The Value Of The Brand -Apple,Ahead Of Google

The Value Of The Brand -Apple,Ahead Of Google

Have you considered the guestion of the famous brand-Apple?Or have you ever considered the value of the search tool- google?Have you ever compared of these two things?

If you’d asked the guys behind the BrandZ survey at any point over the last four years, they’d have told you “Google,” but in 2011 their answer has changed. Apple is now the hottest property in terms of consumer goodwill, earning an estimated valuation of $153.3 billion and leading a pack that includes the likes of Coca-Cola, BMW, HSBC, and Disney. The tech sector had a very strong year as a whole, with Facebook’s brand improving in value by a staggering 246 percent (to $19.1b) and Amazon becoming the world’s most valuable retailer (at $37.6b) in spite of having no actual stores. Sadly, there were some downers too, as Nintendo lost 37 percent of its brand worth over the past year, Nokia dropped by 28 percent, and the BlackBerry marque was considered 20 percent less awesome than before. Punch the source link to learn more.

iVillage Launching App Network; Adds BN.com’s Gottlieb

For over the past year, Comcast/NBC (NSDQ: CMCSA) Universal’s iVillage has been overhauling its sites and expanding its international presence. Now it is moving more forcefully into mobile with the launch of its app network. As part of its push into mobile, the company has named former Barnes & Noble (NYSE: BKS) digital exec Douglas Gottlieb as VP for “User Experience.”

The hiring of Gottlieb represents something of a reunion for the former VP of Digital Products at BN.com, as he joins Mike Skagerlind, iVillage’s SVP/GM arrived at the company last June after serving as VP, head of content at B&N.

By the end of this year, the iVillage mobile network will include between a half-dozen and a dozen apps. The first one, Red Carpet Fever, was released over a week ago to capitalize on the Academy Awards. The app will continue to evolve into a general celebrity events offering photo galleries, real-time chats and connections to Facebook, Twitter and other social media tools.

The start of the rollout reflects the added emphasis iVillage has placed on entertainment as part of its vast restructuring that began a year-and-a-half ago.

“We did a lot of rebuilding last year and that has strengthened the relationship with our users,” said Skagerlind in an interview with paidContent. The PC-based site network already claims a reach of 30-plus million users a month. “While the mobile wap site has been around for some time. It was our plan to do a more extensive mobile strategy after that was set.”

Later this month, the company will launch its “main” iVillage app. Other apps to follow include the mom-aimed My Pregnancy and Newborn Milestones apps. The initial phase will be rounded out by apps for Health & Fitness are also set to roll out, which will center around iVillage’s successful ‘Community Challenge’ franchise

While iVillage’s site network has some experiments in paid content, the company has no plans to charge for its mobile apps. As Gottlieb told us, the focus right now is on building community and the “user experience.” There is some excitement within the company around iVillage’s work with iPad—they’re exploring the advancements associated with the second version of that device—as well as Google (NSDQ: GOOG) Android in addition to the iPhone. Doing it all simultaneously is a big part of the effort, along with finding multiple ways to pay for it all.

“We’re looking at a variety of revenue models,” Skagerlind said.“We like the ‘freemium’ model, which could include enhancements you’ll be able to buy. But we believe in advertising.”

While it makes sense that iVillage didn’t want to take on too much and roll out its apps earlier, as it unveiled its various sites and channels over the past year. But you can’t help but wonder, what took so long. Skagerlind has an answer: “We are doing this as early as we could. You only have to look around at how suddenly impactful the mobile revolution has been from a user and advertising vantage—but it’s all still very early for most people. Certainly within a year or two, the amount of broadband access and the number of women using smartphones to access our content will grow tremendously. But we’re not abandoning the web, of course, we’re looking for ways we can be original and complementary at the same time.”

Question : Why Rocketpack Entered Disney’s Orbit

If you believe Disney’s every digital-minded move is dictated by board member Steve Jobs, note that its latest acquisition, Rocketpack, is intended to be of use outside the Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) App store. The purchase was first reported by Techcrunch.

