Efika MX Smartbook

The Efika MX Smartbook will be available to existing corporate customers that are already working with the Efika MX Open Client next week. We are looking forward to getting this product in the market.

We will have more than Linux running on this machine

Just enough computing any where you are...

R&B

$100000 a Second

This weekend the Super Bowl of American Football is very likely to be viewed by as many as 100 million people. Advertisers will pay $3,000,000 for a 30 second commercial or pub as it is known in France. During the 1984 Super Bowl, Apple ran this ad:

Steve Jobs suggested that IBM was the Big Brother
in Apple's version of George Orwell's book: 1984.

Years later, it seems Steve Jobs sees Google as today's Big Brother: Google’s ‘Don’t Be Evil’ Mantra is... As the industry's mindshare and market-leading titans head for their own Super Bowl of sorts, we are wondering if there will be an iPad commercial during this year's game. What is interesting is to see this much money being spent for ad placement (not to mention production, etc.) in an advertising world progressively evolving into cost-per-click. There apparently is still room for compelling and creative advertising verses a dozen words requiring in comparison an insignificant amount of creativity directed at single viewers. Traditional media would do well to transition to the Apple Apps Store where pay-for-something matters on a whole other level.

R&B

$40,000,000,000

Whatever happens today in Cupertino, the biggest news this week from Apple is that they have a net cash position of almost $40,000,000,000. In the last three months of 2009, Apple sold early 9 million iPhones with an average selling price of $620 in 86 countries. Apple also sold 3.5 million computers in the quarter. Macs sales have grown faster than PC sales for 13 quarters in a row. Macs have not experienced the significant decline in average selling price of the PC.

At $10000 a centimeter the stack would rise 40 kilometers
or nearly 25 miles!

As difficult as it is to imagine that much money, it should not be hard to imagine Apple's continued success. With only a 4% share of the PC market, the only way seems up. This will be particularly true if Apple changes the rules. What was a 'PC' may be something different soon. iPods and iPhone redefined not only market segments, but industries as well. Let's see if what is presented today has a browser or stays with an App Store model. Only in this way can we surmize how fast the stack will grow and from where the real competition comes from next.

R&B

From the Hearth

It is cold outside!

Just a few random thoughts (from the hearth)...

Whatever Apple introduces next week, we are guessing the most significant item to be revealed will be a new system-on-a-chip or SoC that leverages the PA Semi acquisition. We are also thinking this new device will be bounded by the network that can support it (meaning wifi for now, and, Apple outmaneuvers the mobile carriers again by raising consumer expectations past the carrier's ability to broadly support 'a new standard'). The general storyline continues: it is all about digital distribution and so on...

The Ars coverage (surprising in itself) of the self-announced transition of the NYTimes to a pay-for-unlimited-access model sounds like it will be far too little too late to save a newspaper icon: New York Times to spend 2010 erecting a partial paywall. This is especially true given the trend in online journalism: payment by page views. The wall between editorial and advertising has irreversibly crumbled. Social-media-jounalism here we come. It will still be news, but it should be: intelligence (go Ars, go!). You will be the judge. To pay or not to pay...

Google's strained relationship with a significant element of the Chinese population could lead to an Android fork, perhaps Redroid. Android phones with Baidu would be just as bad. It could get messy. In the meanwhile, everything is already headed into new territory with the mobile internet and mobile devices that a) solve the identity and security problems, and b) merge the contradiction of proximity and distance from computers to create new consumer awareness and incentive programs. Banking industry beware: the mobile wallet is coming and for all your sins disintermediation will gain a greater meaning...

Are you following Global Foundries? Customers include AMD, Qualcomm, STMicro and IBM. They now own a fab in Singapore, are building one in New York and planning one in Abu Dhabi (related: ATIC). The Chartered Semiconductor acquisition has been completed. It seems one day the semiconductor industry won't have to worry about an earthquake in Taiwan (at TSMC). All this will undoubtedly lead IBM back into the end-user device business (Lenovo was one heck of a sucker punch!). We can expect smaller footprints, lower power consumption, and of course greater performance - you know, a Common Platform. These are the folks that will be competing with the new Chinese processors and corresponding Chinese version of the Internet (the Chinese 'freedom' version) that is certain to be present by then (Lenovo's revenge: low/no cost computers for emerging markets?)...

Enough for now. Be back later...

R&B

Absolutely Great Stuff!

Absolutely great stuff!

The Khan Academy is a not-for-profit organization with the mission of providing a high quality education to anyone, anywhere. WOW! It is amazing to see what one person can do.

R&B

There is More to Come

The latest and greatest merchant terminal

There is no reason why an application like this won't work on a standard wireless network. What might be more interesting is to forget the credit card and just have your grocery charges go to your mobile bill. The mobile carrier that sorts out support for users from home to anywhere and back could be a big winner. With Google Voice pulling messaging away and unlocked Google Phones undoubtedly becoming eventually successful, the network operators need to get moving before connectivity is commoditized.

