Business

Changes to business digitisation brings

Pixel Ads; gWiFi; WoW Plague – Teenage Tech News Review
Neat Idea!
A UK student has thought up a unique way of financing his way through university: Selling online advertising space. That on its own isn’t unique, but the twist he has applied to it is: He is selling it by the pixel on his “Million Dollar Homepage”.
This guy is getting so much media attention as a result of the novelty value of his site that a lot of companies are getting interested in buying pixels from him. The going rate is $1/pixel, and there are 1,000,000 up for grabs… I wonder if he can make it to a million bucks?
This revenue concept started me thinking about what I could do to finance my way through University… I have just under 3 years to come up with something, and it better be good! It seems that finding a niche in the market for something unique and not actually that useful, and then attracting a load of media attention to give it artificial value is a good way of making cash on the Internet. Look out for me following suit in a few year’s time!
They’ve done it again
Done what? I hear you ask. Google have launched a Beta version of their Wi-Fi service following a host of rumours since an article mentioning a possible Google Wi-Fi appeared in Business 2.0 back in August.
The service is only available in selected parts of San Francisco Bay (well two locations) for now, but knowing Google I am sure that it will spread relatively quickly.
Part of the evidence is a new product, for free download, that basically works as a VPN client and encrypts all data sent over the Google Wi-Fi hotspots to secure it. Only downside with this is that this application could cause privacy concerns, as Google will apparently record data about people’s Web-browsing habits. Still, it has to be paid for somehow and recording the sites people visit fits in with their analysis of the Web so as to aid its online advertising business, Ad-sense. A link to Google’s FAQ about their Secure Access product can be found here.
From the point of view of a teenager like me, this sort of service is very good: I don’t personally mind giving up a small amount of my privacy to be able to use a service that I could no way afford if it wasn’t free. Hell, at 16 I’m not even legally allowed a credit card with which to pay for commercial Wi-Fi services!
As regular readers, Mike caught this story earlier on in the week.
It’s like the Middle Ages all over again!
This story is quite apt as I am currently suffering from the current real-life equivalent of the virtual plague documented by The Register. Yes, that’s right, I’ve caught the flu :-(
Anyway, according to The Register, World of Warcraft, a popular massively multiplayer online role playing game (MMORPG), has been hit by a plague. Blizzard, the company behind the hugely succesful game, introduced a new god character to their game called Hakkar. What’s special about him is that he carries some sort of disease, similar to HIV, that spreads to some of the people that he attacks. These people then spread the disease further and further, which has resulted in a large quantity of the World of Warcraft servers becoming infected by it.
It’s a new concept and just brings us even closer to where we start blurring the line between reality and virtual reality. It also shows that virtual reality can have all the nasties that the real world does too.
Anyway, I am off to bed, forget World of Warcraft, I’m ill and need to go to school tomorrow. Just hope I don’t spread the “plague”>
23 September, 2005
BT OpenReach – LLU Smoke and Mirrors?
BT has today set-up a new division, known as OpenReach. They’ve been under pressure from some time from competitors and regulators to curb their monopolistic tendencies (they still own over 85% if the infrastructure in the UK). There has even been talk of splitting BT up – although OfCom has currently reject this.
BT’s response is OpenReach. A division that runs the copper in the ground, which will give equal access to BT Wholesale (who can sell it on with services to BT Retail and others) and non-BT operators in the local loop unbundling (LLU) game (such as Bulldog, Easynet etc). OpenReach (Don’t you find that Open seems to be BT’s buzzword – OpenWorld was first, perhaps BT Open will be next, then all their divisions will convert with the word Open tacked to it) will still be a division of BT Group (maybe now OpenGroup?) but will be run by the EAB (Equal Access Board) which is made up of both BT, and more importantly, non-BT people.
Smoke and mirrors
Though this is a look like a commendable approach, it may also be a huge gambit that BT are playing in order to keep everyone’s eye off their real game.
Ofcom (the Super Regulator) are under tremendous pressure to maintain a level telecoms playing field, this is added to by the UK government putting further pressure on them, as broadband is seen to be a key economic marker. This has made Ofcom wield a double-edged sword – forcing BT to maintain wholesale pricing on their ADSL services (i.e. not lower them), until there at least 1.5m unbundled lines in the UK.
