Nokia promete reival para o iPhone

«Nokia will tomorrow launch a mobile phone to rival Apple's iPhone as the must-have gadget for Christmas.
Apple's iPhone will be launched in Europe later this year
Industry sources claim that the N81, which goes on sale in November, will allow users to download music to it directly.
They hope it will be more user-friendly that the iPhone, which requires people to download songs to iTunes on their computer before they can be transferred to the handset.
A survey of 16- to 24-year-olds last year found that the "I want it now" generation is turning its back on record stores and iTunes to download songs directly to their phones.
But industry watchers said yesterday it was unlikely that N81 handset would steal the march from the iPhone, which has gone on sale in America and will be launched in Europe later this year.
Mark Wilson, editor of Stuff, the consumer technology magazine, said: "I still think the iPhone will have the edge. In terms of covetability, the iPhone comes out on top because it is much more than just a phone."

fonte: «Nokia handset to rival iPhone», Telegraph Nicole Martin, 29/08/2007
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/08/29/wnokia129.xml

Um caso interessante: rádio do Washington Post fecha

Era um dos casos mais interessantes da rádio de palavra nos Estados Unidos, mas revelou-se um fracasso a experiência de trazer os jornalistas do Washington Post para a rádio. Vai fechar.
«WASHINGTON - Washington Post Radio, a station that featured in-depth discussions with The Washington Post’s editors and reporters about the day’s news, is going off the air next month after failing to attract enough listeners during its 17-month run, the newspaper reported Tuesday.
WTWP, which broadcasts in the Washington region on 1500 AM, 820 AM and 107.7 FM, is owned by Salt Lake City-based Bonneville International Corp. Bonneville paid an annual fee to the Post for access to its journalists and for the use of the newspaper’s name. The Post had no direct financial investment in the station. (...) When WTWP debuted in March 2006, the station’s backers said it would be like "NPR on caffeine" - but the station failed to catch on with listeners. During the recent spring ratings period, WTWP finished tied for 18th place in the Washington area, with an average of 1.2 percent of the audience, according to Arbitron (nyse: ARB - news - people ).
While many advertisers were satisfied with the results the station generated, we just did not garner the Arbitron ratings we had hoped for," said Joel Oxley, senior vice president and market manager of Bonneville’s Washington operations.»
fonte: «Washington Post Radio Ending Broadcasts», Associated Press 28/08/07

O comentário de Leslie Stimson: «(...)While an interesting experiment, I’ve got to wonder if the Post reporters received broadcast training, and if they did, what kind, exactly? Some of the “Posties” were good on the air while others sounded uncomfortable. Writing for the “eye” vs. for the “ear” — and being comfortable with the needs of each medium — is different. (...) I’m not saying these were the things going on at “WAPO,” but there’s a lesson in both examples: Radio and print are different in both reporting and presentation. It takes time for someone comfortable working in one medium to achieve that same comfort level and professional expertise in the other. Who knows? Maybe with the proper training and unending financial resources, the idea could have worked. But the outcome of the Post/Bonneville experiment is a cautionary lesson for any “old media” types who are dreaming about such alliances to help them fight more effectively in the “new media” world.» fonte: «Death of ‘WAPO’ Points to Differences Between Radio, Print», Leslie Stimson, 5/09/07  

 

Riscos e oportunidades: Os novos iPods terão ligação wifi? E a rádio?

Mark Ramsey alerta para os riscos e as oportunidades para a industria classica de rádio:

«This could work in one or both of two ways: Either you would be able to buy and download songs via WiFi (most likely) or you would also be able to stream or cache content via the iTunes strreaming "radio" channels (perhaps less likely - since a station streamed or cached on an iPod is not a song purchased, thus making the transaction less profitable for Apple. On the other hand, anything that drives the purchase of iPods is more profitable than anything that drives the purchase of songs). The ability to stream iTunes stations means, of course, that YOUR station could be one of those. But your 30 market competitors just became 3,000 worldwide competitors. And counting. (...) This is an obvious evolution for the iPod - WiFi is already popping up on iPod alternatives - and makes them even more of a substitute for radio than they've been in the past since any iPod could be updated wirelessly and on the fly. And anything which makes an mp3 player easier to use and more valuable to own makes it a more potent radio substitute. As I have said many times in the past, stations which live and die on a steady diet of music will be facing stiff competition from devices like these over the long run.
When these devices do not need a computer and feature a music discovery component, that's functionally equivalent to the best music radio station you can imagine: One which matches your tastes exactly.»

