

My favorite part of their announcement, however, is the “action icons” in the ad units. They can launch videos, maps, application store, web, etc.

My colleague Neil Strother just finished some research on the need for call-to-action within mobile advertising. Enabling direct response and driving product sales are two of the top five or so objectives that marketers have when leverage mobile advertising. They also want metrics – click-through-rates (CTR’s) have been fairly straightforward for networks to report, but call-to-action is more difficult when one session is abandoned for another. Quantifying the impact of mobile advertising in terms of actual leads generated or sales delivered should be a hit with advertisers. Already, nearly one-sixth want to utilize click-to-call to generate leads real time. More than twice that number wants to drive product sales. An integrated ad experience that provides a map, telephone number, driving directions, etc. is certain to deliver on a large portion of the advertisers’ wish lists. Like many other mobile initiatives, we now need to wait on inventory (= audience). Will be interesting to watch and see the impact of the 3G iPhone on the ad market during the second half of this year.

It’s very cool stuff as far as ad units go. I raised the question at a recent IAB event – which platform is more important to advertisers, Apple’s or Google’s Android? Android hasn’t launched yet, and Apple has a relatively small, but active user base. I asked a panel of four experts this question, and they were evenly split in their answers.

Julie Ask | July 23, 2008, 10:36 AM
Impact of iPhone on AT&T's ARPU

I first blogged about the Apple iPhone and the new approach they were taking with AT&T last year. (see blog) There wasn't much more than a small AT&T logo at the top of the screen to indicate the network. Apple owned the experience and the customer. Customers were paying for the phones in addition to about $20 per month in data access and a voice plan. Things seemed to be working well.

I walked by the Apple store in SF a day before the new 3G version went on sale. There was only one person lined up. (see post) When I walked by the SF store on day #4, however, there were probably 50 or 60 people in line - and this was AFTER Apple and AT&T announced they had already sold one million. I walked by the Apple Store near Central Park on day #10 and there were still police gates to contain what seemed to be more than 100 people still in line. I walked by the same store on day #12, and there was a sign posted out front that said "3G iPhones are not available. Please check online for store availability." So, the line I saw a couple of days before wasn't just Europeans taking advantage of the strong Euro to buy iPods. The device seems to be gaining in popularity as more people get it.

I knew the $199 price tag was attractive, but I thought the $30 per month in data charges alone would slow down registrations. At Jupiter, we've always maintained that consumers will pay for good experiences and that consumers don't simply expect everything for free. (see research)

Just off the AT&T earnings call. They announced that 18 percent of their customers have "integrated devices." They have 72.9 million subscribers as of the end of Q2 2008. (so new 3G iPhone customers don't count) They stated that those customers with integrated devices have an average ARPU that is double their average customer's ARPU. They also commented that 40 percent of 3G iPhone customers were new to AT&T. AT&T had approximately 5 million gross add's in Q2 - they've made a good start on topping this number in Q3.

And ... AT&T isn't even benefiting from the application sales directly. As is typical of new phone owners, I loaded up my iPhone with about a dozen new applications the first weekend. I spent more on games for my cell phone in one weekend than I have in the previous five yeras combined.

Julie Ask | July 10, 2008, 02:21 PM
Short Line in SF at the Apple Store

I was on my way back from a meeting early this morning downtown when I wandered by the Apple Store. It was mostly a typical scene at 7am in downtown San Francisco. Streets were being cleaning. Vendors were opening up for the day. A handful of homeless people were beginning to wander around.

I walked by the store and saw a tent. I though – oh, a homeless person camped in the middle of the sidewalk. That’s odd. (There are a lot of homeless people in SF, but they typically don’t camp in the middle of the sidewalk at busy intersections.) Then it dawned on me, “oh …. That person is ‘the line.’” I went to my meeting for a couple of hours and then wandered back by.

