Filed under: World wide web, Video, Web services, web 2.0

Much to everyone’s amazement, Hulu doesn’t suck. Seriously. When Fox and NBC first announced plans to get into the on the internet video streaming business, a lot of commenters spent a lot of time talking about how silly it would be to take on YouTube. And then Hulu started showing full length movies and Television shows with minimal advertisements. The video quality is fairly good, and the content library includes things you might actually want to watch. Now, just two months after publicly launching, Hulu reports that:

• The site has served up more than 63 million video streams
• The average Hulu user watches 2 hours of Hulu video each month
• Hulu is now the top network video site

Hulu has also launched a distribution deal with TV.com this day, and plans to start streaming video through TVGuide.com, Break.com, Zap2it, BuddyTV, Flixter, and MyYearbook in the next few weeks.

Now for the bad news. Hulu is still completely unavailable to anyone outside of the US.

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theodp writes “You can still leave your handprint in cement at Grauman’s Chinese Theater. But as of Tuesday, you best not do the same on a laptop, lest you infringe on IBM’s new patent for the Portable Computer with a Hand Impression, an ‘invention’ that Large Blue explains makes balancing the portable computer on a user’s hand easier.”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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mytrip notes a story in Wired’s Threat Level blog on the latest boneheaded government moves with redaction. (We’ve been discussing redaction follies here for years.) This time it’s an FBI report (PDF) on implementing CALEA — you can choose text from redacted areas, copy it, and paste into a text editor, as University of Pennsylvania professor Matt Blaze discovered. From Wired: “Once again, supposedly sensitive information blacked out from a government report turns out to be visible by personal experts armed with the Ctrl+C keys — and that information turns out to be not very sensitive after all… [Among] the tidbits considered too sensitive to be aired publicly: The FBI paid Verizon $2,500 apiece to upgrade 1,140 old telephone switches. Oddly the report didn’t redact the total amount paid to the telecom — slightly more than $2.9 million dollars — but somehow the bad guys will win if they knew the number of switches and the cost paid.”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Filed under: Deals, Competitive strategy, Ford Motor (F), Employees, Tata Mtrs Ltd (TTM)

Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F) is slicing production at its Volvo unit, according to The Wall Street Journal. The move, which could affect one-third of workers — some 700 — is seen as an attempt to cut the costs and losses at the upscale Swedish brand.

The question everyone is asking is whether this move is done in preparation for a sale. According to “people familiar with the matter” who discussed such things with the Journal, CEO Alan Mulally is interested in putting Volvo, whose sales have been declining, on the block. Of course, to analysts, Mulally sang a different tune last month, saying the priority is improve the Swedish auto maker operations “dramatically.”

As Kirk Kerkorian’s Tracinda Corp. continues to build its stake int he company, he may also have a thing or two to say on the matter.

For now, Volvo is slicing where it makes larger, less popular cars, and it plans to make fewer vehicles overall. But can this make Volvo more profitable for Ford, or at least more attractive to buyers? There are costs associated with producing a smaller number of cars, but with Volvo reporting 22,000 fewer cars sold during the first quarter, slicing production makes sense. Another matter Ford has to take into account is the huge losses it suffered lately just from the kronor-dollar exchange rate.

It was nearly a year ago that speculation ran amok that German carmaker BMW could be interested in buying Volvo. Could it still be interested? Years back, Renault was interested too. With the credit crunch still crimping deals, and with some major players like private equity — keeping in mind Chrysler’s sale to Cerberus — absent, it’s likely such a sale could be postponed.

After selling its Land Rover and Jaguar units to India’s Tata Motors Ltd. (NYSE: TTM) in a deal worth $2.3 billion, and Aston Martin for $848 million to investors led by David Richards, if Ford sells Volvo, it will be left only with Lincoln as its luxury line.

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Filed under: Earnings reports, Bad news, Products and services, Consumer experience, Competitive strategy, Wal-Mart (WMT), Target Corp. (TGT)

Retailer Target Corp. (NYSE: TGT) joined the earnings parade this morning when it reported its first quarter numbers. Despite a 7.5% drop in net income, the company was still able to come in above Wall Street estimates.

Going into today’s earnings report, analysts had been looking for earnings for the quarter of 71 cents per share, and the company actually was able to post earnings of 74 cents a share, on net income of $602 million. During the same period last year, the company was able to show net income of $651 million.

