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21 December 2004
Firefox Adoption 1.5 - five days after the NYT ad
I keep an eye on the Spreadfirefox download counter. And five days after the New York Times two-page ad, it indicates 12.1 M downloads. This corresponds to over 1 M more Firefox downloads or an average of about 200,000 downloads per day with a high pick of about 320,000 downloads between Sunday the 19th and Monday the 20th. The NYT ad, and the media coverage that it has elicited, don't seem to have had any immediate, significant effect on Firefox adoption.
Posted at 11:24 PM in Innovations | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack
Internet adoption - Egypt 1.0
The Arab Advisors Group estimates that the number of Internet users in Egypt (Population circa 73 M) was 1.94 M by end 2003 (growth projection is 5.6 M by end 2008) and the number of Internet accounts was 647,000 by end 2003 (projection of 1.9 M by end 2008).
The Ministry of Telecommunications and Information Technology (MCIT) has launched several initiatives to accelerate the growth of the Internet market, by making the service affordable to end users. The Free Internet Initiative, which was launched in January 2002, has enabled users to access the Internet from any phone line, without the need for a dial-up subscription, and for the cost of a local phone call, which is EGP 1.23 ($ 0.2) per hour. The total number of unique diallers has reached 1,013,459 by end August 2004, with a total of 782,011,194 minutes.
Posted at 10:53 PM in Information Society | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack
A portrait of Broadband users - UK
A Demos project Broadband Britain: the end of asymmetry? (via the BBC) studied the effect of Broadband on people's Internet usage.
The report finds that British Broadband users take a more active role online. They are many to:
- upload content and have personal sites (25%)
- post something on the web everyday, e.g. comments, opinions, image (20%)
- carry out self-diagnose and take online education
Online expression and participation are in integral part of broadband users' Internet life.
Posted at 10:31 PM in Information Society | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Internet and Broadband adoption 1.0 - UK
According to panel-based National Statistics (via EuroTelcoblog), 12.9 M (52%) of the 28.7 M British households had an Internet access in Q3 2004.
Internet individual users (home, work, elsewhere)
In October 2004, 61% of British adults said they had accessed the Internet in the three previous months.
On the other hand, 34% had never used the Internet. Among them, some said that :
- they didn't want to use it, had no use or no interest for it (43%)
- they had no Internet connection (42%)
- they lacked the knowledge or confidence (37%)
Non-Internet users were also asked to choose a statement that described their relationship to the Internet. The majority (54%) selected: "I have not really considered using the Internet before and I am not likely to in the future". This group corresponds to 19% of all British adults.
Regions
Internet adoption is not homogeneous. It is close to 65% in the London and South-East regions, below 50% in Wales and the North-East, and between 50 and 60% in the other regions, with increased adoption in the last two years in Scotland, Yorkshire and the Humber, and the North-West.
Internet Users Age
Internet adoption is highest among 16-24 years-old (83%) and lowest among 65 and older (15%). In the past two years, the largest increase though was in the 45-54 age group (+13%).
ISP subscribers
There is a 4.3% increase in the number of active subscriptions between October 2003 and 2004. Of all active connections, 36% are permanent, or Broadband. They were 20% a year earlier.
UK Broadband household
Assuming that the ISP subscribers statistics do not included businesses, the number of Broadband households in the UK corresponds roughly to 4.6 M.
Posted at 09:22 PM in Information Society | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Watching mobile video clips - Finland
Given how important is mobile multimedia innovation, there is surprisingly little public research on usage of multimedia mobile devices and services. Operators of 3G/UMTS networks, who must have carried out extensive research on how people receive and use mobile video services, have communicated little on their results. In this situation, we can only trust them that demand for these services exists.
A contribution towards understanding what people do with video-enabled phones comes from a team of the National Consumer Research Centre in Finland.
At the end of 2002, Repo, Hyvönen, Pantzar and Timonen gave a video-phone and access to a mobile portal for a week to a group of 13 Finnish people. The group was composed of early majority pragmatists: average users of the mobile phone and video on Internet; females and males; from three different age groups - less than 20, between 20 and 40; more than 40 years-old. During the week of test, participants kept a diary of their video-clips viewing, of the situations and of their feelings. They also went through a training sessions and one predefined activity per day.
The mobile portal offered a small selection of video clips supplied by Elisa.TV: 15 video clips of Hyppönen Enbuske Experience, a TV talk-show; 11 Karaoke video clips; 3 music videos and animated children 's cartoons. When accessed in mobility, their image and audio quality were relatively poor, and downloading was slow. Complaints with regard to these aspects were frequent.
Contents
Participants appreciated watching music videos, animated clips and Karaoke recordings.
Contexts
Watching video clips was a natural, positive experience in two contexts:- as a pass-time when they were alone, e.g. during a break; in a queue; in the backseat of a taxi; singing a karaoke song in the car when picking children up from school. The declared primary use was to avoid boredom and frustration. They felt videos were a good distraction.
An example: the daughter of one of the mothers had already grown impatient:she was getting tired of watching the game. Then suddenly it dawned on me: why not let her watch animated films while the boys are playing? I showed her the first video clip on the list of cartoons and it made her really happy - and the mothers, too, were all excited.
- as a collective leisure activity, cartoons with children and karaoke with friends. Participants played karaoke videos in group and in many different locations: in the school cafeteria, at a floor ball tournament, on the subway.
Two examples: We watched karaoke today in the school cafeteria. It was fun, all of us at the table singing together. The other diners looked at us with an expression of "good grief!" on their faces - but we didn't let that bother us.
I was fiddling with my phone when I heard one of the mothers say she was going to a party in the evening where they were going to have karaoke. It hit me that she could practice beforehand on my phone! I put the Juankoski piece on - and weren'tthe mommies delighted! When Juankoski was finished I put on Jari Sillanpää, and it just got better and better. Everyone was really excited!
Watching video streaming in public transportation represented instead a negative experience; users felt that the video sound disturbed other passengers.
I wouldn't watch videos on the bus. What if the person sitting next to you is somebody who's totally exhausted after a day work, has perhaps been harassed by his boss, and who will only be irritated by the crackling noise? No thanks.
Posted at 05:28 PM in Usage of Mobile Phones, Usage of Videotelephony | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack