September 2011

Nokia CEO says "watch out" to Android phone makers

Phone makers depending on Google Inc's Android software should worry about the Web search leader's deal to buy Motorola Mobility, the head of rival Nokia said.

Nokia has teamed up with Google arch-rival Microsoft for mobile phone software, while phone makers such as Samsung Electronics, HTC Corp and Motorola have bet on Android. But Google's plan to buy Motorola for $12.5 billion has generated some analyst concern about whether Motorola will get preferential treatment over rivals Samsung and HTC. Nokia Chief Executive Stephen Elop said these concerns may be justified. "If I happened to be someone who was an Android manufacturer or an operator, or anyone with a stake in that environment, I would be picking up my phone and calling certain executives at Google and say 'I see signs of danger ahead,'" said Elop.

(Aug 17)

Early voting Means Early Opportunity for TV

TV stations need to learn all about early voting in their markets. Consider the impact on schedule placement and demand on inventory if campaigners realize that voting decisions are being made, earlier, by a meaningful portion of the electorate. Imagine the benefit to all involved as you help campaigners deliver their messages earlier in the cycle and better achieve their objectives at the same time. You can give them more of what they want (greater access to your audiences and better efficiencies) and they can give you more of what you want (their ongoing investment).

(Aug 19)

Sprint Said to Talk With Cable Companies About Clearwire Buyout

Apparently, Sprint Nextel Corp. is talking with cable companies about a possible investment that may lead to an acquisition of partner Clearwire.

Sprint is discussing the investment with companies including Comcast. Under one scenario being discussed, Sprint would use the money to buy the equity in Clearwire it doesn't own. Talks are preliminary and no deal is imminent. Sprint and Comcast, which are already investors in Clearwire along with Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks, are discussing ways to provide funding to Clearwire so it can build out its high-speed wireless network. Clearwire plans to spend about $600 million to upgrade its network to so-called long-term evolution, or LTE, technology, to compete against AT&T and Verizon Wireless. (Aug 18)

Motorola Value Found in 18 Patents Used Against Apple

Among Motorola Mobility Holdings’s more than 17,000 patents, a group of 18 may prove most useful in Google’s effort to fend off litigation targeting the Android mobile platform.

The inventions date back to 1994 and form the heart of three Motorola lawsuits against Apple, making them among the stars of the portfolio, said David Mixon, a patent lawyer at Bradley Arant Boult Cummings. They cover technology essential to the mobile-device industry, including location services, antenna designs, e-mail transmission, touch- screen motions, software-application management and third- generation wireless. “Any patent owner, before they consider litigation is going to carefully evaluate their patents to withstand an attack,” Mixon said. “You don't want to hold any back. You want to pick your strongest patents.” Google is counting on its $12.5 billion acquisition of Motorola Mobility to strengthen its patent lineup as Apple and Microsoft challenge Android, the best-selling smartphone operating system in the second quarter. Google had been issued fewer than 1,000 patents as of the start of this year. Motorola Mobility would add another 17,000, as well as about 7,500 pending applications. (Aug 22)

Jobs Exit as Apple CEO May Be ‘Lease of Life’ for Sony, Nokia

Steve Jobs shook up the electronics world for a decade with the iPod, iPhone and iPad at the expense Sony Corp., Nokia Oyj and Hewlett-Packard Co. His exit as Apple Inc.’s chief executive officer may pave the way for competitors to regain market share, analysts said.

Sony and Nokia were among Apple rivals whose shares advanced during Asian and European trading amid speculation Jobs’s withdrawal may increase their ability to compete in products ranging from smartphones to tablet computers. Jobs, who will be replaced by Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook, rescued Apple from the brink of failure and turned it into the world’s biggest technology company.

“It’s going to give competitors a bit more of a lease of life to go out and compete harder,” said Richard Windsor, global technology analyst at Nomura International Plc. “It’s been thought about, talked about endlessly for the past several years that Tim Cook would probably take over so while you get an initial knee-jerk reaction on the downside, we would probably expect that not to last very long.”

(Aug 25)

Why did Steve Jobs choose this week to step down?

One of the mysteries surrounding Steve Jobs' decision to hand the CEO title over to Tim Cook is its timing.

The assumption underlying most of the commentary these past two days is that Jobs must be really, really sick, but he's clearly not on his deathbed. John Dvorak offers a simpler, more logical explanation: "The reason is Tim Cook."

Everyone in Silicon Valley would love to hire this guy, and from his perspective, his title as "acting" chief executive gets old fast when you are actually running the company.

Jobs has been on extended leave for months, so what's going to change with this announcement? Nothing, that's what — except the title itself. And this is what is important.

