• Data protection provider Nasuni has been testing the internet’s 16 largest cloud storage providers since April 2009, and Amazon’s S3 Simple Storage Service beat out everyone else in the field when it came to performance (speed), stability and availability, and scalability (capacity). Only six of the 16 “passed” the test (Amazon, Microsoft, Nirvanix, Rackspace, AT&T Synaptic and Peer 1 Hosting). Microsoft Azure made a strong showing alongside Amazon (in fact, the study found Microsoft to be slightly faster than Amazon), but the victor had, according to Nasuni’s report, ”the fewest outages and best uptime, and was the only CSP to post a 0.0 percent error rate in both writing and reading objects during scalability testing.” Click here for the full report.

• On Friday, we reported the U.S. Justice Department was delaying its antitrust case against AT&T, further frustrating the company’s efforts to acquire T-Mobile, and today the two telecom companies have joined the Justice Department in requesting a federal judge make such a delay. This is perhaps unexpected, because AT&T had argued for a quick resolution up until Friday. The two telecoms are expected to file a report by Jan. 12 explaining their plans for any proposed acquisition, and they’ve asked for a conference to gauge any further legal proceedings on Jan. 18.

• Just as we’ve published Peter Koeppel’s analysis of how Netflix damaged its goodwill among subscribers (and lost valuable market share) in 2011, there are rumors from anonymous sources that Verizon might have expressed interest in acquiring the troubled video service. Verizon reportedly wants to launch a streaming video service and would rather pick up one that already exists than develop its own. The rumors, at the very least, boosted Netflix stock value.

• As part of a collection of predictions for 2012, AdExchanger quotes American Association of Advertising Agencies (4As) president Nancy Hill as speculating, “I think we will finally see agencies reaping the benefits of behaving more like Silicon Valley than Madison Avenue… We are seeing true partnerships form that gives everyone the ability to look at a problem from many points of view. Most of the start-up agencies over the last two years are built on this tenet and are flourishing nicely.”

ADOTAS

Mobile application enhancer Urban Airship raised $15.1 million in a Series C round that included salesforce.com and Verizon as well as existing investors Foundry Group and True Ventures. Urban Airship’s funding total now sits at $21.6 million. Last week the company purchased SimpleGeo, a platform for building location-based mobile apps.

StarStar operator Zoove has introduced its first number for instant charitable giving — dialing **HERO (**4376) from a mobile device automatically contribute $10 to the Wounded Warrior Project, which offers support for both U.S. veterans and soldiers on active duty who were injured while in service.

Operative has been tapped by news outlet The Guardian to merge its print and digital ad businesses. Across its digital and print properties, The Operative.One platform will be the Guardian’s single system for sales, ad operations, billings and cross-platform product initiatives.

According to Technorati’s 2011 State of the Blogosphere and Social Media Report, two-thirds of bloggers are writing about brands, but the communication between the two parties sounds a bit icy: 60% of that group claim they are treated less professionally by brand representatives compared to traditional media while fewer than 20% think brands provide valuable information. Even worse, about 20% of bloggers say that brands are asking them to compromise their credibility or content standards.

Euclid Elements emerged from stealth with $5.8 million in from a Series A round of financing led by New Enterprise Associates with additional participations from Harrison Metal, Triple Point Capital and other investors. Cofounded by COO Scott Crosby (one of the main brains behind Google Analytics), Euclid’s “real-world” analytics allow brick and mortar retailers the ability to understand costumer behavior in a fashion similar to how online retailers analyze site visitors.

ADOTAS

Management did, however, send a nice email to customers, which included a prominent link to manage data collection. (Not being a Verizon customer, I can’t visit the link to see if there’s a full opt-out.) The privacy policy itself reads:

“We may combine this information in a manner that does not personally identify you and use it to prepare aggregated business and marketing reports that we may use ourselves or share with others for their use. We may also share location information with other companies in a way that does not personally identify you so that they may produce business and marketing reports. You have a choice about whether your information is included in these reports.”

Verizon’s announcement is at the heart of CNN’s coverage of wireless carriers’ use of mobile data for revenue purposes. “Your Phone Company Is Selling Your Personal Data,” is full of the hyper-paranoid sensationalism I typically expect from the likes of The Wall Street Journal, including headers like “Why Apple and Google Need to Stalk You.” (That’s similar to how Danzig needs your skulls.) As much I love copy editors, I can imagine they’re responsible for such language — a header is supposed to grab your attention, and what catches your eye more than phrases like .

It’s not that the article headline is untrue — all the wireless carriers drive revenue through data selling — it’s just that the tone of the piece makes it sound like carriers are running some kind of back-alley data-selling operation, whispering at passing advertisers things like: “Psss — wanna hit this chick with a cupcake coupon when she’s at the bakery? She’s there right now, hurry!” (There are ways to do that kind of couponing transparently and on an opt-in basis — through check-in services like Foursquare and third-party startups like LocalResponse.) That kind of rhetoric is ultimately distracting — the issue shouldn’t be about “privacy” but true consumer benefits for data sharing.

