President Obama Challenged

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by Jack Loechner, Today, 8:15 AM

American Press Institute, with ITZ Publishing and Belden Interactive, recently published initial results of a study designed to help Newspaper executives understand the current peer practices in generating revenue from digital content, the various pay models, success levels, and approaches to issues like site registration, electronic editions and tracking original content across the Web.

Among the preliminary findings, nearly 60% of respondents are considering initiating paid access for currently open/free news and information online, and nearly 25% expect to implement a paid strategy in the next six months. This is a big change, says the report, considering that 90% of the responding newspapers currently do not charge for content, and only 3% currently have a paid-only site.

Capturing new revenue and preserving print are likely the key drivers of any final decision to adopt a paid-content strategy. 34% of respondents think capturing new revenue opportunities is or will be the most important factor, while 28% think it is or will be preserving print circulation.

Most of the respondents overlook the opportunities and discount the convenience of e-editions, which give users the experience of reading a newspaper online. Most are not charging for e-editions or are not charging enough:

• Only 67% offer an electronic edition of the paper on their Web sites
• 59% of those offer it free to their print subscribers
• The median price for an online-only subscription is $5.99 a month.
• The median up-charge price, for those who offer it to print subscribers, is $4.99 a month

Current prices for online subscriptions strongly suggest that “convenience” pricing is generally in play, not tied to rigorous price analysis or research into what people are willing to pay. Respondents report a wide range of online subscription charges (from $1 to $27.50 a month), yet they report surprisingly uniform levels of uptake on subscriptions, typically 1% to 3% of print circulation, regardless of price.

While most of the respondents allow users to register for their sites, few require it and even fewer are monetizing registration in any way.

• Only 27% require users to register
• 23% have a specific program for monetizing registration information in active use
• 36% of respondents indicate they are considering a registration program

The report points out that there is a potentially deep disconnect between news organizations (The Provider) and the audience (The Reader) for their Web sites. Industry executives’ responses are compared with user responses aggregated from Belden Interactive 2009 Local Market Surveys. While 54% of news executives rate their online news and information as “very valuable,” only 44% of news Web site users see it that way.

Only 9% of news executives think it would be “very easy” for their audience to find a replacement for the online content their news Web sites are currently providing, compared with 19% of users.

The audience that gets its local news and information online would focus on the Internet and TV, not print, if their local newspaper Web site were no longer available. 68% of users say they would turn to other local Internet sites, 45% would turn to television, only 30% would turn to the print edition of the paper, while 75% of news executives think users would turn to their print editions.

The report concludes with key variables to be analyzed by news organizations contemplating a conversion to online paid content, or any other revenue opportunities.

To read the variables and recommendations, and for additional details about the study in PDF format, please visit the American Press Institute here.

In that year, Gartner forecasts Android will actually rank second globally, behind the Symbian OS, which is used in Nokia devices that are highly popular in Europe and many countries outside the U.S. Symbian now runs on about half of all smartphones, but will fall to 39% in 2012, Gartner says.

The Gartner forecast gives Android such an enormous surge in popularity because of a variety of factors, but chiefly because of Google Inc.’s backing of Android and the range of cloud computing functions and related applications that Google will make available in coming years, Ken Dulaney said in an exclusive interview with Computerworld.

While the first Android product release, the T-Mobile G1, only won a lukewarm response, Android 1.5 (code-named Cupcake) is well thought-out, Dulaney said. Other expected improvements in Android for its application store and development environment will be “backed by the power of Google’s search engine,” he said. “Google’s other up-and-coming consumer and enterprise products should make[Android] a dominant platform.”

And because Android and Google operate in an “integrative and open environment, [they] could easily top … the singular Apple,” he said.

Android will also run on phones from several manufacturers, helping its growth, especially when compared to the iPhone, Dulaney said. In 2010, as many as 40 models of Android devices will ship, and the next OS update, code-named Donut, will ship in the second quarter, Dulaney predicted.

As an early example of how Android should be successful, Dulaney pointed to Motorola’s Cliq, with its Motoblur interface that he said “handles communications very effectively.”

To explain, Dulaney said that smartphone interfaces seem to have headed off in two divergent ways, with iPhone’s heavy focus on applications compared to Windows Mobile’s and Symbian’s focus on smartphone tasks and communications. But Android, he said, “has blended a focus on applications and tasks pretty well.”

Android’s interface allows a user to perform frequently needed tasks without going back to the top of the logic tree to switch between tasks, he said. Makers of Android “have done a good job of knowing how you work on a phone,” he said.