Turns out I “knew” the line – was Dale Larson. I stopped to chat. I had a lot of questions – was it safe? Where did he use the bathroom? How did he fetch food without losing his place in line? (I last slept on the street about 14 years ago because I made a last minute decision to go to the San Fermin in Pamplona and didn’t have a hotel room, but wanted a great spot for watching the bulls. Felt out of practice.) Dale was dressed in a sports coat and tie none-the-less. Said the folks in the Apple store let him use their bathroom. He wears earplugs at night. Street corner is busy enough that he feels safe. One of the most interesting things is, people bring him food and stop to chat. While I was there, two women stopped by – “Number 23” and “Number 24” from the original iPhone launch in 2007. They were old friends. Dale was only #3 last year.

Julie Ask | July 10, 2008, 01:51 PM
Apple's Apps

I'm really jazzed to see some of my favorite applications making their way on to the Apple platform and into the applications store. And some of the best ones are FREE!!!

The majority of cell phone users (ok, well the minority buy applications, but among those who do buy and download content to their cell phones) who buy content and applications for their phones do so directly from the carriers' decks. There are lots of limitations as we know. OTA allows the purchased to be spontaneous, but it can be difficult to find what you want.

An iTunes experience for mobile applications that is on par with their music, video, podcasting, etc. experience could really move the needle - at least for iPhone users in the near term. I have so many other reasons already to sync my iPhone with my computer to get my latest music, podcasts, photos, etc.

I've mostly been looking through press releases to see what is there plus searching for some of my favorites. Good to see a lot of location-based applications (Loopt, Where) and utilities - applications that go well beyond personalization and appeal to a more mature audience.

AT&T also announced today that they are delivering 1.4Mbps to handsets - those speeds rival your average crowded Wi-Fi hotspot.

I'm very anxious to begin downloading some applications and see how the device and the platform have been leveraged.

My colleague Michael Gartenberg is covering the launch in more detail and fielding press calls for us.

Julie Ask | June 16, 2008, 12:00 PM
Admob Servces 100M Mobile Ad Impressions Each Day

Admob hit (what I think is) a big milestone in May. They are now serving 100M ad impressions each day to cell phones. (See their May Metrics report) The US represents 45 percent of this traffic. Admob serves ads on to 5000 publisher sites. They are not the only mobile ad network in the US so the number of daily impressions is actually even higher. It's still a small fraction of the online impressions, but shows the potential of this market.

Their May Metrics report just came out and it's full of even more detail than ever before - more countries, top handsets by country, etc. - a wealth of information and must read.

We're seeing a confluence of factors contribute to this growth. Here's a few:

- Smartphone sales this year are far ahead of last year's despite a bit of an economic downturn
- Flat rate data plans / less expensive data plans
- More people on data plans
- Increased adoption of cell phones by teens
- Apple's iPhone - good handheld browsing experience (I'm expecting a large uptick in traffic when the 3G version goes on sale next month) - the iPhone already ranks 12th on the list of handsets in the US despite relatively small marketshare
- Popularity of social networking
- Better UI's
- 3G adoption / Wi-Fi in handsets

We'll be writing a lot more on this topic this year. Stay tuned.

Julie Ask | June 09, 2008, 06:33 PM
$199 iPhone - a real price point for consumers

Finally, with a keynote today, the speculation ended on what would and wouldn't appear in the new iPhone. Lots of press on this topic today, but I'm going to focus on a couple of the highlights for me coming out of the event.

The price point of $199. Wow. A few years ago, only about one-fifth of cell phone owners were willing to pay more than $100 for a cell phone. That percentage has been creeping up year over year. Use of social networks, better browsers and faster network speeds (among other factors) have created an appetite for devices with QWERTY keyboards. Consumers are willing to pay more. Moreover, compared to the prices announced last year, this seems like a bargain. This new price point is a lot more easy to rationalize than the one last year - last year Apple spoke to the notion of phone + portable media player + portable browsing device, etc. ... all of it added up, and it made several hundred dollars seem like a bargain. Consumers didn't "buy" the story. The $199 price point is a real cell phone price that will be attractive to a lot of consumers. Still missing a great camera, but hitting the target on price and making some of it's competitors look expensive.