What attracted Disney (NYSE: DIS) Interactive Media Group to this Finnish social gaming developer is an engine—named Rocketfuel, natch—that enables game play on any digital platform without bothering with the restriction of Apple or Adobe (NSDQ: ADBE) Flash. Their games can work as easily on Facebook, which has been a boon to the likes of gaming sensations like Zynga, or any old website.

There’s a reason that appeals to DIMG, where co-presidents John Pleasants and James Pitaro couldn’t be more bullish on the future of social gaming (and not the console side of the business). While Pleasants oversees the gaming aspect of the business, it’s Pitaro who could be the beneficiary of Rocketpack. He oversees Disney.com, where casual games are a big part of the strategy to building up traffic across that flagship and other Disney-owned sites, as well as the company’s emphasis on a big presence on social networks, whether Facebook or another new Disney acquisition, a social network for kiddies called Togetherville.

DIMG has also put a lot of focus on taking the many franchises and characters at its disposal and making them available across platforms, whether mobile, tablet, laptop or TV. The best way to make that vision happens is to remove any hurdles to the instant-gratification experience that is social gaming, and Rocketpack makes that happen.

Disney isn’t the only one conglomerate that has focused on easy access to browser-based social experiences. Paramount recently made a deal with Funtactix to create MMOs around intellectual property like new movie Rango that don’t require plug-ins or downloads.

inPulse Bluetooth smartwatch getting Facebook Places check-in app for Android

Ever since Allerta released an SDK for its well-hyped inPulse smartwatch, it was only a matter of time before we start seeing more practical applications that take this Bluetooth peripheral beyond the BlackBerry ecosystem. For instance, the latest example comes from the inPulse's very own Lead Designer Eric Migicovsky, who happens to be a fan of Facebook Places and possibly an Android convert. Rather than having to pull out his Nexus One for every check-in, Migicovsky can now use his simple app on his inPulse to grab a list of nearby locations off the phone, and then check in with just a click of a button. Pretty neat, eh? For those interested, you can grab the project code off inPulse's website and get programming.

News : paidContent 2011, March 3, NYC: Quality, Quantity & Mass Content

In one of those timing-is-everything twists, we’ll be convening paidContent 2011; The Next Decade in Digitalon March 3 at TheTimesCenter in New York just one week after Google’s “farmer” algorithm tweak shook up the mass content space—and our first panel takes on that very topic. The rise of mass content operations has resulted in companies trying to go against the tide while using many of the same tactics and most—like Demand Media, for example—claim quality as a goal. When a business can be damaged by a flick of the Google (NSDQ: GOOG) algorithm and when everything is SEOd to the max, what’s the advantage of mass content?

Those are some of the questions Larry Dignan, Editor-in-Chief, ZDNet & SmartPlanet will address with his panel:
Chris Ahearn, President, Reuters (NYSE: TRI) Media; Luke Beatty, VP & GM, Yahoo! (NSDQ: YHOO) Contributor Network / Associated Content; and Lewis Dvorkin, Chief Product Officer, Forbes Media. As is the case with all our events, paidContent 2011 isn’t top down—attendees are participants, so bring your questions and insights.

Some of our other speakers include: Arianna Huffington, Co-Founder & Editor-in-Chief, The Huffington Post and Tim Armstrong, Chairman & CEO, AOL; (NYSE: AOL) Lauren Zalaznick, Chairman, Entertainment & Digital Networks/Integrated Media, NBC Universal (NSDQ: CMCSA), kicking off the day; Nick Denton, Founder, Gawker Media;Dan Rose, VP, Partnerships & Platform Marketing, Facebook;Greg Clayman, Publisher, The Daily—and our lunchtime Q&A speakers, Joel Hyatt, Executive Vice Chairman & Co-Founder, Current Media and Keith Olbermann, Chief News Officer, Executive Producer and Host, Current TV. You can check the event site to see the full agenda and speaker list.

