Has the PC Become Antiquated?
In a recent interview with BetaNews, the chief researcher for IDC's Quarterly PC Tracker report -- which rates the relative market share of PC manufacturers in both the US and worldwide markets -- raised a serious question pertaining to the market growth figure around which much of IDC's reporting is based.
As last week's report noted, worldwide PC shipment growth stands at an annual rate of 10.9% by IDC's account, 2.4% higher than the firm expected it to be at the end of last year. That bump is on account of a number of factors, IDC's David Daoud believes, the onset of Windows Vista being among them, but perhaps more prominently, vendors like HP adopting a more direct approach to how to address their customers.
Jack Valenti (1921 - 2007)
For five decades, he was the man at the center of the movie industry's most polarizing, subjective, and explosive arguments, yet was the absolute gentleman - gracious, amiable, polished. For Jack Valenti, who died this morning from complications from a stroke, presentation was everything.
Latecomers to the business of digital media know Jack Valenti as the man who championed the principles of vigorous copyright protection and combating piracy. So a great many in this business have never had an opportunity to witness one of the most persuasive speakers in Washington never to become a politician, as the president and chief lobbyist for the Motion Picture Association of America.
House Bill Would Set Internet Radio Royalties Equal to Satellite
A bill introduced yesterday before the US House of Representatives by Rep. Jay Inslee (D - Wash.) and Rep. Don Manzullo (R - Ill.) would explicitly nullify the findings of the Copyright Royalty Board, which set forth last month a royalty fee for Internet streaming performances that online providers say could put them out of business entirely.
In its place, the Inslee/Manzullo bill, currently called the Internet Radio Equality Act, would establish a flat per-listener hour rate of 33 cents, or a third of a dollar for every individual who listens to music over the Internet for one hour. The rate would be retroactive to 2006, so the nation's #1 streaming music provider, AOL Radio, could find itself owing past-due royalties for last year in the amount of $916,000, by BetaNews estimates.
Microsoft Proves It's a Software Company as Devices Take a Hit
If it were an independent company that produced the Xbox 360 game console and little or nothing else, the news for the quarter that just ended could be devastating: Fewer than one-third the number of consoles sold, by the company's estimates, than three quarters ago. You might be hearing the usual platitudes from a consumer electronics company: the market is saturating, the product's already a year-and-a-half old, the first calendar quarter is always a downer after the holidays, and maybe the economy's not all that good.
But this is Microsoft, a corporation which has so many other projects going on that it has back burners behind its back burners. The company that three quarters ago was praising Xbox 360 for stellar sales numbers that more than compensated for R&D expenses, easily dispensed with the bad news - truthfully, though quickly.
Decline in Xbox 360 Sales Dampens Good Microsoft Quarter
In its quarterly report to analysts for its third fiscal quarter of 2007, Microsoft executives repeatedly stated much lower than expected Xbox 360 sales for the quarter. After selling as much as 1.8 million consoles per quarter last summer, the company sold only 500,000 consoles in the previous quarter to retailers.
Revenue for the Entertainment Division in the fiscal third quarter was down a staggering 21.5% annually, to $929 million; and the division posted a $315 million loss, though that's less of a loss than the $402 million posted during the same quarter last year. Microsoft CFO Chris Liddell told analysts to expect revenue for the Entertainment and Devices division for the fiscal fourth quarter to fall as much as 11%.
The Mac Comeback Continues as Board Responds to Jobs Charges
Just prior to its quarterly earnings report to analysts on Wednesday, Apple Inc. released some typically astounding figures, and one atypical surprise: Net quarterly profit growth at the end of fiscal second quarter 2007 is now nearly 88% annually, at $770 million on revenue of $5.26 billion.
In other words, Apple is now earning close to double what it earned at this time last year, on revenue that's only just under 21% better. That's a sign of a much stronger company.
Sony Readying eyeVio for Friday Launch
Adding one more name to the list of film producers gearing to do battle with YouTube in the market head-on, Sony CEO Sir Howard Stringer told a press conference this morning - as quoted by Reuters - his company may be ready as soon as tomorrow to unveil its answer to YouTube: a video sharing service to be known as 'eyeVio.'
Sir Howard apparently gave hints that eyeVio would not be without controls, however, in comments such as this one reported by Reuters: "This is part of Sony's quiet software revolution...an opportunity to transmit user-generated video anywhere you want to, anytime to anybody, in a protected environment."
Rep. Frank Proposes Federal Licenses for Internet Gambling
In a surprise to those who thought his objective was simply to roll back or strike the provisions of an October law that prohibits US financial institutions in non-gambling states from transferring funds to and from Internet gambling establishments worldwide, Rep. Barney Frank (D - Mass.) introduced a new bill to the House this morning that would go several steps further, effectively creating a federal licensing board for Internet gambling establishments.