«Mas ainda é rádio?»

The final question may be - but will it still be radio? Predominately it will be an audio service, which will sound and be experienced much like all radio – in the mind because audio content remains the easiest content to absorb in a mobile environment – or in the midst of parallel activities, like driving. But it will be augmented by data and visuals and we will see hybrids emerge where the lines are completely fused. Arte, a TV channel in Europe now has a web-based radio service, several key newspapers now have a ‘radio’ like service online – re-positioning content back and forth in different forms – for different media. We probably have not yet found words for the hybrids that will come – television on mobile is already with us and being tagged mobTV - while podcasts on mobiles are being tagged mobcasting. The clay is still forming – the names are still being cast. Our difficulty now is to keep describing, and naming, the changes as the speed of convergence accelerates» (Shaw, 2005: 21)

Rádio linear e não-linear

         CConsequently the growth in subscribed radio feeds will mean non-linear radio will grow and will begin to become as important as linear radio in the fufuture. Both will complement each other – indeed fed off each other – and that change will also begin to change the production mind-sets- that pprogrammes are conceived not just as live, once off editions but as shows which will have a longer shelf life and which must work both in a live and rerecorded/down-loaded/RSS feed life. The mix of linear and non-linear will also change the business plans with the doomsday scenario of the ‘´'death of radio’ because of fragmentation and advert avoidance being met with the more realistic re-invention of the market into one which sells sssegments of its audience as well as the entire audience.» (Shaw, 2005: 19)

A importância de estudar a geração iPod

«The reality is they, the iPod Generation, are the mainstream media users of the future and their concepts of media, and radio in particular, is determined by their ability to control it, to have it when and where they want, in a mobile and flexible form» (Shaw, 2005: 18)

Cenários para o futuro

«In a sense there are elements of all five Ala-Fossi’s digital radio scenarios in my read of the future (Ala-Fossi 2005). Given the premise that digital radio will be multi-platform, available on a number of different digital platforms, it is extremely likely that ten years from now we will still be using analogue FM radio in junction with a range of digital solutions: digital terrestrial, satellite and Internet. We will continue in that time period to see different developments within national and geographical landmasses depending on the stability and needs of the radio and media markets and societies in those areas. So there will be digital diversity operating in a multimedia market with people receiving radio through a range of functions from radio sets to digital TVs to multi-media mobile devices.  But the driving force will be mobility and the ability to meet the ‘my media’ culture for on demand content which is personally shaped or selected rather than mass produced. (Shaw, 2005: 18)

Porque é que a rádio via satélite parece condenada na Europa

«The success of satellite radio in the US is also  linked to the high level of commercial minutes in US commercial radio and equally the lack of real ‘national’ radio choices providing consistency right across the States particularly to motorists. Now half a dozen companies are seeking to offer similar choices in Europe but while the business model for satellite radio has been demonstrated in the US – the real challenges in Europe will be the dominance of national radio, the different languages and cultures across Europe and the fact that advert free radio, or near advert free radio, exists in many key radio markets through diverse public broadcasting choices. (Forrester, 2005). Satellite Radio in Europe faces distinctly different challenges than the US because we currently have few examples of pan-European media but where it can work is by offering new choices not currently possible in a national environment. In reality many of those choices are happening through digital TV sets already (offering same language radio stations to neighbouring countries) so the real advantage would be mobile reception. Equally there is the potential for new services, whether speech or music, and in many cases the satellite providers see themselves working in a multi-platform environment through national DAB and DVB networks as well as through the Internet.» (Shaw, 2005: 13)

Um novo modelo publicitário é necessário

«The challenge for the advertisement industry is that digital fragmentation, lots of digital radio choices (as in the UK) or new net-based stations, is shattering the premise of mass media commerce. New models involve getting closer to more defined and self-selecting audience groups, offering things they are more likely to be interested in, because of that self-selection and getting closer to sales rather than advertising through interactivity and ‘return paths’. This can generally be seen as the movement from ‘ambush’ to ‘permission’ commerce in new media. Equally sponsorship is back in vogue with fragmented audiences making sponsorship more valuable, and more economic, for advertisers. In the media market terminology the shift is from hard selling – and spot advertisement – to soft selling and marketing budgets where connecting commercial messages with audiences will come closer to the content whether in the product placement, in US television and film, or in direct sponsorship of content/programmes. (Thussu 2000)» (Shaw, 2005:11)

A rádio em directo é insubstituível?

