Online Music Stores Should Sing New Tune

Study: Online Music Stores Should Sing New Tune

By Jennifer LeClaireE-Commerce Times 01/20/05 10:05 AM PT

Making an example of iTunes, Shelley Taylor, publisher of the study, noted the site lacks several key features that consumers want, including discounts for buying multiple tracks, along with the ability to download music videos and purchase concert tickets. French electronics retailer FNAC upstaged iTunes in the study because it offered those user-friendly features. VeriSign® Payment Processing Services offer unparalleled reliability, the highest level of security, and the ability to process multiple payment types online. VeriSign delivers secure, customizable payment services for any size business. Get a Free VeriSign E-Commerce Start-Up Kit.
London-based market research firm Shelley Taylor & Associates goes so far as to call that dissatisfaction "Digital Deficit Disorder," which she defines as a consumer disease contracted by poorly designed online music stores. Symptoms include loss of concentration, feelings of being trapped, and format anxiety. //--> //--> From Pilot to Pirate? Apple's iTunes, Sony's Connect, Napster and a host of others were included in the study. These online music stores have a lot to gain, according to Jupiter Research.

The firm projected the digital music market would more than double last year's sales to reach at least US$660 million this year. Shelley Taylor, publisher of the study, doesn't think Digital Deficit Disorder will hinder the growth of this promising industry. Taylor told the E-Commerce Times that the move from "pirate" to "pilot," the name she uses to refer to paying downloaders, is happening because commercial sites and services have much more to offer in terms of the browse function, quality and speed.

"Consumers will not return to illegal activity, but they will bail on services that are closed system and those that don't offer the choice and catalog and user experience that they have a right to demand, since they are paying," Taylor said.

"Downloaders want control. There is more control possible from a commercial site because the site has the opportunity to develop user experiences based on a revenue model." Taylor said

Amazon.com (Nasdaq: AMZN) is a prime example, noting that the online retailer is still standing in spite of the dot-com bust because it continued to launch innovative features and functions in the realm of user interface and experience. By comparison, Taylor said none of the current online music sites offer anything similar to what Amazon.com has accomplished. Innovate or Perish Pointing to iTunes, Taylor noted the site lacks several key features that consumers want, including discounts for buying multiple tracks, along with the ability to download music videos and purchase concert tickets.

There are advantages of being first to enter; but there are also advantages to waiting, taking stock and then launching something that is 10 times better than what exists, solely by learning from the mistakes of others."

More details: http://www.ecommercetimes.com/story/39871.html

High-speed wireless network lives up to claims

3G is an International Telecommunication Union (ITU) specification for the third-generation mobile communications technology that was created for high-speed transfer of data and multimedia content, such as video, downloads, music and interactive games. 3G aims to increase bandwidth up to 384 Kbps when a device is stationary or moving at pedestrian speed, 128 Kbps in a car, and 2 Mbps in fixed applications. 3G will work over wireless air interfaces, such as GSM, TDMA, and CDMA. The new EDGE service was developed specifically to meet the bandwidth needs of 3G.


Pricey, but that could change

As for the service, Verizon is adding more locations each week. Currently, Broadband Access is available in Atlanta, Austin, Baltimore, Dallas, Kansas City, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Miami-Fort Lauderdale, Milwaukee, New Orleans, New York, Philadelphia, San Diego, Tampa, Washington D.C. and West Palm Beach. It’s also available in a number of airports around the country including Houston’s Bush/Intercontinental where it worked perfectly for me.

At the top I mentioned that what we need is a good, cheap service. And, you may have noticed that so far I haven’t mentioned the price. The modem card is affordable. Currently, Verizon is selling one for $49.99 after discounts. The monthly service, on the other hand, could be the stumbling block. Verizon is asking $79.99 per month for their package of unlimited Broadband Access (high-speed) and National Access (regular cellular speeds in non-Broadband areas).

I can rationalize this in every way possible, but the bottom line is that it’s still a lot of money. Remember, that’s just the monthly fee for one modem/device. In devices with built-in cellular phones monthly voice services would be an additional charge.

Verizon is betting that $80 a month is affordable for business people who need high-speed access on the go. For those people, and for others who want the fastest available, I agree. Once you experience the speed and ease of the service, you’ll understand.

I’m hoping that once other wireless providers begin marketing their high-speed wireless broadband competition will prevail and prices will come down. If it all cost the same wouldn’t you be interested in portable, high-speed, wireless Internet connection instead of being tethered to a Wi-Fi network at home?

