A123 Looks To Add More Production Capacity

August 11, 2010

A123 Systems disappointed Wall Street with weak second-quarter results on Tuesday, but said it remains confident a huge market for its batteries is just around the corner.

The lithium-ion battery maker said that once again it is considering expanding production capacity. And it calculated its market opportunity from current customers at $1.5 billion by 2013 – a huge target.

The lithium-ion battery market holds great promise. With electric cars and trucks starting to go on sale in significant numbers this year and next, there is great potential for growth. Late last year, Pike Research said lithium-ion battery sales to the transportation market could reach $8 billion by 2015.

But the expense of building factories is high, and concerns have begun to emerge about industry-wide over capacity.

A123 doesn’t seem alarmed. The company said on a conference call that projected demand from its current customers could present it with a $1.5 billion opportunity by 2013.

To prepare, CEO David Vieau said the company is considering expanding production capacity another 30 percent by the end of 2011. The company also announced capacity expansions when it released first- and fourth-quarter results.

The present plan is to reach 760 megawatts of production capacity by the end of 2011. A123 is now considering raising the target to 1,000 megawatts. Vieau told analyst he would take three to four months to make a decision.

He also announced a deal with AES Energy Storage to deploy 44 megawatts of lithium-ion battery storage on the electric grid. By mid 2011, as much as 70 megawatts could be deployed worldwide by the AES, making it the largest lithium-ion battery storage deployment, he said.

A123 said second-quarter revenue came to $22.6 million and its loss widened to 33 cents a share. Wall Street analysts had been looking for sales of $25.5 million and a loss of 27 cents a share.

A123 stock fell to $9.95 in after-market trading. The shares are down about 26 percent from their IPO price last September.

Leave a Comment » | news | Tagged: , , | Permalink
Posted by Mark Boslet

Nanosys Unveils $30M In Funding, Strikes Solar Deal With Samsung

August 10, 2010

Nanosys strengthened its competitive standing in the clean-tech market by securing as much as $30 million in new funding and striking a deal to have Samsung use its solar technology.

The Palo Alto start-up that became a poster child of the nanotech craze six years ago, has been steadily remaking itself into a supplier of technology to electronics and green-tech companies. The heady days are gone, as are the plans for a 2004 IPO.

But the company has built a respectable portfolio of technologies that boost the capacity of lithium ion batteries and improve the quality and efficiency of LED displays and solid-state lighting.

Now it has received validation of its solar technology in the form of a licensing agreement with Samsung. As part of the deal, Samsung Venture Investment Corp. will take a $15 million equity stake in Nanosys – on top of the millions more the company will pay for the license.

Previous Nanosys investors Arch Venture Partners, El Dorado Ventures, Polaris Venture Capital and Venrock will join the funding round, contributing $10 million. Nanosys expects to add another $5 million to the round by October.

CEO Jason Hartlove says the Samsung money will allow Nanosys to build a Silicon Valley plant and ramp production volumes.

But more importantly, Samsung will license Nanosys’ nano-particle coating technology and nano-inks to improve the efficiency and lower the cost of its thin-film solar cell production.

Samsung, a relatively latecomer to solar, announced earlier this week that it would more than quadruple solar cell production by the first half of next year. The company kicked off a 30 MW solar pilot last September and now has set its sights on 130 MW. It is reportedly working with both crystalline cells and thin film technologies.

Hartlove says his nano-particle coatings shift the infrared and ultraviolet wavelength light that thin film can’t process to colors the cells can absorb. Efficiency goes up. Meanwhile, nano-inks are quicker and cheaper alternatives to the chemical vapor deposition reactors that thin-film producers often use.

Samsung also will work with Nanosys on Nanosys’ quantum dot technology for LED chips.

“This is a very important deal for us,” says Hartlove.

Leave a Comment » | news | Tagged: , , , | Permalink
Posted by Mark Boslet

Note To The Next H-P CEO: Don’t Use Porn Stars To Close Deals With High-Level Customers, Government

August 9, 2010

Although we don’t know the full story yet, the veil is slowly lifting over HP’s latest sex scandal.

