ImaginativePRO Blog

MICROSOFT UNVEILS THE NEW SURFACE PRO 2 TABLET, THINNER AND LIGHTER, LONGER BATTERY LIFE, WITH A FASTER i5 HASWELL PROCESSOR

Panos Panay, Microsoft's VP of Surface, holds the new Surface Pro 2 tablet during Monday's unveiling press conference (Click Image To Enlarge)

Microsoft has unveiled the Surface Pro 2 tablet, a new version of its flagship 10.6-inch Windows tablet, with the power of a full-size PC in a tablet.  Pre-orders begin tomorrow, Tuesday, September 24, 2013.  Prices starting at $899.00 

Though little has been changed externally on the updated device — it has the same size, weight, and black color scheme as its predecessor — Microsoft says that what's inside has changed quite a bit.  Panos Panay, Microsoft's VP of Surface says. 

"We improved the performance on this product by 20 percent.  If you thought it was fast before, it is lightning fast now."

Panay says that the tablet is now faster than 95 percent of laptops and that its graphics performance has increased by 50 percent. The updated tablet includes one of Intel's Core i5 Haswell processors, and Microsoft says that it'll see a 60 percent improvement in battery life over its predecessor.

 

The Surface Pro 2 is also trying to address one of the biggest complaints many had with the original tablet: that its built-in kickstand was difficult to use when propped on your lap. The new tablet's kickstand has a second position that can prop the device up at a 55 degree angle — in addition to the 22 degree angle present on its predecessor — adding a much more sloped position for it to stand in. Panay also says that the Surface Pro 2 will run quieter and cooler than the original Surface Pro, and that its 1080p display has 46 percent greater color accuracy.

Microsoft announces Surface Pro 2 with updated kickstand and Haswell processor  (Click Image To Enlarge)

The Microsoft Surface Pro 2 tablet with attached Pwer Cover or full-size keyboard. (Click Image To Enlarge)

Panay says. 

"This is power.  This thing's a beast."

Panay also believes that Surface Pro 2 will deliver the "full power of a PC" but in the form factor of a tablet. The tablet will be shipping with Windows 8.1 on October 22nd — just a few days after the general release of Windows 8.1 itself.  

The Surface Pro 2's pricing begins at $899 and stretches up to $1,799, with configurations for 4GB of RAM with either 64 or 128GB of storage, and 8GB of RAM with either 256 or 512GB of storage.  It'll be available for pre-order online beginning tomorrow at 8AM ET.

The Microsoft Surface Pro 2 tablet with kickstand. (Click Image To Enlarge)

The Microsoft Surface Pro 2 tablet is comes equipped with a digitizing pen. (Click Image To Enlarge)

Everyone who purchases a Surface Pro 2 will be given access to several Microsoft services too, including one year of free Skype calling to landlines, as well as unlimited use of Skype-branded Wi-Fi hotspots. And for two years, users will get 200GB of SkyDrive storage as well.

 

Microsoft is also unveiling several new accessories for its Surface tablets. The Surface Pro line is getting a docking station that will transform the tablets into something closer to a traditional PC by providing USB ports for connecting a mouse and keyboard to, as well as a Mini DisplayPort for adding an external monitor. There’s also a new attachable keyboard called the Power Cover, which includes a built-in battery for extending the tablet’s daily longevity, in addition to a backlit keyboard called the Type Cover 2, among others.

The Microsoft Surface Pro 2 tablet with kickstand in the out position (front and back views) (Click Image To Enlarge)

The Microsoft Surface Pro 2 tablet standing with kickstand out and with the attached full-size keyboard. (Click Image To Enlarge)

COMMENTARY:   Microsoft just announced a docking station for the Surface Pro and Surface Pro 2, the first docking accessory for the Surface line of tablets. The dock has been expected for a long time, and it looks like a solid workstation intended to appeal to business users who use the Surface for serious computing.

The Microsoft Surface Pro 2 tablet with optional docking station (front and rear views) (Click Image To Enlarge)

The Surface Docking Station, unveiled at a press event in New York City today, is large and sturdy-looking, framed by two wings that fit on either side of the docked tablet. The dock includes three USB 2.0 ports, one USB 3.0 port, audio in, audio out, and will of course charge the device while connected. It can also power two monitors.

Unfortunately for Surface RT and Surface 2 users, the new docking station will will only support Surface Pro and Surface Pro 2. Like many other docking stations, you can use the Surface version to connect a display via a mini DisplayPort dongle, or use a wired connection through the ethernet port.

Seven months ago, Surface vice president Panos Panay there were no plans to build a docking station, so it's interesting that the company changed its mind. Perhaps the software giant listened to customers who remarked that the ability to have monitors, keyboard, and mouse connected to a docking station "would really seal this system up for a lot of business users." The Docking Station for Surface Pro will retail at an estimated $199.99. Microsoft expects to release it in early 2014. 

There's also the new Type Cover 2 that's 1mm thinner (2.5mm total, to be exact) than the previous model and packs a whopping 1,092 sensors for a better typing experience and touch gestures. This one is backlit (the first for a Surface tablet) and dims intelligently with the help of a proximity sensor. At $130, it offers 1.5mm of travel for what should be improved ergonomics for longer typing sessions on both the Surface Pro 2 and the Surface 2. The Touch Cover 2 is also thinner and lighter than its predecessor while getting the backlit upgrade and a $120 price tag. Rounding out the lot is a $60 Bluetooth wireless adapter for the covers, a USB car charger and a Surface Edition of the Arc Touch Mouse priced at $70.

The Microsoft Surface Pro 2 tablet is comes equipped with a touch cover or keyboard that comes in four different colors. (Click Image To Enlarge)

The biggest issue that I find with the new Microsoft Surface Pro 2 tablet is that it is a laptop disguised as a tablet.  The optional power keyboard, bigger memory and docking station really transform the Surface Pro 2 from just a tablet into a laptop -- a very expensive laptop. Who is going to pay $899 for a tablet, and with add-ons upwards of $1,799 (or over $2,000 with sales tax and extended warranty).  Very few people are going to buy it at those price points.  

