text:
Based on a survey of 2,010 US respondents, the Pew Internet Project found that about 1% of mobile phone owners had made a presidential campaign contribution through their mobile phones. This compares with 13% of all US adults who've made a contribution (using any method) to one of the presidential candidates in 2012.
By comparison, roughly 10% of US adults "have made a charitable donation of any kind using the text messaging feature on their cell phone." Among the 13% who've made a presidential campaign contribution, Pew says:
Regarding party affiliation and contributions, Pew found that "16% of Democrats and an identical number of Republicans have made a contribution to a presidential candidate . . ." However most Republicans make their contributions "offline," while Democrats "are much more likely" to make a digital contribution:
Earlier data from 2012, generated through surveys from UC Berkeley, Google and IPSOS, show that between 20% and 35% of US adults have made purchases (of one sort or another) on their mobile phones. It's not clear, however, whether these numbers include buying music or mobile apps -- probably yes.
Over time more and more people will simply use mobile devices to do what they would otherwise do on a PC, including making political contributions. In addition, people will become increasingly comfortable using stored credit card data to buy things with their phones.
To get more of the "lowdown" on mobile payments come see my panel at the Open Mobile Summit in San Francisco on November 7. The session is "Wallet wars: Mobile payments from theory to practice" and will feature speakers from PayPal, Google, HomeDepot and Visa.
For several reasons I had occasion to look back at some of the mobile predictions I made in January. At the risk of sounding self-important or boastful many of them have come to pass. In fact I was somewhat surprised by the number, which is why I'm posting about it now.
For review, here are the original predictions from January:
Here are my comments and updates on each item:
Not bad . . .
Under some pressure to show that it's monetizing mobile, yesterday on its earnings call, Google announced a new "mobile run rate" of $8 billion. That compares with a run rate of $2.5 billion a year ago. The numbers aren't a direct comparison; Google threw everything into the $8 billion figure (ads, Google Play, app sales).
Here's what CEO Larry Page said in announcing the new run-rate number yesterday:
This time last year, I announced that our run rate from mobile advertising hit $2.5 billion . . . But now, we’ve built up additional mobile revenue from users paying for content and apps in Google Play . . . I can announce our new run rate for mobile is now over $8 billion. That’s quite a business.
CFO Patrick Pichette added a small amount of additional clarity:
The new [mobile] run rate is different from the one we gave you a year ago. And more specifically, last year, it included only our gross revenue from mobile ads, but this year, in this number we also added the gross revenue from the mobile sales of Google Play content. And finally, it also includes the consumer spending on the Play apps . . .
[O]f the three categories I gave you, ads continues to be the bulk of it, the vast majority of it. And then on the case of the Google Play, it’s important to note from a modeling perspective that everything’s that’s content, that is whether a book, a movie content is actually booked on our books on a gross basis . . . Everything that is tied to apps is booked on a net basis, but it’s still a huge kind of number in all cases.
Pichette said the "vast majority" of the $8 billion in revenue was comprised of mobile ads. Trying to estimate what percentage of this figure is ads with greater precision than "vast majority" is a bit tricky.
Google is counting content sales on a gross basis and app sales on a net basis (30% of the total). Despite Android's larger footprint than iOS, Google Play makes less money than the iTunes App Store.
In March, Flurry said that revenues in the Google Play market were 23% of the App Store. However this was limited to app sales and not content (if I'm reading it correctly). Google includes content sales (movie rentals/sales, book sales) on a gross basis.
Apple makes roughly $4 billion annually on App Store sales according to financial analyst estimates. Twenty three percent of that would be $920 million. If we assume that Google Play app sales have increased since Q1 Google night now be seeing a $1 to $1.5 billion app sales run rate on a global basis.
It's harder to estimate gross content sales; I haven't seen any estimates of Google content sales at all. Google's content sales are nothing like Amazon's. However, let's be extremely generous and say that it's $2 billion (gross) on an annualized basis.
Using these extremely loose estimates, $5 to $6 billion of the $8 billion run rate would be attributable to ad sales and $3 to $3.5 billion to content and app sales. Pichette's language "vast majority" to me implies something around 70% to 75% (or more) of the $8 billion is ad revenue. That would be right between $5 and $6 billion.
Google inadvertently released its Q3 revenues early today. The company reported that consolidated revenues (including Motorola) were $14.1 billion, a 45% increase vs. last year. Google said that Motorola brought in $2.58 billion. However there was an operating loss of $527 million. Indeed it was argulaby the weak link in the Q3 earnings report.
Minus Motorola, Google's revenues were $11.5 billion with 67% of that coming from Google sites vs. its third party network and other revenue sources. Paid search clicks grew roughly 33% vs 2011. However cost per clicks (CPCs) were down about 15% vs. last year.
While Google has yet to directly address this, the reason for the lower CPCs is likely the growth of mobile search and the shift of some categories of queries to mobile devices from the PC.
Mobile search volumes have grown significantly; however marketers value mobile clicks less than PC search clicks. The main reason is the challenge of proving ROI. Consistently we see that mobile click-through rates (CTR) are higher than on the PC. But "conversions" are much lower.
Part of the reason may be the infamous "fat finger" problem. But the larger issue is how marketers are defining and tracking conversions. The e-commerce-centric way of thinking about conversions just doesn't work for mobile. Most users don't transact on their smartphones. They go into stores -- where 95% of retail spending happens -- or they follow up on PCs and tablets later to buy.
Because marketers can't generally track in-store transactions or later PC/tablet conversions they assign a low ROI to smartphone based queries. This in turn causes them to bid less on those keywords.
In the local segment, there's a shift going on from PC map-based queries to smartphones. A Google representative recently said that up to 50% of mobile search queries carry a local intent. And comScore recently documented that trend and argued that map-based search on the PC had peaked and was now in decline:
In the past six months alone, according to comScore Mobile Metrix, the number of smartphone visitors to Maps websites and apps has jumped 24% to 92 million unique visitors – a monthly penetration of 83% among smartphone users . . .Searches with a Mapping/Navigation intent on the Big 5 Engines are down 34% over the past 15 months, going from 74.8 million to 49.5 million in August. comScore Search Planner shows that search clicks to Map/Navigation sites show an even steeper decline, down 41% to just 55.2 million in August.
We're likely to continue to see a flattening of local search volumes on the PC and a continuing shift to mobile devices (mobile web and apps). Nobody really knows how much local search query volume is flowing through mobile apps. However a January 2012 survey found that half of smartphone owners conducted local search in apps, with Google Maps being the leading app.
Once marketers more fully embrace mobile and get more sophisticated about ROI we should see the price of mobile advertising and mobile CPCs increase. Google of course will be one of the chief beneficiaries of such a development.
The US Center for Disease Control (CDC) is tracking the number of US households that are "wireless only" or primarily wireless. Wireless only means there is no landline in the house; primarily wireless means that people receive "all or almost all calls on wireless telephones despite also having a landline telephone."
My wife and I, and others we know, fall into that second category. We have a landline but rarely use it. It's a number we give out for "official purposes" and it acts as a telemarketing "spam catcher." The majority of people who call that number get voice mail.
The last time I wrote about this data, in June, the CDC reported that just under 30% (29.7%) of American households were wireless only. Beyond this, 15.7% of US homes received all or almost all calls on wireless telephones." In total, 45.4% of US homes were either mostly mobile or wireless only. The CDC findings were based on polling data from the first half of 2011.
Earlier this week I checked back to see if the numbers had changed at all since June. They have; they've continued to grow.
According to CDC data collected between July and December 2011, 34% of American homes are now "wireless only." In addition 16% are mostly mobile, receiving "all or almost all calls on wireless telephones despite also having a landline telephone." This means that a total of half of all US households now rely primarily or exclusively on mobile phones.
The populations, according to the CDC, mostly likely to be mobile only are the following: younger people under 34, adults living alone, those without higher education and less affluent or poor families. Those more likely to be mostly mobile are: affluent adults, parents and adults with college degrees.
Because these data lag about six months we can estimate that the current combined figure is probably closer to 55% of US homes being mobile only or mobile first.
The IAB released its half yearly digital ad revenue report for the US market earlier today. Total "online" revenues were approximately $17 billion, compared with $14.9 billion a year ago. Search was the single largest revenue category and has been for some time. It accounted for 48% of total digital ad revenue in 1H 2012 or $8.1 billion (vs. $6.8 billion in 2011).
Mobile revenue for the first half was $1.2 billion or 7% of total digital ad revenue. That compares to $636 million for the same period in 2011. Ironically the MMA is recommending that brands and marketers devote 7% of their ad budgets to mobile.
As might be expected, the IAB said that mobile was the fastest growing of the various digital ad categories it was tracking.
If we extrapolate from the numbers in the report we can project that full-year US mobile ad revenues will come in between $2.4 and $2.6 billion depending on how good Q4 is this year.
Several data sources over the past week have indicated very high levels of enthusiasm for the iPhone 5 and the iPad "Classic," but not as much interest in the rumored (yet forthcoming) iPad Mini.
Financial services and investment firm Pacific Crest reports that its checks reveal continuing, high levels of demand for the iPhone, which is reportedly hurting Android sales. According to a report in Fortune:
[Pacific Crest's James] Faucette writes that he's seeing several Android-based vendors aggressively discounted previously "high-end" flagship-type products to mid- and low-tier pricing. "While the [Samsung] Galaxy SIII will continue to generate positive news flow as a viable iPhone competitor," he writes, "we continue to believe that as an ecosystem, Android's shipment levels likely peaked in the U.S. as far back as last October and are likely to see further declines in the future if the retention gap doesn't close."
Piper Jaffray found similarly high demand among US teens for the iPhone, as well as high ownership of iOS devices. Based on a survey of more than 7,000 teens the financial frim found 40% owned an iPhone, while 44% owned (or had access to) a tablet. Nearly three-quarters (72%) of those who owned a tablet had an iPad, according to the survey.
These teens were also interested in the iPad Mini, especially if it were to be priced at less than $300. Pricing an iPad Mini creates an interesting challenge for Apple because it's new iPod Touch is priced at $299 and above. Nexus 7 and Kindle Fire tablets are priced at $199; so Apple can't go much beyond $200 in pricing the Mini. However that would potentially cannibalize sales of the new iPod Touch.
In contrast to the Piper Jaffray survey, e-commerce site TechBargains.com conducted a survey of visitors to its site (n=1,332) in September and found only 18% of respondents were interested in an iPad Mini:
Among the 18% who were interested in buying an iPad Mini:
Pricing and features will ultimately determine how popular a smaller iPad tablet turns out to be.
It's no surprise that PC shipments are set to decline this year. While the enterprise market remains modestly healthy the consumer market for PCs is weak. And it's not just the economy; demand is fading.
We're in a "post PC" world now; consumers have many more device options to accomplish tasks that at one time could only be done on the PC. Indeed, MS Office is reportedly coming to iOS and Android devices. Office was the last barrier to totally giving up the PC for many people.
IHS iSuppli has projected a 1.2% shipment (not sales) decline from 2011. But unlike shipments that never translate into consumer sales, there can be no sales without shipments.
The company said that not since 2001 has the PC market contracted like this on a global basis:
The total PC market in 2012 is expected to contract by 1.2 percent to 348.7 million units, down from 352.8 million in 2011, as shown in the figure below. Not since 2001—more than a decade ago—has the worldwide PC industry suffered such a decline.
When you step back and look at the broader device market, you can see how much growth lies ahead for smartphones and tablets (and who knows what other connected devices) in the future. The PC will likely chug along in workmanlike fashion but its days of robust double-digit growth are over.
Source: ITU World Telecommunication/ICT Indicators database, Gartner, Morgan Stanley (2011-2012)
Digital marketing agency RKG has released a Q3 report (based on aggregated data from its client base). The report covers search optimization, paid search, social media, email, comparison shopping and mobile. I'll focus here only on the mobile data.
The firm said that tablets (mostly iPads) and smartphones combined to drive 21% of organic search traffic in the third quarter. RKG commented that "this was nearly double the level we saw in Q3 last year." Because of the iPad and iPhone, iOS dominates organic search traffic from non-PC devices. According to the RKG report, "iOS held a 77% share of mobile organic search in Q3, an increase from 75% in Q2."
Operating System Share of Organic Search
RKG also said that "revenue per click" (RPC) was almost the same on the iPad as it was on the PC, while smartphone RPC "languished at roughly a fifth that of desktop." Part of this is because only e-commerce events are being measured and captured. RKG and its clients aren't seeing the indirect impact of smartphones on conversions or purchases that happen later on PCs, tablets or in stores. Accordingly these data are somewhat skewed.
What's interesting to observe in a more "apples to apples" context, however, is the discrepancy between iPad owner-users and Android tablet owners: "the iPad generated an average RPC that was more than double that for Android tablets, including the Kindle Fire and Nexus 7."
Mobile vs. Desktop: RPC by Device
From a paid search marketing standpoint tablets and smartphones cost less and outperform PC (search) advertising. The discrepancy between costs and performance was greatest on smartphones. One reason why this may be so is that many marketers and platforms aren't necessarily valuing mobile correctly because of the conversion-tracking problem. Nonetheless it's a great opportunity for those that aggressively embrace it.
Mobile vs. Desktop: CPC vs. CTR
This week at the Smarter Mobile Marketing event in New York -- I didn't attend because I was at a competing search marketing event -- Millennial Media CEO Paul Palmieri made the case that mobile ad revenues would inevitably grow to keep pace with consumer time spent on mobile devices. Accordingly he projected, based on a Gartner formula, that by 2015 US mobile ad revenues would be approximately $13.5 billion.
Palmieri also pointed out that traditional media grab a much larger percentage of ad spend vs. consumer time spent. However, the underlying assumption is that there's a seemingly inexorable or inevitable logic to the notion that ad spend will catch up with time spent.
In discussing reports that many mobile ad clicks are unintended, Dow Jones newswires cited a very casual projection earlier this year from Mary Meeker -- based on a similar time spent vs. ad spend formula -- that mobile advertising in the US was a $20 billion opportunity. While I don't think Meeker herself assigned a particular time frame for getting to $20 billion Dow Jones stated that would happen by 2015.
Meeker's slide does point out that time spent and ad spend are now almost at parity when it comes to the Internet. However that has taken essentially a decade to come to pass. And even though the mobile market is developing much more quickly than the Internet did, the notion that US mobile advetising (not all spending on mobile marketing) will be $20 billion or even $13.5 billion in three years is just too aggressive.
