Tag Archive
Zillow Wants a Home on Wall Street
Zillow, a real estate listing service that’s nearing profitability, is also dreaming of going public, though it’s pragmatic enough not to set its sights on doing so for another year. Zillow COO Spencer Rascoff today told Bloomberg that the company was courting Wall Street investors. The question is, why is he talking about it now? If you... »
Mobile-Ad Firm Amobee Acquires RingRing Media
Amobee Media Systems has entered into an agreement to acquire the world’s largest mobile advertising agency, RingRing Media.The acquisition brings Amobee one step closer to fulfilling its long-term vision aimed at creating the industry’s largest mobile advertising exchange dedicated to connecting publishers, advertising agencies and brands to premium inventory in …(285 words) Related Topics: Advertising,... »
Australia goes wild for wireless internet
Use of wireless broadband services mushroomed during the past year to reach more than two million subscribers, driven by the popularity of wireless modems and mobile devices such as the iPhone. The Australian Communications and Media Authority’s communications report, released yesterday, revealed the use of wireless broadband services jumped 162 per cent in 2008-09, while... »
Will 2010 Finally Be the Year of Location?
For most of the first decade of the new century, we all talked about the emergence of location-based services. These services, leveraging GPS chips, were going to revolutionize the world. I remember hearing numerous pitches that envisioned Starbucks offering coupons when you walked by the store. But the future, it seemed, was taking its... »
Will 2010 Finally be the Year of Location?
For most of the first decade of the new century, we all talked about the emergence of location-based services. These services, leveraging GPS chips, were going to revolutionize the world. I remember hearing numerous pitches that envisioned Starbucks offering coupons when you walked by the store. But the future, it seemed, was taking its... »
Google’s new phone to protect mobile advertising base
Google has said it is defending its online advertising empire with the launch of its own brand mobile phone. It is the first time Google has designed and sold its own consumer hardware device. Google said the Nexus One represented the next frontier in the company’s $20bn (£12.4bn) core business – selling advertising through search. “It’s all... »
Mobile Ad Rivalry Heats Up As Apple Buys Quattro
Game on. Apple Inc. (AAPL) is ready to pit itself directly against Google Inc. (GOOG) in the mobile display advertising wars with the reported $275 million purchase of Quattro Wireless.Since Quattro is privately held, Apple is not divulging the financial details of the transaction. The purported amount comes from an affiliate of …(195 words) Related Topics: aapl,... »
Google’s Mobile Chief Andy Rubin on the Google Phone & the Androidification of Everything
Andy Rubin’s business card identifies him as the Vice President of Engineering at Google. In reality, he’s the Mountain View, Calif.-based search engine’s mobile chief. From the time Google snapped up his tiny startup, Android, to today, when it officially launched the first Google Phone, Rubin (and his partner Rich Miner) have been behind... »
Mobile Ad Rivalry Heats Up As Apple Buys Quattro
Game on. Apple Inc. (AAPL) is ready to pit itself directly against Google Inc. (GOOG) in the mobile display advertising wars with the reported $275 million purchase of Quattro Wireless.Since Quattro is privately held, Apple is not divulging the financial details of the transaction. The purported amount comes from an affiliate of …(195 words) ... »
User Experience Matters: What Entrepreneurs Can Learn From “Objectified”
Braun's Rams influenced Apple's Ive. Photo courtesy of Gizmodo A few months ago, my friend Christian Lindholm, partner at Fjord, a convergence design agency, and father of the Series 60 interface (at Nokia) stopped by for one of our quarterly idea sessions. Our conversation eventually veered towards a topic that’s near and dear to both... »
Reliance Communication and Idea Cellular Pulled up For Misleading Ad Campaigns
India’s leading mobile service operator Reliance Communication and Idea Cellular has been pulled up by the Advertising Standards Council of India (ACSI) for running misleading ad campaigns… ] Related Topics: Advertising, India, Info, LEC, Mobile,... »
What Happened in Tech This Week
Twitter bought Mixer Labs (12.23.2009) View 2. HTC became a smart phone hero (12.23.2009) View O2/Telefónica Buys Jajah for $207M (12.23.2009) View Blippy launched. View App analytics firms, Flurry and Pinch Media merged. View Google released its Open manifesto. View Incubators made a return. View Twitter might actually be profitable. View MyTown proved to be bigger than FourSqure and GoWalla. View In addition,... »
Ybrant Launches a Location-Based Mobile Advertising Platform for Mobile Services Providers
Ybrant Digital, the leading provider of digital marketing solutions, today announced its plans to introduce Location-Based Advertising (LBA) into its gamut of services. Towards this, the company is… ] … >>> Rest of the Story Related Topics:... »
Silicon Valley Xmas Wish List Report For 2009
The great thing about the Internet is that you can get connected to just about everyone these days. Well this afternoon, my old friend Nick called me via his new SIP connection. It seems the new 100 meg fiber line to his winter abode has finally been connected, giving him even faster access. That... »
App Analytics Startups Flurry & Pinch Media Merge
Mobile application analytics startups Flurry of San Francisco and Pinch Media of New York are in the process of merging their operations, according to Flurry CEO Simon Khalef. The new combined entity will be called Flurry Media and will maintain offices in both locations. Here is a breakdown of the deal and what it... »