At first glance this sounds like a good idea, as it gives the LLU operators a chance to launch their services without BT suddenly reacting and putting everyone out of business by massive wholesale price cuts. However, the other side of this is that there are 5m+ BT Wholesale customers (via broadband ISPs) out there now who won’t see massive price cuts.
What’s good for LLU is probably not so good (at least in the short term) for the majority of broadband users in the UK – and by implication the population of the UK.
OpenReach doesn’t help those users either, in fact it just adds another level of confusion.
Distraction
BT’s competition now have to worry about what OpenReach are up to, and gives the opportunity for another several years of arguments and Ofcom intervention. While everyone’s arguing with each other (sadly not BT), they are taking their eye off BT’s long term plans. This is a big mistake, and if they don’t correct this, they won’t be in business in the future.
BT to a degree want this, they have teams of regulatory lawyers who, after long period of discussion, can agree to certain things and make life look lovely in one sentence, while tying things in red-tape in another. It’s well worth noting that BT have a bigger regulatory department than Ofcom have staff.
What’s to be done with LLU in the UK?
LLU operators are slowly gaining a foothold and launching innovative services, leaving BT to catch-up. Unfortunately there are less than 100,000 unbundled lines compared to BT’s 5m+ DSL customers and their 25m connected premises.
To make LLU economic, the operators are picking exchanges that have a high population density and the ‘right’ demographic – leading to all the operators tending to pick the same exchanges. There are 5,600 digital local exchanges (DLEs) in the UK, even an operator with a LOT of money is likely to target less than 1,000 of them, most seem to be averaging around 400.
The real boost to LLU that’s needed is co-operation. If all the non-BT operators pooled their resources and built a operator-neutral broadband network that any of them could run services over, they would end up with a network that would start to compete with BT’s. Telecoms operators and ISPs need to realise the real competition isn’t each other, but BT.
21CN, BT’s OpenReach killer?
In the medium term BT are rolling out their 21CN (21st Century Network) which links all of BT’s DLEs using IP. All phone calls become VoIP (voice over IP) and every home has a high speed broadband IP connection.
BT will also launch a range of services to go with their new IP only offering such as IPTV (Internet TV).
By 2009 BT expect to turn off the existing PSTN (public switched telephone network) and all of the UK will be running on the IP 21CN.
This will be great for consumers, potentially 24Mb/s broadband into every home, plug in a VoIP phone and it will just work, High Definition (HD) TV into every bedroom. The downside is it has the potential to put all of BT’s competition out of business in one fell swoop.
BT deregulated with VoIP
BT have been very clever. They’ve supported Ofcom in their views of not heavily regulating VoIP, allowing “new wave” VoIP providers to flourish without being burdened in regulatory red-tape.
Seems strange doesn’t it? Until you realise that when BT’s 21CN rolls-out, it will ALL be VoIP. Suddenly BT are free to do things with it that under the current telecoms environment they might face regulatory scrutiny.
Ofcom are then in a difficult position as they can’t make one rule for BT and another for everyone else. Their choice? They leave VoIP lightly regulated, or make it very regulated and make it difficult for all those new players.
BT OpenReach is a good start, is it too little too late?
22 September, 2005
Opera Free: Browser Give Away Permanent
Following their free-for-24-hour offer at the end of August, Opera Software has permanently removed the ad banner and licensing fee from its award-winning Web browser.
In an attempt to shake up the browser market – and regain ground lost to Firefox – the Norwegian software house has made the ad-free, full-featured Opera browser available for download – completely free of charge – at opera.com.
“Today we invite the entire Internet community to use Opera and experience Web browsing as it should be,” said Jon S. von Tetzchner, CEO, Opera Software.
“Removing the ad banner and licensing fee will encourage many new users to discover the speed, security and unmatched usability of the Opera browser.”
Previously, Opera was only available free if users were prepared to put up with a distracting ad banner stuck on the top of the browser interface, with the option to shell out for a $39 (£21.60, €32) licensing fee to remove the thing and receive premium support.
