That’s the theory put forth today by Bernstein analyst Toni Sacconaghi, who believes Apple’s market-share aspirations for the iPhone are a lot like those for its iPod business. Sacconaghi sees an iPhone Nano or Mini as an inevitability, one that would dramatically expand Apple’s addressable market.

“We are surprised that Apple hasn’t moved sooner to introduce a lower priced offering that could help secure a more dominant installed base,” Sacconaghi said in a note to clients today. “After all, the smartphone world is a platform war, where first mover advantage and scale matters. The dual facts that (1) iPhone has not been available at several very important global carriers and that (2) it carries a very high price point have contributed to creating an opportunity for Android that has been successfully exploited. Particularly with Android now outselling iOS, the imperative for Apple to expand its installed base has never been higher.”

A scaled-down version of the iPhone with a cheaper data plan–or one that required no data plan at all–is one very obvious way of doing that. Roll out a device like that with a street price that falls somewhere between $149 and $199, says Sacconaghi, bring it those carriers that don’t yet offer the iPhone, and mass-market adoption will follow. Serious mass-market adoption.

“It is difficult to estimate the size of a market for a product that we don’t yet know the form-factor or timing for. But as a rough guide, we estimate that at an end-user price of $150-$200 and no data plan contract, Apple could address potentially all of the remaining smartphone segment, the non-smartphone postpaid segment, and about 15 percent of the non-smartphone prepaid segment. This would amount to an incremental 700M+ units and $90 billion in revenue in terms of market opportunity; even if Apple succeeded in capturing just 5 percent of these incremental units, it would add $12+ billion in revenues and $4.50+ in EPS.”

That leaves legacy apps like Hulu Plus, Netflix, Amazon, Rhapsody and others a little over four months to implement an in-app purchasing mechanism–assuming they can come to terms with the thought of handing Apple a 30 percent cut on subscriptions.

Reached for comment, Hulu declined to give one. Netflix and the others haven’t yet responded to our requests.

Today the the CTIA, the wireless industry trade organization, got behind the president’s plan in a big way, and suggested that the proposed spectrum auctions could bring in billions of dollars more than the president said. Using data from 13 prior spectrum auctions as a model, the organization today released the findings of a study conducted in partnership with the Consumer Electronics Association saying that an auction of 120 MHz worth of spectrum could produce revenue in the range of $36 billion to $48 billion.

The study also found that only in the top 30 markets in the continental United States will TV stations actually have to exit certain spectrum ranges to clear up sufficient spectrum for wireless broadband. In most cases, TV broadcasters will probably be satisfied with incentive auctions that give them some portion of the proceeds raised from the auctions. In a few cases it will be trickier, and the study suggests a few options like channel-sharing and repacking. Broadcasters outside the top 30 markets should not have to give up any spectrum, the study says.

The point of the study, CTIA president Steve Largent told me, is to help nudge Congress toward passing a law that will allow the Federal Communications Commission to hold incentive auctions that can help spur TV broadcasters who currently have the licenses for the spectrum. So far, broadcasters have signaled that they’re not yet entirely willing to go along with this plan. “We think this can be relatively painless for the broadcasters, but it’s still going to take a lot of work at Congress and at the FCC to get it done,” Largent said.

That the wireless industry would be getting behind Obama’s plan is no surprise given their exploding spectrum needs for data services, so there is a bit of a grain-of-salt element to the study’s findings. However it’s also a solid signal that the wireless carriers are willing to bring serious cash to bear for spectrum, which is, generally speaking, good news for all concerned.

Broadcasters are understandably taking a cautious line. In a statement issued last week in response to Obama’s speech in Michigan, Dennis Wharton, executive vice president of the National Association of Broadcasters said, “Let’s not forget that broadcasters returned more than a quarter of TV station spectrum to the government less than two years ago, and that much of that spectrum has not yet been deployed. NAB is not against the President’s plan. We will work to ensure that incentive auctions remain truly voluntary, and that broadcasters who don’t volunteer to return spectrum–and the millions of viewers that we serve–are held harmless.”

A few key findings from the survey:

• People estimate they need 711 wireless anytime minutes per month, but in truth they need quite a bit less. BillShrink found 651 minutes to be the average.
• The average person uses 1,555 text messages per month, yet most consumers believe they use 2,566. (1,555 per-month is the average!?!)
• People assume they need 54MB of data per month, yet most need 81MB. Ironically, most tiered carrier plans start at 150MB.

