Tag Archive for 'iPad'

Mobile internet use set to soar [stats].

Published on November 29, 2010 in business, mobile and technology. View Comments

Here are 2 slides I think are interesting in relation to growing mobile internet use around the world.

The slides are from a recent presentation by former Morgan Stanley (now moving to Kleiner Perkins) tech analyst Mary Meeker. The full presentation can be downloaded from here. Click on the images below to see them in a larger size, in a new window.

In short, 3G subscription growth is climbing at very high rates in some countries with very large populations, such as Brazil, China, Indonesia and Russia, and is still around 25-35 percent year on year in many other countries around the world.

mobile internet growth

Additionally, it’s astonishing how steep the curve is when the Apple iPhone, iTouch and iPad are shown together, in comparison to the first 20 quarters from the launch of some other products and services. It seems clear that mobile still has a big future ahead.

Apple iPhone + iTouch + iPad useage

The whole presentation is embedded over at Business Insider.

Is the future of eBooks social?

Published on November 16, 2010 in Facebook, Twitter, social media and technology. View Comments

With the recent proliferation of eReaders, it must be worth asking the question: is the future of eBooks and eReading social? After all, these devices are connected to the web, where our online social networks are.

It seems to make sense that the next step would be to share thoughts and examples of what is being read. I already share many thoughts on social networks about what I’m reading at any given time. I’m sure many people do.

As a beginning, it may be worth noting that Amazon already displays such things as the ‘Most Highlighted Passages of All Time’ and ‘Heavily Highlighted Recently’, from the new social highlighting feature of kindle books.

Amazon Kindle most highlighted passages of all time

In terms of social eReading, here are a few other possibilities, as recently suggested by Kevin Rose. And let’s face it, most of these will probably happen soon enough in one form or another:

  • Friend annotations – highlighting paragraphs and leaving voice annotations for friends. (As I said above, Amazon has already implemented part of this).
  • Lend a book to a friend by hitting a button and choosing a friend to lend to.
  • Seeing how far friends are into the same book you are reading.
  • Virtual book clubs – seeing who out of your Facebook and Twitter friends is reading the same book, so you can discuss it with them.

I don’t know about you but virtual book clubs seem to make a lot of sense to me, considering how popular they have been offline over the years. It seems like these would work pretty well online, in connection with eBooks. This is even something smaller, independent book sellers could start, or host, as a way to help compete with the big online retailers.

Academic Joshua Tucker has also pointed out some of the benefits and possible pitfalls of social eReading. On discovering the Amazon social highlighting feature by surprise, what disturbed him was that he could not find a way to opt out of sharing his own highlights.

The issue of privacy is one that may disturb some people, and will not bother others at all. As Tucker points out, now Amazon knows what books you have downloaded, they know which passages of the book you find interesting and can make recommendations on what you might be interested in buying based on them.

Tucker mentions that he found the collection of highlights at the end of the book most troubling as a professor, as the temptation for students may be to just read the social highlights and not read the whole book.

Another interesting issue to me, is that book authors may soon have the opportunity for feedback from readers, as blog authors do.  As Tucker says, the possibility may exist for authors to see which parts of the book people are highlighting, and even to be able to answer questions from readers.

Do you like the idea of eReading becoming more social, or would some of these features be too much of a distraction? Do you think the privacy concerns are a serious issue, or overblown?

Social networking is now the fastest growing mobile web activity.

Published on June 6, 2010 in Facebook, Foursquare, mobile, social media and technology. View Comments

U.S. social media usage on mobile devices is up, way up, according to a new study by ComScore. The study determined that social networking is the fastest growing activity by people using web enabled mobile devices, for both application and browser access.

mobile social networks

Out of the 69.6 million people who used mobile apps for the 3 month period ending in April, 14.5 million accessed social networks. This is a 240% increase from the previous year.

In addition, out of the 73 million people who used mobile browsers, 30 million used social networks through a browser. This is a 90% increase from the previous year.

When combined with the finding early this year, that mobile web usage grew by 110% in the U.S. last year and 148% worldwide, it’s obvious that mobile social networking is going to continue to experience strong growth for the foreseeable future, and not just in the U.S. The development of mobile tablet devices such as iPads is certainly going to contribute to the trend too.

How often do you access social networks via mobile rather than fixed line these days? With me, I’d say it would be about 20-30%, perhaps more. It’s certainly increased since I started using location-based services such as Foursquare.

Will you pay for the future of news? 10 top starter iPad news apps.

Published on June 1, 2010 in Google, blogging, business, mobile and technology. View Comments

Just days after the international release of the iPad, comes the news that Apple has sold two million iPads in less than two months. Clearly, there will be many millions of iPads around before too long. And surprise, surprise, Google seems to be developing an iPad rival as we speak.

With these new digital developments as a backdrop, we have the much discussed failure of most traditional media companies to so far make adequate money from their online news content. Rupert Murdoch has famously pledged to start making readers pay for online news.

BBC News iPad app

On twitter recently, Malcolm Turnbull reminded me that Murdoch has stated that “The Internet will destroy more profitable businesses than it will create.” I wonder if Murdoch really meant News Corp businesses there. In any case, Google is claiming to have helped to generate about $54 billion of economic activity for American businesses in 2009 alone, but I digress.  What is clear is that the media landscape is rapidly changing, and iPads are the latest manifestation of the changes.

Most online news content is currently free and widely accessible. In addition, it’s easily searchable through services such as Google News, and through real-time search engines such as OneRiot. The question is: do devices such as the iPad offer additional hope to news organisations, in terms of making decent money from news content? Will people be prepared to pay for news delivered via these new devices, and in sufficient numbers? If so, who will be the winners – the traditional news organisations or new (media) players?

