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In a recent survey by Nelson, over 60% of users on Twitter fail to return the following month to the site.

Even though the social networking site has seen an explosion of users in the post Oprah & CNN Vs. Ashton Kutcher events Twitter is still only retaining 40% of it’s users.  Before those two events, only 30% of users stayed with the site updating, or “tweeting”, their profile.

The Nelson ratings report also cites that the other two giant social networking websites have retained their users.  Both MySpace.com and Facebook.com have both kept 70% of their users after their growth period.

Personal thoughts

What can be causing 6 out of 10 users to drop Twitter?  There seem to be a number of people who join social networking sites and then never get involved after the initial grace period.  That can be said for any of these sites.

Could it be that on Twitter is hard to find people to “follow”?  In my own personal experience I’ve found it hard to find people I know.  Other sites suggest people I may know by looking up who my current “friends” are or by allowing me to upload a contact list.

Even though the 140 character micro-blogging is novel, how much longer can stay novel?    Some other Twitter-like sites allow me to upload videos, pictures, links, as well as blog how ever long I want.  Why can’t Twitter?  The more information I share with a site about myself, the better it can do to serve me ads that appeal to me.  The more appealing the ad, the closer I am to clicking on the ad and buying the product.

Is Twitter NOT going to be the next big thing?  What is the next big thing?  No one knows these answers, we just have a lot of questions.

written by tom

Rumors abound this week about two major players in the mobile market Apple and Microsoft.

The first involves Apple.  The maker of the iPhone is in tentative talks with Verizon Wireless, away from AT&T.  This would be a huge move as Apple tries to sell more of there mobile device to customers who did not want to switch carriers.

The second rumor involves Microsoft and their attempt at a mobile phone.  “Project Pink”, as the Redwood, CA based company has called it also has been in rumored talks withs Verizon.  The Microsoft device would include a touch-screen, “new features” to the Windows Mobile Operating System, and the Windows Marketplace, currently in use with other Microsoft products, like the XBox.  ALthough it is also rumored to have “multimedia capabilities”, this new phone makes no mention of the Zune.  The Zune was labeled as “The iPod Killer” back when it was first introduced in 2006, 5 years after the release of the iPod.

There is no telling wether or not either of these rumors will come to be, but there is a good chance Microsoft will be entering the mobile market with a device.  Growth in customers has dwindled, but the new technology for those customers are ever evolving and Microsoft is poised to take advantage of that with “Project Pink”.

photo credit: engadget

written by tom

With three options for users of Windows business still plans on using Windows XP as support officially ends today.

Windows XP was introduced in October 2001 and became wildly popular as it showed dramatic improvement from Windows 2000, it’s predecessor.  Microsoft released Vista in January 2007 and saw immediate blow back from users.  Now with the beta version of Windows 7 in release users are starting to see that Windows can be improved and tcommenting that W7 is, “The OS Vista should have been”.

A new Information Week survey shows that 83% of companies still plan on staying with XP until 2011.  This is the smae scenerio Microsoft faced as they rolled out Vista.  This is all happening as Windows XP’s support ends today, April 14th.

In the past number of years users have switched the Apple OS X operationing system while buying new Macs and there has even been an inching up of Linux, the free open source operating system for PCs.  Linux’s rise in popularity may also reflect the price of Windows being too expensive for some business.

Along with the economics, compatibility was cited as a reason for delay in migration.  Even after 2011 only 42% of the business in the Information Week poll said they’d use W7 after 2011 and 17% said they would wait until 2014.

Although Microsoft has not made it’s release date official, watchers are estimating that Windows 7 will be released late in 2009 or early 2010.

written by tom

written by tom