If Microsoft were smart, it should've produced a 7-inch Surface Pro 2 tablet to compete with Apple's iPad Mini and Google's Nexus 7 2nd generation tablets.  I think that this is where the consumer market is going.  9.7 and 10.1 inch tablets are bulky and heavy.  The children's market is where the growth will come from.  Children can easily hold a 7-inch tablet, and they are a whole lot lighter.  As an owner of the new Nexus 7 2nd Gen tablet, I can attest to this.  The Nexus 7 2nd Gen tablet is the best damn 7-inch tablet money can buy.

If you are a PC power user, stay with your laptop.  But, if you want to own a tablet strictly for for the enjoyment of surfing the internet, playing games, music, videos and movies, a 7-inch tablet makes a lot of sense, if you truly want to be mobile and not incumbered by something bulky and heavy. 

Courtesy of an article dated September 23, 2013 appearing in The Verge and an article dated September 23, 2013 appearing in The Verge and an article dated September 23, 2013 appearing in Engadget

GERMAN HACKERS SAY THEY CRACKED THE NEW iPHONE 5S FINGERPRINT SCANNER, WILL EYE RETINA SCANNERS BE NEXT?

"Did you say that some German hackers cracked our iPhone 5S fingerprint reader?"  

Just a few days after Apple unveiled its new iPhone with a fingerprint ID scanner, German researchers say they’ve cracked the scanner using a fake rubber print.

The researchers, with the Chaos Computer Club, posted a video on their website showing members of the group’s biometric team defeating Apple’s Touch ID with a fabricated fingerprint created from a photo of a print.

 

They photographed the print from a glass surface, laser-printed the fingerprint image on a transparency sheet, then smeared it with latex. A similar method was used in 2002 by researchers in Japan to demonstrate the security weaknesses of fingerprint scanners using a gel fingerprint.

Frank Rieger, spokesperson for the CCC, said on the group’s website.

“We hope that this finally puts to rest the illusions people have about fingerprint biometrics. It is plain stupid to use something that you can´t change and that you leave everywhere every day as a security token.” 

“The public should no longer be fooled by the biometrics industry with false security claims. Biometrics is fundamentally a technology designed for oppression and control, not for securing everyday device access.”

They explained their process here:

The method follows the steps outlined in this how-to with materials that can be found in almost every household: First, the fingerprint of the enrolled user is photographed with 2,400 dpi resolution. The resulting image is then cleaned up, inverted and laser printed with 1,200 dpi onto transparent sheet with a thick toner setting. Finally, pink latex milk or white woodglue is smeared into the pattern created by the toner onto the transparent sheet. After it cures, the thin latex sheet is lifted from the sheet, breathed on to make it a tiny bit moist and then placed onto the sensor to unlock the phone. This process has been used with minor refinements and variations against the vast majority of fingerprint sensors on the market.

Apple added the Touch ID technology to its iPhone 5S in order to allow users to authenticate themselves to their phones to unlock the devices and to make purchases through iTunes by placing their finger on the device’s home button. A laser-cut sapphire crystal and a stainless steel detection ring are the top layers of the home button.

Apple said during its unveiling of the technology last week that the system scans the sub-epidermal layers of the finger to take the reading.

It’s hard to square Apple’s statement with the German researchers demonstration, which showed that a mere photo of a latent print from the skin’s top layer was sufficient to trick the technology.

COMMENTARY:   Whether you are a German hacker from the Chaos Computer Club or professional hacker you will need the fingerprint of the original owner of the iPhone 5S in order to crack it and get into that phone.  Furthermore, you don't know if the owner used a thumb print, whether it was the right thumb or left thumb, or if they used the fingerprint from another finger.  Sure, you could lift a finger print from the glass display of the phone, but you still don't know which finger to use.   In any regard, it is still going to be considerable work to get ahold of the correct fingerprint, so you can create a duplicate latex imprint.  

An even more interesting question is: Didn't those smart Apple iPhone engineers forsee hackers lifting a fingerprint and creating a latex duplicate fingerprint imprint to crack the fingerprint reader?  You would've thought that they would've tried the various methods of cracking a fingerprint and built security preventive measures.  Perhaps a fingerprint plus a secret password or pincode.  

Next is the iPhone with retina eye scanning a la CIA.   

Courtesy of an article dated September 23, 2013 appearing in Wired

WATCH A YOUNG CHILD AGE INTO AN OLD WOMAN BEFORE YOUR VERY EYES

Danielle as a young child. (Click Image To Enlarge)

A FIVE-MINUTE VIDEO SHOWS A 70-YEAR AGING PROCESS, AND HOW BEAUTY IS SOMETHING THAT BELONGS TO US AT EVERY STAGE OF OUR LIVES.

Do me a favor. Danielle is a slow burn, but it needs to be watched in a single go. Set aside five minutes. Hit the play button. Watch a woman age from a little girl into an old woman, so imperceptibly that you're not even sure where the transitions occur. But don't skip around. Danielle's stillness is a paean to the grace of aging, and how it doesn't come upon us in fits and starts, but atom by atom, deepening beauty without eradicating it.

 

It's a remarkable work, but even more remarkable is the story of howDanielle was made.

A commercial video editor working primarily on music videos and commercials in Los Angeles, Anthony Cerniello made Danielle in response to an exhaustion with the constant franticness expected of him professionally. Cerniello tells me.

"I'm always asked to cut things in a very energetic, fast paced style, but my personal preference is to slow things down, to seek calmness, peace, and quiet.  I was burnt out. I wanted to make something with no edits that would give me a broad canvas to tell a story in an unconventional way. I had also been thinking a lot about death for the previous few years.”

