June 2012

A Look at How People Use Mobile Apps

When it comes to mobile apps, smartphone and tablet owners are becoming less fickle, iPhone owners are more loyal than Android phone users, and news outlets are the most likely to have users return to their apps on a regular basis, according to a new study from Localytics, a mobile analytics firm.

With hundreds of thousands of options, it can be hard to get noticed and app developers have invested in aggressive marketing tactics to get their apps on consumers’ phones and see their rankings on the app download charts shoot up. An equally important, but often overlooked measure of an app’s success, though, is its retention rate. For many developers, getting their free app downloaded is only half the battle toward making some money — the real key is getting consumers to make in-app purchases and to view advertisements. According to Localytics’ analysis, about 31% of mobile users opened up their apps at least 11 times or more over a nine-month period, up from 26% a year ago. Still, creating loyal app users isn’t easy, with 69% of users opening an app 10 times or less, and over a quarter using the app just once after downloading it.

SBA Communications to Buy Cell Towers For $1.45 Billion

SBA Communications agreed to buy more than 3,200 cell tower sites from privately held TowerCo for $1.45 billion in a cash-and-stock deal as its looks to capitalize on wireless carriers needing to meet rising demand for wireless data services. The deal marks the second major tower transaction this year for the SBA Communications and likely eliminates it as a possible bidder in T-Mobile USA's ongoing effort to sell some of its cell towers. (SBA Chief Executive Jeffrey Stoops said the company wouldn't be making "any other major U.S. transactions this year.")

Based on the TowerCo valuation of about 15.4 times estimated annual tower cash flow, Wedbush analyst Suhail Chandy said the T-Mobile towers would be worth about $2.5 billion. Because there are multiple bidders likely and the portfolios have geographical differences, he expects a purchase of the T-Mobile towers for $2.8 billion to $3 billion to be announced imminently--and by year-end at the latest.

The Smart Money Is on Big Data

[Commentary] A number of emerging and established companies are placing big bets on the future of television, looking to profit from a new media land grab.

So where is the smart money in smart media? Content? Technology? Advertising? When you look at the macro and micro trends, it’s clear that the smart money is on Big Data. Big Data and online video analytics deliver extremely personalized media experiences that benefit both viewers and content publishers. Rather than “killing television,” the shift to mobile, multi-screen video viewing offers entertainment and technology companies a tremendous opportunity to create new and profitable digital distribution models. The key is for those companies to collaborate within a media universe that is changing dramatically quarter by quarter. Although type of content watched changes very little over time, the method of viewing is changing radically.

There is no new online video market, nor is TV dying. Rather, what many perceive as a new market is simply a tried-and-tested market that’s experiencing rapid evolution fueled by a mix of newly available technologies, premium content and connected devices.
Online video will not significantly increase the total number of TV viewers.

There is roughly the same number of people watching video now as there was before the online TV boom. The key for both technology and media companies now is to work together to deliver the right content on the right screen at the right time. When Big Science delivers personalized, data-driven viewing experiences to every connected screen, viewers and video publishers will both win.

[Knapp is co-founder and CTO of Ooyala, a video technology company that powers premium, personalized media experiences across all connected devices]

Wozniak, Dotcom slam US piracy case

Apple cofounder Steve Wozniak says the U.S. piracy case against Kim Dotcom is "hokey" and a threat to Internet innovation.

Wozniak said plenty of people used Megaupload for legitimate purposes before federal authorities shut it down in January and filed criminal charges against seven of its officers, including Dotcom. Wozniak likened the Megaupload site to a highway and those who shared pirated movies and songs to speeding motorists. "You don't just shut down the whole street because somebody is speeding," he said. Wozniak said he believes that people should pay for content. But he also believes in keeping the Internet open to encourage innovation. He said trying to shut down sites like Megaupload is futile. "If you've got a huge steamroller coming, instead of trying to stop it, you should get out of the way," he said.

Comcast’s Rebranded NBC Sports Network Holds Key To Olympian Bet

Comcast Chief Executive Officer Brian Roberts says he’s confident his $4.38 billion bet on the Olympics will turn a profit. That’ll depend on how many viewers the rebranded NBC Sports Network can attract.

The company’s NBC Universal is putting more than 293 hours of the London Olympics on the pay-TV network, starting July 25. That’s an average of 14 hours a day, in addition to coverage on the free NBC network, Bravo, CNBC, MSNBC and Telemundo. Comcast is using the Olympics to promote the network, formerly Versus, as a national, 24-hour sports channel. The games offer the NBC Sports Network a platform to build viewers and advertising, now just a fraction of those at Walt Disney’s ESPN. The channel plans to use the visibility to secure more rights, possibly to Major League Baseball.

