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Thoughts from CTIA 2010

Gene — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 16:49:10 +0000

CTIA was interesting this year. No matter how many times I’ve been to Vegas, it never ceases to amaze me. It’s the only place in the world where you have Elvis impersonators worshiped (and paid) as pseudo celebrities when they’re really not.

Which is a segue to a theme (intentional or subliminal) that seemed to be wafting through the halls, rooms, restaurants, bars and every other place in a city of 40k wireless geeks that were talking about what’s hot in the mobile industry: the holy grail of the (3) screens (which we touched on last week as well).

For those of you that don’t know what the “(3) screens” is, it’s (in no particular order) the TV, Computer and mobile *device*. Note this last ’screen’ is not limited to the mobile phone, but, expanded to include other mobile devices such as the Apple iPod Touch, the iPad, Amazon’s Kindle and virtually anything that has a screen, an IP address and is mobile.

Of course, talk is cheap and no one really seemed to have the answer, though lots of “wannabees” were, as one of my teen cousins would say, “trash talkin’ with nuttin to back it up”.

So, why the holy grail of the 3 screens? Companies, at least most of them, have finally gotten that people are NOT going to have an electronic equivalent of an all-in-one ginsu knife to watch video, talk (at least for anyone over the age of 25), listen to music, text and you-name-it with regards to entertainment and communication.

With that realization, the (3) screens is the goal. How does one use each of the (3) screens for what they do best AND integrate the services and products offered on them across the (3) screens in a way that makes SENSE!? There was this one exhibitor that was pushing a new “Social Network” that would be created by the members of this new social networking community *IF* they used a specific brand of handset from a specific group of operators (yet to be determined) with a specific application for their PC that would require special software for the PC and an Internet enabled HDTV. How mainstream/mass market does that sound?

The industry is correct. The (3) screen experience is the next logical evolution. How it will be done will need to be:

- Simple
- Intuitive
- Open
- Natural

The folks that come up with how to achieve the (3) screen nirvana will surprise the industry. It won’t come from those stuck in the past of proprietary, controlling and closed…but from innovative people that understand IP and its roots: open, simple and intuitive.

5 Key Takeaways from TVOT 2010

Steve — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 00:48:29 +0000

As usual, Tracy Swedlow put on another great TVOT event this year – thanks Tracy! TVOT 2010 was particularly interesting because of the dynamic changes in the market, such as the debate between cable and OTT (including CE manufacturers and others). While there was a lot to pick up, here are my top 5 takeaways:

If you’re a software application or have content and programming to distribute, it’s best to bet on all the horses – cable, managed IPTV, OTT including connected TVs, DBS and Widget stores. Each has its own strength across different demographic audiences. If your goal is be relevant for 13-65 year olds, you need to be working in multiple camps.
If you’re a consumer, these are promising times as everyone wants to bring you something better – but they’re far from perfect times. You may be still stuck with a monthly bill from your cable company and not getting all you want when you want. While some of the alternative solutions like OTT are new and not yet in the “easy to use” (certainly not easy to activate) category, they are improving by adding more content and working on ways to be more seamless and easy to use.
Communication is clearly emerging as its own category. Widget stores, connected TVs and more all have Facebook and Twitter – it’s almost as if it’s old news to have those embedded services. Now the question is: how do widget stores, OTT, CE and others differentiate from one another? It appears solutions are out there but each company needs to make the “onboarding” or time launch easy and simple.
Open platforms are clearly the direction things are going – OTT providers and widget stores are making significant strides to quickly deliver new services. EBIF is creating a lot of smoke, now we’ll see if a fire starts as 2010 has been teed up as the year for Interactive TV (Yes, again. No, I don’t know how many years running that this has been “THE year for iTV ”)
3D TV continues to make headlines – apparently the glasses will be compatible with different TVs. We’ll see how fast this takes off…seems like consumers have spent a lot of $$ recently to get to HDTV.

Were you at TVOT? What were your top takeaways?

TVOT: Great chatter from yesterday

Kate — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 13:50:41 +0000

The chatter on Twitter yesterday at TVOT had some good little gems that we wanted to share with everyone. We’re looking forward to the same level of discussion on today’s schedule!

What other gems did

8 Resources on Mobile World Congress Goings-on

Kate — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 23:53:54 +0000

We enjoyed MWC last week, and we’ve also enjoyed following some of the stuff we might have missed, as there’s a lot going on there! We put together a list of some good resources for you if you’re interested as well.

Mobile World Congress 2010 – Tom Hume , Managing Director of Future Platforms, draws some conclusions after the week’s events, including that social will be big… as expected!

Google CEO Eric Schmidt at MWC Puts Mobile First – A thorough write-up by eWeek on Schmidt’s talk, including some focus on the issues of convergence that were discussed.

Week in Review – A thorough round up of some of the more brand-focused announcements and happenings of the week, from SlashGear.

#MWC: Interesting Stats for 2010 – If you’re interested in the demographics of MWC, GoMo News has a some interesting insight…

Mobile World Congress 2010 in a nutshell -Yet another good wrap up of the week, by ubergizmo.