Verizon: Marketing, Capex Merit $350 ETFs
Verizon Wireless has responded to the FCC’s demand for an explanation of its new $350 early termination fee for smartphones including the Motorola Droid and certain BlackBerry models. The service provider’s defense? Advertising to get new subscribers costs a lot of money, and investing in broadband networks costs a lot …(189 words) ... »
Google May Buy Yelp: A Quick Analysis
Google is rumored to be in talks to acquire local reviews site, Yelp for about $500 million. If the deal happens, then it is a good move for Yelp and its backers, who are selling at what I think is the top of the market. It is also a good short term move for... »
Why Gravity, a New Startup, Can’t Defy Gravity
Earlier this evening I watched a video and read an article about Gravity, a Los Angeles-based startup co-founded by three former MySpace executives including MySpace’s onetime chief operating officer, Amit Kapur. The other two co-founders are Steve Pearman (chief product officer) and Jim Benedetto (chief technology officer). The company, which launched a beta version of... »
Why Gravity, a New Startup Can’t Defy Gravity
Earlier this evening I watched a video and read an article about Gravity, a Los Angeles-based start-up co-founded by three former MySpace executives including MySpace’s onetime chief operating officer, Amit Kapur. The other two co-founders are Steve Pearman (chief product officer) and Jim Benedetto (chief technology officer). The company, which launched a beta version of... »
My Hunch Is As Good As Jimmy Wales’ Hunch
Wikipedia’s Jimmy Wales Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales has joined the board of directors of Hunch, a New York-based startup that counts among its co-founders Chris Dixon and Caterina Fake. Hunch is one of the more important startups to emerge recently, yet it’s largely flown under the radar — much like Flickr did in the early... »
Predictions: The Fabulous 5 for 2010
As the first decade of the 21st century draws to a close, we are on the cusp of another massive change in technology, one that will involve a new, more dynamic two-way experience with the web. However, instead of making specific predictions as to which technologies will win (or lose) in 2010, I am... »
All Hail the iPod touch
As the competition for smartphone domination starts to heat up, it is becoming increasingly clear that the iPod touch is Apple’s ace up its sleeve, and according to a report by Flurry, a San Francisco-based mobile analytics company, 24 million iPod touches represent about 40 percent of the total 58 million iPhone OS devices. From... »
Being Quoted More and More
As many of you know, I end up being quoted quite a bit about VOIP, leading the life of a tech savvy road warrior and even sometimes about business travel in general. What you may not know is that I also get cited regularly on business and marketing related matters, and usually they are... »
AT&T Drops Verizon Map Lawsuit, But the Bad Publicity Lives On
Sam Diaz submits: Not quite 30 days ago, AT&T (T) did one of the worst things it could do when Verizon Wireless (VZ) launched an advertising campaign that compared the two companies’ 3G coverage: it sued. That suit set off a flurry of blog posts (including a few posted by me) and broadly raised the... »
Technology, Media and Telecommunications: News from Asia
Japan Telecommunications • Softbank Corp. (SFTBF.PK) is interested in buying stakes in Indian and Chinese companies. The company is eying companies engaged in mobile applications and technology. Softbank bought an additional stake in U.S. application provider RockYou Inc. for US$50 million. Softbank has a 33 percent stake in... »
Why I Love Foursquare
IMPORTANT POINTS Foursquare recently launched in 50 new cities & is growing at a rate of more than 50% per month. Foursquare wants to be the Netflix of places. Structured datasets are the future of cost-per-action advertising & e-commerce. If you follow me on Twitter, then you’re already aware of my obsession with Foursquare, a New York-based service... »
AdMob Data Reveals Android’s Growth, Device Market Share
AdMob, a mobile advertising network, which has been releasing mobile metrics for a while now and touting the Apple iPhone and iPod Touch metrics as headlines, is instead focusing on RIM, Symbian, Android and even Windows Mobile devices in its October 2009 mobile metrics report. I guess when you are soon going to be... »
Some Random Posts Worth Reading
Dean Bubley on The Android-Dean and I had dinner in San Diego a week ago Saturday at Flemings Steak House and Wine Bar in the Gaslamp. We enjoyed some excellent service from GM/Operating Partner Bob Andrews (he’s been Flemings Top Operating Partner four out of the last five years or so) and it was... »
PlatinumTel Sues EZ Stream, U.S. Mobile for False Advertising
Prepaid provider PlatinumTel is suing U.S. Mobile and EZ Stream, alleging false advertising, violations of the Illinois Consumer Fraud Act and violations of the Illinois Uniform Deceptive Trade Practices Act in connection with prepaid wireless services.“This is a case where consumers are being taken advantage of by a wireless company. …(164 words) ... »
EU cracks down on mobile services
Websites mis-selling mobile ringtones and other services have been forced to clean up their acts, following a European Union crackdown. Some 301 sites were investigated, resulting in the closure of 54 and the correction of 159. The biggest problems were unclear pricing and misleading advertising suggesting ringtones were free. The investigation was a direct response to hundreds... »