The complete Gartner forecast for smartphone OSes by the end of 2012 puts Symbian on top with 203 million devices sold, and 39% of the market. Android will be second with nearly 76 million units sold, and 14.5% of the market.

Coming in a close third, the iPhone will ship on 71.5 million devices in 2012, giving a 13.7% market share. Windows Mobile will finish fourth, with 66.8 million units sold, or 12.8% of the market.

Very close behind Windows Mobile, the BlackBerry OS will sell on 65.25 million devices in 2012, Gartner forecasts, making it fifth with 12.5% market share.

Various Linux devices will sell 28 million units, at 5.4% market share, in sixth place. Palm Inc.’s webOS will sell on 11 million units in 2012, about 2.1% of the market, in seventh place, Gartner says.

Android will have moved up the most from 2009 to 2012, from sixth place to second. BlackBerry will have moved down the most, from second to fifth, while iPhone will remain in third position and Windows Mobile will remain in fourth position, Gartner says.

OCTOBER 5, 2009
Demographics evening out
As mobile Internet usage increases, men are losing their advantage in numbers. They still account for the majority of users, but women are catching up quickly.

Mobile Internet visitors were up 34% year over year to 56.9 million in July 2009, according to The Nielsen Company. Growth among women outpaced the average rate by some 9 percentage points. Men still made up 53% of the mobile Web audience in July.

What keeps men so attached to their mobile phones for Web browsing? They make up the bulk of the audience for tech, sports and news content—and, unsurprisingly, for men’s magazine Maxim. Fully 95% of the Gizmodo mobile audience is male, and men accounted for about nine in 10 mobile visitors to NBA and NFL sites in July.

Women, by contrast, embraced the mobile Web for access to celebrity news, shopping sites and social networks. Females outnumbered males in their mobile visits to sites such as People.com, AT&T search and Horoscope.com.

Teens, adults ages 25 to 34 and those ages 55 and older also adopted the mobile Internet faster than the average rate, but, especially in the case of teens and seniors, from a very small base. Takeup was slowest among young adults ages 18 to 24.

In July 2009, users ages 65 and older still made up only 3% of the total. Just 12% of mobile Web browsers were under age 18.

eMarketer, which includes both Web browsing and the use of mobile apps in its figures, estimates there will be 73.7 million mobile Internet users in the US in 2009, an increase of 26.3% over 2008.

Hotels need to be in the app game or risk losing ground to tech-forward competitors.

by Beth Kormanik

iPhone apps

You may be right if you think the apps for smartphones like the iPhone or Android are passing phases. But that doesn’t mean you can afford to sit this one out.

PhoCusWright’s senior corporate and technology analyst, Norm Rose, said the market is only growing for consumers who use smartphones, and they want to use them to make travel decisions. Rose presented his conclusions in a Webinar this week called “The iPhone and the Future of Mobile Travel Applications.” He also is co-author of PhoCusWright’s Mobile: The Next Platform for Travel.

Rose predicted that the craze over apps may last only four or five years, but they will be crucial. Hotels and other hospitality-related industries need to plan a smart mobile strategy that will bridge the near- and long-term. Part of that is cementing your mobile brand in the minds of consumers so they stay loyal to your brand in the future.

“The message for the travel industry is the mobile revolution is not just another channel,” Rose said. “Most have thought it as just another touch point, when in fact it’s a new platform. It enables different and innovative personal interaction and the information needs to be filtered in a certain way for it to be relevant.”

An instructive example of what happens when established companies fail to innovate can be seen in the rise of Expedia and Travelocity at the start of the dot-com boom.
When hotel chains failed to deliver robust Web sites with online booking capabilities, they opened the door for online travel agencies to enter the marketplace and earn the loyalty of customers. The same thing could happen with mobile apps.

In May 2009, Apple’s App Store listed more than 2,000 travel applications, making travel the fifth-largest category. When travel-related apps such as subway maps or weather forecasters are added, it rises to the No. 4 spot.

“Travel companies need to drive the development of location and situation-centric travel downloadable apps to ensure that third parties don’t emerge as new players in the travel distribution chain,” Rose said.

He cited Choice Hotels as a good example of a chain offering one application that serves multiple brands. He said it was an easy-to-use site that offers hotel options based on location. Alternative lodging options also are taking advantage of the app craze, he said, citing InnTouch Bed and Breakfast Locator and Hostel Hero.

The sheer number of smartphones in use is one reason why hotels cannot afford to cede the ground to new competitors. There are 4 billion mobile devices in use today, Rose said, and an additional 1 billion to come in the next few years. It took 100 years for land line phones to spread to more than 80 countries worldwide, he said, while their wireless descendants did it in 16.

