Have We Finally Seen The End Of The Yellow Pages On Our Doorstep

They still get delivered to our door but for how much longer.  The last time they have been opened or even touched is when I recycle the older one and replace it with the recent arrival.  Today, any searches for information is online and the  yellow pages directory has become a distant memory.  "But now Yell wants to go one step further. Like so many other fundamentally challenged businesses, it wants to break with the past and move on, by rebranding the company 'Hibu'."

It seems that the Yellow Pages, or the various names that it has been called, has been dead for quite a while.  Online websites have not only provided me with the names and numbers of businesses that I needed to call, some sites have also provided "local" recommendations based on user message boards and feedback.  Convenient and helpful.

While I have not been able to control the curbside delivery of the yellow pages, I have been able to feed it directly to my recycle bin.  For me, the yellow page transition has been too little, too late.  Can they start from scratch to recapture this lost marketplace; doubtful.

Facebook Wants To Build A Phone

Want more competition in the mobile space?  Consider this, Facebook wants to be more than a pretty face in the software space, they want to be in hardware too.  Following the  Google lead, Facebook seems to be gearing up to produce its own mobile phone.  While Google bough Motorola Mobility to make its own phone, Facebook "has hired more than a half dozen former Apple software and hardware engineers who were on the iPhone, and one who worked on the iPad, to build the Facebook Phone, The New York Times reports."  First a phone, then an app store.

Is there room for Facebook and can they bring something new to the table?  We love competition so any new entrant means more innovation and that keeps the industry fresh.  Whether they can succeed or not is another question.

My Home Could Use The iHub

We are an Apple household, with a desktop mac, laptop, iPad, iPods, and iPhones.  But as we use them, each product has become more a single user experience and it is hard to share notes, calendar items, specific photos, and other information easily within the family.  We are missing that hub; a device that incorporates the family information and manages it among our individual data.

Now according to Forrester Research analyst James McQuivey, such a product may be next to emerge from the Apple labs.  As " McQuivey wrote. 'Instead of selling a replacement for the TV you just bought, Apple should convince millions of Apple fans that they need a new screen in their lives. Call it the iHub, a 32-inch screen with touch, gesture, voice, and iPad control that can be hung on the wall wherever the family congregates for planning, talking, or eating.'”  I want one provided it can do the things I need to manage.

My ideal screen would be iPad like but easily hung on the wall.  A constant connection to a wall plug to assure it is always on.  It would replace our monthly calendar where we still hand write kids school activities, school lunches, little league games, and other obligations, like the dinner out, bbq with friends, street fairs and more.  How nice to write it once and share it among all the apple devices.  Integrated with the notes app, but separated for various ongoing lists like supermarket, Target, and Costco, a quick press of the button and we can tell Siri which list to add certain items.  Need to jot a note to the family that someone called or an immediate to do reminder, the screen could be turned into a wipe pad.  Easy to use, simply to work, and practical for the family in so many ways.And when not in use, a great screen to display photos of the family.  Sign me up; I already have a place in the kitchen to hang it up.

Who Wants To Own A Video Library?

At a Paid Content panel, the question was asked, "Is a vast video library worth the time and money?"  From the different panelists came different answers.  For some, the answer is no as a ton of video is old and dated, for others, the historical capture of clips offers a rare peak back in people's careers and growth.  And for others, the choice to even build and organize a digital video library of older content is too expensive and  brings little return. It seems one person's crap is another person's fortune.  Perhaps it all depends on how it can be merchandised and used.

And it seemed that discussion led to the rise of web based platforms verse older video platforms like cable.  “'To launch a cable channel, you need a satellite, a sales staff … you’re in the hole $50 million to $100 million before you even know you have an audience,'” he said Brian Bedol, CEO of Bedrocket Ventures). “'With YouTube, you can be distributed everywhere overnight, and you don’t need to make those binary decisions.'”  True, yet brings more pitfalls.  The lower the costs to enter the market, the easier it is to compete and the harder to break through the clutter.  And certainly the increase in video content across multiple platforms only makes it more difficult to be discovered and watched.

But back to the question of the video library.  For me, the value of a video library depends on its use.  For print publishers seeking to make an impact in the web and tablet space, video is needed to create greater interest in these brands as multimedia platforms.  Libraries of video content that relate to an article augments the value of the printed material and brings synergy between the print and digital platforms.  Video libraries of older content are also a great promotional tool, able to bring viewers up to date on older seasons of shows and move them to watch current episodes on other platforms.  Older videos bring context to newer ones.  And in some cases, older videos become treasure troves of insight as new appreciations emerge.  Of course there is time and money spent initially to categorize and organize the past; but once completed, they are then available and accessible to utilize as the timing, situation, or opportunity fits.

Apple May Be Stealing Ideas From Star Trek

Sometimes I wonder where Apple gets all its great ideas.  Perhaps all the tech geeks are using Star Trek as their inspiration to turn science fiction into science fact.  "There's a chance Apple's new version of Mac OS X, called Mountain Lion, will allow voice dictation from Siri, reports 9to5Mac."  And so the next iteration of the Mac will be able to type reports without a keyboard.  


