Lenovo iPhone Killer

Lenovo has been busy finalizing their new smartphone code named the “OPhone”. Compared to the iPhone it looks to be a killer device. Some Chinese bloggers got their hands on one and did a comparision against the iPhone. The dimensions closely mirror Apple’s iPhone but there are some surprises like a 5MP camera with a flash and a 16GB micro SD slot.

Early in December photos leaked on the OPhone and it was rumored to be built on Google’s Android platform. This would be a big step up from Google’s G1 device in many ways. Lenovo and China Mobile could have a legitimate iPhone killer on their hands. Time will tell but if this is build on Android, Google is quickly closing the gap on Apple.

Game Over For PlayStation 3

The game is over for Sony (SNE) and its PlayStation 3. Sony’s sales plunge 19 points compared to sales in November 2007. Sony’s strategy has been flawed from the beginning. 

Sony made two big bets with PlayStation 3. First was the cell processor which promised to be a breakthrough in computing power and bridge the gap between x86 architecture and specialized hardware. It proved to be challenging to develop for. The second big bet was on the Blu-rayDVD format. This bet was a mixed blessing. The shift from standard DVD to HD DVD has been much slower than other industry format changes. Sony ultimately won the format battle with Toshiba but they might have lost the war. The Blu-ray drive which is included in every Sony Playstation 3 causes the price of the PlayStation 3 to be $200 more than other consoles like the Xbox 360.

PlayStation 3’s run rate has a compounding negative impact on Sony. Game developers are less likely to build blockbuster titles something the PlayStation 3 has lacked.  Even more important are the third party royalties that come with licensing the PlayStation 3 platform and contribute a majority of profit to Sony’s gaming business. The PlayStation 3 has become a big boat anchor on Sony’s bottom line. Read more

Facebook Loses $14 Billion In Value

Facebook has lost $14 billion in value in less than a year. With a 140 million users and growing Mark Zuckerberg’s social network company has gotten a reality check.The value of Facebook has been a hotly debated topic.

Last October Microsoft solidified Facebook’s value to the world, $15 billion. Microsoft got a paltry 1.6% stake in the company for $240 million.  Some thought that Steve Ballmer had lost his mind. But what people didn’t realize is how smart he really was. To Microsoft, $240 million is a rounding error, so if they were really crazy they would have bought more of Facebook at an insane valuation. What was brilliant about this move was it established a public valuation for Facebook that was so high and unjustified no one on the planet would touch them. Unless you are Li Ka-shing the Chinese billionarie that put up $60 million at that valuation. Essentially it was a poison pill for anyone that would try to acquire them. (hint, hint, Google)

Even Facebook internally didn’t believe the $15 billion valuation. According to inside sources they were offering employees options at $10 billion and some employees got options at $5 billion. Mark Zuckerberg recently canceled a employee stock buying program when no company would agree that Facebook was worth $4 billion. So what is it worth now? Valleywag was reporting rumors of of people willing to sell their stock at $2.50-4.00, that would put Facebook’s valuation at $1.3 billion. If you look at the numbers Facebook is worth much less.  Read more

Future of Microsoft’s Zune

Zune came on scene in 2006 when the iPod had 90% market share and was on pace to hit 100 million units. The Zune design was nothing short of an ugly brown brick of a device. Microsoft tried to differentiate the Zune by adding “the social” to the experience but the party was already over.

Apple had launched the iPod Nano a year earlier and the game was over. Apple’s unit volumes went up exponential and in no time,  everyone that was ever going to own a music device on the planet had an iPod. In Zune’s 2nd generation Microsoft started to get the software right and in many ways its superior to the iPod software but it seems too little too late. The puck is already shifting away from pure play music devices. 

At first you would think that this is a razor blade business. Sell the razor (hardware) for little to no profit and make all the money on selling razor blades (content and services). Except the paid content business is a horrible business. There is no money in that business, it just adds value to the device you are using. Apple makes all their profit selling hardware. So what is the future of Zune? Read more

Steve Jobs Goes Missing From MacWorld

Apple announced today that Steve Jobs will not being doing the keynote at the much anticipated MacWorld in January. Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing, will be taking his place. This news is certainly going to stir more speculation around Steve Jobs’s health concerns. Or its a tactic to clearly lower expectations on the show.

