Livewire

What will drive the uptake of 3-screen converged VAS?

Thu, 18 Jun 2009 13:30:02 +0000

We all know that convergence is happening. Whether it be between mobile and web, or web & TV, or mobile, web, & TV. Services that were until now available on one screen are being ported / wanting to be ported on another screen. But, the question that i am seeking answer for is: Will consumers pay for this and if they will then for what? How will service providers monetize on investments in providing such services?

Delivering superior Customer Experience

Thu, 18 Jun 2009 09:53:59 +0000

A superior Customer Experience can be delivered by providing customers a convenient, and an emotionally engaging experience.

US DTV transition - a week to go

Fri, 05 Jun 2009 16:00:09 +0000

We are a week away from the new Digital Television (DTV) switchover date of 12^th Jun 2009. As per the latest NAB & Nielsen estimates, even though about 82% of the affected consumers are prepared, about 2 million have still not taken action. The concern is that many of them may be senior citizens who may end up without television service and may require help.

Digital Marketing using TV: Opportunity waiting to explode

Wed, 03 Jun 2009 05:56:47 +0000

As of today if a CPG company has to launch a new product in the market they invite few people from the targeted sections of the society in their labs and ask for feedback on the new product. All this can change with the advancement's in TV technology.

Riding the Netbook wave

Sun, 31 May 2009 04:51:41 +0000

We have seen a number of announcements from Wireless Operators recently regarding Netbooks. Most of them have either announced plans to sell netbooks or have already started selling them. With advent of iPhone and other Smart Phones, a new form factor of devices emerged which was seen as an opportunity for Wireless operators to promote high-priced data plans. This not only helped them to monetize these phones and grow their customer base but they also saw a multi-fold rise in data usage.

Twitter says NO to ad revenue

Wed, 20 May 2009 06:03:45 +0000

When the whole world is moving towards putting ads and making revenues, Twitter is looking for something different - how to monetize without ads.

Twitter believes that putting ad next to their 140 character messages might irritate users. Also, running an AD business is a big venture.

International CTIA Wireless 2009 – The Final Roundup

Fri, 15 May 2009 18:16:33 +0000

Wireless industry is perhaps one of the most innovative among other industries. The industry players are constantly trying to “woo” their customers through innovations in device, content and the core-network that serves the customers.

Innovative ways to generate revenues from Mobile Games

Fri, 15 May 2009 02:18:21 +0000

The previous post on Livewire by Sankar highlights one pretty interesting fact about the increasing willingness of the users to pay for Mobile Games. With the advent of iPhone and other smart phones, there is a transformation happening in the Handheld Gaming space and we are seeing sophisticated games coming to mobile phones.

One in four are willing to pay for a game

Fri, 08 May 2009 10:58:42 +0000

Finally, US seems to be catching up with Japan and Korea in wireless madness. When I was in Korea, I noticed normal households having 2GBPS bandwidth and I was stunned. In my previous company, I launched wireless sites on NTT DoCoMos I-menu and the wait times were an average 18-24 months. In the US, it is much easier to create an iPhone app - you dont have to wait that long to get noticed, if you can create that stickiness and addiction.

Outdoor 3.0 GDBOS platform

Fri, 08 May 2009 10:48:56 +0000

In my last article, I mentioned..

* It is not about what is shown on ‘The big screen’.
* It is beyond attractive digital displays.
* It is not about ‘how many are watching’.
* It is not about population-driven metric.

* It is about WHO is watching, WHERE are they watching it from, ADVANCED ANALYTICS around it and the COSMIC INTEGRATION with traffic and media planning systems.

Carrying on from that..

Outdoor 3.0

Wed, 06 May 2009 14:02:17 +0000

The Out-Of-Home (OOH) media is undergoing seismic changes on multiple fronts. Outdoor 1.0 was characterized by static white screens – much like the dull white toothpaste. Digitization of the billboards has brought in Outdoor 2.0 and is making outdoor as "THE BIG SCREEN". It is fundamentally changing the way advertising buyers bought outdoor media and planned day parting - from buying locations to buying time. Population-driven metrics are able to measure outdoor advertising and its effectiveness.

"Humanics” : The mantra for the next-gen Telcos

Tue, 05 May 2009 05:36:32 +0000

The world of Telecom seems to be at an inflection point today.

Historically, Telcos have always viewed themselves as the “network guys” – being obsessed with QoS. The assumption being that if they got QoS right – almost nothing else mattered. It was not important to intimately know the customer. The business model seemed to be pretty much a “utilities business model” – turn on the connectivity, setup a billing address and run the billing meter!

A la Carte Video Services – possible in the future?

Wed, 22 Apr 2009 13:12:00 +0000

After the departure of Kevin Martin from the FCC, the general consensus seems to be that a la carte video services will be on the back burner in the US. In the past few years, this is a concept that has been widely sought, analyzed, debated, reported and vilified. As is to be expected, there are diametrically opposite positions taken by Consumers and Service Providers (Operators & Networks).

Some more thoughts on App Store for TV

Tue, 14 Apr 2009 13:13:59 +0000

In one of my posts on Trend Watch (http://www.infosysblogs.com/livewire/2009/04/after_iphone_now_it_is_appstor.html), I had talked about App stores in TV. So what the proposition can be.

The Buzz from International CTIA Wireless 2009 – Part 2

Mon, 13 Apr 2009 20:05:45 +0000

More smart phones flooding the market!!

Mobile phones are becoming smarter by the day. User experiences they enable and the features they bring to the consumers just keep getting better. A number of device makers including the likes of Samsung, LG, HTC, INQ and Nokia show cased their latest line up that will make the device market even more competitive and will drive more consumers towards smart phones.