Time was when the content giants in the movie, music, and book industries could earn superior returns. But their ability to do so had nothing to do with content’s being king. It was a function of the scale and captivity inherent in their aggregation business: the massive marketing and distribution networks that they rented out to smaller, independent content producers, often at usurious rates. The decline of these enterprises does not reflect any change in the nature of content generation—it was as unattractive a business then as it is now. Instead, their decline reflects the loss of their advantages in aggregation—a loss resulting from a combination of external forces and self-inflicted wounds. (more…)
by Tim Green
Wednesday, June 22nd 2011
By number of apps; iTunes sixth, Android Market 11th, Ovi 18th.
A new report by Netsize, Application Store Billing, contains a stack of statistical info and includes some fascinating data on the relative size of the world’s app stores.
It reveals that Appitalism is home to 719,715 products, of which 361,568 are free. This compares with 392,871 for iTunes, 190,067 for Android and 40,000 for Ovi. (more…)
June 22, 2011
With more consumers using smartphones and connected devices, there is no avoiding the importance of mobile apps. For example, apps are responsible for 56 percent of all activity on Android smartphones according to data shared by Jonathan Carson, CEO of Telecom at Nielsen, during Nielsen’s Consumer 360 conference.
Carson also welcomed Hiroto Ebata of Coca-Cola Japan, Heidi Browning of Pandora and David Young of Hotels.com to share insights on their experiences with mobile apps. (more…)
The Wall Street Journal
What’s Your Workout?
June 21 2011
By Jen Murphy
As a younger man, Chris Blackwell never saw the point of exercising. “I noticed that people who were super fit in their teens and 20s tended to put on a lot of weight later in life. They got busy, reduced their exercise regimen and the weight followed.”
Ludovic Mouveau
Riding a jet ski for the first time lead to an epiphany for Chris Blackwell, left, pictured here with pro jet skier Ross Champion.
Mr. Blackwell, the founder of Island Records, the U.K.-based independent record company that recorded stars like Bob Marley and U2, skipped exercise for many years and instead focused on his diet, watching portions and avoiding sweets and fatty foods.
Mr. Blackwell, now 74, sold his stake in Island Records in 1989, and in the early ’90s, he created Island Outpost, a hotel and resort company that operates five properties in Jamaica.
At age 55, while in Jamaica, where his mother was born and where he now spends more than half the year, Mr. Blackwell had an exercise epiphany. The moment came—not in a gym, or even on land—but during his first time on a jet ski. He had discovered an activity he thoroughly enjoyed, but one that also gave him a workout.
“I know people say all you do is sit down, so what exercise could you possibly get?” he says, “but try riding a jet ski when the ocean is rough.” (more…)
TNW Africa
Tuesday June 21, 2011, Nmachi Jidenma
Kenya recently launched Africa’s first mobile apps lab, m-lab.
The facility is aimed at encouraging innovation in the East African country and is supported by the World Bank, Nokia and the Government of Finland.
Set up in Nairobi, the lab will initially house six startups and is hosted by the iHub Consortium, a consortium that includes Nairobi’s iHub, eMobilis, the World Wide Web Foundation, and the University of Nairobi School of Computing and Informatics. (more…)
TNW Latin America
Wednesday June 15, 2011, Anna Heim
Argentina now counts 12.9m Internet users out of a 40m population, according to comScore‘s figures for March 2011. A conservative number, considering that it doesn’t include users under 15 and those accessing the Internet solely from their mobile phones or cyber cafés. Here are the most interesting figures presented during yesterday’s webinar on “The State of the Internet in Argentina” by comScore’s Country Manager for Argentina and Uruguay, Sebastian Yoffe.
Who are the Argentine users?
- Argentine users spend more time online than the average Latin American or international user: 27.4 hours per month, 4 hours above the global average.
- The age structure of Argentine Internet users is similar to the country’s general population: it’s a relatively mature market. However, it’s among the young generation (15-24) that the heaviest users can be found. They spend much more time online than their counterparts in Latin America and the rest of the world: 33.1 hours.
- In terms of gender, men under 35 spend more time online than their female counterparts, while the trend is reversed for users over 35. (more…)
Marketing
June 2011
Our Spring 2011 national online multicultural consumer data shows that Latinos and other emerging minorities are not only leading in online presence with blogs and websites, but also in their use of gadgets that reflect the future of communications.
To my surprise Hispanics who responded in English lead both in their current ownership of electronic book readers and electronic tablets. Those who responded in Spanish are the most aspirational indicating they plan to have one of each within next year. In general, all minority groups have a higher incidence of current ownership and of the aspiration to own these devices.
Why is this surprising? It is surprising because even though all these respondents are online, it has traditionally been assumed that Latinos and other minorities read less than non-Hispanic Whites, and that their lesser affluence prevents them from innovating. That does not seem to be true at all. When online, these minorities appear to favor new interfaces to be exposed to reading content. The same is true regarding tablets. Tables overlap with electronic book readers to some extent but open ample possibilities for the exploration of multiple types of content and interactivity. (more…)
In an unusual awards show that combines Hispanics’ fondness for social media, awards of any kind and telenovelas, Spanish-language network Telemundo and Allstate are polling viewers for their favorite novela moments and will create an all-digital awards show around the winners in 20 categories.
A scene from ‘El Clon’: With their bizarre plot twists
and endless melodrama, novelas abound in
memorable bad-luck moments.
Those categories include Best Actor, Best Kiss, Best Novela, Best Slap and a special Allstate-inspired Best Bad-Luck Moment, evoking the Hispanic ad campaign Allstate broke in January 2011 featuring a character called El Senor de Mala Suerte who unwittingly inflicts bad luck on everyone around him.
Novelas, with their bizarre plot twists and endless melodrama, abound in memorable bad-luck moments. The four nominees in that category include a bride who is jilted at the alter in mid-ceremony as the groom locks eyes with the woman he really loves in “Perro Amor,” and a scene from “El Clon” in which Latifa’s father dictates she must marry not her fiance but his ugly friend. (more…)
Fox News Latino
Published June 21, 2011
Los Angeles – Dell has launched a new laptop computer with its operating system and keyboard in Spanish, an option introduced to satisfy the demand among the growing Hispanic market, especially adults.
“The computers with the operating system and keyboard in Spanish are being bought by Hispanic customers who for the first time are going to have a computer at home,” Jose Tovar, the supervisor of the computer sales department in the Los Angeles outlet of department store chain La Curacao, told Efe.
“For people who don’t speak English and who have never used a computer, it’s going to be a little more difficult to learn to use one in English. However, with this Dell Inspiron S2800 computer it makes it easier to navigate with the programs in Spanish,” he added. (more…)
