Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Global Mobile Media Revenues To Touch $150 Billion In 2012

Posted April 20, 2012

2011 was the first year that global consumer spending on media content, apps and services for mobile phones broke through the $100 billion barrier. According to the latest Global Mobile Media Forecast from Strategy Analytics, consumers are expected to increase this spend on mobile media by a further 13.4 percent from $121.8 billion in 2011 to $138.2 billion in 2012.

In contrast, advertiser spend on mobile media is expected to almost double (85.4 percent) from $6.3 billion to $11.6 billion, resulting in the total mobile media economy reaching $149.8 billion in revenue in 2012 - a 17.0 percent increase on 2011 (see Chart 1).

Chart 1

While the lion's share of consumer spend (60.2 percent) is on data plans and web browsing - making mobile operators the key beneficiaries to the tune of $82.8 billion in 2012, up 9.5 percent on 2011 - a key driver of growth is the apps market on smartphones, such as the iPhone and Android devices. Over 23 billion apps were downloaded globally in 2011, increasing by 38 percent to over 32 billion in 2012. Apps are now the second largest category for revenues - for both consumer and advertiser spend - and are becoming the key distribution mechanism for media on mobile phones.

Apps are expected to account for 18.9 percent of global consumer spend in 2012 - $26.1 billion, up 30.7 percent on 2011 - but the strength of the apps ecosystem is also demonstrated by advertiser spend. For example, across the USA and major Western European markets as a whole, revenue from display ads on the mobile web ($934.5 million) has been overtaken by in-app advertising ($1.7 billion).

David MacQueen, Strategy Analytics' Director of Wireless Media Strategies, explains, "Advertisers chase eyeballs so the fact that brands spend more on in-app advertising than the mobile web is a clear sign that apps are what consumers are glued to for an increasing range of activities. In the eyes of many advertisers, web browsing on the smartphone is playing second fiddle to the app economy."

Despite remaining relatively flat in terms of spend, Music remains one of the top mobile media categories globally - accounting for $16.0 billion or 11.6 percent of 2012 consumer spend. However, the way consumers' access and pay for music is changing. Ringtones are declining fast, but streaming music services such as Spotify, Pandora and Deezer - paid for by subscription or through advertising - are gaining good traction in Western Europe and the USA.

As with apps, growth of mobile video usage is increasing dramatically; 108 billion videos were watched on mobile phones in 2011, almost trebling to 280 billion in 2012. However, unlike apps, this isn't translating into symbiotic revenue levels. Despite a 23.8 percent revenue growth, Video is likely to account for a mere 2.4 percent ($3.6 billion) of total mobile media revenues in 2012 (see Chart 2).

MacQueen explains, "Low revenues are down to many major mobile video services being free to the end user, either funded by advertising (such as YouTube) or "bundled" without additional cost by pay TV providers, such as Sky Go around Europe or AT&T U-verse in the USA. Despite the huge audience of 271 million users, ad revenues from mobile video are tiny - a meager $223m globally in 2011. While ad revenues will more than triple to $726 million in 2012, it is still clearly challenging for advertisers looking to reach consumers through video ads on smartphones."

Revenue related to Social Networking content, apps and services is expected to increase by 16.1 percent to $17.6 billion - accounting for 11.8 percent of all mobile media revenues.

Chart 2

The US Mobile Media Economy
The US mobile media economy is expected to outperform the global growth figure, increasing by 22.1 percent to nearly $38 billion in 2012. US consumer spending is also expected to outperform the global rate (15.5 percent vs. 13.4 percent) rising to approximately $33.7 billion. Advertiser spend on mobile media is projected to more than double in 2012, increasing 128.9 percent to just under $4.2 billion.

US consumers are expected to spend $6.7 billion on mobile apps in 2012, a 24.6 percent increase over 2011, and accounting for 20 percent of all US consumers mobile spend.  In direct correlation to this, US advertising revenue on mobile apps is projected to reach $1.2 billion in 2012, a 118 percent increase over 2011. Again, the strength of the apps ecosystem in the US is evidenced by the fact that in-app advertising revenue is more than double the revenue from mobile Web display advertising in 2012, which is only projected to reach $556 million.

124.9 million Americans are expected to access social networks via their handset in 2012, yet the amount of revenue this will generate for social networks is only expected to reach $412.7 million or $3.48 per mobile user during the year.

provided by FierceMobileContent

“You can make a living, or You can design a life.”