Julie Ask | June 09, 2008, 06:08 PM
Apple's MobileMe and 3G iPhone

MobileMe - this was the portion of the announcement that I was most excited about. To date, Apple has been one of the few companies (perhaps only) pulling together the content pieces (photos, videos, music) that increase the switching cost to consumers. When it comes to cell phones, consumers aren't that brand loyal - at least here in the US in the land of subsidies. Content, however, increases the switching costs - iTunes and iPhoto - combine content and UI familiarity to build a loyal base of customers.

One of the pieces that's been missing at least from Apple's portfolio has been a strong social networking play. It's fantastic to have the sync features across all of my devices. We know consumers want to buy content once, create playlists once, pay for access once, etc. and then be able to access from any device. Apple sets a high bar here that has been challenging to replicate at least with media. (Their "nod" to MS on "Outlook for the rest of us" acknowledges that) Consumers also want to be able to share. Communication isn't simply about voice calls and text messaging. We want to be able to share our photos and videos with our friends and family as well. For most users of social networks, this has meant stringing together a lot of pieces today - downloading photos from a phone to a PC and then uploading and then editng and tagging. MobileMe takes us a step in the right direction. Getting a lock on being the hub of a consumers social mesh or network will increase consumers' switching costs even more.

Next round I'd love to see more "tagging" of media (e.g., names, location, etc.) as well as some help distributing the content/communicate out to my network of friends and family. Media with dynamic content added by the consumer will take the UI to the next level.

Great to see the number of applications growing - and kudos to Sam Altman for his appearance at the WWDC. It's a very cool application if you haven't seen it. It's great to see more and more applications like this available for the iPhone.

As always, great stuff from Apple and I can't wait to get one of my own to play with.

Julie Ask | June 05, 2008, 08:50 PM
Smart Marketing Tactics for Verizon/MediaFLO's Mobile Video

I was watching the Stanley Cup Finals last night. There was a really good mix of ads from Verizon. (I have Tivo, but I slowed down to watch these ads). They were promoting NHL video content during an NHL game. They were promoting goals scored, highlights, etc. The ads featured the phones. Verizon also did their traditional network quality ads, but they mixed in a few promoting the video service. It seemed to be really smart marketing in that they a) were focused on an audience interested in the content and b) that they presented a use case for watching video on the cell phone - watching the goals and highlights or seeing updates during the game. The small screen in this case would complement the larger screen rather than substitute. This kind of marketing should help drive consumer interest.

Saw another story today (see Fierce) on MediaFLO/Verizon/AT&T and the upcoming U.S. Open. "Live" coverage - great idea. Again, they are showing consumers a use case. Most of us work Thursdays and Fridays. This gives us a way to stay tuned in or watch while at work or away from our TV's. The Internet could provide some of this, but it's a use case and provides some context for "why I would want mobile video services on my cell phone" - something that hasn't been part of enough of their messaging to date.

Julie Ask | June 05, 2008, 11:50 AM
Verizon's Bid for Alltel - Implications for Sprint?

I heard the concrete rumors yesterday, but this topic has been one that folks have been speculating about for a long time. All morning long, people have been asking me what it means for Verizon Wireless?

Short answer: #1 wireless carrier in the US with 80M subscribers. Alltel adds 13M to their rising total.

Other highlights:
- Common network technology and roadmap
- Both use BREW
- Similar ARPU though VZ has higher data ARPU
- Fills in coverage gaps in rural areas
- Cost synergies - $9B quoted in the press release. Always a lot of work to achieve. Alltel is substantially smaller than Verizon, but is still a very large company.

Being smaller, Alltel has been nimble and able to roll out new services quickly. They were innovative with their friends/family circle plan being first to market in a category that T-Mobile has now become famous for. They have a great UI on their new handsets. Hopefully, this tradition of innovation with new product rollouts will continue.

I think one of the more interesting questions could be: what does this mean for Sprint? Do they have enough scale to be cost competitive with the others? It's a question that I don't have the means to answer, but I'm sure some of the financial analysts will be. T-Mobile benefits from the scale (to a large extent) of their corporate parent in Europe though they lack the wired (local, long distance, TV) infrastructure and service offerings of AT&T and Verizon. Verizon's choice of LTE will give them a cost advantage. WiMax still seems to be Sprint's choice alone.