The inspiration for Danielle came to Cerniello when he visited the real life Danielle at her home for Thanksgiving, accompanied by a photographer friend, Keith Sirchio. Although he had known Danielle since high school, Cerniello had only sporadically kept in touch with her over the years. Cerniello says. 

"She had a face that I was always drawn to, I don't know why.  She was always nice to me, though, even when she probably didn't know why I was bugging her."

While he was at her house, surrounded by her large extended family, Cerniello decided to take portraits of her family members with a Hasselblad.

“Danielle knew why I was doing it, but I don’t think her family members knew or cared.”

Cerniello then headed back to New York and scanned the negatives in a drum scanner at the U.N. He imported these files into Adobe After Effects in order to blend them together.

Danielle as a young teen (Click Image To Enlarge)

Cerniello explains.

"From the very beginning, I knew I wanted the procession to be barely perceptible.  I picked the subjects that looked the most alike, looking mostly at their bone structure, but also their age.”

Once he had the correct order, Cerniello created a morph between each successive "Danielle," capturing in the process something of the slow inexorability of aging itself.

But the finished result was still just a collection of film stills of Danielle and her family, albeit stills that blended into one another. Cerniello wanted more: He wanted the aging gestalt of Danielle's bloodline to live and breathe. To accomplish this, he took the render and wrapped it around a 3-D model in 3D Studio Max to give the head depth. He then asked animator Edmund Earle to bring the model to life, adding blinking, head articulation, camera movement and some subtle expression changes to the film.

Danielle as a older, mature adult in her 60's and 70's (Click Image To Enlarge)

The visuals are only part of what makes Danielle such a haunting portrait of the aging process's own still beauty, though. What really sells it is the score.  Cerniello says.  

"When Danielle was completely silent, it felt almost like a medical film.  For my original idea, I dreamed of this incredibly layered symphony of her life: Danielle might be an opera singer in her '20s, and snippets of opera would creep in, and then her dreams would disappear and take over."

But in the end, Cerniello rejected the idea. It felt too specific a narrative to impose on such an evocative piece. Instead, he ended up turning to his friend Mark Reveley to create an ambient score from analog pedals.

Just 24 hours after it was uploaded to the web, Danielle was watched over half a million times. Perhaps what draws us into it is that it is life-affirming. It would be so easy to make a film that shows a young girl age into an old woman, but Danielle shows the truth about beauty: that beauty is something that belongs to all of us at every stage of our lives. Age doesn't ravage Danielle, nor does it kill her. It captures within her features the beauty of a life well-lived. And at the end of her time-lapsed life? Danielle smiles.

COMMENTARY:   I almost felt like quitting while watching the video, but you have to be patient, and watch the video, as Danielle slowly ages.  It's quite a feat as to how Cerniello did it.

Courtesy of an article dated September 16, 2013 appearing in Fast Company Design

THE STATE OF TWITTER IN 2013 [INFOGRAPHIC]

 

Since its inception over seven years ago, Twitter has built a community of over 200 million monthly active users, and over 170 billion tweets have been posted in total. On average, users spend 170 minutes on the site each month and have 208 followers. Twitter is also undergoing a mobile revolution with 80% of its users accessing the site via a mobile device. 63% of brands use multiple Twitter accounts, with YouTube leading the way as the most-followed brand with 33 million followers.

How can you be more successful on Twitter? Well, tweets with photos receive engagement rates twice as high as tweets that do not. It's also been found that the more you tweet each day, the less engaged your fans are likely to be. So keep your tweets fresh and timely!

Click Image To Enlarge

Courtesy of an article dated September 9, 2013 appearing in DashBurst

HOW DO WOMEN AND MEN USE SOCIAL MEDIA? [INFOGRAPHIC]

 

Are men from Goggle+ and women from Twitter? Are women from Pinterest and men from LinkedIn? Not entirely. But there are trends in social media use that depend on gender. This infographic gives the lay of the land. Where is the demographic that you are targeting? 

Click Image To Enlarge

COMMENTARY:   They say women are more chatty then men, and with the possible exception of Google+, which has 64% males, women dominate engagement on social networks like Facebook and Twitter.  No surprise there.

Courtesy of an article dated September 2, 2013 appearing in Social Media Today

BETTER PLACE FOUNDER SHAI AGASSI SAYS THAT DETROIT AUTOMAKERS CAN LEARN FROM TESLA MOTORS, RESPOND BUT NOT COPY IT

Should major automakers be concerned about the fact that Tesla's market cap is rapidly approaching the levels of Ford and General Motors? Of course.  (Click Image To Enlarge)

As the electric car company becomes more and more successful, the Big Three need to respond. But just copying a brash startup won't work. Here is what will.

Earlier this summer, General Motors vice chairman Steve Girsky hinted that the company's CEO, Dan Akerson, was more than a little concerned about the rise of electric vehicle startup Tesla Motors:   Girsky said in an interview with Bloomberg. 

“He thinks Tesla could be a big disrupter if we’re not careful.  History is littered with big companies that ignored innovation that was coming their way because you didn’t know where you could be disrupted.”

Shai Agassi, the founder of bankrupt electric vehicle infrastructure company Better Place, has some advice for them: Don't copy Tesla. Just learn from it.  (Click Image To Enlarge)

Should major automakers and their investors be concerned that Tesla's market cap is rapidly approaching the levels of Ford and General Motors?  Of course. That's why Shai Agassi, the founder of bankrupt electric vehicle infrastructure company Better Place, has some advice for them: Don't copy Tesla. Just learn from it.

Tesla Motors Inc (NASDAQ.TSLA) - Share Prices Jan 1, 2013 through September 13, 2013 - Google Finance (Click Image To Enlarge)

In a series of three posts on LinkedIn, Agassi expresses his thoughts on what Detroit should be doing to get in on the electric vehicle market, which Tesla currently has cornered.