Not surprisingly, punters fed up with Internet Explorer’s well publicised security problems were far keener to try out the free Firefox browser than put up with Opera’s adverts. The Mozilla product now enjoys an 8 per cent market share.
Opera, however, can only muster 1 to 2 percent of the world’s Internet users, so they are hoping that by adopting Firefox’s freebie tactics they can substantially increase their user base.
“Our goal is to become on the desktop the number-two browser,” air-punched von Tetzchner.
The company expects to recoup lost sales revenue after striking deals with Google and other online search companies.
The deals will give Opera a cut of advertising revenues when, for example, a search typed into the browser’s built in search engine window is directed to Google advertising.
Von Tetzchner is confident that this advertising revenue will generate more than enough income to compensate for giving away Opera – if the company can persuade enough people to switch to their browser, of course.
As dry ice billowed around his feet and dramatic music filled the air, von Tetzchner bellowed out his pledge to the world: “As we grow our userbase, our mission and our promise remain steadfast: we will always offer the best Internet experience to our users – on any device. Today this mission gains new ground.”
It seems a bit of a gamble to us – both IE and Firefox are also available free of charge and without a huge marketing campaign we can’t see how they’re going to get enough users to switch from their far better known rival products.
Although we’re sticking with Firefox for now, there’s no denying that Opera is an excellent product and definitely worth downloading – especially now that it’s free!
The Opera browser is available in 20 languages and with the complete download weighing in at a bandwidth-unbothering 4MB, we recommend you give it a go!
20 September, 2005
Mobile Phone Subscriptions Pass Two Billion
There are now more than 2 billion mobile phone subscribers in the world, according to a report by Wireless Intelligence, a collaboration between analyst house Ovum and the GSM Association.
Martin Garner, director at Wireless Intelligence said, “The total number of mobile connections is now equivalent to nearly a third of the estimated world population of 6.5 billion.”
A large caveat should be added here. Although the numbers suggest that every third person on the planet is busy texting their chums and chatting away on a mobile, the figure is seriously skewed by the number of people owning multiple accounts (i.e. phones for work, home, posing and dodgy dealing) – so the actual number of individual subscribers will be substantially lower.
Garner was still impressed, “Although total connections are higher than the real number of users due to multiple connections, or inactive pre-paid connections, this is still a significant landmark for the industry.”
Not surprisingly, the bulk of the growth is happening from large, less well-developed markets such as China, India, Eastern Europe, Latin America and Africa.
Western Europe is pretty much overflowing with mobiles, with penetration expected to exceed 100 per cent in the region by 2007.
Although it took twenty years to reach the first billion mobile subscriptions, it’s only taken three years to double that figure to two billion.
World leading mobile manufacturers Nokia, who sold nearly 32 per cent of all phones in Q2 this year, have predicted than it will take another five years until mobile subscriptions total three billion.
19 September, 2005
‘Lost’ clips to debut over mobile on 3 – News Release
3 is to bring the smash TV hit Lost to the small screen. Following a deal between the UK’s largest video mobile network, Buena Vista International Television (BVITV) and Walt Disney Internet Group (WDIG), divisions of The Walt Disney Company Ltd, a mobile audience of over 3.2 million will be able to watch show recaps and previews of the action from Channel 4’s top-rated series. This is The Walt Disney Company’s first mobile video content agreement in Europe.
Lost is a gripping series which follows the survivors of a plane crash, stranded together on a remote, hostile island. As the group of strangers work together to create order in their makeshift community, and to stay alive, there appear to be darker forces at work around them. The show makes its debut over mobile this week.
3’s service includes 2-3 minute recaps of every episode, available for the length of the series, so fans can catch up on the plot at any stage, plus behind the scenes interview and previews of the next episode. Each clip will cost 50p.
Lost is the latest prime time series to be made available on 3, following Big Brother, Celebrity Big Brother, I’m a Celebrity and the X factor.
Already, millions of viewers hooked on Lost are debating conspiracy theories, scrutinising the characters and speculating on the plot’s twists and turns.