What’s driving these disparities? Consumers’ skewed perception of their wireless needs, obviously. But the carriers are to blame too. Their tiered pricing plans might offer more choice, but they also make it tougher to assess our voice, text and data needs, and make it quite a bit easier to overpay for them.

We now know, though, that the company will offer a $30 unlimited data plan for the iPhone, similar to that offered for other 3G smartphones, although it still plans to move away from unlimited plans, so there is no telling how long the plan will last. Verizon also said it will charge the same price for the hotspot feature ($20 for 2GB) that it charges for most other smartphones that can act as a wireless hotspot. The hotspot feature is the main distinguishing characteristic of the Verizon iPhone, which in most other respects resembles its AT&T sibling. Even more details on service plan pricing were briefly available on Apple’s site, for those that want to check out voice plans and text messaging rates.

Verizon has also outlined its policies, including who is eligible for an upgrade and what its exchange policy will be for recently purchased devices.

There are still a few unknowns, such as the voice quality of the phone and how Verizon’s well-regarded network will hold up amid the crush of new iPhones hitting the network. And it likely will be a crush. Some analysts have predicted the company could sell 11 million iPhones out of the gate, something that the company on Tuesday’s earnings conference call said was a reasonable forecast.

A data-service pricing document leaked to Engadget suggests Verizon has scrapped its $15-for-150MB plan, leaving a mandatory $30-per-month unlimited data plan as the sole option for “feature phones and 3G smartphones” like the iPhone. Note the specificity of that designation–it excludes upcoming LTE handsets, which will presumably debut with higher, tiered data-pricing plans.

Meanwhile, rival AT&T continues to offer the iPhone with two capped data plans–200MB for $15 a month, and 2GB for $25.

[Image Credit: Engadget]

It’s the latest development in a shareholder lawsuit against HP in which the plaintiffs have alleged that HP’s board of directors let Hurd walk out the door with too much money when he resigned following accusations of sexual harassment by a onetime contractor. They’re seeking an order that would require Hurd to disgorge the payments he received as his severance deal.

The judge, James Ware, ignored Hurd’s argument that he deserves to see documents relating to the matter that so far HP has refused to share, though the ruling doesn’t address whether he’ll ultimately get to see them or not. Hurd had objected to a new investigation, saying he would agree to it only if he were to get copies of the initial demand letter from shareholders that led to the lawsuit, as well as related documents that are under seal in a separate shareholder case on the same issue that’s before the Delaware Court of Chancery. Ware scheduled a hearing on March 20 to hear an update on the investigation.

Hurd resigned from HP in August after accusations about sexual harassment arose from Jodie Fisher, a onetime actress and former HP contractor. He was found not to have violated HP’s sexual harassment policy, but was found to have violated HP’s expense-reporting policy. After leaving HP, he went on to become co-president of Oracle, after Oracle CEO Larry Ellison criticized HP’s board of directors for its handling of the incident.

Or, rather, how has it been responding? Because it’s clear the company has been preparing for this moment for some time. Last year, it accelerated upgrade eligibility for iPhone customers, making it easier for them to get the iPhone 4 when Apple released it. And it locked them all into two-year contracts in the process. And then, last week, it drastically reduced the price of the iPhone 3GS, halving it to $49 from $99.

Presumably, AT&T could follow this with additional pricing promotions that could further limit iPhone subscriber defections to Verizon, though at this point one could argue that it’s as well prepared for its loss of iPhone exclusivity as it will ever be.

Why? Two big reasons:

1. According to Piper Jaffray analyst Christopher Larsen, nearly 80 percent of AT&T iPhone users are currently on family or corporate plans, which makes switching to a new carrier a difficult proposition.
2. Approximately 75 percent of them still have at least a year left on their contracts.

And there’s a third wild-card reason as well: How Verizon’s network fares after a big influx of data-heavy iPhone subscribers. That’s tough to predict, but two analysts I’ve spoken with said they expect Verizon to suffer some network growing pains, though not as bad as the ones suffered by AT&T. Ultimately, Verizon is starting off with a better network, and CDMA is said to be a more spectrally efficient standard than UMTS.

So will there be some AT&T subscribers who switch to Verizon when it begins selling the iPhone? Certainly. But they may not be nearly as large in number as you might think.