Revenues came in slightly under analyst estimates, with a reported $14.8 billion, compared to Wall Street’s expectations for $14.92 billion. Same store sales were down by 0.7% in the quarter, but revenue was actually higher by 5.4% as the company’s new stores were able to overshadow the decrease in revenue that the company witnessed in its stores open more than a year.

In a statement, Target’s Chief Executive, Gregg Steinhafel, stated that “the current economic environment remains challenging” and that Target will continue “to generate long-term value for our shareholders by remaining focused on the disciplined execution of our strategy.”

Target is the second largest retailer in the U.S. behind Wal Mart (NYSE: WMT). Over the past several years Target has carved out a decent chunk of retail market share with its inexpensive but chic clothing line and home accessories. The current market is tough on Target as shoppers have been cutting back on clothing and home furnishings and focusing on necessities.

Early in the trading day the stock was able to stay slightly in the green, but over the past couple of hours the stock has moved into the red. As of 12:30, the stock is trading at $54.80, down $0.12.

Michael Fowlkes has worked as a stock trader for seven years and spent the last four years working as an analyst for the on the internet investment advisory service Investor’s Observer.

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Filed under: Bad news, Products and services, Consumer experience, Competitive strategy, Employees, Southwest Airlines (LUV), AMR Corp (AMR)

We have all been there before, standing beside the luggage conveyor belt after a long flight, quietly praying for our luggage to magically pop out of that tiny window and slide our way. When our luggage finally shows up, it typically means the end of a long day that generally has the potential to stress out most travelers.

For me at least, as long as I get my luggage I’m satisfied with my trip. But for a lot of us, there are many factors we use to grade the airlines, and a current survey shows that customer dissatisfaction is running at near record level lows. These factors include anything from planes leaving and arriving on time, to the service inside the plane from fight attendants, to just how easily mishaps get handled by the agents at the ticketing desks.

Having lived in Europe the past few years, I’ve been no stranger to the long distance flight back and forth to the States. I suppose I have traveled roughly 100,000 miles on airlines over the past couple of years, and I’ve to state that for the most part I have had very pleasant experiences. My girlfriend was unfortunate enough to have lost some luggage for a week over this past Christmas, but other than that, I’ve been pretty lucky.

Seems I’m in the minority. A recent survey taken by the University of Michigan showed that, on a 100 point scale, passengers gave the airline industry a score of 62. This is only 1 point higher than the all time low score of 61 that was recorded during 2001.

There are many excuses that can be given by the airlines in reaction to the low scores. The first, is of course the usual excuse these days, high fuel costs. As airlines struggle to battle the rapidly increasing cost of keeping their planes in the air, of course they’re going to have to look at ways to cut back on expenses. These could be reduction in the number of bags for check-in, the cutting back of certain in-flight luxuries passengers are used to having, fewer flights, etc. All of which could be viewed as a reason to be unhappy with the flight.

I don’t know about you, but I often wonder why they even bother to give me a bag of pretzels if there is only going to be five pretzels in the bag — and yes, I actually did count one time to find just five pretzels. But at least it was handed to me with a nice smile, which goes a long way, you have to agree!

Another reason why the average scores are so low could be the trend toward low-cost airlines. Remember, people, if you purchase the cheapest ticket you can find, on the cheapest airline you can locate, don’t anticipate the Cadillac of the skies to show up. If you are looking for the lowest prices, anticipate to get what you are paying for. This is, of course, a bad generalization on my part, I do realize that, but something to keep in mind when judging your recent flight experiences.

As for me, I’m pretty loyal to American Airlines (NYSE: AMR). Their flights are usually on time, and I’ve rarely had any problems at all with any sort of missed flights, lost luggage, etc. OK, so they lost my girlfriend’s luggage for a week during Christmas, but at least they did eventually find it, drove it to our house, and gave us $120 to go shopping in the meantime. So in the end, they made up for the experience.

In the current survey, American scored 62, which was the second highest ranking under Southwest Airlines (NYSE: LUV), which had high marks with a score of 79. I have not flown on Southwest in several years, but they must be doing something right to be so far ahead of the rest of the pack.

What are your thoughts on this survey? Have your flown recently, and if so what was your overall impression with your trip? Let us hear which airlines you use, and how you rank them.