It's much more likely that US mobile advertising will still be below $10 billion in 2015.
Although consumers have embraced mobile in a big way, there are more than 120 million smartphone users in the US today, marketers are moving much more cautiously and seem to be slow to fully understand the implications of what's happening. There are also "mechanical" and organizational barriers to mobile marketing within agencies and corporations. These behind the scenes "politics" and culture issues are often a bigger obstacle than anything in the broader marketplace (such as fragmentation or the general absence of mobile cookies).
Recently the MMA issued a mobile ROI report that argues 7% of media budgets should be dedicated to mobile -- despite the fact that at least 10% of consumer media time, if not much more, is being spent with mobile. However at the Smarter Mobile Marketing event in New York agencies reportedly said that the 7% figure was too high and suggested that 2% to 3% of budgets was more appropriate.
Reports like the one from Dow Jones mentioned above and others that suggest mobile ad clicks are the product of consumer mistakes or click fraud merely reinforce complacency among marketers who don't want to have to worry about yet another digital platform. They've already got social media, search and display to deal with, without compounding their problems by bringing additional form factors and behaviors into the mix. And while many marketers have done something in mobile often that effort is weak or perfunctory.
The challenges around mobile tracking and attribution, the challenges of the new multi-platform environment and the cultural-organizational issues I alluded to together suggest to me that mobile ad spending and revenue will grow more slowly than the simple time spent vs. ad spend formula argues. The fact that traditional media have maintained a much larger percentage of ad spend vs. consumer time spent is another indication this will take longer than expected. Marketers understand traditional media more than they understand the much more complex digital landscape.
Though consumers will increasingly use smartphones and tablets as primary Internet devices, and while startups and innovation will continue to accelerate the mobile segment, brands and agencies won't necessarily keep pace with consumer behavior and technology development. My guess is that it will probably take at least 5 years to as many as 7 or 8 years to get to the kinds of numbers that Millennial's Palmieri and Mary Meeker are projecting.
In-app messaging provider Urban Airship has just introduced a very interesting new product: Location Messaging. This is the fruit of the company's acquisition of SimpleGeo last year.
Geofencing (Placecast) and ad geotargeting (xAd, YP) have existed for some time. However Urban Airship's new product offers very precise location targeted messaging -- with the ability to mix in other audience segmentation data as well:
As a result publishers/developers are able target specific types of users by location. There's a wide array of possibilities in terms of the way this can be deployed, for loyalty or yield management purposes or to stimulate new sales. There are two qualifications: users must have the publisher's app installed and s/he must have opted in to receive push notifications.
Urban Airship has created 2.5 million "pre-defined geofences" for publishers. However they can also define (or exclude) their own custom geofences. These can be as wide as a metro area (or larger I suppose) or as precise as a park or city block.
There's lots of hand-wringing going on about publishers being unable to sufficiently monetize mobile. However, mobile push notifications offer a terrific opportunity for brands and offline businesses to drive increased sales -- if used judiciously. Accordingly the company shared some performance data with me. It was impressive.
Urban Airship said it beta-tested Location Messaging this summer during the Olympics. The company reported on its blog that "The Official London 2012 app . . . utilized Urban Airship Location Messaging to send more than 10 million location-based push messages to people in . . . Olympic venues." In addition, "Nearly 60% of app users had location-sharing enabled and location-based pushes achieved clickthrough rates of around 60 percent."
Urban Airship CMO Brent Heiggelke pointed out that despite the potential effectiveness of Location Messaging brands and marketers must be extremely careful about the content of messages they send and their frequency or risk having their notifications shut off or apps uninstalled by end users.
I've written about this before: the discrepancy between tablet shipment/sales and traffic figures. On the one hand you have the IDCs and Gartners of the world reporting tablet "shipments," showing iPad rivals gaining. On the other are the companies reporting the actual traffic they're seeing, which indicates the iPad still dominates all other tablets by a huge margin.
IDC's Q2 market share data (based on "shipments") argue the iPad has a 68% global share. That's up slightly from Q1.
However, earlier today, digital publishing platform Onswipe put out some data that show that the iPad's share of traffic generated was about 98%. This finding was based on analysis of almost 30 million impressions on 1200 sites earlier this month.
The iPad's nearest traffic competitor, according to Onswipe, is the Galaxy Tab with 1.53% of tablet traffic.
Ad network Chitika has previously published similar numbers. Earlier this summer Chitika found, based on millions of impressions on its ad network, that the iPad "accounted for 94.64% of all tablet-based traffic." The nearest competitor, again the Samsung Galaxy Tab, had "a lackluster market share of 1.22%."
So while Kindle Fire and other tablet devices (e.g., Samsung Galaxy Tab) have sold millions of units, for some reason these devices are not showing up in the traffic logs of publishers. That could well change in the coming quarter with better Kindle Fire devices and the success of the Nexus 7. But for now there appears to be a strange gap between device sales/shipments and traffic figures being generated by tablets.
Far too often in tech journalism and blogging a provocative headline is betrayed by a superficial or "content-free" article. Such is almost the case with a story in the Wall Street Journal that carries a provocative headline Mobile Ads: Here's What Works and What Doesn't.
In a 1,000+ word article with such an intriguing title there's very little light shed on the subject. Here's the substance in the piece:
In fact the article doesn't do very much to illuminate (beyond search) what types of ads are truly working on mobile devices. And the big discussion that the piece neglects is ad creative. More than any other variable ad creative is responsible for the success or failure of the campaign.
There's also no discussion about various flavors of ad targeting and local targeting in particular (although that's implied in the Zillow mention). The article also says nothing about the efficacy of deals or offers as a driver of mobile ad response. Consistently deals/coupons/offers are cited by consumers as the category of mobile advertising they're most interested in.
Finally, mobile loyalty marketing (vs. media/ad buying) and mobile CRM can be extremely effective marketing tools but these too are not mentioned.
So much for "what works and what doesn't."
Appcelerator released its Q3 developer survey. The quarterly survey this time polled more than 5,500 developers globally on their attitudes toward various platforms and future-trend predictions.
The survey result that's going to get most of the attention is the one that found 66% of developers believe "that it is 'likely to very likely' that a mobile-first social startup will disrupt the market for social applications on mobile devices and take market share from Facebook." Indeed, this describes Instagram before Facebook acquired it for roughly $1 billion.
Other top-level survey findings include the following:
The survey also indicated that developers were interested in Windows Phone 8 smartphones but that they were taking a wait-and-see approach. Only when Windows Phones crossed relatively high penetration levels would developers turn their attention to the platform in earnest. However developers were more sanguine about the prospects for forthcoming Windows 8 tablets.
It's also interesting that despite sales developers don't seem very interested in the Kindle Fire. Perhaps that will change if the recently upgraded line of Kindle tablets sell well.
Finally it's curious that despite continuing market-share gains developer interest in Android continues to erode. This must be a reflection of the challenges of making money on the platform.
Bango says this will allow users to buy game credits, apps and other virtual goods through "frictionless operator billing, paying on their phone, without the need to register personal details."
Bango also has deals with Google (Play), Amazon, BlackBerry App World and Opera's Mobile Store. The company added that its conversion rates are higher than the industry average for carrier billing:
Conventional operator billing is expected to achieve a 40% conversion rate. Put simply, most mobile commerce customers who click ‘buy’, do not successfully buy. Billing with the Bango payment platform delivers an average conversion rate of 77%. Most users who click ‘buy’, do buy.
While carrier billing is useful in countries where there are many "unbanked" or where the specific transaction is likely to be conducted by a younger user, in the US and much of Europe credit cards are a preferred method of payment by most adults.
Carrier billing is much more widely available than other forms of mobile payments for obvious reasons. However carrier fees are much higher typically than credit card fees and settlement can take months depending on the country.
Even though Facebook eliminated Facebook Credits, which was a surprise to me, it's possible that Facebook will eventually acquire a mobile payments provider. Bango's market cap, for example, is only $118 million. Facebook could buy the company and associated revenue stream, as well as a set of global carrier relationships -- instantly.
Amazon is the king of mobile retail; Wal-Mart is the leader of offline check-ins. Last week there were two sets of parallel data released that provided some insight into how consumers are using mobile devices, both for "m-commerce" and in stores.
Data from comScore found that among US smartphone owners “4 out of 5″ are going to retail site/apps on their handsets. Some of this is in-store price and review checking.
ComScore put the total number of mobile-retail visitors at roughly 86 million. Unsurprisingly Amazon was the leading retail destination with an audience of almost 50 million smartphone owners.
These mobile-retail site visitors were both somewhat younger and more affluent than corresponding retail site visitors on PCs.
The number four mobile retailer on the list above, Wal-Mart, is the leader when it comes to in-store check-ins. According to data compiled by LocalResponse this summer from Twitter, Foursquare, Yelp and Instagram, Saturday is the most popular day to check in followed by Friday and then Sunday. Most check-ins occurred in the afternoon or early evening.
LocalResponse also found that men were more likely than women to check in. However gender check-ins by store varied, with Target being the most popular store for women. BestBuy was the most popular check-in retail location for men.
While some retailers are creating incentives for users to check-in, this should be exploited much more aggressively both to get people into stores and as a corresponding analytics tool to indicate the success of various promotions. Hashtags, offers and other mechanisms could be used to track specific promotions. In addition, users could be "messaged" (on Twitter) or otherwise notified (i.e., on Foursquare) while in stores with further promotions and rewards.
In general traditional retailers have yet to fully recognize the potential and utilize social media check-ins for in-store loyalty and sales purposes.
Apple is famous for moving people along to the next software or OS upgrade. And iOS 6 appears to be no exception.
Less than 24 hours after it became available for public download, the new mobile OS was responsible for 15% of overall Apple device traffic on the Chitika ad network.
To measure this, Chitika said it "took a sample of millions of mobile ad impressions coming out of the Chitika Ad network ranging from September 19th to September 20th 2012. The growth rate of iOS 6 was then compared to total iOS Web usage using a time series to illustrate the rate of adoption of the new OS."
I asked Chitika whether they could extrapolate and tell me how many actual devices this represented. They declined to do that.
Source: Apple quarterly reports
If we make the assumption that the 15% of Chitika traffic translates 1:1 into individual devices -- in other words, 15% of the traffic is from 15% of all the iOS devices -- then we can crudely extrapolate using the chart above.
The iPhone 4 and 4S can upgrade to iOS 6. Apple hasn't broken out the sales figures by device generation but everything before Q2 2010 was iPhone 3GS and "below." The iPhone 4 was announced in June, 2010. Since Q2 2010 Apple has sold roughly 193 million iPhones.
It's safe then to say that well over 100 million iPhone 4 and 4Ss are in the market (that's a conservative estimate). If 15% of those now have iOS 6 running that means there are roughly 15 million such devices (around the world) that have downloaded the new OS only 24 hours after launch.
These numbers could be way off but they're probably not.
Today the pre-ordered iPhone 5s are arriving and people around the world are buying them from local stores. Accordingly the number of iOS 6 phones in market could be over 20 million (downloads + sales) within a week or two.
Apple's rivals have been trying to get out in front of the iPhone 5 and the announcement today. Nokia held its Lumia/Windows Phone 8 event last week. Motorola (Google) announced a number of new Android handsets and, of course, Amazon had its big Kindle Fire press conference last week as well. All of these anticipated the iPhone 5 announcement today and tried to preempt it to some degree.
Last night Google's Hugo Barra casually posted some stats on his Google+ page: "Today is a big day for Android... 500 million devices activated globally, and over 1.3 million added every single day."
Android is the dominant smartphone platform in the world -- in case you forgot. And Google wanted to get that stat out there and inserted into the blizzard of articles that will be published today about Apple and the iPhone: " . . . but Android is the market leader with 500 million devices activated globally."
The iPhone 5, as I said on my personal blog Screenwerk," is a critical release for Apple because Android phones have caught up or in some cases surpassed the device (i.e., LTE support, NFC). The new iPhone today must offer a larger screen and LTE support at a minimum to maintain consumer interest.
An unintended leak on the Apple site indicates that there will in fact be LTE support. We'll see what else in less than a half hour.
Ahead of tomorrow's iPhone 5 launch -- perhaps they'll call it the "iPhone Cinq" -- there's lots of smartphone data flying around. Today Pew released some new demographic data about smartphone ownership (penetration higher among younger and more affluent users). And yesterday Nielsen discussed smartphone adoption among younger users:
Overall, young adults are leading the growth in smartphone ownership in the U.S., with 74 percent of 25-34 year olds now owning smartphones, up from 59 percent in July 2011. Interestingly, teenagers between 13 and 17 years old demonstrated the most dramatic increases in smartphone adoption, with the majority of American teens (58%) owning a smartphone, compared to roughly a third (36%) of teens saying they owned a smartphone just a year ago.
According to the US Census Bureau there are roughly 21 million teens in the US (according to 2008 data). Pew surveys have shown that 88% of US adults own mobile phones. Pew says that 77% of teens have mobile phones and 23% have smartphones. Nielsen is saying the overall teen smartphone number is much higher: 58%
If 23% of US teens have smartphones that translates into roughly 4.8 million people. The Nielsen 58% figure equals roughly 12.1 million teens who own smartphones. If we average the two sets of numbers it comes out to 8.5 million teens with smartphones approximately.
Using population data and the Pew survey figures, that would mean roughly 120 (or so) million US adults owned smartphones in the US today. Beyond this we can add 5 - 10 million more for teens. That would mean today we're looking at something like 125 to 130 million smartphones in the US.
Millennial Media is out with its quarterly device barometer: Mobile Mix. The report tracks the top devices and operating system share on its network. It's based on a different methodology (share of ad impressions) vs. Nielsen or comScore, which both rely on surveys.
It's not a totally "objective" view of the marketplace. But its helpful to identify and monitor trends on a directional basis. The three big trends identified in the document are the following:
Here are the charts that illustrate the above:
In the future the tablet market will be a contest between Apple, Google and Amazon. Samsung, unless it decides to price things much more aggressively, will be marginalized -- at least in the US.


