Power of Good Patents - Apple pays $100M to Creative August 23, 2006
Posted by Chetan in : Uncategorized , add a commentInventors should take note, specially in small companies. Patents provide protection for your ideas and businesses.
Apple Computer Inc. said Wednesday that it is paying $100 million to settle a dispute with rival Creative Technology Ltd. over the design of its trendy and iconic iPod digital media player.
Creative, developer of the Zen digital media player, had sued the Cupertino technology company this year, charging that the iPod took its patent-protected technology to sort and organize thousands of songs. It sought, among other remedies, to halt iPod shipments to the United States from China, where they are manufactured.
Apple countersued, arguing that Creative, based in Singapore with U.S. operations in Milpitas, infringed on three of its patents.
The two companies said Wednesday that they had amicably settled their differences. Apple will pay $100 million to license Creative’s technology and use it in its iPods, with the opportunity to get back a portion of the fees if Creative is able to license that technology to other companies.
Try Farecast August 21, 2006
Posted by Chetan in : Uncategorized , add a comment
I have already saved 100s of $$ using this fare predictor engine
Connexion Dis-connexion
Posted by Chetan in : Uncategorized, Carriers, Devices, WiMax, Wi-Fi , add a comment
$1B down the drain for Connexion (Boeing). Fundamental problem was in the basics. The demand was there but it was too darn expensive to deploy and took too long. At $500K/installation, it took a while for investment to pay off. Idea is still great. We need both Internet and Power supply on long haul flights. An extra $50 is nothing for the time utilized. Hopefully, someone will pick-up from where Connexion leaves us.
Future of Handsets
Posted by Chetan in : Uncategorized, AORTA, Carriers, 3G, Devices, Worldwide Wireless Market , add a commentA beautiful piece on future handsets by Business Week
Chinese are coming (ZTE) August 19, 2006
Posted by Chetan in : Uncategorized , add a commentAs noted in a note couple of CTIAs ago, Chinese infrastructure providers are starting to operate on the world stage. In a first, ZTE will be shipping 3G terminals to Telus in Canada.
The first batch of CDMA EVDO data cards has been shipped and will be available in major Canadian cities this month. This marks another important breakthrough for ZTE in the European and American high-end markets, the most advanced 3G markets in the world, following its cooperation with top European operators such as France Telecom and Hutchison Whampoa. North America is regarded as the most difficult market to break into and the move is a significant milestone in ZTE’s overseas expansion.
China Mobile is now the most valued wireless carrier
Posted by Chetan in : Uncategorized , add a commentLast week, China Mobile with its massive subscriber base blew past Vodafone as the highest valued company. As of 8/17, China Mobile’s market cap was $136B vs. Vodafone which was around $133B
US Wireless Data Market Stats Coverage August 15, 2006
Posted by Chetan in : Uncategorized , add a commentThe research note from the weekend got coverage at Moconews, GigaOM, Unstrung, Seattle Times, FierceWireless
Top Mobile Sites June 2006
Posted by Chetan in : Uncategorized , add a comment
Source: Telephia
India wireless market growth continues August 11, 2006
Posted by Chetan in : Uncategorized, AORTA, 3G, Indian Wireless market, ARPU, Worldwide Wireless Market , add a commentAs predicted in our last two reports on the Indian wireless market, the market continues to grow. July numbers exceeded 5.28M subs rivaling the growth in China. More details here http://www.trai.gov.in/trai/upload/PressReleases/357/PRNo75of10Aug2006.pdf. More info on reports here http://www.chetansharma.com/report2.htm
Verizon becomes the first US carrier to cross $1B in wireless data revenues (per quarter) August 1, 2006
Posted by Chetan in : Uncategorized, AORTA, Carriers, 3G, US Wireless Market, ARPU , add a commentVerizon Wireless beat all analyst expectations by reporting second-quarter wireless data revenues of more than $1 billion, the first time the carrier has passed that milestone. The data figure represents almost 13 percent of the company’s service revenues, a 7 percent jump from the same period last year. Verizon also netted 1.8 million customers during the quarter, bringing its total to 54.8 million, second only to Cingular Wireless.