Comment on GSM :speed coding

Technology have provide a better way to identify sound and speeches ....this will certainly pave way for speech response devices. Speech response device is use for telephones! http://www.speechtechmag.com/pub/industry/11198-1.html

That is to say very soon you will be able to say "call Ah Beng" and the phone will call autmatically ..and the phone only response to you alone :)

Telephone is already having available market of everyone ....almost everyone own a phone. And many people keep up with the latest and fasionable phone ......

I predict this industry will continue to develop and expand.

Global System for Mobile Communications :Speech coding

GSM is a digital system, so speech which is inherently analog, has to be digitized. The method employed by ISDN, and by current telephone systems for multiplexing voice lines over high speed trunks and optical fiber lines, is Pulse Coded Modulation (PCM). The output stream from PCM is 64 kbps, too high a rate to be feasible over a radio link. The 64 kbps signal, although simple to implement, contains much redundancy.

The GSM group studied several speech coding algorithms on the basis of subjective speech quality and complexity (which is related to cost, processing delay, and power consumption once implemented) before arriving at the choice of a Regular Pulse Excited -- Linear Predictive Coder (RPE--LPC) with a Long Term Predictor loop. Basically, information from previous samples, which does not change very quickly, is used to predict the current sample.

The coefficients of the linear combination of the previous samples, plus an encoded form of the residual, the difference between the predicted and actual sample, represent the signal. Speech is divided into 20 millisecond samples, each of which is encoded as 260 bits, giving a total bit rate of 13 kbps. This is the so-called Full-Rate speech coding. Recently, an Enhanced Full-Rate (EFR) speech coding algorithm has been implemented by some North American GSM1900 operators.

This is said to provide improved speech quality using the existing 13 kbps bit rate

Comment on moblie transaction - 300105

Hi,
Moblie transaction is on the mark to make our lifestyle more convience. It aim is to replace all the cards into one moblie phone. This sound good to be able to go anywhere and do everything with just one phone on hand.

However, handphone with these capabilies mean more expensive and more prone to be the target of the thievies. Greater security need to be implenment on the phone such as passwords or /and finger print access. I even suggest to insert GPS (Gobal Position System) on the phone so that the police will be able to locate the phone if lost.

As the saying " greater power come greater responsiblies" , a much more powerful phone need to come with better care and better security to ensure it is convience and safe to be use.

comment from,
shunrong

Sam ties with TCS to pay via moblie

Sam ties with TCS to pay via moblie
Sunday, 17 October , 2004, 14:32

Global IT major Tata Consultancy Services Ltd. (TCS) has entered into a strategic alliance with US-based C-Sam Inc, a company founded by Sam Pitroda, World Tel Chief and former chairman of India's Telecom Commission, to develop a wireless payment platform.
"The alliance is to offer wireless payment solutions to banking and financial services, who seek to permit customers to make transaction over mobile phones and create new revenue streams," Pitroda said.

According to the pact, the companies would pool in their resources to build on existing functionalities and develop a platform on the C-Sam product suite and market as well as implement and support customer projects, he said.

C-Sam suite, a product for retail banks, functions on Wallet technology and conducts transactions over a secure, intuitive interface.

The pact was signed at `Sibos 2004', a financial services conference, in Atlanta, he said.
The new wireless payment platform would enable banks and other Business-to-Consumer (B2C) organisations to offer mobile payment (M-payment) as an option for automated bill payment and other retail transactions, he added.

Pitroda, who is also chairman of the C-Sam said, "there is a tremendous opportunity for retail banks to capitalise on the exploding mobile economy, and the wireless platform would facilitate this".

This would help in creating new revenue streams with transactions completed over wireless devices, and differentiate the companies from competing institutions by providing new and convenient payment options to its customers, he said.

C-Sam had developed a secure transaction platform, which can be used to deliver various solutions in the areas of payment and financial services for banks, wireless carriers and merchant establishments.

210105 Progress

hi ,

This week i understand the important of attracting customers with the key ingredients of "Fun and entertainment"

We are attracted to fun and interesting things. We will stop and look at something new and beyond normal imagination things and advertisment. In order to let people pay more attention to the projects proposals we need to come out with something interesting.Animation and flash are part of the presentation. Crack interesting jokes at the same time present the slides.Puting all these ingredients into a websities will certainly make websites more popular and "fun" .

Another important issue is to add "meta" to the html that create the webpage. This enable visitors to easily search for the website using search engine that response to "meta"

summary.enjoying mb 362,
shunrong