Time Inc To Embrace Tablets

Time Inc issued a press release indicating their commitment to tablets, the publishing anc consuming platform of the future, with plans to publish all of its magazines in digital formats.

Time, People, Sports Illustrated, and Fortune are among some of its more notable titles that I read.  Well, not People but you can't help avoid back-copies of them when you visit a doc's office.

Time has already made available some magazines in the iTunes Apple store via dedicated apps.  The same is for the Android Marketplace.  What's notable is that HP's Touchpad will also be a part of the mix.  

What is also notable is the absence of some devices like Kindle and RIM's Playbook.  I reckon they should be able to access Time Inc's library of magazines once RIM release's the Android player app for the Playbook and Amazon's Kindle tablet goes on sale later this fall.  Still, no native support for the Playbook would be a huge blow to RIM.

Also, Time Inc boasted 28 million subscribers to its 21 magazines and "hundreds of thousands" of them happen to also be digital subscribers.  And more than 600K copies have been bought online based on four titles.

Not bad but not great either.  

So you have to ask why now?  My guess is that they saw two things.  First, its subscribers have been asking for it.  Second, if not Time Inc, then who will lead the charge onto the tablets?  

Perhaps, they also see the rotting carcass that is Borders Group and realized that unless they embrace the future now, they will become like that.  

Source: Business Wire via TIPB.

Microsoft Made All of $613 Million From Mobile Division Last Year. Ouch!

Microsoft's mobile division, the arm responsible for Windows Phone 7, brought in $613 million in revenue all of last year.  This is a tiny portion of approximately $70 billion the whole company brought in.

While we pull for Microsoft to make a comeback in the mobile market, Windows Phone 7 has been on the market for nearly a year.  Granted, WP7 was a bit rushed, the Microsoft brand was able to do more for its mobile effort.  It really does speak to the direction that its competitors like Android and the iPhone has taken.

Mango, the next major Windows Phone update, is due to come to the market in a couple of months.  Perhaps, this is just what Microsoft fans are looking for and might be enough to draw away some defectors from other platforms.

Furthermore, Mango's push will be aided by Nokia's global muscle.  One of the things about Microsoft is that its first attempt rarely succeeds but it learns and adapts quickly.

One other note I like to mention is whether all of the mobile revenue comes from Windows Phone licensing and related activities or does some part of it have something to do with patent royalties Microsoft receives from HTC.  

Source:  Pulse.

Signs Of A Double-Dip Recession

MSNBC posted an article that listed ten sights that we are in a double-dip recession.  The recent doom and gloom about the economy was brought on by last week's GDP data that the US economy grew slower than anticipated while consumer spending hardly moved at all.

Furthermore, there is fear of another wave of massive layoffs.

Of the ten, I only saw three that I thought is actually more measurable to people on Main Street.

The first one is employment.  As is evident by the high unemployment rate, hiring has slowed in the last couple of months.  On top of that, the real unemployment rate is higher given the number of people out of work who are not actively seek employment, mainly because they have given up.

The second is access to credit.  Just like the last recession caused by financial and real estate meltdown, access to credit became nonexistent.  Lending came to a standstill.  Some small to mid-sized companies, profitable under normal access to credit, could face cash crunches that will result in additional layoffs.

The third is the federal budget.  The biggest single driver of economic activity is the government.  The budget cuts over the coming decade could prolong the recovery process.  I know some advocate the idea of the trickle-down economy.  Well, while I don't advocate big government, just efficient government, there is no effectors of this concept than the governments.

And if the federal budget is trimmed as expected, the state and local governments will need to pick up the slack.  And they in terms rely on money from the federal government for some social services.

However, there are also a few of the "signs" in the MSNBC post that I think should not be used as signs as that a slowing economy is upon us.  In fact, I find those signs indicative of how some things are wrong with how we live.

Could Foxconn's Robots Make it Like Future Gears Will Be Made In The US?

Foxconn, according to a Chinese report, will begin to replace Chinese workers with one million robots to improve margin and efficiency.  Foxconn is a manufacturing company that make up a lot of smartphones, tablets, and laptops.  

Right now, Foxconn has 10k such robots deployed in its factories but that number will increase to 300K by next year and one million in three years.  These robots will be tasked to welding and assembling where possible.

As I understand it, how much many workers will these robots replace?  

Furthermore, I wonder if this means that an army of these robots eventually mean more future manufacturing of mobile gadgets, PC, and other techs done in the US, resulting in higher employment here in the States.  Or that Foxconn or another manufacturer could set up regional factories to more quickly distribute the final products.

Japanese firms like Honda and Toyota routinely put on display advances in robotics that seem to be far more advanced than what we are used to seeing here.  For a nation with a swindling population, Japan could fall back on robotic technology to maintain its social order and economic edge in the world.  

Perhaps this is something that our own companies and government laboratories could also look into as well.  

One thing I know about technology and science is that with time, we can almost make anything work.  We already have robotics in car factories.  They are involved in chip-making.  Imagine in a few years that someone like Apple could potentially design its products where a majority of its manufacturing and assembling be done by robots with minimal human intervention.  

Source: XinHuaNet, Macdailynews.

