Comcast Uses Xfinity.TV and iPhone, iPad App to Move Online, Counter Netflix & Hulu

It is popular to hate Comcast: mostly because so many of us spend lots of money with them ... and have few choices otherwise. Between cable, internet and phone, the monthly Comcast bill can be one of your largest recurring payments (behind house / rent and car). But let's give Comcast some credit: they are releasing better products (even if it should have happened sooner). Two examples:

1. Xfinity.tv: effectively Comcast's on-demand product with a deeper library and access to your home DVR. Quality is excellent and the library is extensive. For Comcast subscribers, this makes you think twice about Hulu Pro and Netflix (additional monthly bills). Also worth noting: Xfinity.tv does a pretty good job integrating Facebook and works very well on Google TV:

2. Comcast's iPhone & iPad Applications

It arrived much later than DirecTV's - but the applications are certainly useful. It has several features which are probably unused for most (Comcast email, phone, etc), but the TV Guide and DVR control are great. And for the Xfinity application, the ability to control your television is terrific (and is a challenge to high end bluetooth / IR remote control systems).

These two products (and the ad campaigns supporting them) demonstrate that Comcast is thinking / worried about the migration from TV to web, mobile and tablet. It also demonstrates the impact that Netflix, Hulu and others represent.

Things I Would Love to See in iOS5: Better Notifications

Aditya Mukherjee's post "Things I would love to see in iOS5" has risen to the top of Hacker News. Aditya includes a couple aesthetic upgrades and two that I think are a very big deal:

"Better Push Notifications: Apple should just straight out copy Android’s Cloud-to-Device API. That’s it.

Better Notification System: They hired the fellow who designed WebOS’ notifications, so I’m sure this is definitely coming. Goodness knows we need it."

Notifications are an area that needs innovation: it is a key component of app-engagement ... which in turn makes the app ecosystem more effective / efficient ... and in turn allows consumers to better use / access their content

That said, from a consumer standpoint, notifications can quickly become overwhelming. Work is needed on the customization, management and archiving side as well. Without great thought, my gut says that notifications deserve their own SMS-like core application (by Apple) where notifications by provider are listed and managed just as your SMS history is stored. Search, archiving and room for rich messaging (beyond the limited text) would go a long way to:

- making applications more powerful. Imagine the potential for ESPN's ScoreCenter, Kik, Square and other varied apps.

- gives developers more room for creativity and a better ability to engage users on an ongoing basis.

- gives users better control, history and utility.

H&M Offers 20% Off Entire Purchase for Facebook Deals Check-In

Within a day of Facebook announcing their new Deals platform, Starbucks started advertising for their check-in rewards.

Retailer H&M is now doing the same: rewarding checked-in users with 20% their purchase. H&M has been an aggressive experimental marketer. For instance, they were early to advertise in Booyah's location game MyTown and have advertised on Facebook in the past. It will be interesting to see if H&M starts appearing in your newsfeed during the promotion (which ends today).

Freemium Takes Over iPhone App Store

I regularly cover trends in top grossing iPhone / iPad applications. What makes this update noteworthy is that: - the top grossing application is free (freemium if you will as revenue comes from in-app purchases) - three of the top five apps are freemium - four of the top ten - eight of the top twenty - and nine of the top twenty-five

This is the first time in my writing that 40-50% of the top applications are free. Back in January, only three of the top twenty applications were free.

Also interesting, the Smurfs' Village application offers relatively expensive in-app purchases: $4.99, $11.99, $29.99 and $59.99. This is a unique approach as most games offer cheaper purchases ($0.99-$4.99). The Smurfs' are clearly going for mass adoption and sticky gameplay... and it's working.

Facebook Messaging & The Social Inbox

Today Facebook announced Facebook Messages, which bundles together email, chat and text messages to create a single communication stream: "The New Messages: Texts, chat and email together in one simple conversation." If you haven't watched, the Facebook introductory video is below and you can request your beta invite here: 

"All your messages together

Get Facebook messages, chats and texts all in the same place. Include email by activating your optional Facebook email address. Control who can send you messages through your privacy settings."

Two More Examples of "In the River" Promotions: Google & Yelp

Have you gotten sick of my writing about getting your marketing and product promotions "in the river"? "In the river" is my terminology for making sure that messages are delivered inside the core experience and to the respective audience. We used the term frequently at eBay to make sure that products weren't fully integrated into the core experience and would reach enough users (and more importantly: enough of the right). Here are two more examples:

1. Visit Yelp on the iPhone's web browser and you'll be presented with an unmistakable promotion for the iPhone app. Targeted audience already interested in the brand:

2. Lots of iPhone applications try to get users to turn notifications on... Google's app goes a step further and presents a takeover unit that encourages users to turn notifications on (also explaining the benefits).

ESPN's iPad Experience: Choose Your Own Adventure

I write a lot about the importance of getting product, messaging and promotion "in the river" (in other words: making sure that messages are delivered inside the core experience and to the respective audience - good example by Facebook here). Here is a great example by ESPN. When you visit ESPN via the iPad, it presents you with three options: 1. Visit the iPad optimized site (ideal for 3G usage) 2. Visit ESPN.com's full site 3. Download the new ESPN Scorecenter App for the iPad

The first two options were always present for iPad users, but now that they have an iPad app (that is pretty good by the way), ESPN has decided to promote it to all iPad owners.... this is more effective of a marketing campaign than running site-wide banners on ESPN.com.

Facebook Deal Redemption in the Feed: Gap & Starbucks

Last week I wrote about two updates to Facebook Places: Deals (using Starbucks as an example) and Photo attachments. Those two somewhat combine when deals are redeemed. If you haven't seen an example yet: here is the feed post after the Starbucks deal is redeemed. It is an expanded check-in on the Facebook feed... which means two primary things: 1. the post is customizable by the deal provider. Here, Starbucks has four pieces: logo, deal title, detailed description and viral call to action. In effect, this is great branding within the newsfeed ... that branding happens to be enhances by the fact that a friend is advocating it.

2. All the viral components associated with the feed: comments, shares, likes, etc. This is important because it is a core / necessary element to the deal platform - in a way that isn't entirely integrated on other popular sites which require post-transaction publishing.

And here is Gap's promotion:

Facebook Places + Photos Makes Sense... It's Now Here

When Facebook Places first launched, I wrote that a photo integration made sense: If I could change one component of the product – and I really only have one suggestion – it would be to add photographs. Four reasons why:

1. I believe that images are becoming integral pieces of explaining location / local activity. Checking in at a restaurant, theme park, ballgame, etc are all well described by time, title & description and photograph.

2. GPS & photographs are tightly related on the mobile device. Putting them together in the Places product could still be done simply and comfortably.

3. The lack of integration makes me frequently choose between posting a newsfeed photograph and describe location via the description… OR forgo an image and post via Places.

4. Finally, if Facebook Places is to ultimately also become a directory of businesses, reviews, etc – photographs must be tightly integrated.

... Well, it's now here: