Category: Mobile

Discovery Communications may not distribute much of its full-length premium content freely on the web, but the company — which owns TLC, Animal Planet and of course the Discovery Channel — has experimented quite liberally when it comes to mobile. That includes its own mobile applications, both ad-supported and paid, as well as participation in paid streaming services like the new one from Fox, Bitbop.

Discovery this week released an “uber-fan” iPhone app for its well-loved show “MythBusters,” and we used that occasion to talk to Todd Zander, the company’s VP of digital media distribution. I was particularly interested in the fact that the app costs $3.99, especially given that it doesn’t include long-form TV content. But asking fans of a specific show to demonstrate their love by one, pulling out their wallet; and two, volunteering a persistent connection to the phone in their pocket is a pretty great move (see my previous story about the paid This American Life iPhone app, which offers streaming access to its full show catalog).

The MythBusters app, developed with Phunware, launched this week and currently ranks No. 6 among iTunes’ paid entertainment apps. It includes integrations with Twitter to converse with other fans watching the show, three casual games (for instance, Soda Bomb has users compete to explode virtual Diet Coke and Mentos as far as the can into the air by tilting their phones in the direction they want to shoot and shaking their phones to boost their power) and 300 minutes of ad-free short-form video content, some of it exclusive. Zander said Discovery got advice from Apple many times throughout the development process about how to best engage fans.

Discovery has previously released iPhone apps for Discovery Channel, TLC, Discovery News, TreeHugger and Petfinder, all of them free and ad-supported. But Zander said they are monetizing as well. Through a partnership with Rhythm New Media, Discovery gets around $35 CPMs for pre-roll ads and $10-$12 for banner ads and is nearly sold out. “When you compare that to $1-$2 eCPM on the mobile web it’s like night and day,” he said. The company also has a freemium app for its show “Cash Cab,” which asks users to pay up after they get one free round.

Meanwhile, Discovery pushes long-form video through relationships with premium platforms and applications like Bitbop, Verizon and QuickPlay. “We believe in our strategy to distribute short- and long-form video to third-party providers,” said Zander. “At this point we’re not interested in getting into selling content on our own.”

As for a tablet application? Something on the iPad? “Yes, we’re doing something tablet-specific that we can’t disclose,” said Zander.

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Brodman (left) with Motorola CEO Sanjay Jha

T-Mobile USA, which detailed its next network upgrade yesterday, is betting that faster mobile broadband service today (well, before the end of this year) aimed at making smartphones perform better will justify its decision to move to a 3.5G network rather than the 4G LTE standard.

I chatted with T-Mobile USA CTO Cole Brodman yesterday after the nation’s fourth-largest carrier explained the rollout of its HSPA+ network upgrade that will deliver speeds of 21 Mbps down to all of its markets by the end of the year. T-Mobile also said that Philly, New York, and Washington, D.C. already have those speeds today. For more on the rollout check out my story from February. For more on the consumer experience, check out Kevin Tofel’s review of the network on existing T-Mobile gadgets or for those specifically designed for the upgraded network.

GigaOM: Let’s start with data consumption. What are people consuming on the T-Mobile network?

Brodman: The average Android customer consumes between 400 and 600 MB and we’re excited to see that because it means people are starting to use them for more than the occasional search for a ringtone.

GigaOM: So at these rates, do you believe that some type of usage-based billing is inevitable as AT&T and Verizon apparently do?

Brodman: The vast majority of consumers will consume at rates that carriers can stay ahead of and we want them to do that, but a small number of consumers will consume too much and it’s that small number that starts to endanger the economics for the average consumer. Around 2 percent of broadband stick users will even reach our cap (5GB on the high end) and they will far exceed it. What makes sense is as they start to endanger the affordability for everyone we need to look at things like usage-based pricing.

GigaOM: Don’t we already have some type of usage-based pricing with current plans that have different caps and overage charges?

Brodman: It’s hard to expect consumers to know what a megabyte is because what that can offer changes every day. And the problem is overage is not a good experience for consumers. I don’t have an answer for you today on what usage-based pricing will look like, whether it’s upgrade buckets, app-based pricing, quality of service-based pricing or time-sensitive throttling.

GigaOM: Right now, you are talking 3.5G when other carriers are talking about 4G and LTE. When might T-Mobile move to an LTE network?

