Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/chart-of-the-day-the-iphone-5s-unprecedented-demand-2011-9

Apple’s reported decision to release a new iPhone in the fall, as opposed to the summer, will deliver massive sales, writes RBC analyst Mike Abramsky in a note.

RBC surveyed 2,200 consumers and found “unprecedented demand,” with 31% of consumers very/somewhat likely to buy an iPhone 5, which is stronger than the 25% of consumers that were very/somewhat likely to buy an iPhone 4, when RBC did the same sort of survey before it launched.

Further, Abramsky says that Apple’s delay could cause a bigger upgrade from existing iPhone owners, since the iPhone 4 is 15 months old. He says 66% of existing iPhone owners are very/somewhat likely to buy a new iPhone.

He’s bumping his estimates for Apple’s 2012 fiscal year as a result. He thinks the company sells 110 million iPhones, generates $140 billion in sales overall, and earns $34.50 per share for fiscal 2012. 

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See Also:

• THE APPLE INVESTOR: iPhone Estimates For 2011 Cut By 10%
• HTC President: "iPhones Are Not That Cool Anymore"
• THE APPLE INVESTOR: Investors Too Cautious About 2013 Growth

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Source: http://blog.compete.com/2011/08/05/online-flower-traffic-blooms-for-mothers-day/

Photo Credit: muffet, flickr.

Online flower marketers experienced another great Mother’s Day season.   Traffic to these sites grew by a healthy 7% from May 2010 to May 2011. 

The online flower business is a great example of how small, mom and pop businesses might have been given new life thanks to the web.  A flower shop in a drab storefront can be re-energized thanks to sites such as Teleflora.

As you can see, the sites are hugely dependent on the Valentine’s and Mother’s Day holidays.  Outside of that, traffic is respectable but significantly lower.

One of the more fascinating trends to look at over this past Mother’s Day holiday is the range of cross-shopping that went on across online flower marketing sites.

FTD.com, which has the most loyal followings and largest volumes in the competitive set, saw it’s customer cross-shopping rate double this year.  Meanwhile, sites such as Proflowers, BloomsToday and 1-800 Flowers saw an improvement in customer loyalty during the Mother’s Day flower buying season.

You have to wonder just how much more these sites can continue to grow in their current form.  The seasonality issue is challenging.  Right now, the sites are all focused on delivering fresh-cut flowers and other gifts to celebrate a special occasion.

As a recent homebuyer, I would not mind seeing more attention paid to outdoor plants and trees.  The products are subtly marketed on sites, but the marketing is not prominently displayed.  Imagine being able to log onto 1800flowers.com and create a “gift registry” of plants and trees that you wanted for a housewarming gift.  Friends could log on and arrange to have them delivered the same day as a housewarming celebration.

What about ordering vegetable plants for mom’s garden during the upcoming summer as a Mother’s Day gift?  The opportunities are endless out there to either increase the average order value and to shift consumer mindset from holidays and birthdays to other life events / purposes.

Source: http://blog.compete.com/2011/06/30/summer-cinema-smash-or-site-traffic-stinker/

36 years ago, Stephen Spielberg released Jaws during a traditionally quiet time of the year for the box office. It took in seven million dollars that opening weekend, and became the highest grossing film of all time until Star Wars debuted two years later. What followed was a new era of Hollywood, a period in which the summer quarter would account for 40 percent of the entire year’s box office earnings.

It also began the era of extreme (read: shameless) Hollywood marketing. On May 6, 2011 Thor was released, grossing 65 million dollars in its first weekend, and going on to earn more than 430 million dollars worldwide. We’re now deep into the summer blockbuster season.

So it got me wondering: are major studios using their mega movies to drive traffic to their websites?

Over the last two years, it looks like they’ve rarely gotten more than a million unique visitors in a month, with one glaring exception: Warner Brothers, which consistently gets over 2 million UVs a month. Half-Blood Prince was the second highest grossing film of 2009 behind movie mammoth Avatar, and Sherlock Holmes was at number 8. Because these films were driving WB’s traffic up so much, why weren’t other studios benefiting from their movies’ hype? Avatar is the highest grossing film of all time, but it did nothing for Fox’s UVs in December 2009. I realized that unlike WB, other studios don’t host their movies on subdomains—they set up new sites specifically for each movie.

