The most important tablet is missing from CES, and it's not iPad 2
Actually, I'm hoping to be wrong in this assertion, and with main Consumer Electronics Show events commencing tomorrow there's still a chance I might be. The most important tablet, or table concept, must come from Google. The plethora of Android 2.x tablets won't be competition enough against iPad. When it comes to products and marketing, there often isn't safety in numbers.
During CES 2010, Google released the Nexus One. The search and information giant designed the HTC-manufactured smartphone, which ran the then newest Android version -- 2.1. Many bloggers and journalists wrongly wrote that Google charted new retail waters by selling direct. I repeatedly corrected this claim. For example, Nokia has sold phones direct for years, Many blog or news posts about the N1 also missed the point: Google wasn't going into retail sales but establishing a reference design for manufacturers and developers. From that perspective, Google executed brilliantly with N1 and continued with last month's release of the Samsung-made Nexus S.
What's it really like to attend CES?
Okay, so, I'm throwing things into a rollie and a backpack to head off to the Consumer Electronics Show tomorrow. It's the usual drill, which I could probably do in my sleep by now, but I still have to apply some consciousness. For example, tomorrow evening I get my rental bike delivered to the hotel, but Vegas is going to be cool this year. So, I have to pack light but warm items: wool cap, ski glove liners, windproof shell.
And I'm not taking my HP Jornada as a note-taking device for the first time since 1998. This time, I need to stay connected. So, an old Lenovo X301 with Windows 7, solid-state storage, 3G and WiFi will have to do it. Oh, and extra battery. At this point, I'm as ready as anyone can be for the chaos that is CES. What is going to be like there? The rest of this post highlights various aspects of the show, some perennial, some dynamic.
Netflix buttons coming to your Blu-ray, TV remote controls
Streaming entertainment service Netflix announced ahead of CES 2011 Tuesday that it had partnered with select manufacturers to include a Netflix "button" on remote controls. So far Blu-ray players from Dynex brand, Haier, Memorex, Panasonic, Samsung, Sharp, Sony, and Toshiba will include the button, as well as Internet connected TVs from Sharp, Sony and Toshiba.
Netflix buttons would provide one-click access to the built-in application, which the company hopes will increase usage of what has become an increasingly larger percentage of its business. The first enabled devices would appear in the spring, the company said.
Samsung pops USB 3.0 drives, WiFi camera at CES
Smartphones and tablets may be the early buzz darlings of this year's Consumer Electronics Show, but no one should forget USB 3.0. This afternoon, Samsung reminded me in a press release about new USB 3.0 drives it's popping this week.
Three drive lines -- two of which are portable -- will be available. Portable drive colors: Onyx black, Sapphire blue and Coral pink, with capacities up to 1TB. The new desktop drive comes in 1, 1.5 and 2TB capacities.
Forrester: One-third of Americans will own a tablet PC by 2015
Forrester Research claims that one in three Americans will own a tablet PC -- that's 82 million of us -- by 2015. No wonder "Tablets look to steal the show at CES and beyond," as my colleague Ed Oswald asserted yesterday. It's no coincidence that Forrester released its tablet forecast less than two days before the 2011 Consumer Electronics Show starts.
Already, the tablet noise is growing, with Microsoft rumored to be showing off Windows-powered tablets during CEO Steve Ballmer's June 5th opening keynote. Then there are the Android rumors, such as the HTC Scribe running Honeycomb (Android 3.0).
Microsoft ready to take on Apple, Google with TV set top box
Reports indicate that Microsoft is prepared to show off a connected television solution of its own, and will demo a TV set top box this week at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. The device will be similar to those already offered by competitors Apple and Google.
The Seattle Times reports that the device will come in at a price point below $200, and is expected to go on sale later in the year. In the simplest terms, it is an effort by Microsoft to bring its Windows Media Center concept to the masses.
'These aren't the Droids you're looking for'
Let the march to Android 2.3 begin, with (gasp) more smartphones running version 2.2. You've got to love this one-step-behind (sometimes two) innovation that defines Android. My Google-branded Nexus S runs Gingerbread (aka Android 2.3), and it's the only phone that officially does. The carrier and OEM channels move much slower than does Google operating system development. I kind of understand the slow upgrading of existing handsets, but most everything new shouldn't run something old. Hehe, "these aren't the Droids you're looking for." Today's 2.2 star: the HTC EVO Shift 4G from Sprint, available on January 9 for a cool $149.99 (with two-year contract and after $100 mail-in rebate). Update: After I posted, Best Buy announced presale availability of January 6.
By the specs, Sprint's new smartphone impresses (except, perhaps the processor): 800MHz Qualcomm processor (MSM7630); 3.6-inch capacitive touchscreen (with 800 x 480 resolution), slide-out QWERTY keyboard, 720p video capture, FM radio and all the other expected stuff, like GPS, Bluetooth and WiFi. Too bad that the EVO Shift 4G is but another new Android phone running an old OS version.
Do you care Apple is worth $300 billion?
