Telecoms companies are facing European Commission action to force down the prices they charge the EU's 380m customers for international mobile phone calls.
And it's about time too, the costs of making calls when roaming around Europe on mobile phones is outrageous. This puts even more pressure on European mobile operators to accellerate the take-up of their Internet and data services as the action will reduce their call revenues and earnings even further.
Friday, February 03, 2006
Apple's iPod faces class action lawsuit in US
Apple is facing a class action lawsuit over it's hugely popular iPod in the US as an aggrieved customer filed a complaint claiming the company did not adequately warn about the potential for damaging hearing loss when playing the music player at full volume.
iPods sold in Europe contain software that limits their noise output to 100 decibels, but the complaint alleges that iPods sold in the US can produce sound levels of up to 115 decibels – louder than a helicopter or a small explosion.
This is not the first legal threat that Apple has faced to their iPod franchise, but this one looks reasonably serious.
iPods sold in Europe contain software that limits their noise output to 100 decibels, but the complaint alleges that iPods sold in the US can produce sound levels of up to 115 decibels – louder than a helicopter or a small explosion.
This is not the first legal threat that Apple has faced to their iPod franchise, but this one looks reasonably serious.
ESPN's cellphone service goes live this Super Bowl Sunday
ESPN's long-awaited cell phone service kicks off in the US on Super Bowl Sunday. Customers will get access to shows including "Pardon the Interruption," as well as breaking stories from ESPN News to fit the small mobile phone screen.
Video content will change throughout the day as stories develop, and highlights will be posted quickly when games are finished. And the service named "SportsCenter" looks set to be popular amongst the huge amounts of predominantly male sports fans.
And ESPN is just the latest company to dive into the increasingly popular market for MVNO's (companies that launch branded cellphone services but are not mobile operators - they rent the networks off the mobile operators.). Perhps the best known international MVNO is Virgin Mobile, who now has a highly profitable business with millions and millions of customers.
And the MVNO market could get even more interesting next year with the launch of new mobile TV broadcast networks designed to pump TV and movies out to the wireless masses.
And in Europe MVNO's are becoming more popular amongst leading brands such as Virgin and the Easy Group, amongst retailers such as Tesco and even airlines such as Ryanair.
And the US is following, with services to be launched this year from ESPN and Disney, from 7-Eleven and cable giant Comcast. But, if you're a sports fan it all starts on Sunday with ESPN. Go get 'em!
Video content will change throughout the day as stories develop, and highlights will be posted quickly when games are finished. And the service named "SportsCenter" looks set to be popular amongst the huge amounts of predominantly male sports fans.
And ESPN is just the latest company to dive into the increasingly popular market for MVNO's (companies that launch branded cellphone services but are not mobile operators - they rent the networks off the mobile operators.). Perhps the best known international MVNO is Virgin Mobile, who now has a highly profitable business with millions and millions of customers.
And the MVNO market could get even more interesting next year with the launch of new mobile TV broadcast networks designed to pump TV and movies out to the wireless masses.
And in Europe MVNO's are becoming more popular amongst leading brands such as Virgin and the Easy Group, amongst retailers such as Tesco and even airlines such as Ryanair.
And the US is following, with services to be launched this year from ESPN and Disney, from 7-Eleven and cable giant Comcast. But, if you're a sports fan it all starts on Sunday with ESPN. Go get 'em!
Amazon's stock slumps on lower earnings - but the future looks bright
Amazon.com last night announced that their net profit dropped in its crucial holiday quarter as shipping and technology costs rose and revenue fell shy of Wall Street expectations, sending their shares down more than 10%.
4th quarter net income was $199 million, compared with $346.7 million, in the year-ago period. Sales rose 17% to $2.98 billion from $2.54 billion a year earlier, missing analysts' targets of $3.08 billion.
There are lots of good reasons for Amazons earnings and revenues being lower than expected, including shipping promotions and a higher propensity of goods sold by Amazon partner sites rather than by Amazon themselves.
But it seems the real issue is that Jeff Bezos and his team believe that the Internet is going into a new phase which requires another chunk of investment in technology and new products.
For it looks like Amazon are not anly about to launch new features such as search and online ads, but they are also diving into major new product initiatives. The most exciting look to be a music store, a video-on-demand service and electronic books. Some even under the Amazon label.
