Links – 25 March to 1 April 2011

Torsten de Riese — Mon, 04 Apr 2011 13:19:29 +0000

Facebook snaps up Snaptu

Quite a big strategic move by Facebook to enable distribution to so-called “feature phones”, ie. the cheap ones. Obviously, they have realised that there is a massive growth potential in this market.

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World wide puddle

The long-term impact of the interweb on us as a species. Brilliant quotes in this piece by Doc Searl.

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Aggregators: if we can’t beat, them let’s join them

Here Guardian’s Organ Grinder wonders whether we should all climb down from our Ivory Towers and join the successful aggregator model. Why waste money on writing stuff when you can link to it? Of course, the HuffPo (one of the most successful organisations adapting this motto) has just announced that they are going to compete on Guardian’s home turf with a summer launch of it’s UK site.

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Investing like it’s 1999

There have been quite a few stories about the new tech bubble recently. This NYT article draws scary comparisons between 1999 (24 companies worth $71 billion) and today (5 companies worth $71.3 billion). We all know where that’s going…

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The Mobile-Payments Business Is Heating Up

Disruption is hitting the mobile payments market with Google teaming up with Mastercard and Citigroup. Watch this space.

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Money Flows To Mobile Startups: Appia, Apperian, Bubble Motion, And Others

“It may not be $41 million, but there are still serious funds flowing into the mobile sector at the moment, and the companies taking advantage of the loosened purse strings are all over the map in terms of what they’re doing to get investors’ attention.”

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Google’s Android Ready For In-App Purchases

OK, this will help competing with Apple, but the biggest milestone for me is the launch of Amazon’s Android store with 10m downloads for Angry Birds, Rio, in the first 10 days.

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Apple Seen Breaking From Summer Launch Pattern With iPhone 5

Sounds like we have to wait a bit longer for iPhone 5, but then again – who knows? The only thing for sure is that Apple rumours keep consumer and geek hype going.

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Lukewarm Reaction To Playbook Could Force Drastic Measures For RIM

The mobile industry is consolidating, and it looks like RIM is going to be a victim sooner rather than later.

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Time Warner Cable Turns Off iPad Streaming…

News Corp. Tells Time Warner Cable To Stop Streaming Channels On iPad

A new battle ground is emerging on who can stream whose content to what platform. Carriers, cable companies and content owners will fight this out over the next years. I just hope consumers won’t lose out.

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The Consumer In Me Likes Zite; The Producer?

Really enjoyed this read as I am a big fan of the Zite app (although it did occur to me that their type face is very similar to Germany’s Die Zeit, which is pronounced Dee Zite). Never mind, what really upset some publishers was that the app reformatted their content, making it “more readable, while diverting their traffic and advertising revenue”. Cease and desist letters followed. Zite’s CEO Ali Davar’s comment: “It’s a bummer that they did this, but we expected it.” Let’s just say I am glad I haven’t got any of my money tied up in his business…

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AP launches “do not track” header

Note to all website owners: the European E-Privacy directive is just a start. We all need to reassess our privacy policies and stop ignoring the wishes of our readers.

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Google launches +1 button

Yes, had to include this in my list. Google fires another shot at Facebook – no, seriously!

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Amazon cloud player steals march on Apple and Google

But the music industry wants it licensed.

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Times and Sunday Times hit 79,000 subscribers

News International have been a bit secretive about their subscriber numbers – and they still are. Roy Greenslade points out that in any case the story is pretty depressive. Subscriptions alone will not save news.

Here’s the next hype: TV apps

Torsten de Riese — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 10:38:37 +0000

I felt very flattered to be invited to a panel on apps and digital distribution at the D-Media conference in London. Even more so sitting alongside the legendary Victor Harwood, founder of Digital Hollywood. Apparently his first conference in the 80s was on http. I think I was playing around with a Commodore 64 at the time trying to get my head around BASIC – completely oblivious to the beginnings of the interweb.

The panel was at BAFTA, so inevitably the subject TV apps came up - it’s the sort of stuff that makes my blood boil, particularly when it is mentioned with that over-excited tone of voice. Here is my take on it: TV apps are at the beginning of the hype cycle. This means nobody really understands the benefit of the technology to content producers and users whilst a bunch of gadget cheerleaders are talking it all up.

One developer, who shall remain anonymous in order to protect his reputation, seriously sent me a white paper saying that my employer could earn up to $200k a month in advertising revenues, were we to launch apps on all major connected TV devices. It’s a brilliant sales technique if your customers are a bunch of hopeless boneheads. I felt insulted.

Don’t get me wrong, I do believe we are at the beginning of another revolution here and TV companies need to look out for a major agent of disruption. When your audience can break out of the hitherto walled garden of broadcast TV all sort of things can and will happen. There is no doubt that it will eventually change user behaviour and challenge conventional business models.

Yes, it’s coming our way, BUT it’s not here yet. Millions of households will have internet enabled TVs, but it doesn’t necessarily mean they will connect and use the web. (There’s also another debate to be had on set-top boxes, companion devices etc. another time) Before we get to the new world of TV apps we will have to endure a senseless hype and people like me have to get their head around the main question: what does it do?

I don’t know the answer yet, but over the next 12 months I will be working on a story. Here is one I’m considering: Give viewers the option to dive into detail when they opt to do so. Eg. I am watching a story on Shell’s stock price collapsing – now I can open the app to view an interview with the CEO, charts comparing Shell’s stock price with competitors, further analysis and outlook from our website. Or what about a personalised ticker I can overlay onto any programming? I want to make an app that’s actionable and personalised.

Now I am getting excited – about the drawing boards, story drafts and brainstorm sessions with creative minds. In the meantime I need to ensure that I gather some data and experience on how this new world works. My colleagues in the US have already launched on Google TV who despite their problems with content and hardware have got to be a safe bet. The experiment begins, but please don’t ask me for a business plan.