Michael Fowlkes has worked as a stock trader for seven years and spent the last four years working as an analyst for the online investment advisory service Investor’s Observer.

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Filed under: Products and services, Launches, Competitive strategy, Amazon.com (AMZN), Netflix, Inc. (NFLX)

Many home TVs now have five or six boxes on top of them: Television cable boxes, DVRs, satellite dish devices and perhaps an Unbox from Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN). NetFlix (NASDAQ: NFLX) wants to add to that gadget explosion.

NetFlix already has 8.2 million subscribers, so it does have a built-in base that many competitors don’t. Its new device will only cost $99 and will give instant access to a large list of titles. According to The News York Times, the new system “will allow customers to play thousands of movies and shows on their TVs instantly, for no charge beyond their normal subscription fee.”

While it is impossible to handicap the success of these products, the NetFlix offering might do well. For starters, very few competitors start with big pools of customers who are already buying products from them. In addition, the box is remarkably cheap. While the selection of titles is not special, the cost of playing them is modest because there’s no fee beyond the standard NetFlix subscription fee.

NetFlix still has to deal with the problem that the number of wires into the Television is way too massive.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com and author of the Ten Stocks Under $10 letter.

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Filed under: Deals, Competitive strategy, JPMorgan Chase (JPM), Barclays plc ADS (BCS), Lehman Br Holdings (LEH)

One of the disadvantages of having a company’s stock beaten down is that it can become a takeover target. That may be about to happen to Lehman (NYSE: LEH). Barclays (NYSE: BCS) is shopping for investment banks, and Lehman appears to be on the list.

According to The Telegraph, “Lehman would add to Barclays Capital’s existing stronghold in the debt market - which could mean bloody job cuts - but would massively bolster its presence in the US.” Barclays might use a buyout to raise money to recapitalize the bank. Buying a new business which is attractive to investors might make it easier to get capital for the new and improved entity.

One argument for the deal is that Wall Street still employs too many people all chasing the same markets and customers. The JP Morgan (NYSE: JPM) buyout of Bear Stearns allow the bank to cut more than 7,000 jobs, instantly improving margins. Lehman’s market cap has dropped to $24 billion, about half what it was less than a year ago.

Being a failure sometimes means losing the chance to stay independent.

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

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Filed under: Internet, Web services, Browser Tips, Social Software, Mobile Minute, web 2.0

Opera has released a report on the say of the mobile web. And considering the company claims more than 44 million users for its Opera Mini cellphone web browser, Opera’s in as good a position as any company to report on mobile web usage.

There are two trends that are particularly noteworthy. First, 77% of all traffic was to full web pages, not stripped down mobile pages. This probably shouldn’t be that surprising, since Opera Mini renders full pages pretty swiftly and lets users zoom in and out to read the fine print. And while WAP might have been pretty exciting a few years ago when there wasn’t as much rich media content on the internet, and when mobile world wide web connections were significantly slower, those days are long gone.

The second trend is a bit more surprising. 40% of worldwide traffic was directed to social networks. In some countries including the US, South Africa, and Indonesia, that number was as high as 60%. Now, it’s not like we didn’t know that social networking sites like Facebook, MySpace, Orkut, and Bebo were popular. We just didn’t figure people would be spending half of their mobile web browsing time visiting them.

What sites do you visit regularly with your mobile web browser?

[via VentureBeat]

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Filed under: Audio, Internet, Web services, web 2.0

Dorble is a music search engine that lets you find free MP3s on the internet. You can either listen to tracks in a web-based music player or download them with a little right-click action.

We should make it clear, when we say free, we don’t mean legal. Dorble, like several other popular music search engines isn’t bringing you music that’s been properly licensed for distribution. Rather, it scours the internet (or some small section of it) for MP3 files that have been uploaded, often without the copyright holders’ permission. Of course, it’s possible that some of the music you find will be legal, but much of what you’ll find on Dorble isn’t.

That stated, Dorble has a pretty Cover Flow-style interface on the front page that let you search for some of the most popular artists with a simple click. Dorble isn’t as good as SeeqPod at finding music from relatively obscure artists. But if you’re looking for Madonna or Jack Johnson and you can live without Mike Doughty and Over the Rhine, Dorble’s worth checking out.

[via A Tiny Bit of Everyting]

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