“AT&T has done everything it can,” Needham and Co. analyst Charlie Wolf told me this morning. “The company locked in a lot of iPhone owners by waiving early termination fees last summer. It’s moved aggressively to add a bunch of BlackBerrys and Android phones. And it should be remembered that AT&T will continue to sell the iPhone. So I doubt that the loss of subscribers to Verizon will be that large. But it could be material as it pertains to the bragging rights between AT&T and Verizon. “

PREVIOUSLY:

• Why Verizon’s iPhone Won’t Be So Bad for RIM
• How Might the Verizon iPhone Differ From the iPhone 4 (Besides Being Able to Make Calls)?
• Tired: Speculating About Verizon iPhone. Wired: Speculating About Verizon iPhone Sales.
• Verizon iPhone to Debut With Unlimited Data Plan
• Apple CEO Likely to Appear at Verizon iPhone Event
• Verizon Event Set for Tuesday–iPhone Time

But only because those who speculated about the existence of a Verizon iPhone have been struck by a new monomania: Speculating about first-year Verizon iPhone sales numbers.

Indeed, the sales estimates are already rolling out, with the consensus so far hovering between nine million and 12 milion.

“Some think 10 million is possible in the calendar year,” Wedge Partners analyst Brian Blair told me. “And I think it’s a reasonable assumption–not just because of what we’ve seen on AT&T but because you have three years of pent-up demand from users who are loyal to the Verizon network because of its coverage and reliability.”

Gleacher & Co. analyst Brian Marshall agrees, though he’s betting on sales hitting the top end of the range I mentioned.

“The iPhone on Verizon will sell 12 million units in calendar 2011 assuming there’s a ramp-up similar to the one AT&T experienced in 2007-2008 (i.e., 5 percent penetration of the postpaid subscriber base within five quarters of launch),” he told me, adding that AT&T will see a material decline in its iPhone sales as a result.

Taking a more conservative view of the iPhone’s prospects on Verizon is Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster, who expects Verizon to activate roughly 25 million smartphones in calendar 2011, of which nine million will be iPhones.

Barclays Capital analyst James Ratcliffe too is betting on that nine-million figure, and of those he expects approximately 500,000 to one million to be purchased by AT&T switchers. Said Ratcliffe, “We don’t believe that the addition of a Verizon iPhone will be a seismic event in the wireless competitive environment, although we do expect it to result in a modest spike in AT&T churn, as customers who love their iPhones but have become unhappy with AT&T’s network take advantage of the alternative.”

PREVIOUSLY:

• Verizon iPhone to Debut With Unlimited Data Plan
• Apple CEO Likely to Appear at Verizon iPhone Event
• Verizon Event Set for Tuesday–iPhone Time

Here’s one way: By offering it with a wireless service plan free of the data caps used by AT&T.

Sources close to Verizon tell me the carrier will offer the iPhone with an unlimited data plan (presumably the same $30 unlimited plan it offers for other smartphones)–though they wouldn’t say for how long. That should distinguish it a bit more from the iPhone on AT&T, which requires a capped plan for data service.

Not that such differences worry AT&T any. “We think customers will prefer AT&T’s faster speeds and better functionality over a CDMA network device,” a spokesperson told me. And he has a point. AT&T’s UMTS network allows the use of data and voice simultaneously. Verizon’s CMDA network doesn’t–at least not yet. So, initially, Verizon iPhone users won’t be able to use the Web or check email while on a call–something AT&T iPhone users have long been able to do.

All Things D reported Friday that the special event Verizon is holding in New York Tuesday will be the carrier’s long-rumored iPhone announcement.

PREVIOUSLY:

• Apple CEO Likely to Appear at Verizon iPhone Event
• Verizon Event Set for Tuesday–iPhone Time

Oh. That’s right. There are plenty of those already (Rhapsody, Napster, MOG, Rdio, Thumbplay, Spotify, etc.), though none of them have ever really broken through in a mainstream way.

Still, here’s one more: “Music Unlimited” from Sony, which launches in the U.K. and Ireland today, and is supposed to go worldwide next year.

In short, it appears to be like every other subscription service on the market, only much more limited.

That’s because while Sony gives customers access to some six million songs, via cloud-based streaming, it doesn’t allow them to take their music with them, on their phones.

That’s supposed to change eventually, but even when it does, Sony isn’t promising you’ll be able to listen to your tunes on an iPhone. A press release simply says the service “will also become available on a wide range of Sony’s portable devices, as well as on [Google's] Android-based mobile devices.”