Peace Talk: Israel Signaled Willingness To Negotiate Based On Cease-Fire Borders

Accoring to MSNBC, Israeli TV reported a possibility of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu willing to start negotiation based on borders set by the 1967 cease-fire. What this means is a remote chance that the peace process laid out by President Barack Obama could have a chance of going forward.

Back when President Obama proposed his framework to based the negotiation on the 1967 borders as a starting point, Netanyahu rejected the plan. It was considered a setback for the President of the United States.

My guess is that the unilateral move by the Palestinians to seek UN recognition had something to do with the change of heart. We will see if this is for real if the move to seek statehood via the UN is dropped. Obviously, if the Palestinians can always restart the process if they believe the peace process does not move forward.

Obviously, things are more difficult today than they were years ago. Issues such Jerusalem and settlements in the West Bank will be difficult to resolve.

Source: MSNBC.

Sprint's WiMax Wholesale Move Means There Is No Worries LTE Competitor Going Away Any Time Soon

Sprint will be begin a new wholesale program to sell Clearwire's WiMax network.  The significance of this is that it assure Sprint and Clearwire partners as well as customers who have invested equipment to run on this 4G network will not see their devices obsolete with nothing to connect to in a year or two.  

I imagine that WiMax will continue to have a role to play in the US even after Sprint's own LTE plans come to fruition.  After all, the WiMax network is here and working just fine.  It would make sense that Sprint will maximize its investment and continue to draw cash from WiMax users how aren't ready to give up their broadband of choice.

And in the next few years, there will be more and more WiMax devices deployed.  Obviously, the bulk of these devices will be running on Android.  And it makes sense that Sprint and Clearwire would have to continue to build and maintain the WiMax network. 

And speaking of wholesale, Sprint has a deal with LightSquared to build out its own LTE network.  There are three things to consider.  One, there is no LTE network right now.  Second, it'll take a couple of years for it to be ready and even longer to cover enough of the US market to satisfactorily support hundreds of millions of users.

And third, there is no arrangement that will allow Sprint to sell the LTE access wholesale.  

So, if you're considering a WiMax Android device,  your two-year commitment with Sprint will be up long before the LTE network is deployed.  And even after that should you chose to continue using it, you will still be able to access WiMax for years beyond that.  Also, keep in mind that WiMax is close to serving one billion users worldwide.  LTE subscribers does not come close

Source:  PC World via Light Reading.

iPhone 5 Will Be A Big Deal But Could It Entice Android Users To Defect? Maybe With Android 4, It Won't Matter; Microsoft And RIM Still Big Players Second Half of 2011

Is the iPhone about to surge ahead once the next iPhone is out?  According to a survey with very small sampling, it seems to be the case.  But let me say this again, it's a very tiny survey sample.  On top of that, there are places in the world where Android is a more affordable choice than the iPhone.  And there are also a large parts of the world where the iPhone isn't even available.

When the iPhone became available on Verizon, no one thought that Apple was going to suddenly turn the tide against the Android.  Even fact, as Apple sold more iPhones through the third quarter, Android not only held its grown but managed to grow its share domestically in the US as well as internationally where it is closing in on 50% of the mobile market.  

To be fair, Apple does control two-thirds of the profit in the mobile market.  All things considered, I think Apple would rather have profit than market share right about now.

For Apple's achievement, all this was done with the aging iPhone 4.  When Apple and Verizon Wireless finally made it available to CDMA customers in the US, the iPhone 4 had been on the market with ATT for eight months.  By the time the next iPhone is available, it will have been sixteen months since it debut.  

As a gadget fan, I'm watching the competition between the various mobile platforms with glee.  Ultimately, we win as these tech giants fight and innovate to entice us to stay with their platforms or defect.  

For mobile warriors who wants to keep score, watch out for the iPhone 5 (or whatever Apple wants to call it) going up against Android devices running Ice Cream, the next version of Google mobile OS, and others like Mango from Microsoft or RIM's new .  I don't want people to think that the mobile market has come down to a two-horse race.  Things can change rather quickly.  

For instance, Samsung's Galaxy S II has already sold over six million units even before reaching North American shores.  I reckon Galaxy S III is in the works as we speak.  

But the race this year will be different.  In the past, the Android had the advantage of being on all four major US carriers.  This year, we know that at least two of the four will be carrying the new iPhone.  It's hardly a 4-on-4 situation but ATT and VZW does account for a major of the US mobile customer base.  Having the iPhone running on Sprint and T-Mobile USA will help Apple but there is no indication that either of these carriers will get the iPhone.

One thing that the iPhone has over Android and other platforms (with the exception of Blackberry users) is that it has a stickiness no one else has.  iPhone users do tend to come back and get another iPhone.  With Android and Windows, there does not seem to be the level of loyalty that Apple's mobile device has.  

So, we will have to see just how many new customers pick the iPhone or an Android device and how many defections there will be from one mobile platform to another.  If Apple does end up with a sizable Android defections, it could be worrisome for Google and its friends (Samsung's Galaxy is a relatively strong brand that might provide some immunity to the iPhone appeal).  

We are six to eight weeks from a new iPhone assault.  Certainly by this Christmas season, we will see a big shift in the mobile market.  We also want to watch out for this: if Mango powering Nokia's new smartphones will help Microsoft gain mind-share (anywhere); if RIM's belated smartphones can mount a comeback in North America.