European Smartphone Users Still Different from their U.S. Counterparts

There are some interesting differences between the U.S. and the top European countries. Even though the overall smartphone penetration is about the same in the U.S., Germany, Spain, France, the UK and Italy (41.8% in the U.S., 44% in those five largest European markets), Europeans don't quite use the mobile web and apps at the same rate as their counterparts on the other side of the Atlantic.

Maybe this is due to the fact that European and U.S. users do have slightly different usage patterns, with European users, for example, using mobile email significantly less than U.S. users (30% vs. 41%). They also seem to be less interested in using social networking platforms and reading blogs while on the go (26% vs. 35%).

Another factor may be the higher popularity of tablets in the U.S. when compared to every other major market. According to comScore, more than 14% of U.S. smartphone owners also own a tablet. In Germany, that numbers is just 7.4%, while the other European countries fall in between the 8% to 11% range.

OpenXC was developed in corporation with Bug Labs.

The Modular and Upgradable Car

Here is the general philosophy behind OpenXC:

What if the user-facing hardware and software was independent from any one vehicle, and could be purchased and installed by consumers as an aftermarket add-on? What if the infotainment hardware was more modular and user-upgradable, and perhaps most importantly, transferable from one vehicle to another?

Building the OpenXC hardware

The average car now has a lifespan of 13 years, says Ford. That means the technology your car uses today will be outdated quickly if you can't upgrade it. OpenXC would make it possible to keep up to date for far longer.

For Developers: OpenXC Brings Android and Arduino to Your Car

This new platform is currently based on Android and gives developers real-time access to a large number of a car's sensors, the GPS receiver and other data from the car's systems. Ford notes, however, that there is no reason why somebody couldn't port the libraries it uses to other operating systems as well. The reference hardware, which uses the popular Arduino platform, should cost under $150 (plus the cost of an Android tablet).

It's worth noting that this is currently only a limited release and that the actual source code is not yet available. Ford, however, promises that it will happily add more developers every day (you can sign up here) and that the source code will be available soon.

To ensure these new apps don't interfere with the basic functions of the car itself, the apps remain isolated from the vehicle control systems (think steering, brakes, ABS etc.).

When Ford and Bug Labs first announced their plans for OpenXC, the companies noted that they hope that this platform will allow developers to "quickly prototype ideas and test out affordable new connectivity concepts that could enhance Ford’s future products."

One of the apps Ford is demoing today was built by HCL and interfaces with the car's GPS to provide regular location updates selected personal contacts.

The version of San Francisco’s cellphone ordinance  that passed today is significantly weaker than another one the city tried to pass last year. At that time, though, the wireless industry association CTIA challenged that ordinance  in court where it remained in legal limbo until today. The old version would have forced retailers to make comparisons between different phones available to consumers, while the new version just expects them to display general information and to offer a tip sheet on how to reduce (the purported threat of) exposure.

These new rules still have to pass a final vote by the board on July 26, but, according to the Bay Citizen’s Stephanie Sara Chong the general expectation is that the ordinance will easily pass.

Image credit: Flickr user whatleydude

What is Spotify?

Spotify is a streaming music service that offers on-demand music streaming. Unlike customizable Internet radio services like Pandora, Spotify allows you to pick and choose exactly what songs you want to listen to. Spotify offers a catalog of over 15 million songs.

There are currently a number of similar services in the U.S., including Rdio, MOG and Rhapsody. What makes Spotify stand out is that it also offers a free, ad-supported version, while most of its competitors only offer short trials before users have to pay.

How Can I Get it?

Spotify is now open for business, but you either need to be deemed an “influencer” to get a free accounts or get a paid account (more details about those below). To see if you qualify for an invite, head over to Klout to see if you qualify.Klout is giving away about 100,000 free accounts this way. Just enter your Twitter or Facebook credentials and Klout will let you know if you qualify.