 3 Tips for success

“You can make a living, or You can design a life.”


The words of Jim Rohn resonated with me and echoed in my mind…
His quote rang so true to me at a time in my life where I was working at a job where I felt like Rudolph the Red nose Reindeer on the Island of Misfit Toys.

I was in a job where I felt I was not able to contribute in a way I wanted and I was working to build someone else’s dream.   I was making a living but felt like I did not belong where I was and I was ready to get off the island and design my life.
As luck would have it I got a chance to do just that when I was laid off of my job.  The lay off set into motion my plan to design my life.
To me designing my life meant that I had leverage, I had time freedom, I had financial freedom, I no longer had to spend time sitting in traffic, I got to spend time with my son and I could do something that contributed to the lives of others. With that list in mind a natural fit was internet and network marketing.
You might be in the same place I was and you want to design your life.  You may even feel like you want to create the freedoms that internet and network marketing affords.   I have learned a whole lot of lessons on this journey and while there is a big learning curve working online is so worth it.  I think that learning curve can be cut down drastically if you can learn a few valuable lessons early.  I want to share with you some insights and things I have learned that have really helped me.
Here is a list of 3 things  I have found the most important in building a business online.
Focus I will be honest this one is not always easy but if you can master getting focused I am truly convinced you can create the life you want.  It is hard to design a life and create an online business when you don’t have focus on what you want and where you want to end up.
Like Lewis Caroll said, “If you don’t know where you are going any road will get you there”.Focus is so important because without it the many distractions you will encounter can easily derail you and get you off track.  If you don’t have focus it is far too easy to spend your time doing things that aren’t important and saying yes to things you shouldn’t say yes to.
Learning the 80/20 principle If you learn this early I think this can be a game changer for your business.  This principle basically says that 80% of your results come from 20% of your activity and 80% of your results will come from 20% of your team and so on.  The powerful thing about this is when you know the 20% that produces results you can spend more time focusing on those things.
Create quality connections I have found creating quality connections is so important in business.
In the age of automation for practically everything it is so tempting to try and put your business on autopilot.
In social media the lure of creating a large following seems appealing but having a lot of followers don’t matter if you are not engaging with your followers.
Followers mean nothing if no one is paying attention to you.
I think it is more important to have quality connections because people want to do business they know, like and trust.
Creating quality connections gives you leverage and pretty much anything can be accomplished when you have a team working together, when you are the lone wolf it is not so easy.  It is true that building quality connections takes time but if you are planning to be in business for the long haul it is absolutely worth it.
Although each internet marketer’s situation and circumstance is unique, one common factor remains:  To achieve a life that you designed rather than working to fulfill someone else’s dream.  Incorporating the techniques mentioned above, you will able to focus and gain the confidence you need to run a successful Internet-based business.
 ”Here is to your success and I’ll being seeing you soon.


Angela Paige

8 Core Beliefs of Extraordinary Bosses
by By Geoffrey James |  Apr 23, 2012

The best managers have a fundamentally different understanding of workplace, company, and team dynamics. See what they get right.


A few years back, I interviewed some of the most successful CEOs in the world in order to discover their management secrets. I learned that the "best of the best" tend to share the following eight core beliefs.

1. Business is an ecosystem, not a battlefield.

Average bosses see business as a conflict between companies, departments and groups. They build huge armies of "troops" to order about, demonize competitors as "enemies," and treat customers as "territory" to be conquered.
Extraordinary bosses see business as a symbiosis where the most diverse firm is most likely to survive and thrive. They naturally create teams that adapt easily to new markets and can quickly form partnerships with other companies, customers ... and even competitors.

2. A company is a community, not a machine.

Average bosses consider their company to be a machine with employees as cogs. They create rigid structures with rigid rules and then try to maintain control by "pulling levers" and "steering the ship."
Extraordinary bosses see their company as a collection of individual hopes and dreams, all connected to a higher purpose. They inspire employees to dedicate themselves to the success of their peers and therefore to the community–and company–at large.

3. Management is service, not control.

Average bosses want employees to do exactly what they're told. They're hyper-aware of anything that smacks of insubordination and create environments where individual initiative is squelched by the "wait and see what the boss says" mentality.
Extraordinary bosses set a general direction and then commit themselves to obtaining the resources that their employees need to get the job done. They push decision making downward, allowing teams form their own rules and intervening only in emergencies.

