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Microsoft $899 Surface Pro Tablet Beefs Up Functionality and Features

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December 3, 2012
  • Apple has been criticized for its premium pricing on its iPad tablets (the latest 64GB version costs $699), especially in light of cheaper competitors that have entered the market.
  • But consumers have been willing to pay that price for the rich user experience and sleek hardware. With the new Surface Pro offering from Microsoft, the question arises: Are Windows fans as willing to spend big bucks?
  • A more powerful version of the Surface RT tablet, the Windows 8 Surface Pro tablet costs $899 for 64GB, and that’s without a keyboard, Wired reports.
  • “Unlike the Surface with Windows RT, which runs on ARM-based chips and only serves up a stripped-down version of Windows, the Surface Pro runs a full-fledged version of Windows 8 Pro on an Intel Core i5 chip. One of the biggest differences: The Surface Pro will run existing Windows 7 applications,” explains Wired in a related article. “In addition to the Core i5 processor, Microsoft announced that the Surface Pro will have a 1920×1080 resolution, a full-size USB 3.0 port, and Mini DisplayPort for external display support.”
  • The tablet comes with a stylus and enables on-device note taking. It aims to be both a PC and tablet, but it’s uncertain if customers will justify spending more.
  • “Fuller-featured Windows 8 convertible/hybrid tablet-laptops like Lenovo’s new Yoga 13, start at $1,099. So it seems Microsoft is not really going after the iPad directly, but instead pushing a new, yet undefined category of device,” Wired writer Mike Barton states. “But the price has kept me looking at the $199 Google Nexus 7 tablet.”
  • “Compared with iPad and its rich app ecosystem, is the Surface Pro dead on arrival given its price?” asks Barton. “Will this new device category take off? Do consumers and business want a full Windows device in a tablet form — and will they pay a premium for it?”

Connecting Fans: Music Industry No Longer Just About Recorded Music

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December 3, 2012
  • Music industry experts are skeptical of startups in light of the “prohibitively expensive” costs of licensing music from record labels, writes GigaOM contributor Matthew Hawn. But “they’ve forgotten that the music industry isn’t — and never has been — just about recorded music,” Hawn writes, noting that many companies have promising opportunities in other parts of the music world.
  • Rather that “whining about the high cost of licensing music,” some companies have switched their focus to live music, offering fans intimate access to artists.
  • “And fans are willing to pay for these experiences, in stark contrast to the smaller segment who are willing to [pay] for downloads or subscription music services,” Hawn writes, noting that these offerings are also hard to pirate.
  • Another open door is music discovery, promoting musicians that are otherwise lost in obscurity. “The old channels of videos and radio are still there, but the Internet exploded everything and diffused attention. In many ways it’s harder than ever for artists and fans to connect,” the post states.
  • Some startups aim to connect listeners and musicians financially, allowing fans to pay their favorite bands directly. Others are looking to create a simpler music ecosystem or leverage mobile’s capabilities.
  • “The opportunities to expand [mobile technology] to other music-centric features like with ticketing, new music discovery, fan/artist interactions are all fantastic,” suggests Hawn. “Location and hyper-local services around music are also untapped.”
  • “Startups create the most value when they carve out new business models and transform the way we used to do things. They are less valuable (and thus less viable) when [they’re] just wringing the last drop of money out of old models. The truly great ones transform industries and build new opportunities, growing the market for everyone.”

At Long Last: The Reviews Are In for Anticipated iTunes 11 Release

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December 3, 2012
  • Apple has released the newest version of its iTunes service, one month after the originally planned rollout. The company’s iTunes 11 is the biggest update to Apple’s media software since it debuted in 2001 as a simple music jukebox.
  • The service is now more integrated with Apple’s iCloud storage service and iTunes Store to make it more convenient for users to locate and access content on a variety of devices.
  • According to John Paczkowski writing for AllThingsD, “an iOS-inspired user interface… more elegantly incorporates the many elements that have been grafted and patchworked onto it over the years.”
  • “It’s far too early to say, as there are plenty of other tweaks and additions to play with here, but overall iTunes 11 looks like a pretty slick remodel of software that had been generally overburdened with unnecessary complexity,” notes Paczkowski. “It seems clear that Apple design guru Jony Ive played a prominent role in recasting the software.”
  • In a related review from Wired, Christina Bonnington writes: “For the most part, the new iTunes feels like the old iTunes. The experience is much faster though and has a decidedly more modern, streamlined user interface featuring flashy, colorful graphics.”
  • “Apple has trimmed a lot of fat, but with so much information to present and sort through, navigation can still feel a bit convoluted, especially compared to minimalist services like Rdio,” Bonnington writes.
  • “The one thing that would make iTunes killer in my book is if it adopted a simple cloud-based subscription service like Rdio and Spotify — along with those services’ equally simple interface,” she concludes.