ChaCha now sues HTC for Facebook phone trademark infringement

Facebook phone rumors were swirling for quite awhile, then HTC answered a question that seemingly nobody asked by delivering unto the world a phone with a dedicated Facebook button... the ChaCha. In what can only be considered a stroke of luck for all of humanity, the Taiwanese handset maker has been granted the opportunity to rectify its naming gaffe courtesy of a trademark infringement suit brought by ChaCha Inc. That company trademarked its name and logo in 2007 for its text and voice internet search engine services and is (rightfully) displeased with the HTC's choice of names for its Facebook-focused handset. ChaCha doesn't want mobile users thinking that it's endorsed the phone, and given that the company's bread and butter is providing mobile search, such confusion seems likely. ChaCha is asking for money damages and a permanent injunction to prevent the phone from going to market with its name. That's just fine with us -- if only the courts could grant an injunction to remove that Facebook button.

BMW Connected now hitting 1 Series cars first, lets you tweet your disregard for speed limits

The BMW Connected app has been available for a few months now, following in the footsteps of Mini Connected as it sits there, and taunting you from the App Store. We knew cars supporting the feature would be coming in March, and now we know which ones will be first: BMW's svelte little 1 Series. To enable the streaming radio and even streaming video (when the car is stationary) on the dash-mounted display you'll need to tick the box next to a €150 (about $205) option. In your suitably equipped car you can then get your Facebook and Twitter feeds read to you and even provide automated responses using "vehicle information such as current speed, outside temperature or navigation destination." We're hoping the car can apply some flowery language to such hard data, like "bat out of hell" for those particularly warm days in which you're driving at a high rate of speed from an unpleasant point of origin.

Digital Chocolate Raising $12 Million For Mobile, Social Gaming

Digital Chocolate, the mobile and social gaming firm started and led by Electronic Arts (NSDQ: ERTS) founder Trip Hawkins, has raised $12 million in a Series D round of funding led by Intel (NSDQ: INTC) Capital, with past investors Sutter Hill Ventures and Bridgescale Partners also participating. The company says that it will use the funds to further expand its social gaming reach to new platforms: Digital Chocolate already publishes games on platforms such as Apple’s App Store and Facebook.

Digital Chocolate says in its release that it has had 100 million mobile downloads to date across iPhone, Android and other platforms.

Its entry into social gaming has been more recent. The company counts Millionaire City, MMA Pro Fighter, Rollercoaster Rush and Tower Bloxx in its catalog of 100 titles.

Another title it owns is Mafia Wars, which also happens to be the name of a hugely popular game published by social games leader Zynga. This became the subject of atrademark suit filed by Digital Chocolate against Zynga last year; that suit was settled out of court a few weeks ago.

Digital Chocolate has raised $54 million to date, according toTech Crunch.

Facebook Messenger iOS app offering VoIP chat functionality

Developer Crisp App has released a new iOS app, Facebook Messenger, that pairs social networking with VoIP functionality. The utility allows users to place free VoIP calls to other Facebook users via an iPhone, iPod touch, iPad or web-based client.

Call recipients are notified with an incoming call screen, which automatically opens when the user is in the app. The alert is also sent as a push notification when the app is closed, while the web-based call request arrives in the form of a link.

It remains unclear if the unofficial app will remain on the App Store without facing objection from Facebook. Unconfirmed reports suggest Facebook may be working with Skype to officially integrate VoIP functionality in the social networking site.

Facebook Messenger is now available for $3.

Facebook Messenger for iPhone: Watching Your Back, Skype

Imagine the convenience and reach of your Facebook friends list, combined with the VoIP goodness of Skype. That’s what a new iPhone app called Facebook Messenger aims to provide. It gives you access to Facebook chat on your iPhone, but also lets you call any of your online contacts for a VOIP chat.

