Filed under: Rumors, World wide web, Competitive strategy, Google (GOOG), Smartphones, Technology

Even though Google (NASDAQ: GOOG)’s Android mobile phone software platform was officially announced months ago, the global wireless industry has been mum — or doesn’t know — when Google’s platform will be available for consumers. Which global wireless markets will be the first to even see a device powered by Google’s Android platform?

Would it make sense for Google to release this platform in a market where consumers do most web surfing on a mobile device instead of a Personal computer? Possibly — even though releasing Android in a market that has gadget-obsessed consumers may also be a decent choice. How about releasing the platform to a wireless carrier in a country where you’re trying to take world wide web search engine market share away from a competitor?

Not only do hundreds of millions of Chinese wireless customers exist (more than the entire U.S. population), but many of them interact with the internet on their mobile phones. Also, Google has made it known that it wants to become the largest search engine provider in the world’s most populous country. That spot is now held by Baidu.com, which has managed to beat Google in China to this point. But Google — ever the secretive tech giant of the world — definitely has its sights set on leading the Chinese search engine market. How better than to release Android into that market and — overnight — up the ante in a big way against Baidu.com’s search engine dominance?

Share This

Share This

Filed under: International markets, Rants and raves, Competitive strategy, Politics

George W. Bush has weakened America’s economic and political standing while strengthening the hand of our enemies. As Iowans caucus this day, it remains to be seen whether a leader will emerge this year who can reverse the forces Bush set in motion before America loses its leadership position in the world.

What forces did Bush set in motion? Bush created an enormous federal budget deficit through his $1.6 trillion tax cut. He increased government borrowing to a record $9.1 trillion. His wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have contributed to global instability which has helped drive the price of oil up four-fold from $24 a barrel to nearly $100. The dollar has lost 60% of its value — for example, the Euro has climbed from 92 cents to to $1.47. And his drive to increase home ownership — supported by subprime mortgage lenders like Ameriquest — has contributed to tens of billions of write-downs by banks that bought securities backed by those liar loans.

This isn’t the first time global leadership has changed hands in world history. According to Niall Ferguson, in the 1870s, the Ottoman empire lost its lead in the world as its over-extended empire sought to cope with an external debt crisis by selling off revenue streams to foreign investors. Then, the Ottoman empire sold off its shares of the Suez Canal as well as its tax revenues to pay off the debts it incurred to finance the Crimean War, railway and canal construction and conspicuous consumption. Back then the beneficiaries of those cheap asset sales were western Europeans.

This day the shift is from the US to the autocracies of the Middle East — remember that Saudi Arabia supplied 15 of the 19 9/11 hijackers — as well as to China and Russia. This shift is taking place in two waves. First, there’s the annual wave of wealth — $15.4 billion — flowing from the U.S. to OPEC — 154 million barrels a year at about $100 a barrel. Then there’s the selling chunks of our banking system to Sovereign Wealth Funds (SWFs) in the Middle East and Asia since Bush seems happy to let other governments bail out the U.S..

As we pick our next President, it’s worth considering whether we want to continue Bush’s policies or change them. I’d prefer a candidate who would reverse those policies by doing the following:

• Turn Iraq over to the Iraqis and drastically reduce U.S. exposure there
• Balance the federal budget and cut federal borrowing
• Push a coordinated program to reduce drastically U.S. dependence on oil and gas

I recall in the 1980s, Americans feared that Japan was taking over the world as it began buying prime Manhattan real estate. It turned out that Japan’s economic power was due to excess borrowing — using its rising land prices to buy its stocks. Is the threat we face from Middle Eastern and Asian countries far greater than the Japanese threat appeared then?

Unless we have the ability to get our own financial and energy houses in order, we could be in the middle of losing our global lead to the reckless policies of a singular U.S. president. Let’s hope it’s not too late to reverse the damage.

Peter Cohan is president of Peter S. Cohan & Associates. He also teaches management at Babson College and edits The Cohan Letter.

Share This

Share This

Filed under: Competitive strategy, Netflix, Inc. (NFLX), Blockbuster Inc ‘A’ (BBI)

Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX) will begin offering a new box built by LG Electronics to grant subscribers to download movies over the internet. Indeed, as Doug McIntyre wrote, “The huge hurdle is that video content delivery over the web has become such a crowded industry that it is difficult to envision how one company will stand out. Cable VOD is so simple to use that there does not seem to be a compelling reason to turn to an alternative.”