text:
The development of the Internet of Things will entail an increase in the cost of ensuring the security of IoT devices. Gartner’s research shows that throughout 2016-2018, almost 20% of the organizations around the world faced at least one cyber threat related to the Internet of Things.
The experts believe that in the foreseeable future, the number of attacks on IoT devices will only grow. If a year ago the costs associated with the protection of the infrastructure were estimated at about $1.51 billion, in the current year, the costs will increase up to $1.93 billion, exceeding three billion US dollars in 2021.
It is noted that the main problem of the Internet of Things is outdated device firmware. At best, updates come out with significant delays, at worst, they are not released at all. For what is worth, sometimes the possibility of an update is not even technically foreseen.
As a result, many IoT devices are cracked using trivial methods, such as vulnerabilities in the web interface. Almost all such vulnerabilities are critical and are actively used by hackers. By 2030, IoT will add up to $15 trillion to the growth of global GDP, according to analysts of General Electric. Ah, those predictions!
Big Data Analytics
Big data analytics (or simply BDA) is becoming one of the most popular features of the way the modern business operates. According to IDC, the volume of the BDA market will reach $260 billion by 2022. But this is three years from now, what about today? As its manufacturing siblings, the market is on the rise: the year 2018 saw substantial annual growth of 12%. The largest segments of the big data industry are:
- IT services generating $77.5 billion of revenue;
- software development services which contributed another $67.2 billion;
- hardware solutions with $23.7 billion;
- business services adding $20.7 billion.
BDA is totally beneficial for the industry. Within a plant, it provides a detailed picture of what has happened, what is happening now, and what will happen the next day or in a year. In subsequent years, further increases in costs are expected in the big data and business intelligence market. Thus, the CAGR indicator in the period from 2018 to 2022, according to IDC experts, will be 13.2%. From a geographical point of view, the United States will remain the largest region in terms of BDA costs.
Within the domain of manufacturing, artificial intelligence enables collaborative robotics and automated workflows based on predictive analytics. Secondly, the technology improves recruitment and retention of industry professionals and optimizes the use of the equipment and overall plant effectiveness. Numerous potential use cases for AI in manufacturing make the industry one of the most attractive sectors for global venture capital. Technologies that derive from AI (aka cognitive technologies) include:
- machine learning;
- computer vision;
- natural language processing;
- speech recognition;
- rules-based systems;
- and planning and scheduling.
Another trend is the rapid development of services using machine learning technologies and artificial intelligence systems based on neural networks. Machine learning refers to the ability of computer systems to improve their performance by exposure to data, without the need to follow explicitly programmed instructions.