4. My employees are my peers, not my children.

Average bosses see employees as inferior, immature beings who simply can't be trusted if not overseen by a patriarchal management. Employees take their cues from this attitude, expend energy on looking busy and covering their behinds.
Extraordinary bosses treat every employee as if he or she were the most important person in the firm. Excellence is expected everywhere, from the loading dock to the boardroom. As a result, employees at all levels take charge of their own destinies.

5. Motivation comes from vision, not from fear.

Average bosses see fear--of getting fired, of ridicule, of loss of privilege--as a crucial way to motivate people.  As a result, employees and managers alike become paralyzed and unable to make risky decisions.
Extraordinary bosses inspire people to see a better future and how they'll be a part of it.  As a result, employees work harder because they believe in the organization's goals, truly enjoy what they're doing and (of course) know they'll share in the rewards.

6. Change equals growth, not pain.

Average bosses see change as both complicated and threatening, something to be endured only when a firm is in desperate shape. They subconsciously torpedo change ... until it's too late.
Extraordinary bosses see change as an inevitable part of life. While they don't value change for its own sake, they know that success is only possible if employees and organization embrace new ideas and new ways of doing business.

7. Technology offers empowerment, not automation.

Average bosses adhere to the old IT-centric view that technology is primarily a way to strengthen management control and increase predictability. They install centralized computer systems that dehumanize and antagonize employees.
Extraordinary bosses see technology as a way to free human beings to be creative and to build better relationships. They adapt their back-office systems to the tools, like smartphones and tablets, that people actually want to use.

8. Work should be fun, not mere toil.

Average bosses buy into the notion that work is, at best, a necessary evil. They fully expect employees to resent having to work, and therefore tend to subconsciously define themselves as oppressors and their employees as victims. Everyone then behaves accordingly.
Extraordinary bosses see work as something that should be inherently enjoyable–and believe therefore that the most important job of manager is, as far as possible, to put people in jobs that can and will make them truly happy.

Monday, April 23, 2012

Learn About Facebook Pages

This interactive course will help you use Facebook Pages to tell your story, express your identity, and connect with your audience.

To launch the course, make sure any pop-up blockers are disabled. When you click the button, the course will open in a new window.


http://www.learnfacebookpages.com/ui.html

Monday, April 16, 2012

Red Cross Disaster Relief

This spring, dozens of tornadoes have ripped through communities across the South and Midwestern states, leveling towns and leaving hundreds of people with nothing left. And they aren’t the only ones. Early season wildfires in the Western U.S. forced hundreds of evacuations, while severe flooding and loss across Texas, Louisiana, West Virginia and Hawaii.


We've provided a link to the Red Cross for anyone who would like to make a donation to the Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund

Sunday, April 15, 2012

Food Truck related Domains for Sale - Miami, Florida

We have several domains now available For Sale, among these domains are several food truck related domains. They can be seen on our main page. We're accepting offers on any of these domains. If you need additional information you can contact us at (305) 909-2083.
View these domains now !

Friday, April 13, 2012

I Just Texted to Say I Love You

Social Media Revolution

Considering QR Codes? Be Mobile Friendly

Promoting your website with a QR Code is a popular and effective way to drive traffic from mobile users. However, linking the code to a website that isn't mobile friendly will leave a bad impression. Put yourself in the shoes of a mobile user. They want a professional looking solution in a mobile friendly experience. If you provide that, your promotion will be successful. If not, you're better off not using them.

Call us today at (305) 909-2083 to get your QR Code created !


Registering Multiple Domains — Should You?

We added this article so as to give you a little information on registering multiple domains and the benefits in doing so, personally we think it's a great idea. Below is an article we found about Godaddy and their take on the registering of multiple domains.
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When you try to register a domain name with Go Daddy, you’ll soon find out that they’re going out of their way to convince you to register not just one, but several domains while you’re at it. It makes sense that Go Daddy would love to sell you as many products as possible — it is, after all, a for-profit operation. But if you take the time to read their pitch, you’ll see that they list a number of very good reasons why you should at least consider their proposition. Go Daddy is even helpful enough to suggest a number of additional domains for you to consider throwing in before you check out.
Go Daddy’s “buy-lots-of-domains” sales pitch boils down to this: Registering and using multiple domain names is great for building your business, protecting your brand name, and creating a dynamic online identity. That sounds pretty compelling, so let’s take a closer look at what they’re suggesting.