And to be clear, it’s not as if Sony is giving this stuff away: It wants the same 10 pounds a month for its ”Premium” plan that Spotify charges its U.K. customers. And again, to beat this into the ground: Spotify lets you listen to whatever you want on your phone–that’s pretty much the whole point of these things.

If you’re still reading, you may want to click through to this AP story, in which Sony tries to argue that this is the kind of thing that will help it compete with Apple again. Personally, I think you’re better off looking at pictures of vintage Walkmans.

When Sprint CEO Dan Hesse joined the company three years ago, the third-largest carrier was bleeding subscribers from having a poor reputation for customer service and facing stiff competition from the likes of AT&T, which holds the exclusive on the iPhone.

Since then, Sprint has stemmed the losses, mostly by beefing up its customer service and by investing in the prepaid sector to attract a wider audience during the economic downturn. Going forward, Sprint looks to its 4G strategy for growth through its ownership stake in WiMax-provider Clearwire. Next up, Hesse joins Walt Mossberg onstage.

3:45 pm: Walt welcomes Dan Hesse to the stage. You can’t have mobile without networks, says Walt. You’ve led the way on 4G; tell us about it.

3:46 pm: Dan: We are getting San Francisco up soon, and will have 120 million POPs by the end of the year, or about a third of the country.

He explains what 4G is: 3G for was email and Web pages, but 4G is for multimedia and video.

The best analogy is that 4G is the wide open freeway vs. an interstate that provides the same speeds, but you have to stop along the way.

3:48 pm: Walt: Why are you using WiMax when the two other carriers are using LTE?

Hesse: Back in 2008, we wanted to be first, and WiMax was available right now. (Lots to do with TDD, and other technical mumbo jumbo). Technically, there’s no difference. I can’t deny that LTE will be a bigger ecosystem, but we couldn’t wait. We thought the market was ready.

With the success of the iPhone, we thought it was ready now.

Walt: How much leadership did it give you?

Hesse: Well, it made Verizon move a lot faster….In 2010, we’ll have 120 million POPs, and the EVO and Epic (two 4G phones) have been really successful.

Walt: How successful?

Hesse: If you were to go to Clearwire’s wholesale numbers, you should think of Sprint’s lion’s share of the wholesale numbers.

Walt: Was it worth the investment?

Hesse: I think so.

3:53 pm: Hesse: 4G is one element of many.

Walt: You like Consumer Reports, unlike the guy here earlier [AT&T's Glenn Lurie].

Hesse: Sprint is the fastest growing brand of postpaid in the U.S.–not the Nextel brand, where we’ve been losing subscribers.

3:55 pm: Walt: Are you going to get the iPhone?

Hesse: Can’t say.

Walt: Would you like the iPhone?

Hesse: Under the right conditions, yes, I would. It’s a wonderful phone.

3:56 pm: Backing up a bit, Walt now asks about an industry trend toward tiered pricing for data plans, where the more you use, the more you pay.

Sprint hasn’t yet limited users’ traffic.

Hesse: Customers will pay a premium for simplicity. Even if it’s not in their best economic interest, they will go with the unlimited plan. We were the first to come out with truly unlimited text, voice and data with the Simply Everything plan.

3:59 pm: Walt: Are you not going to do tiered pricing?

Hesse: So far, we aren’t, he says, which gets a round of applause from the audience. But Sprint did up the cost of the unlimited plans of the most capable devices on the network.

4:00 pm: Walt: Unlimited means unlimited or doesn’t it?

Hesse: No, it doesn’t. What if they have the SlingBox streaming 24×7?

4:01 pm: Hesse: The trend is toward one plan for all of your devices, like tablets, phones, PCs, etc.

Walt: Are you going to offer plans for all those devices?

Hesse: We are thinking about it. That’s the next step to simplicity. Three years ago, it was about one device.

4:02 pm: Walt: People aren’t counting minutes, now they are counting megabytes and things people don’t understand.

Hesse: Something has to give; what’s going to be the form? Do you have meters, do you have tiers, do you increase the price of the unlimited plans?

Another option is to have a lot more spectrum available to add capacity at a lower cost.

Walt: Are you talking about taking away the spectrum that the elderly use to watch their TV?

Hesse: If more spectrum is available, you can use more frequencies, which is a lot less expensive than splitting cell sites and putting in more towers.

Walt: There’s some confusion about Clearwire. They are opening stores and selling laptops and modems. You own most of that company, and they are building your WiMax network. Why are they competing with you?

