September 2012

IMM Hydraulics, a small exporter of hoses for industries such as agriculture and mining, is the kind of firm that should be at the center of Italy's efforts to rekindle its stagnant economy. Instead, the company, located in the Abruzzo region of central Italy, is wrestling with a basic impediment to profitability: a woefully slow broadband connection. With just 2 megabits (MB) per second, IMM Hydraulics' broadband connection lags behind the 5 MB typical in Italian cities, which in turn is well behind an average of 12 MB in France and 16 MB in Germany. "It takes us days to process an order whereas it could take half an hour," said finance director Marcello Di Campli. “Broadband is one of our biggest problems, probably just after our access to credit.”

Italians pay among the highest prices in Europe for broadband speeds on a par with Estonia or Cyprus. As a result, only half the population uses the Internet at least once a week and Italian firms generate 5.4 percent of sales on-line compared to 13.9 percent elsewhere in Europe.

Getting Web video off your PC and onto your plasma screen used to be a niche activity. No more: Consumer-tracking service NPD says TV sets are now the most popular way to watch streaming video.

NPD says 45 percent of consumers report that TV is now their primary Web video screen, up from 33 percent last year. It basically swapped places with the PC, which used to account for 48 percent of viewing but now represents 31 percent. This is a story about devices: NPD figures that 10 percent of homes now have at least one Internet-enabled TV (though I bet that only a minority of them are actually plugged into the Web), and we’re seeing a steady increase in the use of Web-video peripherals, like Blu-ray players, Apple TVs, Microsoft Xbox 360s. And it’s also about content: NPD says the most popular service for viewing Web content on TV is Netflix, with 40 percent of connected TV watchers using the service.

The rise of smartphones, tablets and faster data networks ensures the apps craze won’t dissipate anytime soon. Already some 40 billion apps have been downloaded to date from the App Store and Google Play. On top of that, people spend more time with apps than the mobile Web and app users tend to be younger and more affluent than the overall population. So what’s not to like for marketers?

A new Forrester study points out that while consumers may be embracing apps more than ever, it doesn’t mean they want to download your branded app. The report, “Mobile Apps for Marketing,” authored by analyst Melissa Parrish, lays out a number of factors to consider before pushing ahead with app development. For one thing, the reach of apps isn’t as wide as it looks at first glance. Only 43% of U.S. mobile users have any apps on their phones, amounting to 39% of all online adults. The number of tablet app users is just 9%. And only certain app categories -- such as weather, navigation, social networking and games -- are used by more than half of app users.

Long before Hollywood introduced the concept of "Mean Girls," people knew that childhood can be full of name-calling, manipulation and we-won't-talk-to-you freeze-outs. Now, a new study finds that "social bullying" isn't just a real-life phenomenon. It's also common in the TV shows popular among kids aged 2 to 11. From "American Idol" to "The Simpsons," the study authors found, the people and characters who appear on these shows are often mean. They insult one another, connive to get what they want and bully others in non-physical ways. The researchers said 92 percent of 150 episodes reviewed featured some form of "social aggression" -- on average about 14 incidents per hour.