Sponsoer by :

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

This holiday season, the tablet goes mainstream (AP) : Technet

Sponsored

This holiday season, the tablet goes mainstream (AP) : Technet

This holiday season, the tablet goes mainstream (AP)

Posted: 23 Nov 2011 06:08 PM PST

By RACHEL METZ, AP Technology Writer Rachel Metz, Ap Technology Writer – Wed Nov 23, 9:08 pm ET

SAN FRANCISCO – `Tis the season of the tablet. Despite the gloomy economy, shoppers are expected to shell out for tablet computers this December, making them about as popular as candy canes and twinkling lights.

The glossy-screened gadgets are the most-desired electronic devices this holiday season. And, of all the gifts people are craving, tablets are second only to clothing, according to the Consumer Electronics Association. The industry group expects U.S. consumers to spend an average of $246 on electronic gifts, including tablets.

With help from his three siblings, Bob Cardina, 26, plans to purchase an iPad for his parents for Christmas. Cardina and his sister live in Washington. His parents live in Tampa, Florida. So he's excited to be able to video chat with his parents — them on the new iPad, him on his iPhone. He thinks his mother will be especially happy with the gift. One of her friends has an iPad and she's "definitely taken a liking to it," he said.

To be sure, tablets were on some wish lists last year, but they were mostly prized by gadget geeks. In the past year, they have become more mainstream. Consumers have become comfortable using touch screens, especially as smartphones continue to proliferate. Tablets are popping up in unexpected places, too. Apple Inc.'s iPad in particular is being used as a learning tool in schools, a digital cash register in shops and a menu at restaurants.

In 2010, people were "trying to figure out what the whole tablet thing was about," says Gartner analyst Carolina Milanesi. "Now, people know what to do with a tablet."

For some people, the device has become indispensable for playing and working. While you can surf the Web, send emails and watch movies on a laptop or smartphone, consumers are gravitating to tablets because they can be more convenient.

The iPad is still expected to far outsell other tablets this year. According to Gartner Inc., nearly 64 million tablets will be sold worldwide by the end of the year. Some 73 percent of them will be iPads. By Gartner's estimate, Apple will sell 47 million iPads this year — a figure it could certainly achieve, given that it sold 25 million of them by the end of September.

But while many think of the iPad as synonymous with the word "tablet," plenty of shoppers will be looking for a more affordable tablet to give this year.

Two of the most promising competitors come from online retailer Amazon.com Inc. and book seller Barnes & Noble Inc. The companies, major players in the e-reader market, recently released tablets of their own that undercut the iPad's $499 base price: Amazon's Kindle Fire, which costs $199, and Barnes & Noble's Nook Tablet, which costs $249. The Fire, which uses a heavily modified version of Google Inc.'s Android tablet software, is expected to be particularly popular with gift givers in part because of its low price.

"When you get below $200, sales go up dramatically," says technology analyst Rob Enderle.

Enderle thinks the Fire will be a popular gift, especially for kids. To him, it seems sturdier than the iPad with a display built from scratch- and crack-resistant Gorilla Glass, and it's cheap enough that parents won't be upset if a child manages to break it.

Tom Mainelli, an analyst at research group IDC, expects the Fire and Nook Tablet to take the second- and third-place spots, respectively, behind the iPad during the last three months of the year.

Rather than hurting Apple, he believes the success of newer tablets will help grow the entire tablet market.

"I don't think Apple loses just because Amazon wins," he says.

One of these Kindle Fire buyers is 24-year-old Ximena Beltran Quan Kiu, who purchased the device for her mother as a Christmas gift. Beltran Quan Kiu says her mom bought a Samsung Galaxy Tab for herself about a month ago, but didn't like it and returned it. She's hoping her mom warms up to the Fire, though, which she can use for reading, surfing the Web and watching movies.

To help make sure her mom likes it, Beltran Quan Kiu is also giving a year's membership to Amazon's express shipping program, Amazon Prime, which includes free streaming of more than 10,000 movies and TV shows and the ability to borrow certain books from Amazon's Kindle Owners' Lending Library.

"It might not be the iPad, but it can hold its own against the iPad," she says.

Groupon's shares fall below IPO price in 3 weeks (AP)

Posted: 23 Nov 2011 01:56 PM PST

By MICHAEL LIEDTKE, AP Technology Writer Michael Liedtke, Ap Technology Writer – Wed Nov 23, 4:56 pm ET

SAN FRANCISCO – Groupon Inc.'s stock fell below its initial public offering price for the first time Wednesday as investors reassess the challenges facing the still-unprofitable online deals company in a shaky economy.

