As expected Google unveiled a $199 7-inch tablet at its developer conference, Google I/O, this morning. The "Nexus 7" tablet is made by ASUS and comes in a WiFi only version (so far). Presumably there will be other versions later that offer more memory and/or carrier support. The deep integration of Google's content store, Google Play, together with its $199 pricing makes the Nexus 7 a direct and formidable rival to the Kindle Fire. An updated Fire is anticipated some time in July. But in comparison to the current Kindle Fire the Nexus 7 looks better in almost every imaginable way. I h [...]

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[caption id="attachment_15261" align="alignright" width="240" caption="Image Credit: Gizmodo"][/caption] It was something of a non-secret that Google would be launching a 7-inch tablet this week at its developer conference, Google I/O, in San Francisco. However we get an early look (apparently) at the device courtesy of Gizmodo Australia and CNET. What's being reported is that there are two models: a 8GB unit that will cost $199 and a 16GB model coming in at $249. The hardware maker is apparently (as rumored) ASUS. However the tablet will be branded Google Nexus according to reports. [...]

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In a big victory for affiliate marketers, an Illinois judge has declared that a state law allowing Illinois to collect sales tax on online sales by out-of-state companies -- a law sometimes called the "Amazon tax" -- is unconstitutional. According to a news release from the Performance Marketing Association (PMA), the judge ruled that having affiliates in Illinois doesn't establish a legal presence, or nexus, inside Illinois for tax purposes. The judge also agreed with the PMA's position that the 2011 state law is premature because of a federal moratorium on Internet taxes that runs through [...]

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Nevada is the latest state to reach an agreement on sales tax collection with Amazon.com -- news that should be welcome by affiliate marketers in the Silver State (and elsewhere). As Internet Retailer reports, Amazon will start collecting sales tax on items purchased by Nevada residents on January 1, 2014, or sooner if the federal government passing a law that lets states collect sales tax from online merchants. The agreement is very similar to one announced earlier this year between Amazon and the state of Indiana. The news is good for affiliate marketers because it should mean they [...]

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Android Market is dead. Long live Google Play! Today, Google announced that it is changing the name of its Android Market to Google Play, a move it hopes better reflects that the marketplace now offers more than apps, with content like books, video and music available even to those who aren't using Android. "This is really an acknowledgement that these experiences are relevant not just for a mobile environment but across the web," said Jamie Rosenberg, Google's director of digital content. Google's March To Selling Content Over the past year or so, Google has been ramping up how i [...]

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In the event you weren't aware the mobile trade show Mobile World Congress is happening in Barcelona, Spain this week. I'd probably be attending but for SMX West starting tomorrow in San Jose, California. The European show is mostly about hardware, carriers and devices, a larger version of CTIA here in the US. Yesterday there was a ton of new device news out. HTC, Sony, LG and Huawei released new tablets and handsets. Without exception those devices are powered by Android. Android Handset Growth: 300 Million Served Earlier this morning Google released some new (and impressive) Android act [...]

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As widely anticipated Facebook filed its S-1 to go public today, and interesting fact emerged. Facebook -- out of necessity -- will soon become the largest mobile ad network in the world. Throughout the S-1 Facebook makes reference to mobile. It sees mobile as both a threat and essential to its future growth. (Last year I argued that Facebook would be the largest mobile ad network in the US if it had mobile ad units.) More than 400 million mobile users Previously the company said that it had 350 million active mobile users. In the filing today it identified 425 million monthly active use [...]

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It has been known for some time that is much as 82 percent of smartphone users (InsightExpress, 2010) consult their iPhones and Android handsets in stores as part of on-site shopping research. Last year Google said that 70 percent of US smartphone owners did price research and looked up product reviews in stores. And this morning the Pew Internet Project released survey data echoing the earlier findings but offering some additional color and insight into mobile shopper behavior. The Pew data, drawn from a survey during Q4 last year, offer numbers that are somewhat more "restrained" than the [...]