These are some very positive figures for Verizon, which has been quietly revamping much of its data strategy in the last few months. Its BREW-based walled garden approach has been criticized for being too restrictive on commerce, particularly by entertainment industry executives. But services like the VCast Music service (which just dropped its monthly fee) don’t rely on the content delivery system, and the new tack seems to be bearing fruit.
In comparison, DoCoMo reported $2.64 in data revenues this quarter. Quite a room for growth if one pursues the right strategies.
Google Maps Mobile July 25, 2006
Posted by Chetan in : Uncategorized, AORTA, Devices, Location based Services, Mobile Applications , 1 comment so farGoogle Inc. has enhanced its Google Maps mobile application by adding traffic information and the ability to save routes. Download at http://www.google.com/gmm
eBay TV July 24, 2006
Posted by Chetan in : Uncategorized, Mobile TV , add a commenthttp://gigaom.com/2006/07/24/skype-founders-take-on-tv/
Skype founders have found a good business model. Build a startup and sell it to eBay for 10 times the price. It will be interesting to see what they come up with. Unlike P2P telephony, TV actually requires content whether it is user generated (and there are hordes of players now) or licensed. In anycase, like Om pointed out, eBay loses.
Vodafone numbers
Posted by Chetan in : Uncategorized, Carriers, ARPU, European wireless market , add a commentData ARPU has been steadily climbing with the Group Total at 17.4%. Germany and UK are doing good with 21.2% and 20.9% respectively. Also, non-messaging data ARPU is climbing and now accounts for almost 5% of the total revenues. Spain seems to be leading the way with 6.8% revenues from non-messaging data. Overall, it has been a slow growth from 16.2% (data ARPU % of the overall ARPU) in Jun 05 to 17.4% in Jun 06.
AMD gobbles ATI. nVidia next?
Posted by Chetan in : Uncategorized , add a commentI was just talking with a client about M&A in semiconductor industry and this news popped in .. Intel, your turn
Skype SMS
Posted by Chetan in : Uncategorized, AORTA, Devices, Unified Messaging, Messaging , add a commentSkype and mBlox are enabling SMS from Skype. Rates are here http://www.skype.com/products/skypesms/rates/index.html?currency=USD#listing-U
Can Zune take on iPOD July 22, 2006
Posted by Chetan in : Uncategorized, Devices, Mobile Content, Mobile Entertainment, Music Player , add a commenthttp://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/5205296.stm
Microsoft has been trying very hard to challenge iPOD’s dominance. After trying out several hardware vendors, its product plans went no where. Zune might arrive to the markets by Christmas but it needs to be a generation ahead of iPOD if it can even make a dent otherwise it will be a “mee-tooo” product few years late
ESPN MVNO July 21, 2006
Posted by Chetan in : Uncategorized, AORTA, General, 3G, US Wireless Market, MVNO , add a commenthttp://login.vnuemedia.com/mw/news/recent_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1002876073
Analysts have started calling for the demise of ESPN MVNO. Granted the going has been tough due to some missteps and fierce competition, it is too early to expect hundreds of thousands of subscribers. With so much “instant gratification” content, ESPN should give it more time, clean up its strategy and focus on execution.
Apple’s iPhone
Posted by Chetan in : Uncategorized, AORTA, 3G, Devices , add a commenthttp://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/278342_ipodphone21.html
We will believe it when we see it. It will be interesting to see if Apple can work in the confines of the mobile ecosystem. I would imagine that they will launch with an European or Asian operator first.
Seattle Mobile Gaming Conference/WSA July 13, 2006
Posted by Chetan in : Uncategorized, Middleware, Mobile Content, Mobile Entertainment, Mobile Gaming , add a commentSeattle Mobile Conference going on today and tomorrow. Also, moderated a panel on Mobile gaming earlier today -
Asia, RealNetworks
More soon
WiMax - Clearwire gets almost a billion dollars July 6, 2006
Posted by Chetan in : Uncategorized, WiMax , add a commentIntel invested over $600M and looped in Motorola for another $300M. While Motorola might recoup its investment by selling equipment to Clearwire, don’t know if Intel will be able to do the same. It is clearly one of the most risky bets Intel Capital has ever made. Hope they have some conditions to the investment, a few board seats otherwise this one looks like another Teledesic to me.
