Week of June 18, 2007

A Porsche In A World Of 55 MPH Speed Limits

Friday, June 22, 2007

PaidContent makes an interesting argument when analyzing the iPhone and some of its negative coverage. The Financial Times has pointed out that the capability of the iPhone will be frustrating to users because its robust Internet and media capabilities will be crippled by the low bandwidth of AT&T's cellular networks. They conclude that users will be angry with Apple.

Paidcontent make an alternate argument that we feel is much more apropos: iPhone users will feel like Porsche users that are required to follow a speed limit that is one-third as fast as their car can go. In this instance, users don't blame the car, they blame the government. Which leads to an interesting thought: Will the iPhone experience hurt AT&T due to its network limitations?

Internet Advertising: Huge

Thursday, June 21, 2007

PricewaterhouseCooper predicts that online advertising will increase by a projected 18.3 percent annual rate. That means a total of online advertising of $73 billion in 2011, which will be 14% of the global advertising market.

MySpace, Yahoo, and News Corp.

Wednesday, June 20, 2007

The biggest word on the street today is that News Corp. is exploring a deal with Yahoo that would have News Corp. selling MySpace to Yahoo for a 30% stake in the combined company. News Corp. and Yahoo together could lead to a dizzying array of online possibilities. Imagine MySpace integrated with Yahoo Groups, for example. But there are plenty of issues, as well. MySpace recently bought Photobucket, a competitor of Yahoo's Flickr, and the amount of overlap could cause as many headaches as opportunity.

AT&T Riding The iPhone Brand

Tuesday, June 19, 2007

One of the under-reported aspects of the iPhone is the relationship between Apple and AT&T, the service that is actually going to be powering the phone, which is to say the lack of relationship. AT&T gets very little from the iPhone, with Apple receiving all of the standard carrier extras like song downloads and multimedia services. AT&T, when all is said and done, simply gets to service iPhone users as regular cellular customers. In other words, AT&T only really makes money on the iPhone if it brings in new customers.

Now word is coming out that this may end up happening. AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson announced at the NXTcmm conference that there have been over 1 million requests for information about the iPhone and 40% of them are from non-AT&T customers.

Meet The New Boss, Same As The Old Boss

Monday, June 18, 2007

Yahoo made a huge announcement today, with founder Jerry Yang taking over the CEO reins from Terry Semel. While it is too early to chart what this means for Yahoo, Yang himself outlined the future as he sees it. His vision is of "a Yahoo! that executes with speed, clarity and discipline. A Yahoo! that increases its focus on differentiating its products and investing in creativity and innovation. A Yahoo! that better monetizes its audience. A Yahoo! whose great talent is galvanized to address its challenges. And a Yahoo! that is better focused on what's important to its users, customers, and employees."