MtGox bitcoin exchange reopens so users can stare listlessly at their loss
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The collapsed bitcoin exchange now lets users log in so they can look at, but not touch, their balances. By Alex Hern
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IT shops face ever greater mobile demands from users
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Computerworld – Nearly two-thirds of mobile device users own three or more network-connected devices, according to an online survey of 5,000
people conducted in November in the U.S. and eight other countries ( download PDF).
That finding shows just how popular smartphones, tablets and other connected devices — including cars — have become in the
past two years. And it also shows the challenges facing IT shops that manage workers who now expect to have constant network
connections in the office and while on the road.
Aruba, a networking company, commissioned the online survey, which was done by Shape the Future. In the U.S., 1,133 people
responded.
“While everybody seems to be using mobile devices, the interest now is magnified with [62%] owning three or more connected
devices,” Manav Kurana, vice president of product and solutions marketing for Aruba, said in an interview.
Among younger mobile users, ages 18 to 35, the survey found that 70% preferred Wi-Fi over any other network connection, including
3G and 4G cellular. Overall, 57% preferred Wi-Fi.
The survey also found that users are becoming more tech savvy and want their cars, homes and even their clothes to be network-connected,
Kurana said.
The survey’s findings imply that companies need to make Wi-Fi more of a “utility like air and water everywhere because that’s
how people want to connect,” Kurana said.
He said the results also imply that IT shops can cut the cord on desk phones and need to create more self-service tools to
help workers maintain their devices on their own. That also means that IT shops need to simplify mobile device operations
at work, which could require finding alternatives to complex passwords used to authenticate devices when it is hard to type
in complex passwords on small virtual keyboards, Kurana said.
IT shops also need to know there are now more opportunities to interact with workers and visitors based on their location.
“Most people will give opt-in to give their location if there’s value in doing so,” Kurana said. “On the other hand, everybody
hates having their location known without their permission.”
In addition to the U.S., other countries in the survey included the UK, France, Spain, Germany, Sweden, South Africa, Saudi
Arabia and the UAE.
Matt Hamblen covers mobile and wireless, smartphones and other handhelds, and wireless networking for Computerworld. Follow Matt on Twitter
at @matthamblen or subscribe to Matt’s RSS feed. His email address is mhamblen@computerworld.com.
See more by Matt Hamblen on Computerworld.com.
Read more about mobile device management in Computerworld’s Mobile Device Management Topic Center.
Android"s "weak gravity" means users drift away to iPhone, study finds
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UK survey of first-, second- and third-time smartphone owners finds that iPhone share grows over time
“Weak gravity” might sound like something from the Oscar-nominated film – but instead it’s a paradox that a UK company says it has identified in Android smartphones.
Specifically, “weak gravity” means that although first-time smartphone buyers in the UK are far more likely to buy an Android phone than Apple’s iPhone, and more likely to stay with it than iPhone users are, Apple pulls more users into its orbit on successive purchases than it loses, increasing its share of total users.
The “pull” is so strong that although 65% of first-time smartphone owners buy an Android phone, compared to 19% for iPhones, by the time they are on their third phone the ownership ratios are 49% for Android and 37% for the iPhone.
The data emerges from a study carried out in September 2013 (PDF) of 450 British owners of smartphones carried out for Foolproof, a London-based user experience company. Though the number sampled might seem small, it was carried out by a professional survey panel company with respondents around the UK, and is large enough to be statistically representative of the UK population of smartphone owners, said Philip Morton, Foolproof’s principal consultant.
“We started out looking into what’s called the ‘Android engagement paradox’ – the fact that although Android phones are more widely used, they don’t show up as much in web usage statistics,” Morton told the Guardian.
But in surveying the panels of smartphone owners – with 150 each on their first, second and third smartphone – they discovered a different paradox: a tendency for Android users to gravitate towards an iPhone, despite higher average loyalty to Google’s platform.
The findings broadly agree with surveys in the US carried out by Consumer Intelligence Research Partners (CIRP), which interviewed 500 buyers of smartphones between April and June 2013. That found that Android had the largest share of buyers – but that iPhones had the better retention, with 78% of those who activated a new phone staying with Apple’s offering, while only 67% of Android buyers remained with it. A study at the same time by the consultancy group Yankee Group said that Android was a “leaky bucket” in the US, and forecast that the total number of iPhone users will pass Android users during 2014.
The Foolproof survey found that among first-time smartphone owners with an Android device, 59% intended to get another Android phone. For second-time owners, it was 56%; for third-timers, 54%.
By contrast, with iPhone owners the “intention to renew” started lower – at 47% for first-time owners – and then rose to 50% on the second and 54% on the third, the same as for Android.
Overall, it found a general trend towards iPhone ownership, with loyalty growing on each successive purchase, against falling loyalty towards Android.
This meant Android lost share over time because its higher total number of users created a larger number of switchers to iPhone use. The smaller number of iPhone users, by contrast, meant smaller numbers of switchers. The iPhone was also better than Android at attracting former BlackBerry users.