The shares plunged $3.11, or more than 15 percent, to close at $16.96. That's well below Groupon's IPO price of $20, which was set less than three weeks ago.

The rapid fall from Wall Street's graces occurred almost entirely this week. Groupon has shed one-third of its market value since Friday's close to wipe out nearly $6 billion in shareholder wealth.

Political and economic uncertainty is making promising but unproven companies look less appealing.

Congress' inability to reach an agreement on how to reduce the U.S. deficit has raised the specter of automatic cuts and tax increases, which would increase the chances of the economy falling into another recession. That reduces Wall Street's appetite for risky investments such as Groupon, which is facing increasing competition in the rapidly growing niche of online advertising that it pioneered.

The decline also has been deepened by a skeptical class of investors, known as short sellers, who bet that certain stocks are going to slide. They do this by borrowing shares that they immediately sell, hoping they can repay the stock by buying at a cheaper price later.

Groupon gets local merchants to offer steep discounts to large clusters of consumers, a concept that turned it into one of the world's fastest growing companies. Founded in 2008, Groupon is on pace to generate more than $1.5 billion in revenue this year, primarily from commissions it gets from deals sold. Google Inc., which runs the Internet's largest advertising network, had annual revenue of just $86 million at the same stage of its existence.

Unlike Google, though, Groupon has been amassing huge losses as it tries to expand and ward off threats from hordes of copycats. The competition includes Google and another Internet powerhouse, Amazon.com Inc., which is backing a startup deals company called LivingSocial.

Through the first nine months of this year, Groupon lost $308 million, partly because its payroll swelled to more than 10,400 employees to help persuade local merchants to offer deals. Groupon's losses and massive work force provide another stark contrast to how Google went about its business as it was starting out. After three years, Google eked out a $7 million profit and had fewer than 300 employees.

As it prepared its initial public offering of stock, Groupon tried to sugarcoat the losses by emphasizing an accounting approach that securities regulators eventually required the company to abandon.

Meanwhile, some merchants have become increasingly skeptical that partnering with Groupon and similar services is really a deal for them. Groupon takes up to half the price of the coupon, so if an Italian restaurant is offering $50 worth of food for $25, the merchant gets just $12.50. Merchants can make the money back if the coupon draws a customer who keeps returning and brings friends, but some businesses complain that bargain hunters rarely come back after scoring a cheap meal or massage. Other businesses, though, see Groupon as good marketing — a way to reach troves of new, social media-savvy customers who share good deals with friends on Facebook and Twitter.

Despite the red flags hovering over the company, Groupon's rapid growth tantalized enough investors to turn its IPO into a success. After the IPO was priced at $20, the company's stock soared as high as $31.14 in its stock market debut on Nov. 4. All of those gains have evaporated in just 14 trading days.

What's happened to Groupon's stock serves as a cautionary tale to anyone thinking about investing in a hot company in its early stages on the market. The trading in stocks following an IPO is prone to wild swings that can upset portfolios — and investors' stomachs.

Groupon isn't the only example of this volatility. For instance, Internet radio service Pandora Media Inc. went public in June at $16 per share and then saw its stock climb in its debut. The shares closed at $10.51 Wednesday. After online professional networking service LinkedIn Corp. priced its IPO at $45 in May, its shares soared above $100. The stock finished Wednesday at $66.

The see-sawing phenomenon isn't limited to Internet companies. Automobile maker General Motors Co. emerged from bankruptcy protection with an IPO priced at $33 a year ago, and its stock price is now hovering at about $20.

Some IPOs maintain an upward trajectory. Google's stock has never come close to returning to its IPO price of $85 in 2004. A year after Google went public, its stock price stood at $280. On Wednesday, it closed at $570.11.

Groupon, which is based in Chicago, declined to comment on the stock price drop. It is still in a federally mandated "quiet" period that surrounds IPOs.

___

AP Technology Writer Barbara Ortutay in New York contributed to this report.

Bing hitches holiday hopes to Rudolph the reindeer (AP)

Posted: 23 Nov 2011 10:25 AM PST

By MICHAEL LIEDTKE, AP Technology Writer Michael Liedtke, Ap Technology Writer – Wed Nov 23, 1:25 pm ET

SAN FRANCISCO – Like Santa Claus on that one foggy Christmas Eve, Microsoft has summoned Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer to guide some precious cargo — a holiday marketing campaign for its Bing search engine.

