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MobiTV now faces a dilemma: CMO Ray DeRenzo explained the company, which has a number of popular mobile TV streaming applications, needs permission from its partners to sell the same 35 channels that it offers on cellphones today on tablets, too. But currently, the content owners are demanding a different rate structure for the tablet because it’s not clear whether it is a mobile device. MobiTV today charges $10 a month on a cellphone but that could soar to $30 a month on a tablet. “As a distributor, we have to license content, and the value of the content is set by the rights’ holders and content producers. [The tablet is] being priced as a home TV equivalent,” he said. “We have to make sure we can make a product that’s compelling to end users in terms of programming and price.” At the higher rate structure, he doesn’t believe there’s a market.

J.Crew has even included an exclusive offer that only fans on its Facebook Fan Page can access. When they purchase any item online, as they are checking out, they can enter the promotional code through the Fan Page and receive complimentary shipping, courtesy of J.Crew

J CREW launched an advertising campaign in September, featuring splashy print ads and a photograph of a well-dressed young man on its Web site, sitting atop a ladder. Surrounding him was an assortment of items: umbrellas, medicine balls, a retro-looking trailer, a slab of raw meat. All of those items were available for purchase. But J. Crew stood to profit only from the sale of its clothes. The other goods were merely recommended by J. Crew to its customers, with Web links to the purveyors of those goods. J. Crew saw a business opportunity in assuming the role of a sophisticated and self-assured friend, guiding customers through the infinite offerings of the Internet without pushing them to buy only its own wares. “What the world needs now is curators and filters,” said Anthony Sperduti of Partners and Spade, the New York advertising agency behind the campaign. “J. Crew is savvy enough to know that the Internet has changed our buying patterns.” J. Crew is hardly the only company trying to sell something by befriending you. The idea that social commerce — which mixes networking with online shopping — can win business has spurred companies to try to connect with customers through sites like Facebook and Twitter.