AdNets Weekend

Massive Inc Is First Dynamic In-Game Advertising Network Validated ... FOXBusiness - Jun 3, 2008 As the first dynamic in-game advertising network to undergo a third-party impression audit, Massive provides advertisers and agencies with the ... Third-party audits Massive's in-game advertising network Ars Technica Massive In-Game Ad Network Gets Third-Party Validation Gamasutra all 15 news articles »

NewsOXY

New generation ads for Sony PS3 Business Standard, India - Jun 5, 2008 Sony chose in-game advertising network IGA Worldwide on Wednesday as its first partner rather than smaller rivals Double Fusion or Google-owned Adscape. ... Sony to Partner with IGA for In-Game Ads Next Generation all 84 news articles »

Nokia Expands Advertising Network With Mobile Content Site "MOSH" NewsBlaze, CA - Jun 3, 2008 The Nokia Media Network provides reach to more than 100 million consumers around the globe through advertising on blue-chip mobile publishers, ...PINK:NOKBF

Kowabunga! To Exhibit e-Retailing Solutions At Internet Retailer ... Business Wire (press release), CA - Jun 6, 2008 (AMEX:THK), the leading provider of interactive performance-based advertising networksand technology platforms, announced today it will exhibit their suite ...

Earthtimes (press release)

AOL brings ad business under single umbrella Marketing Week, UK - Jun 6, 2008 It will bring its existing European operation such as Advertising.com, Adtech, the ad serving company, affiliate network, Buy.at and the AOL sales team ... Interview: Brendan Condon, International Head, AOL’s Platform-A ... paidContent.org AOL Expands Platform-A to Europe 7thSpace Interactive (press release)

AOL to expand online advertising efforts in Europe BusinessWeek - Jun 6, 2008 ... properties to form the People Networks division. AOL's European Platform-A efforts will bring together existing operations including Advertising.com, ...

Focus Media Reports First Quarter 2008 Results Audio Video Producer, CA - Jun 6, 2008 Focus Media Holding Limited (Nasdaq: FMCN) is China's leading multi- platform digital media company, operating the largest out-of-home advertising network ...FMCN

Nokia expands advertising network with mobile content site "MOSH" Ad-Hoc-News (Pressemitteilung), Germany - Jun 4, 2008 The Nokia Media Network provides reach to more than 100million consumers around the globe through advertising on blue-chipmobile publishers, ...PINK:NOKBF

Broadband advertising: Call for new code to cover mobile internet domain-B, India - 12 hours ago Mobile broadband services are the subject of heavy promotion by the mobile phonenetworks, which cite customer convenience as the primary reason for going ...

PhysOrg.com

Yahoo boasts new ad deals, joins CBS' online video network CNET News, CA - Jun 4, 2008 Impeccably timed to suit president Sue Decker's keynote at the Advertising 2.0 conference in New York, Yahoo announced Wednesday that it has inked ... As Icahn grumbles, Yahoo sets plans for ad growth The Associated Press Yahoo Gets Scrappy Under Fire WebProNews Yahoo Snags Ad Serving Deals With CBS, Wal-Mart And Havas eBrandz Digital Media Wire - Internet News

Ed: No news at Google?

Social Media Weekend

Wall Street Journal Blogs

Social Media: Yes, Twitter Users, We Know. Amazon Was Down Wall Street Journal Blogs, NY - Jun 6, 2008 If you work in an office of any size, you may have experienced this phenomenon. Some technical problem arises on the computer network—say, for example, ...AMZN

Ecopreneurist

Social Networking and Online Marketing for the Ecopreneur Ecopreneurist, CA - 6 hours ago Once you have a web site, networking through social media sites is a great way to promote it and drive traffic to your site. Online marketing is a strategy ... Could Facebook Be the New Ning? ReadWriteWeb Social Networking May Pay Off in the End Law.com (subscription)

Marketing Expert Reveals the 19 New Rules of Social Media ... PR-USA.net (press release), Bulgaria - 22 hours ago Entitled The 19 NEW Rules of Social Media Copywriting, this Special Report provides marketers 19 powerful copywriting tips to turbo charge their social ...