The advertisements, debuting online and on TV this week, star Rudolph and other characters from the animated story about the most famous reindeer of all. The campaign is part of Microsoft's attempt to trip up Google Inc., an Internet search rival as imposing as the Abominable Snowman was before Yukon Cornelius tamed the monster.

Google has been countering with its own emotional ads throughout the year. Most of Google's ads show snippets of its dominant search engine and other products at work before swirling into the logo of the company's Chrome Web browser.

The dueling ads underscore the lucrative nature of search engines. Although visitors pay nothing to use them, search engines generate billions of dollars a year in revenue from ads posted alongside the search results.

The holiday season is a particularly opportune time for search companies because that's when people do more searches — to find gifts online, look for party supplies and plan nights out on the town. That means more people to show ads to. Advertisers also tend to be willing to pay more per ad because they know people are in a buying mode.

To capture that audience, Microsoft and Google are both thinking outside the search box to promote their brands.

Although the text ads running alongside search results do a fine job of reeling in some customers, they still lack the broader, more visceral impact of a well-done television commercial, said Peter Daboll, chief executive of Ace Metrix, a firm that rates the effectiveness of ads.

"It's instructive that these companies who are all about the Internet and doing things in real time are actually doing these emotive ads on TV," Daboll said.

Search engines are particularly difficult to sell because the sophisticated technology required to make them work isn't something "you can touch or feel in a store, so you need to bring some emotion to it," said Sean Carver, Bing's advertising director. "The storytelling is important."

Microsoft Corp. licensed the rights to the characters from Rudolph's 47-year-old holiday special after convincing their owners that the Bing commercials would add an endearing chapter to the reindeer's story. The rights to Rudolph and the rest of the cast are owned by the children of Robert L. May, who wrote the story in 1939 while working as a copywriter at the Montgomery Ward department store (May's brother-in-law, Johnny Marks, later wrote the famous song).

Microsoft is far more experienced at marketing than Google.

For one thing, it's 23 years older than Google, which was founded in 1998.

More important, Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin were so contemptuous of traditional marketing campaigns that the company never bothered to advertise its search engine on national TV until the 2010 Super Bowl. Spending millions to be a part of TV's annual advertising extravaganza was so out of character that Eric Schmidt, Google's CEO at the time, heralded the Super Bowl ad with a post on Twitter that concluded "hell has indeed frozen over."

Since that breakthrough, Google has caught the advertising bug. Without breaking down its total ad budget, Google disclosed that it has spent $583 million more on television and other advertising during the first nine months of this year than it did at the same time last year.

The investment has won Google some respect in the advertising industry.

Google took five of the 10 top spots for most effective national TV ads that promote websites, based on Ace Metrix's study of viewer reactions to the commercials. Topping the list is an ad showing how a father used Google services such as Gmail to create an electronic journal of his daughter Sophie's life.

Three Bing ads also ranked in the 10 most effective, but it also had two ads on the least effective list.

"There doesn't seem to be a very coherent creative pattern to the Bing ads," Daboll said. "It's kind of hit and miss."

There's no mistaking the common theme in the four Rudolph ads produced for the Bing promotion. The ads are all done in the same stop-motion puppet animation used in the original 1964 TV special. One features Bumble the Abominable Snowman using Bing to get ideas for a more fearsome roar. Another shows some of the characters turning to Bing for suggestions on a vacation that leads to a getaway on an island of misfit toys.

Microsoft has bought seven slots on national TV to run those four 30-second ads. The company is going for high impact rather than high frequency and is placing those ads during holiday-themed specials, starting with "The Simpsons" on the Fox network on Thanksgiving night and ending on Dec. 21 during "South Park" on the Comedy Channel. Microsoft isn't buying time during the Rudolph special, though, which CBS is broadcasting next Tuesday and Dec. 10.

The ads also will be shown in more than 200 movie theaters before holiday films and will be available online beginning Wednesday.

Microsoft declined to say how much it's spending on the Rudolph campaign.

Aaron Lilly, a Microsoft executive who helps conceive Bing's promotions, came up with the idea to build holiday ads around the Rudolph story two years ago. It didn't happen then because the Aflac insurance company had already bought licensing rights to the characters for that holiday season.

The ads will be a success for Microsoft if they help the company gain more ground and cut its losses in Internet search, an area that remains weak for Microsoft even after years of investing in better technology.

