@ The Cable Show: It’s still a choice between digital pennies and analog dollars

By Matt Kapko | 05.13.10, 2:00 PM | (0)

**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. Read more

@The Cable Show: Finding nuggets of mobility in a cabled world

By Matt Kapko | 05.12.10, 2:00 PM | (0)

**As published in RCR Wireless News**

LOS ANGELES – The mobile quotient during the first day of the National Cable & Telecommunications conference was disappointingly light. Particularly light, considering telecommunications is right there in the name.

Mobility plays an important and mostly dominant role in telecom but if this industry gathering is any sign, it still has a long way to go before it comes into the spotlight for cable. Read more

@The Cable Show: Reflecting on a path to media dominance

By Matt Kapko | 05.12.10, 2:00 PM | (0)

**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. Read more

Name That App: Cyberia

By Matt Kapko | 05.11.10, 2:00 PM | (0)

**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. Read more

@ Digital Hollywood: How smartphones define us, why video hasn’t taken off

By Matt Kapko | 05.7.10, 2:00 PM | (0)

**As published in RCR Wireless News**

SANTA MONICA, CALIF. – Few, if any, technologies have taken off as quickly as smartphones have in the United States and it’s changing the American lifestyle in the process. At the end of 2008, the U.S. market had a smartphone penetration rate of 15%; it’s currently at 24% and The Nielsen Co. is predicting we’ll see a 49% adoption rate by the end of 2011.

Lucy Hood, a former Fox Mobile executive and now executive director at University of Southern California’s Institute for Communications, Technology and Management, said that while the devices and connection speeds have changed, usage patterns have not been disrupted. As a whole, smartphones are primarily used to communicate first, seek information second and entertain as a tertiary function, she said.

In the latest study conducted by the USC think tank, it found that mobile video consumption is still woefully underused. Even more discouraging than the level of use, according to Hood, is the reason why mobile TV and video has failed to live up to the hype: it’s still a poor experience for most users. Read more

@ Digital Hollywood: Publishers embrace Apple and endure ‘misery’ elsewhere

By Matt Kapko | 05.6.10, 2:00 PM | (0)

**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. Read more

@ Digital Hollywood: Finding a place for mobile TV in a data-loving world

By Matt Kapko | 05.5.10, 2:00 PM | (0)

**As published in RCR Wireless News**

SANTA MONICA, Calif. – Kicking off a panel dedicated to video on smartphones at Digital Hollywood yesterday, The Nielsen Co.’s VP of mobile media presented some astonishing statistics that frame the intense battle that’s getting underway between Google Inc.’s Android operating system and Apple Inc.’s iPhone.

Citing fresh data that the research firm put together just in time for the event, Jerry Rocha said smartphones running on the Android operating systems are beating or tying with the iPhone in many use categories. Time will tell whether Android users will maintain their high use data services, but if the trend stays on track Apple might be outdone at its own game very soon.

Android users are outperforming iPhone users on location-based services and mobile video while both user groups are in a dead heat for mobile Internet use at an overall rate of 88%, Rocha said. Data services on the Android operating system has taken off in just the past couple quarters and is currently running at a year-over-year growth rate of 352%, he added. Read more

Name That App: NFL Mobile

By Matt Kapko | 05.4.10, 2:00 PM | (0)

**As published in digiday:DAILY**

Publisher: Verizon Wireless Price: Free Platform: Android
Advertising: None
Functionality: B
Fun Factor: A
Overall: A-

Ending a multi-year exclusive deal with Sprint Nextel Corp., Verizon Wireless scooped up a major win earlier this year when it landed a deal with the National Football League to exclusively carry the brand on mobile for the next four years.

Although the regular season is still four long months away from kickoff, the nation’s largest carrier took advantage of the off-season hype by launching its marquee NFL Mobile app less just in time for the 2010 NFL Draft, which ran from April 22-24.

The carrier admits the app is still in the growing phase, but most of the must-have features for any NFL fan – news and information, 2010 season schedules, player profiles, draft prospects, team updates, and analysis – are already in play. What really sweetens the pot though, particularly for millions of cable TV subscribers still locked out of access to NFL Network, is a live 24/7 stream of the all-things-football channel. Read more

@ LA Games Conference: iPad and Android carry the day

By Matt Kapko | 05.3.10, 2:00 PM | (0)

**As published in RCR Wireless News**

HOLLYWOOD, CALIF. – Throughout the LA Games Conference, two names kept resurfacing whenever the topic of mobile was broached – iPad and Android.

It should come as no surprise why the iPad is almost universally seen as an opportunity for game makers. Just look at the prices developers are charging for apps on the iPad and compare that to the so-called sweet spot app price of 99 cents on the iPhone.

From the tone of at least a few developers represented at the annual conference, the iPhone may be left behind as the path to greater profits per app gains momentum on Apple’s latest gadget. Read more

@ LA Games Conference: Mobile gaming gets bogged down in rapid changes

By Matt Kapko | 05.3.10, 2:00 PM | (0)

**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.” Read more