August 2010 Archives

Video Market Rubric is a Rubix Cube Puzzle

By Paul on August 30, 2010 10:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

A rubric is a scoring tool for subjective assessments. Tech-savy consumers have a natural ability for assigning rubrics when purchasing entertainment or media. The trade-offs in accessibility, content quality and cost have become problematic in $69.8 billion U.S. TV subscription market. Apple is expected to introduce the new iTV service platform during their event at the Yerba Buena Center in San Francisco this week. Internet online video did to cable TV what cable did to network TV. The industry has accelerated the unbundling of content from its transport. It's happened in music, newspaper publishing and book publishing. While the Comcast/NBC merger continues to come under FCC scrutiny, Apple is negotiating with ABC, CBS and Fox for 99-cent streaming TV show rentals. Google is also negotiating with Hollywood for Pay-per-View service on YouTube. On the fringe, you have Xbox and Hulu. Microsoft recently increased its Xbox subscription rate, and why not? Hulu is trying to sell a $9.99 monthly subscription (with advertising) to its users. The consumer can assess their needs layer by layer, just like solving the Rubix cube. Once you decide on the content, you can decide how best to consume it. Leveraging existing in-home appliances like a Blue-Ray player or Xbox, provides the Codec, streaming processor & local cache needed for HD 1080p. People will not want throw away their existing investment, despite what Apple or Google may do.

The iPad leaves the rest as Tablets of Stone

By Paul on August 25, 2010 5:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

I've come to the conclusion that RIM suffers from legacy compatibility, much like Microsoft has experienced. Morgan Stanley analyst Ehud Gelblum forecasts RIM's global market share to decline from 16% to 13% by 2012. Now that RIM is expected to launch the Blackpad with QNX versus Blackberry 6, they are accepting the limitations of Java ME and want to drop the baggage of legacy code for older Blackberrys. QNX is a real-time Posix OS that is popular with automobile, industrial & medical applications. Since it powers BMW navigation systems & Porsche 911 "acoustic processing," I'd like to see what RIM would do with it. The Google Chrome OS table from HTC & Verizon is expected to come out the day after Thanksgiving - OK but please hope it's a better launch than the Nexus One. CIO Magazine said the Dell Aero is "an embarrassment to Android." The Aero runs 1.5 Android, so I'd have to agree with them. We'll have to wait until early next year to see HP's Hurricane based on the webOS from Palm. In the meantime, keep a lookout for the Samsung P1000 Galaxy Tab. It features a 1 GHz ARM processor with Android Froyo, front/rear cameras and Adobe Flash. Many Apple competitors hope to garner market share now that the iPad is firmly established as the category leader. I like that enterprise applications on the iPad are emerging like those from Bausch & Lomb and Mercedes Benz Financial. If Apple wanted to scorch the earth with tablet wannabes, they could just introduce a cost-reduced 7 in. iPad "Nano" at a $400 price point. I'd keep that club in the bag for now.