Friday, July 27, 2012

Google And The Stagnant ISP Space

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I have long advocated Google go into the ISP space, strong and sturdy.

The economics of Google Fiber and what it means for U.S. broadband
this network isn’t a charity case .... goal is to bring the same efficiencies that have helped create cheaper, smaller and more powerful computers and create a cost and improvement curve for broadband access that resembles the curves for compute storage ..... what Google has done here has fundamentally lowered the cost of building and deploying a network ..... it will pummel existing ISPs on price and service ..... From the infrastructure on the back end to the TV and Wi-Fi routers in the home, Google has built its own stuff. .... taking the most basic elements of a network and assembling them into custom gear, much like it does on the data center side. ..... Google has built its own hard drive to act as a DVR, a TV box to provide channels and a network box that acts as a modem and provides Wi-Fi connectivity in the home ...... a QR code that a technician will scan. ..... Eventually consumers will be able to do this for themselves, perhaps after they order a box on Google’s Play store. .... “Why are the Comcasts and AT&Ts of the world complaining about how much it costs to serve up broadband when Google can deliver 100 times the traditional ISP’s top speeds for the same or a lower price.” .... “This is a beginning.”
Broadband speed has been the laggard in computing.
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Surfacing

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Microsoft Admits Risk in Tablet Plans
its Surface family of tablet computers could weaken support for Windows
The tablet took off without Microsoft. Steve Jobs likened it to a car when the PC was a truck. The tablet is a phenomenon. It is happening. It is eating up the world. A lot of the PC action is shifting to the tablet space.

Isn't this what the innovator's dilemma is? To build the next big thing you have to cannibalize your existing cash cow. And why would you do that? Right?


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Samsung Revenues

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Samsung posts record $5.9 billion profit on smartphones
rampant sales of its smartphones .... Apple shipped 26 million iPhones in the June quarter .... Samsung is estimated to have increased sales to around 50 million.
The next iPhone is going to have a bigger screen. Apple learned that from Samsung. The next iPad is going to be smaller. Apple learned that from Nexus 7.

Samsung Galaxy S III is the new standard for smartphones.

These court battles are nonsensical.
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No Facebook Phone

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Coming straight from the horse's mouth.

Zuckerberg: It Wouldn't Make Sense For Us To Make A Phone
Facebook is the most-used app on all platforms, so there's little need to get into hardware.
Iterating on the app, keep building a better app, encouraging the use of Facebook Connect as the way people sign into apps: those are better things to be doing.

It is better to be the top app on all platforms than to descend into hardware.

But this might not be Facebook's last word on the topic.


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Thursday, July 26, 2012

Facebook's Money Problem

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Facebook's Earnings Report Underscores Its Challenges
the decelerating growth of its advertising business, which accounted for 85 percent of its $3.7 billion in revenue ..... in the last quarter, Facebook got $1.28 in revenue from each of its users, which is barely changed from the same time last year. .... the average revenue per user in the U.S. and Canada jumped to $3.20 from $2.84 a year ago
There is no relationship at Facebook between user growth and revenue growth. And that seems to be the problem. Long term I am not worried. There are several ways to monetize Facebook. Facebook has to figure out Facebook-unique ways to make money.
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