domain: news


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LAHORE: 24 July, 2020
– Punjab Skills Development Fund (PSDF) has partnered with Extreme Commerce to launch an online training program for women to acquire skills as Amazon Virtual Assistants. The program will enable women to earn and be self-employed, while working remotely, during the current pandemic.
The Covid-19 pandemic is an unprecedented crisis, and Pakistan is no exception. The adverse economic impact of the pandemic has affected people worldwide, particularly women in underdeveloped and developing countries. While there are widespread layoffs and unemployment, PSDF has been trying to establish new avenues and opportunities for sustainable employment.
The Amazon Virtual Assistants online training program launched by PSDF and Extreme Commerce is one such initiative that works by enabling women in Pakistan to assist sellers on the Amazon platform. The ‘Virtual Assistant’ is an independent contractor who provides administrative services to clients while operating outside of the client’s office. From the broader perspective, the role is multi- scope in areas of interest such as administrative, social media, real estate, research, e-commerce, data entry, book-keeping, and marketing.
The training model is online and home-based, teaching women relevant skills ranging from Online Communication, Customer Service, and E-commerce landscape, to Amazon Product Research Tools, creating Listings and Order management,. This training by PSDF and Extreme Commerce spans 2.5 months, with the last leg focused on establishing market linkages. In the pilot of this program, the target is to train 100 females to become Amazon Virtual Assistants.
The program is advantageous in offering women a remote working opportunity, and the chance to become digital entrepreneurs while earning a sustainable income. Moreover, the program is also beneficial in training women in useful, transferable skills, which they can utilize to work as freelancers on Upwork or Fiverr.
Speaking about the venture, Jawad Khan, CEO PSDF said, “Our focus during this pandemic has been to take the initiative to provide sustainable income generation opportunities, particularly for women hardest hit by the pandemic. Loss of jobs and conventional means of earning have meant that we have had to look at new and creative solutions to provide training and income opportunities, this venture is a prime example of our impetus to do just that”.
Sunny Ali, CEO, Extreme Commerce, said, “we are extremely happy to partner with the Punjab Skills Development Fund (PSDF) in a noble-gesture that will enable unemployed women to acquire online skills on the Amazon platform. We hope this joint-venture will commence an era of home-based online business activity for women”.
About PSDF - A Success Story of Public-Private Partnerships:
PSDF is the largest skills development fund in Pakistan for the youth. It plays a leadership role in skills training by collaborating with over 500 training partners, including 200 businesses across 10 sectors. PSDF delivers trainings in 2,400+ locations and 40% of its beneficiaries are women. PSDF also leads the National Accelerator for Closing the Skills Gap in Pakistan in partnership with the World Economic Forum.
ABOUT Extreme Commerce
Extreme Commerce is providing its valued customers the professional training for running and managing an ecommerce business. It understands the value of a customer’s money and the time invested in building a business based on ecommerce platform; hence the Company offers a complete training program that will ensure the ecommerce business has a smooth and profitable run. Extreme Commerce has a fully trained staff with vast experiences under their belt and geared with the expertise of modern business world, who will teach the right ways through which one can operate a successful ecommerce business.
PSDF – Media Enquiries
Punjab Skills Development Fund (PSDF),
Follow PSDF on Social Media
LinkedIn: Punjab Skills Development Fund (PSDF)


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FRANKLIN, TN — A recent rash of robberies of chainsaws and power saws from Middle Tennessee hardware stores is raising the specter of a crime ring targeting high-end power tools.
Jason Kelton, owner of Kelton’s Hardware and Pet in Murfreesboro, told Channel 5 someone backed an SUV up to his store at 3:45 Saturday morning and made off with 17 Stihl chainsaws, worth more than $8,000. He said other area Stihl dealers reported thefts with similar modi operandi.
Kelton told the station that the similarities are too striking to be coincidence and he thinks the thieves may be part of a ring taking advantage of recent hurricanes.
“There’s been a lot of hurricanes so there is a good possibility they’re reselling the equipment to hurricane-ravaged cities. They may be reselling those on the black market,” he told the station. “The similarities between the burglaries from our dealership to our dealerships is uncanny. I do believe it’s a ring of individuals going around.”
A hardware store owner in Chapel Hill told the station he knew of at least six stores, including his own, hit by chainsaw thieves. In March, Franklin Police released surveillance footage of a man stealing a power saw from a Kubota dealer and loading it into an SUV, believed to be a Chevy Traverse.
Image via Franklin Police


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Lincoln and Lancaster County residents are encouraged to clean out unwanted chemicals by bringing their household hazardous waste to a collection event from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, April 26 at Wal- Mart, 87th and Highway 2. The event is free of charge to Lincoln and Lancaster County residents.
Accepted items include pesticides, lawn and garden chemicals, household cleaning products, paint thinners, stains, polishes and waxes, turpentine, oil-based paint, pool cleaning chemicals, flea and tick powders, rodent poison, charcoal starter fluids, mixed or old gasoline, brake or power steering fluids, and items containing mercury such as CFLs and thermometers. A complete list of accepted items is available at lincoln.ne.gov (keyword: household).
Items not accepted include latex paint, motor oil, fertilizers, gas grill cylinders, medicines and pharmaceutical waste, electronics and batteries. For information on recycling these and other materials, check the "Waste Reduction and Recycling Guide" at lincoln.ne.gov (keyword: recycle). No business waste will be accepted.
The Lincoln-Lancaster County Health Department recommends taking care of these hazardous materials now to make your home safer over the summer when school is out and children spend more time at home.
The household hazardous waste program is partially funded by the Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality.


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bp signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with North American rental car company Hertz Corp. to to develop a network of electric vehicle (EV) charging stations across the U.S., according to a company press release on Sept. 27.
Powered by bp's global electrification and charging business, bp pulse, the partnership aims to spread the accessibility of EV charging ports and EV adoption in North America.
This MOU represents the latest in bp's efforts to increase EV availability, having partnered with Spain's Iberdrola to increase EV charging ports in Europe in July 2022. The company has a target of installing over 100,000 chargers globally by 2030, 90% of which would be ultra-fast chargers, through partnerships with several fleet operators.
“It’s brilliant to be joining forces with Hertz – quite simply, they are one of the biggest names on the road," bp CEO Bernard Looney said in the release. "Working together to deliver charging facilities and design solutions, we believe we can take the EV driving experience to the next level for U.S. customers."
Under the MOU, bp pulse will manage Hertz's chargers and customize its Omega software - which automates fleet charging while providing real-time visibility to EVs, chargers and power usage - to effectively grow Hertz's EV rental fleet and ensure cars are recharged quickly between rentals, the companies stated.
Hertz has cultivated its EV fleet through purchases from Tesla, Polestar and General Motors, reaching tens of thousands of vehicles available in 38 states across 500 Hertz locations.
The company aims to make one-quarter of its fleet electric by the end of 2024 and is helping achieve that goal through the investment of thousands to charging stations at its locations, boosted by its partnership with bp pulse.
“Hertz is accelerating the adoption of electrification by investing in the largest rental fleet of electric vehicles in North America and expanding the availability of charging stations," Hertz CEO Stephen Scherr commented in the release.
"We are excited to partner with bp pulse to create a national charging infrastructure for the Hertz EV fleet, thereby growing the number of charging options available to our customers and providing them with a premium electric experience and lower emission travel options,” he continued.
bp ventured into the North American EV market through the acquisition of fleet charging and energy management company Amply Power in 2021, rebranding it as bp pulse. It has since installed charging infrastructure at 25 Hertz rental locations this year and intends to expand further through the growing partnership.
"This is just the start for bp pulse in the United States,” Looney said.
2022-12-02 - Petrobras' biggest budget share for 2023-2027 will go toward pre-salt efforts, which are expected to deliver 78% of the company’s production by the end of 2027.
2022-12-02 - Berry Corp. announces change in management for the new year and stresses shareholder return expansion.
2022-12-02 - Here’s a look at some of this week’s renewable energy news including development of a hydrogen-powered aircraft plus a world aviation first by Britain’s Rolls-Royce.
2022-12-02 - Enbridge’s Monaco retires, appoints new president and CEO and board chair.
2022-12-02 - The energy sector in the U.K. is faced with several taxes, including the newest windfall tax, bringing the total tax rate to 75%.


