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Fascinating Read: Fast Company Explores MLB.com’s Winning Strategy

March 27, 2012 by

If you want a primer on why we started Mobile Sports Report, the best explanation I’ve seen yet is embodied within a great story from Fast Company about how Major League Baseball’s advanced media team (BAM for short) got out ahead of the digital pack. Just about every part of this story shows why we think sports is headed online, and to mobile platforms, going forward. An incredible read.

In addition to explaining how BAM made its online offering MLB.com one of the breakout successes of online sports — according to the article it generates $620 million in revenue a year — the story exposes something Major League Baseball is trying to get in all its stadiums: Wi-Fi networks so that fans can watch video in their seats. And finally we are getting a good grasp on how much it costs to put in a network — according to the story, it’s about $3 million per stadium. Here’s a bit of the story that has the meat:

For instance, BAM is trying to assemble corporate partners to cover the costs, more than $3 million per team, to wire each ballpark for high-speed web access, so fans can check and download BAM’s apps to see video and make purchases.

There’s more great stuff in this well written synopsis of how MLB.com became an online success — it is required reading if you are in sports or sports marketing. And of course if you want continuing coverage of the news of stadium networking, well you are already in the right place if you are reading this story.

Hat tip to our pal Joe Favorito for tweeting about the story this morning.

Filed Under: Apple, Apps, Baseball, Major League Baseball, Wi-Fi, Wi-Fi Video Streaming Tagged With: , , , ,

MLB Fans Increasingly Watching Games via Mobile Devices

March 27, 2012 by

Major League Baseball opens its season next week with the Champion Saint Louis Cardinals helping the Miami Marlins christen the new ballpark that is opening down in Florida on Wednesday April 4th, followed the next day with six openers on Thursday and nine more openers on Friday.

Yet fans are already tuning in to games, with many of the Spring Training games being broadcast on the leagues MLB Network channel, if you are lucky enough to get it as well as many local stations. When the season opens this is a good place to get a quick look at all of the teams.

However there is a rapidly growing section of the fan base that is mobile and wants its games and information mobile as well and baseball is increasingly catering to these fans.

For the fifth consecutive year mobile users will also have the option of using MLB.com At Bat 12, giving users the ability to watch it not only on mobile devices but an increasing range of connected devices as well.

The release of the latest version, which coincided with the start of Spring Training, shows the increasing popularity of watching sports, and in this case baseball, on a variety of devices. The first weekend it was available there was 2.9 million downloads and users received 450,000 live audio and video streams, increases of 132% and 83% respectively over the first weekend of Spring Training games in 2011.

The app is available for Apple’s iPhone and iPad, Android phones and tablets, Kindle Fire, and BlackBerry users with a Windows 7 Phone version expected by Opening Day. It costs $14.99 and provides home and away radio broadcasts, pitch trackers, breaking news alerts and a range of additional features. The features are not standard, with some devices offering more than others.

Then there is also MLB.TV. It comes in two basic flavors, regular and premium. The regular version, which costs $19.99 a month or $109.99 a year allows users to watch games on their computer and features a set of DVR functions that allow a user rewind live game action. It also provides the ability to display games as PiP, split screen or mosaic.

The premium version brings much more to the table, starting with a free subscription to At Bat 12. It is supported on connected devices aside from the computer such as the Xbox 360, Sony Playstation 3, Roku, Apple TV, select Samsung and LG connected televisions and Blu-Ray players and it provides both home and away feeds as well as all of the features available in the basic version. The program costs $24.99 a month or $124.99 a year.

Baseball is doing a very good job of making the sport widely available and on wide variety of devices from television to smartphones. The fact that for less than $3 a month a user can listen to games, something that is much less demanding on a data plan than watching streaming video should draw fans. I have seen some reports that baseball’s hardcore fan base is getting older and I suspect that the expansion of the broadcast to these platforms will appeal to a younger set of fans.

Filed Under: Amazon, Apple, Apps, BlackBerry, iPad, iPhone, Kindle, Live sports via mobile, Live Sports Video Consumption, Major League Baseball, Smartphone, Tablets Tagged With: , , ,

Mobile Sports Report TechWatch: Microsoft to Conquer China?

March 26, 2012 by


RIM takes steps to expand app library
Research in Motion, struggling to remain relevant in the smartphone space has started seeding software developers with an early version of its next generation BlackBerry 10 device. The move is designed to help jump start the software app space, an area that the company has lagged its major platform operating system rivals Apple iOS and Google’s Android.

The company plans to provide developers that attend its annual BlackBerry World conference that will be held in Orlando, Fla. in May with the prototype, called the BlackBerry 10 Dev Alpha. The company expects to deliver the final version of the BlackBerry 10 late this year.

