Sony Online Service − More App Store Validation

Last week Sony announced an upcoming service to link their devices to a store filled with Sony content and downloadable apps.  Another move by a big media player suggesting the success of devices and platforms lies in their relationship to social content and applications in addition to traditional programming. 

Behavior and expectations have been changed forever and consumers now demand choice, control, and convenience from their media devices.  When they can’t get it from one platform, they migrate to another that seamlessly delivers what they want.

These moves confirm what those of us working in the ITV space have suspected for many years.  People want to engage with relevant content more deeply in a way that is simple, immediate, and contextual.  I’m watching my favorite TV show but wondering what the weather will be tomorrow.  Can I just push a button and get the answer now?  I’m participating in an on-line auction.  Do I have to sit at my computer to monitor the action?  Can I get notified no matter what device I’m using?  More and more the consumer is opting for devices that offer a connected experience that makes these types of features possible.

I was interviewed last Friday by Simon Applebaum for Tomorrow Will Be Televised, and offered thoughts on app stores for TV.  Listen and let me know what you think.

M. Ellen Dudar

Chief Product Officer

FourthWall Media

twitter.com/fourthwallmedia

Bing not likely to outbid Google for news

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With the issue of charging for online content the hottest topic in publishing circles, polls are popping up everywhere purporting to divine consumer sentiment. But they unfortunately are all over the map. Thus, the surveys are providing neither guidance nor comfort for publishers as they agonize over whether or how to charge for the valuable content they have been giving

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Warren Buffett, Business '51, returns to Columbia to chat with students and Bill Gates

By Gabriela Hempfling

Published: November 13, 2009

On Thursday, the world’s two richest men visited Columbia.

Bill Gates, who founded Microsoft Corp., and Warren Buffett, investor-at-large, told students that the worst of the recession had passed. Speaking in Roone Arledge Auditorium, they shared their optimism with students in the Columbia Business School and Earth Institute. Buffett graduated from the Business School in 1951.

At the town-hall-style event, CNBC’s Becky Quick moderated a dialogue between the two billionaires and roughly 700 students. Before the discussion began, Quick noted the context of the event. “I do know that these are unsettling times in the economy and the markets and there is a lot of uncertainty in where we stand,” she said. The event was to be broadcast on CNBC as a segment titled “Warren Buffett and Bill Gates: Keeping America Great” on Thursday night. [CNBC Video below and alternate link here]



Neither Buffett nor Gates acknowledged any of this uncertainty. “The economy is sputtering, but we are still at the beginning,” Buffett said. With his recent purchase of the Burlington Railroad, the single largest acquisition in history, Buffett put firm support behind that idea. “The railroads are cost-effective and environmentally friendly; each one supplants 280 trucks,” he reasoned. “If America has a core future, railroads have a core future, and I am willing to bet a lot of money on it—about $34 billion.” . . .

Continue reading the November 13, 2009 article from Columbia University's the Columbia Daily Spectator . . .

Read the eye, the weekly features and arts magazine of the Columbia Daily Spectator . .

Warren Buffett, Business '51, returns to Columbia to chat with students and Bill Gates

By Gabriela Hempfling

Published: November 13, 2009

On Thursday, the world’s two richest men visited Columbia.

Bill Gates, who founded Microsoft Corp., and Warren Buffett, investor-at-large, told students that the worst of the recession had passed. Speaking in Roone Arledge Auditorium, they shared their optimism with students in the Columbia Business School and Earth Institute. Buffett graduated from the Business School in 1951.

At the town-hall-style event, CNBC’s Becky Quick moderated a dialogue between the two billionaires and roughly 700 students. Before the discussion began, Quick noted the context of the event. “I do know that these are unsettling times in the economy and the markets and there is a lot of uncertainty in where we stand,” she said. The event was to be broadcast on CNBC as a segment titled “Warren Buffett and Bill Gates: Keeping America Great” on Thursday night. [CNBC Video below and alternate link here]



Neither Buffett nor Gates acknowledged any of this uncertainty. “The economy is sputtering, but we are still at the beginning,” Buffett said. With his recent purchase of the Burlington Railroad, the single largest acquisition in history, Buffett put firm support behind that idea. “The railroads are cost-effective and environmentally friendly; each one supplants 280 trucks,” he reasoned. “If America has a core future, railroads have a core future, and I am willing to bet a lot of money on it—about $34 billion.” . . .

Continue reading the November 13, 2009 article from Columbia University's the Columbia Daily Spectator . . .

Read the eye, the weekly features and arts magazine of the Columbia Daily Spectator . .