Social Gaming: Facebook and Zynga Change Agreement, Draw Concerns

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December 3, 2012
  • Facebook and social-gaming company Zynga have renegotiated the terms of their 2010 agreement.
  • “In a bid to become less reliant on Facebook, Zynga disclosed in a filing on Thursday that it has amended the terms of its relationship with the world’s largest social network so that it can now host its Web games outside of Facebook’s platform,” reports the Wall Street Journal.
  • “The new agreement also leaves the door open for Facebook to produce its own games and become a direct competitor to Zynga,” notes the article.
  • Under the new deal, Zynga will not be required to show Facebook ads on its game pages or to use Facebook credits for in-game payments. The game maker “can now seek other partners and offer games on its own portal, Zynga.com, without linking users to the Facebook platform.”
  • The news quickly led to a 12 percent plunge in Zynga’s stock to $2.30 in after-hours trading, while Facebook’s stock was relatively flat. Since its IPO in December 2011, Zynga’s shares have declined 74 percent, notes Businessweek in a related report.
  • Both companies quickly responded with statements explaining that the spirit of the partnership remains intact. “Our amended agreement with Facebook continues our long and successful partnership while also allowing us the flexibility to ensure the universal availability of our products and services,” stated Zynga chief revenue officer Barry Cottle.
  • “Zynga last year derived more than 90 percent of its revenue from Facebook. Meanwhile, Zynga made up about 12 percent of Facebook’s sales in 2011,” notes WSJ. “More recently, as Facebook’s gaming environment has grown more competitive, Zynga has struggled. In its most recently reported quarter, San Francisco-based Zynga posted a $52.7 million loss.”

Data Analytics and Hollywood Marketing: Social Sentiment Impacting Film

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December 3, 2012
  • Analytics tools that translate social media chatter into data have become more accurate and are quickly spreading through Hollywood marketing.
  • At “The Power of Crowds: Social Sentiment and the Future of Film” panel hosted by USC Annenberg and IBM, industry experts highlighted the necessity of understanding data analytics, but said making movies won’t just become a product of research.
  • According to David Barnes, director of emerging technologies at IBM software group, “the analytics explosion will soon see marketing execs spending more on information technology than most chief information officers,” Variety writes.
  • Although data literacy will become increasingly important, it shouldn’t require specialized knowledge. “If you need a scientist to look at your data for you, your tools suck,” says Barnes.
  • A study from IBM found that only two-thirds of chief marketing officers are engaged in their departments’ social campaigns, even though reaching fans through social media channels has become a strong focus.
  • The panel mostly discussed analytics’ use in evaluating box office performance, but also noted the predictive potential.
  • “Still on the fringes of data analytics are story-development tools, such as algorithms that read scripts in search of positives and negatives for both marketability and box office potential,” explains the article. “But the panel was unanimous… that no matter how sophisticated the data gets, filmmakers needn’t worry that their projects will be subject to groupthink.”
  • “You will never see us make a movie based on a series of questions posed in a research environment — never, ever, ever,” says Rob Friedman, Lionsgate Motion Picture Group co-chair.

Private Beta Tests Reveal Pricing and Launch Details of Redbox Instant

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December 3, 2012
  • GigaOM has unveiled several exclusive details about the soon-to-launch Redbox Instant by Verizon, the “Netflix competitor with the complicated name.”
  • “The service will charge consumers as little as $6 per month, launch with apps for Android, iOS and Xbox 360 and open up as early as December 17,” explains the post.
  • The online video joint venture is currently being tested in private beta, and its exhaustive help section reportedly reveals interesting details and screenshots.
  • Assuming that the service doesn’t make any significant adjustments based on the testing, subscriptions will start at $6 per month, offering unlimited access to the service’s video catalog, which is expected to be smaller than the current Netflix collection.
  • “An $8 a month membership adds four Redbox credits to the streaming package that can be redeemed for Redbox DVD rentals,” notes the post. “Users will be able to reserve their DVDs from the Instant website and mobile apps. Credits won’t roll-over but expire at the end of each month.”
  • According to GigaOM, “Redbox Instant also offers VOD rentals and sales of newer titles, which can be downloaded to some devices for offline access. Rentals and sales start at $0.99, and offer access to titles like ‘The Lorax,’ which will presumably cost a bit more than that.”
  • Redbox Instant will use Silverlight for online streaming and will be available initially on Android and iOS devices, Xbox 360 and select Samsung TVs and Blu-ray players.