«Through the Internet (particularly podcasting) or digital platforms (like satellite) listeners can now experience content outside the original time schedule and geography. But the nature of communications as experienced through radio is also about the joys of live interaction, conversation and companionship. Podcasting can create a near live experience but it’s not yet live. The live experience, which remains a key reason why people listen for news and companionship, continues to drive new radio offerings in both analogue and digital » (Shaw, 2005: 8)

O nascimento de um novo meio (McLuhan)

«"The hybrid or the meeting of two media is a moment of truth and revelation from which new form is born. For the parallel between two media holds us on the frontiers between forms that snap us out of the Narcissus-narcosis. The moment of the meeting of media is a moment of freedom and release from the ordinary trance and numbness imposed by them on our senses." » (Understanding Media, pág. 55)

«(...) what podcasting represents, and it is a moving trend rather than a finished product, is ‘hybrid energy’ – as McLuhan would term it – when one medium, radio crossing into another, the Internet. In this case it moves beyond the classic Internet radio forms, live-streaming, which simply used the Internet as a distribution platform and allows the meeting of radio and the Internet to create something new through a software marriage. The RSS is the facilitator or enabler which is allowing old media, whether newspapers, radio or television, to become something new in the Internet.» (Shaw, 2005: 15) 

A Internet continua a baralhar todas as previsões

«E-mail did not replace or destroy telephony (although it did undermine letter-writing) but became the way in which human life, both personal and professional, was universally transformed by the Internet. It extended communications, increased access and ultimately led to a vast social, political and economic transformation. None of this was predicted in the development of the Internet – as it was initially believed that the Internet would be a global business and information tool rather than a public mass communication system. SMS or text messaging was equally a consumer push led by teenagers wanting to save money. Now it’s a standard extension of communications, again increasing access and the speed of person to person and one to many communications» (Shaw, 2005: 6)   

O contexto para a liderança do DAB na GB

«The business case for digital, particularly in a consolidated market, has been made in the UK and whether its DAB – or DVB in the future – the UK will remain a digital radio leader because of the vested interests of all sectors of the radio market. It is now no longer about doing DAB ‘because you have to’ but because it makes economic and market sense.[1]

DAB’s slow, and often strangled, birth is closely related to the lack of a business model across most European markets – except the UK. (...). The real audience break through for DAB in the UK was in 2004 and ironically came through TV – and today up to 17 million people listen to radio via digital television – many discovering the new DAB stations there.

The DAB story might be a cautionary one for anyone doing future studies. No-one in 1996 predicted that TV would play a positive part in securing the future of digital radio and many European broadcasters lost millions on DAB pilots and projects.» (Shaw, 2005: 5)

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[1] Paul Robinson in MediaGuardian, 31/10/05, attributes national digital radio to the all time high of 10.5% for commercial, national radio. By May 2006 DAB only stations were showing audiences up to 100,000 like EMAP’s 3C and ‘Fun Radio’.

«O futuro é um lugar de incerteza (...)»

«The future is a place of uncertainty for research and media analysts. Yet there are tools which allow us to study what is currently shaping the future. We can see the technology landscape emerging and begin to perceive, by our understanding of political economics, media sociology, international communications and information communications technology, the trends and tendencies which lie behind how we as human beings, as consumers and citizens, use and employ new means of communications to extend our social reality and help create media markets and businesses.» (Shaw, 2005: 3) 

rádio é algo que se pode criar e controlar

«(...) digital technology is creating an iPod generation who see radio, and content, as something they can create and control themselves and is fuelling a wildfire global network of niche, net-based ‘radio’ channels» (Shaw, 2005: 2)

Ouvir a rádio no telemóvel (GB)

