Debunking widespread speculation that Facebook was planning to launch an actual branded phone, a “Facebook Phone,” the company instead announced the launch of “Facebook Home.” Maybe it’s just semantics – (not to quote the movie “ET”) “phone” or “home” – but Facebook Home essentially achieves the same end-goal, but via different means and wider distribution potential.
Until this year, SXSW always seemed like the cool kids’ show. The show that I looked at longingly from afar, but could never justify attending as a mobile analyst, despite its buzz-worthy tech appeal. This time I finally made it for a private collocated pre-show event, which afforded me a fleeting glimpse into some of the mobile goings-on, and most notably Urban Airship’s “Mobile Saturday” event.
Technically a Universe can consist of billions of Galaxies, but some are much larger than others. In the U.S., the Android Universe is starting to get usurped by Samsung. The latest Samsung phone, Galaxy S 4, is not just a hardware launch, but rather shows off Samsung's ability to leverage the Android bones to make a stronger overall device that is bigger than its parts.
We can now watch HBOGO on three TVs in our home. Last night we saw they started promoting its availability on Airplay. As an early adopter, my first thought was, I want an Apple TV too. But there is no need as all three TVs we own provide HBOGO, and each through a different type of device. Apple TV does, however, offer screen mirroring which none of the other connected devices in our homeprovide, and that is bound to be useful – right?
While I never thought I’d ask “why did the power go out?” during the Super Bowl, I did have a number of questions going into the Big Game, including: 1) Which Brother Harbaugh will prevail? 2) Will Beyoncé redeem herself from “lip-sync-gate”? 3) How will consumers’ use their smartphones (companion, second screen) on Game Day? Well: These were the big questions that I was pondering, and for which I now have answers for: 1) John Harbaugh, 2) Yes, and 3) smartphone users kept their eyes affixed to the Big Screen, and periodically leveraged the immediacy and utility of their second-screens.
The kiss of death to any device is a dearth of apps. And quite how this is considered depends on who is marketing the issue, and when. For the longest time, OEMs have talked quantity over quality, as though having the most variations of a calculator app may actually make a difference to a consumer...
When you are one of Netflix’ 25 million U.S. streaming subscribers you take for granted how it works. Let me walk you through a conversation I had this past weekend. It went something like this...
The TV is evolving into a more complex device and the basic concept on turning it on and immediately watching TV could become a thing of the past. As consumers we’ve become conditioned to expect home screens on computers, tablets, and smartphones; TVs now look set to follow suit. New TVs from Samsung and Panasonic launch to a home screen rather than the last TV channel you were watching. This home, or launch page, is a customized experience based on recognition from a built-in camera.
Google and Apple have taken clearly different approaches to the smartphone market overall. On the one hand, Apple approaches the market from a hardware-centric perspective (after all, Apple fundamentally sells hardware), while Google outsources the hardware component, focusing instead on the content delivered by the hardware and related search and advertising opportunities. At the center of these two approaches are the smartphone-toting Connected Consumers who leverage the ecosystems, but there are clear differences between iOS and Android Connected Consumers when it comes to a wider brand loyalty beyond the device itself.
The Internet connected HDTV screen has so far failed to break beyond the bounds of its TV-centric heritage, with little use for the big screen beyond the obligatory video services. But the connection is being used to provide access to a far wider variety of alternative sources for video content. The latest NPD Connected Intelligence Application & Convergence report highlights that nearly six out of ten consumers who own a connected HDTV are accessing Over-the-Top (OTT) video services through the device.
