Michael's Insight

MegaUpload shutdown resulted in web traffic drop

Follow the traffic: What MegaUpload's downfall did to the web [GigaOM]

On January 19, the FBI raided the offices of the file sharing site MegaUpload, arresting four officers including the CEO. The company behind the site is being indicted for criminal copyright infringement and racketeering. Prior to the raid, MegaUpload was notorious for being a source for pirated television shows and movies.

As part of the FBI raid, the site was shut down. GigaOM turned to a few companies that monitor Internet traffic loads to get a glimpse of the effect the MegaUpload shutdown. Arbor Networks saw significant drops in traffic in Europe immediately following the MegaUpload shutdown (roughly 2 p.m. Eastern), and fairly significant, although less drastic, drops in the U.S.

Sandvine also shared data that suggested MegaUpload had become one of the more popular content sharing sites on the web. According to Sandvine, just under 1 percent of all web traffic in the U.S. was from MegaUpload. This was far and away the highest percentage among "storage and back-up services." Second on the list was 4Shared, which provided only .08% of all traffic.

DSL continues decline in customers

The continued decline of DSL [GigaOM] 

In the early years of broadband Internet, DSL service from companies like Verizon and AT&T were competitive options to cable broadband. However, lately both of those companies have posted significant losses in their number of DSL customers.

During the fourth quarter of 2011, Verizon lost 103,000 total DSL lines and AT&T lost 636,000 lines. In fact, AT&T lost over 1.5 million DSL customers during the last three quarters of 2011.

What's the reason for the mass migration from DSL? The main reason is because cable providers offer a far superior broadband product to the former DSL customers. Just this week, Time Warner Cable announced that during the same period that Ma Bell lost over 600,000 DSL customers, 130,000 customers signed up for cable broaband with TWC. While other cable providers have yet to announce results for the previous quarter, expect similar defections from DSL to cable broadband.

Apple takes lead in smartphone marketshare

BOOM: Apple Passes Android To Take The Market Share Lead In The US, Says Kantar [SAI] 

New research from Kantar Worldpanel ComTech says that the lead Android once enjoyed over Apple in the smartphone market is gone. The latest report shows Apple now has 44.9% of the market, while Android is holding on to 44.8%. 

Lead by the launch of the iPhone 4S last fall, Apple's market share has nearly doubled over the past year. Google's Android had moved into a dominant market position.

There's no doubt that much of the reason the iPhone lagged so far behind Android in the past was because it was strictly available from one provider. Now, of course, the iPhone is available on the three largest mobile providers in the U.S . With the mobile network playing field leveled, Android's lead has been dwindling and now is gone completely.

Google proposing Internet protocol changes to improve speed

Google hopes to speed up the web with SPDY and TCP proposals [The Verge]

There are a number of things that can cause your Internet connection to run a little slower than you'd like. One potential drag on your speed is the protocol that forms the basis of all transmissions on the Internet.

The current protocols used in handling web traffic are quite old (at least by technology standards) and in many ways haven't kept up with advances in other aspects of the web. Although these protocols don't result in much more than very tiny delays, Google is looking to advance two new protocols to make web surfing just a little faster.

The first protocol proposal from Google is called SPDY (pronounced speedy). SDPY works with Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) and allows for multiple requests through a single connection. SDPY is already built into Google Chrome and will be in the next version of Mozilla Firefox (version 11), but Google is hoping that the HTTP Working Group charged with developing HTTP 2.0 will also include SDPY in its final product.

Google's second proposal is an enhancement to TCP or Transmission Control Protocol. The TCP proposal isn't as far along as SDPY and aims at a more fundamental protocol action. Google believes TCP can be sped up by reducing the number of "round trips" necessary for a data request. The proposal lists several tweaks to TCP to help reduce latency.

Apple sees 350,000 textbooks downloaded in first three days after announcement

350,000 Textbooks Downloaded From Apple's iBooks in Three Days [All Things D]

Last week Apple began offering textbooks through the iBooks Store. Three days later some 350,000 textbooks had been downloaded according to Apple.