The company also has helped refund the BlackBerry Partners Fund II that is being run by Relay Ventures, but that fund will also look to fund app developers on rival platforms, something that it did not do in the first round of funding.

Mobile security increasingly in legislators’ cross-hairs
Going hand in glove with the increasing news about apps and ads stealing personal data are legislators seeking to get involved. A pair of congressmen has sent letters to 34 social apps develops for Apple’s iOS platform asking about their information collection and use practices

The companies included Apple, Twitter, Foursquare, Hipster, Linkedin, Facebook, Pinterest and Instagram and the letters were sent by Energy and Commerce Committee Ranking Member Henry A. Waxman and Commerce, Manufacturing, and Trade Subcommittee Ranking Member G. K. Butterfield.

This request is separate from the one launched a week ago from U.S. Senator Charles Schumer who has asked the FTC to look into the manner Google and Apple’s operating systems run and f they violate users privacy.

In a somewhat related note Pinterest has changed and updated its terms of service, acceptable use and its privacy rules-in part to help prevent copyright material from being pasted onto pinboards.

iPad eats data plans due to streaming video
This is no real surprise to anyone that has used their smartphone or a tablet to watch live streaming video over a cellular network- data plan limits are just demolished often resulting in costly bills and the need for additional capacity.

One of the selling points of the latest iPad was its ability to connect to high speed LTE networks, and with that comes the ability to watch sports and news programs live over the network in great clarity due to the device’s high resolution screen capabilities.

One study has found that the downloading of a single HD movie download could cost as much as $50, and could cause throttling to ensue from the carrier. Of course all a user needs to do to avoid this issue is ensure that they are using a Wi-Fi connection rather than a cellular one.


Boombox the fasted adopted technology?
An interesting little factoid over at The Atlantic, which they culled from the ever popular Journal of Management and Marketing Research shows that among consumer electronics technologies that have been introduced in the last 50 years, the fastest to see wide spread adoption after 7 years on the market was the boombox with an over 60% market penetration. Boy that is a bet I would have lost. The next four are CD Player, DVD Player, VCR and portable CD Player.

Use your smartphone primarily as a camera? HTC wants you.
HTC has just shown a new smartphone, the HTC X One, a model that can take as manay as 4 four digital photos a second. The phone, powered by a quad-core processor and featuring a 4.7-inch screen can also snap photos while the user is viewing video.

The iPhone 5 is coming!
And already the rumors are flying! We will try and avoid doing weekly updates on the rumors, but I do wonder if Apple will follow the example it set with the latest iPad, simply calling it an iPad rather than iPad 3. Will the next iPhone be simply known as iPhone? Could be.

Microsoft to conquer China first
I guess that Microsoft is not taking Vizzini’s advice about never get involved in a land war in Asia. The company’s executives are claiming that its Windows Phone operating system will enable it to pass Apple’s iPhone in market share in China.

With low cost options available from its partners that come in significantly lower than Apple’s offerings the company said that it will first surpass Apple and then will have its sights set on the Android space, which it believes it will also surpass, at some unnamed point in the future.

The importance of the Chinese market should not be underestimated since it is now the world’s largest market for smartphones even though its market penetration is significantly lower than in the United States.

Will American’s really lose $30 billion worth of phones this year?
They will if you believe a piece in Silicon Angle. That is a lot of phones. I have no idea how accurate that info is, but I will say I have found an iPhone 4 and a phone from Nokia in the last two weeks.

Filed Under: 4G LTE, Android, Apple, Apps, AT&T, FTC, HTC, iPad, iPhone, Microsoft, Smartphone, Tablets Tagged With: , , , ,

Friday Grab Bag: Global Signs 5 More NFL Teams to iPad Program

March 23, 2012 by


Velocomp’s iBike Coach App has won the Communication Arts Magazine’s 18th Annual Interactive Award in the Information Design category. The app enables an iPhone user to convert the phone into a multifunctional training tool.

The phone becomes a GPS-based bike computer that enables a user to not only track cycling speed, distance, and time, but also includes social media features, videos, and maps, as well as access to music and the phone capabilities of the device.

The app was only just released and was a winner in a contest that drew a total of 1,194 entries. It is available for download at the Apple iTunes store.

Apple develops new SIM — will others support it?
Apple has proposed a new SIM card technology for adoption by the mobile industry but it will be interesting to see how, if at all, the mobile industry adopts a technology that would push out their competing efforts

The new technology is called a nano-SIM and is smaller than the micro-SIMs that is common in current cell phones. This one will have increased functionality as well as the tradition job of holding a users personal information such as contacts and phone number.

