Nokia has already announced the key piece of its strategy–a shift to Windows Phone for future smartphones. Now the company is set to talk about the financial implications of that and go through the rest of its strategy, which includes a mix of Symbian and even a dash of MeeGo.

The investor event is scheduled to start shortly and due to run until about 2 pm London time. Mobilized will have live coverage, providing our battery holds out. I’ll try to mention only the high points, however. Mobilized loves numbers, but it is awfully early for a whole lot of financial speak, especially for the U.S. insomniacs tuning in.

12:02 pm: Still waiting for things to get going. But if you really want something to do, we have plenty of earlier coverage, including the press conference and the YouTube video of Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and Nokia CEO Stephen Elop, as well as a chat with Elop on how he made his big decision.

12:05 pm: Okay, things are getting going as Elop takes the stage (the same one as the earlier press conference.

12:06 pm: Elop is reviewing things. Lots of talk of both challenges and gems. If you read his memo, or anything else he’s said recently, you have heard this.

Battle of devices to war of ecosystems, etc. Mobilized has this part memorized.

12:09 pm: Smartphone strategy is just one piece.

Reviewing the three alternatives that Elop considered–MeeGo, Android or some partnership with Microsoft.

As for Google, Elop says it is the case there are some advantages for that approach.

“There’s something happening there. There’s no denying that.”

However, Elop says the company was worried it would be late and be just one of many, and was not sure how it could leverage assets like its Navteq location-based services.

“Our sense was differentiation could be a pretty big challenge,” Elop says. “The risk for commoditization would increase dramatically.”

Feels profit would have eventually moved to Google, with handsets becoming a commodity.

“It felt a little bit like giving up and not enough like fighting back,” Elop says.

12:12 pm: As for Microsoft, Elop says both companies are bringing something to the table.

As expected, Elop is characterizing this as more strategic than just taking a license to Windows Phone. Talking about Nokia services like mapping, local advertising and other things that Nokia can bring to the table.

“It’s far more interesting than a simple licensing deal,” Elop says. This was the only strategy that makes it a three horse race with Google and Apple.

Elop says he is convinced that Nokia will be able to differentiate within the Windows Phone ecosystem on a sustainable basis.

12:15 pm: There were some challenges and potential disadvantages, he acknowledges.

Top among these is the fact that Windows Phone 7 is new on the market.

“It’s early,” he says. “Will it succeed?”

12:17 pm: Also, there is the issue of being locked in or a lack of control. Elop does not disclose terms but says the company has flexibility and “substantial control” over the future of the ecosystem.

“This is not your mother’s OEM deal with Microsoft,” Elop says.

12:17 pm: Elop says the deal is at the “term sheet” stage, noting that the companies have yet to sign the “definitive agreement.”

12:18 pm: Already the engineers are working through, and Elop says this deal will allow Nokia to move far faster than it has in recent years.

12:18 pm: He’s also making the cost-saving argument, saying Nokia can focus its investment, which he acknowledges hasn’t been getting the return it should.

Elop earlier acknowledged that the company expects significant cost savings from the move as well as substantial workforce reductions.

“Bottom line: Products that are more competitive,” he says.

12:22 pm: Operators are excited by a third viable option, Elop says.

“A two-horse race is not a satisfactory [situation] for operators,” Elop says.

Elop says that Microsoft-Nokia will be operator-friendly, as compared with Google and Apple.

12:24 pm: Elop talking about differentiation–a key concern of analysts and investors.

Elop talks about Windows Phone as offering differentiation form Apple and Google, but also insisting that Nokia has the assets and business terms it needs to stand out from other Windows Phones. He focuses on camera technologies and “unique relationship.”

Stresses again that this is not a standard handset maker agreement. But he also says that just because Nokia can change lots of things within Windows Phone, doesn’t mean it should.

Nokia, he says, must “resist the temptation to customize just for the sake of customization.”

12:27 pm: Now talking about Symbian. For those that missed it, Elop reiterates this is a transition strategy, but adds that the company still expects to sell 150 million more Symbian devices before that transition is complete.