It should be noted that it's not clear how many of these downloads were of E.O. Wilson's Life on Earth, which was offered for free so that users could see firsthand how textbooks looked on the iPad.

In perhaps more important news, iBooks Author, the developer tool for creating iBooks textbooks, was downloaded roughly 90,000 times in that same three-day period, meaning more and more offerings could be popping up in the iBooks Store.

Tablet and e-reader ownership nearly double in December

Thanks To Santa, Tablets And E-Readers Are (Almost) Everywhere [Tech Crunch]

It was apparent early on that tablet and e-reader manufacturers had a strong holiday season. Now the Pew Research Center's Internet and American Life Project is putting some numbers behind the devices sales. 

Telephone surveys were taken through mid-December and January and the results show that ownership of both tablets and e-readers nearly doubled in the course of one month. In December of 2011, 10 percent of US adults owned tablet devices and 10 percent owned e-readers. The comparison survey conducted in January of 2012 showed that the percentages for each category jumped to roughly 19 percent.  

For the most part tablets and e-readers have grown at the same rate with the percentage of ownership differing on average only about 1 to 2 percent each month. Both stayed relatively stagnant throughout the Fall of 2011 before spiking in January.

CableLabs looking to develop 3DTV interoperability

CableLabs sets interop for 3-D TVs, set-tops [CED Magazine] 

CableLabs, the research and development consortium of the nation's cable providers, is set to provide manufacturers of various 3DTV sets and devices with its OpenCable 3DTV specifications.

This is an initiative CableLabs has been working on for close to two years to ensure that both older and newer set-tops are able to support as high resolution 3D as possible. In fact, the CableLabs 3-D TV Lab was established in 2010 to test prototypes for the purpose of ensuring interoperability with the various 3DTV technologies and services available.

Manufacturers of 3DTV devices have been invited to a meeting, which will be held February 13 through 17, to show off the lab and the interoperability that has been achieved using the newly developed OpenCable 3DTV specifications.

 

Time Warner Cable releases iPhone app

Time Warner Cable Brings Live TV To iPhone [Multichannel News]

Time Warner Cable has begun streaming its content to another wireless device – the iPhone.

A new app on the Apple iTunes Store allows iPhone users to watch live TV from roughly 200 channels on their devices over their home wireless networks. Time Warner Cable is hoping to have an Android version of the app that works with Android 4.0 ready to launch later this year.

Time Warner Cable's iPad app was released in March of 2011 and was met with resistance from many programmers – none more so than Viacom, which sued the cable provider within the first month of the app's release. The legal action is on hold but the two companies have still not reached an agreement and Viacom's content is currently not available on either the iPad or iPhone apps.

Much like the iPad app, the iPhone app includes a detailed, interactive guide, set-top remote control features, and DVR management – in addition to the live streaming.

For a full list of available programming, head over to TWC's "Untangled" blog.

 

Apple announces digital textbook publishing for the iPad

Apple's iBook 2 Textbooks Arrive Today for $15 [Gizmodo]

Apple's iBooks 2 app went live on Friday with a new feature aimed at reinventing educational textbooks. Textbooks designed for the iPad are now available at the iBooks store. While there are already thousands of apps in the App Store that put the iPad's potential to use for educational purposes, Apple's going a step further to eliminate the need for a backpack to carry numerous heavy textbooks.

Apple has struck deals with major textbook publishers McGraw-Hill, Pearson, and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, and has provided a free textbook publishing program for other third-party publishers to add their content to iBooks.

Apple doesn't want iBooks textbooks to simply be digital copies of printed books. Publishers can incorporate interactive images, 3D graphics, and videos into their digital textbooks.

Comcast connected cable box shows up for FCC review

Comcast's connected cable box making a run at the FCC? [EngadgetHD]

Comcast hasn't kept its broadband connected set-top box project a secret, but the latest developments show that the cable provider is taking some more aggressive steps toward making its connected box a reality. The box will integrate Comcast's video product with its broadband.