In a series of three posts on LinkedIn, Agassi expresses his thoughts on what Detroit should be doing to get in on the electric vehicle market, which Tesla currently has cornered. (Click Image To Enlarge)

Agassi says.

"This was my reaction to a number of posts in the business media that were starting to compare and contrast Tesla with the rest of the industry.  There's this whole idea that the industry should copy Tesla or somehow figure out how to copy Tesla when they're making probably a thousand times as many cars as Tesla."

Agassi says, "There's this whole idea that the industry should copy Tesla or somehow figure out how to copy Tesla when they're making probably a thousand times as many cars as Tesla." (Click Image To Enlarge)

The auto industry, in other words, needs a different strategy.

Agassi's four main takeaways for the industry: Electric cars are objects of desire; Electric cars are like a modern appliance that has software and physical components which need to be constantly updated; Electric cars are on wheels, so automakers need to design vehicles with exponentially improving battery packs in mind; and electric cars drive and sell differently--because car dealers won't invest in marketing a new product category, direct sales may be the way to go.

He has four rules to remember:  Electric cars are objects of desire. Electric cars are like a modern appliance; Electric cars are Moore's Law on wheels; and Electric cars drive and sell differently. (Click Image To Enlarge)

When I ask Agassi if he thinks it's realistic for big, clunky automakers to switch to an entirely new distribution model, he points to the used car industry.  He says.  

"eBay is selling more than a million cars a year at a price point that's roughly around $10,000. If you were able to offer a $10,000 car--one third to one half the price of a new car today--you create a whole new proposition for a whole new market segment."

Agassi says, "If you were able to offer a $10,000 car--one third to one half the price of a new car today--you create a whole new proposition for a whole new market segment." (Click Image To Enlarge)

That requires bringing electric vehicles down to that new low price point--a daunting proposition considering the high cost of batteries. But Agassi has an interesting solution: Don't factor battery prices into EV costs; it's not like gas prices are included in vehicle sticker prices. Instead, he says, automakers should follow the cell phone subscription model and ask people to pay a certain amount per month ($300, say) for battery use.

Agassi argues that automakers shouldn't factor battery prices into EV costs--it's not like gas prices are factored into regular vehicle costs. Instead, they should opt for a subscription model. (Click Image To Enlarge)

Even though Agassi's now-defunct Better Place also relied on a subscription model for battery use, he still believes the model is valid. Better Place, he says, deployed its "battery switch" stations before testing consumer demand, whereas Tesla is deploying charging and battery switch stations only after gauging demand (Tesla also manufactures its own vehicles, while Better Place did not). He writes:

"Produce a base version of an electric cross over. Make it beautiful and benefit from great electric performance. Then take a page from Ford’s Model-T game plan: price that new car at a disruptive price of $9,999, “batteries not included” (after operator subsidies and government incentives).   At high volume, even at that price, this car will be making great profit for the carmaker."

"Support the car with an operator that deploys infrastructure making this EV more convenient to use than a gasoline car. The operator will own the batteries, and offer electric miles at weekly cost which is at parity what the average driver pays for gasoline today. Only this service contract will come with unlimited miles. Then offer various luxury versions of the car, with many “options” offered at higher price points. Consumers who are offered an insanely great car for $9,999 will buy a ton of add-ons, generating even better margin for the carmaker."

Tesla is deploying charging and battery switch stations only after gauging demand. (Click Image To Enlarge)

And he says.

"The company that follows this advice will capture not just a portion of the EV market, it will capture a portion of the car market. That's how industries are formed."

It's hard to say whether legacy automakers are nimble enough to make such a dramatic shift.  The next major EV manufacturer--if there is one--may be a company that doesn't yet exist.

The company that follows this advice, he says, "will capture not just a portion of the EV market, it will capture a portion of the car market. That's how industries are formed." (Click Image To Enlarge)

He says.  

"If you had to guess in the year 2000 who would bring a music device that would capture most of the market, you'd say Sony--they own music labels, they own everything in the industry.   If I told you it was Apple, you'd be laughing because they didn't make a music device at the time."

COMMENTARY:    I agree with Agassi Shai's assessment of Tesla Motors.  Right now the market for electric vehicles or EV's is too small and too early in its development for either the Big Three or Asiatic automakers.  However, they see that the handwriting is on the wall:  The world's oil supply is quickly running out.  We are now entering a period where we consume more oil than the "Oil Shieks" can produce.  Global warming is becoming a reality, no matter what the neysayers think.  With oil prices exceeding $100 per barrel, and the oil refineries producing less gasoline, this has driven gas prices to the highest levels since 2005.  

Electric vehicles are filling a real need in the marketplace, but until the battery technology can improve storage capabilities, and the cost of the vehicles comes down, sufficiently to attract more buyers, EV manufacturers will be stuck in this "dead zone."  Tesla Motors is not immune form this.  It knows it too.  Elon Musk knows that Tesla Motors cannot survive strictly by meeting the demands of affluent buyers who afford to pay premium prices for the Tesla Model S sedan.  This is why Tesla Motors is pushing for a lower-priced EV like the Model C.  

Agassi says it like it is.  The Big Three and Asiatic automakers should not try to copy Tesla, but learn from it.  Furthermore, you cannot simply copy Tesla's design and technology innovation which is clearly head and shoulders above anything the big automakers presently have.  Tesla Motors has intellectural property protection to insure they will be around.  It is being sought out by other companies, including several of the big automakers like Nissan and Toyota to license Tesla's lithium battery technology.

One other thing:  Tesla Motors has Elon Musk.  In all my years, I have never seen another entrepreneur with a track record of success that comes even close to what Elon has been able to accomplished.    Musk co-founded of Zip2, Founded PayPal, SpaceX, Tesla Motors. With his management team he has successfully scaled each company to the point where they now have developed sustainable and predictable revenue models.  He is the real deal.  Tesla Motors has a successful IPO and its stock is now at 165 a share, impossible, but true.  It would not surprise me if the does get SpaceX to put the first American on Mars in another 20 years.  The big automakers cannot replicate someone like Elon Musk.