What does this mean more generally for players who aren't either really, really large? or MVNO's? Mixed models will still work. My grandmother's telco (see blog) that serves a population of several thousand is a profitable entity, but they rent/lease wireless from a larger network operator. Rural operators still have a play.

Will be interesting to watch.

Julie Ask | June 04, 2008, 01:45 PM
Screenvision Speaks to Audience with Txt'ing

Verizon made an announcement today (see Fierce) that they will be enabling an interactive text polling program to poll users on their music tastes. Results will appear on the screen. There will also be some marketing around Verizon's Vcast service.

I don't get the polling on music tastes.

What I wonder about a deal like this is which way the money flows. Screenvision sells advertising, but Verizon and/or Screenvision seem to be adding infrastructure to the theaters that allows the results to appear onscreen. A number of vendors have web-based programs that allow this - they use them with radio DJ's, TV show hosts, clubs, concerts, etc.

It's also not clear from the announcement if this will be limited to Verizon Wireless customers. Could also be an equipment/services "play" from Verizon.

I think this announcement has more potential for Screenvision. Rolling out the ability to interact with their audiences could have significant implications. Polling and trivia are entertaining - why not get people to the theater early to eat more popcorn and soda? Could they actually get their moviegoers to register? (Anyone ever played those trivia contests in bars where they post the leaders and percentage with correct answers?) Few entities (e.g., Fandango) actually have relationships with moviegoers. Could we eventually vote on what trailer we'd like to see next? There are so many possibilities. And, they are different from TV - with TV, there could be hundreds of thousands or millions interacting with a program (anyone see American Idol's numbers?). Here you could be networked with theaters across the country, but you could also play against the 50 or few hundred in the theater with you - you could see your competition. There is a long list of possibilities that I can think of - but extending time of engagement with audience, developing loyalty, getting customers to register, developing a better understanding of customers, etc. are all good things and can be achieved with this type of service.

Anyway, seems to be a really smart play by Screenvision.

Julie Ask | June 02, 2008, 05:05 PM
Mobile Content: It's Not Just About Ringtones Anymore

So, we knew this and we've been showing this in our forecasts for sometime. Personalization applications have been phenomenal for wireless carriers for the past few years, but we've believed that it would take more applications oriented towards entertainment and utility (e.g., information services, mapping, etc.) to drive demand beyond young adults and teens.

AT&T Wireless released their top ten selling applications and games for Q1 2008. Entertainment takes three if not four of the top spots - depending on how you want to define MusicID. MySpace Mobile - social networking - is the third ranked. One could argue that those with ringtone or wallpaper applications may have downloaded them long ago and are simply adding content. Still, it's a very different list than we would have seen two years ago.

Q1 Top Selling Apps

1)MobiTV
2)XM Radio
3)MySpace Mobile
4)MobiRadio
5)MusicID
6)My-Cast Weather
7)The Weather Channel
8)ToneMaker
9) eBay
10) Billboard Mobile Channel

They also released their list of top-selling games. Interestingly, they don't look that different than lists from other carriers that I saw a couple of years ago. I've seen some amazing mobile games in the past year - why there aren't more being sold is an interesting question.

Q1 Top Selling Games

1)Tetris
2)Bejeweled
3)PAC-MAN by Namco
4)Wheel of Fortune 2007
5)Diner Dash
6)Midnight Pool
7)Ms.PAC-MAN by Namco
8)World Poker Tour ™ - Texas Hold ‘Em
9)World Poker Tour 2
10) Guitar Hero® III Mobile

Julie Ask | June 01, 2008, 11:37 PM
BREW 2008 - My Thoughts

I attended my first BREW conference in San Diego last week. It was an excellent event by all measures - good sessions, announcements, and people. It's easily one of the best wireless events I've ever attended.

Qualcomm introduced a number of new components into the BREW platform. I had seen many of these concepts before, but from smaller companies. When I see them added into the BREW platform, I think, "ok, this is going to be mainstream. We're not simply talking about the dreams of a handful of entreprenuers."

