Spotify is expanding into the world of TVs, partnering with WD for its first-ever connected TV experience for U.S. consumers. Music services have been hugely popular on set-top boxes and other connected devices, where consumers use Pandora almost as much as they use Netflix. Read more »
On Monday at GigaOM’s Mobilize 2011 event, Fjord CEO Olof Schybergson discussed the thin line between love and hate that smart services tread when dealing with a customer’s personal data. How much shared info is too much, and how can we change where that line lies? Read more »
As our demand for data increases, so too do the number of mobile devices and services. Add to that the infrastructure needed to support such connectivity, and a wide, complex picture of the mobile industry emerges. This report examines the various sectors of the mobile landscape and what the future holds for each. Hardware, cloud services, mobile search, advertising, location-based services and the growing ubiquity of the Internet of Things will all play an important role in the concept of mobility as it shifts and evolves over the next several years. With the help of more than a dozen contributors, GigaOM Pro presents a comprehensive analysis of the companies and trends that will lead us into the next era of mobile. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
The fact that we all have technology at our fingertips has caused a disintermediation within traditional commerce, and significant disruption for retailers big and small. Innovation is no longer an option. Rather, it is paramount to survival. Read more »
The number of connected devices is steadily on the rise, but it’s not smartphones or computers that will lead us to the 50 billion connected devices expected by the year 2020. Rather, the Internet of Things — numerous smart objects that speak to the web and ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Viewsonic won’t be selling the Boxee-powered smart TV it showed off at CES earlier this year: The company has told us that consumer interest is too low and hardware costs are too high. This is bad news for Boxee, but also the industry as a whole. Read more »
A big part of Netflix’s growth has been its embrace of connected and mobile devices, which now contribute 80 percent of all Netflix traffic. With the company expanding to Latin America, one has to wonder: How many of these devices are available in countries like Brazil? Read more »
New Nielsen data suggests that e-readers are more popular with women while guys prefer their tablets. Smartphones are now equally popular between the sexes. According to Nielsen’s second-quarter survey, 61 percent of e-reader owners are women while men make up 57 percent of tablet owners. Read more »
Ford and Toyota are working together on standards for the next-generation of networking and Internet-connected services in their vehicles. The move shows just how important connectivity is becoming for car companies, as vehicles are becoming the latest devices to have an always-on wireless connection. Read more »
While my iPhone 4 still mostly satisfies my needs, I have to confess: For the past two weeks, I haven’t been exactly faithful. I’ve been testing out Samsung’s latest and greatest, the Galaxy S II Android smartphone. Here’s how I feel about my indiscretion. Read more »
Connected consumer electronics are poised to surpass PC sales by 2013 as tablets, televisions, game consoles and Blu-ray players all latch on to the web, says iSuppli. All of these devices will add strain to wired and wireless networks for years to come as a result. Read more »
Viacom reported that affiliate revenues grew 20 percent domestically and 16 percent worldwide. That was due in part to digital deals that the company has struck recently, including new deals with Netflix and Hulu that make its shows available for streaming. Read more »
Wearable smart displays aren’t new, but the category hasn’t caught on yet. WIMM hopes to change that with a wearable Android module that includes many smartphone components including a Wi-Fi radio. That could be the break these displays are looking for when it comes to apps. Read more »
Close to 60 percent of all Netflix subscribers access the video service through a game console or another connected or mobile device, according to new data from Nielsen. Hulu, on the other hand, has a far smaller footprint in the living rooms of its users. Read more »
Apple has included facial recognition technology in iOS 5, 9to5Mac discovered earlier this week. It’s not something Apple is advertising with the software update yet, but as it develops, it could become on of the most significant additions ever introduced to Apple’s mobile operating system. Read more »
The second quarter of 2011 was a fast-paced one for the connected consumer segment, with every sector of the digital media landscape — music, e-books, online video and gaming — experiencing significant events and changes. Media consumption, purchase and management continued its shift towards the cloud, ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
The nation’s top two carriers managed to add 3.4 million new subscribers in the second quarter of 2011 in an almost-saturated mobile market. For that, they should thank your car, your iPad and whatever other connected device you might have floating around. Read more »
Boxee will soon roll out a firmware update that will group its growing app catalog into categories. This may seen like a small improvement, but it touches on a bigger issue: As connected devices become more popular, content discovery on them will become more challenging. Read more »
A common misperception is that the bulk of the energy consumption associated with the Internet and connected-computing comes from massive data centers. In reality, the billions of end devices — computers, set-top-boxes — are currently the bigger and more wasteful culprits. Read more »
Cable, IPTV and satellite TV providers are working hard to enable new TV Everywhere services that will allow them to serve up authenticated streams on new devices. Alcatel-Lucent and thePlatform have joined forces to provide a unified solution enabling those operators to do so. Read more »
Cisco is adding new products to its ASR 9000 family, promising to drastically increase the capacity available over networks. The equipment manufacturer has also added network virtualization technology, enabling operators to manage all layers of the edge, aggregation and access networks in a single system. Read more »