Brodman: We’ve not announced a time for LTE. HPSA+ has a really rich future…one of our network partners delivered 80 Mbps on HSPA +. And we can transition smoothly to LTE when we have to and are excited about that growth into LTE when we need to.

GigaOM: T-Mobile has fewer spectrum resources than other carriers. Do you have the spectrum capacity to deploy LTE?

Brodman: We certainly believe access to additional spectrum for mobile broadband is important to America. If you step back from that, we have quite a bit of additional capacity in our portfolio and we’re freeing up spectrum used for our 2G network for 3G and HSPA+. But I think I’m not going to answer the question directly. We believe that our portfolio will keep us competitive in the near and medium term — for the next couple of years.

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Ask anyone who has been in the wireless industry for several years and they will tell you that the U.S. has been trailing behind Europe and Asia in terms of adopting the latest technologies and consumption.

But at this year’s CTIA, speakers have been clear to dispute that image, and in fact, are saying the U.S. is leading the way by any measure. The unlikely speaker to deliver this message today was German telecom giant Deutsche Telekom (NYSE: DT). The company’s CEO René Obermann, said: “The U.S. is the driver and is becoming bigger than Europe.” U.S. data revenues are growing at 29 percent vs. 11 percent in Europe, he said, and non-voice revenues total $15 a month on average in the U.S. and only $9 in Europe.

Deutsche Telekom also has a stake in the U.S. market through its T-Mobile USA subsidiary, but the viewpoint this morning provided a nice outsider’s perspective. Yesterday, AT&T’s Mobility Chief Ralph de la Vega delivered a very similar message. He said the U.S. adoption of 3G services is unprecedented. The U.S. has 33 percent of the world’s advanced 3G customers (despite only having 7 percent of the world’s wireless subscribers).

In Obermann’s keynote, he skirted the issue of Deutsche Telekom’s plans for T-Mobile USA in the near future. The company has been said to be considering spinning off the company through an IPO, or is seeking outside investors.While the U.S. is one of the more advanced networks, T-Mobile USA has been slow to roll out its 3G network, and now is pouring millions of dollars into building a high-speed network. Yesterday, T-Mobile USA announced at CTIA that it is upgrading its network to support speeds up to 21 mbps. The network is available in parts of of New York City, New Jersey, Long Island and suburban Washington, D.C., with Los Angeles coming soon. It plans to cover more than 100 metro areas and 185 million people by the end of the year.

Mobile marketer Vibes Media has acquired text-messaging ad server Zeep Mobile. Financial terms weren’t disclosed. Zeep’s technology will be folded into Vibes’ platform and all Zeep employees will become part of Vibes Media. Additionally, Zeep President and CEO Scott Robertson has agreed to relocate to Vibes’ headquarters in Chicago. The company’s engineering team currently based in Vancouver, Canada, will joining Robertson there as well. Those Zeep staffers will work under engineering head Rishi Bhatia, the head of AOL’s former mobile marketing unit Third Screen Media. Bhatia and his Third Screen Media team defected from AOL (NYSE: AOL) to Vibes earlier this month.

Zeep claims to have a network of over 10,000 developers, which will also be added into Vibes, which had seen substantial revenue growth the past few years. As mobile advertising heats up, especially in support of apps, that could help boost 12-year-old Vibes’ fortunes significantly as the competitive space becomes more crowded. Just over a year-and-a-half ago, Vibes raised a $15 million first round funding from Fidelity Ventures. Release

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Fox Mobile Group has finally unveiled the long-delayed mobile video streaming service it has been working on for years, but don’t get too excited because this doesn’t sound like the Hulu for mobile that everyone has been waiting for.

While programming is expected from “numerous top-notch content partners,” there’s no mention of Hulu or News Corp.‘s joint venture partner, NBC Universal (NYSE: GE), in the release. Fox Mobile said this morning as part of CTIA that the service will be called Bitbop and that it will be an on-demand video subscription service for $9.99 a month. Subscribers will be able to watch full-length content on a smartphone over WiFi and 3G.

The service is expected to launch this Spring, but since many deadlines have not been made in the past, it’s unclear how much you can take away from that. It did not specify what carriers or handsets would be supported. The announcement comes at a time when Fox Mobile Group is undergoing some restructuring pains. Not only has it lost many executives recently, but it is also considering spinning off some of its assets, including Jamba/Jamster.