CES 2013: Sony Announces Ultra HD Video Player Loaded with 4K Movies

By
December 3, 2012

To help get consumers interested in its 84-inch 4K Ultra HD TV priced near $25,000, Sony will loan buyers a 4K Ultra HD Video Player preloaded with 10 feature films in 4K format. According to the press release, the films include “The Amazing Spiderman,” “Total Recall,” “Salt,” “Bad Teacher,” “Bridge Over the River Kwai,” and “Taxi Driver,” among others.

The Ultra HD Video Player is designed to be updated with additional 4K titles and video clips, says the company. The Sony system includes the 84-inch 4K LED TV and an Xperia Tablet S that serves as a remote control.

“As a standalone unit, the Sony XBR-84X900 TV already upscales all video inputs, including the more than 7,000 Blu-ray Disc titles currently in distribution, to a near-4K resolution through the use of Sony’s proprietary 4K X-Reality PRO three-chip picture engine,” notes the press release.

“While there are other 4K Ultra HDTVs arriving this year — and we expect to see many more at CES in January — at the moment, this is the only one with a content delivery system in place, to go along with its upscaling chops, and the only studio pushing content at this res so far,” reports Engadget.

Intended for Education, India’s Aakash 2 is the World’s Cheapest Tablet PC

By
November 30, 2012
  • The Aakash 2 is a $20, 7-inch tablet developed by Indian company Datawind. According to Quartz, the device is “almost as capable” as the Nexus 7 tablet while selling for just one fifth the price of Google’s device.
  • CEO Suneet Tuli admits the hardware is “nothing too extraordinary,” since “the key focus is breaking that price barrier.”
  • There is a 4 million order backlog in India for the device, but Tuli believes his company will fill these orders. He also predicts that within a year there will be similar devices on the global market for under $50.
  • The device is targeted for Indian students, as Datawind sells the device for $40 to the Indian government, which then either gives them to students or re-sells them for $20.
  • “This may not be the perfect initial deployment, but the vision isn’t just for engineering students, the vision is from engineering students all the way down to all 220 million students, or potentially 360 million Indian kids across the country that should be in school,” Tuli notes.
  • The tablet has “standard Android apps” as well as ebooks and other educational applications. The Quartz post includes a 7-minute video in which Tuli discusses the tablet.

Android Falls Behind iOS Following Surge in iPhone 5 Sales in U.S.

By
November 30, 2012
  • Strong iPhone 5 sales have helped iOS devices overtake Android for the market share lead in the U.S., reports Kantar Worldpanel. Currently, iOS devices have a 48.1 percent share of smartphone sales, while Android controls 46.7 percent of the market.
  • “The last time we saw iOS overtake Android in the U.S. was when the iPhone 4S was released and Apple managed to retain its lead for three consecutive periods,” notes Dominic Sunnebo, global consumer insight director at Kantar Worldpanel ComTech. “This time we predict that Apple will beat its previous high of 49.3 percent and achieve its highest ever share of the U.S. smartphone market within the next two periods.”
  • Android still dominates European markets, controlling 81.7 percent and 73.9 percent in Spain and Germany respectively, but Apple has recently gained market share in four of the five main European countries, according to the report. Apple’s strongest European presence is in Great Britain, where it controls 32.7 percent of the market.
  • “Apple has always managed to maintain loyalty levels far above the competition, and this has clearly played a part in driving sales of its new device,” explains Sunnebo. “An impressive 92 percent of existing Apple owners in the U.S. said they will choose an iPhone the next time they upgrade.”
  • “While loyalty is clearly key, it is also important to make sure that new customers are attracted to your brand,” Sunnebo adds. “With roughly 60 percent of U.S. iPhone 5 sales coming from existing customers and 40 percent from new consumers, Apple is achieving this at the moment — a clear sign of the strength of the brand in the U.S. marketplace.”
  • This loyalty helps explain why 62 percent of American iPhone 5 sales were the result of consumers who owned older versions of the phone and wanted to upgrade.