That sounds great until you consider that Motorola Mobility, Nokia and Research in Motion all have rival efforts. However Apple has presented it to the European Telecommunications Standards Institute to get accepted as a standard and has some carrier support. It will be interesting to watch this fight.

Toshiba provides peek at 13-inch tablet
Toshiba has provided a peak at its next generation large screen tablet, and yes it will be large with a 13.3-inch form factor. The prototype, going by the name AT330 has an Nvidia Tegra quad core processor, 32GB of storage, a full sized SIM card slot and it has an HDMI connector. It may have a high end 1920 x 1200 LCD panel but that is unsure at this time.


Facebook bolsters patent defense with IBM patent purchase
Bloomberg is reporting that Facebook has purchased 750 patents in areas such as networking from IBM as part of an effort to strengthen its position in its looming case with Yahoo. Yahoo has sued Facebook over the alleged misappropriation of Yahoo patents by the social media giant.

NFL use of iPad continues to grow
Global Apptitude has added five NFL franchises to its list of customers for its Playbook for iPad technology. The company has announced that the Dallas Cowboys, St. Louis Rams, Seattle Seahawks, Indianapolis Colts, and Detroit Lions for their Playbook for iPad and other related player development tools.

Global is adding content to its Playbook series which are designed to be used as player preparation tools and said it expects to sign additional teams in the near future.

The iPad has also been a hit with other major league sports teams including most recently Major League Baseball, with team executives, players and scouts all using the tablet for a variety of reasons.

Ads a threat to your data?
A report from North Carolina State University casts additional concern about the security of the data stored in your Android phone. Researchers at the school have found that adverts, those annoying in game or application apps that are often the price to pay for free apps. They found that one example, MobClix, a 3rd party ad exchange company gains access to calendaring, contacts and call logs. These programs get permission when you provide permission to their host app.

Ematic delivers sports focused MPS/Video player
Ematic has delivered the eSport Clip, a small formfactor portanble media player that is designed for the active lifestyle. The eSports Clip features a 4GB of storage and has the ability to play MP3 files ad well as play back video.

The 1.8-inch device easily clips to clothing and it can store as much as 3200 songs or 20 hours of video for playback on its color display. It includes a 5MP Digital Camera and comes with a video and voice recorder.

China delays Motorola/Google deal approval
Motorola Mobility has reported that China has extended its examination of the proposed $12.5 billion purchase of the company by Google. It reported in a regulatory filing that China’s Anti-Monopoly Bureau has expanded the second phase of its investigation.

This is one of the last regulatory approvals needed for the deal to be finalized, with it having already gained approval around the globe including in the United States and in Europe. There has been no reason given for the extension of the investigation.

Are Kindle sales falling?
Chad Bartley, an analyst with Pacific Crest has said that the company believes that sales of Amazon’s Kindle “is significantly weaker than expected” in the first quarter. He reported that Amazon has slashed component orders by 75% from levels in January.

He attributed the decline to slower adoption as well as market cannibalization caused by the Kindle Fire. The Kindle family is the second most popular tablet, after Apple’s iPad.

Apple loses Android info motion
Judge Richard Posner has denied Apple’s request to have Google and Motorola Mobility hand over information on the development of Android.

Filed Under: Android, Apple, Apps, Baseball, Cycling, Google, iBike, iPad, Major League Baseball, NFL, Tablets Tagged With: , , , ,

Archos targets Cost Conscious Tablet Segment

March 20, 2012 by

Apple’s latest iPad has created a feeding frenzy at its stores, with an estimated 3 million tablets sold in three days- numbers that top what most of its rivals have sold in the last two years.

Yet while everybody keeps asking the question of when the next iPad killer will be released and if it will be a Windows 8 or an Android product, they seem to lose sight of the larger issues.

Amazon’s Kindle Fire took off because it met a pent up need in the market, not because it was an iPad killer. Others are also looking at selling into distinct segments- some will go head to head with Apple and I am sure that in the future we will see some of them succeed.

Looking for a tablet but do not want to wait in line at the Apple store for a budget busting product? Well Archos may have what you are looking for as the company has delivered a pair of tablets looking to appeal to the thrift consumer. While looking around at rivals to Apple I noticed that last week the company had upgraded its products with the Ice Cream Sandwich (Android 4.0) operating system and now seems like a good time to take a look at what it is offering.

Archos has been targeting this space for some time but still works to deliver high quality products and this looks to be the same. The latest two offerings are the Archos 80 G9 and the Archos 101 G9 with prices starting around $300.