I certainly don’t have any answers but I will assert that journalism is not dying, as some are currently crying. Journalism is just going online, and these devices will most certainly be a decent part of the picture in terms of news delivery. If you own an iPad or similar device, why would you now get your favourite newspaper delivered or go to a shop and buy it, when you can now (or soon) have it delivered in digital form before you even get out of bed? Sure, the reading experience needs to be a pleasurable one. I can tell you that it is on an iPad. It stands to reason that the future is upon us.

10 current chart toppers

It’s very early days but here are the top free and paid news apps currently in the iPad App Store charts (in Australia). It’ll be interesting to see how this lineup changes over the coming months. Some of the big news organisations have certainly been giving their new apps a push through their other media, and many of the popular blogs (such as The Huffington Post) don’t yet have iPad apps available. Things could change.

Will you pay for news delivered through an app if it’s good content? Do you think the prices are about right here?

iPad news apps

Top 5 Free iPad News Apps (In some the content is not free)

1. BBC News (3 star user rating)
“Get the latest, breaking news from the BBC and our global network of journalists.”

2. TIME Magazine (2 star user rating)
TIME Magazine on the iPad. This app allows you to purchase each week’s digital issue through iTunes, and to read and store all the issues within the app.

3. NYT Editiors’ Choice (3 star user rating)
Offers a selection of the latest news, opinion and features, automatically updated.

4. Reuters News Pro for iPad (almost a 4 star user rating)
“Professional-grade” news and market data from Thomson Reuters. On or offline access to the latest breaking news, images and video, together with financial data, corporate information and interactive financial charting.

5. Financial Times iPad Edition (3 star user rating)
Free access until the 31st July 2010. News, video, comment and analysis, optimised for iPad – the entire Financial Times edition.

Top 5 Paid iPad News Apps (In some the content is free)

1. The Australian (3 star rating)
From News Digital Media, this app is updated and edited with content throughout the day “Experience our world-class journalism in one convenient and seamless experience”. 1 31 Day subscription is ($4.99).

2.WIRED Magazine (Almost a full 5 star user rating.)
From Condé Nast, WIRED magazine, includes some exclusive iPad content ($5.99).

3. The Early Edition (4 star user rating)
“Your own personal daily newspaper. Takes the news sources that you enjoy and presents their content in a familiar newspaper format. You can import feeds from Google Reader or OPML file, discover feed URLs by entering links and categorise news feeds into sections, like a traditional newspaper ($5.99).

4. Pulse News Reader (3 star user rating)
Takes in up to 20 news sources that you follow, and creates a visual mosaic of your news. Tap on an article and you’re presented with a rendered view of the news story ($4.99).

4. NewsRack (4 star user rating)
Full featured RSS reader for iPhone and iPad (5.99).

Obama, the iPhone and iPad information age is hurting democracy?

Published on May 9, 2010 in Twitter, blogging, mobile, politics, social media and technology. View Comments

Obama

Image by Sister72

In the context of talking about the importance of education and Thomas Jefferson’s recognition that people must attempt to stay informed to make democracy work effectively, Obama has asserted that information is becoming a diversion and a form or entertainment, rather than a tool of empowerment and emancipation.

On the state of the current information rich digital environment, Obama said:

“You’re coming of age in a 24/7 media environment that bombards us with all kinds of content and exposes us to all kinds of arguments, some of which don’t always rank all that high on the truth meter,”

“With iPods and iPads and Xboxes and PlayStations, — none of which I know how to work — information becomes a distraction, a diversion, a form of entertainment, rather than a tool of empowerment, rather than the means of emancipation,” Obama said.

Obama complained that “some of the craziest claims can quickly claim traction,” in the clamor of certain blogs and talk radio outlets.

“All of this is not only putting new pressures on you, it is putting new pressures on our country and on our democracy.” Obama said.

I think Obama is correct in saying the fact that we are bombarded with all kinds of content is putting more pressure on us, and that it can be a distraction, but only if we let it. The flows of information have certainly increased, especially for those of use who use Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, read blogs and use other forms of social media regularly.

Having said that, I now read fewer newspapers and magazines and watch less tv. My tv viewing has become much more selective, and I’m starting to be able to find the video content I want to watch on the web, rather than it being selected for me by tv stations. See my recent post 3 places to find inspiring and intelligent online video.

I am certainly not convinced that the increased flow of information puts pressure on our democracy. What is not stated, at least in this recent statement, and what is the really dramatic change in relation to democracy and the media, is that information is now flowing in multiple directions. It’s not just coming from big media organisations, it’s coming from citizens as well. This may put pressure on us in terms of managing and filtering the information, but surely this is healthy for democracy!

Like Obama, my childhood years were spent in a world without the internet, where information in the media generally flowed in one direction only, principally from large media organisations. Now we have the web and social media. Sure, this has increased the volume of information, and much of the information and arguments leave a lot to be desired, but surely this in NOT a bad thing for democracy?

There is now a plethora of opinions and information on any given subject (including the one I’m writing about now), flowing in multiple directions at any given time. Nobody said democracy was going to be easy, or tidy, did they? Surely those who learn to thrive in these new information rich environments will prosper, both financially and in terms of knowledge, education and empowerment. The digital divide between rich and poor is something that may become more and more apparent in this regard, as time goes by. This is certainly something that needs addressing by people such as Obama.

It is true that there are a lot of diversions on the web to distract our focus, but it’s up to us to filter the information available and do what we want with it. We now have the option to create our own as well.

I must say that one big downside that I can see in all this is the fact that there are now millions and millions of these new devices being produced quarterly around world. Electronic waste is a real and growing problem. The question of how we are going to live sustainably in a world with nine billion people is integral to the aims of education and empowerment that Obama speaks of. Does increased information flow have to mean increased, unsustainable consumption too? But perhaps that’s another post for another day.