We’re spoiled by technology. Today, we expect more from our media than we can get from print, radio or linear TV.

If you’re like me — and, increasingly, evidence shows people are — you crave portability, fungibility, the ability to listen to a book or article, to watch a TV show or movie or YouTube clip whenever and wherever you want. You may even, like me, want to chop off pieces and show them elsewhere, tag them, mash them up.

Consuming media the way it used to be provided (and sometimes still is) can be so woefully inefficient. Who wants to have to sit down and consume at the provider’s convenience, rather than their own? Who has time for appointment TV any more? Just look at the research that finds more and more of us using DVRs, avoiding commercials and otherwise changing viewing habits.

» via MediaShift

The survey of wireless carriers revealed that over 285 million Americans are mobile subscribers, about 91 percent of the total population. That’s up 15 million over the same time last year, and growth has slowed somewhat due to market saturation. Those 285 million callers used 1.12 trillion minutes of talk time in the last half of 2009, up 3.4 percent of the same period in 2008. That breaks down to an average of 6.1 billion minutes used per day, or about 21 minutes per person per day.

» via ars technica

emergentfutures:

A mobile workforce survey found that the majority of Blackberry-carrying employees would trade their devices in for an iPhone, if only their companies supported it. Likewise, nearly two-thirds of those surveyed employees said they would prefer to be issued a smartphone instead of a notebook computer.

Apple COO Tim Cook answered a round of questions during the annual Goldman Sachs Technology & Internet Conference Tuesday and ended up discussing various aspects of Apple’s business. A major thread throughout Cook’s talk was the fact that Apple thinks of itself as a “mobile devices company,” echoing Steve Jobs’ comments at the recent iPad introduction that Apple competes with the likes of Nokia and Sony when it comes to revenue.

» via ars technica

The growing popularity of smartphones and high-speed wireless broadband networks are proving to be two major catalysts for the wireless industry. As a result, expect its revenues to barrel past the $1 trillion-mark by 2013, says Informa Telecom’s & Media, a London-based market research group. That compares to revenues of $208 billion in 2008 and $330 billion in 2009. By 2014, global mobile penetration will hit 92 percent with about 6.7 billion subscribers, the firm predicts.

» via GigaOM

Smartphones will capture 37 percent of the worldwide cell phone market by 2014, a leap from 16 percent in 2009, predicts a new report from Pyramid Research.

The report, released late last week, sees much of the growth coming from outside the U.S., notably in emerging markets. Across the globe, China is likely to outpace the U.S. as the largest smartphone market next year. Latin America will be the fastest-growing region over the next five years, with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 48 percent for smartphone sales, forecasts Pyramid.

» via CNET news