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AT&T Buys Pay-Per-Call Advertising Firm (PC World)

Ingenio's technology measures the effectiveness of advertisements by tracking phone calls made to businesses based on phone numbers used in ads. The ads can be displayed online, on mobile phone Web sites and in print. The technology provisions the phone numbers and tracks the calls. Advertisers pay based on the volume of phone calls generated by the ads. AT&T will integrate the technology into its Web site. The operator said the technology would allow it to take advantage of the trend toward performance-based advertising. Ingenio pushes the fact that advertisers don't need their own Web sites to use the service. The ads appear across Ingenio's network and point viewers to the phone number, not necessarily to a Web page. AOL uses Ingenio's technology for pay-per-call ads, and MSN uses it for ads displayed to mobile phone users. AT&T said it plans to keep Ingenio's management team. The company's Web site says it has 120 employees. AT&T expects the deal to close in January. The operators of online advertising platforms, including Google and Yahoo, are increasingly looking for ways to display more targeted ads and improve the usage of ads. For example, some companies are experimenting with advertisements that let mobile users click on the ad and automatically call the advertiser.

Mobility Diary: Fulfilling the promise of broadband on the move (FT.com)

Several years on, take-up of 3G has been growing, but in most markets is nowhere near the levels predicted. Now the industry is pinning its hopes on HSPA, the "3.5G" upgrade which promises speeds of up to 14.4 megabits per second (a vast improvement on the 384 kbps typically found over UMTS - universal mobile telecommunications system), to kick-start mobile broadband usage. Most of the news about HSPA, or high speed packet access, has so far focused on operator deployments - 130 mobile operator networks in 61 countries (covering 5m users) now offer HSPA services. This accounts for about a fifth of all GSM operators. More recently, attention has been shifting to who might actually use these services, with the first in line being the enterprise sector. The argument for business users as early adopters may sound familiar because it is the same one that was used for GPRS (general packet radio service) and 3G. While HSPA may ultimately be used more by the mass consumer market, enabling more media-rich entertainment to be consumed using handsets, it will be the enterprise sector, using laptops, that will be the earliest adopters of HSPA-based services for their speed. "There are a lot of data networks out there," says Dan Warren, the director of technology for the GSM Association, the trade body representing GSM and UMTS operators and vendors worldwide, which recently released a report* on selling HSPA to business users. "The significant thing now is to ramp up the bandwidth on them." HSPA does have a lot going for it. For operators, it is less expensive to run data services over HSPA than it is over UMTS. For enterprises it is potentially easier to offer workers access over a single HSPA network from a mobile operator than it is to negotiate deals for remote access broadband use over multiple networks using standards such as Wi-Fi. But HSPA still faces a number of challenges in the market before it can meet the needsof business people, let alone a critical mass of users that will make the business case foroperators to investing in HSPA. Even if Wi-Fi may require more administrative hassle for enterprises, its growing presence both in equipment and in networking has made it a de facto standard for remote access usage, particularly in public spaces. Supporters of HSPA note that it is a way of getting ubiquitous fast broadband while on the move, unlike Wi-Fi and WiMax. However, given the focus on laptop usage, it is likely that a typical user will be stationary rather than mobile. And if the fizzle around 3G has shown one thing, it is that speed is not everything. "Enterprises are only now just coming to grips with Wi-Fi," notes Dean Bubley, an analyst at Disruptive Analysis and author of the report. "But business users are unlikely to deploy another technology until they have a good idea of what it will cost and also what are the hidden costs. That's not always apparent on the mobile technologies." Concentrating on laptop usage brings another set of challenges in terms of equipment and sales. According to research from Pyramid, which was jointly commissioned by Microsoft and the GSMA, there will be 33m laptops shipped in the $500-$1,000 price range in 2008, but only a fraction of those will come with mobile broadband built into them - this does not include Wi-Fi capabilities, however. This will mean that if enterprises do want to utilise HSPA services, they will have a greatly reduced choice of products or will most likely need to continue to rely on cards supplied by mobile operators. On the carrier front, Disruptive Analysis notes that many mobile operators still need to get up to speed on how to sell laptop-based mobile broadband products to enterprises. The PCMCIA cards they typically supply for laptop/cellular use are gradually becoming outmoded, and operators still have not worked out the best way of selling laptop-based services themselves, or at the very least in linking up better with the IT integrators who have traditionally sold products like this to end-users. Vendors and operators have always banked on the assumption that enterprises will be early adopters of products and services because they are less susceptible to price elasticity than consumers. In other words, for business users, the cost of a service is less important than the benefits it will provide. This has proved true with products such as RIM's Black-Berry-based e-mail and mobile data cards and operators hope it will be the case with HSPA, since even though it is spectrally more efficient than "basic" UMTS, HSPA data services are likely to be priced at a premium because of the speeds on offer. But even if a higher price doesn't become an issue for business users, getting the other elements of the value chain right will be.* "Adoption of HSPA and mobile broadband access in the enterprise market", written by Disruptive Analysis, commissioned by the GSM Association.