For the Lucky Few, Pro Video Gaming Offers Potential Glory and Careers

By
November 30, 2012
  • While the world of professional gaming is on the rise, with some top players earning up to $200,000 annually, most players do not earn enough to sustain a living, writes The New York Times.
  • “We’re at a point where only about 40 people in the U.S. can make a living playing video games,” explains Sundance DiGiovanni, chief executive of Major League Gaming. “I’d like to get it to a hundred. I think we’re a year or two away from that.”
  • Some competitive gamers will sign with sponsored teams, but the salary for these types of players is only about $12,000 to $30,000.
  • Outsiders may see this as a lot of money to play a video game, but the players say they practice their game eight hours a day, and increase that to 10 to 14 hours a day as tournaments near. Additionally, the cost of competing (travel, hotels and registration fees) can be steep.
  • Marketing has seen recent changes as Major League Gaming has shifted its focus away from television and now broadcasts on the Internet on sites like CBS Interactive’s GameSpot.com.
  • Since most gamers cannot support themselves with gaming alone, many use their talent to advance themselves in related fields such as game development and competition broadcasting. Some young gamers even emphasize their video game successes on college applications to show they are passionate in a field.

Industrial Internet: Is Our Online Future All About Intelligent Machines?

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November 30, 2012
  • While opportunities created by the Internet are boundless, the move to take advantage of them has been slow. Although the online world has dramatically changed how we access information or purchase products, “the real opportunity of change is still ahead of us,” and it’s all about machines, GigaOM writes.
  • “There are now many millions of machines across the world, ranging from simple electric motors to highly advanced MRI machines,” the article states. The Industrial Internet aims to connect these machines with people, big data and analytics — and the benefits of doing so could be significant.
  • “The Industrial Internet leverages the power of the cloud to connect machines embedded with sensors and sophisticated software to other machines (and to us) so we can extract data, make sense of it and find meaning where it did not exist before,” the post explains.
  • In the airline industry, “just a one percent improvement in aircraft engine maintenance efficiency can reduce related costs by $250 million annually. A similar one percent fuel savings in power generation could add more than $4 billion annually to the global economy.”
  • Other industries — health in particular — have similar opportunities to increase efficiency to cut operating costs. “Assuming growth similar to what prevailed during the Internet boom, the Industrial Internet revolution will add about $15 trillion to global GDP by 2030. That’s the equivalent of adding another U.S. economy to the world,” reports GigaOM.
  • “This Industrial Internet is not about a world run by robots, it is about combining the world’s best technologies to solve our biggest challenges,” the article continues. “It’s about economically and environmentally sustainable energy, curing the incurable diseases, and preparing our infrastructure and cities for the next 100 years.”

Editorial: Can Legal Torrent Sites Serve as Innovators for Media Discovery?

By
November 30, 2012
  • In 2001, Bram Cohen authored the BitTorrent spec as a way to speed up peer-to-peer sharing by downloading large files, like full-length movies, in multiple packets from various sources. Since then, BitTorrent has become strongly associated with The Pirate Bay and illegal practices.
  • “But legit players in the file-sharing biz quietly use BitTorrent for its network efficiency, while introducing new distribution and revenue opportunities for creators, and offering new media discovery sites for consumers,” writes Engadget.
  • Cohen made BitTorrent a legitimate, copyright-filtering service in 2005. Now the site is trying out a revenue model, which “hint[s] at an emerging media distribution and discovery future for the file-sharing protocol,” explains the post.
  • In the music industry, BitTorrent could become the fourth consumption tool, following a la carte, music subscriptions and streaming services.
  • “When basic access to galactic music libraries is free, and recommendations come from peers rather than from institutional power brokers, the door is wide open for peer-to-peer platforms to take an important role in marketing, distributing and delivering music,” the post suggests. “Same goes for film, as the pro-am moving picture landscape is re-drawn by Roku, Vimeo and many other disruptors.”
  • By some estimates, the BitTorrent platform transmits as much as half of all Internet traffic.
  • Even with continued pirating, BitTorrent’s “neutral malleability can be a great competitive advantage to the most resourceful creators, and a delight for the most inquisitive consumers. Both sides should advance the legal torrent movement by adopting the platform for distribution and discovery.”