And therein lies the problem with Netflix the stock and Netflix the company. In a March interview with the Wall Street Journal, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings talked about his awareness that the company’s business model of offering DVDs by mail is not sustainable:

Hastings’ awareness that the company needs to adapt is good. It’s better than having a CEO who is convinced that the current business model will continue to generate income forever. But the problem is that Netflix does not have a particularly clear competitive advantage in anything other than renting DVDs by mail. That’s probably part of the reason the market didn’t react to the VOD news.

At more than 25 times earnings with margins under pressure from a pricewar with Blockbuster (NYSE: BBI) and a CEO admitting that the business model does not have lasting appeal, it’s hard to see why anyone would buy Netflix stock as a long-term investment.

Share This

Share This

Filed under: Consumer experience, Competitive strategy, Apple Inc (AAPL), Dell (DELL), Hewlett-Packard (HPQ), Hershey Co (HSY), Technology

Dell (NASDAQ: DELL) wants to sell Personal computers at retail outlets, but it does not want to take away some of the customers who buy its products on the web. And the company can’t have it both ways.

According to The Wall Street Journal, “As Dell broadens from just selling its wares directly over the web and by phone, it risks siphoning off its web customers, who represent the majority of its consumer sales.”

Taking such a gradual approach may hurt the company. Most of Dell’s competitors, including HP (NYSE: HPQ) and Lenovo, offer a very broad set of products through most consumer electronics retailers. Even Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) now sells though some large stores.

Since Dell is losing market share to most of the other big Computer manufacturers, its philosophy of holding back some of its product line is puzzling. HP is now the leading vendor of personal in the U.S., and recent research shows that Apple is picking up substantial market share.

Trying to decide which products will be offered to consumers at retail and which will be seen only on Dell’s website seems to be a complex formula that may only result in lower sales.

The consumer wants what he wants when he wants it. Making it harder for him to purchase is a bad idea.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com.

Share This

Share This

Filed under: Consumer experience, Competitive strategy, Microsoft (MSFT), Apple Inc (AAPL), Dell (DELL), Hewlett-Packard (HPQ), Technology

Lenovo, the Chinese Computer company, is known for producing good laptops for businesses. But with Mac sales moving up sharply, going after Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) seems too hard to resist.

According to The Wall Street Journal, “As with many of its competitors, Lenovo is emphasizing design and style, and trying to turn notebooks into fashion accessories that reflect individual personality.” Dell (NASDAQ: DELL) and HP (NYSE: HPQ) are also coming out with fancy, feature-full PCs.

The problem, of course, is that the field for Mac-like computers will become crowded very quickly. That leads to the question of whether the Personal computers will be able to get some market share from the Mac or actually just compete with one another.

The success of the new computers will depend on several things. One is whether consumers are willing to use Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) Vista over the Apple OS, which has gotten very good reviews. Another is whether the new Computers can match most of the attractive design features of the Mac.

But the most important factor might be price. If PC manufacturers can bring most of the Mac’s features to market for several hundred dollars less per machine, then they have a chance.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com.

Share This

Share This

Filed under: Industry, TV, Competitive strategy, General Electric (GE), Viacom (VIA), Comcast Cl’A’ (CMCSA)

The Weather Channel, held by family-owned Landmark Communications of Virginia, is being auctioned off along with the rest of Landmark, and could fetch $5 billion. A number of public companies might have an interest. According to The New York Times, firms looking at the property include Comcast (NASDAQ: CMCSA) and General Electric (NYSE: GE).

The Weather Channel is attractive for two reasons. The first is that there are very few huge, independent cable networks. Most, including CNN, CNBC, ESPN, and MTV, are already owned by media giants. The opportunity to pick up another big advertising-supported 24-hour product should be very attractive.

The second tremendous selling point is that weather.com, the online arm of the company, is one of the most-visited sites in the U.S. In November, comScore ranked it as the 16th most-visited website, with 34.1 million unique visitors. That puts it ahead of ESPN.com, CBS.com, and the Viacom (NYSE: VIA) digital properties.

The Weather Channel is a rare prize. The bidding should be spirited.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com.

Share This

Share This

Filed under: Fun, Utilities, Blogging, Windows Mobile, Symbian, Palm, Web services, Social Software, BlackBerry, iPhone

RSS is a fantastic technology, but what about ‘on-the-go’? Sure, you could use Google Reader, or Newsgator Mobile, but what if you wanted to be SMS-messaged when a new post appears on a particular feed? That’s where Pingie comes in.

