Posted by Bill

With seemingly every every tech and news media outlet or blog sitting in rapt attention at the feet of Steve Jobs on June 7 as he unveiled the latest iPhone and mobile OS at Apple’s World Wide Developers Conference, it was noteworthy who wasn’t there.

As the Wall Street Journal reported, tech news blog Gizmodo.com wasn’t invited to the iPhone-fest in the wake of its legal dispute with Apple and Silicon Valley law enforcement over how it obtained – and later reported on in detail – a prototype of the new iPhone a month before its release. Gizmodo had sent several staffers to previous WWDC dates, liveblogging every pearl of information to fall from the lips of Apple’s CEO, so the lack of an invitation to Monday’s event was more than coincidental.

Apple clearly appears to be engaging in prior restraint against Gizmodo, which as any journalism student – and First Amendment attorney — will tell you is an act designed to have a chilling effect on the media that cover the company. That is, it was done to keep other media under control and scared of potential repercussions should they contemplate future reporting or other activity that Apple considers beyond the pale.

Yeah, Apple’s a private business and can do what it likes with its private events. But barring a media outlet this way is not a good thing. What’s next, barring media that decide to write negative reviews of Apple products?

It is, as they say, a slippery slope.

Posted by Joe

With all the talk about Apple’s stock being worth more than Microsoft, I thought it would be good to note that amidst the dark clouds hovering over Redmond, there is a little sunshine.

A Computerworld survey probing IT professionals revealed that 70 percent plan to migrate to Windows 7. This is in great contrast to the 80 percent of IT organizations that did not migrate to Vista (Gartner).

What’s interesting about the survey is that the number one reason for upgrading was to get off the Windows XP platform. I suppose fatigue happens after staring at a default-blue taskbar for nine years.

But of course, there’s more than just looks with Windows 7. There’s better integration with Windows Server and Microsoft’s System Center Configuration Manager and so much more.

With the Windows division finally on the right path, Microsoft needs to provide some direction to the rest of its divisions – most notably entertainment – if it wishes to see more sunny days in the future.

Posted by Michael

The Android operating system (OS) from Google continues to shake up the U.S. mobile phone market, topping Apple’s iPhone and challenging RIM’s dominance in the smartphone OS market, according to the latest figures.

Research from the NPD Group found that Android moved past the Apple iPhone to take the No. 2 position among all smartphone operating systems in the first quarter.  Based on unit sales to consumers, the Android operating system moved into second position, with a 28 percent share of the market, behind RIM’s OS (36 percent) and ahead of Apple’s OS (21 percent), stated the research company’s data.

Also, NPD Group found that first quarter smartphone sales at AT&T comprised nearly a third of the entire smartphone market (32 percent), followed by Verizon Wireless (30 percent), T-Mobile (17 percent) and Sprint (15 percent).

The NPD research and Android’s continuing momentum compelled CNN and Mashable’s Pete Cashmore to ask if the iPhone has “lost its cool.” I’m not sure that’s a fair assessment, but Cashmore’s column does provide some good insight into the rise of Android and the slow fall of Apple’s smartphone  product.

Posted by Bill

OK, I’ve got as much Apple vs. the media overload as anyone else…but there’s no e-mail flame war like a Steve Jobs e-mail flame war. Let’s reflect on why we enjoy following tech news so much as we revisit the recently released exchange Valleywag’s Ryan Tate had with the legendary head of Apple, shall we?

The setting was perfect: Aggressive new media journalist, admittedly fueled by a Stinger or two and employed by a media company that has a contentious history with Jobs, gets riled by a TV commercial billing the iPad as “a revolution” and fires off “a short-pointed question to Jobs’ well-known e-mail address.”

Jobs responds a few hours later – after midnight California time –  and the pair with gusto launch an email artillery exchange about Apple’s well-publicized refusal to support Flash animation on the iPhone or iPad, Apple’s idiosyncratic attempts to keep pornography out of iPhone and iPad apps and even whether at age 20 Bob Dylan, who was featured in Apple’s past “Think Different” ad campaign, would have considered the iPad to have “the faintest thing to do with ‘revolution.’”

It’s worth reading as a noteworthy addition to the growing panoply of Steve Jobs e-mail rejoinders. Seriously, can you imagine the CEOs of Goldman Sachs or GM getting into it with a journalist like this? Or the snit their corporate communications directors would have if they did?