One of the first introductions of the week was with Adobe. Full support of the Adobe three screen initiative with FLASH is big deal. A richer media environment eventually making it's way on to a lot of cell phones (Qualcomm stated that they had 100M devices in the market) is a good thing and will drive use of data services. Also made me wonder what else Qualcomm has in mind longer term - they had a demo of MediaFLO in the car. Will we see the BREW platform move beyond cell phones to portable media players or into the living room?

Support for off-deck content sales. This should open a lot of opportunties for smaller publishers as well as brands to get their applications on to more handsets.

Widgets ... I feel like I've been speaking about the power of Widgets to drive adoption of data services on cell phones for a long time. I've been speaking about why it's not a great idea to try to shrink the desktop experience on to a small screen. (See research) However, when Andrew Gilbert and Paul Jacobs say the the mobile browser is not the future and that they don't believe in shrinking the desktop experience ... wow, a lot of people listen. This was one of the best things I heard at the conference. Adding widget support to the BREW platform (with Plaza) should be exciting news for publishers.

Fierce has a thorough write-up of the news.

Julie Ask | May 25, 2008, 07:48 PM
Leopard Sharks: Why I need 5MP, 8GB, and Cark Zeiss Optics in my Cell Phone

I reluctantly went swimming with a friend this morning at Aquatic Park in San Francisco. "Reluctant" is the word I use because the water is about 55 degrees Fahrenheit, and it's hard to see anything when you're swimming. In fact, it's hard to even see your outstretched hand.

There were about 100 swimmers when we showed up this morning. We were only in the water about 15 minutes when everyone cleared out because a shark was sighted. They told us it wasn't a dangerous shark, but given the events on the West coast this year involving sharks, we thought, "why risk it?"

I jogged back to my car and got my cell phone.

I was able to post the footage of the shark that I captured almost immediately. Was using a Nokia phone and their Ovi service.

Each time I have an experience like this - I see something I'd like to capture on video and show my mom, but the only camera I have is my cell phone.

Here's the link.

Julie Ask | May 23, 2008, 01:30 PM
TV: Do Consumers Want it in Their Cars?

Seems to be a hot topic this week that my colleague Michael Gartenberg and I are discussing.

Whether or not consumers want TV in their cars is a good starting point for a discussion of in-vehicle entertainment, but the other looming question is ... is it technically feasible? let alone can anyone make money?

A taxi driver I met in Cleveland, OH had TV in his car. See this blog post from a few years ago. "Mobile Video - Midwest Reality Check"

What is in the news today is UIEvolution's announcement with MobiTV. MediaFLO made their own announcement back in April at NAB.

What entertainment consumers want in their vehicles is an interesting question - one that I'm not going to answer. They do already have a radio. Those with music collections are taking them with them in the car with their iPods. Anyone can find a list of announcements made by Apple on integration of the iPod into the car on their press pages. Audio is a no-brainer. Video is tough for obvious reasons as it's not allowed to distract a driver.

One interesting thing I find around these announcements is that they are simply announced plans to "think" about the possibility of putting broadcast video into cars or to "collaborate" or to show that it can be done. We haven't seen announcements (at least that I've read) that speak to OEM interest or consumer interest.

In any case, there are a long list of challenges. Here are a few:

- Many of the broadcast and 3G networks used to deliver this service do not blanket the country. They are in urban areas or those of high population density. MobiTV doesn't require 3G, but I'm sure most experiences would be better with more bandwidth.
- Back seat entertainment likely requires 6-8" screens (or something like this). My iPhone is awesome when I hold it, and it's great for watching video when I'm traveling. If you're going to put the screen 2, 3 or 4 feet from a young child in the back seat, you need a bigger screen - more fps, pixels, etc. will make this a better picture. Noise, slow fps, low resolution, etc. is hidden better on a small screen.
- Product development time for a car .... long - not in comparison to a new luxury jet plane, but compared to cell phones and consumer electronics, yes. And, then, it's not going to come standard in a vehicle - consumers will have to raise their hands and be willing to pay hundreds or thousands of dollars. It's also like buying a PC with built-in cellular connectivity - you have to choose a provider with the hardware. Auto OEM's subsidize cars, but typically with their own financing arms. They don't subsidize entertainment systems that don't provide a payback to them like Telematics services do.
- Services ... selling services to people in cars is hard - ask the Telematics providers or look at the 10K's of XM or Sirius from a few years ago before they moved into CE devices. You can put it in the car and give consumers free service for a while, but then you need to convert those sales. Also, lots of leased vehicles here in the States - the added challenge is when the vehicle is returned to the dealer or sold after a few years. How to find and see to these used car owners?
- How many subscriptions for video content can consumers stomach? I think the answer will converge close to one unless some real added value can be provided - e.g., portable - getting it off my TiVo to another device or onto my iPhone. You'd have to assume if the carriers sell the service, that you'd get it on cell phones, at home (if you subscribe to Verizon or AT&T's video service), cars, computer, etc.
- DVR capabilities ... can I save shows / pre-record shows for my kids to watch? Do I give them a remote to change channels? How do I control what they watch from the front seat?
- Cellular networks are capacity constrained. Every carrier continues to add bandwidth, but it's not THAT big of a pipe when we start talking about entertainment and media.