Here’s the complete list of the advantages of registering multiple domains, courtesy of GoDaddy.com:
When you register multiple domain names, you can:
Keep your competition from registering a similar domain name drawing customers to them instead of you.    Promote the different products and services you offer. Drive more traffic to your Web site. Enjoy more opportunities to market to — and be listed in — search engines. Create distinct advertising strategies reaching different target markets. Provide customers more ways to find you when searching the Internet.    Capture common misspellings of your domain name, instead of sending visitors to an error page. Protect your brand and online identity.
This is plenty of reasons to go all out and register a whole bunch of new domains.

Whether or not multiple domains will help you and you business in the way Go Daddy is suggesting of course largely depends on which ones you register, and what you do with them. Certainly, you can, as Go Daddy suggests, register any number of common misspellings of your company’s name. And you should. Similarly, you should definitely consider registering all of the most common extensions for your domain. This will indeed protect your brand and help you reel in Web users who are looking for your business, but fail to get the name right.

It also makes sense to use a multiple-domain strategy to create and roll out individual advertising and marketing strategies aimed at different targets.

As for the claim that registering multiple domains can help boost your search engine rankings, it entirely comes down to how you plan on using those domains in your search engine strategies. But as long as you’re not using them for blatant black-hat SEO purposes, it certainly won’t hurt.

In conclusion: Go Daddy certainly makes some good points when they ask you to consider registering multiple domains. And if you pick those additional domains carefully, it’s not a bad idea at all.

We have provided a link below to Godaddy and as we mentioned before we highly recommend that you consider the idea of registering multiple domains. By the way, we do like giving credit where credit is due and so we'd like to mention that if you're tired of bad customer service, you'll love the customer service experience that Godaddy consistently provides to you as a client but don't just take our word for it try them out we assure you, you will not regret it !
www.godaddy.com

Psychology And Advertising - Choosing the Right Colors for Your Web Site


Old vs. Young People

People of different ages have different reactions to colors. People past a certain age will find web sites with more sober and restrained (and therefore relaxing to the eye) colors more attractive. Youngsters, on the other hand, will appreciate more vivid and brighter colors. Make the distinction between mature and young audience by using the appropriate colors for each category.
This might be regarded as an ordinary factor, judging by the fact that with time people require visual correction. I found a comprehensive graphic on Age-Related Changes in Vision taken from a presentation by Robert W. Bailey, a PhD in computer psychology according to which the age comprised between 30 and 50 is the most probable for the apparition of visual impairments.

Men vs. Women

People also have preferences according to their gender. Thus, men tend to prefer blue and orange to red and yellow, while women prefer red to blue and yellow to orange. Also, remember that it has been proven that women are able to perceive considerably more colors than men; in other words, while men may find peach, teal or peacock as mere notions, women associate these things with colors.
Also, free yourself from prejudices: if you are addressing to women, do not automatically employ pink. While some women may enjoy pink, others may not. I have recently encountered a very interesting study which revealed that blue is the favorite color of 57% of men and of 35% of women, so pay attention.

Nations and Colors

If your website addresses an audience larger than your country of origin or it is meant to attract prospects from a specific country, invest some time in researching the specific meanings of colors. For example, while white is a symbol of purity in Western cultures, it stands for bad luck and unhappiness in China, Japan, and India. While very appreciated in Japan, pink is frowned upon in India and East-European countries, where it is regarded as a 'non-manly' colors.
Purple is associated in certain Arabic cultures with prostitution (the same as red in the European and North-American cultures), and globally, it is generally associated with mysticism and beliefs that are not in keeping with the precepts of Islamism, Judaism and Christianity. Green, if used for the web site of a financial institution from the USA, will support the implication that the institution deals with the 'almighty green dollar', but it may bear no such significance in a country where bills (paper money) are multiple-colored.
This can lead to a complete change of meanings, significances will be changed and negative implications will be at the very least diminished, if not eliminated altogether (e.g. red becomes more powerful when combined with white). It is up to you to obtain creative colors that will be internationally accepted, but you have to do your homework quite well.





