Too Much Unmonetized Ad Inventory

If you are a content producer or a freemium app or game developer, you would know, instantly, what I am talking about: there is WAY too much ad inventory out there. Too many eyeballs that are not getting adequately monetized. Major publishers sitting on top of huge masses of unmonetized impressions. Game developers monetizing, barely, 1-2% of their traffic. App developers, similarly, struggling to convert free users to premium.

If you are an entrepreneur, looking for an open problem to solve, look no further. This is your opportunity. In 2012, one of the greatest unaddressed pain points for the Mobile and Online industries is this over abundance of eyeballs that publishers, software, app and game developers are struggling to find monetization models for.

There are many Ad Networks that offer very low monetization rates and take a large sales commission. If you decide that the way you want to address all this is by becoming, yourself, an ad network, that is certainly one way of addressing the pain-point. However, you would need to know how to sell $25-50 CPMs, because at $4-5 CPMs, there is no money for anybody. Not for the network, and not for the publisher. It’s just not worth it. Some vertical ad networks have gone after this opportunity, Glam Media being one of the most successful of the lot.

But, by and large, the problem remains unsolved from the publishers perspective.

Now, if you are an entrepreneur looking for cheap advertising, this actually plays in your favor. However, most ad networks don’t have the kind of self-service mechanisms of buying ad impressions that Google AdSense has, for example. This is a limitation on the side of Ad Networks, who would actually monetize a lot better if they were to open their inventory up to the small-medium businesses.

Now, if you are an Ad Network with the ability to service a large pool of SME advertisers, I would like to hear from you.

Will RIM End Up In Dell’s Arms?

Research in Motion (NASDAQ: RIMM) was counting on the BlackBerry Playbook to pull them out of their downward spiral. But there was only a lukewarm reception to the Playbook, and RIM’s future continued to look glum. Gartner estimates that Apple’s iOS will continue to dominate the worldwide media tablet market through 2015. iOS will account for 69% of media tablet operating systems in 2011 and represent 47% of the media tablet market in 2015. Other researchers estimate that Apple iPad sales will reach 24 million this year. Playbook will be a significantly smaller player with 2 million sales, followed by Motorola Xoom’s 1.75 million units. >>>

1M/1M: Mobile and Social Apps Module Of The Curriculum Is Ready

Readers, we have just released the Mobile and Social Apps module of the 1M/1M premium curriculum. In it, you will find a synthesis of the various trends and opportunities that I see at this point, along with case studies and video lectures. I will do an additional module specifically focused on Gaming, coming soon.

The 1Mby1M Deal Radar 2010: AppMakr.com and PointAbout, Washington, DC

As Deal Radar draws to a close for 2010, it’s fitting that one of final companies to be covered has its finger on the pulse of many of the decade’s important tech trends. AppMakr.com is a “no coding” platform that enables non-developers to create iPhone (and soon Android and Windows) mobile apps for their brands, large or small. >>>

Top 10 Tech Trends For The Decade

2010 is drawing to a close. Mark Zuckerberg has just been named Time’s Person of the Year. We’ve been covering various tech companies and entrepreneurs since 2005, and this year, here is a quick synthesis of what look like the major trends from where I sit: >>>

Thought Leaders In Cloud Computing: Dr. Reed Sheard, CIO Of Westmont College (Part 7)

By Sramana Mitra and guest author Shaloo Shalini

SM: What about higher education–specific vendors?

RS: I would put Apple in there. Apple would count as an education-specific vendor.

SM: How so? Do they have specific offerings for higher education?

RS: Every other year, Apple organizes a conference for CIOs in higher education. They have account executives who are focused only on higher education. Apple also has pricing models that are beneficial to the higher education sector. These are some of the things they do, and our Apple user base in higher education in general qualifies them as a vendor. This is a pretty significant shift to the Apple platform across higher education that has created an interesting and creative dynamic. This is an interesting dialogue happening among colleges and universities. >>>

Thought Leaders In Cloud Computing: Dr. Reed Sheard, CIO Of Westmont College (Part 6)

By Sramana Mitra and guest author Shaloo Shalini

SM: I think when you talk in terms of e-mail or CRM, the basic e-mail or CRM, these are horizontal functionalities. You would definitely have an advantage if you use somebody else’s solution that has been built, tested, and scaled, and something that is scalable on this level has the right kind of support. There is no reason to reinvent that wheel for higher education specific solutions if there is such horizontal functionality available today. >>>

Thought Leaders In Cloud Computing: Dr. Reed Sheard, CIO Of Westmont College (Part 5)