Social Media Marketing RB7549 WebWire (press release), GA - 20 hours ago Social Media Networking produces rapid and lasting Branding qualities which solidifies ranking and positioning. At Submit Plus we study, test and review the ...

How to Create and Distribute a Social Media Release MarketingSherpa.com (subscription), RI - Jun 6, 2008 SUMMARY: Social media releases aren’t meant to replace traditional press releases. But they can make your effort to disseminate news to journalists, ...

Mediapost.com

Social Media Monetization Stretches The Brain Mediapost.com, NY - Jun 6, 2008 The term--key performance indicator--seems to be the latest buzzword emerging in connection with the elusive goal of monetizing social media. ...

Sometrics Launches Ad Platform for Social Media Apps Marketing Vox News - Jun 6, 2008 Sometrics has introduced an ad-serving platform designed for apps developers on social media platforms. The platform targets ads based on a variety of data ...

Sometrics launches social ad platform BizReport - Jun 5, 2008 Ian Swanson, CEO of Sometrics said, "In the social media space, it's about how you move beyond the click to be able to tell who was the person engaging with ...

Social media's uphill advertising climb CNET News, CA - Jun 3, 2008 Reality check: half of the social media start-ups at Tuesday's Under the Radar Conference won't exist next year. That was the dour prediction of an ... Five startups to watch at Under the Radar / Social Media CNET News Under the Radar live: Welcome to the social CNET News

Mediapost.com

Can Social Media Advertising ... InternetNews.com - Jun 3, 2008 Taking up that issue here at a conference on social media hosted by the Interactive Advertising Bureau, the trade association for digital advertisers, ... Goldstein At IAB: Marketers Can't Ignore Social Media Mediapost.com SocialMedia's Goldstein: The ad industry needs to think small CNET News Strong Ad Spending Growth for UK Social Networks PR Newswire UK (press release) Toronto Star

Blog Weekend

Race Talk of latest race!! Nascar - 4 hours ago A blog is an online journal entry written by a Member of the Community. Every Member of the Community can create his/her own blog posts and read and comment ...

Javno.hr

Live blog: Hillary Clinton's long goodbye National Post, Canada - 7 hours ago Update 1:35 pm: In case you missed it, here's a video of some of Clinton's speech. Denver? Denver? Denver? Some Clinton supporters are urging that she take ... My Blog Advocating an Obama-Hillary Ticket Smashes Into Hillary's ... Huffington Post Queer Blog Watch!: The Last Debate to Senator Hillary Rodham ... Just Out Even in Defeat, Clinton Makes History Mother Jones The Carpetbagger Report - The Week Daily

MLive.com

Festival blog: Local bands get a kick out of playing Festival MLive.com, MI - 9 hours ago Press entertainment reporters will blog from Grand Rapids' Festival of the Arts the entire weekend. The freshest items will appear at the top of this blog ...

CNET News

Read all posts by Desiree Everts in News Blog CNET News, CA - 8 hours ago T-Mobile USA is suing Starbucks, accusing the coffee behemoth of a breach of contract by allowing AT&T to provide customers with free Wi-Fi access in its ...

McCain Launches New Blog, Links to Kos Yahoo! News - Jun 6, 2008 The Nation -- John McCain's campaign launched a spiffy new blog on Friday, stepping up an effort to catch up to Barack Obama's web dominance. ... McCain, Obama And The Lincoln-Douglas Debates Awearness World’s Greatest Blog Comment Wonkette (satire) Comment by Allan J. Lichtman Professor of History, American University Media Transparency - Chicago Tribune

A few notes before the live blog Los Angeles Times, CA - 6 hours ago Jeff Kent was supposed to have the day off, but is back in the lineup today. I didn't get to hear Torre talk, but my instinct is that after getting tossed ... 1-0 in games where Russell Martin AND Joe Beimel rock the mustache Los Angeles Times