While the Xbox video game console and familiar software such as Windows and Office provide most of Microsoft's earnings, Bing remains a financial drain. The online division anchored by Bing has suffered operating losses totaling $7 billion since June 2008, when Microsoft introduced the latest overhaul of its search engine.

Google's share of the Internet search market has increased since Bing's debut, according to the research firm comScore. Google now processes about two out of three search requests in the U.S. and rakes in an even larger share of the revenue that rolls when people click on ads next to search results.

Bing's market share has climbed from about 9 percent in June 2008 to roughly 15 percent in October, but most of those gains have come at the expense of Yahoo Inc., which hired Microsoft to run most of its search technology two years ago.

For Google, the ads are aimed at not only maintaining its dominance in search but also driving adoption of other Google products, including its Chrome browser. Google says Chrome now has 200 million users worldwide, up from about 120 million at the end of last year. Despite those gains, Chrome still trails Microsoft's Internet Explorer and the Mozilla's Firefox.

But Chrome has been able to narrow the gap separating it from Internet Explorer more than Bing has been able to do in its pursuit of Google in search. Bing is still hoping to emulate Rudolph, a one-time laughingstock who overcame the skeptics to leap of the front of the pack.

___

Online:

http://www.bing.com/videos/watch/video/bing-originals-bumble-less/1vqjkdrpj

How to cope with being unfriended on Facebook according to William Shatner (Yahoo! News)

Posted: 23 Nov 2011 07:24 PM PST

Jolting the brain with electricity could reverse damage caused by Alzheimer’s (Yahoo! News)

Posted: 23 Nov 2011 07:18 PM PST

Where in the World Are Your Twitter Followers? TweepsMap Knows (Mashable)

Posted: 22 Nov 2011 02:56 PM PST

Veena Bissram Veena Bissram – Tue Nov 22, 5:56 pm ET

The Spark of Genius Series highlights a unique feature of startups and is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark. If you would like to have your startup considered for inclusion, please see the details here. Name: TweepsMap

[More from Mashable: 3 New Takes On Personalized Web Video]

Quick Pitch: TweepsMap provides a visual, interactive map of your Twitter followers by country, state or city.

Genius Idea: Measures the effectiveness of Twitter campaigns by analyzing the locations of your followers.

[More from Mashable: Who Should You Follow on Social Media? Proliphiq Knows The Answer]

Knowing where your Twitter followers are located can not only feed your curiosity, but it can also help you measure the success of your social campaigns. To do this, TweepsMap links to your Twitter account, analyzes your followers and provides a map or chart that shows where they're located by country, state or city.

Launched in October, the tool helps Twitter users learn if their campaign is successful in a targeted region. For example, if your Twitter campaign is targeted toward Chicago residents, TweepsMap helps you see how many of your followers are actually located in Chicago.

"One of the most important aspects of a campaign is to measure location to see where your followers are and if they are engaged or not," says Samir Al-Battran, founder of TweepsMap. "TweepsMap helps you learn whether you need to adjust your campaign to reach your targeted audience."

After authorizing the TweepsMap API, it generates a color-coded map with Twitter birds spread across it to show the number of followers in that specific location -- red birds represent the largest number of followers, and yellow represents the second largest number.

Check out a TweepsMap of Mashable's 2.5+ million users:

Mashable's TweepsMap

The map shows that most of Mashable's followers are located in the United States, South America, the United Kingdom and India. TweepsMap also provides the percentages of Mashable's followers in three top locations - "44% of mashable's followers are from #United States, 7% from #United Kingdom & 4% from #New York".

Users can use the TweepsMap widget to display their own statistics on any website or blog.

"For individual users, TweepsMap is a fun tool to check out the distribution of their followers and share them on Twitter," says Al-Battran. "For larger organizations, the goal of TweepsMap is to help them measure the effectiveness of their campaigns."

TweepsMap does not automatically tweet results without the users permission or store personal Twitter account information.

One of the challenges with TweepsMap is that less than 10% of Twitter users do not add accurate locations on their Twitter accounts, says Al-Battran. Most users only add their country or state instead of their residing city. That's why most of the Twitter birds on the TweetsMap represent the number of followers in a country rather than in a city.

The site now has about daily 1,000 users and Al-Battran plans to expand TweepsMap by launching premium services in the future for larger Twitter accounts.

Where are your Twitter followers located?

