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Verizon iPhone to launch after CES, says BusinessWeek
It's beginning to look a lot like the week after Christmas, when East Coast denizens dig out from their snow cover, and the incoming emails from vendors exhibiting at the Consumer Electronics Show (which starts January 6 in Las Vegas) form a digital blizzard of their own. One product that everyone would like to see at CES, for better or worse, is the Verizon version of the iPhone -- but it's highly unlikely that it will put in an appearance. Despite the out-there rumor floated earlier this month that the VZW iPhone would debut immediately after Christmas, there's no sign of the device yet. The latest suggestion of a whisper of an actual introduction date, however, comes courtesy of sources to BusinessWeek's Peter Burrows. In an article today addressing the conventional wisdom about winners and losers when a Verizon iPhone hits the market, he passed along a tidbit from a person "familiar with Apple's plans who is not authorized to discuss them publicly." The source told Burrows that "Apple's introduction of an iPhone for use on Verizon's network will come sometime after the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in early January." The story's lead paragraph says the CW is that the iPhone on Verizon could come by Valentine's Day, but there's no particular sourcing for that date. Of course, "sometime after CES" could technically include any date from January 10 of 2011 up until the start of the following CES in 2012. If you asked me to predict a date, with no inside information... well, let's look at the calendar. CES wraps up on January 9th; Macworld Expo kicks off on the 26th. Put your finger on the Tuesday in between the two and you get January 18. There's a problem with the 18th, though; Apple has already said that it will announce quarterly earnings on that day. Looking at the past year, there were two major product introductions that happened two days after a quarterly earnings report. The most recent was the "Back to the Mac" event on October 20, with the earnings report on 10/18; before that, back in January, the earnings call on the 25th was followed two days later by a magical and revolutionary product launch on the 27th. Attention tech journalists and industry analysts: if you weren't expecting to be in San Francisco on January 20, 2011, maybe you should set up a fare alert and keep an eye on your mailbox, ... you know, just in case. [via MacRumors]
The Virtual Whirl: A brief history of Second Life, the middle years
This week, we cover the second installment of our summarized history of Second Life and Linden Lab (or check out part one, if you missed it). From 2005, there's an impossible amount of material to cover, but there are some interesting stories lurking among it all. Join us as we work our way through some of the interesting highlights from 2005, 2006 and 2007.
Case Study: Standing at your Mac to save your back
BusinessWeek is worried that Your Office Chair Is Killing You. "Short of sitting on a spike, you can't do much worse than a standard office chair," says Galen Cranz, a professor at the University of California at Berkeley. This article caught my eye because just about a month ago, I bought this standing desk from Amazon.com. I had been in the market for one for a long time but had held off because they are usually ridiculously expensive. At the time, that desk cost me $96 ($86 + $10 shipping, all prices USD); it may have been a pricing error because that same desk today is selling for $277 + $7.50 shipping or you can buy a pack of two for $723 + $73 shipping! (Like I said, it's ridiculous.) Reading up on others around the web using various different desks, it is not unusual to see people spending over $1000 for a "standing desk," especially custom made. You can spend much, much more. I'm not trying to sell you on this particular desk, but to answer the question that everyone seems to ask me when they see it: "How well does it work? Aren't you tired of standing all of the time?" Read on for more...
First-Gen iPhones rise steadily in price
This Business Week article describes the rising demand for first generation iPhones. "Shelf prices" (using eBay values of virtual shelves) for the 16GB iPhone are currently at about $600, and $500 for 8GB models. In other words, the $250 AT&T refurb specials from March are now worth roughly double what you paid for them. From easy-unlocking to contract-free usage to eco-consumerism, consumers are looking for those original units and paying premium prices to get them. A majority of phones are heading outside the US for resale while growing demand at home keeps resale prices high.