Courtesy of an article dated August 29, 2013 appearing in Fast Company Exist

CMO SURVEY: MARKETERS TO SPEND MORE ON SOCIAL MEDIA, BUT MEASURING IMPACT AND ROI'S STILL REMAINS NEBULOUS

 

There was good news and bad news for social media marketing to be found in the results of the latest CMO Survey from Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business, which polled 410 marketing executives (most of them vice-presidents or above) from July 16-August 6, 2013. On the positive side, spending on social media marketing is expected to increase substantially in coming years; on the negative side, nobody seems quite sure what they’re achieving with it.

First the good news: CMO survey respondents said they expect social media marketing’s share of overall marketing budgets to increase from an average 6.6% currently to 9.1% over the coming year, and 15.8% over the next five years.

Click Image To Enlarge

The biggest increases are coming in business-to-consumer products, where social media marketing will grow from a 7.3% share to a 19.5% share over the next five years, and business-to-consumer services (7.7% to 18.6%). Meanwhile social media marketing’s share of B2B product marketing spending is expected to increase from 5% to 13.3% over the next five years, and for B2B services from 7.8% to 15.5%.

Click Image To Enlarge

Now on to the bad news. First of all, social media marketing is not well-integrated with overall marketing strategies, according to CMO Survey respondents: asked to rank their company’s social media integration on a scale of seven, the average response in the latest survey was 3.9 -- basically unchanged from the average score of 3.8 in the four preceding surveys, going back to February 2011. Integration of customer information actually appears to be getting worse, with marketing execs giving an average score of 3.4 -- down from 3.7 in the August 2012 survey.

Click Image To Enlarge

The picture for return-on-investment isn’t much better, with 49% of respondents saying they haven’t been able to demonstrate any impact from social media marketing, and 36% saying they have a qualitative sense, but not quantitative. That leaves just 15% who say they have shown the impact quantitatively. 

Click Image To Enlarge

COMMENTARY:    Determining return on investment and measurement are still the top issues facing marketers, according to a new report from Forrester titled “Integrate Social Into Your Marketing RaDaR.” Forrester analyst Nate Elliott was blunt summarizing the problem:

“The sobering reality is that nearly a decade into the era of social media, more social marketers are failing than succeeding.” 

Ouch -- but sometimes the truth hurts.  Here are some of the major findings of the Forrester survey:

• 38% of marketers surveyed identified ROI as one of the top three challenges they face. 
• 35% of respondents said they had social media measurement issues.  
• 34% of respondents said lack of internal resources was one of their three biggest issues. 25%% of respondents said lack of a social media budget. 
• 24% of respondents said “integrating social media channel with other channels. 
• 23% of respondents said they lacked time for social media. 

According to Elliott, the failure to integrate social media with other channels is due to an attitude he calls “Social Exceptionalism,” which treats social media as fundamentally different from other types of media and marketing:  

“Rather than recognizing that social is just another marketing channel, many marketers see it as unique.” 

Of course ROI and measurement have been chronic issues for social media marketing. Last year I wrote about a survey of 329 brand marketing executives by PulsePoint and the Economist Intelligence Unit, in which half of the survey respondents said lack of standardized metrics for ROI was a big impediment for social media campaigns.

Also last year, I wrote about “Marketing ROI in the Era of Big Data,” a study presented by Columbia University Business School professors and the New York American Marketing Association, which found that most advertisers and marketers are failing to exploit  “Big Data,” including the wealth of information about consumer habits and preferences flowing from social media.  This survey of 283 corporate marketing decision makers, conducted by Research Now founding the following: 

• 39% said their own company’s data is collected too infrequently or not real-time enough.
• 51% said that a lack of sharing customer data within their own organization is a barrier to effectively measuring their marketing ROI.  
• 37% of respondents did not include any mention of financial outcomes when asked to define what “marketing ROI” meant for their own organization. 
• 22% using brand awareness as their sole measure when evaluating their marketing spending.

The fact that measuring the effectiveness and ROI of social media campaigns continues to haunt social media marketers after nearly nine years since Facebook was founded, in spite of the fact that there are so many social media marketers, consultants and wannabe's, books and courses on social media marketing, tells me that there is a sort of mass confusion among these social media marketers. That about a third have ben able to measure their social media marketing ROI tells me that there still may be hope.  I remember reading somewhere that marketing was not considered a real science, where there was a definite cause and effect, where you could have predictable and sustainable results.  Perhaps social media results are not truly measureable with some accuracy without a huge amount of time and resources, and this could explain why so many simply are not doing it.    

Courtesy of an article dated September 12, 2013 appearing in MediaPost Publications The Social Graf and The CMO Survey

VOYAGER 1 SPACECRAFT OFFICIALLY ENTERS INTERSTELLAR SPACE AFTER A JOURNEY OF 36 YEARS AND 12 BILLION MILES

The Space Between: This artist's concept shows the Voyager 1 spacecraft entering the space between stars. Interstellar space is dominated by plasma, ionized gas (illustrated here as brownish haze), that was thrown off by giant stars millions of years ago. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech (Click Image To Enlarge)

PASADENA, Calif. -- NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft officially is the first human-made object to venture into interstellar space. The 36-year-old probe is about 12 billion miles (19 billion kilometers) from our sun. 

New and unexpected data indicate Voyager 1 has been traveling for about one year through plasma, or ionized gas, present in the space between stars. Voyager is in a transitional region immediately outside the solar bubble, where some effects from our sun are still evident. A report on the analysis of this new data, an effort led by Don Gurnett and the plasma wave science team at the University of Iowa, Iowa City, is published in Thursday's edition of the journal Science. 

