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The Economics of Digital Content

HTC Needs A (New) Hero: Q4 Earnings, Forecasts Point to Lean Times

Another bad-news day for HTC, which is sorely in need of one or two killer, new products to turn around its fortunes in the ever-competitive world of smartphones: in a trading update, the company’s sales for the month of January 2012 were down by more than 50 percent compared to a year ago, with the news coming on the same day that the company missed Q4 analyst forecasts.

The Morning Lowdown 2-6-12

Some of the stories people are talking about this morning:

»  First legal streaming Super Bowl a success, but audience still denied the real show (TechCrunch)

»  Facebook mobile ads developing: Sponsored stories coming “within weeks” (paidContent)

»  After a year, tablet daily is a struggle (NYT)

»  Elizabeth Spiers and the reinvented New York Observer (Felix Salmon)

»  Strange Facebook economics (Monday Note)

»  Print news media go live with video programming (NYT)

Slovakia's News Pay Wall Gets A Little Higher

The content payment system which signed up many of Slovakia’s leading publishers in 2011 is now adding two more.

Facebook Mobile Ads Developing: Sponsored Stories Coming 'Within Weeks'

It’s not digital advertising in the sense of display ads and search results, but it looks like we are getting a bit more color on what it is that Facebook will do first in the world of mobile marketing, and it could be coming online “within weeks.”

Academics Revolt Against Elsevier's Journal Pricing

Academics are staging a mini-revolt against science and medical journal publisher Elsevier’s terms, and analysts fear the movement could hit parent Reed Elsevier.

Briefing Media Takes Farmers And Doctors Off UBM's Hands

B2B publisher UBM is off-loading its UK magazines for farmers and doctors, as it looks to further exit the direct content publishing business in favour of data, marketing and events.

Social TV And The Super Bowl: When Will Marketers Start Really Spending?

In case you missed it, Super Bowl XLVI is forecast to be a watershed year for the second-screen concept, the quest to extend the television-viewing experience beyond the TV and into a socially networked universe of mobile devices.

Was Google's Disastrous January A Passing Storm Or Sign Of Things To Come?

It’s a little stunning to contemplate how wrong things have gone for Google (NSDQ: GOOG) in just the first month of 2012, as the company hopes to put a disastrous January in the rear-view mirror with perhaps another tear-jerking Super Bowl ad this Sunday. Larry Page and Sergey Brin haven’t turned into Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis or anything, but Google just endured the worst month in the company’s history and nothing will get easier as rivals and the government take aim at what used to be such a delightful fuzzy little tech success story.

Canalys: Worldwide Smartphone Shipments Overtake PC/Tablet Market

Even if you throw the exploding tablet market in with the staid PC market, shipments of smartphones surpassed those of “client PCs” in 2011, a milestone for the computer industry.

Apple Clarifies: We Don't Own The Content You Put Into iBooks Author

When Apple first released its free iBooks Author software, some were upset about its end-user licensing agreement, which states that works created in the program must be sold exclusively through Apple (NSDQ: AAPL). The company has now tweaked the EULA to make it a bit more clear.

U.S. Government Developing Android Phones, Promises Quick Software Updates

The U.S. government likes to do things its own way. Along those lines, it has decided to embrace Android as a smartphone platform for soldiers and other government employees because of the control it can exert over the software, which in turn underscores how much control Android partners have over the software.

The New York Times' About.com: From All-Star To Albatross

About.com is in free fall. The New York Times (NYSE: NYT) revealed yesterday that its network of information sites suffered a 67% drop in profits and that revenues had fallen by a quarter.

Books-A-Million Won't Carry Amazon Titles, Either

Books-A-Million—the nation’s second largest bookstore chain after Barnes & Noble (NYSE: BKS)—announced today that, like B&N, it will not carry Amazon (NSDQ: AMZN) Publishing titles in its stores.

Update: Facebook Has A Mobile Card Up Its Sleeve In Addition To Advertising

Much has been made of the mobile risks that Facebook laid out in its S-1 IPO filing earlier this week. Essentially, it’s seeing/pushing massive growth in mobile, but it still hasn’t tried out advertising, its most effective route to revenues, on this platform. That’s not to say it won’t. But meanwhile, there is another area where Facebook is already making money through mobile.

Google Fined In France For Offering Free Maps

The French are kicking Google (NSDQ: GOOG) again. This time, in a strange ruling, Paris’ commercial court has found the company is anti-competitive because it offers Google Maps for free to businesses.

Have The Hollywood Studios Finally Beaten Down Kaleidescape?

In the mid-2000s, a technology called Kaleidescape was all the rage among the Hollywood intelligensia. Fillmakers like Brett Ratner and high-end consumers raved about Kaleidescape, which lets owners upload their entire DVD collections onto one centralized hard drive that can be accessed from any screening room in their swanky homes.

The company behind the service had big plans to take it to the mass market, but then the studios set out to block the move, touching off an eight-year legal battle.

Random House Will Keep All Its E-Books In Libraries, With A Price Increase

Random House is now the only big six publisher to allow unrestricted access to all of its e-books in libraries—and it said yesterday it will continue to do so, though it is raising prices.

The Morning Lowdown 2-3-12

Some of the stories people are talking about this morning:

»  10 Key Statistics about Facebook (Experian Hitwise)

»  Analysis: A sobering look at Facebook (Reuters)

»  Advertisers’ Free Ride May End On Facebook (Wall Street Journal)

»  Europe Wants Google (NSDQ: GOOG) To Freeze Its New Privacy Policy (paidContent)

»  Yammer Time: In 2011 “Pretty Much Everything Tripled” (Tech Crunch)

Europe Wants Google To Freeze Its New Privacy Policy

An influential European privacy body has urged Google (NSDQ: GOOG) to “pause” its new privacy policy due to be implemented in March. The Article 29 Data Protection Working Party wrote a letter to Larry Page…

Apple v. Moto In Germany: One iPhone Injunction Ordered, Another One Lifted

Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) in the last 24 hours has been dealt not one but two blows in court cases involving Motorola (NYSE: MMI) and patents in Germany, one involving IP licensing on older iPhone models (not the 4S) and one involving iCloud. However, as the day progressed, an injunction on the sale of the older iPhone models was lifted as the cases continue to develop.