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Amazon has agreed to begin collecting sales tax in Indiana, marking a rare win both for affiliates and U.S. states. The company and state announced the agreement Monday, a deal that requires Amazon to collect sales tax on internet purchases on January 1, 2014 -- or 90 days after any federal legislation on internet sales tax is enacted, whichever comes first. Several U.S. states -- looking for ways to regain sales tax losses as commerce shifts online -- have pressured Amazon to begin collecting sales tax, citing the company's affiliates as evidence that Amazon has a presence inside their [...]

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Although we don't have sales figures, Barnes & Noble's Nook eReader and tablet line appears to be holding its own against Kindle's fiery onslaught. This morning the company announced a device promotion with the New York Times to battle its rival: [C]ustomers who purchase a one-year NOOK subscription to The New York Times will receive a top-rated NOOK Simple Touch at no cost or the award-winning NOOK Color for just $99. Barnes & Noble customers can take advantage of this special promotion available at one of Barnes & Noble’s more than 700 bookstores and online at www.nook.com/nyt [...]

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Holiday 2011 is being hailed by many as a kind of breakthrough for so-called "m-commerce": people buying things on smartphones and tablets. Actually it was more of a breakthrough for smartphone "shopping." Only a handful of sites -- mainly Amazon and eBay -- are actually seeing transactions through their mobile apps. The expectation is that consumers will become progressively more conformable with buying things through mobile devices over time. That's a reasonable assumption. Tablets are already seeing considerable "t-commerce" activity. According to eMarketer m-commerce sales in 2011 we [...]

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There's a great deal of discussion this morning about a DigiTimes report that Google's forthcoming "highest quality" tablet is a 7-incher. Accordingly, the thesis is, the tablet has Kindle Fire in its sites rather than the iPad. This is the point I made earlier this week in a post entitled, Google’s Coming Tablet: A Response To Kindle Fire, Not The iPad. My argument was that Google's other OEM partners have failed to produce successful Android tablets; new data show that only 3.3% of Android devices running the "tablet version" of Android: Honeycomb. (There are Android tablets running ear [...]

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The Kindle Fire is a deeply flawed tablet -- yet it has disrupted the nascent tablet market and especially other iPad challengers. Indeed, it may have even motivated Google to develop its own branded tablet, similar to the Google-branded Nexus series of smartphones. By pricing its heavily skinned Android device at $199 and taking a slight loss on each one sold Amazon is making a bid to dominate the Android tablet market. And the company appears to be well on its way, with millions of Kindle Fires already sold. Millions of Kindle Fires Sold Amazon said that it sold more than 1 million [...]

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In the battle of mobile users, Facebook trumps both Apple and Android -- although those aren't "apples to apples" comparisons. One analyst is now estimating that Facebook has 300 million active users of its mobile apps (vs. 800+ million total users) on a global basis. However that's a smaller mobile number than Facebook itself reports overall, which is 350 million. Accordingly, 43% of Facebook's users access the site via mobile devices. Those who access Facebook via mobile devices are also the heaviest and most engaged Facebook users. The same analyst, Benedict Evans, estimates that [...]

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ForeSee Results, which surveys consumers about their online experiences and customer satisfaction, released another "E-Retail Satisfaction Index" following the xmas holiday online shopping frenzy. (As an aside, comScore reported this week that holiday e-commerce was up 15 percent vs. last year to $35.3 billion.) ForeSee Results uses the methodology of the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) to calculate its scores. Among the key findings were the following: Amazon emerged as the top company in the "E-Retail" category, with 88 points vs. the category average of 79. Apple scored a [...]

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The New York Times came out with an article today making the Kindle Fire out to be a big loser, citing a few experts, customer complaints and how it doesn't measure up to the iPad. It never really talks much about the Kindle as a Kindle replacement, and that's where the story misses the Kindle's real advantage. The Tablet For Books I've used an older Kindle since earlier this year, what would now be called the Kindle Keyboard. When I first got it, I was disappointed. I kept wanting to touch the screen and do things. No can do. I wanted to read with it at night, which required an external lig [...]

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