Cricbuzz

Athers' Blog Sky News, UK - 4 hours ago "Another dominant day for England here in Nottingham, despite a late fightback from New Zealand," Atherton stated in his skysports.com video blog. ... The blog from the boundary BBC Sport Cow Corner - Your cricket blog - England v New Zea Yahoo! Eurosport Cow Corner: Your cricket blog Yahoo! Eurosport Yahoo! Eurosport - Sky News

The Age

The Daily Brickabrak: A Blog I Like Atlantic Online - Jun 6, 2008 The McCain campaign announces a new blog. It's called the McCain Report. It pledges a "fresh" perspective on the campaign. I like it. Why? ... Campaign 08: Running Mate Blog 6/5/08 CBS 4 Live blog: The end of the road for Obama and Clinton National Post The Long Goodbye New York Times Mashable - Daily Republic

KIMA CBS 29

Live Blog: Belmont Stakes Deadspin, NY - 4 hours ago Join me, won't you, as I live blog the broadcast, culminating in the mile and a half run at history. By Christmas Ape. Video: Big Brown Does Well in Pre-Belmont Workout AssociatedPress Belmont Blog: Big Brown's Quest For Triple Crown NewsNet5.com Da'Tara wins Belmont Stakes 2TheAdvocate

In a Letter to His Kids, Wired's Founding Editor Recalls the Dawn of the Digital Revolution

GALLERY

Where It All Began: Images FromWired's Early Days

15 YEARS OF WIRED: A Look Back

Dear Orson and Zoe, 
Fifteen years ago, when your mom and I started Wired, you weren't even born. And now look at you — you guys were playing Go Fish with the original crew at the magazine's 15th anniversary party.

Back in 1993, we had only the slightest glimmer of what the Internet would eventually become. But we had a very clear idea what Wired was supposed to be about: the people, companies, and ideas driving the Digital Revolution. The results of that revolution — Googling your homework, iChatting with your cousins in Paris, buying your Lego NXT off eBay — seem like so much background noise to you now, but back then it was a big deal. In the very first issue, I wrote, "The Digital Revolution is whipping through our lives like a Bengali typhoon."...

Ballmer kills print

Ed:

• IP is interactive. Broadcast and print are not. Further, print suffers 60% and rising COGS. Print is dead, but not because of interactivity.
• 10 years? Try 2 to 4. It's not subscriber preference that defines the life of print. The shrinking gross margins limit the ability of print to survive.
• More content, if we can solve the revenue problem for the Long Tail of reporters. 
• Can't distinguish advertising from content. Why would this change from current TV sponsorships, in-movie ads, magazine infomercials, and other formats?

Ballmer kills print

In an interview with the Washington Post, Steve Ballmer goes a bit farther than even I would go killing print. But that’s the problem; that’s the way print people look at it. What he’s really saying is that delivery over IP will have so much greater advantage over delivery via one-way media. Why? Interaction. He’s right.

In the next 10 years, the whole world of media, communications and advertising are going to be turned upside down — my opinion.

Here are the premises I have. Number one, there will be no media consumption left in 10 years that is not delivered over an IP network. There will be no newspapers, no magazines that are delivered in paper form. Everything gets delivered in an electronic form.

Yeah. If it’s 14 or if it’s 8, it’s immaterial to my fundamental point. . . . If we want TV to be more interactive, you’ll deliver it over an IP network. I mean, it’s sort of funny today. My son will stay up all night basically playing Xbox Live with friends that are in various parts of the world, and yet I can’t sit there in front of the TV and have the same kind of a social interaction around my favorite basketball game or golf match. It’s just because one of these things is delivered over an IP network and the other is not. . . .

Also in the world of 10 years from now, there are going to be far more producers of content than exist today. We’ve already started to see that certainly in the online world, but we’ve just scratched the surface. . . . I always take my favorite case: I grew up in Detroit. I went to a place called Detroit Country Day School. They’ve got a great basketball team. Why can’t I sit in front of my television and watch the Country Day basketball game when I know darn well it’s being video-recorded at all times? It’s there. It’s just not easy to navigate to.

