**As published in RCR Wireless News**

LOS ANGELES – After spending the last three days up close and personal with the cable industry at its big annual affair, I’m disappointed to report that mobile was hard to find. The wireless innovations and news I’d hoped to see were simply not there.

I’m not sure lobbying will do the trick, but the entire mobile industry should do everything it can to bring wireless out from the distant horizon it sits in now and into clear view for most business in this space who don’t yet see the light. Continue Reading

**As published in RCR Wireless News**

LOS ANGELES – Media moguls from cable operators, networks and studios met on stage Wednesday morning with a former Federal Communications Commission chairman and a venture capitalist to hold court on the rapidly changing business models facing the industry and how alternative screens are playing a role in that.

“Every single piece of technology that’s come into being has been a friend to content,” said Les Moonves, president and CEO of CBS Corp. It’s hard to imagine him saying that even just a few short years ago, but he shows every indication of being on board now. Continue Reading

**As published in RCR Wireless News**

LOS ANGELES – To hear Comcast Corp.’s chairman and CEO Brian Roberts tell it, the cable industry is on a collision course with destiny. The seemingly neatly divided world of entertainment that Roberts first jumped into as the son of Comcast’s founder Ralph Roberts is no more.

If all goes his way, the family-run business will pass all regulatory hurdles and close its $30-billion dollar deal to snatch up the controlling interest in General Electric’s NBC Universal by the end of the year. Surely few, if any in the audience here for Roberts’ keynote could have dreamed two decades ago of a cable operator becoming so powerful and flush enough with cash that it could take control of a content juggernaut like NBC. Continue Reading

**As published in didigay:DAILY**

Publisher: Cyberia, LLC Price: Free Platform: iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad
Advertising: None (other than its own)
Functionality: A
Fun Factor: A-
Overall: A

It’s rare to find an app that’s purposefully limited in scope and yet still manages to provide thought-provoking content. During interviews and conferences, I’ve often heard executives say that mobile apps aren’t always worth the effort and resources they take to create — but I point to cyberia media’s app as the perfect counter argument. Continue Reading

**As published in RCR Wireless News**

SANTA MONICA, CALIF. – For all the momentum Google’s Android operating system is enjoying of late, there are some key areas that many executives believe Apple has it beat on with the iPhone OS. These differentiating features – billing, user interface, development ease and scale (for at least the time being) — are nothing to scoff at either.

Now, with the iPad already surpassing 1 million units sold in as many months, there’s a reinvigorated sense of interest and easy-to-understand business reasons for placing more focus and investment in Apple’s mobile flavor.

A crowded panel of eight representing big media and publishers at Digital Hollywood yesterday spent considerable time heaping praise and wonder on Apple’s latest gadget. Later on, the OS offerings from BlackBerry, Google, Microsoft and HP-Palm got their fair shake, but Apple kept cropping up as the main draw. Continue Reading

**As published in RCR Wireless News**

HOLLYWOOD, CALIF. – The late afternoon panel dedicated to mobile at the LA Games Conference didn’t get as deep as it surely could have, but there were at least a couple interesting debates that solidified the continuing uncertainty that surrounds the platform.

In an industry that’s built fortunes on console- and PC-based games, there’s an obvious disconnect between what successes are being achieved on mobile today and what can be made of the promising platform down the road.

Stephen Saiz, director of marketing in the digital publishing group at Disney Interactive Studios, said although the company is mentally prepared, it’s not physically prepared to keep up with how rapidly things are shifting in the space.” Continue Reading

**As published in RCR Wireless News**

LAS VEGAS — With more than 4 billion transactions made each year on take-out food, it’s easy to see how there could be room for some new thinking on how those orders are placed. Therein lies the deck Snapfinger is playing as it expands its online take-out ordering program to mobile.

The company announced the launch of its app on Google Inc.’s Android OS today along with a pair of new large chain restaurant partnerships. On average, the company makes 50 cents to $1 per transaction it manages. While mobile still only represents less than 2% of its total business, the company’s chairman and CEO Jim Garrett told RCR Wireless News he’s convinced mobile will comprise upwards of 90% of its business in five years Continue Reading

**As published in RCR Wireless News**

To say America’s labor force is going through hard times would be an understatement. With unemployment rates in many states near or below levels unseen since World War II, it’s almost impossible to find anyone who hasn’t been affected by America’s latest economic malaise.

You know things are especially bad when state and federal agencies are trumpeting the latest batch of unemployment statistics simply because fewer jobs were lost in that month-long period than was expected.

Never mind adding to the total number of jobs — the only positive to cling to these days is the size of that negative tally each month. For now, smaller numbers are a good thing. Only after the bleeding stops can we begin to turn momentum in the other direction. Continue Reading

**As published at digiday:DAILY**

Publisher: Foursquare Price: Free Platform: BlackBerry
Advertising: None as of yet
Functionality: B-
Fun Factor: B+
Overall: B+

Not exactly a new social networking phenomenon, but new to BlackBerry, foursquare is one of the best location-based services available to BlackBerry owners. That said, there are still some kinks that need to be worked out — which is likely why it’s still in beta (version 1.5.5).

After a couple weeks of use the app hasn’t lost its sense of cool. I held out against foursquare for what seemed like an eternity, but I still find myself wanting to “check-in” just as much as I did when I finally made the leap. The service has been making the high-profile rounds for at least a year, and with the BlackBerry capability finally on board, it’s sure to gain new users like me who held out until it reached their primary device of choice. Continue Reading

**As published in RCR Wireless News**

BARCELONA — “No doubt about it, to some extent we’re selling change,” Tim Sefton, customer director of Telefonica O2 UK, said today on a mobile marketing and advertising panel.

That fact more than anything may be why for nearly the past decade, executive after executive has defined this and each subsequent year as the year of mobile marketing and advertising — and been so very wrong.

Personifying the problem the mobile industry has when it comes to convincing marketers, media buyers and ad agencies to direct more of their spend to mobile wasn’t hard to find in the audience. When asked how many in attendance were advertisers, only one or two raised their hands. Equally troublesome for mobile advertising as a whole, only two or three people raised their hands to identify themselves as someone representing a brand or ad agency. Continue Reading