Apple #2 on the BusinessWeek Infotech 100
BusinessWeek has ranked Apple #2 on its list of the Infotech 100. This list is designed to rank tech companies on their fundamental economic strength, taking into account "shareholder return, return on equity, total revenues, and revenue growth." Apple was up from 6th place last year and came in behind only Amazon.com. Microsoft is well back at #23; Google is #11, while HP is #30 and Dell did not even make the list. Apple's winning spell just keeps on going.[via electronista]
Michael Lopp on how Apple thinks different in design
Over at Business Week, Helen Walters has an interesting summary of a presentation given by Michael Lopp at SXSW on Apple's design process. Lopp is a senior engineering manager at Apple and gives a sneak peek at the process that Apple uses to bring such great products to the market. Particularly interesting to me is the idea of the paired design meetings. Evidently each team has two design meetings each week. At the first meeting they're invited to "go crazy" and be creative in coming up with unusual ideas and approaches, while at the second meeting they have to get down to brass tacks and figure out how to actually implement some of those crazy ideas. It sounds like a great way to foster creativity, but also to make sure that there's enough practicality that things actually get shipped. In any case, it's worth a read if you're intrigued by the Apple design process.[via MacVolPlace]
Analyst: PS3 production costs dropped by 50% in a year
Business Week spoke with Nikko Citigroup analyst Kota Ezawa who believes changes in the PlayStation 3 have dropped production costs from $800 to about $400 per unit. Although Sony may have cut production costs dramatically it's not all sunshine and lollipops, Ezawa expects the Sony games division to lose about $1.4 billion this fiscal year, which is still better than the $2.1 billion loss last year and he doesn't expect prosperity in the division until '09.With production costs continuing to drop and signs that Sony may see Blu-ray succeed, consumers who held out on the PS3 may see benefits this year. If the cadre of American analysts is correct, there may be another PS3 price drop this year -- although this time it'll appear more a sign of growth than desperation.[Via PS3 Fanboy]
BusinessWeek: Why I Won't Buy an iPhone
Arik Hesseldahl has a thoughtful article up today over at BusinessWeek, describing why he won't be buying an iPhone any time soon. There are far too many great lines to quote here so go read the entire post. Hessendahl call's Apple's no-third-party development stance ridiculous. He argues that software developers are an important part of what makes the Mac the strong platform it is -- commercial partnerships and contractual entanglements shouldn't come before creativity and home-brewed innovation. I totally agree. The iPhone is a beautiful OS X platform that deserves to be opened to development. Full disclosure: Arik consulted with me during the writing of his article.
Business Week: Apple "Most innovative"
For the third consecutive year, Business Week has named Apple the "Most Innovative Company" (they beat 2nd place Google with double the votes). Data was collected late last year from the top 10 executives at the world's 1,500 largest corporations.* While acknowledging the accomplishment, Business Week wonders how long their reign will last:"Now that [Apple is] invading the living room and the cell-phone market, will it continue the winning streak?"If the iPhone is a real out-of-the-park home run (a lot seems to be riding on that little device, no?), then 2008 could be Apple's fourth straight year on the top of that list.*Determined by market capitalization in U.S. dollars.
Business Week: Sony ranks 10th in Most Innovative Companies
Business Week just published their yearly list of 'The 50 Most Innovative Companies', and Sony came in at number 10. They seemed particularly impressed with Home, stating:"This traditional tech hardware maker is devoting more resources to software. To turn its PlayStation 3 console from living-room box to virtual gateway, it created a 3D online world that simulates the real one."Sony beat out Nintendo, who came in at a lowly 39th, but lost out to Microsoft, who came in 5th on the strength of the Vista launch. Apple dominated them all though, staying in first place for the third year in a row.
What should Apple do with twelve BEEEL-lion dollars?