In this video, he also talks about the future of advertising. Ballmer argues that it will be hard to distinguish between communication and entertainment and that advertising, commerce, and content will all blend.

Yahoo Strikes Deals with CBS, Wal-Mart; Unveils Yahoo Circular

Yahoo Goes Announcement Crazy

By Jason Lee Miller - Wed, 06/04/2008 - 12:47pm.

Strikes deals with CBS, Wal-Mart; Unveils Yahoo Circular 

Yahoo unleashed a blitz of announcements today, coinciding with president Sue Decker's keynote address at the Advertising 2.0 conference in New York. In short, Yahoo has inked advertising deals with CBS, Wal-Mart, and Havas Digital, all while launching Yahoo! Circular, an online retail marketing program inspired by newspaper circulars.

Speaking of newspapers, Yahoo also announced its Newspaper Consortium, a vast partnership with local newspapers, has quadrupled in size in just a year and a half, bringing the total membership to 779 newspapers. 

Decker claimed the display advertising world is on the verge of a "renaissance." Yahoo's renewed focus in this area mirrors recent acquisitions of DoubleClick and aQuantive by Google and Microsoft. 

Speaking of Microsoft, the announcements come just as the date for Yahoo's annual shareholder meeting was set for August 1. Corporate raider Carl Icahn and a slate of new board members are expected to attempt their coup at the meeting, targeting CEO Jerry Yang's job and trying to force a Microsoft acquisition agreement. 

Back to the sweep of announcements. "Yahoo! is helping to accelerate the transformation of how display advertising is both bought and sold," Decker said during her keynote. "First, we are developing the technology, products and platforms that are designed to help advertisers find the right audiences and publishers find the right advertisers. 

"Second, we are partnering with publishers to secure and monetize inventory that advertisers and agencies find desirable. And third, we are partnering with advertisers and agencies to channel demand to the right consumer."   

As part of this plan, Yahoo has pulled Walmart.com on board in a multi-year relationship allowing Yahoo to provide display and video advertising for the retail giant. Wal-Mart also announced this week its foray into the classified advertising space. According to the Yahoo deal, Wal-Mart will use Yahoo's AMP! Advertising management platform to reach Yahoo audiences, and Yahoo will be the exclusive reseller of Wal-Mart's display inventory. 

It is yet unknown if deals such as this will convince board members Yahoo was right to remain independent, or if the company will become that much more attractive to Microsoft. Yesterday, at the SMX Advanced Conference in Seattle, Microsoft's Kevin Johnson revealed the company's renewed focus on the "commercial intent" – or looking to buy – segment of the search populace. 

Along with this announcement, Yahoo boasts of adding CBS programming to Yahoo TV, which, in addition to NBC, Fox, and 15 cable networks, gives Yahoo a 92% reach of the US Web-based TV audience.

"It's all part of our strategy to become the starting point for the most consumers on the Web," said Karin Gilford, Yahoo's Vice President of Entertainment and Lifestyles. 

Also part of that strategy is Havas Digital. Havas has agreed to adopt the Right Media Exchange platform and AMP in a global partnership with Yahoo. "The combined capabilities will allow Havas Digital clients to execute highly segmented media buys on a mass scale," said Don Epperson, chief executive officer of Havas Digital.

AMP, which is due to roll out in the third quarter of 2008, will incorporate members of the Newspaper Consortium. Reaching 779 member newspapers, the partnership includes publishing groups Cox Newspapers, Day Publishing, E.W. Scripps, GateHouse Media, Hearst Newspapers, McClatchy Company, New York Daily News, New York Times Regional Group, Shaw Newspapers, The Times Publishing Company and the Tribune Review Publishing Company, among others—pretty much all of them except for Knight-Ridder and Gannett, it would seem. 

And finally (seems all these announcements at once dilutes the scale of the each announcement), in line with Yahoo's newspaper partnerships, the company unveiled its Circular Program, which allows retailers to distribute newspaper-like circulars across Yahoo's network. The circulars will be powered by Yahoo's ShopLocal program. 