Series Supported by Microsoft BizSpark

The Spark of Genius Series highlights a unique feature of startups and is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark, a startup program that gives you three-year access to the latest Microsoft development tools, as well as connecting you to a nationwide network of investors and incubators. There are no upfront costs, so if your business is privately owned, less than three years old, and generates less than U.S.$1 million in annual revenue, you can sign up today.

This story originally published on Mashable here.

Microsoft signs agreement to scrutinize Yahoo (AP)

Posted: 23 Nov 2011 02:52 PM PST

By MICHAEL LIEDTKE, AP Technology Writer Michael Liedtke, Ap Technology Writer – Wed Nov 23, 5:52 pm ET

SAN FRANCISCO – It looks as if Microsoft wants a seat at the negotiating table if Yahoo decides to sell part or all of its business.

To gain better access, Microsoft Corp. has signed a nondisclosure agreement with Yahoo Inc., according to a person familiar with the situation. The person spoke to The Associated Press on Wednesday on the condition of anonymity because the agreement hasn't been formally announced.

The DealReporter and The New York Times earlier reported the arrangement between Microsoft and Yahoo.

Yahoo's board has been mulling the company's options since firing CEO Carol Bartz in early September. The alternatives include selling Yahoo's Asian assets, such as the Alibaba Group in China, and auctioning off the company in its entirety instead of hiring a new CEO. Tim Morse, Yahoo's chief financial officer, has been interim CEO since Bartz's ouster.

The DealReporter said that Yahoo's board is scheduled to meet next week to discuss its next step.

Microsoft unsuccessfully tried to buy Yahoo in 2008 for as much as $47.5 billion before walking away in frustration. Yahoo's stock is worth less than half of Microsoft's last offer of $33 per share.

Yahoo shares fell 3 cents Wednesday to close at $14.94. Microsoft's stock price dropped 32 cents to close at $24.47.

The New York Times reported that Microsoft is primarily interested in protecting its Internet search advertising alliance with Yahoo if its partner pursues a sale or a dramatic reorganization. Microsoft currently provides most of the search technology on Yahoo's website in return for 12 percent of the ad revenue generated from the results.

To preserve its business relationship with Yahoo, Microsoft already had explored contributing to a joint bid for Yahoo's U.S. assets with some of the buyout firms that have been considering making offers. That list includes Silver Lake Partners, Providence Equity Partners and the Texas Pacific Group.

Alibaba CEO Jack Ma has publicly acknowledged that his company would like to buy Yahoo, but that could be difficult because of U.S. government concerns about a Chinese business owning a U.S. company that handles email and other electronic communications.

Larry Page-Run Google Shutters 7 More Projects (NewsFactor)

Posted: 23 Nov 2011 11:21 AM PST

Jennifer LeClaire, newsfactor.com Jennifer Leclaire, newsfactor.com – Wed Nov 23, 2:21 pm ET

Google is continuing its streamlining efforts, shuttering projects that haven't panned out the way the search-engine giant hoped and folding others into other products as special features. Google's goal is to drive a simpler user experience.

In the latest round of closures, Google is getting rid of seven projects, some better known than others. Urs Hölzle, senior vice president of operations and Google Fellow, laid out the plans for each property, including Google Bookmarks Lists; Google Friend Connect; Google Gears; Google Search Timeline; Google Wave; Knol; and Renewable Energy Cheaper than Coal.

"It's good for Google to shutter projects and products that have very limited or no adoption. It helps with focus," said Greg Sterling, principal analyst at Sterling Market Intelligence. "My question, however, is what will happen to Google's vaunted 20 percent time initiative out of which many of these projects came."

Will 20 Percent Live?

A "20 percent project" is a Google philosophy that allows employees to spend one day a week working on something not in the regular job description. News reports have suggested that Google's 20 percent project will continue.

Google's jobs page for engineers notes, "We offer our engineers "20-percent time" so that they're free to work on what they're really passionate about. Google Suggest, AdSense for Content, and Orkut are among the many products of this perk."

But there have been a lot of changes at Google since co-founder Larry Page took over the CEO reins from Eric Schmidt. By his own words, Page has focused much of his energy on increasing Google's velocity and execution since he took over in April. That has meant investing in acquisitions, including $12.5 billion for Motorola, as well as dropping more than 25 projects.

Page killed Google Buzz, for example, but then again it was the project that got the search-engine giant in hot water with the Federal Trade Commission, and Google+ quickly took its place and became more popular than Buzz ever was.