Hesse: I have a wholesale business that resells minutes to Leap, so it’s the same thing.

4:06 pm: Walt’s giving Hesse grief about the structure of the Clearwire deal. Despite Sprint owning roughly 54 percent of the company, Sprint doesn’t control the board.

Walt: Who did that deal?

Hesse: Two thumbs pointing at himself [me]. When you have this many owners of the company, we can’t agree.

4:08 pm: Walt: What’s the value of 4G?

Hesse: The experience is really fast, and we offer unlimited plans on 4G. There’s a five-gigabyte cap on 3G, but 4G is completely unlimited.

Walt’s curious if 4G is really life-changing and transformative. Sprint’s beating the other guys by 2x, not 10x or 20x.

Hesse: My son showed me his speed test on his EVO at home, and it was over 8 mbps, so it depends.

4:11 pm: Questions from the audience. The Seattle Times’ Brier Dudley asks about the potential deal between Clearwire and T-Mobile, which may be falling apart because of Clearwire’s recent $1 billion in debt that it has raised.

Hesse deflects the question despite several reports to the contrary, by saying he didn’t know anything about that.

Another audience question: What’s your stance on network neutrality?

Hesse: The FCC has come out with a proposal, and we are very supportive of it.

It’s the third time this fall the company has talked up a Web-only service. And each time it does so it excites some of you who… really like the idea of not using DVDs.

The rest of you? You may be underwhelmed.

The big caveat here is we don’t know what Netflix plans to offer. But my hunch is the company won’t be able to offer a streaming-only option at a significant discount to its most popular $8.99-a-month plan, which also lets you stream unlimited video–and allows you to check out any DVD you want.

Note that:

• The streaming-only service the company launched in Canada this year costs $7.99 a month.
• Netflix has been testing the same service, at the same price, in the U.S. this fall.
• Even though the Netflix streaming-only option only offers about 20 percent of the catalog available on its traditional DVD rental service, the company is paying big money for that catalog. Netflix has already racked up a $1.2 billion digital content bill, which could grow to $2 billion next year.

Netflix has also been testing out a price increase for its $8.99  streaming + disc plan, to $9.99 a month. Perhaps that’s to make the $7.99 option appear that much more attractive ($7.99 also happens to be the new price for Netflix competitor Hulu Plus).

And perhaps $7.99 will be just fine for people who don’t want to deal with discs and envelopes and mailboxes, and want instant video whenever they want it. Even if they can’t get everything they want.

In any case, this could all be moot. While I haven’t seen any reports of a streaming-only option priced below $7.99, Netflix has said it has run “many” tests. So perhaps it has a trick up its sleeve.

For giggles, I asked Netflix PR guy Steve Swasey what he could tell me. His response: “Stay tuned!”

Fair enough. I assume that “shortly” means “in time for the Christmas shopping season, when people start buying shiny new TVs and gadgets that work well with Netflix streaming.” And that kicks off on Black Friday–just eight days away.

Sprint will sell the device for $399.99 in exchange for a two-year commitment to a data service plan. Sprint will begin selling the Galaxy Tab on Nov. 14, three days after Verizon Wireless.

Verizon Wireless said last week it would sell the device for $599.99, but offered a prepaid data plan without the requirement for a contract.

For any mobile product, getting the proper marketing and subsidy support from a carrier is crucial to a successful launch. A subsidized device can dull much of the sticker shock that comes from seeing the actual retail prices. Carriers are willing to offer a discount because they can lock customers into multi-year service agreements.

Verizon Wireless’s decision to sell the product without a subsidy had some industry analysts speculating that it wouldn’t fare well against the iPad, which the carrier also plans to sell for as little as $629.99.

Read the rest of this post on the original site

Apple (AAPL) still has an exclusive wireless relationship with AT&T, but Verizon will step around that hurdle by bundling the Wi-Fi version of Apple’s tablet with its own wireless MiFi hotspot device. It will sell an iPad-specific wireless plan that will give users a gigabyte of data for $20 a month.

Verizon (VZ) will also sell Wi-Fi iPads without a wireless bundle; sales begin October 28. Meanwhile, it hasn’t abandoned AT&T (T), and will begin selling its tablets through that carrier’s stores on the same date.

Jimmy Pitaro, who is leaving his job running the powerful media properties at Yahoo (YHOO), has taken a job as co-president of Disney Interactive Media Group, with John Pleasants.

