On the eve of BlackBerry World, Reuters reports on a warning from Captain Obvious:
Struggling BlackBerry maker Research In Motion could well cede a much larger chunk of market share in coming months, RBC Capital Markets analyst Mark Sue warned on Monday.
Could. May. Perhaps. It’s 2012 and an analyst at a major bank can’t give a direct assessment on RIM’s future? There is no could here. RIM will bleed market share for the foreseeable future, period.
A sign of the times, the San Diego Union-Tribune writes about an initiative that will see the city’s unified school district purchase a large number of iPads even though it bought more than 75,000 netbooks in previous years.
In all, the district plans to purchase around 25,700 iPad 2s at a slight discount from retail to roll out to its fifth- and eighth-grade classes as well as some high school classes by next fall. It is one of the largest deployments of iPads in K-12 schools in the nation and will cost the district more than $15 million.
Last year, I did a TV story on a Montreal High School that was starting a Macbook program for its grade seven students. The iPad will definitely end up canibalizing Mac sales in education too, but will hurt Windows PC sales much more.
The Angry Birds train shows no sign of slowing down, according to this press release from Rovio, the game’s maker.
Angry Birds Space hit 50 million downloads within 35 days, making it the fastest growing mobile game yet and breaking all our previous records. This has been simply amazing, and the whole Rovio team is thrilled to see such a fantastic reception for the game.
Now would be a good time for Nintendo to get an addictive Mario game on 50 million smartphones. Unless of course, the company enjoyed reporting its first annual loss last week.
The real world always makes The Onion more hilarious. First, this tweet from Elon Musk, the Paypal and Tesla co-founder whose SpaceX venture is on track to be the first private spacecraft to reach the International Space Station:
Dragon review completed. All systems now ready for full thrust hold down firing on Monday. http://t.co/wDQHfgZm
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Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 28, 2012Then, this tweet and accompanying article from The Onion:
NASA Announces Plans To Put Man On Bus To Cleveland ow.ly/aBsMj
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The Onion (@TheOnion) April 30, 2012Looking to corporations instead of countries to reach the stars, it’s just not as exciting.
Some serious sleuthing going on at Macworld Australia, who seems to have discovered evidence that RIM, and not Samsung, was reponsible for the “Wake Up” flash mob at a Sydney Apple store last week:
So it appears* it’s Poor Old RIM who put together this embarrassing campaign. It’s heartbreaking that even when RIM try something cool, they end up screwing it up so badly that no-one even imagines it could be them.
I’m no advertising guru, so feel free to chime in if you are, but the current trend of framing Apple users as sheep is not solid marketing strategy. Mac, iPhone, and iPad buyers tend to be educated and affluent consumers. Insulting them doesn’t seem like the way to entice them to discover if your product is better.
Rogers, Shaw, and the CBC, some of Canada’s biggest media companies, have come together in an effort to increase online advertising revenues, says The Globe and Mail.
Shaw, Rogers and the CBC hope that by making it easier for advertisers to reach the readers they want, they’ll steal business from Google and others and be able to charge higher rates, delivering millions in additional revenue.
The move has some serious repercussions, especially for the cash-strapped CBC. The new venture will allow Canada’s public broadcaster to take in more revenue from its digital properties at a time when they need it most.
For those of you not familiar with 1% living, Vertu is a mobile phone maker. Their phone line pretty much looks like what would happen if your basic flip or candy bar phone had a run-in with a BeDazzler. Now the company, which is owned by the beleaguered Nokia, is on the market, says the Financial Times via Reuters.
Vertu’s cellphones can feature crystal displays and sapphire keys, costing more than 200,000 pounds ($320,000) due to the precious metal components.
Today the luxury market is the iPhone market, and anyone who requires bling to make their phone stand out in garish fashion will spend their money on an exorbitant case. Or this.
Amir Efrati and Don Clark from The Wall Street Journal deliver a story that doesn’t jibe with what Google’s been telling us since 2010 about the data their Street View cars were collecting:
A Google Inc. engineer told others at the company about his plan to scoop up personal information from wireless-network users as specially equipped cars drove by their homes, but the practice continued for two years after the internal disclosures, a Federal Communications Commission investigation found.
Every day, it gets a little harder to trust Google. Which sucks, because I love my Gmail.
Put this article from the Sydney Morning Herald down under “history repeating.”
“Titanic II will be the ultimate in comfort and luxury with on-board gymnasiums and swimming pools, libraries, high class restaurants and luxury cabins,” Mr Palmer said.
Clive Palmer, the billionaire who’s making this happen, made his money in mining. Probably knows a thing or two about the unexpected.
Asked today if the Titanic II could sink, Mr Palmer told reporters: “Of course it will sink if you put a hole in it.”
Prediction: This will not end well.
The New York Times’ Nick Bilton with a troubling look at the current state of tech start-ups:
When small start-ups I’ve spoken with do make money, they often find it difficult to recruit additional investment because most venture capitalists — and often the entrepreneurs they finance — are not interested in building viable long-term businesses. Rather, they’re interested in pumping up enough hype and valuation to find a quick exit through an acquisition at an eye-popping premium.
Me thinks that when the bubble finally bursts, we’ll be looking back fondly on the days of the pets.com sock puppet.
CNN with a look at one man’s project to counter surveillance culture:
If you take Adam Harvey’s advice, here’s what you might wanna wear to a party this weekend: A funny hat, asymmetrical glasses, a tuft of hair that dangles off your nose bridge and, most likely, a black-and-white triangle taped to your cheekbone. Optional: Cubic makeup patterns all around your eyes.
Let’s hope that this technology will one day stop you from being tagged in a Facebook photo.
Quick, before it’s shut down, head on over to iOSLiveTV.com. The site, which works on all iOS devices and Macs/PCs using Safari, is exactly what you’d want to watch TV anywhere. And since we’ll never get this kind of television utopia legally, enjoy it while you can.
UPDATE: As you can see by tapping on the link, the site has already been brought down by a DMCA complaint. Well, it was a good run while it lasted.
Great article from the New York Times, except replace “Apple” with “Every Major American Corporation.”
More scoop on Apple from Reuters, who clearly is in Cupertino’s good books. They seem to have replaced the New York Times in the leak pecking order.
Apple… opened discussions with three-year-old EPIX, created by Lions Gate Entertainment Corp, MGM and Viacom’s Paramount Pictures. One of the sources told Reuters that any discussions would apply to its set-top box and also to upcoming devices that stream content.
If Apple is going to launch a television set without the help of big cable and satellite, they’re going to need all the content deals they can get. I still believe that when we see a true Apple TV, it will make a monthly cable or satellite bill more valuable, not less.
The big announcement is that the company is radically changing its approach to releasing games on the 3DS console. Starting with the launch of New Super Mario Bros 2 this summer, the manufacturer’s in-house titles will be simultenously available via retail stores and digital download.
As much as digital downloads of full games is needed for Nintendo, that’s not their biggest problem. There’s a new generation of children growing up, and their first interaction with video games is not coming on a Nintendo device, it’s coming on their parents iPhones and iPads. By holding out on delivering Mario to iOS and Android, Nintendo is harming the long-term success of the company.
Much more from The Guardian here.