In a release, Fox Mobile Group’s CMO Chris Hoerenz said: “Bitbop is an on demand subscription-based service that delivers on the promise of making the smartphone an easy-to-use entertainment device for television programs and movies. We are able to give mobile audiences the wide range of content they want, when and where they want it, with all the customer friendly features they expect.”

Bitbop will allow users to either stream the video, or temporarily download it, so that they could view it without internet access. It said that it will work on the most advanced handsets with nearly every carrier, rather than being a entry-phone mobile content play like its Jamba and Jamster brands that sell mostly ringtones. Fox will have to compete against the many applications that are already available for download today that offer free access to full-length content, and many more paid video subscriptions are available, too, through providers, such as MobiTV, FLO TV and the carriers.

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No surprise here: Google’s Chinese partners are abandoning the company in the aftermath of its decision to stop censoring its search engine there. China Unicom won’t include Google’s search engine on its Android phones, the FT reports (Google was developing new phones with Unicom that would incorporate its e-mail and web services, although it put that work on pause shortly after it first threatened to pull out of the country).

Other partners that have curtailed their relationship with Google (NSDQ: GOOG) include portal Tom.com, which is no longer featuring Google as the default search engine on its site, and big online forums site Tianya, which Google owns a stake in.

So who might be the next to let Google go? The NYT reported yesterday that the Chinese government was putting pressure on China Mobile to end its deal with Google. That would be a major loss, considering that while Google has always lagged far behind rival Baidu (NSDQ: BIDU) in the overall search market, it has managed to match Baidu’s mobile search share, in large part because of its relationship with China Mobile.

The arrival of Apple’s App Store in 2008 changed the marketplace for mobile developers and mobile carriers alike. The App Store changed the perception of what an app store for mobile devices should look like and started a new arms race among mobile carriers and handset manufacturers. According to a new survey by market research firm Nielsen, however, Apple is still ahead of its competitors. Apple’s customers install more applications on their device than users of any other platform and Apple’s customers are also more satisfied with Apple’s app store than the users of any other app store.

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Apps Installed Per Device

iPhone users have installed an average of 37 applications on their devices – more than the users on any other smartphone platform – while Blackberry users only use 10 apps on their phones. Android users have around 22 apps on their phones, followed by Palm users (14) and Windows Mobile users (13). Unsurprisingly, feature phone users don’t install a lot of apps on their devices. Only 12% of cell phone users with feature phones downloaded an app in the last 30 days. In contrast to this, about 46% of smartphone owners installed an app in the last month.

App Stores

With regards to the popularity of different app stores, Nielsen’s data isn’t that interesting, as most users don’t really have a choice. Apple’s App Store is the most used mobile app store and has captured 25% of the market, followed by Blackberry’s App World Store (16%). Carrier stores run by AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon are also still very popular and have a market share between 8% (T-Mobile) and 15% (Verizon). The Android Market only had about a 2% market share by the end of 2009, but given the small number of devices on the market at that time, this number will surely grow in 2010 as more device manufactures add Android devices to their lineup.

Customer Satisfaction

When it comes to customer satisfaction, Apple’s App Store and the Android Market are far ahead of their competitors. 84% of Apple’s users are satisfied with the user experience in the iTunes store and 81% of Android users are happy about their experience. All the other stores, however, still have a lot of catching up to do. In Nielsen’s survey, the Windows Marketplace ranked the lowest (56%), followed by the Blackberry App World store (58%).

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As I mentioned earlier, a lot of stuff gets sent to my office. Some of it, like the E-Blade, leaves me and my co-workers overwhelmed with confusion.

The E-Blade contends to be the first-ever emergency windshield wiper blade. The premise is that if your wiper blades go bad or if one should break, the E-Blade provides a one-size-fits-all solution to keep your windshield clear in a pinch. Except that it doesn’t fit all cars, just the ones that have 18- to 24-inch wiper blades. Don’t worry, Mini owners, you’re not missing out.

So nobody thought of this before? Maybe that’s because the emergency wiper blade is such a mind-numbingly flawed concept that it still makes me dizzy six hours after the E-Blade arrived in my office (or maybe that’s the diablo hot sauce from lunch). Wiper blades rarely, if ever, fail catastrophically—there’s going to be some warning that you need a replacement. If you do not pass the basic car-care test of recognizing when your wipers are worn, are you really likely be the type that plans ahead and buys an emergency wiper blade?