So, like everyone else, Amazon believes that the future lies in downloadable digital products and the convergence of media and technology. So, why shouldn't Amazon become a publishing label? And maybe even a record label in the future.
For one day artists, writers and musicians may create their own products and sell them directly via online stores and marketplaces, leaving out the middlemen. If so, Amazon could be well placed to capitalise. They need to make the investments now. And they should pay off well in 2-3 years.
4th quarter net income was $199 million, compared with $346.7 million, in the year-ago period. Sales rose 17% to $2.98 billion from $2.54 billion a year earlier, missing analysts' targets of $3.08 billion.
There are lots of good reasons for Amazons earnings and revenues being lower than expected, including shipping promotions and a higher propensity of goods sold by Amazon partner sites rather than by Amazon themselves.
But it seems the real issue is that Jeff Bezos and his team believe that the Internet is going into a new phase which requires another chunk of investment in technology and new products.
For it looks like Amazon are not anly about to launch new features such as search and online ads, but they are also diving into major new product initiatives. The most exciting look to be a music store, a video-on-demand service and electronic books. Some even under the Amazon label.
So, like everyone else, Amazon believes that the future lies in downloadable digital products and the convergence of media and technology. So, why shouldn't Amazon become a publishing label? And maybe even a record label in the future.
For one day artists, writers and musicians may create their own products and sell them directly via online stores and marketplaces, leaving out the middlemen. If so, Amazon could be well placed to capitalise. They need to make the investments now. And they should pay off well in 2-3 years.
Thursday, February 02, 2006
Cambridge, Massachusetts announces free city-wide Wi-Fi coverage
Cambridge, Massachusetts will implement free city-wide Wi-Fi coverage through a partnership with MIT for all its 100,000 residents by the summer. The city also plans to work with businesses to obtain donated or discounted computers.
Cambridge is just the latest city to embrace the citywide Wi-Fi movement. Philadelphia, San Francisco and New Orleans also plan to build Wi-Fi networks and New York is currently debating such a move.
The city-wide Wi-Fi movement continues. Expect that by 2010 most cites in the West (at least) and many elsewhere will have blanket and often free Wi-Fi/WiMax coverage.
Cambridge is just the latest city to embrace the citywide Wi-Fi movement. Philadelphia, San Francisco and New Orleans also plan to build Wi-Fi networks and New York is currently debating such a move.
The city-wide Wi-Fi movement continues. Expect that by 2010 most cites in the West (at least) and many elsewhere will have blanket and often free Wi-Fi/WiMax coverage.
Opposing fortunes for leading hand-held device makers Blackberry and Palm
RIM's Blackberry device had a major victory in the German and UK high courts this week as both of them weighed in to support Blackberry rebut a patent infringement case from Inpro.
Had RIM been unsuccessful UK and German Blackberry users may have experienced a downing of the service.
Palm on the other hand saw one of their major investors today write openly to the company to urge them to sell Palm off. He stated that Palm is at the top of its game and would do well to cash out now. He named possible acquirers as Dell, HP and RIM. Plam's shares fell on the news.
Had RIM been unsuccessful UK and German Blackberry users may have experienced a downing of the service.
Palm on the other hand saw one of their major investors today write openly to the company to urge them to sell Palm off. He stated that Palm is at the top of its game and would do well to cash out now. He named possible acquirers as Dell, HP and RIM. Plam's shares fell on the news.
SAP follows others into the on-demand world with hosted CRM
SAP has just announced following Salesforce.com, Oracle and Microsoft by offering on-demand applications. But, this seems to be a defensive move as they are only offering hosted CRM.
What about hosted Financials, HR, Logistics etc. One of the big guys needs to follow Salesforce.com's AppExchange and provide a whole suite of on-demand business applications. That has to be the future.
What about hosted Financials, HR, Logistics etc. One of the big guys needs to follow Salesforce.com's AppExchange and provide a whole suite of on-demand business applications. That has to be the future.
Comcast customer numbers strong, but earnings down
Comcast, the US' No 1 cable TV operator, today announced that quarterly profit fell 69% on a drop in investment gains and a higher tax rate. They also offered a disappointing outlook for 2006 growth, saying that they expect revenue and cashflow to grow around 10% as they invest heavily in a digital phone services.
