A major IT vendor is trying to figure out how it can take advantage of the growth in the online game sector. It needs to determine what the global demand is for online games that require highly scalable infrastructure (Massive Multiplayer Online Games such as World of Warcraft and online leisure games, but not console games).

This vendor is trying to learn who the major online game operators are, where they are located (region or major country) and what the market capitalization of these companies is. They also want to determine how much these companies spend on systems, hosting and storage. (Please provide the source for any data you use in your response).

Who should be the largest or fastest-growing customers that this vendor should target? Who are the key hosting companies for online games? What equipment are these companies buying? Are there any specific strategies that you would recommend for a company looking to play a major role in this market?

Clarification: The sponsor for this Case is interested in IT infrastructure such as servers, processors, OSes, hard drive storage -- hosting equipment that can be bundled and packaged with management software, etc.

LetsTalk's PhoneTalk blog wants to add new voices to its website, and they're posting regular Cases here for the Techdirt Insight Community to add interesting new content to their site. The winning submissions for each Challenge Case will be posted (perhaps with some editing) on the PhoneTalk blog -- with credits to the author. The following is LetsTalk's next assignment:

With the introduction of more smartphones and smarter phones, the mobile marketing industry is ramping up to reach the growing audience of wirelessly-connected consumers. Recently, Microsoft has released mobile banner ads in the US, and Google's Android platform will presumably try to develop increasingly innovative mobile ads for handsets as well. So the question becomes, will pop-up ads become even more frustrating as they migrate to mobile devices? Or can the mobile industry actually avoid annoying advertisements -- and provide useful, targeted ads instead? How do you think mobile ads will evolve? What kind of ads would you like to see? What kind of ads do you want to see die?

There's been plenty of attention paid to Facebook's new Beacon advertising system -- much of it negative. People became reasonably upset over what they saw as intrusive and unwanted sharing of information concerning things such as purchases. Many brands have since backed away from Beacon. However, Facebook has made a number of changes to the program, making it possible to opt-out entirely and making sure that people clearly had control over what information is posted and what is not.

Now that those changes are in place, does it make sense for a consumer-facing company to sign on to Beacon -- or has the program forever been tarnished? How should we approach using Beacon? In an ideal world, we would like for it to be a way for fans of our products to pass on effective "endorsements" of the product, but we do not want to be seen as doing something intrusive or upsetting. If not Beacon, is there a better way to do this either within Facebook or through a different platform?

As a mobile application development team, we're trying to understand how to bring social networking to mobile in a useful manner. To date, there have either been weak mobile versions of existing social networks, or simple tools like Dodgeball. What we're looking to do is build something that is more comprehensive and useful, that takes advantage of the fact that a person is mobile (while also understanding the limitation of mobile platforms). We're not against building this on top of an existing network (via Open Social or Facebook's platform), but don't want to be locked in either. We have our own ideas, but are looking for advice from the community on which areas to prioritize of focus on.

The wireless technology landscape is rapidly changing in the US. Verizon Wireless is opening up and moving to LTE. Google is bidding on spectrum and invading the mobile OS business. Apple has become a massive player in the device space. Sprint is searching for a strategy. There are a lot of big changes happening.

Everyone's talking about how this will impact these big players, but we're interested in how this will filter through down the line from a financial perspective. Which suppliers/vendors/customers/retailers/partners are likely to benefit from these changes and how? We're looking for concrete examples (i.e., Lucent will benefit because everyone will need its equipment or Wal-Mart will benefit because it will be able to squeeze even more margins) with backed up explanations.

LetsTalk's PhoneTalk blog wants to add new voices to its website, and they're posting regular Cases here for the Techdirt Insight Community to add interesting new content to their site. The winning submissions for each Challenge Case will be posted (perhaps with some editing) on the PhoneTalk blog -- with credits to the author. The following is LetsTalk's next assignment:

There's been a lot of announcements in the past few months that could potentially change the cell phone industry (ie Android, Verizon announcement) What do you think will be the biggest changes next year in the cell phone industry for consumers? Will it be more cell phone choices? Will consumers demand more control over their cell phone options? Will it really make any difference at all - if not, why? Do you think we'll see a difference in how plans and phones are marketed to consumers? Also, address what you would hope these announcements will mean for consumers when they're shopping for phone/plan in the future?

