Archive for February, 2005
Digital music players market penetration report
A recent survey from Pew Internet shows that 11% of U.S. adults (or approx 22 million people) have iPods or MP3 players. The study didn’t take into account teens or younger as the survey was only taken from those 18 years or older. Some of the other interesting stats from the survey:
- iPods/MP3 players are gadgets for the upscale. Fully a quarter (24%) of those who live in households earning more than $75,000 have them; 10% of those living in households earning $30,000 to $75,000 have them and 6% of those living in households earning less than $30,000 have them.
- Those who use the internet are four times as likely as non-internet users to have iPods/MP3 players, probably because internet users can get much of the music they enjoy online. Fully 15% of internet users have iPods/MP3 players, compared to 4% of non-internet users. And the more advanced the internet user, the more likely it is that he has an iPod/MP3 player. Those with six years or more of internet experience are twice as likely to have them as those who are relative internet newbies (those with less than three years experience).
- Broadband access is strongly associated with ownership of iPods/MP3 players. Some 23% of those with broadband at home have iPods/MP3 players, compared to 9% of those who have dialup connections. And those who have broadband access at home and at work, are the most likely of all to have iPods/MP3 players. Almost a third (31%) of those with broadband all around them have iPods/MP3 players.
Additional details can be found here. The study illustrates an impressive market penetration for these devices, but I’d be interested in seeing some trends. Is the market growing? Has it stabilized? I’m especially interested in seeing how digital music player usage correlates with the gains in the satellite radio market. Are these complementary markets or are the mutually exclusive? I own both, but as we’re starting to see convergence, it will be interested to see how it all plays out.
Popularity: 3% [?]
Using Blogs for Project Management
Cutting Through has an article (via CorporateBlogging.info) on using blogs for project management. By improving communication and putting a human face on projects, the project owners are better able to keep all stakeholders in the loop thus minimizing issues as the project progresses. Using blogs for specific, more targeted business uses will likely fuel the growth of blogs in the enterprise.
Popularity: 3% [?]
GoDaddy.com Super Bowl commercial pulled
On the way home, I listen to CNBC on XM Radio. Dylan Ratigan, host of the Bullseye segment, had an interview with the CEO of GoDaddy.com, Bob Parsons. Apparently, the NFL contacted Fox after their commercial aired in the first quarter and requested Fox pull the commercial. Fox complied and the spot was not aired a second time.
When asked on CNBC why he thought the ad was pulled, Parsons stated that it was the NFL censoring GoDaddy’s parody of censorship stemming from last year’s Super Bowl half time show controversy. Watching the commercial, I have to agree with Parsons as this is the only rationale that makes any sense. Fox reviewed the commercial two weeks in advance. In addition, the ad itself was rather tame when compared with standard beer commercials and the coverage of NFL cheerleaders on the sidelines. Honestly, I think the NFL is going overboard here and the league appears hypocritical.
Additional info:
Was the banned Go Daddy Super Bowl ad indecent?
Popularity: 4% [?]
Acceptable uses of the “f” word
As this was one of those miserable days when everything is going wrong, this post on the eleven acceptable times in history to use the “F” word from Brad Feld had me cracking up and brightened my day. Thanks for sharing the insight and humor, Brad!
Popularity: 2% [?]
Study reports that deleted spam is costing billions
Following up on my post concerning the faulty logic used for the Super Bowl productivity waste comes a study from the Center for Excellence in Service at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business and Rockbridge Associates, Inc. calculating the costs of spam. Now don’t take my next comments the wrong way. I feel spam is an enormous problem and a productivity drain. What I do have a problem with is the methodology with which this study was performed.
Spam’s price tag now reaches $21.58 billion annually in lost productivity according to the results of the 2004 National Technology Readiness Survey (NTRS). Findings from the 2004 NTRS, an annual survey that tracks U.S. consumers’ technology opinions and behaviors, indicate that online users in the United States spend an average of three minutes deleting spam each day they check e-mail. Aggregating their usage across the 169.4 million online adults in the United States, this equals 22.9 million hours a week, or $21.58 billion annually when based on the average working wage.