By now, you’re probably wondering what on earth the service could be used for. Let’s share with you a few examples. Perhaps you’re wanting to follow Download Squad’s coverage of a particular operating system, category of software, or even a particular author’s posts (all of which have feeds found by adding /rss.xml to the page’s URL), you simply enter the Feed URL, your email address and your mobile phone number and Pingie does the rest. Simple!

Of course, when you’re wanting up-to-the-minute event coverage state from sister sites’ Engadget (at the Consumer Electronics Show) or TUAW (at Macworld Conference and Expo) this might just grant you to keep your finger on the pulse, no matter where you are.

[Via UNEASYsilence]

Read

Share This

Share This

Filed under: Deals, Launches, Competitive strategy, Apple Inc (AAPL), Amazon.com (AMZN), Netflix, Inc. (NFLX)

You can’t get enough of a good thing. Or, can you?

Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX) will offer a new box built by LG Electronics, to grant movies to be downloaded over the web [subscription required] and played on a Television. It sounds a lot like products from Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL), Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) and several other companies. The new project will also have to compete with cable VOD and DVR functions.

Netflix has a problem, but it may not be one that it can fix. According to The Wall Street Journal “Netflix has about 6,000 movies and television shows available for streaming over the Internet, a small fraction of the more than 90,000 DVDs in its library.” Since the internet-based content is probably made up of the most popular shows, the limited selection might not be a problem.

The large hurdle is that video content delivery over the internet has become such a crowded industry that it is difficult to envision how one company will stand out. Cable VOD is so simple to use that there does not seem to be a compelling reason to turn to an alternative.

It is also not clear if consumers would want yet another box in their homes. Many Televisions have a DVD player, a DVR, a cable box and a PC link to the TV. The pile is so high that the Netflix box may cause it to fall over.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com.

Share This

Share This

Filed under: Business, Web services, Social Software, Analysis, web 2.0

Blogger/Internet socialite Robert Scoble has a problem. In attempting to scrape his personal data from Facebook (where he *had* several thousand “friends”) he angered some of Facebook’s internal monitoring drones and was forcefully removed from the service. True enough, what he was doing clearly violates Facebook’s terms of service which state, “Thou shall not use automated means to scrape thine own data” but, should Facebook be granted to collect the dossier you create through using the service, and then forbid you from getting a copy?

What’s really at issue here’s, who owns all this crazy social data you’re constantly creating? Here’s a tip; it’s not you. All those clickwrap agreements — or EULAs, also known as the Terms of Service document you never read — say that Facebook can pretty much do whatever it wants with whatever data it manages to extort extract from you.

Still happy about the amount of time you spend on the most popular social networking site in the world? Or, rather, are you getting that icky, spine crawling feeling you get when you meet someone who knows just a tiny too much about you?

Continue reading Scobleized : Why Facebook will never give your data back

Read

Share This

Share This

Filed under: Products and services, Management, Internet, Competitive strategy, Microsoft (MSFT), Time Warner (TWX), Tech for the rest of us, Media World, Technology

Although AOL has chosen to withdraw continuing development of the Netscape Navigator browser, you’ll be able to continue using it indefinitely. Honestly though, who would want to?

Netscape doesn’t have much in the way of loyalists in the realm of content suppliers, and web users seem not to care much what browser they use as long as the utility is fast, accurate and simple. I myself switched from Netscape to Firefox during the last year because Navigator was giving me image handling problems and Mozilla Firefox proved to be easier, faster and less burdensome.

Since 1994, Netscape has been a leading-edge web utility. However in current years, competition from Mozilla Firefox has relentlessly scooped away market share from Netscape and a strong and victorious competitive battle has been waged in the interest of World wide web Explorer by Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT). Although Netscape proved to be a strong web utility, in the last few years it lacked any significant improvements in user friendliness. I think that situation is in part due to Microsoft’s reluctance to make the Windows operating system play nice with Netscape Navigator. We might take pause to wonder if Time Warner Inc. (NYSE: TWX) ever properly applied pressure on Microsoft over the situation … probably not.

In the big picture, no one is going to miss Netscape Navigator. Yes, some few loyalists might whine for a while and some people with fully loaded hard drives might find their machines maxed out by the downloading of a new browser and the system changes associated with that, but in the end it’s all good if it makes the browsing experience faster and easier for the end user. Besides, it might force the sale of some new personal, yes?

Perhaps AOL should just spin off Netscape, take a bit of cash for it and write the rest off. That might be easiest in the long run. When given the fact that AOL will apparently be relegating Netscape to second-tier status, do you really think it’ll ever get better?

Stick a fork in it gang, it’s done.

Share This

Share This