Common Colors and Their Most Common Meanings

  • Red: energy, passion, excitement, power; also implies aggression, danger.
  • Blue: coolness, spirituality, freedom, patience, loyalty, peace, trustworthiness; can also imply sadness, depression.
  • Yellow: light, optimism, happiness, brightness, joy.
  • Green: life, naturalness, restfulness, health, wealth, prosperity; in certain contexts, can imply decay, toxicity.
  • Orange: friendliness, warmth, approachability, energy, playfulness, courage.
  • Violet: wisdom, sophistication, celebration.
  • White: purity, cleanliness, youth, freshness, peace.
  • Black: power, elegance, secrecy, mystery.
  • Gray: security, maturity, reliability.
  • Pink: romance a feminine color.
  • Brown: comfort, strength, stability, credibility.

Thursday, April 12, 2012

Google+ Gets An Update

Google has rolled out a new design for its social network Google+.

The biggest change is the new Navigation Ribbon. Instead of static icons, applications are now on a dynamic ribbon on the left of the page for expanded navigation capabilities.

“You can drag apps up or down to create the order you want; you can hover over certain apps to reveal a set of quick actions; you can show or hide apps by moving them in and out of ‘More’,” the internet search giant wrote on its blog.

Other new features include: a dedicated place for ‘Hangouts’, an ‘Explore’ page for trending stories, and the capability for larger photos and videos to be uploaded to the site.

The internet search giant hopes that its users will find the “more functional and flexible version of Google+… easier to use and nicer to look at, but most importantly, it accelerates our efforts to create a simpler, more beautiful Google”.

Should Facebook be warned?



Wednesday, April 11, 2012

The Mobile Buzz

Have you taken a look at your website on a smart phone? Websites made for laptops and desktops simply don’t work on mobile phones like the iPhone, iPad, Android phones, and other similar smart phones and tablets.
Mobile users are looking for information like directions, contact, services, and discounts. A custom mobile website is extremely easy to navigate using a small screen, and delivers only the information your customers want.

Why Does Mobile Matter ?

Mobile users are using their phones to search the web for restaurants, shopping, and local businesses… and most are ready to buy!
  • There's a growing group of mobile-only users
  • Up to 80% of mobile users prefer mobile sites to apps
  • One in seven internet searches are now mobile
  • 9 out of 10 searchers take action as a result of a mobile search
  • People searching for local businesses take action within 24 hrs
  • Once they find you, mobile users either call, drop in, purchase in-store or online, recommend you, or write a review.

Give us a call today we offer you a great price on your mobile website and your 1st year of mobile web hosting is totally FREE (It's a $178.00 Value) Give us a call today to get started at (305)909-2083 or visit our mobile website sales site "Go Mobile Miami"


Join the Mobile Movement
Start getting your share of the business you've been missing !

Smartphones overtake PCs in shipments for first time ( CZDNet.com ) 6 February, 2012 )

NEWS
Smartphones have outstripped PCs in shipments for the first time, according to a report from Canalys.

Approximately 488 million smartphones shipped worldwide in 2011, compared with 415 million client PCs, the analyst firm said in the report, released on Friday. The year saw a higher demand for netbooks, compared with desktops or notebooks, and a greater interest in tablets, according to Canalys. All of this created more competition for client PCs, it said.
"In the space of a few years, smart phones have grown from being a niche product segment at the high-end of the mobile phone market to becoming a truly mass-market proposition," Canalys's principal analyst Chris Jones said in the report. "The greater availability of smart phones at lower price points has helped tremendously, but there has been a driving trend of increasing consumer appetite for internet browsing, content consumption and engaging with apps and services on mobile devices."
However, Canalys warned that the surge for smartphones will slow down considerably this year as "vendors exercise greater cost control and discipline, and put more focus on profitability."

The numbers don't lie: Mobile devices overtaking PCs !