It reminds me of a scene straight out of Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, when Kirk and the gang are in present day San Francisco, finding a humpback whale to save the future earth.  In one scene, Scotty attempts to dictate to the computer by speaking into the mouse.  When nothing gets typed and he has to resort to the keyboard, he responds, "How quaint".  As Siri becomes more embedded in all our Apple products, we may find ourselves saying the exact same thing.  I mean, why type when we can speak exactly what we need.

MSO Success Will Result From More B2B Engagements

That cable wire strung across communities, and initially aimed for residences and neighborhoods, might just make greater sense on main street, malls, and other business areas.  While consumers may be cutting the cord and relying more on their mobile phones, businesses need landline phones and web access to meet their business needs.  And cable companies are seeing the  benefits of marketing to the  business community.

"Cable operators' share of the business services market could double to as much as 21% in the next five years, according to a panel discussion at The Cable Show Tuesday."  Good news for cable operators coming in with a competitive product and more to compete with the current telco offering.  In some markets, online required a DSL or dial up, especially when connecting with credit card machines; cable brings an always on connection to improve processing speed to the transaction.  Add that broadband connection with a hard line phone connection and cable can bring more value to the business.  And for those companies that would also like a video connection, cable operators provide that, too. 

TiVo To Add Slingbox Feature

The Mercedes of DVRs is finally adding a very useful feature for the mobile consumer, a Slingbox-like feature to stream live and recorded programming to another device.  Do I sense a patent suit from Dish to follow?  Finally, an easy authenticated device that enables cable subscribers to watch their favorite shows or live sporting events when they are away from their home.  Cable MSOs should be embracing this new TiVo box as they promote their cable subscription, yet few have truly embraced TiVo.  Perhaps because they are an agnostic box, willing to work with any and all providers, cable, telco and satellite.  And that is why the big MSOs have not made it easy to add a TiVo box to the house or to enable it to also access the cable operators on demand features.

"TiVo will debut both products at retail, or through partnerships with multichannel TV service providers including DirecTV, Charter Communications, Suddenlink and the UK’s Virgin Media, later this year."  For those providers that do partner with TiVo, this new Slingbox-like feature is a great added value.

Is Online Video Consumption A Zero Sum Game?

As online video consumption grows at a double digit pace, one wonders if this growth is at the expense of other activities or specifically other television viewership activity.  Are these viewers bypassing traditional TV time for online or tuning in outside the window when they tend to watch TV?  For me, I don't yet believe it is a zero sum game yet.  With access to the internet, employees that never had TV access in their offices now can consume online video on their lunch breaks and other down times.

While some of that video consumption may be at the expense of TV, it is  not yet a 1 for 1 tradeoff.  In fact, some of the  growth by folks like You Tube are at the expense of other online video platforms.  "Music video giant Vevo, for example, saw its unique viewers plummet 10 percent to 49.5 million over the same period, while its average viewership time declined by 41 percent to 57.9 minutes. (The comScore report doesn’t track mobile usage, so it’s hard to tell how many viewers are migrating to mobile platforms.)  Also, Viacom digital, the leader among traditional media companies in the digital video realm, saw its average viewer time drop 27 percent to 58.9 minutes (unique viewers were flat year over year at 41.2 million)."

For content creators, the rise of online video consumption means that the content you create for one platform, television, needs to be accessible on other platforms too.  Where consumers once followed content, content must now follow consumers.  Whether that availability is a subscription experience, an authenticated one, or even free, is part of the broader video strategy a content company sets to fully monetize its video content.  And that is more than just cable license fees; it is also video ad revenue, syndication revenue, promotional support, e-commerce, and integrated banner and overlay revenue.

Today video consumption is not a total zero sum game, but it is certainly leading to that level.  There are only so many hours in the day and only so much time that can be devoted to watching videos.

MSOs Add Another Benefit To Their Broadband Subscription

While cable subscription growth continue to evade the MSOs, broadband subscription has been rising.  To add incremental value to an ever increasing mobile population, the major MSOs will now be sharing access to their WIFI hotspots.  "Under the banner 'Cable WiFi,' Bright House Networks, Cablevision, Comcast, Cox Communications and Time Warner Cable will be able to access WiFi hotspots outside their home market." And as these MSOs cover most of the major DMAs, this shared access is certainly good news for its subscribers.

So a quick look at the list and the notable missing MSO is Charter Communications.  Was Charter even approached to join the group or purposely excluded?  And what about the smaller MSOs, fighting hard against the same competitiors as these major entities.  Will folks like Mediacom, Atlantic Broadband, and others get an invite to this WIFI table?

Certainly, for this initial group of 5, a shared WIFI approach is a smart marketing move to compete against its rivals.  As we utilize more mobile devices, access to WIFI is critical; especially, as cellular data usage plans causes us to seek WIFI alternatives so as to not go over our plan limits.  And with profit margins high on broadband subscription, this added value should be actively marketed to assure even more consumers subscribe.