Facebook Messenger ($2.99), created by Crisp App, works between iPhone and iPod touch devices, and between your iOS device and the web. Aside from providing a mighty tempting target for accusations of trademark infringement, the app lets users VoIP call online Facebook users on both mobile and web-based clients. On an iPhone or iPod touch, they receive an incoming call screen with the option to accept or deny, or a push notification if the app isn’t open. On the web, your chat target will receive a link asking them to accept your call, which will transfer them to a web page for handling the call. The recipient can take part in the call so long as they have a computer with a microphone and speakers.

I tried out the app calling between iPhones and to the desktop. Both had roughly the same voice quality, which was quite good. The only issue was that both the other caller and I experienced significant delay between when we spoke, and when the other caller heard what we said. There was also an echo effect, so you could hear what you’d just said repeated faintly after you said it. Also, in both cases, the time between initiating a call and the call showing up on the other user’s device or machine was considerable. If you aren’t patient, you might think someone isn’t answering, when in fact they haven’t yet been notified of your call.

Why then, should Skype be concerned about Facebook Messenger? Because despite early hiccups, the concept behind the app is killer. Facebook is already probably the de facto way a lot of people communicate, with a much broader reach than Twitter, and it’s becoming even more of a communication hub thanks to its recent messaging system upgrade. If Facebook Messenger can beef up its architecture to provide a smoother, quicker VoIP experience, it could leverage Facebook’s network to leapfrog to the front of the competition, especially if it can somehow integrate video in future iterations. Unless, that is, Facebook decides this is too good an idea and decides to bake the feature into its site and app itself.

Another Step For Facebook Connected Into Mobile, This Time On The SIM

If 2011 was the year that Android came into its own at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, it may also have been the year that we may started to get a glimpse of the next big player in the space. Not only did two handset makers give us their distinct versions of a “Facebook smartphone”, but security vendor Gemalto has now integrated Facebook access directly onto a SIM. [more after the jump, including video]

The new Facebook service, says Gemalto’s SVP of telecoms Jean-Francois Schreiber, will mean that even the most basic of phones will have access to Facebook services, and it will be able to work on the most basic of networks—as long as the operator uses a SIM-based service (in other words, that essentially means it’s aimed at GSM vendors).

That will also mean that it is very pared-down: no photos, no games, and certainly none of the new services Facebook is now integrating into smartphone apps, such as its recently launched Deals service.

Instead, the SIM-based Facebook service is very much aimed at giving more basic phone users their very first mobile Facebook experience—status updates, messages to Friends and other text-based services—although Schreiber does point out that there is the capability to upgrade what is on the SIM to include any and all of the more enhanced services, so potentially this could go significantly farther.

He also tells us that Gemalto is close to announcing a deal for its first customer—a “major” mobile operator in Latin America.

Like the two phones from INQ and HTC that were launched in the last week, Gemalto is taking advantage of Facebook APIs for this service. He points out that Facebook cooperated, but like the other two services, it’s not Facebook-led. A crowdsourced development of the Facebook mobile phone OS, if you will.

Video below.

Twitter CEO shooting down talk of a Twitter-branded smartphone before it starts

Think Twitter's going to follow Facebook and lend its brand to a smartphone? Think again. Twitter CEO Dick Costello said during his Mobile World Congress keynote yesterday that while he does see a need to better integrate Twitter into existing platforms for phones, he sees no need for a Twitter-branded smartphone. Costello cited the ability to take a picture on an Android phone and automatically tweet it as an example of that integration he'd like to see, and further added that he would like to see "more single sign-on experiences," and "more apps that can tweet without having to go to another app." Interestingly, Costello also revealed that 40 percent of all tweets come from mobile devices, and that fully half of all active Twitter users are active on more than one platform.

P.S. We should note that Costello seems to have overlooked the trailblazing TwitterPeek, along with everyone else.