The Archos 80 G9 is powered by a Texas Instruments 1.5GHz dual core OMAP processor and comes with an 8-inch touch screen display with 1024 x 768 resolution with full support for 1080p video. It has a variety of storage options allowing users to have from 8GB of flash storage or a 250GB hard drive. The hard drive version features 2GBs of flash cache so that it limits the amount of time the system needs to access the hard drive.

The tablet features a 720p front facing camera that can be used with Google Talk for video chatting with an individual or with Google+ Huddle for group chats. It also features Picsel Smart Office preinstalled so you can read and edit your Word, Excel and PowerPoint files.

The Archos 101 G9 has very similar specifications to the 80 G9 with some slight differences. It has a 10-inch display with 1280 x 800 resolution and features the option of a 1GHz processor as well as the 1.5GHz offering. Storage, camera and apps are relatively the same.

While it does not have the flash that Apple offers with its iPads such as the very high resolution display or the tailored apps that Apple has created for use with the iPad, it also does not have the price tag involved. For a solid entry level tablet Archos looks to have a solid offering for users that understand what they need in a tablet and buy based on that

While it does not have the flash that Apple offers with its iPads such as the very high resolution display or the tailored apps that Apple has created for use with the iPad, it also does not have the price tag involved. For a solid entry level tablet Archos looks to have a solid offering for users that understand what they need in a tablet and buy based on that.

Filed Under: Amazon, Android, Apple, Apps, iPad, Kindle, Tablets Tagged With: , , , ,

Mobile Sports Report TechWatch: Mostly Apple Edition

March 19, 2012 by

Flush from releasing its latest iPad, its stock price hovering near $600 and with billions in cash in the bank, Apple has announced plans to launch a dividend and share repurchasing program. The two programs will result in the company spending approximately $45 billion in three years.

The plan calls for Apple to spend $10 billion in a share repurchase program that will begin in September 30, 2012. Its goal is to help neutralize the impact of dilution from future employee equity grants and employee stock purchase programs. This program has already been approved by the company’s Board of Directors.

The second program calls for a quarterly dividend of $2.65 per share sometime in the fourth quarter of its fiscal 2012, which begins on July 1, 2012. This is still pending approval by Apple’s BoD.

Apple loses key ITC ruling
After a strong winning streak in its patent battles Apple is starting to lose a few again. The latest comes with an Administration Law Judge at the International Trade Commission ruling that Motorola Mobility did not infringe on three Apple patents. Apple had appealed an earlier ruling on the topic, and will now likely take the issue to court, so it is far from over.

Conde Nast to give advertisers viewer data
Conde Nast is finally relating the information it has been harvesting from readers of its iPad edition of its magazines. For the last 2 years a variety of its publications have been available on the tablets and I has been tracking a variety of information including basic data such as how many readers it has, the breakdown between paid and single issue sales and how long readers view articles and ads.

I would love to hear what some of this information and home the publisher will reveal some details to the public about what impact tablets have had on its business model, both pro and con. Publishers will start receiving data on specific issues 10 weeks after it hits the stands.

Windows 8 Tablets on the Horizon.
There seems to be a lot of breathless talk that when Windows 8 is released a slew of tablets will be released and crush Apple’s iPad, returning the tablet market to the righteous. Who cares? I hope that the tablets are good and have the options I want, not how they compare to Apple. But I digress.

There is a lot of talk about who is going to have tablets when Windows 8 is available, and a list of probables and a few features is included in this piece by the International Business Times. No real surprises, Hewlett-Packard, Nokia, Dell and some others but worth a look so you have an idea of what is on the way.

Kindle and Nook in for a fight from new Nexus tablet?
The site Android and Me is reporting that a Nexus tablet from ASUS is a done deal and expects that the tablet will come in at a very nice $149. It is reporting that Google has selected ASUS to produce the next generation Nexus tablet and that it will have a 7-inch form factor and that all other details are unknown at this time.

However this will go directly against the two popular e-readers out there, from Amazon and Barnes & Noble, which currently are the second and fourth most popular selling tablets. A good price war is always popular with consumers and I am looking forward to what they do if this turns out to be true.

Americans willing to pay for tablet content aside for news
A recent Nielsen study on tablet content purchases found some interesting facts about European and American users. Americans are willing to pay for almost all types of content, with 62% having purchased music, 58% purchased books and 51% have purchased movies, but only 19% paid for news.

That is not too far out of line with the European countries surveyed about news, aside from Italy which had 44% purchasing news content. The Europeans showed they were much less likely to buy books, movies and music than Americans.

Filed Under: Amazon, Android, Apple, Apps, Barnes & Noble, Dell, Google, iPad, Kindle, Lenovo, Motorola, Nielsen Ratings, Tablets Tagged With: , , ,
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