market

Sony Ericsson phones tune into radio

As Sony continues to search for the right formula to reclaim its crown in music-playing electronics, one of its newest products may be taking a cue from its roots: the portable radio.

Sony Ericsson is coming out with an attractive new line of phones later this year that include built-in stereo speakers and radios, as well as some unremarkable camera and Bluetooth features. Unfortunately, the radio doesn't seem to receive digital broadcasts--it's just a standard AM/FM, as this is a low-end handset destined for India and other emerging markets.

That's really too bad, because portable digital … Read more

On the eve of OnMedia NYC: media and advertising industries still optimistic about 2008

I'm off to New York for the OnMedia conference from January 28-30. The two-and-a-half day event features technology CEOs from Silicon Valley leading presentations and debates with their counterparts in global advertising and media. It will be a dynamic crowd that's coming together to discuss emerging user trends and new opportunities in the marketing, branding, advertising, and public relations industries.

The list of speakers includes web 2.0 entrepreneurs such as Steve Rosenbaum (CEO, Magnify.net), Ami Kassar (Chief Innovation Officer, ideablob), and Matt Colebourne, (CEO, coComment); established content players such as Jim Spanfeller (President, Forbes.com) and … Read more

Tech to the rescue

I was working on this when I read this CNET News.com post. Apparently, Bill Gates believes that a strong technology sector will help keep America's economy healthy. I couldn't agree more. But I have a somewhat different take on the role tech has played in the U.S. economy.

Over the past few decades, the U.S. technology industry has had a number of "the sky is falling" moments, and every time we've managed to work through it and come out stronger than before.

For example, when I entered the job market in 1980, … Read more

The open source download canard

I'm not sure why we continue to persist in talking about downloads, but I'm with Stephe on this one: downloads are not the best measure of success in open source. In fact, they're often not even a remote predictor of success (i.e., sales). Having them, as Stephen O' Grady notes, is much better than not having them, but it would be erroneous in the extreme to assume a company with 100,000 downloads per month necessarily has a bigger market opportunity than a company with 20,000 downloads per month.

The 451 Group's Matt Aslett points out that marketing automation software like Loopfuse can help to supercharge an open-source company's conversion rate. Same number of leads in, many more conversions (sales) out. I agree with that. Aslett writes:

Of course, the statistic [in Loopfuse's results] that will have jumped out for many people is the drop from a 40X increase in qualified leads to an 8X increase in engagements. The theory that leads are not enough in open source software has also been well documented. The ability to turn those qualified leads into paying customers remains a missing piece of the commercial open source puzzle.… Read more

Report: Canon aims to reclaim top SLR rank

Canon hopes the new EOS Rebel XSi will help it reclaim the top spot in SLR camera market share in 2008 in Japan, according to a report Thursday.

Canon lost the top spot in Japan to Nikon, but the new entry-level Rebel XSi (called the 450D in Europe and the Kiss X2 in Asia) should help the company fight back this year, according to Canon director Masaya Maeda, quoted by Thomson after a Canon press conference.

Canon's ambitions are broader than just Japan and SLRs, though its lead isn't as threatened in other segments. "In 2008, we … Read more

Nokia's success tied to emerging markets

What separates the mobile handset winners from the losers? The answer seems to be success in developing markets like China, India, the Middle East, and Africa.

On Thursday Nokia announced that it had sold a record 133.5 million mobile phones during the fourth quarter of 2007. This figure was up by more than a quarter from the same period a year earlier, boosting its overall market share to 40 percent.

Meanwhile, Nokia rival Motorola reported Wednesday that shipments of its handsets had fallen 38 percent during the quarter, pushing its market share down yet again to 12 percent, the … Read more

Gates: Tech can save the economy

As investors around the globe view the sputtering U.S. economy with fear and trembling, at least one maven of the market economy sees a reason for hope: Bill Gates.

Stopping in Berlin on his way to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, where he's expected to speak Thursday about the ways a more "creative capitalism" could benefit society's needier members, Microsoft's chairman told the German newspaper Bild that the best medicine to stave off a worldwide economic crisis is a good dose of new tech.

"I am an optimist. The U.S. … Read more

Marketing software vs. marketing hardware

Here's a thought experiment: If you consider marketing as a function of information technology, and you consequently divide it into software and hardware, then you may draw an interesting analogy to what's currently happening in the wireless industry. Like the mobile industry, in particular handset phone makers, who experience a shift from hardware towards software, successful marketers ought to start focusing on what I call "marketing software."

Let me explain. Under marketing hardware I file the static, robust marketing framework long established in theory and practice: brand architecture, trademarks, direct mailing, loyalty programs, trade show booths, … Read more

Fujifilm's camera for the crazed?

Sometimes, it's simply too hard to resist quoting the press release: Fujifilm "today unveiled the FinePix Z20fd, a new ultraglam digital camera packed with useful features that let you face it, beam it, blog it, and now roll it with a new MPEG-4 movie-recording mode for the movie-crazed Generation Z."

Translation: The Z20fd replaces the Z10fd in the pretty-but-not-too-pricey market segment. Its basic specs include 10-megapixel sensor, a slow f/3.7-8.0 35mm-105mm-equivalent (3x) zoom lens and a low-resolution 150,000-pixel 2.5-inch LCD. Some of the more noncorporeal features include Fujifilm staples like Intelligent Flash (… Read more

Accenture snapping up Memetrics and Maxamine

Accenture and Oracle--separated at birth?

Accenture, a technology outsourcing behemoth, is beginning to look like Oracle's evil twin brother when it comes to acquisitions.

Accenture said on Wednesday it's snapping up two companies in a move to expand its digital marketing sciences unit.

One deal involves Memetrics Holdings, which develops technology designed to analyze thousands of Web pages to select the best format and context for various customer groups. That deal closed several weeks ago.

Accenture is also acquiring the assets of Maxamine, which scans customers' Web sites and then offers suggestions on ways to optimize the sites, … Read more