This is the question posed by Arik Hesseldahl in today's Byte of the Apple column for BusinessWeek: what should Apple do with its $12 billion in cash and short-term investments? His suggestion: rather than spending more money on acquisitions (such those that led to Logic, Final Cut and Shake), the big A could start a venture capital fund that would help Mac software startups, and established vendors looking to port to the Mac, with seed money to get products off the ground and out the doors.Hesseldahl points to other tech giants that run their own VC operations, among them Intel, Qualcomm and Motorola. Perhaps it is time for AAPL (back up to $87/share at today's close, erasing a good chunk of Tuesday's losses) to turn some of that spare change into "changing the world, one software company at a time." [via The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs]
BusinessWeek's iPhone wishlist
Over at BusinessWeek, Arik Hesseldahl posts his thoughtful wish list for the iPhone. On top of the obvious music wishes (wireless music downloads, zunelike device-to-device sharing, and iTunes ringtones), Hesseldahl considers how the phone might sync seamlessly with various iApps like iPhoto, iCal, Address Book and Mail. On-board data storage would also be a big win for him. He'd like to see a camera that does both photos and short video clips--and maybe even iChat-like video chat. Bluetooth support is a given in his opinion, but he's looking for a better headset. I personally disagree. I think Apple should continue bundling low-end earbuds with their products and let us buy the headset we actually want and can comfortably wear.
All kinds of crazy Wii production
According to some silly subscription-only news service (briefing.com, for the unabashedly curious), Nintendo has completed production of some 2 million units in Q3 alone. Nintendo, remember, had only promised 4 million by the end of the calendar year, and 6 million by fiscal year's end (March 31st). But with all of October and half of November to roll out the units, the figures may jump up even higher. The report claims that Nintendo has at least 7 million planned for Q4 production, and even up to 9 million seems feasible. That's potentially eleven million Wiis by year's end. It seems that the later-than-expected release date of November 19th was not a result of hardware shortages, but rather to give software developers a chance to properly finish their titles. While all these consoles sitting around, having tea and just waiting for the 19th is a nice picture, it's also important that Nintendo maintain the image of must-have and hard to find. It's a delicate balance, to supply the demand and yet seem like you can't ... hopefully, Nintendo can pull it off. [via Joystiq]
Samsung most valuable global TV brand?
What's in a name? Everything and anything if you are a manufacturer of consumer electronics. Your brand could have the ability to sell on name alone. Or, have the ability to turn away customers with just the name. Business Week has taken a long look at who is the most powerful brand in the world and Coca-Cola came out on top. We aren't here to cover soda pop though - we would love to, but the boys upstairs probably wouldn't like it too much. In order to even qualify for this list, a company has to have over 1/3 of their total sales outside of their home country; this is a global list you know. The list evaluates brands on not how much they are making now, but rather, how much they are projected to earn in the future. Samsung came out on top of the audio/video business at number 20 based on their LCD and memory chip business. Sony then followed at 26, Philips at 48, Panasonic at 77, and LG rounding out the list at 94.Everyone has their own perception of a certain brand. Do you think that Samsung's brand has reached Sony's level? Business Week sure thinks that they are going to do more with that name.
Book on classic design includes several Apple products
Apple is known for industrial design so it isn't a shocker that Phaidon Design Classics, a three book series on design, features some Apple products. You'll find the original Mac, the iPod, and the iMac G5 (I'm typing this post on one of those!). BusinessWeek online has an article about the books, and a slideshow that features 10 of the objects in the book, including the Mac.Check it out.Thanks, Jon.
HDTV ambiguity from Business Week
Oh Business Week, we're sure you meant well, but it's vague comments like these from Stephen H. Wildstrom that continue to confuse the analog public: "A 30-in. digital CRT with a digital tuner will probably set you back about $650, and that doesn't get you true high definition. HD costs around $1,000 for a 30-in. CRT and upwards of $1,500 for a 32-in. flat-panel."Maybe it's just us, and if it is, we know you'll chime in and set us straight. How exactly does a 30-inch digital CRT with a digital tuner not get you true high definition? If by "true" high-def BW means 1080p, that's a little weak and definitely confusing to folks that are still getting used to terms like 720p and 1080i. We've pointed out numerous CRTs that are under the $650 price range BW mentions and yet, they still get you HDTV. Great intention BW, but ambiguous execution.