Giving up the CEO title to Cook had to be done sooner than later. The company cannot take a chance that Cook might get be tired of being jerked around. More importantly, from Cook's perspective, he cannot afford to be the acting chief executive if Jobs actually dies while he is acting chief.

The way these companies operate, they will keep a CEO if he or she is the actual CEO and the chairman/founder dies. If he or she is the acting CEO when the chairman/founder/CEO dies, then the job is up for grabs. Cook would not automatically become the CEO.

In other words, Cook may get screwed out of the top spot when the weasels come out of the woodwork. "Yes, he's the acting CEO, but let's just look around before we give him the job — just in case."

(Aug 26)

Earthquake pits broadcasters against wireless

Never let an earthquake go to waste, especially when it happens in Washington.

After the temblor jammed cellphone networks for hours, the broadcast and wireless industries — longtime adversaries in Washington — are using the episode to try and advance long-sought policy goals, and bash one another. The wireless industry said the incident highlights the need to repurpose spectrum for mobile broadband use. Broadcasters say it shows that their technology is more reliable during a time of crisis. Firing their latest shot across the bow, the National Association of Broadcasters is brandishing favorable remarks that Federal Emergency Management Association Administrator Craig Fugate said.

(Aug 25)

PROTECT IP Act would cost taxpayers $47 million, private sector much more

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has released a new estimate of the cost of the PROTECT IP Act, the controversial legislation to force private ISPs, search engines, and other parties to censor websites accused of facilitating copyright infringement. Based on personnel estimates supplied by the Obama administration, the CBO estimates that the enforcement activities of PROTECT IP will cost taxpayers about $10 million per year.

The bulk of the money would be spent on hiring staff. The Justice Department would need additional agents to "commence legal actions against individuals who operate or register an Internet site dedicated to activities infringing on copyrights of others," the CBO says. "DOJ anticipates that it would need to hire 22 special agents and 26 support staff to execute its new investigative responsibilities under the bill." The price tag for bringing on those new workers? $47 million over five years, or just under $10 million per year. Of course, this is just a rough estimate. The actual costs will be controlled by future Congressional appropriations and the enforcement priorities of the administration. An extra $10 million in spending is a drop in the bucket in a federal budget that now exceeds $3 trillion. But the estimate comes with two important caveats. First, the personnel requirements were estimated by the Obama administration, which may have an incentive to downplay the bill's costs in order to speed its passage. So it's possible that the government would devote significantly more resources to enforcement once the legislation was enacted. The bigger concern is that the estimate doesn't include potential costs to the private sector. The Unfunded Mandates Reform Act requires the CBO to estimate whether proposed legislation will cost the private sector more than $142 million. The CBO says it can't do that in this case because of "uncertainty about how often and against whom the Department of Justice or copyright holders would use the authority" provided by the legislation. (Aug 19)

Obama’s Third Generation of Broadband Policy and the Universal Broadband Imperative

[Commentary] The next major battle over broadband policy will be over the future of the Universal Service Fund.

It’s telling that the Universal Service Fund spends more than $8 billion each year on providing telephone connectivity to rural areas, and also to low-income individuals. Two other components of the Universal Service Fund offer Internet connectivity to schools and libraries, and to hospitals and health care centers. This amounts to more, on an annual basis, than Obama’s one-time investment in broadband infrastructure. How the Universal Service Fund should be reconfigured is, as of now, up for grabs. The existing mechanisms in the Universal Service Fund have been criticized by academics and by economists. In their eyes, it wasn't cost-effective at meeting its telephone-connectivity mandate. Now the mandate itself needs to be different.

(Aug 22)

Broadband Providers Add 350,000 Subs In Q2

The 18 largest cable and telephone providers in the U.S. acquired about 350,000 net additional high-speed Internet subscribers in the second quarter of 2011, according to Leichtman Research Group, Inc.

These top provides account for about 93% of the broadband market. LRG found that the top cable companies accounted for 77% of the net additional subscribers, with cable companies adding over 270,000 broadband subscribers in the quarter, while the leading telcos reached 80,000 more net subscribers. Leading cable broadband providers had a 56% share of the overall market at the end of the second quarter, with 42.97 million, about 8.9 million more subscribers than the top telephone companies, which had 34.07 million. A year ago, cable's lead stood at 7.85 million. The report also found that the market is growing increasingly saturated. The number of new net additional subscribers was the second lowest of any quarter in the 10 years LRG has been tracking the broadband sector. Comcast remained in the top spot, with 17.55 million high-speed Internet subs, followed by AT&T at 16.47 million, Time Warner Cable at 10.06 million, Verizon at 8.55 million and CenturyLink at 5.43 million. (Aug 25)

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