Graeme Oxby. 3’s Marketing Director, said: It’s compulsive, addictive television that gets people talking – it’s exactly the sort of TV our customers will watch.
“Every one of our 3.2million customers has a TV in their pocket. This new service means our customers will never be behind the plot and can keep on top of the action, wherever they are.”
Tom Toumazis, executive vice president & managing director, BVITV EMEA said: “Lost is BVITV’s fastest-ever selling, most successful TV series, having been licensed by us to 183 territories worldwide on TV – now being licensed for the first time on to mobile.
“We are sure that its ever-growing UK fanbase will ensure its success on mobile – the addictive, action-packed nature of the show lends itself particularly well to this format, as fans need to watch carefully to unravel the many mysteries within the show.”
“Mobile is rapidly emerging as a new entertainment platform and already has tremendous reach,” said Attila Gazdag, vice president and managing director of Walt Disney Internet Group, Europe. “Our strong brands have translated extremely well to this new platform and we’re pleased to be offering video, especially of such a great show, to broaden our mobile offerings.”
3 UK
16 September, 2005
AP asap Says “Word Up!” To The Kids
Yo! Yo! Yo! Word! The Associated Press are getting hip and launching a news service for da yoot. Wicked, innit?!
On Monday, the near-ancient (well, 157 years old) newswire is launching its “younger audience service,” offering articles and “experiences” in multimedia formats, with audio, video, blogs and audience-participation features aimed at capturing the easily-distracted attention spans of a younger audience.
The hope is that all these interactive baubles will help entice the 70 million 18-to-34-year-olds in the US into becoming the next generation of news consumers by drawing them to AP’s member sites.
Naturally, farms of flapping flipcharts and masses of mood boards were employed as creative types toiled over their double mochas to come up with a suitably street name for the service, eventually christening it “asap”.
Apparently, the deal is that you pronounce the name letter by letter to “evoke the wire service’s legendary speed”. So don’t go upsetting those delicate designers by calling it “A Sap”
AP are claiming that the service will be “provocative, smart, relevant and immediate”, delivering the latest in news, entertainment, lifestyles, money and gadgets, and sports on a daily basis.
So far, more than 100 newspapers have signed up for asap, with the option to use the content for their online editions, print editions or both.
According to Ruth Gersh, project development manager for asap, none of the papers would be charging readers for asap’s content.
Although no specific charges have been publicly released, pricing for the service will depend on the circulation of the newspaper buying it.
Ted Anthony, the comparatively ancient 37-year-old editor of asap, said that original material will be included in the service, penned by a new staff of twenty mainly New York based journalists.
Giving an example of the sort of content that might be used, Anthony said that an AP reporter in Kazakhstan might file a news article for the wire but recount his journey in an audio clip for asap.
“We want to bring people closer to the news and closer to their world, and we do that by recognising that there are real people who are gathering the news; they aren’t simply automatic fact-gatherers,” commented Mr Anthony.
Learning from focus groups and prototypes that their target audience demands a sophisticated view of the world with a need to be engaged, the answer is, apparently, to use the word “you” more in their articles.
“We’re doing things the AP has never done, and we’re using the incredible global scope of this organisation to bring the most interesting stories in the world to people in entirely new ways,” said Anthony, spectacularly failing to fit in a single engaging “you” in his comment.
Associated Press
16 September, 2005
Barmy Ballmer; Cracking Mobile Theft; Flogging A Dead Horse On eBay – Teenage Tech News Review
It’s funny, laugh!
Couldn’t believe this one when I read it. Well, almost couldn’t believe it. Following on from the earlier story, Steve Ballmer is now apparently denying ever having thrown a chair across a room in anger and claiming he would “f—ing bury” the executive, Mark Lukovsky, who told Ballmer he was leaving Microsoft for greener pastures offered to him by Google.
Ballmer told the Telegraph: “I’ve never thrown a chair in my life,” which The Register says might raise the idea that he got someone else to do it for him. I probably would if I was as rich as he is!
Lastly, am I the only one who thinks that Steve Ballmer has a certain resemblance with Shrek?
Ew… That’s not nice!