"The largest driver of in-store traffic for retailers has traditionally been the print circular, and the Yahoo! Circular program is designed to enhance that," said Steven Feuling, category development officer for Yahoo!  "Harnessing our deep insight into user interests, Yahoo! can help retailers speak to consumers on a level that is more personal and engaging by putting just the right products and marketing messages in front of an interested shopper at just the right time."

That last part especially sounds like what Kevin Johnson spoke about regarding Microsoft's next moves. Good luck, Jerry. 

NEWS: Nokia Expands Advertising Network With Mobile Content Site "MOSH"

Ed: I don't get it. How is MOSH blue-chip?

Nokia Expands Advertising Network With Mobile Content Site "MOSH"

ESPOO,Finland, June 4 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- MOSH (http://mosh.nokia.com), a mobile and online content consumption, creation and sharing service, has joined the Nokia Media Network, and now offers advertisers the opportunity to reach customers around the globe who are downloading original mobile content. The Nokia Media Network provides reach to more than 100 million consumers around the globe through advertising on blue-chip mobile publishers, operator partners and Nokia properties.

"We are committed to expanding the Nokia Media Network, which is growing rapidly in both reach and quality, so we can drive greater results for our brand advertisers," said Mike Baker, vice president and head of Nokia Interactive Advertising. "The MOSH audience, comprised of the heaviest users of mobile content around the world, is particularly desirable to many of our top advertisers."...

Nokia Interactive Advertising provides brands with all they need to connect with and engage the mobile consumer, including the following:

    - The Nokia Media Network, which provides reach to millions of mobile       Internet users through advertising on blue-chip mobile publishers,       operator partners and Nokia services.      - Nokia Interactive Solutions, which creates end-to-end, high-performance       mobile experiences for brands and their customers.  

About Nokia

Nokia is the world leader in mobility, driving the transformation and growth of the converging Internet and communications industries. We make a wide range of mobile devices with services and software that enable people to experience music, navigation, video, television, imaging, games, business mobility and more. Developing and growing our offering of consumer Internet services, as well as our enterprise solutions and software, is a key area of focus. We also provide equipment, solutions and services for communications networks through Nokia Siemens Networks.

SOURCE Nokia Corporation

Reflections on Technology's Pace of Change

After 90 days of blogging, here are some quick observations.

• Staying Informed: Receiving many thousands of articles from hundreds of RSS feeds, Google Reader tells me that I read hundreds a day. This yields 3 to 5 articles a day. This process is inefficient. It's not real time because RSS is delayed. Dozens of mechanisms like Google Alert, Digg, Techmeme, Technorati, and Yahoo Groups add more noise. I don't have time for more feeds like Twitter or FriendFeed. No intelligent filtering mechanism exists to feed me what I need to read. Fortunately, I've organized my feeds into a dozen rivers and minimized the inefficient process to a one hour task.
• Technology Changes: National news has stuck with the elections, economy, sports, and disasters. In contrast, technology advances on many fronts. New mobile platforms from Apple iPhone, Google Android, RIM Blackberry, and Microsoft Mobile; desktop platforms from Adobe, Apple, Microsoft, Google, Yahoo; browser platforms from Apple, Firefox, Microsoft, Opera, start-ups; cloud infrastructure platforms from Amazon, Facebook, Google, Myspace, Microsoft, Yahoo challenge legacy stack choices from LAMP, Microsoft; dozens of open APIs release thousands of data sets via JSON, XML, web services, whatever; and over 300 AdNets push to change web monetization, led by AOL, Microsoft, and Yahoo. Millions of application developers must choose platform alliances. Hundreds of millions of content providers and active social participants seek widgets and services from these developers.
  
• Conversation Richness. Everyday conversations change slowly. With the election, we are down to two choices. With tennis, hockey, and basketball, there is a winner at the finals. American Idol ended with a winner, what's-his-name. With technology platforms, there are hundreds of choices. With widgets, there are thousands. When a winner emerges like Microsoft for software, Yahoo for content aggregation, or Google for SEM - they are challenged by new companies which restarts the conversation.
• Technology Conversations. Legacy publishers continue the dead-end discussion about Yahoo and Microsoft. The blogosphere has moved on the hundreds of platform changes where little consensus has emerged. When there is consensus, conversations will start among legacy publishers. That's been the cycle.

