Apple’s iTunes has long dominated the market for online music purchases and it seems that it holds a similar stranglehold on the market for online movie and TV show purchases as well. New data from the NPD Group shows that iTunes accounts for 65% of all online movie downloads and 67% of all online TV show downloads, putting it significantly ahead of both Amazon Instant Video, which accounts for 10% of movie downloads and 8% of TV show downloads, and Xbox video, which accounts for 10% of movie downloads and 14% of TV show downloads. NPD analyst Russ Crupnick says that iTunes has stayed on top of the online video market because “Apple has successfully leveraged its first-mover advantage and of iTunes, iOS and the popularity of iPhone and iPad” to secure an enduring market advantage.
Akamai published its quarterly State of the Internet report on Tuesday covering global Internet speeds and Internet security from the last quarter of 2012. South Korea remained the leader in terms of Internet speeds, averaging a connection of 14 Mbps, TechCrunch reported. Speeds have fallen in the Asian country, however, by 4.8% since the third quarter of 2012 and by a whopping 13% since 2011. The United States ranked eighth in the world with an average connection speed of 7.4 Mbps, an increase of 28% year-over-year and of 2.3% since the third quarter of 2012. More →
The Internet isn’t the outlet of freedom and prosperity it used to be. The truth of the matter is that big name companies such as Google, Apple and Microsoft control and censor what we see online. As noted by Tristan Louis at Forbes, an individual can’t reach a majority of Internet users without the approval of a large company. If Google or Apple deem an application isn’t suitable, they can keep it out of their mobile app stores — and the same can happen with a webpage if it’s unlisted on Google or even Bing. More →
Netflix reported a blowout quarter on Monday as its subscribers in the United States surged to more than 29 million, thus giving it even more paid monthly subscribers than HBO. The stock jumped more than 25% on the news. But financials and subscriber numbers are only part of what makes Netflix such a success story: According to NPR, some analysts are now estimating that “Netflix alone takes up a third of U.S. bandwidth between 9:00 PM and midnight.” Given these sorts of enormous bandwidth requirements, it’s easy to see why Netflix keeps such close track of how fast ISPs’ connections deliver video streams to the home, since slower connections inhibit the company’s ability to grow its online business.
Remember how Time Warner Cable executives tried to claim that American consumers don’t actually want 1Gbps broadband connections? Well, InfoWorld’s Paul Venezia isn’t having any of it and says that ISPs who deny the challenge that Google Fiber represents are whistling past their own graveyards. In particular, Venezia says that he’s surprised that ISPs have kept insisting that ”customers don’t want gigabit Internet,” which he likens to “a lead paint salesman pooh-poohing latex paint because ‘customers don’t want their health.’” More →
For a monthly fee of $7.99, Netflix customers have access to a wide variety of TV shows, movies and original content. More often than not, however, users frequently share accounts between family members and friends due to the company’s relaxed policies. Michael Pachter of Wedbush Securities believes chief executive Reed Hastings should try to squeeze more profit from his 33.3 million customers by “cracking down on piracy” or even raising prices. The analyst claims that as many as 10 million people are accessing the service without paying, which is ultimately hurting Netflix’s potential revenue. More →
Google’s award-winning intelligent personal assistant Google Now may be heading to the company’s homepage. The unofficial Google Operating System blog recently discovered the new feature mentioned in a series of code. Google Now is currently only available on Android smartphones and tablets running version 4.1 or later, and is rumored to be heading to iOS and Chrome in the near future. Adding Google Now to the company’s homepage will allow the feature to be utilized by billions of people worldwide. The source code suggests that Google Now on the Web will share the same features as on Android, allowing individuals to set a home and work location to show relevant information like weather, traffic conditions and nearby locations. Google could debut the new version of Google Now at its annual I/O Developers Conference on May 15th.
Google chairman and former chief executive Eric Schmidt recently embarked on a highly publicized, and criticized, trip to North Korea. The executive’s visit to one of the world’s most unplugged nations left an everlasting impression on him. Schmidt explained in an article published by The Wall Street Journal that it isn’t possible to have a modern society without access to the Internet, noting that every country, except North Korea, has embraced the Internet in some form. The Internet brings freedom; freedom of speech, freedom of information and in some cases, as we have seen with the Arab Spring, revolution. Schmidt warned, however, that there is also a dark side to the digital revolution. More →
The Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA), which passed the House of Representatives this week, has drawn a lot of criticism from activist groups such as the Electronic Frontier Foundation for potentially undermining users’ online privacy. In particular, the EFF has said that the bill gives Internet companies the right “to monitor user actions and share data – including potentially sensitive user data – with the government without a warrant” and also “overrides existing privacy law, and grants broad immunities to participating companies.” More →
A new report suggests that online movie and TV streaming service Hulu may be looking to sell. According to Reuters, Hulu, which is a joint venture between ABC and Fox, has hired financial services firm Guggenheim Partners to advise the company on a potential sale. Hulu had previously hired the firm in 2011, however it was unable to find a buyer that was willing to pay the $2 billion asking price. In addition to advising the company, Guggenheim Partners is said to be interested in making a bid for Hulu, which may pose a conflict of interest. The firm created a separate Guggenheim Digital Media unit in January that is headed by former Yahoo CEO and News Corp executive Ross Levinsohn, who is reportedly interested in a deal with the company. In 2012, Hulu generated revenues of around $700 million from more than 3 million premium subscribers.
Cable companies have long dismissed gigabit Internet speeds as a luxury that most consumers don’t really want but venture capitalist Hunter Walk thinks that consumer expectations for broadband service will change once they experience Google’s high-speed Google Fiber service for themselves. Walk, a former Google executive who left the company earlier this year to start his own VC firm, recently travelled to Kansas City to experience Google Fiber first hand and came away very impressed. More →
Provo, Utah isn’t as well-known as Kansas City or Austin but it’s nonetheless become the third city to get access to Google’s high-speed Google Fiber television and Internet service. The expansion to Provo will be relatively simple for Google since the city already has its own fiber network known as iProvo. Google announced on Wednesday that it will buy iProvo from the city and will “upgrade the network to gigabit technology and finish network construction so that every home along the existing iProvo network would have the opportunity to connect to Google Fiber.” Google says that Provo, which has a population of around 115,000, is a terrific market for Google Fiber because it “ranks second in the nation in patent growth, and is consistently ranked as one of the top places to live and do business in the U.S.”