Wave Goodbye

In the latest round of cuts, Google loses Bookmarks Lists, an experimental feature for sharing bookmarks and collaborating with friends. Google will also shed Friend Connect, which allows webmasters to add social features to their sites by embedding a few snippets of code.

Google Gears is going away in March. Gears is a browser extension for creating offline Web applications and stopped supporting new browsers. And Google is moving the Search Timeline graph of historical results for a query.

As of Jan. 31, Wave will become read-only; users will not be able to create new ones. On April 30 Google will turn it off completely. Knol, a project Google launched in 2007 to help improve Web content by enabling experts to collaborate on in-depth articles, is moving.

"In order to continue this work, we've been working with Solvitor and Crowd Favorite to create Annotum, an open-source scholarly authoring and publishing platform based on WordPress," Hölzle said. "Knol will work as usual until April 30, 2012, and you can download your Knols to a file and/or migrate them to WordPress.com."

Malls plan to track shopper locations through cell phones on Black Friday (Digital Trends)

Posted: 23 Nov 2011 06:11 PM PST

Mike Flacy Mike Flacy – Wed Nov 23, 9:11 pm ET

mall-black-friday

Starting on Black Friday and running through the entire shopping season, the Promenade Temecula shopping mall in southern California and Short Pump Town Center shopping mall in Richmond, Virginia plan to track customers locations within the mall by monitoring cell phone signals as reported by CNN earlier today. The malls intend to follow the path of each shopper and collect data to understand typical shopping patterns. While the malls claim that the data collected will be anonymous, mall officials will be able to tell which portion of the mall is unpopular, the amount of time that people spend inside a particular store and which stores compliment each other based off customer behavior.

footpath-techThe malls do plan to alert customers of the tracking program and encourage shoppers to turn off the cell phone while shopping. However, it's unlikely that customers will turn off their main device for communication and busy shoppers may miss the notifications posted within the mall.  Forest City Commercial Management is the company that manages both malls and equates the tracking program to monitoring migratory patterns of birds. The name of the tracking system is FootPath Technology and uses a group of antennas that monitor the unique identification number used by each phone while the customer travels through the shopping mall.

It's impossible for FootPath Technology to tie identifying personal details to the cell phones without the cooperation of wireless providers like Verizon, AT&T and Sprint. The system also cannot capture personal information being transmitted from the phones like text messages or photos. The system is designed by a British company called Path Intelligence and has been rolled out within shopping centers in both Europe and Australia. Both Home Depot and JCPenney are both considering rolling out the tracking system in stores, but haven't made any official announcements regarding a potential launch. 

This article was originally posted on Digital Trends

More from Digital Trends

Verizon Wireless starts tracking and sharing sites that users visit

New document reveals which carriers are collecting the most data and for how long

Sprint iPhone still in the works, possibly available this summer?

The big four phone carriers spill on their location and customer data collection policies

Just Show Me: 3 great travel apps for your Android phone (Yahoo! News)

Posted: 23 Nov 2011 01:32 PM PST

Even Britney Spears Can't Help Google+ Catch Facebook (ContributorNetwork)

Posted: 23 Nov 2011 03:40 PM PST

Report Predicts a Happy Holiday for Kindle Fire (NewsFactor)

Posted: 23 Nov 2011 01:48 PM PST

Barry Levine, newsfactor.com Barry Levine, newsfactor.com – Wed Nov 23, 4:48 pm ET

Amazon's Kindle Fire is catching fire, metaphorically. That's the prediction of a leading analyst, who foresees the new tablet selling 5 million units before the end of this year, hitting 12 million next year, and reaching 20 million in 2013.

If accurate, the projection by Citigroup's Mark Mahaney would mean the Fire would capture 15 percent of the growing tablet market in 2012. This would translate to more than $3 billion in revenue, or about 5 percent of the giant retailer's total revenue.

'A Substantial Segment'

"With an aggressive pricing strategy, an unmatched content cross-sell opportunity, a market-smart form factor, and probable product improvements," Mahaney told news media, "Amazon can own a substantial segment" of the tablet market.

Estimates by other analysts indicate that Amazon is losing some money on every Fire sold, in order to hit the magic price point of $199. Piper Jaffray's Gene Munster has estimated the loss as high as $50 on each unit, while others have pegged the loss at just under $3.