HP CEO Mark Hurd hired an aging porn star to play a cute “femme de compagnie” a.k.a “hostess” for fellow “high-level” HP executives and “clients.”

Such a crucial position at HP that Hurd felt obliged to interview the “soft-core” porn star himself for the job. Pretty hands-on kind of guy for a quite button-down executive!

HP Way? Using porn stars to close deals

For sure, this is really raising some questions on exactly how some of these big IT deals are ‘closed’ at HP; which by the way announced better numbers than expected. Sweet!

However this interesting”menage a trois” [Hurd is married] didn’t seem to please HP’s board of directors presided by… Hurd himself!

In a following investigation, HP’s chief was accused of submitting inaccurate expense reports to the amount of $20,000 that the company says concealed his relationship with the porn star.

And voila! Instead of celebrating his $100 million renewal contract with HP, Hurd is fired with “only” $35 million in severance pay.

Not bad, considering that he’s now “off the hook” – having settled with this unknown actress that should remained unknown! – and has time to contemplate his next job… at IBM perhaps!

Shareholders: time to bring HP Board to Court!

Common HP, Mark Hurd is no Bill Clinton, who after all got to keep his job!

Worse, because of this “lack of judgement” HP shareholders lost cumulatively billions of dollars and should demand a full explananation from HP’s Board, and why not, sue them!

On a good note, the Hurd sex scandal bodes well for retired porn stars that should have no problem as hostesses for high-level executives in Corporate America! Viva capitalism!

TechPulse 360

7 Comments | hardware, news | Tagged: , , | Permalink
Posted by TechPulse 360

Antennagate: Jobs Fires iPhone 4 Hardware Chief

August 9, 2010

What do you do after your product gets leaked to the media months before it’s ready, and after it launches, you realize it’s the buggiest iPhone ever and in a desperate move, you post bogus videos of competiting phones?

Well… you just hope your boss is not Steve Jobs!

Joke aside, this is exactly what happened to Mark Papermaster who joined Apple under  20 months ago and “resigned” over the weekend from his position as Senior Vice President of Devices Hardware Engineering a.k.a. iPhone 4 Hardware Chief.

And this, after a long struggle for Apple to get Papermaster from the clutches of IBM where he had given a good 25 years.

The empty spot will be now taken over by Bob Mansfield, the SVP of the Mac hardware team. Mansfield was also actively involved with the architecture of the iPhone 4, which makes him, for Jobs, the best choice Papermaster.

Hey Steve! Now that you’ve fired the half-culprit of the iPhone 4 fiasco (the other one is you, remember?), don’t you think it’s time to replace the cute iBrick 4 and give us something we can actually use? Just a thought.

Techpulse 360

1 Comment | Apple, Mobile, news, wireless | Tagged: , , , , | Permalink
Posted by TechPulse 360

Is The Google-Verizon Deal Against Net Neutrality?

August 5, 2010

The debate over the struggle to keep the Net open continues as Google eyes Web traffic deal with Verizon.

Today the New York Times came in strongly against the search engine provider accusing both Google and Verizon are on the verge of signing an agreement for speedier content deliver.

The agreement would let Verizon accelerate content delivery to consumers provided that online publishers pay for it.

By publishers, we are talking of services like YouTube, who would get priority over others when it comes to content delivery over the Verizon Network. A network, by the way, that is amongst one of the top Internet service providers in the United States. The payment will be made by the owner of the content, Google in this case.

The flip side? Wave goodbye to net neutrality.

Here are some reasons why I think this could prove harmful for the rest of us:

  1. Consumers will get charged extra for faster content delivery;
  2. Preference to one content over another on the basis of one being free and the other being paid for;
  3. It would mean an end to the FCC control over Internet Service Providers (ISPs), which I know some wouldn’t mind that much!

In addition, quite a few Verizon phones run on Google’s Android mobile operating system, which further gives credence to speculations that Google might try to seek preferred treatment from Verizon.