There still is good news for the mobile network operators. It is not just about one device, but multiple devices that serve up what people care about from wherever they are. Mobile computing-communications platforms will be always on, are more personal with a specific number, and have integrated security and billing features regular computers just don't have. Our data/content at home or in the cloud needs to move seamlessly across devices. Developing a platform that incorporates social networking and sharing, location awareness, and subscriber intelligence (preferences, profiles, past behavior) across multiple devices wherever a single user can be found on the network is the key.

So here is the next big question: who tries to buy Motorola first, Google or a network operator?

R&B

Mouse for the Physical World

Earlier this week we featured a m-commerce video from Motorola. The Mobile Loyalty Solution is probably the most strategically interesting package Motorola has put together in a long time. Barcode shopping could shake up the retail industry. In fact, it could shake up much more than that.

The barcode is the URL

Who needs a browser when buyer and seller are connected through a smartphone by a barcode? Two words come to mind: easy and convenient. The physical packaging of the desired item essentially becomes a webpage. The buyer and seller (or trusted information service provider who might source coupons too) now know each other. A mobile number is more effective than a cookie in a browser. Buyer and seller can communicate directly and instantaneously: I want this product and you can communicate with me. Can I have a barcode coupon that can be scanned at checkout? :) This is telesatisfying verses telemarketing: Sure! Would you like to see our other products on the next aisle (wow!).... Browsing takes on a whole new meaning. Or, rather, it could mean what it once did again.

In related news: SI Promoting Swimsuit Issue With Mobile Barcodes. JagTag may not help the print industry survive, but if we were a mobile carrier, we would be all over this opportunity.

R&B

Before, During and After CES

The biggest news emanating from CES has to be Android. It was everywhere. Android was found in tablets, netbooks, home media centers, smartphones, e-readers and probably a few other places we missed (and, even on MIPS!). By our count there are at least five versions of Android in the market - 1.1, 1.5, 1.6, 2.0 and 2.1, which arrived on the HTC Nexus One just before CES.

Dell introduced the Tablet PC (concept) after announcing
that AT&T would sell its Android-based smartphone

With the Nexus One, Google is undoubtedly seeking to defuse some of the fragmentation that seems to be developing around Android. The modular approach is strategically interesting, but tactically this approach is creating problems. Google understood complete system integration was essential and has taken a big step: the Google phone. Could we call it a Compoogle? We did a while ago. Too bad PowerPC was not up to the task. We still have the same ideas, now on ARM.

Google and Motorola and Sony and HTC and Dell and everyone else are doing what they have to do to be different and compete with Apple and the iPhone. The problem is that all these different new devices have proprietary features that are not necessary available on other Android based products. Unlike the iPhone where a software application can be written once for all versions of the iPhone, most software applications written for Android have to be customized for each device. This limits the addressable market of an application. Plus, there are vendor and even device specific apps stores. Apple does not have these problems. Nevertheless, eventually everything will probably come together. What is everything? Credit cards, cash, keys, ID cards, books, newspapers and tickets all look replaceable. And, now there is more...

Much more interesting from Motorola and just after CES

According to Motorola, More than Half of Consumers Utilize Mobile Phones for In-Store Holiday Shopping Activities. Why they did not promote this new service at CES is a mystery to us. Motorola has some very big news. There are no keywords in the barcode version of Search (think coupons, comparative shopping, loyalty promotions, etc.). We don't find AdSense in iTunes. It could be Android is a double edged sword and that would be the biggest Android news yet. Hello!

R&B

livestream.com/genesi

CES 2010 affirmed our belief that the Event has progressively become a test marketing extravaganza. Not that anything really new gets noticed as much as it probably should. CES has become a litmus test for potential products and tech mindshare. We will wait for the press release geyser to subside to write more. In the meanwhile, we discovered this interesting tool.

Watch bbrv at livestream.com/genesi

The tool makes the whole process of video web publishing quite simple. Livestream keeps the ad revenue until you subscribe to the premium service, which is available for $350/month. On-demand videos can be produced and made available. We will leave this on today for a bit and be experimenting with the process. Cool stuff!

Update: we will be back live again soon...

R&B

Wake Up Call

Yesterday, Freescale announced a tablet reference design: Freescale evolves second-generation smartbook form factors with new tablet design (Smartbook Reference Design). Systems sell silicon. It is great to see the marketing progressively going in this direction. Consumer products probably hold the most significant opportunity for Freescale revenue growth.

This Skype-Asus videophone also has a 7" screen

Omitted from the list of potential applications was video conferencing. We can't think of anything more compelling. To speak across continents as if we were across a room seems to be a logical extension of what we do already. In any case, we should remember that in our brave new world whoever offers the system to the consumer has the opportunity to provide not only content, but communications options too. This creates a new dimension of potential customers and calls on us to expand our notion of what a reference design actually is. Seeing is believing!

R&B