Apple also said they are no longer going to participate in MacWorld, which is in partnership with IDG. With consumer demand at an all time high for Apple products it seems they don’t think they need these types of industry events to build awareness of their products. Tomorrow wont be good for Apple’s stock (AAPL).

If I was Steve Ballmer I would be breathing a sigh of relief. Giving a keynote at CES two days after MacWorld would make anyone a little nervous.

Google Apps Has No Future

For a little more than two years Google (GOOG) has been in the productivity apps business, trying to chip away at Microsoft’s Office dominance with over 500 million users. First they went out and bought a bunch of start-ups including Writely, Tonic, XL2Web, and JotSpot. Then Google gave them a new paint job and duck taped them together calling them Google Docs & Spreadsheets.

For the past two years they have been trying every strategy in the book to try and get traction in the market. First it was consumer free then it was an enterprise paid model. With all the P/R hype, all the data points to Google Apps being an utter failure. According to Compete, Google only gets 4M unique vistors to their Google Docs & Spreadsheets Web sites. Still the irony is while jouranlists were busy predicting web based apps would make Microsoft Office obsolete, they were busy typing away using Microsoft Word. Google even got on the feature treadmill and started banging out must have features like “print” and “charting”. Still no one is showing up to their party. Read more

Samsung Pixon 8MP Cameraphone

The race to bring a 8MP cameraphone to market is heating up. Sony Ericsson was rumored to be working on an 8MP cameraphone for the US. But it seems Samsung’s effort are in full swing with the recent FCC filings for the Samsung Pixon.  The recent specs reveal its targeted to hit the At&t network. This phone is packed with features and resembles the Samsung Omnia.

But the most interesting thing is how these types of devices are blurring the lines for multimedia experiences. With a 8MP camera on board it becomes a compelling multi purpose device. Now I only need to bring one device out with me.

The Samsung Pixon offers a compelling replacement to my point and shoot camera. I can now take high quality photos that are not just good enough to post on Facebook but can be printed and shared with family and friends.

Microsoft Launches First iPhone App Seadragon

Microsoft’s Live Labs group launched Seadragon Mobile on the Apple iPhone. Its available through the iTunes app marketplace. Seadragon Mobile enables you to view gigapixel images from any device.  Microsoft calls the technique of viewing large images “deep zoom” and its a key technology in their Photosynth product.

What is interesting about this move is Microsoft is making Seadragon Mobile available on Apple’s iPhone even before you can get it on the Windows Mobile platform. Is this a change of heart for Microsoft? Probably not. Seadragon Mobile uses graphics accelerated hardware and there are not many devices on the market today that take advantage of those capabilities. Microsoft is probably using this as an opportunity to test some technology early and also doing a little bit of hedging.

PlayStation Virtual World Comes Alive

Sony recently rolled out its PlayStation Home service. There have been nearly 17 million PlayStation 3 sold worldwide. Sony is calling the roll-out a beta, meaning Sony is still working out the bugs. PlayStation Home has been delayed by over a year and includes the PlayStation Network which has been playing catch up to Xbox Live ever since it launched.

The 3-D social network which is also being positioned as a gaming community is the most photo realistic environment compared to Xbox Live and Wii network.

Sony just recently cut 8,000 people and are in tough financial position. They are in a difficult position in the console wars. Sony is in third place from a unit perspective, PlayStation 3 has lacked blockbuster game titles, and its online network is way behind Xbox Live.

Google OS Coming Out of Beta

Google’s Chrome Web browser is really an operating system in disguise. Google’s ambition is to build an ecosystem that uses Chrome and Google Gears in a world of HTML and javascript. The key to Google building critical mass behind this effort will be to get broad and pervasive distribution of the Chrome browser. To do this they are going to need to pre-install it on OEM machines. Google is finding out that no OEM on the planet will ship anything that is still in beta. Last time I checked Gmail is still in beta after 4 years.

Google’s Chrome Web browser (aka Google OS) is coming out of beta testing according to a TechCrunch report. Marissa Mayer, Google’s vice president of user experience, told TechCruch’s Michael Arrington that it would be coming out of beta soon but no date was given.

Google’s strategy with Chrome is puzzling in many ways. Firefox is an open source Web browser with just over 20% market share world wide. Google is a big financial contributor to the Mozilla organization that builds Firefox. Yet Google takes an approach that makes them start at a base of zero and directly compete with one of their biggest partners. More fragmentation will make it far more difficult to galvanize the developer community around a platform. Google will have a long uphill battle to fight on this one.

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