PhoCusWright found a direct correlation between smartphone owners and frequent travelers. Its most recent consumer technology survey, released in May, showed that people who take more than four leisure trips annually are more likely to have a smartphone. Similarly, people who use social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter also tend to be on the cutting edge of mobile technology and take an average of 4.7 trips a year.

Meeting these travelers on their own technology terms can be the key to capturing their business.

Many already are using their smartphones as travel aides. PhoCusWright’s research found that 10 percent of respondents had visited a travel-related mobile web site, while 9 percent had used their smartphones to purchase travel or make a reservation. Another 7 percent had used their phones to make changes to an existing reservation. Six percent had downloaded travel-related mobile applications, and 4 percent had used their phone as a boarding pass.

Mobile travel apps should offer three key benefits, Rose said. They should empower mobile travelers, build ancillary revenue for the travel provider, and improve travel efficiency.

For hotels, that means offering self-services such as making and changing reservations, cancellations and mobile concierge services. The mobile concierge in particular can empower travelers because they do not have to go to a certain part of the hotel or stand in a line to get the information they need. Hotels could also potentially save on personnel costs if this information is available on a mobile device. Hotels can build ancillary revenue by selling services such as spa treatments or restaurant reservations, or encouraging guests to use these outlets with coupons.

Eventually, Rose said hotels will be able to offer mobile check in and check out, and even offer a way to have secure entry to the guest room through a mobile key chain. In Japan, hotels are experimenting with having mobile devices control in-room lighting and entertainment.

“There’s no doubt in my mind mobile is here and now,” Rose said, “and the opportunity to make money around it and make the experience better for the frequent traveler is real.”

Nokia today announced acquiring San Francisco-based Plum, a startup focused on powering “micro-sharing” networks for families, co-workers and other groups. The idea behind the company is to let people in small social groups connect through private networks as an alternative to large social properties like Facebook and Twitter.

The move underscores that social networking is increasingly viewed as a key part of the mobile industry’s future. At its Nokia World conference last week, the Finnish phone giant announced a partnership with Facebook to offer a “lifecasting” service for the N97, making it easier for people to update Facebook profiles via mobile.

With the unveiling of its social-centric Cliq device yesterday, Motorola is clearly staking its comeback as a phone maker on social media and messaging will play a central role in mobile usage. Other handset makers and wireless carriers such as Verizon and AT&T have launched their own social networking-geared phones and services.

For Nokia, the Plum acquisition could lead to the company developing a “microsocial networking” service on mobile devices, something like a social version of the calling circles offered by the major U.S. wireless carriers.

“This kind of ability to link more intimate and closer-knit groups, like families, is likely what attracted Nokia (NOK), the Finland-based mobile phone giant,” noted Kara Swisher in a post today about the deal on her Boomtown blog. It might also complement its lifecasting service with Facebook.

With a company as vast as Nokia, though, it’s hard to predict what, if any, impact the acquisition of a 10-person outfit will end up having on its business.

By Yukari Iwatani Kane

Apple has quietly introduced a new category on its iPhone App Store, in yet another acknowledgment of a shortcoming in its otherwise successful store.

AppleAn update to Apple’s iTunes shows the top-grossing iPhone apps.

The Cupertino, Calif., company had announced at an iPod event in San Francisco earlier Wednesday that it added a Genius feature to the App Store that would make app recommendations based on those that users already have. That was meant to solve a common complaint that it’shard to find good apps in the store, which some say is cluttered with over 65,000 apps divided in just 20 categories.

Another change, which was not formally announced, adds a “Top Grossing” category in addition to existing “Top Paid” and “Top Free” categories on the store. That change responds to developer complaints that expensive apps get buried in the “Top Paid” category because that ranking is based on the number of downloads, rather than total revenue generated from distribution of a piece of software.

That’s a problem because developers need to keep apps cheap to make sure that download levels are high enough to get on the top lists, which are the most popular way of reaching users. That also gives developers less incentive to invest a lot in terms of time and money on creating higher quality apps.

If developers suspected that the lists would look different, they were right. According to the “Top Grossing” category today, the No. 1 app wasSmule’s $2.99 I Am T-Pain auto-tuning app, followed by e2ndesign’s 99-cent AppBox Pro, a set of 18 convenient app tools such as a currency converter and tip calculator, and Electronic Arts’ $7.99 Madden NFL 10 football game.

In the plain “Top Paid” category, measured by download volume, the cheaper AppBox Pro was No. 1, followed by I Am T-Pain. EA’s Madden game–the most expensive app among the three–couldn’t be found anywhere in the top 50.