CNN Money

Here it comes: Mobile will soon outsell PCs.
Tim Bray last week attempted to conceptualize the market change that is happening in computing in a post called the Great Game.  In a nutshell, what we are seeing in smartphones is bigger than anything that has come before it.  Much bigger than the PC.  And it is coming so fast that we don't realize what's happening.
The Numbers Are Really Big · Insane, I mean. The billion-plus phones sold per year. The number of active subscriptions, which is greater than half of the human population. The number of new Android devices that check in with Google every day. The line-ups outside Apple stores for every new iOS device. The hundreds of thousands of apps. The ridiculous number of new ones that flow into Android Market every day. Everywhere I look, I see something astounding.
Based on their respective numbers, the companies below represent the biggest OS vendors in both the smartphone and desktop space on earth. What's interesting is that, with the explosion of iOS devices and Android over the past year and the relative stagnation of the desktop market, mobile OS shipments are approaching that of desktop OSes.  In fact, smartphones may be surpassing desktop OS shipments right now.  I'm going to attempt to prove that below.
If you add up the desktop OSes (Windows, Mac and a few Linux) and mobile OSes (Android, iOS, Windows Mobile, Linux, Palm and more) you get around 900,000 units a day for desktop vs. 800,000+ for smartphone OSes.
Numbers compiled from sources at bottom
Something to consider however: Windows 7 (the biggie) includes Microsoft (MSFT) OS updates as well as new unit shipments, which the others don't. That skews the number a little.
However, we have another measure, IDC's PC shipments for the quarter at just over 81 million for the most recent quarter.  That's about 887,000 per day. Using the same type of data, IDC estimates that there were 64 million smartphones shipped globally in the same quarter, or 713,000 per day.
Here's the thing:  Smartphones are currently exploding in an unprecedented way, thanks largely to Google's (GOOG) Android OS. Earlier this quarter, Android devices were selling at half the speed they are currently. That doesn't mean other platforms are slowing down either.  With the exception of Windows Mobile, every other major platform is growing phenomenally:
Canalys numbers: Even without Android, the Smartphone market grew almost 50% year over year
Canalys also charts smartphones by OS and gets similar total numbers for the second quarter of 2010 (62.5 million units) as IDC.  But for Android, Calalys tally  just over 10 million devices.  We know from Google CEO Eric Schmidt's recent remarks that the company is now activating 200,000 units a day or over 18 million a quarter for the third quarter  Apple (AAPL) too, has set astronomical expectations for its iPhone, projecting that it will sell over 11 million for the quarter. And Apple is usually very conservative on its estimates. Even if everyone else in the smartphone world remains flat, that's an additional 10 million devices in the current quarter. And that is being conservative.
Speaking of Apple, IDC's numbers don't count iPads and iPod touch devices as either smartphones or PCs.  While the gadgets often can replace the functionality of a netbook, iPads/iPods have a smartphone's DNA (ARM Processors/mobile OS).  Counting them as such adds close to 10 million additional devices to the 'smartphone' tally in the quarter.
Apple is expected to launch some new iPods this quarter and Samsung, Dell (DELL) and an army of low-cost device manufacturers are making small Android devices that aren't meant to function like a phone.  The flood of these devices will start during this quarter.
If you add those up, that puts an additional 20+ million 'smartphones', or should I say 'mobile devices", to the tallies from IDC and it means that we are reaching that tipping point right now:

Smartphones, or Mobile devices, will soon become the dominant computing platform for humanity and supplant the PC which has reigned since Apple ignited the Personal Computer revolution in the late 1970's.  Apple's CEO Steve Jobs said as much at the AllThingsD conference earlier this year.  He compared PCs to trucks that not everyone would need in the future.  Tablets and smartphones would be in everyones hands.  But, I don't even think Jobs saw it coming this quickly.
Just a few years after the launch of the iPhone, it is Game Over for PCs.


Google’s augmented reality eyewear is coming to disrupt your face and your business model. If you don’t even have to pull your phone out to take a photo, get directions, or message with friends, why would you need to buy the latest iPhone or spend so much time on Facebook?
It could be a year before Google eyewear reaches stores, but that’s why these and other tech companies need to strategize now. If they wait to see if the device is a hit, the world could be seeing through Google-tinted glasses by the time they adapt. Apple and Facebook’s bet might be to team up…

If you haven’t heard, Google today announced it is beginning public tests of augmented reality glasses with the codename Project Glass. A mouthwatering mock-up video of what the device might eventually be capable of shows someone using voice commands to send messages, take photos, share to Google+, see the locations of friends, view maps, get directions, set calendar reminders, and more.
Cramming all the functionality into a sleek set of glasses is going to take time and effort, but the Google(x) skunklabs is on it. There’s a dozen ways the product could flop, most obviously if the glasses are awkward and unstylish, but also if they’re too heavy, expensive, fragile, or the world is just not quite ready. Let’s forget those for a second. Say Google figures it out and the retail version of Project Glass (which may end up being called Google Eye) becomes wildly popular. How will this disrupt Apple and Facebook, and what should they do to defend themselves?
Here’s what I see as their best courses of action:

Apple Should Compete

Project Glass takes a ton of the things you use your iPhone and iPod for and puts them into your glasses. The glasses will likely run a version of Android and since they’re voice controlled, they could turn into Google’s competitor to Siri. People might buy Google glasses rather than snapping up the latest Apple device.