12:29 pm: Strategy is more than just smartphones. He wants the company to be a leading force in connecting the next billion people to the Internet via phones in emerging markets. “The market for feature phones is pushing down the price curve and that is an opportunity for Nokia.”

Nokia will do incremental work in that area–things like Nokia Money for people that don’t have a bank account or telephone. Another, Nokia Life Tools, helps connect, say, farmers to market information.

This area is still a target for innovation, he says, but it also faces competition from Chinese-made phones based on MediaTek chipsets.

Elop says that the company must also plan for the future so that it can be disruptive down the road. “As they say in Finland, it is time to shoot ahead of the duck,” he says.

That’s where MeeGo comes in–the mobile version of Linux that until recently was seen as Nokia’s future. Nokia said that team will ship a phone later this year and then see where the future is headed.

12:35 pm: Want to point out this New York Times article that said both Google and Microsoft were offering hundreds of millions of dollars in engineering and marketing support in order to woo Nokia.

12:36 pm: Elop now talking about cost cuts, including significant job reductions.

“We are not announcing how many and in what country,” Elop says, but adds that the company wants to move quickly on that front.

He says that he has made changes to the business to ensure speed, including leadership structure changes aimed at ensuring accountability. “If things go well today, I’ll be the CEO.”

Of note, the two of the three business unit leaders are women–Mary McDowell, who will lead lower-end phones, and Jo Harlow, who will head the smartphone business.

12:40 pm: Nokia looking for a new leader for its services and developer division. The acting head is Tero Ojanpera, but he will soon be looking for other opportunities within Nokia, Elop says.

Also of note, Louise Pentland, who is head of the legal and intellectual property unit, is being elevated to the top leadership team.

“We have one of the strongest patent portfolios out there” he says, adding that he would encourage all players to take a license to said patents. (hear that, Apple?)

New leader of North American sales unit to be named in coming days.

“We are creating a different industry,” Elop says in closing his introductory remarks.

12:44 pm: Elop Brings on CFO Timo Ihamuotila to go through the numbers.

12:46 pm: Ihamuotila acknowledged Nokia didn’t meet the targets it had set out to achieve at its last financial analyst day.

“Our execution did not cut it.” he says.

12:49 pm: Ah, Now on to the good stuff. CFO talking financial impact from Microsoft deal. Says should be good over the long term.

Slide shows royalty payments to Microsoft causing lower gross margins, but says sales and marketing support from Microsoft should lower operating expenses.

“We will receive substantial go-to market support from Microsoft,” he says, without giving numbers.

12:52 pm: Ihamuotila talking now about the company’s long-term targets for devices and services period “after the transition period.”

Device sales to grow faster than the market, with operating margins of 10 percent or more–but this is only after the transition period, which the company has said could last this year and next.

Significant uncertainties in this period.

Ihamuotila shows a slide showing Symbian sales slowly giving way to Windows Phone with lower-end mobile phones remaining about half of sales.

12:57 pm: Ihamuotila shows chart of how it expects to cut R&D with the company investing less in services, more in entry-level phones and far less on MeeGo, though still some. The investment in Symbian will be replaced by a far lower investment in Windows Phone R&D. Overall, R&D should be a fraction of what it was.

1:02 pm: Over long term, Ihamuotila says that the Microsoft deal should help significantly boost the company’s Navteq navigation business.

“We think this new strategy is the best way to maximize long-term value, both to our shareholders and to other stakeholders,” Ihamuotila says.

On to Q&A for financial analysts.

1:03 pm: Question on how Nokia will keep employees motivated, something else and when to expect the first Windows Phone.

“Thanks for the one question” Elop quips, before addressing them in turn.

Elop says that the key is on focused innovation so they see the fresh opportunities (at least for the ones who don’t get cut by the large workforce reductions also promised).

He also pointed to his sharply worded memo, which he said was designed to convey the message that “Here is the truth, we’re making decisions and we’re moving forward.”

Won’t give date on first Windows Phone, but says again that the move will allow a substantially faster pace than the company was on with Symbian.

1:07 pm: Elop is asked about some of the challenges with Microsoft and Nokia each responsible for different pieces of software and services, as opposed to Google and Apple, where things are more integrated.