It's a challenge to keep up with technology. Most consumers just wait for a winner to emerge like Microsoft, Yahoo, or Google.

Are you overwhelmed by technology change?

NEWS: CNET Interview with Google Search Guru

At Google, a search guru's dream comes true

from CNET News.com | Tech news blog by Stephen Shankland

Q&A Search has become central to the functioning of the Internet, but Udi Manber isn't the kind of person who takes that for granted.

"I don't have to tell anybody around here that search is important. That's a very nice luxury to have," said Manber, the Google vice president in charge of search quality.

Udi Manber, Google VP, engineering

Search quality may seem like an unassuming element of Google's operations, but in fact it's at the core. Manber oversees the company's search algorithm--all the different inputs Google weighs to judge which Web sites to rank highest in search results.

Manber's work has been highly secret, partly because search is central to Google's competitive advantage and partly because Google doesn't want people gaming the system to get artificially prominent results. But the company has begun sharing a smidgen, including an opening blog post by Manber in May. I talked to him at Google headquarters recently.

How mature is search today on the Internet? Are we 5 percent of the way done with the problem? Ninety percent? 
My best analogy is that a 15-year-old thinks he's very mature. A 19-year-old thinks he's extremely mature. Every few years you learn that you were not mature before. Search on the Web is about 15 years old, and obviously we were much more mature than we were 5 years ago and 10 years ago and 15 years ago. One way to put it is that it's science fiction every 5 years. What's possible today to me was science fiction 5, or definitely 10 years ago. What was (ordinary) 10 years ago was science fiction 15 years ago. The development is really pretty amazing. It surprised even me. I expect a certain level of progress, and we're actually surpassing it...

Ed: Public expectations change over time. 

Microsoft and LAMP Stacks for CMS Platforms

Platform Considerations for the Microsoft Stack and LAMP Stack

Session Intro: Practical tips, tricks, and workarounds for search-friendly architecture.

• Microsoft Stack
  Including IIS, ASP.Net, Silverlight, Microsoft SQL Server
  
  
• LAMP Stack
  Including Apache, PHP, Ruby, Flash/Flex, mySQL
  
  
• CMS Considerations (such as .NET Blog Engine, AxCMS, Wordpress, Movable Type, Drupal, Joomla)

Vanessa Fox, Features Editor at Search Engine Land is moderating this session and speakers include Colin Cochrane, SEO Analyst and Web Developer at Metamend Search Engine Marketing, Thomas Deml, Senior Program Manager at Internet Information Services at Microsoft, Nikhil Kothari, Principal Architect at Microsoft, Duane Nickull, Senior Standards Strategist at Adobe Systems and Jeff Pollard, Chief Technology Officer at SEOmoz...

STATS: Share of Ad Spending by Medium - March 2008

Note: Internet spending estimates are from AdRelevance. All others from Nielsen Monitor-Plus. Different methodologies employed by each company may lead to disproportionate comparisons.

NEWS: "50% Chance" New Apple Tablets Next Week (AAPL)

AmTech: "50% Chance" New Apple Tablets Next Week (AAPL) 

from Silicon Alley Insider by Peter Kafka

Finally, an entertaining prediction for next week's WWDC event. AmTech's Shaw Wu forsees a "50% chance" we'll see a "hybrid between a Mac and iPod Touch" on Monday -- some sort of touchscreen device with either a 4-inch or 7-inch screen. That sounds a whole lot like a tablet computer to us -- a device that's seemed like a no-brainer for years, but really hasn't taken off. Ask Bill Gates. Or, for that matter, Steve Jobs, who tried this many moons ago with the Newton.

