Can HP Afford to Abandon Consumer Markets?

As the new HP CEO, Meg Whitman faces a difficult situation, as have all recent HP CEOs. HP has a strong set of enterprise and consumer products, with a brand that is known both in consumer and business markets.

One might argue HP should give up on the consumer markets. But that might be as dangerous as straddling the market. Consumer technology is strongly shaping enterprise computing and application trends. If HP gives up its consumer focus, it might be at a disadvantage.

Virtually nobody thinks HP can afford to give up its enterprise focus, so that isn't an issue. The issue is how strategic a consumer focus of some sort might be, for success in the enterprise markets.

HP: Keep PCs, consumer units

Google+ has 43 million users?

There is a wide divergence of opinion about how well Google+, Google's new social network, is doing. One issue is that available methods of tracking traffic do not capture all, or much, of Google+ engagement, since the service is designed for more-private communications between users.

If the algorithms are all working right, Google+ has continued to grow at a rapid rate. Google+ “unofficial statistician” Paul Allen believes that Google now has over 43 million users. Allen, whose name you might know as being the founder of Ancestry.com has a method whereby he estimates the total number of users on Google based upon uncommon surnames.

In the past, according to PlusHeadlines, Allen has been startlingly accurate:

July 4th – 1.7 million users
July 9th – 4.5 million users
July 12 – 10 million users
September 9th – 28.7 million users
September 22nd – 43.4 million users

Google+ traction matters because most brands investing in social networks do not have unlimited time and resources. As Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn already are getting attention, Google+ success means a fourth network to support, or a hard choice about refocusing attention formerly given to other networks.

Google reportedly passes 43 million users

Creators of "Angry Birds" as Angry Birds

Global Internet Speed Study

The average worldwide download speed is 580 Kbps. Average U.S. speeds are about 616 Kbps. South Korea has an average speed of 2.2 Mbps. In the United States, Verizon Internet Services provides the fastest service, averaging 1 Mbps.

In Great Britain, Virgin Media is the fastest choice with average speeds of 612 Kbps while Dacom Corp. takes the top spot in speedy South Korea with an average of 5.2 Mbps.

Over time, such measurements will have to reflect widespread use of wireless broadband, with generally slower speeds, though.

The study was based on 27 million downloads by 20 million computers in 224 countries from January through June 2011.

Global Internet Speed Study

Is Meg Right for H-P?

LightSquared Comments at Communacopia

Michael Montemarano, LightSquared CFO, and  and Frank Boulben, Chief Marketing Officer, talk about the company at the Goldman Sachs 20th Annual Communacopia Conference. The executives provided an overview and update of the LightSquared business a well as a recap of yesterday’s announcement of the company’s solution to GPS interference issues. You can listen to the presentation here: LightSquared presentation

Facebook Launches "Timeline"

It's more visual, and historical.