Note: The top insights for this issue will be selected as they are submitted. So there is no exact deadline for submissions, but the earlier you submit, the earlier LetsTalk can review your work. For example, it's possible that LetsTalk may select the first three entries. However, no submissions will be accepted after the expiration date.

When the subprime crunch hit the mortgage industry, there were some who felt that it would be a good thing for tech stocks, as investors would start to park their money in the tech world again. Everyone knew it could still directly impact some firms that had financial exposure, such as the troubles E*Trade is now experiencing. However, it certainly comes as a surprise to many to hear that EchoStar, provider of the DISH Network satellite TV service, is facing increasing churn due to the subprime mess. Since EchoStar often targeted the low end of the market, the feeling is that its customers may be disproportionately hit by foreclosures and subprime-related issues.

This could serve as a proxy for other "hidden" subprime problem tech companies. Are there other publicly traded companies who most people wouldn't normally associate with mortgages who may be impacted by the trouble in the mortgage industry? For each company you name, please describe why you think they're likely to be impacted by the troubles in the mortgage industry.

An Australian food products company is thinking about how Web 2.0 and social media applies to their business. We've seen brand-oriented campaigns such as the Dove real beauty or the Heinz MySpace campaigns. That is not what they are asking about. They are more interested in how they can use these technologies or platforms to derive long term value and relationships with their customers. Focus your thoughts around Facebook, blogs, the Metaverse (Second Life), and mobile platforms -- although you don't have to limit yourself to those if you have other ideas. Think about a time frame that encompasses the present to 3-5 years out. What should a brand-oriented food products company be doing to drive value from Web 2.0?

Background on the company:
Limited online presence now consists primarily of a static corporate web site. They are generally considered #1 or #2 in their market - products consist of a range of shelf stable (not in the chiller/fridge) sauces and condiments that people cook with/eat with. (think pasta sauces, ketchup, etc.)

LetsTalk's PhoneTalk blog wants to add new voices to its website, and they're posting regular Cases here for the Techdirt Insight Community to add interesting new content to their site. The winning submissions for each Challenge Case will be posted (perhaps with some editing) on the PhoneTalk blog -- with credits to the author. The following is LetsTalk's next assignment:

While multitouch displays on mobile devices have been getting a lot of attention recently, voice interfaces are also on the rise. Services like 1-800-FREE411, 1-800-CALL411, and 1-800-GOOG411 (to name just a few) aim to provide speech-based services for mobile phones. The accuracy of automated speech recognition is obviously not perfect, but it is improving. Besides the accuracy issue, though, why isn't speech a more popular interface? What speech-based apps or services do you find particularly useful for your mobile phone? Will speech recognition ever become a truly mainstream interface? What will be the killer app for speech recognition? Do you use any speech services now? If not, what would get you to try one?

LetsTalk's PhoneTalk blog wants to add new voices to its website, and they're posting regular Cases here for the Techdirt Insight Community to add interesting new content to their site. The winning submissions for each Challenge Case will be posted (perhaps with some editing) on the PhoneTalk blog -- with credits to the author. The following is LetsTalk's next assignment:

Traditional landlines are facing ever-growing competition with Voice-over-IP (VoIP) services such as Skype, the Gizmo Project and Vonage (to name just a few). But what about mobile VoIP? As mobile devices adopt more versatile wireless technologies, it will presumably become increasingly easy to bypass traditional cellular networks. The 3Skypephone offers a handset designed for mobile VoIP, but there are also various ways to get Skype on the iPhone, BlackBerry RIM, Windows Mobile Pocket PC, Palm OS, Symbian and J2ME devices. So what has to happen before mobile VoIP becomes truly mainstream? How should wireless operators support mobile VoIP? Or how can they defend their networks? And how will the average consumer discover mobile VoIP?