In response, Verizon stated this on its blog:

The NYT article regarding conversations between Google and Verizon is mistaken.  It fundamentally misunderstands our purpose. As we said in our earlier FCC filing, our goal is an Internet policy framework that ensures openness and accountability, and incorporates specific FCC authority, while maintaining investment and innovation. To suggest this is a business arrangement between our companies is entirely incorrect.

While Google response on the Guardian was:

The New York Times is quite simply wrong. We have not had any conversations with Verizon about paying for carriage of Google traffic. We remain as committed as we always have been to an open internet.

The deal in my opinion is about winning extra bandwidth to promote better utilization of speed and improved content delivery. Improved speed and higher bandwidth would bolt users with higher service rate and ensure the Internet is monopolized.

Is Google finally evil?

Leave a Comment » | analysis | Tagged: , , , | Permalink
Posted by TechPulse 360

Intel’s New Shopping Craze: Wireless Technologies For Smartphones

August 5, 2010

Remember the late 90′s, when Intel was throwing billions in its quest to become a telecommunication powerhouse, to finally write it all off?

Well, sounds that the chipmaker is at it again with the recent acquisitions of Infineon’s cellular and GPS technology as well as the assets of small 4G vendor Comsys.

Hopefully, the mastermind of Intel’s first telecom foray, Sean Maloney, might remember one or two things learned from his first failed attempt to build a communications empire!

As analyst Linley Gwennap writes it,

“Making it clear that money is no object in its quest to become a major player in the smartphone market, Intel plans to acquire the wireless operations of Infineon in a deal valued at more than $1.2 billion. Infineon’s cellular and GPS technology will complement Intel’s Atom processor and Wi-Fi expertise, allowing Intel to deliver a complete solution for the rapidly growing smartphone and tablet-computer markets.”

Infineon ranked fourth in cellular-baseband shipments last year with 10.7% unit share, according to a recent report from The Linley Group. Infineon is a major supplier to Apple, Nokia, and Samsung.

But “the German vendor lacks an application processor, however, making success in the smartphone market difficult, and it has struggled to sell its 3G baseband outside of Apple,” adds Linley.

The analyst adds that in a quieter but significant move, Comsys acquisitions brings a processor for WiMax phones and was working on converting that design to support LTE.

Intel’s secret goal (well not anymore!) is to merge Infineon and Comsys technologies to create its own 4G solution coupled to its Atom chip for smartphones.

“Intel is clearly focused on smartphones, leaving the future of Infineon’s popular 2G processors in doubt. This deal could end up helping vendors such as Broadcom, MediaTek, and ST-Ericsson, which could step into the breach with their own 2G processors. Conversely, the deal gives Intel the technology it needs to develop an integrated 3G-smartphone processor, allowing it to compete against vendors such as Qualcomm and Marvell,” says Linley.

First published in TechPulse 360.

Leave a Comment » | chips, Mobile, wireless | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by TechPulse 360

Analyst: US Mobile Video Revenues To Surpass $1 Billion In 2013

August 3, 2010

Interesting trends need to be reported and mobiles have continued to evolve, growing from mere handy communication devices to talk and send messages all the way to music and now videos.

As the hardware and software for mobiles gets smarter, better functions keep coming up. With larger screens, crispier display on the smartphones and tablets thanks to the iPhone, iPad and the Android devices, revenues for mobile videos have increased year on year and according to eMarketer these will stand at $548 million for 2010.

Those stats are for the US alone and is bound to increase to $1.3 billion by 2014, which is phenomenal.

In its reports the revenues are divided into three categories: subscription, ad supported and pay per download. These can be broken down further in earnings as:

  1. Ad Supported: $35 million
  2. Subscription based: $100 million
  3. Pay per download: $413 million

Each of these revenue models are predicted to double in the next five years with pay per download rising to $901 million, subscription based revenue to over $235 million while ad supported set to exceed $206.