Posted by Joe

So we all know what the new iPhone is going to look like thanks to Gizmodo. Even someone in Vietnam somehow got their hands on one, weeks before Mac fanboys like Stephen Colbert and David Pogue:

So in June, when Steve Jobs reaches into his jeans pocket for the new iPhone, don’t expect there to be much applause. In fact, Apple’s actions over the last few months are nothing to cheer.

In March, Apple sued HTC over phone-related patents. In April, police raided the home of an editor at Gizmodo. I wonder who sent them. Also, there was Steve Job’s rant on why he dislikes Flash. And doesn’t it always seem like there’s some feud going on between Apple and Google?

What I love about Apple is they try to portray a nice guy persona to their customers.

• Exhibit 1: Mac Guy commercials.
• Exhibit 2: The annoyingly helpful sales people at Apple Store.

Then there is the business persona we’ve seen over the past few months. I think Apple’s favorite son, Newsweek’s Dan Lyons, sums it best: “Apple’s one great weakness—they simply do not know how to play well with others.”

My hope is that after the dust settles from the hoopla involving the new iPhone, Apple can learn to play nice. Maybe we’ll see Flash on iPads. Maybe the lawsuits will magically disappear. Maybe Steve Jobs will grow hair.

Posted by Joe

There are reports that social game developer Zynga – creator of popular Facebook games FarmVille, Café World and Mafia Wars – is planning to launch its own gaming website after reported disputes involving the impending introduction of Facebook Credits.

With Facebook Credits, users will have the ability to purchase apps across Facebook using a single currency. This is similar to PlayStation Network Wallet and Nintendo Wii Store points. It also means that Facebook will take 30 percent of every transaction. This is similar to how Apple’s iTunes operates.

Before Zynga launches what is being dubbed as “Zynga Live,” it should take a look at its numbers:

• FarmVille – 78,372,815 monthly activities
• CafeWorld – 27,663,941
• Treasure Isle – 25,218,555
• Mafia Wars – 23,882,928

Does Zynga really think it can sustain these kinds of numbers if it decides to take a step back from Facebook? Sure, users will probably still be able to login to Facebook from Zynga Live through Facebook’s Open Graph protocol, but will users be willing to make Zynga Live their home for social gaming?

My thoughts: I don’t think the hordes of casual gamers will make the jump. Zynga games do not provide the challenge nor does Zynga have the pull factor to justify visiting another website other than Facebook. What makes Zynga so popular is it’s on Facebook. It’s convenient to log onto Facebook and play a simplistic game for a few minutes.

If Zynga decides to give Zynga Live the green light as expected, it better develop more challenging games. Betting the farm, café, poker table, etc … against Facebook is a bad bet.

Posted by Bill

Amid all the hubbub at this week’s Cable Show 2010 regarding 3D TV, the future of broadband regulation and the rise of over-the-top content, it’s good to see some cable aficionados catching on to a smaller, potentially unsung development in the industry: The recycling of old brand names.

Responding to Light Reading Cable’s report covering the unveiling of the “SelecTV” brand cable will use to promote interactive TV services – supplanting the useful but unwieldy tech descriptor, Enhanced Binary TV Interchange Format (EBIF) – one sharp-eyed commenter noted that the TV business has used the name before, more than 30 years ago, for a pioneering if short-lived pay TV service specializing in movies.  A quick Google search also would show that SelecTV currently is the brand of a digital satellite pay TV service in Australia, but it’s probably best not to bring that up at the Cable Show.

Anyway, cable’s recycling of SelecTV immediately generated questions about other brands that might get resurrected for next-generation programming services or equipment. LR’s Jeff Baumgartner immediately called for the return of Admiral television sets and noted that gear-maker Thomson earlier this year changed its corporate name to that of its venerable Technicolor subsidiary. I, however, am about to begin pestering Motorola to bring back Quasar. OK, so the company no longer makes TV sets…but a guy can dream.

Posted by Michael

As the cable industry gathers in Los Angeles for the annual Cable Show, some clouds of uncertainty about the regulatory future of cable broadband services may greet attendees.

Six days before the event’s start, the Federal Communications Commission released its “third way” approach for broadband, suggesting Internet access should be regulated in the same manner as phone service. The FCC approach also proposes broadband service providers treat all Web traffic equally and not block or hinder consumer access to any Web content.

Cable interests inside D.C. expressed unease with the FCC’s proposition. Kyle McSlarrow, president and CEO of the National Cable and Telecommunications Association, organizers of the annual Cable Show, said the proposal to “reclassify broadband services is disappointing.”  He added that the association “firmly believes that the case for new regulation of the Internet has not been made.”