So how do these sites stack up? Here are five of the six top grossing movies domestically this year. Each has a significant spike in daily reach right around their release date.

After just a few days, though, the sites become almost obsolete. Even The Hangover Part II, WB’s subdomain, falls to almost nothing. So then what is it keeping Warner Bros. at the top of the internet game? If it’s not blockbusters bringing in hundreds of millions, what is it?

Ellen DeGeneres’ show seems to drive about half of Warner Bros’ traffic.

I guess daytime TV is a blockbuster, too.

Source: http://blog.compete.com/2011/06/30/summer-cinema-smash-or-site-traffic-stinker/

36 years ago, Stephen Spielberg released Jaws during a traditionally quiet time of the year for the box office. It took in seven million dollars that opening weekend, and became the highest grossing film of all time until Star Wars debuted two years later. What followed was a new era of Hollywood, a period in which the summer quarter would account for 40 percent of the entire year’s box office earnings.

It also began the era of extreme (read: shameless) Hollywood marketing. On May 6, 2011 Thor was released, grossing 65 million dollars in its first weekend, and going on to earn more than 430 million dollars worldwide. We’re now deep into the summer blockbuster season.

So it got me wondering: are major studios using their mega movies to drive traffic to their websites?

Over the last two years, it looks like they’ve rarely gotten more than a million unique visitors in a month, with one glaring exception: Warner Brothers, which consistently gets over 2 million UVs a month. Half-Blood Prince was the second highest grossing film of 2009 behind movie mammoth Avatar, and Sherlock Holmes was at number 8. Because these films were driving WB’s traffic up so much, why weren’t other studios benefiting from their movies’ hype? Avatar is the highest grossing film of all time, but it did nothing for Fox’s UVs in December 2009. I realized that unlike WB, other studios don’t host their movies on subdomains—they set up new sites specifically for each movie.

So how do these sites stack up? Here are five of the six top grossing movies domestically this year. Each has a significant spike in daily reach right around their release date.

After just a few days, though, the sites become almost obsolete. Even The Hangover Part II, WB’s subdomain, falls to almost nothing. So then what is it keeping Warner Bros. at the top of the internet game? If it’s not blockbusters bringing in hundreds of millions, what is it?

Ellen DeGeneres’ show seems to drive about half of Warner Bros’ traffic.

I guess daytime TV is a blockbuster, too.

Source: http://gizmodo.com/5816167/netflix-for-theaters-moviepass-lets-you-watch-unlimited-movies-in-theaters

How’s this sound: A movie subscription that lets you watch unlimited movies in theaters for 50 bucks a month. It’s like Netflix but for the real, real life. Would that be something you’re interested in?

Called MoviePass, it’s a service that’ll let users use a smartphone app to handle all their movie bookings. For 50 bucks a month (additional $3 for each IMAX or 3D), users of MoviePass will get unlimited access to any movie playing in participating theaters. If you’re not that psycho about watching movies, they also have a ‘lite’ package of 4 movies for 30 bucks. Either way, they’re rolling out a private beta in San Francisco right now that includes 21 different theaters and hopes to expand to other US cities throughout the summer. The goal is to put MoviePass in 40% of the theaters across the US.

I know people who—rain or shine, $15 bucks for a ticket or higher, popcorn or no popcorn—just have to watch movies in the theater. This is going to be perfect for them. Would you guys use this? [MoviePass via Wired]

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/04/08/us-doj-approves-googles-acquisition-of-ita-but-not-without-sti/

The United States government may be dissolved tomorrow, but it’s certainly taking care of one final piece of business before going into shutdown: this. If you’ll recall, Google announced its intentions to acquire ITA for $700 million in July of last year, and as we cruise into the start of America’s summer travel season, all signals are go. Today, the US Department of Justice approved Google’s request to move forward with the buy, but rather than having the entire travel search market under its wing, El Goog’s going to have to make a smattering of concessions in order to get the right signatures. For starters, the search monolith will allow ITA’s existing client contracts to extend into 2016, and it’ll let both current and new customers license ITA’s QPX software on “fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory terms.” No one’s saying when the integration will be complete (or start, for that matter), but we’re desperately anxious to see just how Kayak and Bing Travel react after this launches in earnest. Power to the searchers, as it were.

US DoJ approves Google’s acquisition of ITA, but not without stipulations originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 08 Apr 2011 17:06:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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