The only thing that is keeping revenues from leveraging every smartphone out there is primarily the fact that data plans and subscriptions costs a lot for users when it comes to viewing videos on devices.

Think of it, if WiFi were to be more readily available at every street corner for free, the ad supported format would greatly benefit both online video portals as well as boost mobile revenue. Now I am not making this up, the ad supported models have grown leaps and bound, given that everyone wants to be entertained without actually paying an extra penny.

Before I wrap this one up, I am just going to be a bit more optimistic and put up my prediction: the ad revenue might actually pass $1.5 billion, once more players step in with high end devices.

1 Comment | Mobile | Tagged: , , , | Permalink
Posted by TechPulse 360

[Video] Death Grip Is Unique To Apple iPhone 4, UK Tests confirms

August 2, 2010

So there you have it.

As most of us knew, but only a few (like TechPulse 360) were brave enough to speak out, Apple screwed up in its iPhone 4 antenna design. And pointing to similar problems at competitors phone revealed to be… well pointless!

To the point that Apple was forced over the weekend to erase all its flawed claims from its website after a report from PA Consulting Group confirmed that the “death grip” or “antennagate” is indeed unique to the iPhone 4.

“In the majority of the tests PA’s wireless technologists found the iPhone 4’s performance was in the same range as the other smartphones tested (Blackberry 9700, HTC HD2), but it was consistently at the lower end of that range. And, as found by other testers, when used in the “death grip”, the iPhone4’s performance was significantly worse than other smartphones,” writes the UK-based firm.

Now what?

Steve, recall the damn thing and fix it once and for all, instead of inventing flaws at other phones that don’t exist! And if it’s not too much asking, don’t forget to apologize to your customers and fans too!

1 Comment | Apple, Mobile, wireless | Tagged: , , , , | Permalink
Posted by TechPulse 360

Will The Internet Explorer Regain Its Past Position In Browser Market?

August 2, 2010

Have you ever seen the expression on the face of a kid who has been failing continually and then gets a better percentage, out of the blues? Well Microsoft’s Internet Explorer might paint a similar picture as the browser gained a minute percentage in July.

The fall of IE isn’t a new story and had been happening ever since the advent of Mozilla’s Firefox, specifically. Back in September 2009, IE stood in the browser share market with 65.71% and coming down to 60.32% in June this year with Firefox standing at 23.82%. However it changed in July when the browser’s market share climbed marginally to reach 60.74% while that of Firefox took a dip from 23.81% in June to 22.91%. What the stats mention is obvious that the Internet Explorer has gained in on the shares of Firefox and even Google Chrome which has also taken a plunge from 7.24% to 7.16%. Despite all the recent plunge, the IE continues to be the market leader for various reasons.

I am pretty skeptical about IE, the main reason being that the leading browser was only able to climb to such heights owing to the fact that it started when it was the only web browser. I recall Netscape Navigator, which was one of the worst browsers ever. IE was good until Microsoft axed its own feet by keeping the IE 6 on the web for almost half a decade, there was nothing new coming to it while others in the field kept introducing feature rich browsers. That era of IE6 was exactly that turned off many IE fans and had it not been for big names on the Web like YouTube, etc pulling off support for the IE6. There was of course IE7 which was better at crashing more often, giving an even worse experience to surfers.

I don’t recall when was the last time I actually used the Internet Explorer and why would I if the likes of Firefox, Chrome or even Opera provide me with a rich experience? IE had that trust of users, but it has continually lost it, something which will be hard for it to regain. The other major reason for its massive success and dominance is the fact that it came loaded on all PCs, which had a largest share in the computer market, so its success is rightly credited to the success of Microsoft Windows in my opinion. The current rise shouldn’t be taken a sign of IE’s regeneration, it just a hiccup, one which we will keep witnessing until IE is number two or worst still the number 3 browser.

Stats via Net Applications

1 Comment | analysis | Tagged: , , , , | Permalink
Posted by TechPulse 360

Next Entries »
Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 29 other followers