For your 6 y/o.

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http://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/betfair-client/id347621336

Fred Wilson insists on read/write APIs (#5).

Any comments?

External Link: Smarkets

Infosurv Launches v2.0 of the iCE Prediction Market System

New prediction market technology allows marketers to leverage employees, customers, or targeted consumer groups to accurately predict new product success

Atlanta, GA – Infosurv, Inc., a global leader in online market research, has recently launched version 2.0 of its patent-pending iCE (Infosurv Concept Exchange) prediction market system. The new release allows iCE clients to quickly and inexpensively collect feedback from employees, customers, or virtually any consumer group to accurately predict consumer preference for new product or marketing concepts.

What separates iCE 2.0 from other prediction market products is that it functions much like a survey, but with the actual buying of “virtual shares” in the new product, design or marketing concepts that are being tested. Just like in a stock market, concept share prices rise or fall with each trade. By examining how share prices move over time, iCE can accurately predict that concepts that customers will prefer in the real-world.

Though Infosurv is a full-service market research conducting hundreds of survey projects a year, they launched a prediction market product that competes head-on with online concept screening surveys.

“It’s our goal to obsolesce ourselves before a competitor does,” says Jared Heyman, Infosurv’s Founder & President. “Prediction markets have been proven to have higher predictive validity than surveys for many applications, at a lower cost and greater speed. Market research buyers are demanding innovative new technologies that enhance the accuracy, speed, and cost-effectiveness of their research. The iCE prediction market is exactly such a technology.”

To test and validate their new iCE 2.0 system, Infosurv partnered with a major consumer packaged goods (CPG) company specializing in health and beauty products. The test was a great success, with iCE accurately predicting the market acceptance of 9 new product concepts in 2 separate product categories.

“What our client found most compelling about iCE,” says Mr. Heyman, “was the cost savings. Using this tool, they can cut their concept screening budget in half without any sacrifice of accuracy or speed. Further, respondent engagement is enhanced since iCE traders find the experience more fun, interesting, and challenging than responding to an online survey.”

Prediction markets have been used for years to accurately predict other real-world outcomes. The Iowa Electronic Market (IEM) has been used since the early-1990’s to predict political election outcomes more accurately than surveys or polls. The Hollywood Stock Exchange (HSX) is a popular prediction market designed to predict movie box office receipts, and has been doing so with great precision for over a decade.

iCE is the first prediction market designed to predict outcomes of interest to market researchers, such as new product or marketing concept success.

- Software for prediction markets @ CFM

I have updated the listings. The only thing I note is the disappearance of HSX Virtual Markets (Hollywood Stock Exchange). This does not come as a surprise to the readers of Midas Oracle. I have chronicled how HSX as a software provider was becoming irrelevant —contra the official spin doctoring.

Previously: Prediction exchanges drop like flies.