Monday, September 27, 2010

RIM hopes enterprise tablet secures franchise

http://www.google.com/reader/i/?source=mog&gl=us#stream/user%2F05579064408535224496%2Fstate%2Fcom.google%2Freading-list

Apple iAd gaining traction

The Apple iAd mobile advertising platform is on track to gain 21 percent of the nascent mobile ad market. Google is expected to dip to 21 percent, a drop from 27% last year, and Microsoft will drop to seven percent share, from 10 percent last year, IDC predicts.

Of course, it is still a $500 million revenues annual market, but growing quite fast.

Sony Ericsson Dumps ‘Failed’ Symbian OS

It wasn't so long ago that Nokia executives would point out how difficult mobile phones and mobile operating systems are, essentially arguing that new mobile operating systems would have a tougher time than they thought.

Now it is Symbian that appears to have failed, while the Apple iOS and Android keep growing.

Sony Ericsson confirmed that it had no plans for new Symbian products, while a Gartner analyst labeled the open source mobile operating system as a failed experiment.

We probably won't hear comments of that sort anymore.

Public Pensions are a Crisis

We have a big public pension obligation crisis brewing, in case you didn't already know that. If we don't fix it, we will someday discover that nearly 100 percent of funds intended to support local education will be going to pay retiree benefits.

Sunday, September 26, 2010

National Poll Infers Little Support for Net Neutrality, Maybe

Hart Research Associates conducted a national survey finding that opposition to government Internet regulation remains high with more than 75 percent of respondents agreeing that the Internet is currently working well and over 55 percent stating that the federal government should not regulate the Internet at all.

Some will interpret the results as relatively overwhelming citizen rejection of the notion of "network neutrality," but that probably overstates the results. Proponents will argue that net neutrality is about protecting people from future potential abuses, and does not address today's experience.

Granted, the average person wouldn't have a clue what "network neutrality" is, so asking a pointed question would likely result in dubious or skewed results.

Still, there seems to be a clear sentiment that the government is not likely to make things better if it becomes more active in things related to the Internet, with the exception of privacy protections and child safety.

When asked if the federal government should regulate the Internet, 57 percent responded “no”. Of the 31 percent who thought the federal government should regulate the Internet, more than two thirds said any such regulation should be focused on privacy, online safety and protecting children.

Bandwidth Caps Could Limit Netflix's Streaming Service in Canada

Netflix recently has launched "streaming only" service in Canada, and fixed-line provider bandwidth caps might be a key issue.

Some broadband packages offered by Rogers and others have a limit of as little as 2 GBytes a month, which would only allow for users to stream one Netflix movie a month.

Other providers offer 15 GByte and and 60 GByte caps, but one Netflix movie can take up between two and three gigabytes. so there is not much headroom.

Short Interest In Telecom Shares Grows

Short sellers recently have increased their positions in a number of telecom stocks, presumably suggesting they believe the prices will drop.

The market has probably become concerned that drops in landline customers is no longer being made up for by growth in cellular subscriptions.

Directv-Dish Merger Fails

Directv’’s termination of its deal to merge with EchoStar, apparently because EchoStar bondholders did not approve, means EchoStar continue...