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A ca payday financial was refunding in the $800,100 to help you users to settle allegations so it steered borrowers towards the high-desire money and involved with most other unlawful practices, county officials said Monday.
Ca Take a look at Cashing Locations plus accessible to spend $105,100 within the penalties or any other can cost you in a permission acquisition which have this new nation’s Agencies away from Company Supervision, which was cracking upon pay check or any other large-cost consumer finance you to definitely experts claim was predatory. The business don’t acknowledge shame on the consent buy.
5:fifty p.yards. A past brand of this particular article told you the newest Ca Agency out of Providers Supervision revealed its agree purchase which have California See Cashing Stores on Tuesday. The brand new announcement is made towards the Monday.
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“Steering consumers toward highest-costs financing to circumvent statutory rate of interest caps is actually abusive,” said Jan Lynn Owen, administrator of Agency out-of Organization Supervision. Continue reading


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Wireless charging and iPhone streaming: innovations for cochlear implants
Innovations in accessibility, often achieved first in the mobile tech space, are filtering into the medical sector and hearing aids are one area set to benefit. Elly Earls looks at a cochlear implant powered by wireless charging and the world’s first ‘made for iPhone’ sound processor.
In 1982, an Australian man named Graham Carrick made history when a new invention implanted in his cochlea was ‘switched on’ and 15 minutes later he could hear for the first time in 17 years. Some 35 years and hundreds of thousands of cochlear implants later, it’s the value-added features of the bionic ear’s newest incarnations that are generating headlines.
Since the world’s first multi-channel cochlear implant was FDA approved in 1985, it has transformed the lives of over 300,000 people. While hearing aids amplify sound, helping individuals with residual hearing ability, a cochlear implant allows people with profound hearing loss to experience the sensation of sound by electrically stimulating the inner ear.
These devices have always been made up of two components: an external part that contains a microphone, a sound processor and a transmitter, and a surgically implanted internal part, which houses a receiver and one or more electrode arrays, which directly stimulate the auditory nerve. The newest additions to the market also boast additional features designed to make their users’ lives even easier - ranging from wireless charging to direct-to-iPhone streaming capability.
iPhone streaming for cochlear implants
The latest innovation at Cochlear, the company behind the original multi-channel cochlear implant, is the world’s first made-for-iPhone cochlear implant sound processor, the Nucleus 7, which allows users to stream sound from iPhone, iPad and iPod touch directly to their sound processor.
Approved by the FDA in June, it’s the smallest and lightest behind-the-ear cochlear implant sound processor available on the market. Users can also control, monitor and customise their hearing through its companion Nucleus Smart App, available to download for free from the App Store.
“Apple has had a very strong focus on the accessibility space for many years, so we felt it was a natural progression for us to collaborate with them,” says Cochlear’s chief software officer Victor Rodriguez.
With Cochlear’s newest sound processor, audio can be streamed directly to users’ implant without an intermediary device. “It’s as seamless as picking up your phone and answering the call immediately without having to fiddle around with any other settings,” Rodriguez explains. “But the real beauty of it is that it’s not only for phone calls; you can stream YouTube videos or music directly to your processor in crystal clear sound, too.”
Through the ‘hearing tracker’ feature on the app, users (or their parents) can also monitor how often they have been exposed to speech and set goals for themselves (or their children). Plus, it records coil-offs time – that is, the time the sound processor coil does not detect the implant coil because it has, for example, fallen off a child’s head.
For Rodriguez, the most interesting part of the research and development of the processor was educating Apple about cochlear implants, a process that was absolutely necessary to ensure that the system was designed in such a way that customers would not only understand but enjoy it.
“When we first started doing this with Apple, the cochlear implant space was very new to them,” he explains. “During the initial R&D process, we had to get them up to speed on how our industry works, how our customers use our devices, what benefits they get from them and the clinical experience for patients – from the assessment stage to surgery, fitting and tuning. It was a phenomenal learning curve for them and we enjoyed taking them through that journey.”
Wireless charging for hearing aids
While Cochlear has been focusing on iPhone compatibility, Austria-based hearing implant systems company MED-EL has developed RONDO 2, the industry’s first cochlear implant powered by wireless charging, which gives users a full day of hearing from one overnight charge and saves them the hassle of replacing the disposable batteries that were required to power the previous version of the device. In a single year, powering the device every day would require more than 700 batteries, costing in excess of £330.
“Wireless charging also increases the reliability of these devices because replacing batteries can cause damage. Eliminating this is a big bonus,” says MED-EL’s director of product management Gregor Dittrich.
It wasn’t an easy system to get right, largely thanks to the extra antenna required to make the wireless charging work. “We have three different antennae in this device,” Dittrich explains. “One is used to transmit the power and signal to the implant, one is used to connect audio devices for streaming music or making phone calls, and now we have a third link, which allows wireless charging.
“One of the biggest challenges was to make all these antennae work together and not compromise each other. Through fine-tuning the device and the components, we managed to make it work.”
Feedback from users who have tested the new device, which is available now, has been positive.
“First, they loved the wearing comfort, because the device is almost 20% lighter than the previous device and it feels much more stable on the head,” Dittrich notes. “But the overwhelming feedback was on the usability and the fact they didn’t need to fiddle around with batteries. They have one less thing to worry about as they just need to take it from the charging pad at the beginning of the day, press one button and it’s on.”
Looking ahead, MED-EL’s goal is to make the next generation of devices even smaller and lighter, as well as capitalising on advances in rechargeable technology to increase their power efficiency.
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Town Cutler, an independent cutlery shop and manufacturer with locations in San Francisco and Chicago, is relocating its Oakland, CA-based warehouse to Reno, NV.
According to the store’s Facebook page, owner Galen Garretson stated “I am so very excited to say that the Town Cutler Warehouse is relocating from Oakland to Reno. Oakland has done us well over the past three years but we have been growing rapidly and will continue to do so. This will help us produce more knives and create new product. It was a tough decision to make but we are absolutely thrilled about this next big step!! Both our San Francisco and Chicago store will remain the same. Get ready to see them get flooded later this year with knives!”
Garretson, a former restaurant chef and butcher, opened the first Town Cutler store in San Francisco in 2011, followed by its Chicago location in September of 2017.


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HMRC has published new guidance on choosing to delay making the second payment on account for the 2019/20 tax year
In April, the Government announced that Self-Assessment payments due 31 July 2020 could be deferred until 31 January 2021 – interest and penalty free.
‘Payments on account’ are advance payments towards an individual’s tax bill (including Class 4 National Insurance if they are self-employed).
An individual has to make two payments on account every year unless:
Note that whilst this mainly applies to the self-employed, it can apply to other taxpayers, such as landlords.
Each payment is half their previous year’s tax bill. Payments are usually due by midnight on 31 January and 31 July.
Payments on account do not include anything owed for capital gains, as that will be paid in the balancing payment.
HMRC’s new guidance says that an individual has the option to defer their second payment on account if they are:
(HMRC adds that they can still make the payment by 31 July 2020 as normal if they are able to do so.)
HMRC will not charge interest or penalties on any amount of the deferred payment on account, provided it’s paid on or before 31 January 2021.
Those who choose to defer will not need to tell HMRC that they are deferring their payment on account.
However, HMRC provides an important reminder that deferring this payment could mean an individual has a particularly large amount to find on 31 January 2021. Other payments that will also be due by that date are:
Businesses who know that their 2019/20 tax bill is going to be less than the previous year can also make a claim to reduce their 31 July 2020 payment on account.
Going forward it is likely that many businesses will also see a drop in profitability in the 2020/21 tax year. As the first income tax payment on account for 2020/21 will be due on 31 January 2021, businesses should monitor their position and make an appropriate claim if necessary.
However, bear in mind that the 2019/20 tax bill is normally based on the profits ending in the 2019/20 tax year, and the 2020/21 tax bill is based on the profits ending in the 2020/21 tax year. This means that some businesses, whose current profits are falling, may not see a drop in their tax bills for some time yet.
Andy prepares his accounts to 30 April each year.
Andy’s tax bill for the 2018/19 tax year was £3,000. This is based on his profits for the accounting year ended 30 April 2018.
He paid his first payment on account of £1,500 (half his 2018/19 tax bill) towards his 2019/20 tax bill, on 31 January 2020.
His second payment on account of £1,500 is due on 31 July 2020, but as his business is now being impacted by the coronavirus, he defers this payment to 31 January 2021.
His tax bill for the 2019/20 tax year is £4,000. So, the total tax to pay by midnight on 31 January 2021 will be £4,500. This includes:
Note that in this example, based on his accounts for the year ended 30 April 2020 Andy doesn’t expect his 2020/21 tax bill to be any lower than his 2019/20 tax bill – the coronavirus hadn’t hit his business fully before April 2020 – so Andy can’t elect to reduce his payments on account for the 2020/21 tax year.
This highlights the potential impact for a self-employed individual with a 30 April accounting year-end. The impact may differ for individuals with other year ends. In particular, a 31 March year-end would mean that the 31 March 2020 accounts form the basis of the 2019/20 tax bill, and the 31 March 2021 accounts form the basis of the 2020/21 tax bill, so for a business impacted by the coronavirus, a 31 March year-end is more likely to result in a lower 2019/20 tax bill as well as a lower 2020/21 tax bill, meaning a reduced second payment on account, and a reduced or nil balancing payment, for 2019/20, and a reduced first payment on account for 2020/21, on 31 January 2021.
Those unable to pay may well need to contact HMRC regarding a Time to Pay instalment arrangement.


