Facebook VP of Product Chris Cox talks about the 3 places that matter:
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Posted by TechPulse 360
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.
1 Comment | Apple, Mobile, news, wireless | Tagged: Apple, ibm, iphone4, mansfield, papermaster | Permalink
Posted by TechPulse 360
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: Apple, broadcom, comsys, Infineon, Intel, linley, marvell, MediaTek, nokia, Qualcomm, Samsung, ST-Ericsson | Permalink
Posted by TechPulse 360
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:
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: mobile, mobile video, reports, Revenue | Permalink
Posted by TechPulse 360
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: antennagate, Apple, iPhone, iphone4, pa | Permalink
Posted by TechPulse 360
The heading is pretty hard to digest, but sounds ever justified given how things have been shaping with Hewlett Packard, especially after it acquired Palm and its much vaunted WebOS.
Lets start off with HP and its place in the market. The manufacturer is primarily known for being the Goliath of the Tech industry, but has dwindled recently to the sleek and much more pleasant Apple and others.
The comparison, though odd is more like the ageing Hollywood heroes being replaced by the younger, fresher hunks. The giant has been selling off machines in every shop across the street, it was impressive in the past, when people only knew products they saw kept in the brick and mortar shops.
Not anymore, times have changed and with the advent of the more smarter and sleeker machines like of iMacs and MacBooks or the iPad, HP doesn’t stand a chance and that is exactly what is hurting them now. It wants to undergo a facelift, a makeover and take the market by storm. But how?
Windows is HP’s nightmare
HP has the expertise to produce quality hardware but has been left sabotaged by Microsoft, which continues to be the sole operating system for HP machines. But that is set to change soon.
As mentioned earlier, the acquisition of Palm and its WebOS has given HP the right OS to integrate with its hardware. Likewise HP also thought of giving a shot at Android with its anticipated tablet before dropping the idea, to focus more on WebOS. This is another reason which sort of solidifies my stand that HP is trying hard to create a niche for itself, just like Apple has.
Of course there are tougher challenges, especially in the smartphone arena where it has competition from Google’s Android as well. But unlike Google, HP has what Google doesn’t: proprietary software and hardware , which resembles Apple’s eco-system.
But, to be Apple, HP has a lot of restructuring to do. All the way from bringing out a really impressive piece of hardware powered by an equally impressive and user friendly operating system and perhaps an equally impressive marketing strategy with its own retail stores.
From what I know,people don’t mind paying a few extra bucks for a quality product and even lining outside your stores days before your first product is for sale.
So if HP is trying to bang head on with Apple, it must understand Apple isn’t about a great hardware, software or Steve Jobs. But more about the best user experience. Something which might prove to be a pretty big challenge for HP.
All I can say is that HP could become a better HP in the process, but might find it hard to being anything remotely close to Apple.
1 Comment | Mobile | Tagged: Apple, computer, hp, industry, mobile | Permalink
Posted by TechPulse 360
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