Pleasants was CEO of Playdom, the online game company that Disney acquired for $763 million in late July.

(Both are pictured here, with Pleasants on the left and Pitaro on the right.)

The appointment of the pair, both of whom will report to Disney (DIS) President and CEO Robert Iger, is a big move by the entertainment giant.

And it looks like another large-scale attempt to clarify and bolster its Web strategy, which has had a long and often rocky history, and is the first major reset under Iger.

It is also against a backdrop of financial losses. In its most recent quarter, for example, DIMG lost $65 million on revenue of $197 million.

“I think we’ve built a framework of assets, and now is the time to create a structure in a more focused way,” said Iger in an interview this morning with BoomTown. “In splitting the divisions, we can focus more on them better and in a way they deserve.”

He outlined the new set-up, which will have Pleasants focus on the online gaming and mobile landscape and Pitaro on the Web and online advertising arenas. Iger said he felt Pleasants and Pitaro brought different backgrounds to the task, as well as longtime experience in the Internet arena.

Disney will need that going forward.

Under the previous regime of former CEO Michael Eisner, for example, Disney bought search engine Infoseek and tried to create a portal called Go.com. That failed, and was one of many efforts to define the media company’s Web goals.

More recently in 2008, Disney gathered most of its Internet properties within DIMG, under Steve Wadsworth. He recently stepped down from his job.

Today, Disney owns a number of big Internet properties, including Disney.com, Family.com and Club Penguin, although there does not seem to be a particularly cohesive or profitable strategy among them.

Of course, that’s not a surprise, given they are part of a multifaceted media company with a variety of businesses.

Because of those powerful content assets, in fact, now might be a perfect time for a more cogent plan. With the explosion of devices, such as the Apple (AAPL) iPad and others, the importance of cooperation between content and technology is more critical than ever.

News of the appointments of Pitaro and Pleasants was rumored earlier this week by Silicon Alley Insider and the Hollywood Reporter.

As an interesting aside, Iger said that he was introduced to Pitaro via Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg, as well as her husband, David Goldberg. Sandberg is now on the board of Disney, and Pitaro came to Yahoo via Launch Media, which was co-founded by Goldberg.

More to come, obviously, but here is the official press release from Disney:

JOHN PLEASANTS, JAMES PITARO NAMED CO-PRESIDENTS,
DISNEY INTERACTIVE MEDIA GROUP

BURBANK, Calif., October 3, 2010–John Pleasants and James Pitaro have been named Co-Presidents, Disney Interactive Media Group (DIMG), it was announced today by Disney President and CEO Robert A. Iger.

John Pleasants, a well-respected new media executive whose career has included top jobs at digital commerce and game companies, will lead Disney’s multi-faceted digital games businesses, including online, console, social and mobile. He will also continue to run Playdom, the fast-growing social games publishing company acquired by Disney earlier this year.

James Pitaro, an experienced Internet executive known for consistently delivering great branded web experiences to consumers, will oversee Disney Online, the home of Disney branded web and social media sites.

The new structure at DIMG is intended to enhance the strategic focus and responsiveness of the company’s digital games and Disney Online businesses in a marketplace characterized by swiftly evolving consumer behavior and technologies. The structure is designed so that the two businesses can share consumer insights and technological resources and jointly take advantage of growth opportunities.

“Our rapidly growing Disney digital businesses will benefit greatly from the deep experience and distinct leadership skills shown by John and Jimmy,” Iger said. “John has shown incredible agility and skill in helping companies achieve success in the ever-shifting digital games business, while Jimmy has vast knowledge of the online world and has been hugely successful at creating and building audiences around branded online content.”

“Both have outstanding track records in anticipating trends and delivering to consumers creative, innovative and successful experiences and products,” Iger added. “As Co-Presidents, I’m confident they will make Disney’s digital content and businesses even more robust and successful.”

Pleasants, who will be based in the Bay Area, will oversee Disney’s overall games strategy and its global network of game development studios, including recently acquired mobile publisher Tapulous. The games group will include such popular online virtual worlds as Club Penguin and World of Cars as well as console and mobile titles.

Prior to joining Playdom as CEO in June 2009, he was President of Global Publishing and Chief Operating Officer of Electronic Arts Inc., where he led the company’s online and mobile business units and its strategic expansion into online and social games. He previously served as President and CEO of Revolution Health and CEO of Ticketmaster, which included Match.com, CitySearch.com and Evite.com.