Comcast seems to be suffering from not having jumped earlier onto a digital phone network so that they could offer customers a triple play of TV, broadband Internet access and telephony. Time Warner and Cablevision, that jumped into the triple play much ealier, are seeing better growth rates.
Comcast now has 21.4M cable customers, 8.5M high-speed Internet customers and 1.3M phone customers. And there lies the problem and opportunity. For they need to get digital telephony avaiable to all their cable customers, or they risk losing them to competitors. And the competitive landscape only gets tougher this year as Verizon and AT&T pile into the triple play and Internet TV as well.
Comcast seems to be suffering from not having jumped earlier onto a digital phone network so that they could offer customers a triple play of TV, broadband Internet access and telephony. Time Warner and Cablevision, that jumped into the triple play much ealier, are seeing better growth rates.
Comcast now has 21.4M cable customers, 8.5M high-speed Internet customers and 1.3M phone customers. And there lies the problem and opportunity. For they need to get digital telephony avaiable to all their cable customers, or they risk losing them to competitors. And the competitive landscape only gets tougher this year as Verizon and AT&T pile into the triple play and Internet TV as well.
Electronic Arts to cut jobs
Electronic Arts is the latest company to suffer from slower video games sales (Vivendi just announced weaker games results) as gamers wait to buy software until they have upgraded their consoles. EA have apparently decided to lay off 200 employees.
Both 2006 and 2007 will prove transitional years as tens of millions of people upgrade to the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3. After that expect the games industry to have a boom period.
Both 2006 and 2007 will prove transitional years as tens of millions of people upgrade to the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3. After that expect the games industry to have a boom period.
Wednesday, February 01, 2006
Dell and Lenovo launch enhanced 3G wireless notebooks
Dell and Lenovo have both announced that they have signed a deal with Vodafone to allow their laptops to carry connectivity for Vodafone's 3rd generation (3G) and GPRS wireless technologies.
In the future, they will also tap High-Speed Downlink Packet Access technology. This will greatly improve wireless broadband speeds (over 1.29Mbps in tests) and will be rolled out by major carriers starting this year.
These new wireless enabled 3G devices should help speed up the adoption of data services on high speed wireless networks. The carriers need the pick up if they are ever going to see a return on the huge investments they have made in 3G networks.
In the future, they will also tap High-Speed Downlink Packet Access technology. This will greatly improve wireless broadband speeds (over 1.29Mbps in tests) and will be rolled out by major carriers starting this year.
These new wireless enabled 3G devices should help speed up the adoption of data services on high speed wireless networks. The carriers need the pick up if they are ever going to see a return on the huge investments they have made in 3G networks.
Blackberry gets major boost from US Patent Office
The US Patent and Trademark Office has sided with BlackBerry portable e-mail device maker Research in Motion Ltd. by issuing a non-final rejection of a fifth patent at the center of its legal battle with patent holding company NTP Inc.
This should prove to be a major boost to Blackberry, even though it probably won't yet call an end to the running battle between NTP and RIM. All those business leaders from the WEF's recent meeting in Davos can breath a small sigh of relief. For their Blackberry's won't get switched off quite yet.
This should prove to be a major boost to Blackberry, even though it probably won't yet call an end to the running battle between NTP and RIM. All those business leaders from the WEF's recent meeting in Davos can breath a small sigh of relief. For their Blackberry's won't get switched off quite yet.
Time Warner reports impressive results
Time Warner, has announced that 4th quarter profit rose more than 20% on strong growth in advanced cable services and movies. Their shares nudged up a little.
Profit increased to $1.4 billion, from $1.13 billion, a year earlier, beating analysts' forecasts. Revenue rose 7% to $11.9bn.
Time Warner also forecast low digit growth for 2006. The question is are they being conservative and will they actually turn in double digit growth. They will probably need to to stave off the growing challenge from Carl Icahn.
He and his new team are blistering for a proxy fight at the next AGM in May. And they seem to have secured a major Dubai investor who plans to buy up Time Warner stock and retain Icahn as an advisor. Next week Icahn's team will reveal their plan for Time Warner going forwards.
So, Parsons has something to smile about given these results and the chunky bonus he has just earned from delivering them (fair enough).
Time Warner Cable performed particularly well, but as always the thorn in his side is AOL and Time Warner's seemingly immovable share price. This has to be the make or break year for both these two challenges. If Parsons doesn't fix them this could even be his last year at Time Warner.