The FCC web site for review of new electronic devices now has a user guide, labels and a diagram of Comcast's boxes, signifying that Comcast is already working toward FCC approval of the connected box.

Reports of Comcast's test programs for the device referred to a box named "Xcalibur," but the boxes shown in the FCC filings have been manufactured by Pace and have been labeled "Parker" boxes. They contain the regular inputs of all set-top boxes with an added SD Card Slot and eSATA port. The diagrammed unit has an Ethernet port but no Wi-Fi connectivity.

Average online video viewer watched 23 hours in December

Average Online Video Usage Hits 23 Hours in December [Multichannel News]

ComScore's December figures are out and online video viewing has continued to grow.

In December, 43.5 billion videos were viewed online by roughly 182 million U.S. viewers. In terms of time spent watching videos, comScore found that the average American watched 23.2 hours worth of online video during the month of December. 

Of the all U.S. Internet users, 85 percent claimed to have watched online video. The majority of online video watching is still short form, however, as the average video watched in December lasted only 5.8 minutes.

The continued strength of short videos means YouTube held onto its massive lead in the online video market. The Google-owned video site had 157.2 million unique viewers, while the second highest site, VEVO, had only 53.7 million uniques. Yahoo! sites were third (53.3 million) followed by Viacom (45.8 million) and Facebook (42 million).

In terms of advertising, 7.1 billion online video ads were viewed in the month, accounting for 14.1% of all videos viewed. Hulu topped the ad impression chart with about 1.5 billion ads. Over 3 billion minutes were spent watching online ads in the U.S

Google fiber project runs into delays over pole placement

Google Fiber work in KCK is delayed by dispute over how its wires are hung [The Kansas City Star] 

Last spring, Google announced that Kansas City would be the home of its new project to deliver broadband to residents through fiber-to-the-home.

At the time of the announcement, statements from Google led many to believe that the area's utility poles were ready for Google's fiber to be attached. The poles were said to have plenty of room for the fiber, and the governing authority for the poles on the Kansas side of Kansas City – the Unified Government of Wyandotte County – owned both the poles and the board of public utilities, which would seem to make it easier for Google to come to town and attach to the poles.

The utility pole situation in Kansas City, however, appears to be less ideal than once believed. Google has encountered issues regarding where and how to attach its fiber to the poles in Kansas City. There is also a dispute over the cost for installing the fiber and the fees for continued use of the poles. Engineers and attorneys have been trying to resolve the issue ever since Google announced.

Welcome to the cable/broadband business, Google!  Now you're getting a small taste of just how complicated our business can be.

The dispute basically boils down to two choices for Google. Either it can pay the fee that telcos and cable providers pay to attach lower on the pole, or attach higher on the pole where electrical wires are attached. There would be no fee in that scenario, based on a special subsidy given by local government, but Google would face the much more uncertain cost of the serious safety concerns for technicians and customers that would result from attaching fiber so close to electrical wires -- a practice that is prohibited by most telecom providers for obvious reasons.

Due to the dispute, it appears that Google's fiber project will be delayed.

This is a great example of how careless a company like Google can be by creating such hoopla without the benefit of a full understanding of the complications and implications of what they propose to do.  A little study may have been in order here.

Internet now has 2.1 billion users

Internet now active with 2.1 billion users [CNET News]

Internet-traffic website Pingdom has taken a close look at overall Internet traffic and released a study named "Internet 2011 in numbers". 

The most notable result of the study was the incredible growth in the number of overall Internet users. Back in 2000, roughly 360,000,000 people used the Internet. Now, however, roughly 30 percent of the world's population is online – 2.1 billion users.

More Internet users are from Asia than any other continent with 44 percent of all users (922 million total). Europe came in second with 23 percent (476 million) and North America was third with 13 percent (271 million). China has more users than any other country with 485 million users – roughly 36 percent of its population.