Apple Should Compete

Project Glass takes a ton of the things you use your iPhone and iPod for and puts them into your glasses. The glasses will likely run a version of Android and since they’re voice controlled, they could turn into Google’s competitor to Siri. People might buy Google glasses rather than snapping up the latest Apple device.
But Apple is the world’s greatest hardware company. Hopefully somewhere deep inside its headquarters there are some scientists figuring out how to turn an iPhone into glasses, not just a wristwatch.
Apple should seek to capitalize on Google’s lack of hardware experience, and spend some of its cash reserves to lock up critical component manufacturers. Even if Project Glass ends up an ugly mess, Apple could still make eyeglass computing beautiful. This technology sure seems like the future, so Apple needs to be ready to pounce. But the problem remains that it has no social network or other key services to power its own version…”

Facebook Should Team Up With Apple

Facebook is no hardware company and isn’t big enough to become one. Not having its own mobile OS or device is hurting Facebook, and eyeglass computing could turn into round 2. The video already showed Google+ as the preferred sharing method. Unlike an Android phone where you could just open the Facebook app, Project Glass won’t necessarily allow third-party apps, at least at first, and could make them harder to access than Google+ which will be baked in.
Though Facebook and Apple have been on strained terms so far, and Facebook hasn’t even gotten directly integrated into iOS like Twitter, the two companies could bond over the common threat of Project Glass. Apple needs somewhere to share the content you’d create with its glasses, or why create it in the first place? Facebook needs to make sure Apple lets it get deeply embedded, with or without Twitter alongside it. (Though, Facebook, should probably start with today’s iOS).
Postscript: If Apple or Facebook consider eyeglass computing as marketable to mainstream in the next few years, today should give them a jolt. It’s early though, so they’ll only need to be scared if they don’t plan.
But here’s the kicker…
Despite its lack of hardware experience, Google is the best positioned company to make, or at least provide the software for eyeglass computers. It has Android, Google+, Maps, Gmail, Gcal, Latitude, and more. Glass might go belly up, but if not it could breathe life into some of these sluggish services. That’s why it’s ridiculous when people call Project Glass a diversion or waste of resources. Seems to me like Google’s vision is 20/20.


Facebook Buys Instagram For $1 Billion, Turns Budding Rival Into Its Standalone Photo App


Facebook has just finished a deal to acquire mobile photo sharing app Instagram for approximately $1 billion in cash and stock. Instagram will remain an independently branded standalone app that’s separate from Facebook, but the services will increase their ties to each other. The transaction should go through this quarter pending some standard closing procedures
Last year, documents for a standalone Facebook mobile photo sharing app were attained by TechCrunch. Now it seems Facebook would rather buy Instagram which comes with a built-in community of photographers and photo lovers, while simultaneously squashing a threat to its dominance in photo sharing.
At 27 million registered users on iOS alone, Instagram was increasingly positioning itself as a social network in its own right — not just a photo-sharing app. And it was clear that some users were doing more of the daily sharing actvities on Instagram rather than Facebook’s all-in-one mobile apps, which had to be cluttered with nearly every feature of the desktop site.
With the Instagram for Android launch last week, Instagram was going to get to 50 million registered users in a heartbeat after racking up more than 1 million in the first 24 hours. And with that kind of momentum, Facebook felt like it had to move — fast. After all, photo sharing and tagging are arguably what *made* Facebook.
Whatever you think of the price given the fact that Instagram had no revenues, the reality is it was going to be worth whatever Mark Zuckerberg felt like paying for it. Both Google and Facebook had approached Instagram several times over the past 18 months, but the talks clearly didn’t result in a deal. So Facebook was going to have to offer a huge premium over the last valuation for Systrom and the board to take any deal seriously.