Sony, Fuji, and Maxell fined $110M for videotape cartel

Amazon targets readers’ interest in electronic books (USATODAY.com)

The device connects wirelessly to the Kindle store, using the same EV-DO technology used in some cellphones. Best sellers typically cost $9.99. Bezos talked about Kindle with USA TODAY's Edward C. Baig. Q: Kindle took three years to develop. Why? A: A few really important elements had to come together. There's the hardware, making (it) wireless with EV-DO, the user interface. To make things simple is hard. On top of that is relationships with book publishers, newspaper publishers, bloggers. Q: Electronic books have not exactly been best sellers. A: This is really a reading service. The store is right on the device. You can't out-book the book. You have to find things that you could do with this device that you could never do with a physical book. The idea that you could be on a train, in a car, lying in your bed and 60 seconds later have a new book … Having all your reading with you in a 10-ounce package is a big deal. Many readers have two, three, four books going at one time. Q: Are there books that aren't suited to a device like this? A: I challenged the team to nail pop-up books and scratch 'n' sniff, and they totally failed. You're totally right - also beautiful coffee-table books. It's not like you have to buy this device and never buy a coffee-table or kids (book again). Q: Would you ever buy a paperback again? A: I don't think you would. (Kindle) is lighter, easier to hold (and) turn pages, quiet. There are 112 New York Times best sellers; we have 101. Q:The holdouts? A: Some are rights issues. Some are high-format books (with) lots of big glossy photos. Q: Are you developing a color version? A: Having very efficient battery-power consumption is important, because you don't want to have to recharge in the middle of a long reading session. This paperlike display is very, very thrifty. It's sharp and creates no eyestrain. Color versions (are) still years away. The most important feature of the physical book and the one we worked hardest to capture is this ability to disappear. The ink, the stitching, the glue, the paper all disappear when you get lost in the author's world. And that was our top design objective. Q: Where is the competition? A: Paper books are so evolved and highly suited to their tasks that they set a high bar. They are the last bastion of analog. Q: Isn't this a tough sell? A: People imagine that this is like reading on a computer screen. … One of the obstacles is teaching people that this is … much closer to reading on paper.

Make a beeline for popular Wii (USATODAY.com)

Even before holiday shoppers invade, retailers can't keep the still-popular game system (price starts at $250) in stock a year after its debut. And the Wii is the top-requested game system on holiday wish lists, according to a new Weekly Reader Research survey of 1,000 8- to 17-year-olds for retailer Game Crazy. The Wii was on 32% of wish lists, the Sony PlayStation 3 on 19% and Microsoft Xbox 360 on 17%.RELATED: "Our recommendation: If you see one now, buy it," says Brian Lucas of Best Buy. An imbalance of demand and supply for the Wii confounds retailers as well as consumers. "We don't always know when and what we will get," says Circuit City's Jim Baab. "When we get inventory from Nintendo, we put it out and it generally sells within a couple of hours." Nintendo, which has sold more than 5 million Wiis, recently increased the number of units expected to be shipped worldwide by the end of March to 17.5 million from 16.5 million. "Consumers are going to have to stay on top of it, but we have definitely ramped up," spokesman Perrin Kaplan says. The demand for the Wii recalls that of the PlayStation 2, which after being launched in 2000 also remained elusive more than a year later, says NPD Group analyst Anita Frazier. "The Wii is going to be in short supply this holiday relative to the strong demand," she says. This year has marked a reversal of fortune for Nintendo. Its previous GameCube system came in third in worldwide sales to Sony's PlayStation 2 and Microsoft's Xbox. For most of this year, the Wii has outsold the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. Only in September, thanks to the release of Halo 3, did the Xbox 360 outsell the Wii (527,800 to 501,000, according to The NPD Group). Nintendo's momentum also extends into handhelds, selling about 4.5 million DS systems ($130-$150 each) this year, more than any of the console systems. "These systems are highly entertaining but relatively intuitive," Kaplan says. "That is what really fits into global lifestyles right now." Nintendo's competitors, particularly Microsoft, are now courting the same family and casual gamers attracted to the Wii. A new $280 Xbox 360 Arcade version comes with games such as Pac-Man and Uno. Also just out for Xbox 360: Viva Piñata: Party Animals ($50), the trivia game Scene It?($60) and a free new feature to limit a youngster's time on the system. "Microsoft is livid that Nintendo has taken the lead in the console wars with a technically inferior but more-fun-to-play system," says Geoff Keighley, host of Spike TV's Game Head. "Microsoft has struggled to make the system appeal to a broader consumer. Games like Rock Band and Guitar Hero III will help, but both of those titles are also available on the PS3." Sony also hopes to woo shoppers weary of searching for Wiis. Last week, Sony chairman Howard Stringer said PS3 sales had more than doubled since Oct. 18, when Sony reduced the price of the 80 GB PS3 model to $500 from $600. This month, it also began selling a $400 40 GB model. "It's a little fortuitous that the Wii is running out of hardware," he said. Determined Wii shoppers may want to look online - and be ready to loosen their wallets. Amazon is not selling any Wiis directly, but on Monday, about 90 third-party sellers were offering new and used Wiis starting at $460; eBay has similar prices. Bundles were listed in stock on starting at $677 (with seven games), with delivery by Nov. 29. The Wii is out of stock at GameStop and Electronic Boutique websites, but each is taking pre-orders for new systems with five games (starting at $585) expected to ship Dec. 17. But supply is not guaranteed. "Our stores will have them from time to time, but we are encouraging people to shop early because this year there are going to be a ton of kids of all ages with the Wii on their wish lists," says Chris Olivera of GameStop. "Consumers are just going to have to be very diligent."

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