Also according to the study, there are 3.1 billion email accounts in the world and 555 million different websites. Interestingly, 300 million of the 555 million websites were added in the past year. Social media appears to be growing exponentially as well, as 200 million of Facebook's overall 800 million users joined in the past year and 100 million of the 225 million Twitter users became active in 2011.

 For all the growth the Internet has undergone since its inception (and especially over the past year), there's no reason to expect these numbers to do anything but continue to skyrocket.

Cable tops list of fastest broadband providers

Cable Had Fastest Broadband Downloads In 2011: Net Index [Multichannel News]

In 2011, cable providers left telco and satellite companies in the dust when it came to broadband download speeds. For the year, the top six broadband providers in terms of speed were all cable providers, including both Insight and Time Warner Cable. Further, the study was completed by Ookla's Net Index which does not include Brighthouse and Suddenlink in its results.

The top six average broadband speeds by cable operators ranged from 14.22 Mbps to 17.19 Mbps. 

Telco's DSL service came in much father down the list because the upgrade to DOCSIS 3.0 has made cable broadband capable of much higher speeds that DSL simply can't deliver. AT&T delivered only 4.40 Mbps average download speed nationally. Net Index results showed that satellite and wireless services were even slower than DSL.

In Kentucky, Insight was ranked second among all providers in download speeds at 13.33 Mbps. Way down the list in 22nd place is AT&T at 3.05 Mbps. Insight's customers rated Insight's broadband service 3.7 out of 5 stars while AT&T's customers only gave their provider 2.2 stars.

Politico to use Facebook data to measure political trends

Politico analyzing Facebook user data to measure political sentiment [The Verge]

Your Facebook data will now be used to study trends in voter sentiments for political analysis. The Washington DC publication Politico has teamed up with Facebook to create charts detailing the sentiment of Facebook users toward political candidates over time.

With the South Carolina Republican primary taking place this coming Saturday, Politico wanted to see how many mentions in posts and comments each of the remaining candidates was receiving on Facebook, and Facebook was willing to provide the information. 

The major potential problem for Facebook here, especially considering its troubled past with privacy issues, is that the data being sent to Politico includes material that users have marked private – according to All Things D. Facebook contends that the data is sent in the aggregate without any personally identifying information.

Facebook publicly announced this arrangement with Politico on Tuesday morning.

Two-thirds of U.S. households have at least one HDTV

New study says more than 2/3 of U.S. Households have at least 1 HDTV set [Jake's DTV Blog]

Over the past 5 years HDTV ownership in the U.S. Has jumped 52 percent. Now, 69 percent of U.S. households have at least one HDTV set, according to new research from Leichtman Research Group.

Higher income households have higher percentages of HDTV ownership, as 85% of families with an income over $75,000 per year have at least one HDTV. While households with incomes under $30,000 a year have significantly lower HDTV ownership, there still is at least one HDTV in 48 percent of those homes. 

While HDTV's have grown so impressively, older sets are still being used. Of all the TV sets in use in the U.S., about 60% are not HDTVs. Understandably, more households seem to have moved to HDTVs in their primary viewing areas, while using their older sets elsewhere in the house. 

3DTV has not seen nearly as much growth as HDTV has over the past few years. In fact, the numbers for 3DTVs were downright abysmal. Eighty percent of respondents knew about 3DTV but only 5 percent even expressed interest in owning a 3DTV. Even worse, of the 3 percent of households that own a 3DTV, fewer than half of those households even make use of the 3D capability.

Google TV announcements sparse at CES

Where were all the Google TVs at CES? [GigaOM]

Going into this year's Consumer Electronics Show, there was considerable buzz surrounding Google TV. There were rumblings about new partnership deals and even a quote from Google Chairman Eric Schimdt that by next summer Google TV would be on "the majority of the televisions you see in stores."

Well, CES has come and gone and the news surrounding Google TV wasn’t at all what many thought it would be. 