The upcoming OS X Lion will include a new way of sharing documents with friends and family who are on the same Wi-Fi network in a similar manner as other P2P wireless protocols such as Wi-Fi Direct or Qualcomm’s FlashLinq. The service is called AirDrop. Read more »
Apple offers six separate models of its iPad 2 (nine if you count both CDMA and GSM 3G versions), but more than half of buyers choose between only two options. The 64 GB 3G iPad 2 and the 16 GB Wi-Fi model are the consumer favorites. Read more »
Plex just published a beta version of its Roku channel, making it possible to access media stored on your computer as well as Internet content sources on the popular media player. The channel is currently considered beta and still seems to have a few kinks. Read more »
YouTube has thrived as the undisputed leader of long-tail content, but it could soon begin reining in its content to create specialized channels instead. While YouTube is ready to invest heavily, the initiative marks a departure from its open platform for video sharing. Read more »
Connected devices are now the fastest growing portion of the BBC iPlayer’s viewership, as the public broadcaster continues to post record numbers. In fact, there’s been a 10-fold increase in viewership on connected TVs, Blu-ray players, hybrid set-top boxes and game consoles since last June. Read more »
The ability to output in HD everything that’s on my iPad 2′s screen using the new mirroring function combined with the Digital AV Adapter has changed the device from just a remarkably portable computer to a full-fledged entertainment and business center, thanks especially to these apps. Read more »
This week’s episode is all about getting the most out of the WD TV Live Plus, a versatile media player that has the chops to become your very own NAS drive. We also show you how to connect a wireless keyboard and how to simplify YouTube. Read more »
Does iPad 2 live up to the enormous amount of hype surrounding it? The answer is yes, and this research note explains why. We examine new features on the device and how they will help Apple grasp an even tighter hold on the tablet market, what that means for competitors like Google and Samsung and why the device could be the best example yet of computing in what Steve Jobs calls “the post-PC world.” Companies mentioned in this report include Apple, Motorola, Samsung and Google. For a full list of companies, and to read the full research note, sign up for a free trial. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
The BBC’s iPlayer is on a roll, accumulating almost 1.4 billion media requests in the first 11 months of 2010. However, most of the video viewing happens on PC screens. Mobile phones, iPads and connected devices barely contribute a blip to the iPlayer’s overall usage stats. Read more »
When it comes to looking at Microsoft’s long journey to become a key player in the digital home, most of the digerati remain skeptics. But recently the company has been swinging a hot bat, with its Xbox 360 and a legitimate holiday hit in the ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
MTV has had decades of success serving up music videos to viewers on cable television, but it’s not for Vevo. At NewTeeVee Live today, Vevo CEO Rio Carareff said it won’t be building a linear cable channel anytime soon, because it’s not “the future of television.” Read more »
The television business is on the cusp of the biggest technological upheaval since the introduction of cable TV. The addition of Internet connectivity to living room devices will enable new functionality around programming services, program discovery, social networking, ad targeting and measurement — aspects of the TV viewing experience that have remained largely unchanged for decades. These trends have the potential to become the foundation for new economic models around how viewers pay for video service and how program creation is financed. In this report, we examine the leading contenders’ strategic positioning, relative strengths and weaknesses, and provide the early line on their odds of success. Companies mentioned include Google, Apple, Boxee, Roku, Vudu, Samsung, Microsoft and Sony. To see a full list of companies and to read the full report, sign up for a free trial. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
With DVD sales plummeting and Blu-ray and digital sell-thru unable to make up the gap, Hollywood continues to struggle with the digital revolution. Among the countless strategies under consideration to reverse this trend is making titles available for rent on or near the day they premiere ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Major carriers must overcome the ceiling under which they now find themselves and the growth of their businesses. Solutions lie not in voice-centric mobile devices, but with new non-phone, data-consuming devices like tablets, e-readers and machine-to-machine technology like digital picture frames, personal navigation devices and more. Read more »
Apple has a go-to-market problem with respect to the digital living room, but we believe an eventual push into the living room by Apple is both inevitable and necessary. The question for Apple is how to get ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
White-label video management company thePlatform has expanded the number of connected devices that its customers can publish their videos to, adding features that will enable them to easily add distribution to new HDTV, Blu-ray players and other broadband-connected devices that viewers have in their living rooms. Read more »
Not long ago, digital rights management and copy protection seemed to be on their last legs. But DRM is poised to make a major comeback, and copy restrictions could soon be a bigger of TV viewing than ever. ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
With the U.S. mobile penetration rate nearing 100 percent, it’s no surprise that we’re seeing plenty of stories about how we’re approaching (or already at) a saturation point. But I’m beginning to wonder exactly where that saturation point is — and how much longer “handset penetration” ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Machine-to-machine services are a promising opportunity for carriers. The segment promises to boost revenues with minimal network taxation by delivering lightweight data transmissions to everything from e-readers like the Kindle to railroad cars and home appliances. For software developers and hardware manufacturers, then, the question is ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