This isn't a complete list, but there are really a lot of challenges associated with these propositions. I'd like to see the revenue side of the equation.

Julie Ask | May 23, 2008, 12:52 PM
AT&T and American Idol Set SMS Voting Record

The season is over, and this is my first blog on Wireless and American Idol. It shouldn't be though as there was a lot of good stuff in this season's show.

Here's the press release.

Highlight: 78 million text votes compared with 64.5 million last year

An excerpt from a survey they did:

This season, AT&T conducted an informal poll on its Web site to get a sense from customers about the role text messaging has played. Poll results are based on the 416 responses submitted March 7 to May 5, 2008.

Fifty-one percent said they tend to text more frequently during the "American Idol" season than other times of the year.
Forty-three percent said they discuss "American Idol" with others via text messaging while watching the show.
Twenty-two percent said they first learned to text message by voting for their favorite Idol contestant.
By texting their votes this season, AT&T's wireless customers helped crown a new "American Idol" champion, David Cook, and made it possible for AT&T to capture a new text messaging milestone for television's No. 1 show.

A new element for this year's show (and, yes, I do watch it) was AT&T relationship with Apple and the iPhone. iTunes has been in place before - promoted on the iTunes site, limited time offers on American Idol recordings, etc. The contestants all seemed to have iPhones this year - lots of screen shots of the contestants listening to music on their phones. Really well done.

Finale was filmed at the Nokia theater. As I watched the finale, I was being to think that the judges and Ryan Seacrest were getting paid for each mention of Nokia ... or they had some quota to fill.

In any case, there are few examples out there of three screen marketing - TV, cellphones and the PC - this one was well done in that it drove consumers to all three medium with purpose.

Julie Ask | May 20, 2008, 10:23 PM
Good Uses of SMS in Presidential Campaigns

I wrote an article for RCR last summer on how Presidential Candidates were using SMS and blogged. See posts.

Overview

Barack

Poor Execution (post)

Interestingly enough, the two candidates utlizing SMS are still in the race. (Ok, they likely also raised the most money and had the bandwidth, staff, and organization necessary to use SMS)

So, their use of SMS has become more sophisticated. Frequency is down - perhaps driven by the fact that there are fewer debates. Nice relief from receiving multiple messages per day from a single candidate. They are now on to "breaking news" which is a good use of SMS.

Here are a few I've received lately:

"After tonight's tremendous victory in West Virginia, this race is far from over. Keep the momentum going at www.hillaryclinton.com. Thanks for everything."

Not viral, but succinct.

Breaking: John Edwards just endorsed Barack Obama. Spread the word & ask 5 friends to join our movement for change by texting HOPE to 62262. Forward this msg!

Typical Obama messaging - viral + breaking news. Different style from Hillary and more appropriate than a URL jammed into an SMS message. Hillary ... few cell phone users browse on their cell phones ... and I haven't looked it up, but have you registered with dot Mobi?

And from Hillary this evening ...

Tonight we won Kentucky and once again, we showed America what we're made of. Thank you so much. Keep the momentum going at www.hillaryclinton.com - Hillary

Consistent messaging. Same feedback.