Both Sony and Vizio announced Google TV-equipped streaming devices and Blu-ray players. Even some of the strongest of these devices, however, haven't had a significant impact – Roku has only shipped about 2.5 million units in the three years it has been around. 

LG and Vizio announced new high-end 3DTV's with Google TV, but Sony has taken Google TV off any TVs that had been equipped with the software in the past and Samsung made no Google TV announcements at all at CES, instead unveiling enhanced apps on its own platform.

While there was some Google TV news at CES, it was all limited to streaming devices and a few high-end 3DTV's. Without a wider impact this year, it's looking like Google TV is not going to have the substantial impact that it was rumored to have before CES.

The fact is, there is a huge universe of programming that can stream into people's homes over a high-speed broadband connection -- so much content that it's really difficult to make it easy enough for most people to find what they want to watch.  Most research indicates that the vast majority still want to kick back, pop open the can of soda, and flip through the channels.  Although younger people are more apt to work harder to find streaming options, I believe it will take years before that type of TV viewing becomes mainstream.

Amazon to sell UltraViolet content

Amazon Is The First Retailer To Give Its Blessing To Hollywood's New Movie Format [Silicon Alley Insider]

This past October a new digital format for purchasing and sharing movies was released - UltraViolet - amd touted by Hollywood as the next successful format for movie buying. 

With the UltraViolet format, viewers can buy a digital copy of a movie, have it stored in an online locker and stream the movie on various mobile devices and televisions. 

UltraViolet has not yet seen widespread adoption, as major digital retailers had very little incentive to support the format. Both Amazon and Apple, for instance, have their own locker storage for movies, music, and all media. UltraViolet was also criticized for being very difficult to use. 

At this year's CES, UltraViolet got its first major boost in support as Amazon has inked a deal to offer UltraViolet format movies. Prior to this deal, UltraViolet had received praise from retailers like Best Buy and Wal-Mart, but none had been willing to go as far as to sign an actual deal to sell UltraViolet formatted content. 

A partnership with Amazon could be enough on its own to make UltraViolet a success. In the announcement of the deal, Amazon and UltraViolet predicted that plenty of devices with UltraViolet support would be available by the 2012 holiday season.

 

 

TWC set to unveil app for Panasonic televisions

Time Warner Cable building an app for Panasonic TVs [GigaOM]

Broadband connected TV apps have become very popular over the past couple years with apps for virtually every online video service popping up on sets from nearly every major manufacturer.

Despite the progress connected TV apps have made, there has not yet been an app from a major cable or satellite provider available on connected television. That could be changing this year.

Time Warner Cable has developed a streaming video app for Panasonic Viera TV's. Tha TWC connected TV app demoed at the Panasonic booth at CES.

It's unclear when the app will actually make its way to market, but a representative from Time Warner Cable told GigaOM that they would like to launch this year – across multiple platforms.

Time Warner Cable rolls out HBO Go and Max Go

With beta trial completed, Time Warner Cable launches HBO Go, Max Go [EngadgetHD]

Just four days after launching a beta test, Time Warner Cable is giving an all-systems go for HBO Go and Max Go, the online streaming portals for HBO and Cinemax programming and movies. HBO Go and Max Go will be provided to TWC customers that subscribe to HBO and Cinemax channels.

Both services offer TWC customers the ability to stream 1,400 HBO titles and 400 Cinemax titles directly to their computer or tablet through an accompanying app.  Time Warner Cable's brief beta test involved the company's SignatureHome customers, and was clearly successful given the short timeframe of the test.  

This is great news for Insight customers too as they will become part of the Time Warner service area when our merger with TWC is completed.

Vizio to introduce streaming set-top

Vizio Causes More HDTV Mayhem with the $100 1080p Stream Player [Gizmodo]

Television manufacturer Vizio has decided to jump into the streaming video set-top game with the introduction of the VAP430 Stream Player. Vizio announced the set-top at this year's Consumer Electronics Show.

The set-top will include broadband connectivity via an Ethernet port or Wi-Fi and it will have an HDMI port capable of streaming content of up to 1080p resolution.

