Technovia Notebook

Foursquare is now trying to have it both ways, offering one-to-one friend relationships (where both users must confirm to be connected) as well as one-to-many follower relationships (where users can get updates from any public profile they like). Facebook also straddles this line with its fan pages for brands and celebrities.

DJ Pauly D of “Jersey Shore” will be the first to use Foursquare’s modified celebrity mode, which promises his followers access only to his tips left at certain locations — aka “the best fist-pumping spots nationwide.” He can choose to send each check-in to only his inner circle or to both his friends and followers. Users who don’t happen to be nearby Pauly D’s location can go to his profile on Foursquare’s web site to check out what he shares publicly. You’d think they’d have awarded him an in-game badge or two just for playing along, but no, his profile reports, “DJ Pauly D hasn’t unlocked any badges yet.”

MTV says the deal will also include “dedicated Foursquare programming” and location-based sponsorship, with integration into other reality shows such as “The Hills” and “The T.O. Show.”

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Monetizing the Social Web Isn’t One Size Fits AllFoursquare asks users to share their real-time locations, which means that as it’s grown, some of the more avid ones have been voluntarily telling thousands of people where they are. In my opinion, such an intimate service is best used with people you actually know, but Foursquare is deviating from its core of one-to-one relationships today to create the notion of “Celebrity Mode.” The feature comes through a partnership with MTV and VH1, one of many Foursquare has signed in recent months. It’s a direct parallel to Twitter, where celebrity users lead the way (and the reason so many companies are signing these Foursquare deals seems likely to be because they don’t want to miss the next Twitter).

Foursquare is now trying to have it both ways, offering one-to-one friend relationships (where both users must confirm to be connected) as well as one-to-many follower relationships (where users can get updates from any public profile they like). Facebook also straddles this line with its fan pages for brands and celebrities.

DJ Pauly D of “Jersey Shore” will be the first to use Foursquare’s modified celebrity mode, which promises his followers access only to his tips left at certain locations — aka “the best fist-pumping spots nationwide.” He can choose to send each check-in to only his inner circle or to both his friends and followers. Users who don’t happen to be nearby Pauly D’s location can go to his profile on Foursquare’s web site to check out what he shares publicly. You’d think they’d have awarded him an in-game badge or two just for playing along, but no, his profile reports, “DJ Pauly D hasn’t unlocked any badges yet.”

MTV says the deal will also include “dedicated Foursquare programming” and location-based sponsorship, with integration into other reality shows such as “The Hills” and “The T.O. Show.”

Related content from GigaOM Pro (sub req’d):

Monetizing the Social Web Isn’t One Size Fits All

Original Link: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/OmMalik/~3/1R4QRsknxM4/

Original Link: http://moconews.net/article/419-motricity-plays-catch-up-rolls-out-app-stores-for-carriers/

Joe Wilcox goes through Apple's numbers for the quarter thoroughly (and dispassionately - something that I appreciate when it comes to numbers).

What sticks out for me is that Apple has managed a pretty astounding feat: preserving unit sales (or expanding them in many product lines) while pushing margins even higher, something that should barely be possible when the world is in the grips of the worst recession since the 1930's. There's been a lot of focus on the bottom-line revenue numbers, but the truth is that given the changes in the way Apple accounts (driven by a revision to the rules by the Financial Standards Accounting Board) it's hard to really see clearly how well Apple did on that score. The best estimate is "very well, but not as well as the figures look at a glance".

That's why my focus in looking at these figures would be on unit sales and margins, and in both cases Apple did well â€" outstandingly so, in the case of its margins.

Put together unit sales on iPod and iPhone â€" something that's a valid idea, I think â€" and they moved from 27.1 million in the equivalent quarter last year to 29.7 million units this quarter. The mix of products is high-margin items (iPhones) up, lower margin items (iPods) down. More product, at higher margin, is pretty-much all you could ask from any company at the moment. I am absolutely certain that many tech companies that are being driven to slice margins more thinly in the recession will look at Apple's figures with a massive sense of jealousy.

As for unit sales in Macs, they seem to be broadly in line with IDC numbers, certainly for the US. In the US, IDC had estimated unit sales increase of 31%, and Apple hit 30%. Those are very good figures, but it's worth remembering that IDC also estimated that Toshiba had upped its sales by 78% and HP by 45% in the same period. And neither Toshiba nor HP concentrate on the "cheap junk" end of the market: while their margins won't match Apple's, this isn't a case of people flocking to netbooks rather than expensive PCs.

(UPDATE: But see an excellent point below by Piot on worldwide market share.)

Given these figures, don't be surprised if Apple actually loses market share in the US this quarter. How much value you apply to market share figures is up to you â€" personally, I think that as long as Apple is selling enough Macs to sustain itself and keep the third-parties interested, it doesn't really matter. The days when its market share was sinking at a worrying rate are clearly over and I doubt they are coming back.

It's worth remembering there were many predictions that Apple's unit sales in Macs would actually slide during a recession, as customers looked to significantly cheaper PCs or (if they were dyed in the wool Mac users) deferred purchases. That simply hasn't happened. Without detailed, qualitative data on customers' purchasing choices (why they're buying what they bought) it's hard to say for sure, but my best guess is that while Windows 7 has slowed Apple's growth compared to the rest of the PC market, it hasn't drawn back any of those customers who switched from Windows to Mac over the past few years.

In other words, once you're Mac you don't go back. The net migration from Mac to Windows which characterised the 1990's is over. Instead, the chief characteristic is now net migration from Windows to Mac â€" something that Windows 7 has slowed, but not halted.

(Image by Photo by Checiàp - http://flic.kr/p/5n9bi)

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