Listening figures for both have increased exponentially in the last year, with 6.09 million people in the UK listening to shows available solely on digital radio compared to 905,000 four years ago. Meanwhile, 4.4 million people over the age of 15 claiming they have listened to radio on their phone, a 27 per cent rise in the last year, with the largest group of mobile-phone radio listeners aged between 15 and 24. This latter statistic is something of a surprise, as the reception quality of analogue radio on mobile handsets is notoriously patchy, but it seems likely that youngsters are listening to radio on their phones for relatively short periods of time, perhaps while waiting for a bus, or to check on sports results at weekends. (...)»

fonte: «How digital radio came of age», Telegraph, Claudine Beaumont, 25/08/07

Já agora:

«Given that the mobile phone already allows for diverse means of communications; voice, text, video etc, it’s not too difficult to see how a multimedia, or cross-media, handset which expands the general ability to create and share content can become omni-present within ten years. Multimedia as a concept has remained poorly defined but if we talk about cross-media, the meeting of two distinct media – like radio and television, or voice telephony and text emails, it becomes easier. The key for radio is access and mobility. In Ofcom’s research 79% of people stressed being able to access radio on the move, when and where they wanted. And interestingly despite all the recent hype about mobile TV – recent UK audience research shows mobile TV is not popular – largely because it does not allow them to do other things[1]. They want TV on computers and the ability to choose what to watch, when it suits, but for the future enhanced audio based content – like Nokia’s Visual Radio – may fit commuters’ needs[2]. Businessweek estimates mobile phone radio could be worth $70 million in 2005 and that radio could be the trigger for mobile content sales.» (Shaw, 2005: 9) 

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[1] Entertainment Media Research (EMR), November 2005, shows 70% of those surveyed did not want mobile TV on their phones – half said they now did others things while watching TV – like surfing the net and checking e-mail. Reported in The Guardian, financial pages, 7/11/05.

[2] Businessweek online, ‘Dial R for Radio on your Cell’, Olga Kharif 22/3/05/

SHAW, Helen, The digital future of radio: broadcasters and economics; users and content. European Communication Conference, Nov, 2005

The digital future of radio: broadcasters and economics; users and content

«Como será a 'rádio' daqui a 10 anos?»

Responde Helen Shaw:

«The future of radio, as we describe it, will be multi-platform with live and recorded audio content being delivered through analogue AM/FM to digital terrestrial to satellite radio and Internet based protocols. Over the next ten years as radio moves further into a digital domain, technology is transforming how we receive radio, what we receive and how we interact with it. This paper looks at the dynamics shaping radio’s future and how the bottom up pressure of consumer/citizen demands – through the development of a personalised media market, like podcasting – is proving more successful than the top down approach of technologies like DAB which have been driven by European policy elités rather than market demand.» (Shaw, 2005: 2)

O DAB e as (boas) audiências na GB

«Radio listening figures are on the up, according to Rajar, the radio industry analysts. Almost 600,000 more people tuned in between April and June this year than for the same period last year. But that's not the most interesting statistic: for the first time, listening habits were broken down to reveal how many people still tuned in to The Archers on their wireless, and how many were sampling the delights of both mainstream and little-known radio stations via digital radio (DAB) or through their mobile phones.

Listening figures for both have increased exponentially in the last year, with 6.09 million people in the UK listening to shows available solely on digital radio compared to 905,000 four years ago. Meanwhile, 4.4 million people over the age of 15 claiming they have listened to radio on their phone, a 27 per cent rise in the last year, with the largest group of mobile-phone radio listeners aged between 15 and 24. This latter statistic is something of a surprise, as the reception quality of analogue radio on mobile handsets is notoriously patchy, but it seems likely that youngsters are listening to radio on their phones for relatively short periods of time, perhaps while waiting for a bus, or to check on sports results at weekends. (...) "Old" media is alive and well, it seems; it's just finding new ways of reaching its audience.»

fonte: «How digital radio came of age», Telegraph, Claudine Beaumont, 25/08/07

A rádio gostava que o iPhone tivesse... rádio

«Maybe it’s too unrealistic for a radio guy to expect Apple with its iPod and iTunes juggernaut to pay any attention to the need for a radio in a super smart phone. “Yet others like Nokia and Samsung are doing it,” Guy Wire says. “Our industry needs to keep the heat turned up on the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association to make an integrated radio a basic feature in all smart phones, especially as the HD rollout matures.”

fonte: «Guy Wire Wants a Really Smart Phone», RWOnline, 24/08/07