If you are willing to pay, you can skip the line and get an account at any time. If you want to wait for a free account but didn’t qualify for the Klout promotion, just give Spotify your email address and they will let you know when a space in the U.S. beta opens up.

What’s so Great About it?

A couple of things make Spotify stand out from its competition – besides the free tier. First of all, Spotify features a strong social component. Users can share playlists with friends or subscribe to other users’ public playlists (and see updates to these in real time). MOG offers a similar feature, but it’s severely limited in comparison with Spotify’s implementation. Spotify also integrates with Facebook and lets you discover what your friends are listening to on the service.

Spotify also offers great native clients for both Windows and OS X, as well as mobile clients for virtually all the major platforms, including iPhone, Android, Windows Phone, Symbian and the Palm Pre series.

Spotify uses a peer-to-peer architecture similar to Skype that uses a little bit of space on its users’ computers to cache popular songs and a little bit of every user’s bandwidth to serve these songs to nearby users. Thanks to this, songs play immediately, just like you would expect from your local iTunes library.

Talking about iTunes, Spotify also gives you access to your iTunes library right from its own app, meaning you don’t have to switch back and forth between the two.

Brilliant, But What Does it Cost?

Spotify offers a three-tier pricing structure:

Free: the free version will be limited to 20 hours of use for the first six months after a user signs up. After that, the limit will become 10 hours per month. No song can be listened to more than 5 times.

$5/month (Unlimited): the basic paid plan gives users unlimited, ad-free access to Spotify’s full library on the desktop.

$10/month (Premium): this plan includes full desktop access, as well as mobile access (which includes offline caching on the mobile device) and access to higher quality audio streams at 320 kbps (all songs are encoded in the Ogg Vorbis format). One important perk of this plan is also that you can use the service abroad for more than 14 days. In Europe, Spotify also often allows its premium users to get early access to some albums before they become available to other users.

You can sign up for an invite here.

As of now, though, Spotify hasn’t announced when it plans to launch yet, or what its pricing structure will look like. According to some of the rumors, one of the reasons why it took Spotify a long time to secure deals with the U.S. music labels was those organizations reluctance to let Spotify stream their music for free. In Europe, Spotify allows its users to stream a limited amount of songs for free every month. After that, users have to pay.

What made Spotify stand out among its early competitors was its ability to stream music on demand and for free. There are also numerous social elements to the service, including the ability to subscribe to other users’ playlists. Whether the U.S. version will have the same feature set, remains to be seen.

Given that Spotify is late to the party in the U.S., where services like Rdio and MOG have already managed to capture at least some of the early adopter market, it remains to be seen how well the company will do here. None of these, however, have quite the same ease of use that Spotify can offer.

This is a breaking story. We will update it as we learn more.

It’s All About Local Info

According to Google, 90% of smartphone searches result in an action, which Google defines along the lines of purchasing something or visiting a business. Most of the time (88%), this action is taken within a day. While 90% sounds like a large number, it does ring true, especially given that most mobile searches are indeed action-oriented and likely focused on getting to a very specific place. This number makes even more sense when we take into account that the survey also found that 95% of smartphone users regularly use their phones to look up local information.

Interestingly, Google did not look into the differences between Android and iPhone users (most likely because the survey is focused on the company’s mobile ad platform, which is available for both devices).

Here are a few additional data points from Google’s survey:

• 79% of smartphone consumers use their phones to help with shopping, from comparing prices, finding more product info to locating a retailer
• 74% of smartphone shoppers make a purchase, whether online, in-store, or on their phones
• 70% use their smartphones while in the store, reflecting varied purchase paths that often begin online or on their phones and brings consumers to the store
• 24% recommended a brand or product to others as a result of a smartphone search
• 93% of smartphone owners use their smartphones while at home

One set of numbers of the survey I don’t fully buy, though, is that “half of those who see a mobile ad take action, with 35% visiting a website and 49% making a purchase.” These numbers just seem too high – especially given what we know about how surfers on the Web generally react to ads.