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Hy-Vee’s newly launched Hy-Vee Medicare Aisle service, which allows customers to shop and enroll in Medicare plans throughout the retailer’s eight-state region, is an extension of its commitment to health and wellness, President and CEO Randy Edeker said.
“Hy-Vee is a trusted leader in the health and wellness space, and as a retail and specialty pharmacy provider, we are deeply invested in the health and well-being of our patients and customers,” he said. “Hy-Vee Medicare Aisle is an extension of that commitment as we continue to work toward making our customers’ lives easier, healthier and happier by providing trusted, transparent and affordable health insurance plans that they can be confident in.”
The new service is the newest addition to Hy-Vee Financial Services, which is powered by Midwest Heritage, Hy-Vee’s banking, insurance and investments subsidiary, and provides customers with convenient access to financial options such as checking/savings accounts, auto/home insurance, home mortgages, consumer loans and pet insurance.
Through Hy-Vee Medicare Aisle, customers can select from coverage plans such as Medicare Advantage, Medicare Part D and Medicare Supplement Plans. To help customers review plans and determine the best coverage for them, Hy-Vee has a team of licensed insurance agents available by phone, as well as a website, www.medicareaisle.com. On Oct. 1, Hy-Vee Medicare Aisle will also launch a digital quoting and enrollment tool to further assist customers.
“Hy-Vee Medicare Aisle is committed to helping our customers select the coverage plan that best meets their healthcare needs, preferences and budget,” said Tony Kaska, chairman, president and CEO of Midwest Heritage. “Our high-touch, personalized approach allows our customers to be confident in their selections and feel prepared for their future healthcare journey.”
Individuals who are becoming eligible for Medicare can now begin shopping and enrolling into Medicare plans through Hy-Vee Medicare Aisle. Current Medicare beneficiaries can begin purchasing their 2022 Medicare plans through the service during Medicare’s Annual Enrollment Period, Oct. 15-Dec. 7, 2021.
West Des Moines, Iowa-based Hy-Vee is employee-owned and has more than 280 retail stores across eight Midwestern states.


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From Feb. 16-20 at EuroShop in Düsseldorf, Germany, an outstanding atmosphere prevailed due to many new leads and an unexpectedly high number of business deals closed, according to officials with the global retail trade event.
“All previous records of 2011 were broken! We are particularly delighted with the increasingly international flair and decision-making competence of our trade visitors,” said Hans Werner Reinhard, deputy managing director, Messe Düsseldorf.
Two thirds of EuroShop visitors traveled to Düsseldorf from abroad with significantly higher numbers from overseas – both from North, Central and South America as well as from Asia. Delegations of large retail chains from Brazil, Colombia, Canada, the U.S. and China were welcomed at EuroShop.
A total of 109,000 visitors from 110 countries were represented. In terms of European countries, more trade visitors from the Eastern countries, such as the Baltic region and the Russian Federation were represented in Düsseldorf. Seventy-three percent of all EuroShop visitors were executives, and two thirds of all visitors stated they were involved in their companies’ decision–making processes.
With its size and diversity, EuroShop 2014 provided a comprehensive overview of all important trends in the four segments EuroConcept – Shop Fitting, Architecture & Store Design, Lighting, Refrigeration Furniture and Cooling Systems; EuroSales – Visual Marketing and Merchandising, POS-Marketing; EuroCIS – Retail Technology; EuroExpo – Exhibition Stand Construction, Design and Event. The 2,226 exhibitors from 57 countries included the market leaders from all these segments as well as young enterprises from growth markets.
“The trade fair days have confirmed: EuroShop is and will remain the most important meeting point for the retail world,” added Reinhard.
Two aspects were center stage: the staging and emotionalization of the shopping experience through shop fittings, innovative lighting concepts, creative design ideas and extraordinary materials that bricks-and-mortar retail can use to stand its ground versus clicks-and-mortar shopping. In addition to this, the multi-channel theme – i.e. integrating and linking the various different channels like the offline, Web and mobile businesses with latest technologies – was omnipresent at EuroShop. Beyond this, energy-efficient lighting systems as well as energy-enhanced refrigeration systems and furniture were in focus for food retailers.
Michael Gerling, CEO of EHI Retail Institut and chairman of the EuroShop Exhibitors’ Advisory Council, said he was very satisfied with the success of EuroShop 2014 and noticed willingness among retailers to invest.
“Total investment of retailers in the extension, rebuilding and new construction of their outfits amounted to EUR 6.8 billion in 2013 – a record level. In the fitting of new stores alone, retail companies invested EUR 1.75 billion last year and, hence, 25 percent more than in 2010,” said Gerling.
At EuroShop, over 40 percent of all visitors stated they would be implementing concrete investment projects in the coming two years. They said they were using EuroShop not only to learn about innovations but specifically to selectively search for new suppliers and business partners.
Meeting with an extraordinarily good response were the practice-driven forums at EuroShop. In lectures, international expert speakers covered current issues on areas of architecture and design, IT, multi-channel, sustainability and point of sale marketing.
The next EuroShop will be held Mar. 5-9, 2017, and as early as next year, EuroCIS will be staged again from Feb. 24-26 2015.
See related article: “Multiple premieres at EuroShop 2014.”


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We Need You to sign a letter supporting the TGA-endorsed Ocean Shipping Reform Act of 2021 (OSRA 21) (H.R. 4996), which would require the Federal Maritime Commission (FMC) to establish and enforce rules on minimum service requirements for ocean carriers, respond to contract breaches, and address excessive and unjust detention and demurrage fees, rules that would help prevent the next shipping crisis. TGA still needs you and your colleagues, your employees, your family, everyone, to join TGA in urging President Biden and your members of Congress to ACT NOW to end the current #ShippingCrisis. The customizable letter only takes a few minutes to send.
When Congress returns to Washington, DC on September 20, TGA and many other organizations will launch a huge push for renewal of the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) program. As part of those efforts, TGA urges your company to join hundreds of other organizations in signing a letter calling on Congress to renew GSP immediately. GSP expired on Dec. 31, 2020, meaning that U.S. travel goods imports from a wide range of developing countries, including Thailand, Cambodia, Burma (Myanmar), Indonesia, Sri Lanka, the Philippines, and Pakistan have paid full duties since January 1, 2021. U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has issued instructions on how importers can retain the right to collect refunds of duties paid if GSP is retroactively renewed. In 2020, U.S. travel goods imports from GSP countries increased 8.4%. GSP countries supply 16.3% of all U.S. travel goods imports today. Please sign the letter TODAY!
Just 116 days until Christmas…OK, that might sound like a lot, but if we have learned one thing from COVID it’s to be prepared for the unexpected. READ MORE
Forty-four freight ships are stuck awaiting entry into California’s two largest ports, the highest number recorded since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Marine Exchange of Southern California reported on Saturday. READ MORE
U.S. corporate giants are scrambling to beat back anti-China sentiment in Congress and the Biden administration, aiming to avert crackdowns that would hurt their ability to do business in the world’s second-largest economy. READ MORE
SOCIAL MEDIA TODAY
Social media is a great tool for keeping brands connected to their customers, but it can also be a powerful driver of direct sales activity. Do you use social media to attract customers and increase sales? READ MORE
With travel reopening more widely this year since the pandemic hit — particularly in highly vaccinated North America, the UK and the European Union — it might seem as though global movement is inching its way back to a more reasonable cadence, in spite of the Delta variant, and that tourism is slowly getting back on track. READ MORE
In 2021, employee engagement is one of the most important aspects of managing employees. Employee engagement helps you understand whether your employees are genuinely driven towards work and are motivated enough for your organization. READ MORE
In 2020, life changed in every way due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, it’s not surprising that the behavior of our customers changed, too. In the retail sector, more consumers switched to online providers or smaller independent businesses as a result of their changed routines and for convenience when it wasn’t possible to visit shops near work or in city centers. READ MORE
BUSINESS TRAVELER USA
The majority of business travelers are questioning the effectiveness of screen-based virtual interactions as their primary meeting method. Although remote work and virtual meetings are here to stay, a recent survey of business travelers found most felt those modes are clearly lacking when it comes to relationship building. READ MORE
MORNING BREW/RETAIL BREW
A year into the pandemic, and just as vaccines were rolling out in March, we wanted to know how people’s shopping habits changed and what would stick in the After Times. For one, most Americans we surveyed with Harris Poll said they would prefer to shop in person. READ MORE
Chances are you’ve experienced the following: You’re with a small group of friends at a nice restaurant. Everyone is enjoying the food and conversation when someone decides to take out his phone — not for an urgent call, but to check email, Instagram, or Facebook. READ MORE
Missed last week’s issue? See which articles your colleagues read most.
- TGA Calls for Action Now to End Shipping Crisis As TGA-Supported Legislation Gains Momentum (TGA)
- Shine the Spotlight…on You (TGA)
- The Shipping Crisis is Getting Worse. Here’s What That Means for Holiday Shopping (CNN)
- Biden Keeps Many Trump Tariffs in Place, Confounding Businesses Hoping for Reprieve (THE WASHINGTON POST)
- FDA Grants Full Approval to Pfizer COVID-19 Vaccine (ABC NEWS)