The FCC’s push has supporters, however. The Open Internet Coalition, which includes online heavyweights Amazon.com, Google and Ebay, stated in a letter sent to the FCC that the regulatory approach will “preserve a level playing field for all participants.”

While some in the cable industry may view the prospects of new broadband regulation as dismal news, others think it may not be so bad for the industry.  Analysts at Stifel Nicolaus said the regulatory impact on cable “is less apocalyptic than some have warned.”

Also, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski will have an opportunity to explain his position when he addresses the Cable Show on Thursday, May 13.

Posted by Bill

The age of the Kindle seems to be waning as quickly as it waxed. At least, that’s a possible outcome of the latest wrinkle in digital book sales, now that Google plans to enter the business in competition with Amazon.com and its Kindle e-book reader perhaps as soon as June. Various reports indicate that via the new Google Editions service, buyers will be able to buy and access new and older titles – including, potentially, out-of-print books for which Google has a rights agreement with the author – using a variety of platforms such as a laptop, netbook, smartphone, etc.

If this seems like another big blow to Amazon, it is. While the online retailer has sold an estimated 1.5 million of the devices in the first two years after it launched the original Kindle in November 2007, Apple took less than a month to reach 1 million sales of its new iPad – which many observers see as a natural e-book reader and can access Kindle content. Good-bye to Amazon’s nascent grip on the e-book reader side of the market.

Now on the e-book content side, enter Google and its ability to leverage the Web vs. having to rely on a proprietary device and content delivery network. According to The Wall Street Journal, Google Editions not only will enable users to buy books that turn up in Google searches on a variety of sites, but also will enable brick-and-mortar booksellers – including small, independent retailers – to sell Google Editions content from their own websites, capturing most of the revenue from those sales. So, in addition to facing a competitive juggernaut on the e-reader device side of the business, Amazon now faces on the content side a competitor that potentially will be able to a much greater number of titles but also to a handful of reader device options.

It may be just as well that Amazon’s place in the e-book world shrinks. Besides staging the ultimate Big Brother moment for Kindle users a couple of years ago, Amazon’s handling of its e-book platform has gotten a little creepier lately than some people would like.

Posted by Aurora

Social media has gone main-stream.  Your mother got a facebook account and your boss is now twittering. Whether you avoided social media like the swine flu or dove in head first, chances are your approach could you an adjustment.

Now is the time to re-energizing your brand through social media. Whether it’s a fortune 500 company or your personal brand, here are five simple action items to put in place this year to make social media work for you.

Create a comprehensive social media strategy & social media policy

The problem with the way most companies tackle social media is there is no strategy. Quiet simply, they are engaging because they think they have to. Sit down and put together a list of goals then devolve a strategy that will work to accomplish them. Tactics and strategies are as crucial to social media as they are to any part of your marketing and communications plan.

Educate employees

In 2009 there was an abundance of social media mishaps due to a lack of knowledge of individuals acting on behalf of a company.  Policies should be put in place to ensure that employees are not breaking terms of use, acting inappropriately, or providing inaccurate information. On the flip side, anyone who is authorized to speak on behalf of the company should have a deep understanding of the networks, how they work and the overall company strategy. When executed poorly, social media has the power to severely damage a brand, and education is the fundamental factor that can prevent these problems.

Put greater emphasis on tracking

Tracking the various conversations taking place in the market can be one of the most overwhelming aspects of using social media as a communications tool. However, there are a number of different tracking systems that will help do the task for you. When looking for tools look for tools that allow archiving and retrieval of data. This can be a big help as you make your internal cause for social media. In addition to tracking mentions, tracking industry trends and thought leaders, even the engaging customer who is looking for help, can also bring huge benefit to your social media marketing campaign.

Provide incentive

Even social media requires promotion. Just because you build a Facebook page or start a blog does not grant you an instant following. Provide a reason for users to follow you and become a fan. Whether it is breaking news, giveaways or company updates, you should offer users something beneficial in exchange for their loyalty.

Update regularly

Social media in many ways is like a living garden. It needs to be nurtured regularly to survive. When unattended, even for a short time, your content will get stale and your following will start to die off leaving you at risk for loosing the fruitful harvest you worked so hard to grow. Make sure to maintain and cultivate your site on a regular basis and create good content that will drive interaction. At the end of the day, your site is your brand.  Good luck and happy harvest!