Tech hotshots: The rise of the IT business analyst
The hottest job in IT right now might be the least "T" of them all: business analyst.
Tech purists may shudder -- is it the revenge of the suits? -- but 23% of the IT executive respondents to Computerworld's Forecast 2012 survey said they planned to hire for business analytics skills in the next 12 months, up from 13% in the previous year's survey.
"IT business analyst" was also rated one of the country's top 12 jobs to pursue last year by Money Magazine, which listed median pay for that position at $83,100. Computerworld's Salary Survey 2012 listed an average total compensation for IT technology/business system analysts at $84,376, up 1.4% from 2011. Read more...
Should Websites Charge A Fee To Process Copyright Takedowns?
Every day copyright holders send out countless notices which order BitTorrent indexes, cyberlockers, forums, blogs and search engines to remove links to allegedly infringing content. The process is time consuming for everyone involved. So, since time is money, shouldn’t those being burdened by the actions of third parties be compensated for their work? One anti-piracy company says charging for takedowns amounts to extortion.
The publication last week of Google’s Transparency Report gave us a clearer idea of the pressures the search engine is under from copyright holders. The report revealed that in a single month Google was asked to take down an astonishing 1.2m links to allegedly infringing material. Read more...
H-1B workers are better paid, more educated, study finds
H-1B workers are better educated than U.S. born workers and earn more, according to a new study by an independent research group.
The report by two economists at the non-partisan Public Policy Institute of California, also found that, on average, H-1B workers are about 10 years younger than U.S. born workers.
The report's findings concerning pay indirectly challenge beliefs about the H-1B program held by backers like Alan Greenspan, former chairman of the Federal Reserve.
In a recent column in the Financial Times, Greenspan argued that restrictions on the H-1B program protect "many high earners from skilled migrant competitors." He called the H-1B program "a subsidy for the wealthy," meaning well-paid IT workers.
Greenspan has previously called for raising the visa cap. Read more...
Is freemium the answer to making apps pay?
Ask any mobile developer: getting smartphone users to pay for apps isn't easy - and it's only going to get harder, according to analyst IHS Screen Digest. Developers need to turn their attention to making money from in-app purchases, which it said are on the rise.
The analyst said the freemium business model, where apps are free at the point of download but charge a fee for new content, will soon be the dominate smartphone apps business model.
IHS Screen Digest reckons in-app purchases will rise to account for well over half (64 per cent) of total app market revenue in 2015, up from just over a third (39 per cent) last year, while revenue from in-app purchases will swell to $5.6bn in 2015, up from $970m in 2011. The data comes from its Mobile Media Intelligence Service.
"Smartphone users overwhelmingly prefer free apps to paid apps, as we estimate 96 per cent of all smartphone apps were downloaded for free in 2011," said Jack Kent, senior analyst, mobile media for IHS, in a statement.
"In 2012, it will become increasingly difficult for app stores and developers to justify charging an upfront fee for their products when faced with competition from a plethora of free content. Instead, the apps industry must fully embrace the freemium model and monetise content through in-app purchases."
By the end of the third quarter of 2011, free-to-download apps already represented close to half (45 per cent) of the top-grossing US iPhone apps, according to IHS Screen Digest, as well as almost a third (31 per cent) of the highest-earning US Android Market apps. The analyst calculates that a substantial majority (68 per cent) of the top-grossing US apps featured some form of additional content or functionality unlocked by an in-app purchase. Read more...