New comScore Audience Measurement Tool Reports Digital Consumption

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November 30, 2012
  • Media Metrix Multi-Platform, a new audience measurement and media planning product from comScore, has launched in beta in the U.S. The platform provides data regarding website, video, and app content views across multiple devices.
  • “Knowing the size of your website’s audience simply isn’t sufficient in today’s fragmented, multi-platform digital media environment,” explains comScore. “Media Metrix Multi-Platform provides the industry’s first comprehensive view of digital consumer behavior across desktop computers, smartphones and tablets.”
  • The new system uses comScore’s proprietary Unified Digital Measurement (UDM) methodology, that combines panel- and census-based data to provide estimates on digital audience size and consumption.
  • While comScore’s “unique visitor” metrics still remain central to the platform, it also considers duration-based metrics and content-specific engagement metrics including page views, video views and app starts.
  • “Media Metrix Multi-Platform offers comprehensive reporting on more than 300,000 digital media entities, including their un-duplicated audience size, demographic composition, engagement, performance within key user segments and behavioral trends,” notes the site.
  • To accompany the launch, comScore has released data involving top multiplatform properties. The Media Metrix Multi-Platform data shows that Google was the only property in September to reach over 100 million unique visitors/viewers across both desktop and mobile channels, while Yahoo and Facebook each topped 90 million.

Verizon FiOS Announces Live TV Streaming App for LG Smart TVs

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November 30, 2012

The Xbox 360 has it. Apple’s iPad and Samsung’s connected TVs have it. And now LG Smart TVs are also getting the Verizon FiOS TV app, bringing access to 75 channels and Flex View video on-demand.

“The expansive selection of channels from FiOS TV and on-demand content from Verizon’s Flex View library further strengthens LG’s Smart TV platform, giving consumers of all ages a virtually limitless amount of entertainment on TVs, Blu-ray players, PCs, even tablets and phones,” says Samuel Chang, VP of Smart TV and Innovation for LG Electronics.

According to the press release, FiOS TV’s Flex View “offers more than 25,000 on-demand movies and show titles for purchase or rent on any Internet-connected device, whether home on a TV or PC, or on-the-go on a mobile device.”

“As promised back at CES — when they said it would launch in the ‘first half of 2012’ — the app is of course customized for LG’s Magic Remote gesture control feature, and is available on all 2012 Smart TVs, plus the BP620 Blu-ray player via the Smart TV smart World app store,” reports Engadget.

“The good news is you can make use of it in a room with no cable box needed, however the lineup is still missing a few key channels (ESPN) that may be tough to do without,” notes the post.
Verizon also recently announced a partnership with NBCUniversal to expand its TV Everywhere offerings. “If [Verizon] can add a few more, the set-top box-less future may be within reach,” Engadget suggests.

Reinventing the Town Square: Twitter Real-Time Conversations and TV

By
November 30, 2012
  • Before Internet, TV, radio and newspapers, citizens would gather in the town square to share news, creating a multi-directional, real-time dialogue. Centuries later, Twitter is recreating this conversation across various media, with particular emphasis on real-time television events.
  • In a speech at his alma mater, the University of Michigan, Twitter CEO Dick Costolo discussed the tendency for new forms of media to disrupt established outlets. Although he acknowledges this “town square” reinvention creates problems such as rumor proliferation, he says Twitter is actually complementary, not harmful, to traditional media sources.
  • “We once start to see multiple perspectives on a particular news story or event that’s happening,” Costolo says. “We once again start to have a shared experience across the globe about what’s happening and what we’re viewing right now. We once get an unfiltered perspective on what’s happening.”
  • “But at the same time,” he adds, “it complements all these traditional forms of broadcast media, and all sorts of fascinating in ways that we would have never predicted.”
  • While the town square approach had benefits, there were also disadvantages involving mistakes, rumors and the amount of time required to distribute information.
  • “But while the invention of newspapers and radio and television solved the distribution problem and much of the accuracy problem, it dramatically increased the costs of distributing news or information, and it lost the multi-directional and unfiltered aspect that the town square used to provide,” notes GigaOM. “And it also made the news very ‘outside-in,’ with observers providing the details instead of participants.”
  • The CEO sees Twitter as “a way of injecting the real-time, multi-directional and unfiltered nature of the town square back into the media,” explains the post. And rather than being disruptive, Twitter is complementary to TV and serves as a “second screen” experience for real-time events such as the Olympics and Hurricane Sandy.
  • Costolo calls Twitter the “pulse of the planet” and sees it as a powerful media player that could drive viewership of live television events.

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