In any case, Shaw isn't banging the desk that hard on this prediction: "Timing is not clear, but we believe these devices will eventually be brought to market.". The rest of his WWDC forecast:

• 3G iPhone at current $399 iPhone price; old iPhone discounted by $50 to $100.
• New iPhone features: Thinner; better keyboard, GPS.
• New Macs "less likely"; anticipates "radically refreshed design this summer or fall."

Why Apple's iPhone Apps Platform Could Spark Huge iPhone Sales 

from Silicon Alley Insider by Dan Frommer

Next Monday, Apple (AAPL) chief Steve Jobs is expected to show off the long-awaited, second-edition iPhone. But some of the most important products Jobs will demo won't be made by Apple -- they'll be software apps created by other companies for the new iPhone/iPod touch platform.

Here's who we know is involved: Big firms like Time Warner's (TWX) AOL, Electronic Arts (ERTS), Sega, THQ (THQI), Salesforce.com (CRM) -- and startups like SixApart, Readdle, WebIS, Pelago, and whoever's making that cool multi-player Pong game. We also expect coders who made apps for "jailbroken" iPhones to develop official apps, like the popular Twitter client Twinkle and the Last.fm MobileScrobbler. And at some point, we think Microsoft (MSFT) and Google (GOOG) will create some nifty iPhone apps, too.

Why is the iPhone platform so important? Because it's the first mainstream mobile software platform with a centralized app store, a purchasing system iTunes users are already accustomed to (and are already signed up for), and a user-friendly installation system. Because of this, we think the iPhone has the chance to be the first phone that most users -- not just a few -- buy, install, and use third-party software for. Which could lead to huge success down the line for Apple.

To be sure, it's still a gamble for companies to throw a lot of resources at iPhone apps. Even if Apple sells all 10 million iPhones it plans to sell this year, that's still a market opportunity of less than 14 million phones at the end of 2008. (Plus however many million iPod touches are sold.) But people will buy about 990 million other phones this year, none of which can run iPhone apps.

And some developers may be turned off by Apple's terms: Apple must approve all apps, and will take a 30% cut of each one it sells. And it has the right to refuse certain kids of apps, like Internet phone software that screws their carrier partners; we can also see it nixing software that could compete with their own services, like an iTunes-rival music store. For those reasons, we think some developers will take a wait-and-see approach, or will skip the iPhone platform altogether.

But from what we've seen so far -- admittedly, not much -- we're think Apple's mobile platform will be a hit. We think a lot of people will buy a lot of software for their phones, and that with a thriving apps platform, Apple will sell a lot more iPhones than they'd be able to without it.

Location, location, location: The iPhone with GPS nears

from VentureBeat by MG Siegler

The GPS-enabled iPhone is coming — is your application ready?

Location Technologies Primer

from TechCrunch by Guest Author

Mobile location-based services (LBS) are generating renewed interest as both the market and technology mature to support the growing set of innovative services being released and in development today. This is being driven by new Location APIs and new location technologies, which are making it easier for mobile location developers to gain access to location information and develop innovative new LBS apps.

This article is a brief primer on the key location technologies that are emerging.

	Location Precision	TTFF	Requirements
WiFi MAC	Relatively High Depends on WiFi AP density <>	~ 4 seconds	Requires device support and network request. Requires WiFi DB.
Cell-ID	Relatively Low Depends on cell density 100-5000m	~ 4 seconds	Requires support from MSC and HLR, or Requires device and Cell-ID DB.
OTDOA (WCDMA) E-OTD (GSM) AFLT (CDMA)	Medium Precision Depends on cell density 40-400m	~ 6 seconds	Requires support from BSS, MSC and HLR. (require carrier network involvement)
A-GPS	High Precision “Sky Line of Sight” 5-50m	~ 10-30 sec start 5-10 sec updates	Device support (HW), GPS reference network.
GPS	High Precision “Sky Line of Sight” 5-20m	10-15 minutes start 1-2 sec updates	Device support (HW)

WWDC: IPhone to Take up One-third of Developer Sessions

from PC World: Latest Technology News

Anyone who doubts how important developing applications for the iPhone is to Apple needs only to look at the upcoming...

Ed: Cell phone universe is 3 times the size of PCs and laptops.