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Cali Christmas, Southern California’s annual holiday hip-hop concert, is heading back to the Forum in Inglewood, California on Dec. 16 for an action packed Saturday. The lineup is absolutely stacked, featuring the likes of talented artists Chance the Rapper, Travis Scott, Joey Bada$$, Majid Jordan and G4SHI. Hurry and cop your ticket quick before this holiday event sells out. Tickets for the event went on sale back in September and they are getting picked up swiftly.
Ticket prices currently begin at $56 dollars, but those tickets are sure to sell fast. Ticketmaster has what you need with both verified resale tickets alongside standard ones; doors to the event will open at 7:30 PM. Tickets can be purchased online or possibly won through Power 106. Call in every hour to the station and get a chance to cop a pair of tickets Monday-Friday from 6:00 AM to 8:00 PM.
Last year’s event was headlined by Ice Cube, and featured performances by G-Eazy, Anderson .Paak, 2 Chainz, Ty Dolla $ign, Cam’ron, Juelz Santana, YG, Lil Yachty, and D.R.A.M., according to Rap-Up.
Chance the Rapper shows no signs of slowing down after an exceptional 2016, as mxdwn previously reported. He is a jack of all trades: a rapper, singer, songwriter, philanthropist, record producer and actor from the West Chatham neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois. His trip to LA this winter will be an end to a massively successful tour run.
Chance the Rapper has been around since the breakout Soundcloud release of his second mixtape Acid Rap in 2013. The mixtape set himself up for more highly anticipated future works. The artist caught his big break after working alongside both respected and controversial artist Kanye West and is now a star in his own right earning high caliber collaborations with the likes of Skrillex, Alicia Keys, Busta Rhymes and more, as previously reported. His third mixtape The Coloring Book earned a massive 57 million streams through Apple iTunes alone.
Power 106 presents Cali Christmas
with Chance the Rapper, Travis Scott, Majid Jordan, Joey Bada$$, and G4SHI
Satuyrday, December 16
The Forum, Inglewood CA
3900 W Manchester Blvd, Inglewood, CA 90305
Ticket prices begin at $56 dollars
Time: 7:30 PM
Purchase tickets here.
More information here.


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This comprehensive guide to the world’s largest licensors provides retail sales data and trends for licensors in all sectors.
Arnor Overseas International has launched a range of Goodyear-branded footwear in Taiwan.
VW has confirmed its attendance at this year’s Brand Licensing Europe, marking its first-ever appearance at a licensing event.
Goodyear is continuing to expand its reach beyond the tire aisle with the help of licensing agent IMG.
The pan European airline group TUI/Thomson Airways has chosen art brand Marsh Mellow to grace its range of branded kids snack boxes.
Construction equipment manufacturer JCB has partnered with a number of family destinations across the U.K. for a range of JCB Kids experiential activities.
Elie Dekel exits Saban, P&G offloads 43 beauty brands, a new No. 1 Toy License in U.K. and other top news from the week of July 6.
Motorcycle brand Ducati Motor Holding has appointed IMG as its exclusive global licensing representative.
Licensing agency TLC announced the expansion of the J is for Jeep brand into a new collection of baby strollers for the North American market.
The Ford Motor Company has launched the Ford 3D Store, allowing auto fans to download digital images of Ford vehicles for 3D printing.
Boutique licensing agency Synchronicity has signed two unique new clients, New Jersey’s Garden State Parkway and the New Jersey Turnpike.
Ford Motor Company will celebrate the iconic Ford Mustang with the debut of Mustang Unleashed, a limited- edition line of one-of-a-kind shirts.
Harley-Davidson is partnering with Cobra Electronics for a special, limited edition Harley-Davidson-branded CB radio.
Goodyear’s spring/summer 2016 clothing line will focus on the heritage brand’s past with retro typography and racing-inspired imagery.
BBC Worldwide ANZ has tapped SuperCheap Auto as the exclusive retailer of Top Gear-branded automotive accessories in Australia and New Zealand.
European motorsports channel Motors TV will launch across North and South America on Jan. 28.
Indian Motorcycle has announced a new collaboration with FieldCandy, a designer brand of outdoor products, for a branded tent.
The London Taxi Company, the only manufacturer of the iconic British black cab, has inked a deal with IglooBooks for a range of titles featuring London Taxis.
Poeticgem is developing a range of products based on the iconic British motorcycle brand BSA.
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Guest Contributor | Feb 21, 2024 | 0
Static fuel prices create socio-economic conundrum
By Josef Kefas Sheehama.
The Minister of Mines and Energy has decided to maintain the prices of petroleum products at the existing levels therefore fuel prices in August will remain as they were for the month of July 2022.
Record fuel prices are causing stress for households and businesses. Fuel price figures gathered from the global oil market suggests a price change of US$29 on average. This means that unleaded petrol traded at US$130.46 per barrel compare to US$159.27 while the average for diesel closed at US$141.55 per barrel in contrast to US$170.25 at the end of June. The exchange rate for the period of July is favourable. The Government needed to cut the price of petrol and diesel through an immediate reduction and passing on the benefit to Namibians.
If the government was serious in reducing fuel prices, they should have reduced by N$0.50 to provide relief to Namibians. That would have had a real positive impact on the economy. Otherwise, this is purely window-dressing and won’t help matters. The aim is to reduce pump fuel prices in a bid to reduce the cost of living. The government has the duty to protect its stakeholders, including consumers and businesses. The measure may arguably become a stimulus to the economy through price reduction and increased consumption multiplier effects. A reduced pump price is good news for final consumers. The petrol price in South Africa is set to drop by R1.32 per litre for August, while Namibian fuel prices remain unchanged.
The Namibian population is frustrated with this situation because over the past few weeks, fuel prices in the international market have decreased. Hence, technically the fuel rates in Namibia should also have gone down fairly but local fuel prices continue to remain prohibitively high. Also, the cost of fuel in neighboring regions like South Africa reduced.
Oil is one of the important strategic commodities which guarantees the development of modern industry and economy. It is also an important resource, which is scrambled for by various interest groups in the global oil market. Generally, fluctuations in the price of oil are regarded as the barometer of changes in the world economy.
Furthermore, with the Namibia dollar pegged one-to-one to the South African rand, it is likely for the Bank of Namibia to hike the repo rate by 0.75bps on 17 August 2022. Due to the drop-in world crude oil prices, the Namibian government was supposed to immediately reduce the price of fuel. The coming period will test the government’s capacity to adjust and the regime’s ability to maintain itself. A decline in global crude oil prices was widely believed to provide relief to consumers by way of sharply lower retail price of petrol and diesel. But the reality has turned out to be something else. The move was expected to benefit consumers as oil and product prices had started falling from then. Therefore, if oil prices are rising, we are still facing rising living costs and our disposable incomes will not go as far, forcing us to cut back on some purchases, because salaries cannot keep up with inflation.
Moreover, since high and volatile prices are likely to be a permanent feature of the global economy for the foreseeable future, they merit a reconsideration of the national policies that were put in place when fuel prices were not such a significant component of trade-related costs. Also, the Motor Vehicle Assistance Fund levy, road user levy, and the National Petroleum Corporation of Namibia levy will remain at their current levels. The pain will continue. It is undeniable that the rise in fuel prices leads to the widening of the gap between the rich and the poor. This is due to the fact that people are greatly affected by the price of basic necessities such as food and fuel in particular.
Rich people will still be able to afford such things but the poor will face greater challenges as the popular saying goes: “The rich get richer, and the poor get poorer.” For instance, when money is used to purchase consumer products that are necessary for survival, then less money will be spent on health and educational purposes and others. Thus, it is clear that the high fuel prices will put further stress on the differences between the rich and the poor which is such a tragedy. The reduction in international fuel prices afforded Namibia an opportunity to reduce local fuel prices, even if just for the month of August.
To this end, in the long term the population trend or demographics of the society will be greatly affected. This means that new families will consciously decide not to have too many children in order to increase their quality of life. The families with less children will surely spend less on basic necessities like food, clothes, transport and many more. Hence, the demographics of the whole country will be affected and this in turn will reduce our workforce which will affect our country’s productivity and prosperity.
Finally, there are many short to long term effects of a fuel price increase which includes more crimes like hoarding and smuggling, again leadiong to the widening of the gap between the rich and the poor as well as a change in demographics. I still strongly believe that the rising fuel prices hav pushed up the price of other consumer products and this will surely cause a negative impact on society. The government must find a way to stabilize the fuel price at a reasonable rate so that it does not affect the productivity of this country for achieving the aspirations of the nation for Vision 2030.