 

Ed Stone, Voyager project scientist based at the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, said.  

"Now that we have new, key data, we believe this is mankind's historic leap into interstellar space.  The Voyager team needed time to analyze those observations and make sense of them. But we can now answer the question we've all been asking -- 'Are we there yet?' Yes, we are." 

Voyager 1 first detected the increased pressure of interstellar space on the heliosphere, the bubble of charged particles surrounding the sun that reaches far beyond the outer planets, in 2004. Scientists then ramped up their search for evidence of the spacecraft's interstellar arrival, knowing the data analysis and interpretation could take months or years. 

This artist's concept shows NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft in a new region at the edge of our solar system where the amount of high-energy particles diffusing into our solar system from outside has increased. Voyager 1 is in an area scientists are calling the stagnation region, at the outer layer of the heliosphere, or magnetic bubble that the sun blows around itself (Click Image To Enlarge)

Voyager 1 does not have a working plasma sensor, so scientists needed a different way to measure the spacecraft's plasma environment to make a definitive determination of its location. A coronal mass ejection, or a massive burst of solar wind and magnetic fields, that erupted from the sun in March 2012 provided scientists the data they needed. When this unexpected gift from the sun eventually arrived at Voyager 1's location 13 months later, in April 2013, the plasma around the spacecraft began to vibrate like a violin string. On April 9, Voyager 1's plasma wave instrument detected the movement. The pitch of the oscillations helped scientists determine the density of the plasma. The particular oscillations meant the spacecraft was bathed in plasma more than 40 times denser than what they had encountered in the outer layer of the heliosphere. Density of this sort is to be expected in interstellar space. 

The plasma wave science team reviewed its data and found an earlier, fainter set of oscillations in October and November 2012. Through extrapolation of measured plasma densities from both events, the team determined Voyager 1 first entered interstellar space in August 2012. 

This artist's concept shows the outer layers of our solar bubble, or heliosphere, and nearby interstellar space. NASA's Voyager 1 just passed through the Sun's heliopause or outer edge of the heliosheath and is officially in the region known as interstellar space, which is the space between stars that still feels charged particle and magnetic field influences from the heliosphere. The magnetic field lines (yellow arcs) appear to lie in the same general direction as the magnetic field lines emanating from our sun. (Click Image To Enlarge)

Gurnett said. 

"We literally jumped out of our seats when we saw these oscillations in our data -- they showed us the spacecraft was in an entirely new region, comparable to what was expected in interstellar space, and totally different than in the solar bubble.  Clearly we had passed through the heliopause, which is the long-hypothesized boundary between the solar plasma and the interstellar plasma." 

The new plasma data suggested a timeframe consistent with abrupt, durable changes in the density of energetic particles that were first detected on Aug. 25, 2012. The Voyager team generally accepts this date as the date of interstellar arrival. The charged particle and plasma changes were what would have been expected during a crossing of the heliopause. 

Suzanne Dodd, Voyager project manager, based at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., said.  

"The team's hard work to build durable spacecraft and carefully manage the Voyager spacecraft's limited resources paid off in another first for NASA and humanity.  We expect the fields and particles science instruments on Voyager will continue to send back data through at least 2020. We can't wait to see what the Voyager instruments show us next about deep space."

Voyager 1 and its twin, Voyager 2, were launched 16 days apart in 1977. Both spacecraft flew by Jupiter and Saturn. Voyager 2 also flew by Uranus and Neptune. Voyager 2, launched before Voyager 1, is the longest continuously operated spacecraft. It is about 9.5 billion miles (15 billion kilometers) away from our sun. 

Beyond the Bubble: The general locations of Voyager 1 and 2 are shown in this illustration at the edge of the heliosphere, the bubble created by solar wind. Image by NASA-JPL-Caltech (Click Image To Enlarge) 

Voyager mission controllers still talk to or receive data from Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 every day, though the emitted signals are currently very dim, at about 23 watts -- the power of a refrigerator light bulb. By the time the signals get to Earth, they are a fraction of a billion-billionth of a watt. Data from Voyager 1's instruments are transmitted to Earth typically at 160 bits per second, and captured by 34- and 70-meter NASA Deep Space Network stations. Traveling at the speed of light, a signal from Voyager 1 takes about 17 hours to travel to Earth. After the data are transmitted to JPL and processed by the science teams, Voyager data are made publicly available. 

This schematic shows our solar bubble moving through nearby interstellar space, or the space between stars. Interstellar space is shown in blue because it is filled with plasma, or ionized gas, that has a lower temperature than what is inside our solar bubble, also known as the heliosphere. Blue is about 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit (6,000 Kelvin). Red indicates hotter temperatures of about 2 million degrees Fahrenheit (1 million Kelvin). The black lines indicate the flow of the solar wind inside our solar bubble, and the flow of the interstellar wind in interstellar space. (Click To Enlarge Image)

John Grunsfeld, NASA's associate administrator for science in Washington, said. 

"Voyager has boldly gone where no probe has gone before, marking one of the most significant technological achievements in the annals of the history of science, and adding a new chapter in human scientific dreams and endeavors.  Perhaps some future deep space explorers will catch up with Voyager, our first interstellar envoy, and reflect on how this intrepid spacecraft helped enable their journey." 

Scientists do not know when Voyager 1 will reach the undisturbed part of interstellar space where there is no influence from our sun. They also are not certain when Voyager 2 is expected to cross into interstellar space, but they believe it is not very far behind. 

JPL built and operates the twin Voyager spacecraft. The Voyagers Interstellar Mission is a part of NASA's Heliophysics System Observatory, sponsored by the Heliophysics Division of NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. NASA's Deep Space Network, managed by JPL, is an international network of antennas that supports interplanetary spacecraft missions and radio and radar astronomy observations for the exploration of the solar system and the universe. The network also supports selected Earth-orbiting missions. 