You shouldn’t be freaked out by Verizon’s announcement: unless you’re completely oblivious to the online data game, as soon as you turned on your smartphone, you should have figured your browsing data, app usage and location data was being monitored/collected by your wireless company. Anyway, it’s included in the privacy policies of all the major U.S. carriers, though Verizon seems to be the only company with an easily identifiable opt-out link, which might make it the most consumer-friendly national carrier. (However, just like “Internet privacy,” “consumer-friendly wireless carrier” feels like a royal oxymoron.)

Sure, Verizon could try to get you not to opt out (is that a double negative?) by selling you on the consumer benefits of more relevant advertising guided by its marketing reports, but that’s like trying to boast about the new air freshener included in the sale of a 20-year-old car.

It’s consumer data that Verizon is gaining revenue from, so why don’t they pass it back to consumers? For example, a cheaper data plan if you agree to let your data be collected. Not only is that fair, I bet it can win Verizon some switch overs from carriers that currently offer their users no way (or at least no easy way) to opt out.

Not only would the above transaction be transparent, it would be opt in. It’s about consumers realizing the value of their data and taking control — as well as businesses empowering their customers. It’s something Internet maven Esther Dyson has been suggesting for a while.

Hey, you know who else gets revenue by selling your personal information? The federal government and state governments. Just putting it out there.

Arguably, Google’s chief competition in the digital wallet game is Isis. Initially a partnership between AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon to build a mobile commerce solution through Discover Financial Systems (thereby edging out major credit card companies like MasterCard and Visa) that included NFC-based mobile payment systems for retailers, Isis actually partnered with MasterCard and Visa and lowered its ambitions to just being a digital wallet following Google’s launch of Wallet. Even those plans seemed up in the air as Google was reportedly trying to woo over AT&T and T-Mobile. (Are they the same company yet or what? I’m expecting slightly better wireless service any day now.)

However, Bloomberg reports that the three (two?) wireless carriers are about to dump $100 million into Isis. In addition to enabling mobile payments, the service would also let consumers receive and redeem coupons on their mobile devices.

In going up against Google, Isis’ chief advantage is that it has the right members and partners. Google Wallet is so far limited to Sprint and the NFC-enabled Nexus S phone on the mobile side and Citibank and Visa for financial. Still, Wallet is set to launch next month, while goodness knows what kind of technology infrastructure Isis is working with.

Still, I have a sneaking suspicion that Google Wallet and Isis will eventually join forces to become the dominant digital wallet solution… Though I wonder if all these big shoulders in the mobile commerce space will rub against each other a little too much. Perhaps if the revenue is flowing, that won’t matter.

In a witty column about this anniversary, veteran journalist Bob Greene shares that a mobile phone interview recently conducted with the 82-year-old Cooper was rendered useless by a lousy connection. My, how far we’ve come.

Smartphones are light years from the bulky mobile devices of yore, but users still bear the burden of carrier networks. As the Android/iPhone horse race remains too close to call, it’s curious to see if network speed will trump operating system concerns.

The latest interesting tidbit comes from a BTIG researcher who called up 150 Verizon stores to see what was selling faster: the iPhone or the new HTC Thunderbolt, launched two weeks ago on Verizon’s 4G LTE network. While 61% said the two were tied, 28% said the Thunderbolt was selling better, opposed to 21% that said the iPhone was the better seller.

A better analysis would come from examining Thunderbolt sales against the first two weeks of Verizon iPhone sales, but this is an interesting trend to follow — will mobile user thirst for speedier networks preempt operating system in importance?

Of course they will, AT&T execs said during an investor call this morning– take a look at all these charts that show why. However, Greg Sterling at Search Engine Land counters that this merger would make Google’s acquisition of flight info software maker ITA – which currently has the DOJ in a tizzy — look “trivial.”

Last-place U.S. wireless carrier Sprint — who had reportedly been chatting about merging with T-Mobile — isn’t happy about this. What bad news, when the company just announced it had gained subscribers for a change!

“If approved, the merger would result in a wireless industry dominated overwhelmingly by two vertically-integrated companies that control almost 80% of the US wireless post-paid market, as well as the availability and price of key inputs such as backhaul and access needed by other wireless companies to compete,” Sprint said in a statement. “The DOJ and the FCC must decide if this transaction is in the best interest of consumers and the US economy overall, and determine if innovation and robust competition would be impacted adversely by this dramatic change in the structure of the industry.”

Sprint had its own news, announcing its new BFF was Google — Sprint will not only offer the 4G-enabled, NFC-loaded Google Nexus S, but also integrate the Google Voice message service across its network. Man, why don’t the two just jump in the sack already? Well, they could, but Google with its own wireless carrier? Seems like the DOJ and FCC would squash that idea before it could even be pondered.

Instead Dan Frommer at Business Insider suggests Verizon — which would definitely raise regulatory eyebrows — or Comcast could make a deal with the long-struggling Sprint.

Either move would buoy John Biggs’ claim on MobileCrunch that we’ve entered the post-carrier utopia, or we’re getting close: carriers are “still making plenty of money for wildly subpar service they’re still charging us out the jacksy, but they’ve finally met their match and maybe that’s the first step in improving this nation’s telecoms infrastructure.” He notes that Sprint’s Google partnership is pretty a much surrender of its network.