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Leading retail bosses have written to the government warning of significant disruption to food supplies in the event of a no-deal Brexit. The letter that was sent from the British Retail Consortium, also warns that grocery prices are likely to rise, as nearly a third of the food eaten in Britain comes from the EU and would subject to import tariffs if the UK exits without a trade deal in place. It said, “We are extremely concerned that our customers will be among the first to experience the realities of a no-deal Brexit.”
The letter is signed by the retail trade body and 10 leading store bosses, including Sainsbury's chief executive Mike Coupe, Asda chief executive Roger Burnley, Marks & Spencer CEO Steve Rowe, as well as the Co-op, Waitrose, Costcutter, KFC UK, Pret a Manger, Lidl and McDonald's. “We anticipate significant risks to maintaining the choice, quality and durability of food that our customers have come to expect in our stores, and there will be inevitable pressure on food prices from higher transport costs, currency devaluation and tariffs,” they said. The letter came a day before another crucial day in parliament, as MPs vote on a series of amendments to Theresa May's Brexit plan.
They expressed particular concern about fresh foods, saying it is “impossible” to stockpile fresh produce, such as salad leaves and fresh fruit. The retail bosses said retailers typically store no more than two weeks' stock. They said that “as prudent businesses” they are stockpiling in order to be prepared for no deal but with frozen and chilled storages nearing capacity, there is very little general warehousing space available in the UK. The letter said, “While we have been working closely with our suppliers on contingency plans, it is not possible to mitigate all the risks to our supply chains and we fear disruption in the short-term as a result if there is no Brexit deal.”
It has also warned of “major disruption” at Calais, a key route for food imports to the UK, potentially reducing freight trade by nearly 90 per cent as the French government has said it will enforce sanitary and customs checks on exports from the EU, which will cause long delays. “For consumers, this will reduce the availability and shelf life of many products in our stores.”


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Mobile community Eskimi celebrated 7 million customer mark. Same time number of customers from the biggest Eskimi market Nigeria reached 3.5 million. Eskimi also reached 1 billion monthly ad impressions.
“These are exciting times in Eskimi, as we are growing faster every day – we have grown more than 1 million new customers last month. We are happy to deliver services that are loved and recommended by people to their friends.” Those were the words of Vytas Paukstys, CEO of Eskimi in reaction to recent growth figures. More than 80% of Eskimi customer base had grown organically.
Eskimi took the path to grow focusing to feature phone audience while most of the products are now built for new iOS and Android platforms. The company has proven that it understands that most of the mobile browsing audience is still on the simple devices and this will stay for the few years. There are a lot of people coming to the market and start using mobile internet – they use the old phones. Eskimi research shows that more than 95% of the customers still use feature phones.
Eskimi was launched as a simple mobile web chat service and repositioned the product and functions to social network to meet new people. Eskimi is now the largest mobile social network to meet new people in Africa. Eskimi largest markets are Nigeria, Ghana, Vietnam, Indonesia. Eskimi users browse profiles, chat, share photos, discuss in forums, share their interests.
The core metric tracked by Eskimi and that shows user engagement is time spend online every day – average user spends around one hour in the product.
On the business side, Eskimi started offering unique marketing tools for advertisers in Africa and Nigeria in first quarter of 2012. Eskimi is changing how mobile marketing is used and has special tools for FMCG sector, sales promotional, branding campaigns. Eskimi is very focused on the end result of our business customers, so we do not just sell clicks or impressions. We deliver the final result – be it new customer registrations, full branding campaigns, increased sales of goods or services or just massive traffic to new sites.
Supporting the “The Cashless Nigeria Project”, Eskimi has successfully developed and tested customer acquisition tools for mobile money operators, where financial institutions can achieve up to 30% of conversion rates to increase their mobile money customers.
Eskimi also introduced special co-branded community services to mobile operators, where due to unique offering mobile operators can grow data revenue, top-up revenue, VAS revenue and use Eskimi for their loyalty and customer acquisition activities.
Eskimi is developed by a team based in Vilnius, Lithuania and is now recruiting sales teams in Nigeria, Ghana and other main markets.


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Google shows no signs of stopping its social networking start-up shopping spree–it acquired social gaming service SocialDeck on Monday.
The acquisition was announced Monday via the SocialDeck blog. It is Google’s fifth acquisition in the past month.
SocialDeck is a social gaming company that makes games for various mobile platforms (including BlackBerry and iPhone) that are playable across multiple devices and social networks. For example, you can play a game on your iPhone and then switch over to Facebook on your computer and play with the same profile.
Related Story: Google Wave failure proves social networking is tough
Some of SocialDeck’s games include “Shake & Spell,” “Pet Hero MD,” and “Color Connect.”
The games have social-networking features as well, including a page that displays other friends currently playing the game, a leader board and statistics of friends’ gaming performance. Players can also post comments in a stream similar to instant messaging.
SocialDeck, which has workers in Toronto and San Francisco, received financing from the BlackBerry Partners Fund in early 2009.
“We were very impressed with the team’s talent as well as the technically advanced platform engaging mobile experiences they’ve built,” Google said in a statement. The team will work in partnership with Google staff in Waterloo, Ontario, Google said.
“We’re pleased to welcome them to Google, and we think they’ll be great contributors in partnership with the Google Waterloo team as we continue to innovate in the mobile space.”
Most of Google’s recent acquisitions have been related to social networking and games, fueling speculation that the company plans to release a new social-networking service, potentially centered on games, to compete with Facebook.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Google has been in talks with popular game developers to offer their products on “a new service it is building” (courtesy of WSJ’s “people familiar with the matter”). Perhaps the acquisition of SocialDeck shows the direction in which Google wants to go with its rumored new gaming service–games that work seamlessly across multiple platforms and devices, that is. The WSJ reports that the companies in talks include Playdom Inc., EA’s Playfish, and Zynga.
Google acquired Angstro, a company known for its Knx.to product (a centralized address book that combines a user’s connections from social networks), just a few days prior to this latest acquisition. It previously acquired social games developer Slide, virtual currency maker Jambool, and visual shopping engine Like.com.
At Google, SocialDeck workers will join those from Angstro, the fourth company acquired by Google in the past month, that built a product called Noteworthy News that delivers news about people and companies in a user’s professional network. Angstro said on Friday that Google had acquired it.
The real question is this: is Google about to roll out some funky new life-changing social network, or does it just want to own everything that’s that’s tangentially related to social networks?
With notes from Nancy Gohring, who covers mobile phones and cloud computing for The IDG News Service.


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Wednesday, November 23, 2022 • 11:20 EST
Apple supplier Cirrus Logic may have vaguely hinted at iPhone 15 Pro models getting haptic buttons next year, according to research firm Barclays. However, the standard iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus are still expected to have mechanical buttons. In October, well-known Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said iPhone 15 Pro models will feature solid-state volume and power buttons. In an investor note last week, Barclays analysts Blayne Curtis and Tom O'Malley said the new component that Cirrus Logic mentioned will most likely be part of additional Taptic Engines for the haptic buttons on iPhone 15 Pro models: The biggest change to our thinking here is to model $1 of new content in the IP15 Pro models. On an earnings call with analysts this month, Cirrus Logic CEO John Forsyth narrowed down the timeframe for this new component coming to market to the "back half of next year," which would line up with iPhone 15 Pro models launching next September. Haptic buttons on iPhones could allow for even better water resistance and would eliminate moving parts that can wear out or break over time. HPMS refers to Cirrus Logic's high-performance mixed-signal chips, which includes haptic drivers for the Taptic Engine in iPhones. When looking at potential use cases, the largest change in new iPhone models next year is the removal of the buttons, which would require additional drivers for the haptics engine, making it the most likely use case for new content. (macrumors.com). Continue reading.
Callisto — a combination of Alexa and WebEx video conferencing software — aims to enable the presence of virtual assistants and reliable video conferences on future human deep space flights.
A fully autonomous self-replicating robot assembly system capable of both assembling larger structures, including larger robots, and planning the best construction sequence is still years away, Gershenfeld says.
Among the new Jumpstart 2022 cards coming in December was a reprint that Commander players sorely needed.


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On Friday, Amazon announced that it was expanding its fleet to 50 aircraft (up from 40). Amazon says this is to support the increasing number of Prime subscribers who expect free two-day delivery. (On top of that, Amazon customers this year.)
By adding 10 more aircraft, Amazon is expanding its fleet by 25 percent -- a sizable increase. But this fleet is still dwarfed by other shipping companies. UPS owns 247 aircraft (and leases more during November and December), while FedEx owns over 650 (ranking it among the world's largest airlines).
If Amazon is to continue offering free-two day shipping to its millions of Prime subscribers, it better have the arsenal to back it up.


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April 1, 2018
Like many great ideas, VR for Dogs was born of long hours staring at the road ahead on a cross-country car trip. Mark Wilke gives Nyx, his 2-year-old Belgian Tervuren a scratch behind her ears as he thinks back to when the idea first came to him. “We were all packed into our Suburban, driving to Akron for a dog show. The dogs are always so restless once we arrive; I thought there needed to be a way to keep them entertained on the road, you know, like everyone else is, with their smartphones or iPads.”
“We had been experimenting with immersive video in the virtual reality realm. Why not make VR for dogs?”
Americans spend $2.1 billion every year on pampering their pooches. From 2000 to 2011, there was a 73% increase in the average amount spent on services and luxury items, like elaborate birthday cakes and plastic surgery. Today more than in years past, pets are truly a member of the family.
“The response to VR for Dogs far exceeded our expectations,” says Wilke. After testing the hardware and different environments on a small test group, the starter package (available now) was developed and refined. “We had to work out some kinks early on. The first generation of VR goggles were not wireless, and the dogs destroyed the cords. One of our early immersive environments involved squirrels … it caused a lot of collateral damage.”
Since launching VR for Dogs earlier this year, 1,089 units have been shipped. And as word spreads, the orders keep increasing. “We now have a full-time staffer just to handle the incoming orders and shipping.” Additional content is being developed and tested for release this summer. “Sometimes something just makes so much sense, you wonder ‘why didn’t someone already try this?’ It’s been a journey. Thinking about content from the dog’s perspective has given me a whole new insight.”
Early testing on VR for Cats has been unsuccessful. Click on the video to learn more about VR for Dogs by Applied Art & Technology.