Just as phone companies offer subsidized smartphones so they can make their money on services, Amazon intends to turn a profit on Fire sales by moving its vast inventory of content, including e-books, apps, music, movies and other offerings. That ecosystem is an advantage over Barnes & Noble's new Nook Tablet, which has access to e-books but only to modest amounts of other kinds of content.

Impacting iPad Sales?

Mahaney's projection is in keeping with other forecasts. For instance, earlier this week market researcher ChangeWave found that 65 percent of those who intend to buy a tablet in the near future would choose the iPad, while 22 percent would buy the Fire. While far behind the iPad, the 22 percent would mean that the Fire would soar above all other, non-Apple tablets.

"Amazon is going to leapfrog the competition," ChangeWave said in a statement, "and become the number two product in the tablet market."

The survey was in the field before the Nook Tablet was released.

The ChangeWave report surveyed 3,043 North American consumers. It also found that interest in buying a tablet is increasing quickly. Fourteen percent of those surveyed said they planned to buy a tablet in the next three months, a major increase as the holiday season begins over the 6 percent who stated that desire in August.

Bigger Kindle Fires May Be Coming

The newly released Kindle Fire sports a 7-inch, 1024x600-pixel touchscreen and a dual-core, 1GHz processor -- although it does not have GPS or cameras. Rumors indicate that the company already plans to release an 8.9-inch model, possibly before the end of second quarter of 2012, and a 10.1-inch model.

While many reviews of the Android-based Fire have been favorable, some have pegged it as not quite the same as the iPad or Samsung's Galaxy Tab, in that it is more of a window into Amazon's cloud storage and store, with less functionality and versatility than the higher-cost tablets. An opposing view is that it does much of what the higher-end tablets do, but at less than half the cost.

Look out for some great iOS game discounts this Thanksgiving (Appolicious)

Posted: 23 Nov 2011 01:36 PM PST

FCC Chairman Opposes AT&T Merger with T-Mobile (NewsFactor)

Posted: 23 Nov 2011 11:41 AM PST

Barry Levine, newsfactor.com Barry Levine, newsfactor.com – Wed Nov 23, 2:41 pm ET

The chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) said Tuesday that he opposed AT&T's proposed $39 billion merger with T-Mobile because it would lead to higher prices for consumers and big job losses. The chairman, Julius Genachowski, has sent a draft order to the other FCC commissioners, asking for the deal to be sent to an administrative law judge for review.

The move could signal curtains for the proposed deal. While the FCC cannot by itself block the purchase, a judge can. The request to send it to a judge needs to be approved by the FCC commissioners, who will meet again in the middle of next month.

AT&T: 'Disappointing'

Genachowski said his conclusion was based on review by the agency of hundreds of thousands of documents, dozens of petitions opposing the merger, and meetings with both companies.

In a statement, Larry Solomon, AT&T senior vice president of corporate communications, called the action "disappointing" and said AT&T was reviewing its options. He added that it was "yet another example of a government agency acting to prevent billions in new investment and the creation of many thousands of new jobs."

The Communication Workers of America union is backing AT&T, telling news media that "the path to secure jobs is through massive investment in a 4G LTE network across America," and noting that T-Mobile by itself cannot make that investment.

As expected, Sprint, which had opposed the deal, sang a different tune. Senior Vice President of Government Affairs Vonya McCann said Sprint appreciated "Chairman Genachowski's leadership on the issue," and that the company looked forward "to the FCC moving quickly to adopt a strong hearing designation order."

T-Mobile Losing Customers

The U.S. Justice Department filed an antitrust lawsuit against AT&T in August, with the hearings before a federal judge beginning in February. Justice said that "the elimination of T-Mobile as an independent, low-priced rival would remove a significant competitive force from the market."

The one-two punch of the FCC and the Justice Department, if either or certainly if both successfully move forward, would most likely be enough to kill the deal -- although AT&T could always pursue appeals.

There might be other alternatives for the two companies, such as AT&T taking a lesser share of T-Mobile. AT&T has a major incentive to keep moving forward, in that it has agreed to pay $3 billion in cash, plus some spectrum, if the deal collapses.

Bill Ho, an analyst with industry research firm Current Analysis, said that, if the deal does fall apart, the benefits to consumers "will be short-lived, unless T-Mobile can turn itself around."

The German owners, he said, "want to get out of the market," and T-Mobile continues to lose customers -- even though its price plans are often the cheapest around. Ho said he didn't believe a merger of Sprint and T-Mobile seemed like a good match, "either from a technology or cash viewpoint," although there was always the possibility of another suitor who did not raise the same issues that AT&T did.