This brings us to the second, more gigantic error in the E-Blade idea: if you’re buying a back-up wiper blade, why wouldn’t you just buy the proper size for your car? It’s not difficult. Every auto-parts store I’ve ever been to has a book or computer that helps you find the correct replacement blades for your car. If that’s too intimidating, you can use your words to get a store employee to help you. Plus, in my experience, traditional custom-fit wiper blades don’t leave a disgusting black silicon residue on my hands like the E-Blade did (see photo at right).

Oh yes, there’s more stupidity: the E-Blade costs more than a normal wiper blade. The website that offers the E-Blade for $9.99, www.thewiperstore.com, also sells “lifetime” Tripledge wiper blades ranging from $7.49 to $8.49 for the 18- to 24-inch sizes that the E-Blade covers. The budget line of wipers on the website (Classic Edge)  is even cheaper. What the hell? And the E-Blade instructions say it’s only for temporary/emergency use.

There is one redeeming quality to the E-Blade, and that’s the cigar cutter included to help you trim the wiper to size. I found a similar cigar cutter on Amazon for $3.59. Unlike the E-Blade itself, the cigar cutter is useful, but that’s still no reason to buy this package.

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At the New York auto show next week, Mercedes-Benz will launch the racing version of its SLS AMG sports car, dubbed the GT3. How did we learn about it, given that we weren’t supposed to get the release until the 31st? It’s today’s story in the German tabloid Bild, and while the press department insists it’s their “exclusive story,” inevitably pictures have leaked out and are all over the web now.

Only at first glance does the GT3 look like the regular SLS with a gigantic rear wing. A closer inspection reveals wider fenders, flares, multiple air intakes, a different hood, and a huge rear diffuser. There are polycarbonate windows and a racing refueling system. The interior is completely altered, with a digital screen and shift paddles which direct a six-speed sequential gearbox that replaces the regular model’s seven-speed dual-clutch unit.

The SLS GT3 won’t be street legal, and there is no word yet on pricing.

[View with PicLens]

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AT&T’s U-Verse Mobile app is coming, and we’ve gotten our first demo of how AT&T’s bringing TV to phones. It’s a sleek-looking, intuitive interface that’ll let U-Verse customers watch recorded video on their phones. More »

The mobile phone’s days as primarily a phone were short lived. Global mobile company Ericsson announced at the CTIA conference today that mobile data traffic surpassed voice traffic worldwide at approximately 140,000 Terabytes per month at the end of last year.

GigaOM’s Stacey Higginbotham writes, “Worryingly, that data traffic was generated by an estimated 400 million smartphones set against 4.6 billion mobile subscribers making voice calls. What happens when everyone has a smartphone?” This is an historic moment in terms of both technical capacity and the development of innovative features to serve mobile users.

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The mobile industry is just coming to terms with this “tsunami of data” and the challenges it poses. Tricia Duryee wrote last year on MocoNews that two years ago none of the mobile companies would admit they faced a shortage of capacity, but that changed dramatically at the CTIA conference last year. In calling for more wireless spectrum, Qualcom co-founder Irwin Mark Jacobs said last year, “In the lab, we’ve done everything we know how to do to optimize spectrum. We have to use different tricks now.”

These tiny computers trying to use the spectrum that phones have traditionally used for voice are real game changers. As Duryee again reported last year, one smartphone equals 30 feature phones on a network, and one netbook or aircard equals 450 feature phones.

It’s not just about capacity, either. As mobile search specialist Peggy Anne Salz wrote last Summer, there’s a whole lot of feature development possibilities opening up because of this data:

“The advance of Internet-specific smartphones and the spread of app store schemes turns up the pressure on mobile operators (and their content providers) to decipher data transactions (on and off the network), combine it with location and demographic data and use the results to create a 360-degree view of the individual.”

Hopefully that will mean cool new features to serve users, not just mobile profiles to follow us around and target us with ads. So far smart phones have treated us pretty well though, haven’t they? They certainly aren’t just phones anymore.

Don’t miss the ReadWriteWeb Mobile Summit on May 8th in Mountain View, California! We’re at a key point in the history of mobile computing right now – we hope you’ll join us, and a group of the most innovative leaders in the mobile industry, to discuss it.

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