Tuesday, May 23, 2006
A Billion People Online, but Thankfully Not All at Once, and Other Stories
One billion people are online, worldwide; over half have broadband
Press release http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060518/tc_afp/afplifestyleitinternet
How the auto industry, the biggest advertising industry, views it http://www.theautochannel.com/news/2006/05/18/007345.html
Shop.org and Forrester are releasing a report that forecasts total e-commerce to be $211 billion in 2006 (travel is $73 billion). Good article -- get it soon because DMNews usually pulls the links fairly soon.
http://dmnews.netconcepts.com/cms/dm-news/e-commerce/36844.html
For 2006, the two fastest growing categories are pet supplies and cosmetics and fragrances... customers are increasingly comfortable of buying in new categories and especially those you don’t normally associate with online retail... Computer hardware and software, at $16.8 billion, is the largest non-travel category projected this year. Autos and auto parts is next, with $15.9 billion. Apparel and accessories follows with $13.8 billion. Pet supplies and cosmetics and fragrances are expected to post growth rates of more than 30 percent this year -- more than any other category measured by Forrester.
Here's the USA Today article about it http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/technology/2006-05-22-online-sales_x.htm
It's incredible.... there's a media mix! Some advertisers are looking to spend offline now that online ad rates are going up! Amazing... ad managers make decisions based on price and the value of expected returns. What a concept.
http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB114834909775960247-85W5jJ3CZyXbONSYqphVIq_JIck_20070522.html
Magazines ain't what they're cracked up to be when it comes to reader engagement.
http://www.adage.com/mediaworks/article?article_id=109364
Barrons had a good story about Yahoo! (disclosure: I own a modest amount of YHOO shares in a retirement account)
Part 1 http://online.barrons.com/article/SB114808094613158429.html?mod=9_0031_b_this_weeks_magazine_main
Part 2 http://online.barrons.com/public/article/SB114808092001358427.html?
Chart http://online.barrons.com/public/article/SB114808864062358631.html?
Snack foods packaging article; summarizes new Fredonia Group report
http://www.foodproductiondaily.com/news/ng.asp?n=67814-freedonia-snack-convenience
The USPS has extended the personalized postage initiative
http://www.usps.com/communications/news/press/2006/pr06_037.htm
Shocking! Good content builds readership!
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/search/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1002538979
Scuttlebutt has Adobe really hurting QuarkXpress in the marketplace. After all, they're giving InDesign away for free when you really think about the street price of the Adobe Creative Suite. "Everyone" uses Illustrator and Photoshop, so getting the integrated InDesign product at no cost certainly can pique their interest. Now Markzware has a product that converts QXP to InD. http://www.markzware.com/q2id/ Gee, I hope the Scottish Arts Council is doing well. http://www.antipixel.com/blog/archives/2005/09/11/the_new_quark_logo.html But perhaps the old Monty Python sketch could explain what's going on at Quark http://www.ibras.dk/montypython/episode07.htm#5
Meanwhile, Adobe is readying Creative Suite 3 http://news.com.com/Adobe+updates+Creative+Suite/2100-1046_3-6073238.html
which is going to unify the suite to mimic PhotoShop, the most-used program from a market penetration perspective. I remember when Novell tried to make the best Windows spreadsheet at the time, Quattro Pro, look like WordPerfect, and ended up killing both products. Adobe is not dumb enough to do something like that, but it just made me think about my frustration with Quattro 6. It's rare that I send software back and ask for a refund, but I did then. I also did for Acrobat 6, because, strangely, it conflicted with my loveable Logitech iFeel Mouse, which I'm not about to give up. http://news.com.com/2100-1040-244673.html
I never moved to Acrobat 7 because OpenOffice had a great built-in PDF-making capability, and it's free. www.openoffice.org When I called for tech support for Acrobat 6, it was clear that whatever incompatibility there was with the iFeel mouse would not get any priority to be fixed, so I've never tried Acrobat 7 figuring I don't really need it. If you don't want OpenOffice.org, there's also the free PDF Creator http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=57796
Press release http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060518/tc_afp/afplifestyleitinternet
How the auto industry, the biggest advertising industry, views it http://www.theautochannel.com/news/2006/05/18/007345.html
Shop.org and Forrester are releasing a report that forecasts total e-commerce to be $211 billion in 2006 (travel is $73 billion). Good article -- get it soon because DMNews usually pulls the links fairly soon.