Mobile World Congress 2010 in Photos – mocoNews offers a series of photos that act as great visual ‘oh yeah!’s for some of the great events and technologies at the conference.

Engadget Podcast 184: MWC 2010 Roundup 02.19.2010 - A podcast of the week’s events.

The 12 Best New Phones You Can’t Buy – Gizmodo offers an equally as stimulating reminder of all the really cool handhelds that were on display at MWC.

Lingering and Lasting Thoughts from #MWC

Gene — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 07:54:05 +0000

I wanted to share a few of the thoughts I was left with from Mobile World Congress last week…. these are the ones that made it with me through the weekend:

Social Networks and mobile is hot. Everyone believes that mobile and Social Networks will be the primary interface – as opposed to PC. If this isn’t happening already, it will soon, especially by the under 25 crowd.
IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) and Rich Communication Suite (RCS) by the big telecom technology companies (e.g. – Ericsson, Nokia, Huawei, Motorola, etc.) are making big pushes toward convergence.
Data and applications are the future (implying without stating that voice is yesterday’s news); SMS/MMS is considered part of the future.

What did you walk away with from MWC?

We’re eagerly anticipating Mobile World Congress next week!

Steve — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 22:42:55 +0000

One of my favorite things about the mobile market is how extremely competitive it is. I love this competitive nature because it’s the ultimate rocket fuel for innovation. With that in mind as we approach next week’s MWC event, we’re hoping – and anxious – to see even more new cutting edge products and services.

Next week’s MWC promises to be as exciting as the mobile space evolves at breakneck speed. Just think about what Google’s announced in past few months relative to mobile – the Nexus One and Google and Verizon team with the Android. Eric Schmidt will keynote to wrap up Tuesday’s session and given Google’s aggressive pursuit of mobile, I suspect it will be a good session to see.

Other promising sessions are “The Device Marketplace” on Tuesday afternoon, the “Mobile Innovation a Vision of 2020” on Wednesday afternoon, and the “Mobile Advertising – Shaking off the Shackles of Legacy Thinking” on Thursday.

If you’re looking for MediaFriends, you can find us in the Innovation Zone @ The Qtel Group Pavilion on Monday and Thursday. Have a great show!

An observation from NTVL: Social features are gaining traction

Kate — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 00:05:13 +0000

One observation I had from NTV is that “programmers, content provider, operators” and nearly anyone who controls or offers their services to an end-user consumer, is really beginning to appreciate adding a “social element” to their offering.

Mark Whitten, General Manager of Xbox Live for Microsoft, talked about the many ways Xbox started out as a gaming platform but has evolved into an all-purpose service – you can watch TV, chat with friends, and connect with other Xbox live users.

I talked to several online video providers who are thinking about ways to add a social networking/experience to their site. I’m really interested to see where it goes.

People are beginning to recognize the two go hand-in-hand.

What were your big observations from the conference?

View from the floor of NewTeeVee Live

Steve — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 01:02:58 +0000

We’re having fun at the NewTeeVee Live conference….. Are you?

We’ll be at the NewTeeVee Conference next week in San Fran

Kate — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 01:18:59 +0000

We’re excited to be sponsoring and exhibiting at this year’s NewTeeVee Live conference held in San Francisco next Thursday, 12 November. We’ll be amongst some great sponsors, and the speaker line up looks great. In particular, we’re excited to hear the following:

TV Gets Social

“CNN and Facebook kicked off 2009 with a landmark integration for U.S. President Barack Obama’s inauguration. Signed-in watchers saw a live-updating stream of their friends’ comments on the event, creating an implicitly defined, ad-hoc chat room. Hear what works and what’s next from the two companies who joined forces to spark what’s fast becoming a social TV revolution.”

Speakers:

Liz Gannes Co-Editor of NewTeeVee, GigaOM Network

Andy Mitchell VP of Digital Marketing and Development, CNN Worldwide

Randi Zuckerberg Marketing, Facebook

NewTeeVee’s Next Big Thing, Session 2

“The editors of NewTeeVee chose 10 of the most promising young players in the online video space to project the future. Each of the presenters from our diverse list of companies will tell us what’s next on their respective road maps, and identify where they think the industry is going. Taken together, we’ll get a heterogeneous yet cohesive look at the most interesting upcoming trends, technologies and projects in online video.”

Speakers:

Matt Cutler, VP Marketing and Analytics, Visible Measures

Brent Friedman President, Electric Farm Entertainment

Angela Wilson Gyetvan VP of Sales and Marketing, 3ality Digital

Bismarck Lepe Co-Founder and President of Product Strategy, Ooyala

Jeremy Reed SVP of Content and Editorial, Demand Media

Roku’s Little Box Has Big Plans for Your Living Room

“Don’t let its simplicity fool you. Roku’s little set-top box is a powerful device and could be a game-changer when it comes to how people get their video. The company already has big-name partnerships with Netflix, Amazon VOD and MLB.TV, with more to come. Anthony Wood will talk about Roku’s unique approach to the set-top world and show you the latest services available on the device.”

Speakers:

Chris Albrecht, Co-Editor of NewTeeVee, GigaOm Network

Anthony Wood, Founder and CEO, Roku

We’ll have a table to show attendees our new products, so stop in to say hello!