“We wanted to drive operational simplicity,” Elop says, adding that the companies talked about other arrangements, though not a full-on acquisition. The companies, Elop says, decided not to go with the operational complexity of a joint venture.

1:10 pm: Elop says Nokia has opportunities to differentiate from other Windows Phone devices, but adds it is in Nokia’s interest for there to be other strong handset players supporting Windows Phone.

“We’ve got to make Windows Phone successful,” he says.

Nokia’s mapping technology, he says, will benefit rivals like Samsung and HTC. “We’re willing to make those trades,” Elop says.

1:11 pm: Elop is asked why he feels comfortable with a “bet the farm” strategy on Microsoft, a company he clearly knows well.

Elop points out that it was harder to see how Microsoft would rapidly be successful without someone like Nokia.

“But this is now different,” he says, adding that this is now an ecosystem that Microsoft and Nokia are jointly helping to build.

Mapping and local advertising were not part of the ecosystem before the Nokia-Microsoft partnership.

As for impact of the transition, it’s hard to say, Elop says. Symbian is strong in some places where Apple and Google are present today.

1:14 pm: Asked whether Nokia will remain profitable during the transition. “It’s hard to say financially, and I am not going to provide any further specific guidance.”

1:17 pm: Elop won’t say when the first Windows Phone will ship, but lots and lots by next year at various price points.

“We’ll be shipping in volume in 2012,” he says.

1:20 pm: Another two-parter! 1) Why will Symbian be supported if it is transitioning away? 2) Why does Nokia think it will be able to have double-digit operating margins using someone else’s platform?

Elop: They recognize Symbian is key to Nokia being able to transition, but he agrees that consumers will have to want the Symbian phones Nokia builds. CFO also notes that less than half of Symbian phones are sold through carriers.

As for question on margins, CFO says the company has opportunities for higher margins around services and advertising.

1:23 pm: Asked about how the company is confident Windows Phone can get to lower prices, Elop says that was a key consideration, down to which chipsets will be supported, etc.

Between the two companies there was a lot of work to get a high degree of confidence.

“That was a critical evaluation,” he says.

That said, Elop agrees there is a smartphone market below Windows Phone that Nokia will manage with an evolution of today’s Series 30 and Series 40 operating systems.

1:31 pm: Elop: Some of the hardware designs that would have run MeeGo or Symbian will be repurposed for Windows Phone. Some devices may come out with similar models for both Windows Phone and Symbian.

1:32 pm: Question again on who pays whom in Microsoft-Nokia. Is there a lump payment from Microsoft?

Elop doesn’t answer and instead refers to slide that shows opportunities on both sides. Saying value going both ways. As for Microsoft’s payments, “That is a significant part of the conversation,” Elop says.

1:35 pm: Two good questions: Can Windows Phone be put on any current devices? What happens to QT development layer that Nokia bought and had sought to unify developer approach?

Elop: It’s not as simple as plugging in and downloading on to current phones, though some technologies can be repurposed.

QT continues to be the development for Symbian and lone MeeGo device. Also could have a role on low-end devices.

However, Elop says, “We are not proposing a QT on Windows Phone” approach. Adding another development environment could fork the ecosystem, which is not good for Nokia or Windows Phone, he says. Development environment for Windows Phone will be Silverlight and XNA–Microsoft’s current tools.

1:38 pm: Asked about branding, he says in some cases you will see both Microsoft and Nokia brands. Examples could include Nokia Search powered by Bing or Bing maps powered by Nokia, though he says those are examples and not final choices.

1:39 pm: Asking about tablets, questioner points out that Nokia had an early lead in tablets, but Apple “stole the show.”

“We are not announcing today a specific tablet strategy,” he reiterates, saying that Microsoft creates opportunities.

Elop notes that there are rumors of Windows Phone and Windows that could power tablets.

“We could do that,” he says. “We might do that.”

Also an opportunity for Nokia to step back into the game using its own software.

1:41 pm: Elop wrapping up.

“We have set a new course for Nokia,” he says, adding that despite what has been written, Nokia is still an incredibly powerful company, though perhaps not in North America. “Today we are diving forward” he says. “We have a strong partner in Microsoft who is incented as are we in making this successful.”