The cost of the Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 missions -- including launch, mission operations and the spacecraft's nuclear batteries, which were provided by the Department of Energy -- is about $988 million through September. 

For a sound file of the oscillations detected by Voyager in interstellar space, animations and other information, visit:http://www.nasa.gov/voyager and http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/interstellarvoyager/ . 

For an image of the radio signal from Voyager 1 on Feb. 21 by the National Radio Astronomy Observatory's Very Long Baseline Array, which links telescopes from Hawaii to St. Croix, visit: http://www.nrao.edu .

COMMENTARY:    Pioneers 10 and 11, which preceded Voyager, both carried small metal plaques identifying their time and place of origin for the benefit of any other spacefarers that might find them in the distant future. With this example before them, NASA placed a more ambitious message aboard Voyager 1 and 2-a kind of time capsule, intended to communicate a story of our world to extraterrestrials. The Voyager message is carried by a phonograph record-a 12-inch gold-plated copper disk containing sounds and images selected to portray the diversity of life and culture on Earth.

The contents of the record were selected for NASA by a committee chaired by Carl Sagan of Cornell University, et. al. Dr. Sagan and his associates assembled 115 images and a variety of natural sounds, such as those made by surf, wind and thunder, birds, whales, and other animals. To this they added musical selections from different cultures and eras, and spoken greetings from Earth-people in fifty-five languages, and printed messages from President Carter and U.N. Secretary General Waldheim.

Each record is encased in a protective aluminum jacket, together with a cartridge and a needle. Instructions, in symbolic language, explain the origin of the spacecraft and indicate how the record is to be played. The 115 images are encoded in analog form. The remainder of the record is in audio, designed to be played at 16-2/3 revolutions per minute. It contains the spoken greetings, beginning with Akkadian, which was spoken in Sumer about six thousand years ago, and ending with Wu, a modern Chinese dialect.

Following the section on the sounds of Earth, there is an eclectic 90-minute selection of music, including both Eastern and Western classics and a variety of ethnic music. Once the Voyager spacecraft leave the solar system (by 1990, both will be beyond the orbit of Pluto), they will find themselves in empty space.

It will be forty thousand years before they make a close approach to any other planetary system. As Carl Sagan has noted,

"The spacecraft will be encountered and the record played only if there are advanced spacefaring civilizations in interstellar space. But the launching of this bottle into the cosmic ocean says something very hopeful about life on this planet."

The definitive work about the Voyager record is "Murmurs of Earth" by Executive Director, Carl Sagan, Technical Director, Frank Drake, Creative Director, Ann Druyan, Producer, Timothy Ferris, Designer, Jon Lomberg, and Greetings Organizer, Linda Salzman. Basically, this book is the story behind the creation of the record, and includes a full list of everything on the record. "Murmurs of Earth", originally published in 1978, was reissued in 1992 by Warner News Media with a CD-ROM that replicates the Voyager record. Unfortunately, this book is now out of print, but it is worth the effort to try and find a used copy or browse through a library copy.

 

Bon Voyage to Voyager 1 as it enters interstellar space and continues on its journey to other solar systems, perhaps making contact with intelligent beings like us.

Courtesy of an article dated September 12, 2013 appearing in NASA JPL

CRAIGSLIST COSTS LOCAL NEWSPAPERS $5 BILLION IN LOST AD REVENUES BETWEEN THE YEAR 2000 AND 2007

By offering buyers and sellers a free alternative to paid listings in newspapers, online classifieds site Craigslist saved users about $5 billion from 2000-2007, while costing local newspapers the same amount in lost classified advertising revenues, according to a new study by professors at the NYU Stern School of Business and Harvard Business School.

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The study, titled “Responses to Entry in Multi-Sided Markets: The Impact of Craigslist on Local Newspapers,” explored the impact of Craigslist by analyzing newspaper publisher results over time, focusing on their degree of reliance on classifieds and the timing of Craigslist entry in their market, among other factors.

Newspapers that were more reliant on classified revenues saw a bigger drop-off after Craiglist entered their markets.

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Overall, local newspapers that relied heavily on classifieds suffered an average 20.7% drop in classified advertising rates after the entry of Craigslist in their markets. Moreover, the migration of their classifieds business to Craigslist evidently had secondary impacts on local newspapers, as it was correlated with increasing subscription prices, which rose an average 3.3%; decreasing circulation, which fell an average 4.4%; and decreasing display ad rates, which fell an average 3.1%

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In terms of the chain of causation, diminishing demand for classifieds may also have diminished the incentive for consumers to buy single copies or subscribe to newspapers, since they no longer required their listings.

At the same time, price increases intended to offset losses in classified revenues further depressed subs. This trend, in turn, put downward pressure on display advertising rates.

In another secondary effect, newspapers that were heavily reliant on classifieds were also more likely to attempt to differentiate their content from competing newspapers, presumably in an effort to reinvent their value proposition to readers in the absence of classifieds. They were also less likely to make their content available for free online -- perhaps as part of a strategy to drive readers to the print edition and thus prop up print display ad rates.

The authors note,  

"These results are still relevant today -- and not just to newspaper publishers -- as the boundaries between media industries are blurred and advertisers are able to reach relevant consumers through a variety of platforms, such as TV, the Internet and mobile devices.”

COMMENTARY:     This article begs the question:  How long will Craigslist continue to offer mostly free classifieds?   Makes you wonder just what Craigslist's ad revenues would be if they charged something for those "free" classified ads.  

Courtesy of an article dated August 14, 2013 appearing in MediaPost Publications Media Daily News

TWITTER FILES FOR AN IPO, ANNOUNCES CONFIDENTIAL S-1 FILING IN A TWEET, GOLDMAN SACHS TO BE LEAD UNDERWRITER

Twitter announces their IPO filing via a 140 character tweet. (Click Image To Enlarge) 

Twitter Inc. said it has confidentially submitted an S-1 form to the Securities and Exchange Commission to begin the process for an initial public offering, a long-awaited move by the microblogging service.