According to The Register, a Romanian woman has tried to evade being caught thieving a mobile phone by sticking it where, well, the sun doesn’t shine.
Police when they caught her were puzzled by their inability to find the phone, but quickly solved this problem by ringing the phone, which, well, pin-pointed the phone’s position and the woman was escorted to the police station to have the device removed. The phone was then given back to its rightful owner after being sprayed down with detergent.
Flogging a dead horse… Literally
Apparently, there was someone selling a dead horse on eBay not so long ago. I do have my suspicions about the sincerety of the auction, seeing as the only details present in the auction were:
Dead horse for sale
Please email me with any questions.
Sadly, the original listing has now been removed from the site
These ridiculous auctions remind me of a lovely list of auctionable tid-bits including:
- 24 Children
- A Linux Geek
- And last but not least Nine used toothbrushes
16 September, 2005
UK Analog Switch-Off For Digital TV By 2012: Confirmed
In her speech to the Royal Television Society in Cambridge this evening, Rt. Hon. Tessa Jowell confirmed digital switchover and outlined the timetable for switching by region.
Digital switchover will happen between 2008 and 2012 by ITV region in the following order:
2008 – Border
2009 – West Country, HTV Wales, Granada
2010 – HTV West, Grampian, Scottish Television
2011 – Yorkshire, Anglia, Central
2012 – Meridian, Carlton/LWT (London), Tyne Tees, Ulster
This regional order has been determined by a technical criteria determined by the broadcasters and Ofcom. The regional order will follow ITV regions. This ensures that the impact on ITV regional advertising markets is minimised.
Jowell also reiterated the Government’s pledge that digital switchover will be platform neutral. As reported earlier on OW, SwitchCo, which will be renamed ‘DigitalUK’ will launch tomorrow, and will oversee the switchover process, marketing and neutrality.
Jowell also outlined a programme to help vulnerable consumers. Households with one person over 75 and those with one person receiving disability allowances will be eligible for help and subsidy. The assistance scheme will be funded by the BBC through the licence fee (which is therefore obviously secure despite not Bill yet being in place).
It remains to be seen whether the BBC will be limited in how it promotes technologies in which it has a vested interest like DTT (Freeview) to these households.
Comment – It is interesting that London will be switched in 2012. Same year as we host the Olympics.
It is also worth noting the name change of SwitchCo to DigitalUK. This suggests a role beyond digital television, with the organisation being ambitious in its aims and looking to embed the most sophisicated digital technologies at the core of the home. Only by taking this approach will switchover be genuinely enabling for citizens, narrowing rather than extending the digital divide.
Tessa Jowell
15 September, 2005
Reflections On IFA and How The Economist Got It Wrong
The Economist is a publication that we regard highly. It’s not for nothing that they gained a strong reputation. Sadly a recent piece on the Digital Home let them down.
In the 3-9 September issue of The Economist, the leader on page 14 tells readers that ‘Most people will never turn their homes into electronic control centres‘ (sub) and that ‘convergence’ will fail.
It’s a well written, witty piece that sadly not only demonstrates the writers lack of understanding of the subject, but their disconnection with the current news.
This summary pieces doesn’t do justice to the full article starting on pages 68 which grasps many of the issues far better.
Returning from a week at IFA, I have some sympathy with the idea that the ‘dream’ that the consumer electronics (CE) companies are try to sell to the public are unlikely to be met immediately – especially in Germany where it is a well known economic fact that the population are holding on to their money with ever more zeal, in terror of losing their jobs in the current economic uncertainty.
I sat in successive press conferences, listening to each CE company CEO tell the assembled analysts and hacks that, unlike the technology companies, They Understood the consumer. This lead them to announce a parade of nearly idential product line-ups, which frankly all blurred into one.
This was repeated with halls and halls of identikit stands. Remove the brand names and it would have been a challenge to tell them apart.
The exception was Sony, whose bold attempt to live their strap-line, ‘Like.no.other’, lead to a stand that didn’t line up endless products, but played with your senses and tickled your emotions. Sadly the majority of journalists _hated_ it – perhaps saying more about the state of journalism in this fields than the stand itself.