http://dmnews.netconcepts.com/cms/dm-news/e-commerce/36844.html
For 2006, the two fastest growing categories are pet supplies and cosmetics and fragrances... customers are increasingly comfortable of buying in new categories and especially those you don’t normally associate with online retail... Computer hardware and software, at $16.8 billion, is the largest non-travel category projected this year. Autos and auto parts is next, with $15.9 billion. Apparel and accessories follows with $13.8 billion. Pet supplies and cosmetics and fragrances are expected to post growth rates of more than 30 percent this year -- more than any other category measured by Forrester.
Here's the USA Today article about it http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/technology/2006-05-22-online-sales_x.htm
It's incredible.... there's a media mix! Some advertisers are looking to spend offline now that online ad rates are going up! Amazing... ad managers make decisions based on price and the value of expected returns. What a concept.
http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB114834909775960247-85W5jJ3CZyXbONSYqphVIq_JIck_20070522.html
Magazines ain't what they're cracked up to be when it comes to reader engagement.
http://www.adage.com/mediaworks/article?article_id=109364
Barrons had a good story about Yahoo! (disclosure: I own a modest amount of YHOO shares in a retirement account)
Part 1 http://online.barrons.com/article/SB114808094613158429.html?mod=9_0031_b_this_weeks_magazine_main
Part 2 http://online.barrons.com/public/article/SB114808092001358427.html?
Chart http://online.barrons.com/public/article/SB114808864062358631.html?
Snack foods packaging article; summarizes new Fredonia Group report
http://www.foodproductiondaily.com/news/ng.asp?n=67814-freedonia-snack-convenience
The USPS has extended the personalized postage initiative
http://www.usps.com/communications/news/press/2006/pr06_037.htm
Shocking! Good content builds readership!
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/search/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1002538979
Scuttlebutt has Adobe really hurting QuarkXpress in the marketplace. After all, they're giving InDesign away for free when you really think about the street price of the Adobe Creative Suite. "Everyone" uses Illustrator and Photoshop, so getting the integrated InDesign product at no cost certainly can pique their interest. Now Markzware has a product that converts QXP to InD. http://www.markzware.com/q2id/ Gee, I hope the Scottish Arts Council is doing well. http://www.antipixel.com/blog/archives/2005/09/11/the_new_quark_logo.html But perhaps the old Monty Python sketch could explain what's going on at Quark http://www.ibras.dk/montypython/episode07.htm#5
Meanwhile, Adobe is readying Creative Suite 3 http://news.com.com/Adobe+updates+Creative+Suite/2100-1046_3-6073238.html
which is going to unify the suite to mimic PhotoShop, the most-used program from a market penetration perspective. I remember when Novell tried to make the best Windows spreadsheet at the time, Quattro Pro, look like WordPerfect, and ended up killing both products. Adobe is not dumb enough to do something like that, but it just made me think about my frustration with Quattro 6. It's rare that I send software back and ask for a refund, but I did then. I also did for Acrobat 6, because, strangely, it conflicted with my loveable Logitech iFeel Mouse, which I'm not about to give up. http://news.com.com/2100-1040-244673.html
I never moved to Acrobat 7 because OpenOffice had a great built-in PDF-making capability, and it's free. www.openoffice.org When I called for tech support for Acrobat 6, it was clear that whatever incompatibility there was with the iFeel mouse would not get any priority to be fixed, so I've never tried Acrobat 7 figuring I don't really need it. If you don't want OpenOffice.org, there's also the free PDF Creator http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=57796