Profit increased to $1.4 billion, from $1.13 billion, a year earlier, beating analysts' forecasts. Revenue rose 7% to $11.9bn.
Time Warner also forecast low digit growth for 2006. The question is are they being conservative and will they actually turn in double digit growth. They will probably need to to stave off the growing challenge from Carl Icahn.
He and his new team are blistering for a proxy fight at the next AGM in May. And they seem to have secured a major Dubai investor who plans to buy up Time Warner stock and retain Icahn as an advisor. Next week Icahn's team will reveal their plan for Time Warner going forwards.
So, Parsons has something to smile about given these results and the chunky bonus he has just earned from delivering them (fair enough).
Time Warner Cable performed particularly well, but as always the thorn in his side is AOL and Time Warner's seemingly immovable share price. This has to be the make or break year for both these two challenges. If Parsons doesn't fix them this could even be his last year at Time Warner.
AT&T to generate even more value than expected from merger
AT&T boasted at an analyst meeting in New York yesterday that the merger of SBC and AT&T was going even better than expected. In fact, so much so that they are predicting double digit earnings growth for the next 3 years.
Synergies from the AT&T merger will be 20% better than expected. And the Senior AT&T executives now expect the net merger synergies to total $18bn, up from an earlier projection of $15bn.
And they even think that the traditional AT&T business can stem it's revenue losses and start growing again soon - WOW! This should all make stockholders smile and allow AT&T to keep investing in the future, which for them is - wireless, broadband and business services. It could prove a powerful mix.
Synergies from the AT&T merger will be 20% better than expected. And the Senior AT&T executives now expect the net merger synergies to total $18bn, up from an earlier projection of $15bn.
And they even think that the traditional AT&T business can stem it's revenue losses and start growing again soon - WOW! This should all make stockholders smile and allow AT&T to keep investing in the future, which for them is - wireless, broadband and business services. It could prove a powerful mix.
UK pay-TV leader, BSkyB, impresses with latest results
BSkyB, the UK's leading pay-television group, beat earnings forecasts for the first half as it signed up more subscribers than expected and the rate of customer churn declined.
In the six months to December 31 pre-tax earnings rose 14% to £390m ($693m), well ahead of market expectations of about £275m, as revenues increased by 9% to £2.14bn (just under $3bn).
James Murdoch seems to be doing a good job at Sky. And their strategy of using the pay-TV service as a content hub to then allow their subscribers to access their free Internet movies and mobile phone channels could help them continue to keep churn rates down.
But the competitive environment is hotting up for Sky as a beefed up NTL with a powerful triple play comes at them and as BT launches video-on-demand this year. James Murdoch's real test may be 2006 and 2007.
In the six months to December 31 pre-tax earnings rose 14% to £390m ($693m), well ahead of market expectations of about £275m, as revenues increased by 9% to £2.14bn (just under $3bn).
James Murdoch seems to be doing a good job at Sky. And their strategy of using the pay-TV service as a content hub to then allow their subscribers to access their free Internet movies and mobile phone channels could help them continue to keep churn rates down.
But the competitive environment is hotting up for Sky as a beefed up NTL with a powerful triple play comes at them and as BT launches video-on-demand this year. James Murdoch's real test may be 2006 and 2007.
Monster.com does well
New York-based Monster Worldwide, parent of job-hunting site Monster.com, announced earnings from continuing operations rose to $35.3M, in the 4th quarter, in line with analysts expectations, from $21.7M, a year earlier.
Revenue for the quarter gained 24% to $267M, slightly better than analysts had expected. The company clearly benefited from a better US jobs environment and the increasing shift in such classified advertising to the Internet.
Monster is feeling bullish going forwards too, as they are predicting over 20% annual revenue growth for the next 3-5 years. That's bold, particularly given the amnout of competition they will face going forwards. Jobs on the Internet is attracting traditional newspapers, magazines and the big portals.
Revenue for the quarter gained 24% to $267M, slightly better than analysts had expected. The company clearly benefited from a better US jobs environment and the increasing shift in such classified advertising to the Internet.
Monster is feeling bullish going forwards too, as they are predicting over 20% annual revenue growth for the next 3-5 years. That's bold, particularly given the amnout of competition they will face going forwards. Jobs on the Internet is attracting traditional newspapers, magazines and the big portals.
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