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Selling wireless and media products online is a complex challenge that often falls short of the expectations of seasoned online shoppers and results in a frustrating user experience. Wireless and cable operators, wireless resellers and handset manufacturers try to mirror online shopping with their online retail peers but despite their efforts, the complexities of back-end provisioning processes and legacy business rules often surface for customers to see.

Retail pharmacies in the U.S. filled 3.65 billion prescriptions in 2008, and another 238 million prescriptions were filled by direct mail. Each Rx was issued by a physician -- which explains why the pharmaceutical industry in the U.S. spends heavily on marketing efforts aimed at doctors, including customer relationship management programs. All lar...

I've been spending a lot of time thinking about the battle between Google and Microsoft and how it is largely counterproductive for both companies. Since I spent a lot of my life in competitive analysis, I thought it might be fun to set out a strategy of how Google could take out Microsoft (which it is partially executing) and how Microsoft could ...

Could heavy cellphone users be more likely to suffer brain cancer? Scientists and researchers aren't sure, but they're locked in debate. Results of a study published by Scandinavian researchers in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute on Thursday indicated there doesn't seem to be any such link between cellphones and the incidence of brain ...

Verizon Wireless and AT&T may have settled their differences over Verizon's advertising messages in the courtroom, but there is little sign Verizon is pulling its punches elsewhere. With its latest ad, though, Verizon may have toed over a line by invoking gender stereotypes.

The United Nations has jumped into the controversy involving leaked emails on climate change data from the University of East Anglia, with a senior UN official saying Friday that his agency would investigate the matter The news may prompt a new series of blog posts, tweets and emails from climate change skeptics, who have used the scandal -- and th...

Comcast just bought itself a nice little present for the holidays: NBC Universal. The cable network will have a controlling stake in NBC once the deal is flattened out, and in return, it's giving General Electric US$6.5 billion along with $7.25 billion worth of programming. If everything passes muster with regulators, then Comcast will go from being a company that just distributes creative content to one that makes and distributes it...

It already handles your Gmail and eventually wants to have you surf its Wave. It hopes you'll take a shine to Chrome. It assigns you a phone number so you can have a Voice. You use its applications to compose professional, smart-looking Docs when you're not being a messy, profane Blogger. It has desires for the world's Books. Then there's that who...

Consumer online spending habits continue to evolve, and as average shoppers look for new ways to stretch their budgets during tough economic times, online coupon usage has grown. In fact, online searches for coupons and offers have increased by 58 percent over the past year, according to a recent study from Interpublic Group Savvy shoppers are bec...

The economy is "finally back in gear," according to a recent article in Fortune. This should mean that projects that were sidelined for the past year or two can come off the bench, and there might be more money to go around. As a project manager, are you confident that you will be able to put the right people on these projects? Not only that, but how can you be smart about spending this money? ...

After more than 20 years of evangelization by vendors and consultants, many companies are now fully aware of the benefits of business process management and the value of business process management solutions (BPMS). These benefits include cost reduction through targeting inefficiencies, improvement of process quality, creation of better customer experience and higher customer satisfaction, and increased business agility...

It is one of the saddest, most shocking stories for a journalist to cover: the murder of a law enforcement official. Four Lakewood, Wash., police officers were shot to death at a Tacoma-area coffee shop Sunday morning -- apparently targeted just because they were cops -- and a dangerous, armed suspect was sought in the Puget Sound region for nearl...

It's official: Comcast has engineered what appears to be the biggest media joint venture of the year -- a multibillion-dollar merger that will combine General Electric's NBC Universal with Comcast's own cable networks Once complete, Comcast will take majority ownership of NBC, ending GE's 20 year control of the network. It is a complex transaction ...

Taking on one of Google's most popular Web applications, Microsoft introduced a beta for Bing Maps that incorporates improved imagery, 3-D photographs and street views using tools made possible by its Silverlight technology. The Streetside feature puts users on street level, letting them walk around to find "that good parking lot," for example, "...

Winning the fight against cancer may end up being more of a nano-war than a surgical strike. A team led by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has just successfully combined an antibody with single-walled nanotubes to create a precision search-and-destroy weapon that targets aggressive forms of breast cancer. These tiny dual-...

Part 1 of this two-part series takes a look at some of the early signs that a home networking revolution might be under way: how consumers are beginning to move beyond WiFi So far, most home networking deployments are one-off or are limited to a certain function, such as entertainment. Home networking becomes truly interesting when it is applied to...

Frequently, clients and friends ask my opinion about the economic stimulus package. Is it really working? Does it make any economic sense? Aren't we digging a deeper hole for our children, our grandchildren and ourselves? These are understandable concerns, and they reflect the anxiety of the American people about the future of our country. To full...

A turf war is going on in the mobile applications market as various companies try to carve out a foothold The players include handset vendors such as RIM, Palm, Apple, LG and Samsung; mobile operating system developers like Google with its Android platform; software vendors such as Microsoft; and wireless carriers including China Mobile, Verizon an...

Most marketers will accept that some portion of marketing will always be an art that is tricky to measure. However, it's difficult to deny the overwhelming need for marketers who can "crunch the numbers." ...

Bandwidth aggregation products, such as WAN link controllers, enable a business to purchase multiple low-cost network connections (i.e. DSL, cable, fiber, wireless, etc.) and combine them to give it the total bandwidth required. The customer can then easily and flexibly add bandwidth as the organization's Internet usage increases As an organization...