Separate data from ComScore suggests that in November 2013 there were 35.3m smartphone users in the UK, and about 14.2m featurephone users. Of those about 18.3m were Android users, and 10.3m iPhone users. BlackBerry users made up 3.3m, Windows Phone owners 2.1m, and Nokia Symbian users 1m.
The rapid growth in smartphone adoption of the past two years has now begun to slow, with a growing number of people considering upgrades. Data from the research company Mediacells says that 9.7m UK owners will upgrade their smartphone in 2014, compared to 8m who will get their first one.
However the data offered some encouragement for BlackBerry, where its share remained steady among second- and third-time buyers.
Morton thinks that the shift from Android to iPhone could be due to evolving needs as people get used to smartphones. “The proportion of Android owners gets smaller as we looked at people who were on their second or third smartphone,” he said. “We think it’s because what you could call the ‘job to be done’ by the phones changes – the role that people have in their lives for these phones.
“If you’re a featurephone user who is coming to replace your phone, then you just want it to do calls and texts – so pricing is going to be important, and other things like the camera quality or apps won’t be a big concern. But as people use their first smartphone and get more experience with it, over time the role that the phone plays in their lives influences their next buying decision. The results that you see here is that people want to choose the best smartphone for their needs.”
He thinks that “there is a block of stuff that attracts people to the Android platform in the first place, but these get less strong over time. Price is the key thing, but this becomes less important as the phone has more value in their lives. We had a theory that this might come out, but we were shocked by how clear the trend was. We thought it would be messier.”
FIGURE TRENDS
But Ben Wood, principal analyst at the research firm CCS Insight, was initially sceptical about the survey findings. “In the US I would totally expect this, because that’s an iPhone fortress – for most consumers that’s the phone of choice there. And Android plays well to first-time buyers. But I wonder if this will be true into the future. From talking to retailers [in the UK] it feels like other smartphones [than the iPhone] are starting to get a little bit of traction. Yes, iPhone users are very engaged – but Android is becoming more attractive at the higher end. The ‘app gap’ [between offerings on the iPhone and Android] has closed dramatically. That has made people resist switching. If Apple wants to continue to take advantage of the trend in future, it will have to have something special with the iPhone 6, whenever it lands.”
Foolproof’s survey didn’t look into differences in loyalty between owners of cheaper and more expensive Android phones.
CIRP’s survey in the US found that Samsung had the highest retention rate among Android manufacturers, at 52%, compared to 27% for HTC, 18% for LG and 9% for Google subsidiary Motorola.
The Foolproof study asked a single group of people at the same time about their smartphone use, rather than tracking a single cohort through successive purchases.
Labour"s Thunderclap heard by 4.5 million Twitter users
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Party’s #freezethatbill campaign was tweeted by 848 people simultaneously, ensuring wide reach but also annoyance. By Alex Hern.
Following in the footsteps of Facebook, anything you post, like, comment or review on Google or tied-in services can in future be used in product endorsement ads.
It means that starting Nov. 11, when Google’s new terms of service go live, all content (video, brands or products) Google+ and YouTube users publicly endorse by clicking on the “+1” or “Like” button can appear in an ad with that person’s image.
Such “shared endorsements” ads will also appear on millions of other websites that are part of Google’s display advertising network.
Google+ users will have the ability to opt out by turn the setting to “off,” but at the same time it “doesn’t change whether your Profile name or photo may be used in other places such as Google Play.”
“For users under 18, their actions won’t appear in shared endorsements in ads and certain other contexts,” the announcement on Google’s website reads.
Google’s move follows a similar change Facebook imposed in August. There it is called “sponsored stories.” It works almost exactly the same way – a recommendation made through the social network’s “like” button appears as advertising endorsement on a friend’s Facebook page.
While both companies say the service will be helpful for users, Google’s revised terms of service have again raised privacy concerns.
“It’s a huge privacy problem,” Reuters cited Marc Rotenberg, the director of online privacy group EPIC, as saying.
He has called on the US Federal Trade Commission to investigate whether the policy change violates a 2011 consent order that prohibits Google from retroactively changing users’ privacy settings.
The announcement also was harshly criticized on Google’s profile, with users expressing dismay and disappointment. Some users suggested they might pull down all their current pictures or change profile pictures.
What’s This?
2013-06-20 17:27:04 UTC
Instagram now has 130 million monthly active users, co-founder Kevin Systrom revealed Thursday at Facebook. Those users have shared 16 billion photos on the service since it launched in late 2010 and Liked 1 billion posts every day.
Systrom revealed the stats during a Facebook event Thursday just before he formally announced the introduction of video to Instagram. As Systrom pointed out, the video service will be available to 130 million people “on day one,” making it a huge competitor to similar services like Twitter’s Vine.
Facebook’s co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg also revealed during the event that Instagram’s team has tripled in size from the 12 people who were on staff when the startup was acquired just more than a year ago.
Instagram topped 100 million users in September.
Image courtesy of Facebook
Topics: Facebook, instagram, Social Media