Under the provisions of the new bill - to be entitled the Internet Gambling Regulation and Enforcement Act of 2007 - the Treasury Dept., represented by the Director of the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, would have the authority to issue federal licenses. "No person shall engage in the business of Internet betting or wagering in the United States without a license issued by the Director," the bill reads.
Adobe to Release Flex to Open Source Mozilla Foundation
Taking the next step to even the stakes in the emerging platform battle in rich Internet application development, Adobe announced this morning it would be releasing its Flex development environment for Flash applications to the open source community, through the Mozilla Foundation.
The move comes as Google and Microsoft step up their separate efforts to boost enthusiasm around Asynchronous JavaScript (AJAX). While Adobe is not typically known for being a development tools supplier, in some respects, it had nothing to lose by letting go of the reins of Flex, and certainly a lot to gain by building a broader community around Flash.
Bill Introduced to Repeal Online Gambling Ban
In comments to reporters this morning, Rep. Barney Frank (D - Mass.) confirmed he intends to introduce legislation before the US House of Representatives tomorrow that would effectively repeal a portion of a shipping ports protection bill that, just incidentally, prohibits US banks from transferring funds to and from regions of the world where gambling is not expressly permitted.
Last October, in one of his last procedural ploys as a US Senator, then-Majority Leader Bill Frist (R - Tenn.) successfully attached language from a failing gambling funds transfer ban bill to the end of an anti-terrorism bill which President Bush had already indicated he would sign into law. While the attached text did not explicitly ban Internet gambling in the US, it eventually took on the name Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) - presenting the appearance of having made Internet gambling unlawful.
Google Bests Microsoft in ComScore Site Visitor Rankings
While Google has had the lead for quite some time as a search provider, Microsoft has almost traditionally led the field in terms of total number of visitors to sites hosted by a single company. That changed sometime during the last three months, according to comScore rankings revealed by the San Francisco Chronicle this morning.
Based on new comScore numbers, total visitors to Google-hosted sites worldwide, ages 15 and up, rose in March by a greater rate than Microsoft's - 5% monthly versus 3.7%, to 528 million total visitors. Microsoft's numbers totaled 527 million for March. Last December, Microsoft sites were collecting 509 million non-child users worldwide versus Google's 494 million, by comScore's tally.
Mozilla Extends Firefox 1.5 Support, Perhaps by Three Weeks
While yesterday had been slated to be the final official day of Mozilla's support for the older Firefox version 1.5, a blog posting on the organization's Web site yesterday indicated that it will continue to provide security upgrades for the browser for another few weeks.
In an official announcement last February, Mozilla said, "Due to the security fixes, we strongly recommend that all Firefox users upgrade to these latest releases...Firefox 1.5.0.x will be maintained with security and stability updates until April 24, 2007."
Intel: Backup Tapes for AMD Trial Were Destroyed in EC Investigation
In its final report to Special Master Vincent Poppiti, appointed to handle the discovery of materials relevant to the AMD v. Intel antitrust case, Intel admitted its IT department in Munich had lost track of, and inadvertently wrote over, backup tapes whose contents may have been vital to the case. The reason why, Intel said, relates to a separate antitrust investigation of Intel by the European Commission.
According to Intel's report, on July 12, 2005, its Munich office was paid a visit by investigators from the EC and the German Bundeskartellamt antitrust agency, in connection with a joint investigation unconnected to the AMD trial. There, tapes were retrieved from storage, sealed in metal boxes, bound with security tape, and handed to investigators.
SEC Charges Former Apple Counsel with Fraud; Former CFO Settles
The US Securities and Exchange Commission this afternoon has charged former Apple general counsel Nancy Heinen with fraud, alleging that she participated in the underreporting of corporate expenses by $40 million. That underreporting is allegedly on account of having backdated options grants to Apple executives, including CEO Steve Jobs.
Also, in exchange for a settlement of what would likely have been a charge of gross negligence, with no obligation to admit guilt or innocence, former Apple Chief Financial Officer Fred Anderson told the SEC that Jobs gave him his personal assurance in January 2001 that a grant of stock options to Apple's executive team had already been approved by the Board of Directors.
SEC Says Yahoo Shareholders Must Vote on Anti-censorship Resolution
According to the office of New York City Comptroller William C. Thomson, Jr., which represents many of the city's various retirement and pension funds, the Securities and Exchange Commission has rejected a request from Yahoo to "omit" a shareholder resolution proposed by those funds, to have Yahoo adopt anti-censorship policies.
The resolution, the comptroller's office says, would institute a set of minimum standards which Yahoo would follow in dealing with other countries. For instance, it would have prohibited the company from hosting private data about members or individuals on systems housed in countries whose legal system prohibits any form of political speech.
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