Will the Americans with Disabilities Act tear a hole in Internet law?

[Commentary] Last week saw a ruling in the case National Association of the Deaf v. Netflix, Inc., 3:11-cv-30168-MAP (D. Mass. June 19, 2012), requiring Netflix to close-caption its online video. This is a bad ruling. Really terrible. It's the kind of results-oriented judicial activism that undermines the public's trust in the judiciary. The judge made it clear he was going to rule for the plaintiff, no matter what. But in doing so, he has potentially ripped open a huge hole in Internet law. Hey jobless recent law school grads—if this ruling sticks, there may be buckets of money to be made in ADA litigation against Internet companies. The most crucial ruling is where the court says that a website qualifies as a "place of public accommodation." The court deviated from—and, incredibly, didn't cite—a nearly unbroken line of precedent rejecting that conclusion.

[Goldman is an associate professor of Law at Santa Clara University School of Law and directs that school's High Tech Law Institute.]

Firings raise questions at Alabama Public Television

In May 2011, the Birmingham Business Journal named Allan Pizzato, the executive director of the recession-tested Alabama Public Television, “nonprofit CEO of the year.” Since 2008, APT had seen its state funding cut in half, and the Business Journal commended Pizatto, especially, for his stewardship of the network through these hard times. Just over a year later, he was fired.

Pizzato, APT’s executive director for 12 years, and his deputy, Pauline Howland, learned they were losing their jobs mid-afternoon on June 12, partway through their quarterly meeting with APT’s governing body, the Alabama Educational Television Commission. They were given minutes to collect their belongings and leave the building. Ferris Stephens, an assistant attorney general who serves as AETC’s chairman told me that the commission “wanted to go with a new direction in leadership.” APT declined to be more specific about what the new direction will entail, but said APTV “might do more social media.” Whatever the precise reasons for the firings—accounts on both sides differ, and Pizzato declined to comment for this story—they have been interpreted by the public and the press as a power struggle between APT and the more politically conservative, governor-appointed AETC, which allegedly tried to push conservative programming and scrub APT’s mission statement of its pledge for diversity, particularly in terms of “sexual orientation.”

New Wireless Sensors Tackle Old Problems Like Pneumonia

Wireless sensor technology developed by the University of Missouri can measure subtle changes in pulse, respiration, and bed restlessness, warning clinicians of the early onset of pneumonia or other life-threatening problems.

Silicon Valley Needs a Foreign Policy

As California's high-tech firms grew to become economic powerhouses in the American economy, they punched below their weight politically. For the most part, they are not very savvy about the ways of Washington -- they came late to the lobbying game -- and their political strategies were naïve compared with those of old industrial sectors like oil and automobiles. The upshot is that the United States' foreign economic policy has suffered. In the last decade, it should have been geared toward promoting fast-growing, innovative sectors. Instead, it sat by as Washington pursued a hodgepodge of uncoordinated, often ineffective efforts that did little to advance the economy and instead threatened to leave the United States behind more tech-supportive international rivals. This was all the worse considering that in every economic age, government taxation, employment, and capital access policies have been instrumental to companies' competitive successes at home and in international markets.

The United States will not be able to maintain its global advantages if the country fails to craft policies that maximize information-age soft and hard powers. But before defining an ideal high-tech foreign economic policy, one has to recognize that, as often as not, the sources of most policy lay in particular economic interests. When the interests are as politically sophisticated, organized, and strategic as agriculture and energy, then they successfully articulate and lobby for their own agenda. That has not been the case with Silicon Valley.

T-Mobile now offering both 'high-speed' and throttled mobile broadband plans for business users

T-Mobile has just announced revamped mobile broadband data plans that allow business users to choose whether or not they want to be subjected to data throttling when reaching their data cap. The carrier now offers both "overage-free" and "high-speed" data plans for use with its lineup of tablets, mobile hotspots, and USB sticks. If you pick overage-free, T-Mobile will throttle speeds when users exceed their data limit, just as it does today — but for those on the high-speed plans, T-Mobile will keep data flowing at its normal speed, though customers will be subject to the same types of overage fees they might get on AT&T or Verizon. T-Mobile is only offering these high-speed plans to business users — standard consumers will have to continue to put up with throttled data.

Benton

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