Evolution of the Species: January 2010

$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.

Jan

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').

Jan

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.

Jan

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.

Jan

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.

Jan

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.

Jan

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.

Jan

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.

Jan

MMX and a New Decade

Ten years ago we welcomed the New Year with an early morning walk. The street cleaners had not made it out yet. You could not cross the round point at Place du Trocadero without stepping on a champagne bottle. Millennium celebrations took place throughout the world. Y2K passed without the serious, widespread computer failures and malfunctions that had been predicted (Google News Timeline). Not surprisingly, celebrations took place throughout the world again last night.