“I am extremely excited to be working with the DIMG team, and our colleagues across Disney, to advance the mission of enlivening people everywhere through the world’s best interactive entertainment,” Pleasants said. “Bob’s vision and commitment to excellence in new media positions our organization to achieve great things.”

In leading Disney Online, Pitaro will be responsible for enhancing the consumer experience on the company’s numerous Disney-branded web and social media sites, including Disney.com, the number one global site for kids and families, and Family.com. Pitaro will also oversee Disney’s social media marketing agency, DigiSynd.

Pitaro joins Disney from Yahoo! Inc. where he was Vice President and Head of Media. In that role, he significantly expanded Yahoo!’s original video, branded entertainment and editorial content and pioneered using data to enhance the consumer web experience. Pitaro led the successful expansion of Yahoo! Sports prior to being named to lead all of Yahoo!’s media properties, including its news, finance, entertainment and lifestyle sites. Previously, Pitaro ran Business Affairs for online music site Launch Media and practiced law at several New York firms.

“I’m honored to be joining the Disney family and energized to start working with the DIMG team. I’ve admired Disney for as long as I can remember and am looking forward to bringing my experience to the company and partnering with John to advance our online businesses,” Pitaro said.

As Co-Presidents, they will be replacing former President Steve Wadsworth, who over many years established a firm foundation for DIMG’s growth. Pleasants and Pitaro will report to Iger and will co-manage DIMG enterprise functions, including business affairs, finance and human resources. They will assume their new roles on October 18, 2010.

We all want to be something else, don’t we?

And so it is with Google (GOOG), the robotic, algorithmic, black-box search behemoth girding the globe with datacenters stacked up to heaven.

As it turns out, all it really wants is to be our friend.

The big question is when it is going to do that, by introducing a social strategy that actually works, even as perceived rival Facebook barrels ahead.

Sources close to the company, as well as some voluble Silicon Valley players–such as Digg’s Kevin Rose and Quora’s Adam D’Angelo–insist that Google is zeroing in on a plan for a service internally called Google Me–get it?–that it will begin to unveil in the weeks ahead.

Wouldn’t it be nice if it did so today, when Google is holding yet another product feature-fest at its San Francisco offices, as it did recently about its cool Voice Actions mobile offering.

(Memo to Google PR: Digital Daily’s John Paczkowski will be liveblogging the event, but you can’t ask press not to talk about a public company event before it takes place–even if it is invite-only.)

That’s unlikely, but some answer in the social space couldn’t come soon enough, especially because all of Google’s various and sundry efforts have yielded little in the way of any gains and, well, have shown a lot of losses.

Yesterday, for example, it was reported by The Wall Street Journal that Google’s Orkut social networking service had lost primacy in India to Facebook.

Orkut, as is well known, has lagged worldwide, except for inexplicably rocking India and Brazil.

Now, even though Google has added more punch to Orkut of late, it is down to just Brazil.

And then there was Buzz, which Google launched in February to much fanfare, followed by much more confusion.

That’s because, by using Gmail as the central organizing principle for Buzz, it quickly degenerated into an “Animal Planet” episode called “When Email Attacks.”

As for Google’s overhyped-by-bloggers communications and collaboration app Wave, it soon became “Wave Buh-Bye.”

To be fair, it is admirable that a big company like Google, which made its bones from search, has rolled out so many attempts at innovation over the last two years in areas such as apps, cloud computing and especially mobile.

And, in those categories, it is doing well, even as its stabs at social media have fallen so far off the target.

Is it because Google is inherently as social as a digital version of a telephone book, or an encyclopedia or an almanac? Which is to say helpful, but not at all attracting of friendship.

Or, as with its early efforts to find its golden business model, has Google just not yet hit on the social equivalent of AdSense and AdWords?

Meanwhile, over at Facebook HQ in nearby in Silicon Valley, CEO Mark Zuckerberg has his team working all night on a multitude of feature launches, which he described to me at the recent rollout of the social networking powerhouse’s Places geo-location feature as fast and furious.

That’s probably the right tone, although if I were Facebook, I would take it down to Defcon 5 with regard to Google.

At least until Google Me is more than just a clever, rainbow-colored search term, that is.

Until then, let’s all enjoy this music video of the incomparable Lionel Richie singing the classic song “Say You, Say Me”:

Please see this disclosure related to me and Google.