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Helio, the mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) that tried to sell MySpace-branded handsets and service, has been purchased by Virgin Mobile. 

After EarthLink bailed out, SK Telecom pumped an additional US$270 million into Helio in a last-ditch effort to save the struggling business.

The Helio kiosks in Ala Moana Center never looked very busy. I’m not sure how many Helio subscribers signed up in Hawaii, but the nationwide numbers had gone down to 170,000, compared to Virgin Mobile’s 5 million. Young adults seem to carry T-Mobile’s Sidekick or a Verizon phone, although the iPhone may gain traction in a few weeks with its new low price. 

See this TechCrunch article titled Helio Hangs It Up for more details. 

Related articles and pages on billso.com

• iPhone
• 9 June 2008: iPhone 3G
• 13 April 2008: MySpace keeps trying to sell music downloads
• 29 September 2006: ESPN sacked, Helio scrambling

Smells like… depseration! The New York Times reports that three of the largest recording companies will sell digital music through an updated MySpace music store. ReadWriteWeb has more details on the updated store, which EMI is avoiding for now.

While MySpace does have a large user base, the site can’t offer the easy integration that Apple’s iPod and iTunes have developed.

Previous efforts like Helio might have survived if MySpace had done a better job with its earlier music sales sites. See this 4 September 2006 New York Times article and an earlier article from Mashable for more details.

Related posts on billso.com

• 25 February 2008: Social Media 101
• 28 August 2007: EarthLink announces layoffs
• 20 June 2007: MySpace vs Facebook
• 17 June 2007: Anticipation builds for Apple’s iPhone
• 17 April 2007: Mobile telcos search for new business model
• 29 September 2006: ESPN sacked, Helio scrambling

On 31 March 2008, I mentioned that I’d joined Dan Leuck’s social networking site TechHui. Dan sent me his invitation through LinkedIn, a global professional network that I’ve mentioned in several articles in billso.com:

• 14 March 2008: Social media in action
• 10 August 2007: Forty-somethings flock to Facebook
• 2 July 2007: CXOs face malware email attacks
• 20 June 2007: Facebook vs MySpace

My LinkedIn network has grown quite a bit in the last few months as more users join that service, and I enjoy meeting new people through the site. LinkedIn focuses on working professionals, as well as sole proprietors and entrepreneurs. The user interface is cleaner than Facebook or MySpace, as LinkedIn does not support applications or media players yet.

My LinkedIn profile is available through the button on the right side of my website at billso.com.

I have also set up an HPU MSIS Alumni group in LinkedIn. Graduates of HPU”s Master of Science in Information Systems program who are also LinkedIn users can use this link to join the group. Group members can display an HPU MSIS alumni badge in their LinkedIn profile. Many universities have established similar groups on LinkedIn to promote alumni events and enhance their branding.

From Business Week: large companies, startups and individuals have been developing and launching widgets over the last few years. Widgets are small software applications that run inside a specific environment.

Yesterday I discussed a specific example – PicLens, a web browser extension for image viewing. Back on 9 January 2008, I mentioned Zotero, a Firefox extension that helps students and academic researchers organize their literature searches. CEO Lawrence Coburn of RateItAll has an extensive blog with reviews and comments about widgets, including this article about Google’s Facebook application.

Widgets are not new. Om Malik mentioned them in September 2006 in this article on Business 2.0.

Widgets a small applications that are run and installed on the client – the computer desktop, a web browser, or another application. A widget pulls specific data from servers on the Internet, or the cloud as it is usually called in the industry. Settings are usually based on the user’s preferences. My Mac dashboard includes time and temperature widgets, a calendar, an RSS widget that displays my blog posts, and an NHL scoreboard with the latest games.

Widgets can also be deployed on an intranet or extranet, but there are additional security concerns that have to be addressed, including logins and permissions.

Mac users got their first taste of widgets in 2005, when Dashboard was first included in Mac OS X. Yahoo soon followed with its own widgets for Windows users. Windows Vista and Google each have their own gadgets. Of course, most these widgets won’t work on another system.

Facebook added support for third-party applications last year, as I noted on 28 May 2007. As i mentioned on 19 February 2008, I usually ignore invites that I receive for Facebook applications. I’m never quite sure who can see my data, profile or status, even when Facebook lets me set these preferences.

Where’s the value?

As a flood of widgets, extensions, appls and other software comes to market, it’s important to ask about the value of these features. In many cases, these are little more than features or mini-sites that get embedded into the web browser or the computer desktop. The vast majority of current widget developers are writing code for their own use. Some developers post their widgets and share them with other users.

It’s rare for a company like Slide to emerge. As I discussed on 28 January 2008, Slide recently received US$50 million in venture capital, based on the company’s successful line of Facebook applications. It’s a risky business, as Slide and other Facebook app developers are almost totally dependent upon the success of the main Facebook site itself.

So any developer who depends upon widgets for their business revenue has to diversify. Costs increase as the same widgets are duplicated for multiple platforms, because revising and recompiling each widget requires some duplication of effort for each specific operating system or web site. MySpace will soon offer widget support, and various interoperability and user privacy schemes have been proposed that may let widgets work on multiple social networking sites. The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) has its own proposal, as mentioned by Lorelle back in November 2006. David Berkowitz has a Widget Standards wiki.
These two issues are holding back user adoption of these tools on social networking sites. Business Week’s recent revision of its social media article is a great place to turn for more information, as I mentioned on 25 February 2008.

Business Week has updated a popular article from 2005 on business blogging. The new version is well worth reading. It now covers social media, including social networks. and provides many examples of how these Internet services have become sources of competitive advantage for some companies.

In a few industries, blogs and social networking have become key success factors. Higher education is well on its way.

Here’s an interesting statistic: only 27 percent of US Internet users read blogs. If you’re reading my blog regularly, I guess you’re an early adopter!