If you consider the carriers a languishing roadblock to mobile progress, the shakeup means the U.S. consumer embrace of smartphones and the mobile web will grow at an even faster rate. Reportedly, the iPhone won’t be coming immediately to T-Mobile, but when it does it will certainly increase the presence of Apple’s device.

As for the advertising industry, the possibilities in this space still appear limitless — there’s plenty of room mobile ad networks, ad exchanges and video tech companies. However, security and privacy researcher Christoper Soghoian does note a loss on the privacy front – T-Mobile’s data retention policy was the only one of the four major U.S. carriers that promised that no customer IP logs were retained.

Though the companies remained tight-lipped, Sources told the business newswire that Google will thousands of VeriFone Systems’ cash-register components at retail locations across these cities to  enable payments via mobile phones endowed with NFC — users will be able to pay at retail stores with a wave of their phones.

Launched in December, Google’s Nexus S smartphone is loaded with NFC hardware and Gingerbread, the latest version of the Android mobile OS that boasts an open-source NFC software stack. Bloomberg reports that Google will be able to source multiple payment and discount resources — including bank accounts, credit cards, discount and loyalty programs and/or gift certificates — from a single mobile device.

This new program would put Google in direct competition with eBay’s PayPal and ISIS — a partnership between AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon using Discover Financial Systems — which are also building NFC-based mobile payment systems for retailers.

However, it looks like Android mobile users will be the only ones able to use these (well, maybe BlackBerry and Windows Phone 7 users too, depending on development), as wireless carriers in the United Kingdom have learned the next generation of iPhone (either the 4GS or the iPhone 5) to be introduced this year will not support NFC. Apple pooh-poohed the tech over the lack of industry standards for NFC — which probably means Apple will appoint/create its own standard.

The only drag is that the Verizon iPhone will run on 3G network, not 4G LTE (Verizon is citing Apple’s unwillingness to make design compromises — huge shocker). Also, an iPhone 5 is likely to be introduced this summer — but can you really make Verizon subscribers wait that much longer?

Many New Yorkers like myself who curse the AT&T’s constantly clogged 3G network are giddy with thoughts of the wireless carrier crumbling in the face of a Verizon iPhone. But more important, what does this development mean for Android?

Verizon is the largest U.S. carrier, slightly edging out AT&T — the potential iPhone user base more than doubles.  Analysis late last year suggested that Verizon’s Android-powered device sales could not compete with AT&T’s iPhone sales. However, comScore reported that Android smartphone subscriptions overtook iPhone subscriptions in November.

The Verizon deals means we’ll finally see iOS and Android in a true horse race — who would you put your money on? It’s a big deal from a mobile advertiser’s perspective — do you go with a multiplatform mobile campaign from an indie mobile network orGoogle-AdMob, or do you pony up the money (and possibly bend over) for an iAd campaign?

But it seems the U.S. is still the iPhone’s market to lose according to analysis by Asymco’s Horace Dediu, as iPhones at AT&T outsold Android units at chief competitor by a factor of 2.5 during the first and second quarter of 2010.

It’s pretty reasonable to compare the sales of the two American wireless giants: Verizon has 92.1 million subscribers while AT&T has 90.1 million. Together, Verizon and AT&T account for 75% of mobile data revenue and 62% of U.S. wireless users.

The Verizon sales data comes from ITG Investment Research, which employs Verizon smartphone sales data collected from thousands of independent wireless retailers. Verizon smartphone volume during the first two quarters (which includes BlackBerry and Palm devices) grew from 2.7 million to 3.3 million, but iPhone sales volume increased from 2.7 million to 5.3 million.

So it looks like the release of the iPhone 4 (Antennagate and all) really shot sales into stratosphere. Deidu argues that Android simply can’t compete, and suggests an internal realization of that encouraged Verizon to pursue the iPhone again.

Once the iPhone 4 arrives at Verizon (rumored to happen early next year) it’s bound to eat even further into U.S. Android sales. While this certainly doesn’t mean that Android is dead in the water, it appears the Google OS will not steal the smartphone crown from iPhone anytime soon. How much for an iAd again?

Hey, let’s add a little insult to the injury Microsoft felt with the failure of the Kin earlier this year: apparently Verizon is not planning on selling a Windows Phone 7 when it launches this year.

A Verizon spokeswoman told Bloomberg Businessweek that the biggest carrier in the U.S. won’t have any Microsoft-powered phones until 2011, even though the updated OS is launching during the 2010 holiday season. Verizon infamously kicked Microsoft’s Kin to the curb earlier this year after two months of lethargic sales.

“Together with our hardware and mobile operator partners, we look forward to bringing Window Phone 7 to market this holiday,” said Microsoft Senior Product Manager Greg Sullivan in a statement. “Verizon continues to be a key Windows Phone partner going forward.”

In effect, Microsoft has decided to delay CDMA Windows Phone 7 handsets until 2011, meaning that the U.S. launch of the revamped OS will be limited to GSM carriers AT&T and T-Mobile.

According to comScore, Microsoft’s OS share of smartphones decreased from 14% to 11.8% from April to July.