In a tweet on Thursday, the San Francisco-based company said,

"We've confidentially submitted an S-1 to the SEC for a planned IPO. This Tweet does not constitute an offer of any securities for sale."

A Twitter spokesman declined to comment.

Goldman Sachs is the lead underwriter on the planned initial stock sale, people familiar with the matter said.

 

One person familiar with the matter said other banks are expected to join Goldman in managing what is expected to be one of the highest-profile IPOs since social-networking site  Facebook  went public last year. Deals like Twitter's planned IPO are a bonanza for the Wall Street banks, both in the fees they collect in underwriting the sale and the prestige of handling the high-profile offering.

Twitter's decision to tweet about its confidential IPO filing is perhaps fitting for a company that gave people a platform to broadcast private moments to the world. The company quickly followed its IPO disclosure tweet with another: "Now, back to work," the company wrote, with a photo from Twitter offices of employees working at their desks.

A securities rule change put in place last year allows companies with less than $1 billion in yearly revenue to file initial IPO paperwork confidentially. The advantage for companies is they can keep their financial results secret until they are closer to pitching their stock to investors.

Some startup advisers said the confidential IPO option is making some young companies more willing to accelerate plans.

Twitter's filing is a major milestone for a company that launched in 2006 as an extension of a podcasting company, and now has become a global brand with more than 200 million users each month, and the power to chronicle protest movements in Egypt and Jay-Z concerts in New York.

But questions remain about whether Twitter will prove lasting, both as a service and as a business. New digital services, such as photo-sharing app Instagram and messaging service Snapchat, have emerged to challenge Twitter as a primary tool for people to stay in touch with friends and congregate around major events. Instagram, now owned by Facebook, recently said it reached 150 million monthly users.

As a business, Twitter CEO Dick Costolo has been in his post for three years and made it a priority to turn Twitter's popularity into a financial strength. Twitter started selling ads on its service—it calls them "promoted tweets," among other names—and research firm EMarketer Inc. estimates Twitter will generate $583 million in advertising revenue this year.

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Clark Fredricksen, a vice president at research firm EMarketer Inc., said.  

"Their growth trajectory over the last few years has been very, very strong.  Twitter was able to monetize mobile user growth much more effectively than most other digital platforms."  

He pointed out that a higher percentage of Twitter's ad revenue comes from mobile devices compared with Facebook.

Still, people inside of Twitter and veteran advertisers question whether the company can ever grow to the scale of Google, which had $50.2 billion in revenue last year, or Facebook with $5.1 billion.

In its IPO, the spotlight will be on Twitter not to repeat the mistakes of Facebook's botched offering.  With the social network's much publicized but disastrous IPO in May 2012, the stock price dropped in its first day as a public company and trading hiccups that day left investors holding stock they didn't want.  Twitter executives have said they are wary of repeating the mistakes that dented Facebook's IPO process and its reputation.

COMMENTARY:    According to most Wall Street analysts, and this social media technologist, Twitter was not expected to file for an IPO until early 2014.  This was before the latest stock rally and Facebook shares exploded shortly after its one year IPO anniversary.  This obviously had a bearing on the decision to file papers for an IPO now.  

Twitter only began monetizing its users in the second half of 2010, when it ended the year with estimated revenues of $45 million.  On the other hand, Facebook had revenues of $3.71 billion at the end of 2011, the year before it filed its IPO, and six years after it began selling ads.       

With the launch of Twitter's advertising API and mounting suspicions of an IPO, it's a good time to look at how the social site grew to this point.

Twitter Users and Traffic Stats

Between Q2 and Q4, account ownerships grew from 408 million to 485 million. Active users increased from 208 million to 288 million in that period. According to internet market research firm GlobalWebIndex, that makes Twitter the fastest-growing social platform in that period.

GlobalWebIndex created an infographic that not only shows Twitter growth between Q2 and Q4 of 2012, but it also breaks down Twitter's data by country, device, activities, and key demographics.

See everything you need to know below. Click to enlarge or see the original here:

Click Image To Enlarge

Twitter could potentially do a billion dollars in revenue next in 2014, according to Eric Jackson of Ironfire Capital.   Yahoo! Finance reported Jackson saying  

“The chatter is that (Twitter) is going to do $600 million in revenue this year (2013) and a billion in revenue next year (2014).”

Twitter Valuation Based on Secondary Market

GSV Capital Corp. values its shares in Twitter at around $18.50 per share,Bloomberg reported on May 11, 2013, valuing the social service at – using a diluted share figure of 530 million – around $9.8 billion.

We know how GSV values its Twitter investment as it is a public company, and thus listed the following in its most recent 10Q:

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This figure is large, but not surprising. Blackrock recently purchased shares from Twitter employees at a price that valued the company at $9 billion. The Wall Street Journal tried to make the case that Twitter was worth $10 billion using some odd math, but that the company is prized among investors is no secret.

GSV owns a mere 0.3% of the firm, but its filings represent a rare look into the current thought-worth of a private company.

Twitter Valuation Based on Revenue Multiplier

How much will the revenue multiplier be for Twitter’s valuation when it goes public? A valuation of 15 to 20 times the company’s revenue is possible. The high-end revenue multiplier — if Twitter can manage a billion dollars in revenue in 2014 — would give Twitter a valuation of $20 billion…

The share numbers are the same, but the ‘Fair Value’ figure falls. It’s a small change, down about 2.5% from earlier highs, but at the prior price, Twitter’s valuation would have crested the $10 billion mark. What caused the easing in Twitter’s price isn’t clear.

Courtesy of an article dated September 12, 2013 appearing in The Wall Street Journal, an article dated March 27, 2013 appearing in Advertising Age, an article dated February 27, 2013 appearing in Business Insider and an article dated May 11, 2013 appearing in The Next Web