I sure don't. Otherwise I would have joined the cacophony writing about Apple's market capitalization milestone yesterday. I see the $300 billion valuation as another excuse for pageview-obsessed bloggers and journalists and hype-seeking Wall Street analysts and investors to write even more about Apple. It's great news for driving the share price higher.
From one perspective, Apple's valuation achievement is so impressive it shouldn't be ignored. Following the Sept. 29, 2008 stock market collapse, Apple's valuation plummeted. Apple's market cap was a mere $88.68 billion on Oct. 2, 2008, down by nearly half from a month earlier. Apple's stock price comeback is nothing short of miraculous over the past two years. In late May, Apple's market capitalization topped Microsoft.
Google looks to counter Apple with Android newsstand
Google is aiming to keep on an even keel with Apple by looking for industry support for a planned newsstand for Android devices. The plans seem similar to what Apple already offers publishers to offer online subscriptions to their content through the App Store.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Google is currently in discussions with several content providers including Time Warner, Conde Nast, and Hearst Publications. Details are slim, but it appears the Mountain View, Calif. company is ready to do what's needed to bring content providers on board.
Tablets look to steal the show at CES and beyond
Could 2011 be the year of the tablet? It sure seems that way -- as many as 100 companies may release tablet computers in 2011, say analysts. This week's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas will be the debut of several of these devices, all hoping to at least compete with the juggernaut that Apple's iPad has become.
What was once a market that seemed to have little potential has proven to be one of technology's most lucrative -- and untapped. Apple was able to successfully take advantage of this opening, and has left its competitors scrambling in an attempt to catch up.
CES 2011 trend: Single-die chips
On Monday, just a couple of days before the International Consumer Electronics Show for the year 2011 takes place, chipmaker Intel revealed the specs for its long-awaited second generation Core i3, i5, and i7 processors and the related chipset family code named "Sandy Bridge." Intel's 32nm process chips will be the replacement for the Nehalem architecture that has been in use since 2008.
The most noteworthy qualities of the Intel Core 2011 chips come from their new construction, which integrates the CPU, GPU, and a multi-purpose I/O controller on the same little piece of silicon. What makes this especially interesting is that early testers of the chips say the integrated graphics processor (called either HD 2000 or HD 3000) can actually outperform certain low-level discrete graphics cards. Intel today highlighted the chips' graphical capabilites with "Intel Clear Video HD" for high def, and "Intel InTru 3D" for stereoscopic Blu-Ray playback.
BitTorrent reaches 100 million subscribers monthly, 400k downloads daily
Holy downloads, Batman, BitTorrent has 100 million monthly active users -- 20 million per day. Average daily downloads: 400,000. That's a whole lot of file sharing, and I wonder: How active are Betanews readers on BitTorrent?
BitTorrent revealed the subscriber data in one of many tech announcements leading into the 2011 Consumer Electronics Show, which kicks off with Wednesday evening's keynote delivered by Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer.
Motorola's big split takes place tomorrow
After trading closes down today, Motorola Incorporated is expected to begin distributing shares of its newly spun-off mobile devices company known as Motorola Mobility (MMI). This split has been in preparatory stages for the last three years, and this marks the final stages of the separation. After all of the common stock for the new company has been distributed, Motorola Inc. intends to change its name to Motorola Solutions Inc (MSI.)
Motorola Mobility's CEO and Chairman will be Dr. Sanjay Jha, who has been in the position of co-CEO with Greg Brown since 2008. Prior to joining Motorola, Jha was the COO of Qualcomm Inc. Motorola Mobility's executive staff will also include Mark Rothman as Chief Financial Officer; John Bucher as Chief Strategy Officer; and Geoffrey Roman as Chief Technology Officer.
41% of new smartphone buyers choose Android
"The race for the lead in US. smartphone operating system (OS) consumer market share is tighter than it has ever been," begins a blog post today on Nielsen Wire. The winner is? No one yet. Apple's iPhone leads in total US consumer market share, while most people who recently bought a smartphone chose Android. I'm among them. "This race might still be too close to call," Nielsen asserts.
Perhaps the more important data point is about the broader smartphone category. "In November, 45 percent of recent acquirers chose a smartphone over a feature phone," according to the Nielsen post. That's up from 34 percent in June. Apple and Research in motion are "statistically tied" with respect to US smartphone OS market share -- 28.6 percent and 26.1 percent, respectively. Android's share is 25.8 percent.
Bozos in the cloud
Wavy Gravy famously used to say, "We are all bozos on the bus, so we might as well enjoy the ride," meaning none of us really knows what we're doing. We do the best we can, try to look cool and hope nobody notices when we screw up, when it'd be so much easier to simply admit we're all just trying to figure it out, and let our mistakes hang out for all to see, so others don't have to make the same mistakes. You've got to take chances, and that's what I've done by moving from the safety and familiarity of the desktop to the cloud.
Let me start by letting you know I'm a total bozo when it comes to this cloud thing. I think we all are. It's so new, nobody really knows how to do it all right, and many people are afraid to try. Will their stuff be safe? What if there is no Internet connection? So I'm putting on my red rubber nose and diving into the cloud for everyone to see -- hope you enjoy the ride.
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