The authors reached a dollar figure by multiplying their 3 minute per day average by the 169.4 million online adults in the U.S. which equates to 22.9 million hours per week. Where do I start with the absurdity? First, “online adults” does not equal “working adults with internet access”. Second, how many of these people are deleting spam that comes to a work email address versus a home / personal email address? To leave this out invalidates the entire study. If an unemployed person spends 3 minutes or 3 hours deleting spam, the action in no way impacts any productivity to any business. Likewise, the casual user checking their AOL email account and spending 3 minutes deleting spam in the evening again does not impact productivity. The key metric here is where the user is checking their email account and to a lesser extent what type of account it is (personal or work).
I recognize and agree that spam is an issue. Really, who doesn’t? I’d prefer to see a well thought approach to measuring its impact though, instead of this nonsense. This just goes to show that statistics can be manipulated to tell any story you want.
While I’m on the subject of spam, let’s talk about what’s more annoying and a bigger waste of time in my opinion – postal mail spam. I get tremendous amounts of junk mail every single day at home and the office. Once you get your name on someone’s list, it’s there for eternity. It takes me about a second to delete email spam. It takes me 20 to 30 times that long to get rid of junk mail. This is mainly because it’s hard to tell the difference anymore between legitimate mail and the junk (especially the mortgage refinance mailings). Unfortunately, I have to actually open the majority of junk mail to make sure there isn’t something important I’m throwing away. Now that is a real waste of time.
Related:
Deleting Spam Costs Billions, Study Finds - Washington Post
ContractsProf Blog
Russ Abbott
Breaking Windows 2.0
Popularity: 6% [?]
Why Craigslist Works
Craig Newmark, founder of the popular Craigslist, has an article on ChangeThis describing why Craigslist works.
Popularity: 3% [?]
The Six Laws of the New Software
ChangeThis has an article by Dror Eyal on the six laws of the new software.
You’re too late! Most home consumers have all the software they will ever need, and most companies out there already have all the basic technologies they need to successfully compete.
I don’t necessarily agree with all the aspects presented, but the article is definitely thought provoking.
Popularity: 1% [?]
Sun to offer open source database?
Sun Microsystems is talking about releasing an open-source database capable of competing with Oracle.
There have been a lot of comments on this (Jim Grisanzio, Security-Flaws, The Silent Penguin), but apparently all speculation at this point. The most interesting is a slide from Sun CEO Scott McNealy listing “Sun db” amongst other existing databases such as MySQL, Oracle, Postgres, and DB2.
Popularity: 2% [?]
Super Bowl productivity losses?
Earlier this week, outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas announced that the Super Bowl would waste productivity to the tune of over $1 billion. When I saw this news item, I immediately wondered how could this be possibly measured. Especially due to the fact that Sunday evening is not typically a work day for the majority of folks. From reading more into their study and other commentary, I’m still extremely skeptical. The best analysis I can give this study is one word: silly. I suspect they were only trying to get some headlines with the press surrounding the Super Bowl.
The fundamental aspect of their research is that the discussions at work, web surfing, arguments, etc. both prior to and after the game, contribute to a massive loss in productivity. I would counter their arguments with this one of my own – people will waste time regardless of the event or topic of the week (or day or hour). Employees naturally need to to communicate and generally participate in discussions and activities that do not appear to be directly productive to the enterprise. But as anyone who has ever worked a day in the corporate world, an 8 hour day is not 8 solid hours of non-stop work. People will take breaks, chat, and generally waste time just to get through the day. That said, it doesn’t matter what the event is as they will find something to talk about or read up on the web. What’s next? Will Challenger, Gray & Christmas perform a study on the effects of the recent tsunami disaster to worker productivity? Give me a break.
Additional links on the topic:
Popularity: 4% [?]
Planning for Microsoft IIS 7
Microsoft is planning to release Internet Information Server (IIS) 7.0 in 2006. VSLive has a first look at Microsoft’s next generation web server. The new version of IIS appears to be more modular, allowing specific components to be turned on or off as needed. Building on the component theme, Microsoft is also building APIs to allow for third-party development. Finally, IIS will now be fully integrated with ASP.NET and the entire .NET framework.
More details at Jon(e)sie.Net Blog and Fritz Onion’s blog.
Popularity: 1% [?]