Vizio's set-top will come equipped with Google TV, becoming the third Google TV set-top to hit the market. 

Google TV Ads now available on Cox and Suddenlink

Cox, Suddenlink Join Google TV Ad Network [Multichannel News]

Google TV Ads is a service that was launched in 2008 to allow advertisers to buy TV ad availability from cable and satellite providers and then target ads based on the viewing data it collects. 

It's a new way of handling television ad buys. For example, companies looking to advertise on television can go through Google TV Ads and pay strictly based on the number of impressions that a particular ad receives.

Since it was launched Google has attempted to partner with the various cable and satellite providers so that its ad network would reach more and more viewers. When it began, Google was only working with Dish Networks, but it has since added DirecTV, Verizon FiOS and Viamedia. Each network that Google partners with means more inventory that it can sell on behalf of these providers to potential ad buyers. Until recently, Google had yet to ink a deal with a major cable provider.

Google TV Ads can now say they have cable providers on board, since they have added Cox Communications and Suddenlink Communications to its network – adding roughly 42 million new households in the U.S.

Peel releases second version of mobile app

Peel Launches New Social TV App For iOS [Tech Crunch]

Peel is the company that manufactures small pear-shaped devices that connect a cable set-top box to a smartphone via a broadband connection. Along with the device, Peel has a corresponding app that allows users to fully control their cable television.

The first version of the app was most useful for users with the Peel device. It would allow users to control their TV and also acted as a guide for their channel lineup. The new version (Peel 2.0) adds a number of features – primarily social features – that can be used even without the Peel device to see what others on social networks are watching.

With Peel 2.0 users can still use all the device-specific controls and organize the shows based on genre – a feature also available in the first version. However, users can also see Peel's "Top Picks" which offers personalized suggestions for TV viewing. Users can also connect your social networks – Facebook, Twitter, etc. – to see the shows friends are watching. Users can also recommend programs to their friends and contacts.

Peel 2.0 is available for free from the iTunes Store. The new version is not yet available on Android.

iOS increases market share at end of 2011

iOS Market Share Up From 26% In Q3 To 43% In Oct/Nov 2011 [Tech Crunch] 

Back in the third quarter of 2011, Android was making big gains in the smartphone market. Android had 60% of the smartphone market share to iOS's 26%. Apple has turned things around quickly, however, and by October/November of 2011 its market share jumped to 43%, while Android fell to 47% - an overall swing of 30%.

While Android and iOS trade blows back and forth it's becoming more and more clear that the smartphone market is simply a two-horse race. RIM continues to decline and now controls only about 6% of the market. Windows Phone 7 and all others have even smaller percentages. On Christmas Day alone, 6.8 million Android and iOS devices were activated.

Despite the fluctuation in market share, the overall smartphone market is booming. Nine of the top 10 phones sold in October and November were smartphones (the top three are the three latest version of Apple's iPhone). And now, two out of every three mobile phones purchased are smartphones. In the fourth quarter of 2010 only around 50% of all purchases were smartphones.

Nielsen study further illustrates gap between online video and traditional TV viewing

How People Watch TV Online And Off [Tech Crunch]

Although web video is growing, it still pales in comparison to the viewership numbers of traditional TV. Nielsen has released a study analyzing data from throughout 2011 that shows the average American watches 32 hours and 47 minutes of traditional TV each week. On the other hand, Americans spend under 4 hours a week online – and only about 27 minutes a week watching video online. Overall, only 1.4% of all video viewing is taking place online.

These numbers include all video sites. For instance, although it's not even in the top five video sites in terms of unique viewers, Netflix dominates online video in terms of time spent viewing content online with over 10 minutes per month, averaged across the entire U.S. population. The next closest video site is YouTube with 2:52 per month. Traditional TV gets roughly 130 hours per month, so while the gap between TV and Netflix is still fairly significant, it's nowhere near as wide as the gap between TV and overall online video viewing.