Disney, Pixar and DreamWorks movies now available for rent on YouTube (Digital Trends)

Posted: 23 Nov 2011 09:09 PM PST

Jeff Hughes Jeff Hughes – 34 mins ago

very merry unbirthdayNetflix may need to start keeping an eye on YouTube's rental service. Thanks to a new partnership, Disney movies will be available for rent through the popular Google-owned streaming service. The first batch of many Disney movies are available beginning today, some starting at $1.99.

The official announcement, via blog post, points out that today's batch is "the first of hundreds of The Walt Disney Studios Movies," with more releases in the weeks to come. Renters will be able to enjoy animated classics from Disney, as well as Pixar and DreamWorks Studios.

Some of today's Disney releases include Alice in Wonderland and the newer Winnie the Pooh at $1.99 and $3.99 respectively. For Pixar fans, both the Cars movies are available. YouTube also has the most recent installment in the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise going for $3.99. The Disney deal gives users 48 hours to watch rented movies to their heart's content. Additionally YouTube Movie Extras will offer behind-the-scenes clips, interviews and other bonus content for Disney favorites.

Disney marks the fourth major studio to sign up with YouTube, following Sony, Warner Bros and Universal—all part of Google's plan to transform YouTube's home movies image into a viable streaming platform. Disney-ABC has been diligently beefing up its streaming content avenues, last month sealing a deal with Amazon for Prime subscribers as well as renewing a deal with Netflix.

The Disney library joins thousands already in YouTube's stable. Movie rentals go as high as $3.99 and some can even be viewed for free. The rentals can watched online, as well on Google TV or your Android phone or tablet. Sorry rest of the world, as for now, the Walt Disney Studio YouTube rentals are only available for those in the U.S. and Canada.

This article was originally posted on Digital Trends

More from Digital Trends

Zediva permanently shut down, forced to pay MPAA nearly two million

Hulu takes itself off the auction block and is no longer for sale

Netflix details new strategy: become HBO

Antitrust regulations be damned: Google wants Hulu

Report: Apple to add near-field communication tech to next iPhone (Appolicious)

Posted: 23 Nov 2011 11:14 AM PST

Microsoft signs confidentiality pact with Yahoo (Reuters)

Posted: 23 Nov 2011 10:06 AM PST

By Alexei Oreskovic Alexei Oreskovic – Wed Nov 23, 1:06 pm ET

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Microsoft Corp has signed a confidentiality agreement with Yahoo Inc, allowing the software giant to take a closer look at Yahoo's business, according to a source familiar with the matter.

Microsoft joins several private equity firms that are also poring over Yahoo's books and operations, as they explore various options for striking a deal with the struggling Internet company.

Yahoo, which fired its chief executive in September, is undergoing a "strategic review," to revamp its business and its stagnant revenue growth.

Private equity firms KKR and TPG Capital have also signed confidentiality agreements with Yahoo, people familiar with the matter previously told Reuters. The firms are looking to potentially buy minority stakes in Yahoo of up to 20 percent, with an eye toward eventually taking over the whole company, the people said.

Silver Lake, another private equity firm, has also signed an nondisclosure agreement with Yahoo, according to the technology blog AllThingsD.

Some private equity firms have balked at signing Yahoo's NDA because of restrictions that would prevent them from forming consortiums, people familiar with the matter told Reuters.

Reuters reported last month that Microsoft, which has a cash pile of $57 billion, was considering a joint bid for Yahoo.

Microsoft's signing of a nondisclosure agreement with Yahoo occurred "recently," according to the source. The confidentiality agreement between the two companies was earlier reported by the New York Times on Wednesday.

Yahoo and Microsoft declined to comment.

Microsoft last tried buying Yahoo in 2008, offering to pay as much as $47.5 billion, or $33 per share. But Yahoo rebuffed the offer.

After that failed bid, Microsoft struck a 10-year search deal with Yahoo in 2009, that allows Microsoft's technology to power Yahoo's search results and gives Microsoft a 12 percent cut of advertising revenue on Yahoo.

Shares of Yahoo were up 1 cent at $14.98 in early afternoon trading on Wednesday. Microsoft shares were down 0.9 percent at $24.58.

(Reporting by Alexei Oreskovic; Editing by Tim Dobbyn)
at 10:01 PM

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)

My Blog List