The Tech co view
Until now, the main focus of technology companies has been to sell as much equipment and services to the business market. Having reached total saturation, and business becoming unwilling to comply with the endless cycle of upgrades, having acknowledged that the benefit they bring are not matched by the cost and disruption they bring.
Having acknowledged this years back, the tech companies turned their sights on selling more equipment to the home user, to provide the platform for digital entertainment – which brings us to today.
Where The Economist got it wrong #1 – Convergence
The definition of convergence that they use is long outdated. They’ve interpreted it as the do-it-all device, they use the illustration of “a food processor doubling as a pleasure vibrator for women.”
Until recently, there was an argument that the only successfully converged device was the clock radio. Understanding of the problems have moved on and there are now good examples, such as the Sony Ericsson k750i camera phone, which not only works well as a phone, but has made taking photos a breeze. It contains the vital ingredient – no barrier to easy use.
So what is Convergence?
It’s not unreasonable to ask given the number different definitions it’s had.
Perversely, as more marketing departments in more companies have become involved in flogging convergence, the term itself has become divergent.
We think many things are key to real convergence, and these include
One delivery path – the delivery of digital media over an IP connection.
The coming together of what were previously thought of as different businesses – witness News International embracing video gaming including their recent purchase of IGN.
The combining of layers of information with video or audio; adding further depth to the programme that along it could never provide.
Where The Economist got it wrong #2 – MSMedia Centre PCs are a failure
One glaring lack of knowledge of current, relevant news is brought out by the Leader, stating that Media Centre PC’s, or ‘converged super-gadgets’ as they refers to them, have been an utter failure (this is lead by the main article which states that they accounted for ‘fewer than 1% of all PC’s sold last year’ ).
While this may be true for last year, it ignores recent figures from Current Analysis, publish on the 29 August, which found that Media Centre PC sales have ‘skyrocketed’ to 43% of all desktop computer retail sales in the US from the previous levels of around 15% in July. A significant percentage in anyone book.
The Leader comments also fundamentally misunderstand Microsoft. Anyone who has spent anytime watching them will know that they will never let the Media Centre become a failure. Microsoft know if they can control the device to store and access digital media, they can dominate the market.
IFA/Economist blunder
Given the derisory view the Economist of digital home, it was more than a little ironic that they were giving away promotional copies at IFA. A clear example of the right hand (marketing) not knowing what the left hand (editorial) was doing.
15 September, 2005
3 UK Announces Mobile Internet Packages
Mobile network 3 has announced two new content packages aimed at getting more customers logging on to its mobile Internet services.
From mid-September, subscribers to 3’s network will be able to sign up to ‘Mobile Web’ and ‘Wireless Web’ content options.
The new Mobile service works out at £2.50 ($4.50, €3.70) a month and lets punters download up to 5MB of content from the Mobile Web.3
Although the deal lets users break out from 3’s previous “walled garden” of accessible sites, the service will still not permit unrestricted access to the Web.
Instead, 3 is limiting the available sites to ones that they feel have been “optimised for viewing on compatible video mobiles” – this means that sites like BBC, eBay and Amazon will be viewable, but perhaps not ‘Bumper Big Boobies Online’.
The network asserts that this limitation is to ensure that customers “can be sure that both front pages and sub-pages are viewable, that the speed of download is high and that all the site’s key activities are available”.
Gareth Jones, 3 COO claimed that “only a fraction of the internet works well on mobile” but insisted that the mobile operator is “committed to extending the choice of high-quality video mobile services”.
Jonesy boy expects the number of sites available through 3’s Mobile Web to grow quickly, with customers invited to nominate sites they’d like to access from their mobiles (so maybe they will get ‘Bumper Big Boobies Online’ after all).
Elsewhere, 3 will continue to serve up content and services through its ‘Today on 3’ entertainment channel and via its partner sites like lastminute.com and FHM.
The second new service, ‘Wireless Web’ will provide full Internet access for customers connecting to the Internet via a laptop and using their 3 handset as a modem.
Punters will be charged a flat rate of £45 per month ($82, €67), with a download limit of 512MB of data.
3 UK
13 September, 2005