Category: Business

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In a Galaxy Tab Far, Far Away

Samsung panics over iPad 2, may cut Galaxy Tab 10.1’s price:

Samsung was caught off-guard by the iPad 2 and may have to rethink its strategy for the Galaxy Tab 10.1, the company’s executive VP of mobile Lee Don-joo said on Friday. The Korean company had planned to charge a premium over the original Galaxy Tab, which already cost nearly as much as a larger, first-generation 3G iPad, but wasn’t certain it could do so now that the iPad 2 was roughly matching it in features for the same $499 price. Lee didn’t tell Yonhap what pricing was to have been, but a 16GB, 3G Galaxy Tab costs $600 in the US.

“The 10-inch [tablet] was to be priced higher than the 7-inch [tablet] but we will have to think that over,” he said.

(Via MacNN | The Macintosh News Network.)

I bet they do.  I never understood the Galaxy Tab, esp. in a world obsessed with tech specs.  After all, why would I pay more for a smaller tablet?  Now Samsung in in the weird place of charging much more for the same sized tablet minus the Apple experience to justify it.

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Paid not to Understand

Nintendo chief slams iPhone, Android for devaluing games | Electronista:

“Iwata’s comments also sidestepped many of the factors that often force traditional game prices upwards. Nintendo despite its Internet services is dependent on cartridge-based game sales at retail, and its developers have to both account for manufacturing and for the cut demanded by retail stores. Android and iOS developers are only bound by the revenue split with Apple or Google and often have much reduced overhead. A typical 3DS game in the US will cost $40 where most smartphone-class games cost $10 or less, even when they represent direct ports of DSi titles.”

(Via MacNN.)

Iwata is near delusional in his comment about producing value.  His company monetizes value, specifically the value is in the bundle of the game plus the device that runs it.  Apple and Android have simply made it far more difficult for Nintendo to monetize the part of that bundle, i.e. the game, it has in the past.  Nintendo was able to lock the game up in a cartridge to control how the end consumer can enjoy the value that Nintendo “creates.”  Apple and Android destroyed that by using the Internet as distribution rather than expensive physical cartridges in retail stores.  And we’ve seen this movie before with CD’s and now DVD’s.  (No wonder Apple is no rush to get into Blu-ray.)

Upton Sinclair said, “It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends on his not understanding it.”  But in truth Iwata is paid to understand and it’s sad he doesn’t.

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Time to Wake Up and Smell the Antitrust

Time to Wake Up and Smell the Antitrust:

“If it walks, talks, acts, and smells like a monopolist, odds are it’s a monopolist. And if this monopolist is earning extraordinary profits, and if there is even the possibility that this monopolist might be using those profits to restrain trade, then perhaps the Sherman Antitrust Act is not working. The possibility of online monopolists demands better theory than ‘there are no barriers to entry online’ and purported monopolists need better defense than ‘trust me.'”

(Via Eric K. Clemons.)

Clemons’ post elicits responses from Google within hours.  That should tell you something.

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Facebook Adds Share Capabilities To Like Button

Facebook Adds Share Capabilities To Like Button — Facebook — InformationWeek:

“The move could reduce user confusion over which button to use, especially if Share is dropped in the future. However, the move is more widely viewed as a positive one for advertisers and content creators who can expect to see page views increase as referrals drive traffic to their sites, according to several published reports.”

(Via InformationWeek.)

It increasingly appears to me that Facebook continues to fool users into revealing more and more information by getting them to develop habits then suddenly changing the rules and behaviors of their site after the habits are entrenched.  Not good.

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G.M. Prices Its Shares at $33 in Return to Stock Market – NYTimes.com

G.M. Prices Its Shares at $33 in Return to Stock Market – NYTimes.com: “Fulfilling an implicit mandate from Treasury, the largest allocation of G.M. shares has been made to institutions representing American retail investors, these people said. The move was meant in part to blunt criticism that taxpayers would be cut off from what company and government officials insist was a potentially big rise in G.M. shares. (Several of the people involved in the offering said they expect to see a potential 10 to 20 percent jump in the share price on Thursday, typical for an initial offering.)”

(Via The Daily Beast.)

If you are going to do this, at least do it right.  So far so good.

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RIM Protects its Core

RIM pulls BlackBerry app Kik while Apple, Google OK | Electronista:

“However, some have speculated that RIM was primarily concerned that Kik is too similar to BlackBerry Messenger and is a competitive threat that would reduce the incentive to keep using BlackBerries. The app has been available on Android and iPhone devices and, if popular, could make it easier to switch platforms.”

(Via The Macintosh News Network.)

Exactly.  It would be foolish for them to give BBM addicts a road to recovery.

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How Mobile Apps Are Disrupting the Car-Rental Business

How Mobile Apps Are Disrupting the Car-Rental Business:

“Since Zipcar has shown that a mobile app and special software can help tackle the logistical challenges of car sharing, rivals have been following suit. Six months ago, Hertz launched an iPhone app that functions in much the same way for Connect, its own Zipcar-like program. Whereas Zipcar has 6,500 vehicles, Hertz has nearly half a million, although only about 1,000 of those are available through Connect. “As we began to look at [Zipcar] and to see that model grow, it was a natural evolution for Hertz,” says Joseph Eckroth, Hertz’s chief information officer.“

(Via Technology Review: The Authority on the Future of Technology.)

I have personal experience with this.  It is indeed a niche that’s growing.  I don’t see ZipCar being able to fend off serious forays from the established rental companies if they get serious however.  Disruption?  Maybe.  Right now it looks more like evolution.  What would be disruptive is an acquisition forcing the remaining competitors to get into the game.  We’ll see.

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Microsoft, Apple and Market Share

This time the story is hardly the one you would expect.

Mac sales growth continues to surge ahead of PCs 3 to 1:

“The single biggest jump in sales has come from the business market, which is up by 66.3%. Among large and very large businesses, sales spiked 146% and 202% respectively, which is an excellent sign for Apple. Those large businesses tend to be controlled by large IT departments, which are typically very conservative when it comes to computer system upgrades and replacements. The popularity of iOS devices among executives and the more tech savvy is probably playing a big part in convincing these companies to take another look at Apple on the desktop.”

(Via The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW).)

Wow!  Of course, Apple has had a lot of room to grow in terms of the business market, but at this economic time?  That is pretty remarkable.

Apple is right to stay out of the high-end server market if the results keep coming in like this.  They want to sell metal not software so this strategy of strong user centricity is clearly working.  As long as the Mac can play nice in “corporate environments,” i.e. Windows environments, it can compete well.  Microsoft has recognized this by finally, after nearly a decade, opting to bring full Outlook back the Mac version of Office.  With the recent rehabilitation of Excel, Microsoft is still in a position to print money from it’s cash cow (to mix metaphors): Microsoft Office and it’s attendant servers.  Yes, Windows on the client end suffers a bit of market share loss, but Microsoft keep the servers and basic corporate technology on their platform.  And while Microsoft is doing its level best to answer the iOS, the trend right now suggests we should expect to see “Pocket” versions of the Office apps in the not too distant future.