CableLabs joined NYU Wireless, New York University’s research center, to advance development of 5G, a NYU Polytechnic School of Engineering news release said. CableLabs joins Intel, Qualcomm, Samsung and nine others in the industry in the partnership with NYU Wireless, in pursuit of faster connections and greater access. The FCC recently began exploring the potential of mobile services in the millimeter-wave radio spectrum, which NYU Wireless is working on to develop fundamental science and mathematical channel models needed to develop 5G equipment, said NYU.
AOL expanded its deal with FourthWall Media, expanding the reach of AOL’s video buying platform to about 2 million U.S. households across 90 designated market areas, FourthWall said in a news release Monday. It said the approach provides a more complete assessment of viewing patterns, so advertisers can get a better idea of where they should spend their money. AOL uses a viewership scoring metric, tRatio, which is integrated into its video buying platform and identifies how precisely targeted each TV network, daypart and program is to the marketer's customer target, and predicts consumer responsiveness, FourthWall said.
A “lack of effective methods to marry computers and networks with timing systems” could have a negative impact on a future filled with Internet of Things (IoT) devices such as driverless cars and “smart” electrical grids that depend on split-second precision to prevent highway collisions and power outages, said a new report by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). Computers and networks were designed to operate optimally without precise timing, not to make safety-related timed decisions such as required based on whether an item in front of a driverless car is a plastic bag or a child running, the NIST report said. “Imagine writing a letter to your friend saying it is now 2:30 p.m., and then sending it by snail mail so he can synchronize his watch with yours,” report author Marc Weiss of NIST said in a news release. “That’s the equivalent of how accurate the timing of messages are in computers and systems right now,” he said. “The transfer delay must be accounted for to do the things that are expected of the IoT” or IoT growth will be “severely hampered.”
Smartphone shipments globally will increase at an 8.5 percent compound annual growth rate (CAGR) through 2019, “dwarfing” that of other “smart connected device” (SCD) shipments like tablets (including 2-in-1s), laptops and desktop PCs, IDC said Friday in its device tracker. IDC sees smartphone shipments climbing to 1.96 billion units in 2019, from 1.3 billion in 2014. Tablets and 2-in-1s will have a CAGR of 3.2 percent through 2019, though laptops will decline 0.4 percent and desktops 2 percent, it said. “As recently as 2010, PCs still made up the lion's share of the total SCD device market,” with desktops and notebooks combined accounting for 52.5 percent of shipments versus 44.7 percent for smartphones and 2.8 percent for tablets, IDC said. By 2014, smartphones had grown to 73.4 percent of total shipments, while PCs had slipped to 16.8 percent and tablets had increased to 12.5 percent, it said. By 2019, IDC expects the distribution to be 77.8 percent smartphones, 11.6 percent PCs, and 10.7 percent tablets, it said. Though smartphone growth continues “at an astounding pace,” not all smartphone growth “will be equal,” IDC said. In the years to come, smartphones’ viability will rest on emerging markets, sub-$100 price points, and phablets, it said. Last year, 73 percent of smartphones were shipped to emerging markets, 21 percent were priced below $100, and 12 percent had screen sizes between 5.5 and 7 inches, it said. By 2019, IDC sees four in every five smartphones being shipped to emerging markets, while 35 percent will be priced below $100, and 32 percent will have 5.5-7-inch screen sizes, it said. “So far the market has very much focused on premium models and brands, but emerging market consumers are looking for greater value from a single device."
The U.S. recording industry had the fifth straight year of “relatively flat revenues,” said a RIAA report, which pegged total 2014 U.S. recorded music revenue at $6.97 billion, versus $7 billion in 2013. Digital streaming retail sales surpassed CD disc sales for the first time, as CD revenue fell 12.7 percent to $1.85 billion at retail value, while streaming revenue grew 29 percent to $1.87 billion, said RIAA. Streaming revenue growth had increased across the board, said RIAA. Paid subscription services jumped 25 percent year over year to $799 million, and revenue from ad-supported on-demand services grew 34 percent to $295 million. Digital downloads had the largest revenue share in the music industry last year at 37 percent, or $2.58 billion, an 8.7 percent decline from 2013, said the association. Sales of digital album downloads declined by 6.6 percent, while digital track sales dropped by 10.1 percent. The total value of digital downloads, subscriptions and streaming was $4.5 billion, a 3.2 percent increase over 2013, said RIAA. CDs were by far the highest percentage of physical media sales at 82 percent, but vinyl LPs continued their upward trend, jumping 49 percent to $315 million in 2014, said RIAA. Vinyl singles pulled in $5.9 million, music videos $90.5 million, DVD Audio $2.1 million and Super Audio CD $800,000, said RIAA. Total physical media sales were $2.72 billion, it said. By share, digital downloads had 37 percent of U.S. music industry revenue in 2014; physical media, 32 percent; streaming music, 27 percent; and ringtones, 1 percent, said RIAA.
Cable and Internet service providers got the lowest overall customer experience scores out of 20 industries including airlines, fast food chains, insurance carriers, utilities and wireless carriers, in the 2015 Temkin Experience Ratings. While cable TV and Internet providers have been at the bottom of the ratings for the past three years, this year the scores hit an all-time low, the ratings showed. Comcast was not only the lowest-scoring cable service and Internet provider, but it was also one of the lowest-scoring companies in the entire survey, listed at No. 289 overall out of 293 companies for its Internet service and ranked 291 overall for its cable service. To generate the ratings, Temkin asked 10,000 U.S. consumers to evaluate their recent experiences with a company across three dimensions: success, effort and emotion. Temkin then averaged the three scores to produce each company's Temkin Experience Rating.
All research backed by the Wikimedia Foundation should remain “openly available” and “reusable” on Wikipedia and other related sites, the foundation said in a news release Thursday. “Our new Open Access Policy will ensure that all research the Wikimedia Foundation supports through grants, equipment, or research collaboration is made widely accessible,” it said. “The Wikimedia movement has a longstanding commitment to open access practices,” said Lila Tretikov, Wikimedia Foundation executive director, saying the policy "formalize[s] that commitment.” The nonprofit foundation operates Wikipedia.
DirecTV added 22 new out-of-home (OOH) live streaming channels to DirecTV Everywhere, it said in a news release Tuesday. The channels from OWN, Smithsonian, Turner Broadcasting, Univision, Viacom and others bring its OOH offering to almost 90 live streaming channels. Customers can watch programming from multiple devices, it said.
AT&T Wireless is part of a new loyalty program called Plenti, said American Express Wednesday. Plenti bills itself as the first U.S.-based coalition loyalty program, and comprises brands including American Express, AT&T Wireless, DirectEnergy, ExxonMobile, Hulu, Macy’s, Nationwide and Rite Aid. Shoppers can earn and use Plenti points for buying a variety of products, regardless of payment method, said the companies. Plenti customers can earn points and discounts using any form of payment accepted by the participating partners including cash, prepaid and debit or credit cards with every 1,000 accrued points translating to at least $10 in savings, said Plenti. Consumers can accumulate Plenti points when signing up for qualifying wireless services at AT&T, or for eligible charges on AT&T wireless bills. The free program launches this spring.
Charter stockholders approved the issuance of shares in connection with Comcast's planned buy of Time Warner Cable, Charter said in a news release Tuesday. The issued shares of common stock are connected with Charter’s acquisition of 33 percent of GreatLand Connections, which will be spun off from Comcast under the TWC deal.