Investor guy closes by reminding there were forward-looking statements. He’s still going as people leave the room.

COMPLETE COVERAGE:

• Nokia’s Stephen Elop Talks to Mobilized About the Big Microsoft Deal (Video)
• Massive Layoffs Expected at Nokia
• Nokia’s Microsoft Partnership: Does the New Strategy Add Up?
• Live From the Nokia-Microsoft Press Conference: It’s a Windows Phone World After All
• More From Nokia: Forecast Gets Cloudy, Plus Expected Executive Changes
• Nokia-Microsoft: What Steve Ballmer and Stephen Elop Have to Say in Their Joint Letter
• Nokia Confirms Microsoft Partnership With YouTube Video
• R&D Spending: Nokia Vs. Apple Shows Size Doesn’t Matter
• Not Seeing Much Return on That Massive R&D Spend, Are You, Nokia?
• Nokia: Big and Slow

Sonos–the maker of innovative wireless music systems that has been boosted by its Apple iPhone and iPad Controller app–is set to roll out one for Google’s Android mobile operating system.

The Sonos Controller for Android will officially introduce the app at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona next week, although the Santa Barbara, Calif., company is announcing it today.

“It’s a no-brainer,” said Sonos CEO John MacFarlane in an interview with BoomTown yesterday. “It basically doubles our market space.”

The free app allows you to control Sonos’s various players wirelessly with a smartphone or tablet.

The impact of the iPhone and the iPad on sales of its various devices has been clear enough, said MacFarlane, as registrations of the app have escalated.

“There is more usage of the smartphone, but tablets are clearly happening, said MacFarlane. “But I have the same view of both that these devices are the Holy Grail everyone has always wanted.”

The move to Android will take longer to beta test, he said, since its ecosystem has a plethora of unit types from a variety of handset makers.

The app will be out in March.

Here’s an image of the app on an Android phone and the official press release:

ROCK THE HOUSE: SONOS INTRODUCES SONOS CONTROLLER FOR ANDROID

Wireless Music System for Android Provides Unlimited Music, Incredible Control and Amazing Sound in Every Room

SANTA BARBARA, CA–February 10, 2011–Sonos, the leading developer of wireless multi-room music systems for the home, today introduced the Sonos Controller for Android, a free app that transforms most Android™ smartphones into a wireless music controller for the award-winning Sonos Multi-Room Music System. The Sonos Controller for Android, available in late March as a free download from Android Market™, will make its public debut next week at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. To watch a video introduction of the Sonos Controller for Android, please visit www.sonos.com/android.

With the award-winning Sonos S5 in any room and an Android phone in hand, music lovers will enjoy an unmatched wireless music experience in the home. You’ll be able to access and play all the music on earth–from the Internet and your personal music library–throughout the home, wirelessly. Use the free Sonos Controller for Android app to control all your music and rooms, all from the palm of your hand. And, Sonos Controller for Android features Sonos’ latest innovation in the home music experience–music voice search–allowing users to find any artist, album or track by simply speaking into the phone.

“Sonos’ mission is to fill every home with music,” said John MacFarlane, CEO, Sonos, Inc. “We are thrilled to bring the joy of music to the homes of Android fans worldwide.”

To get started enjoying music in any or every room of the home, all you need is a Sonos ZonePlayer and a Sonos Controller such as the free Sonos Controller for Android. The most popular Sonos ZonePlayer is the Sonos S5, an all-in-one wireless music system you can plug in anywhere. Now you can play any track you like, anytime you like, in any room you like. Wirelessly play the same song in every room of the house–perfectly synchronized. Or, mix it up and play different songs in different rooms.

When it comes to controlling Sonos, you simply reach into your pocket for your Android smartphone. With Sonos Controller for Android, you can search for songs and stations by typing or speaking, choose the music and control the volume in as many rooms as you like. And because your Android phone is controlling the music, and not the source of it, when a text comes in or you need to make a phone call, the music doesn’t stop.

Sonos connects directly to the Internet so you can access a world of music without ever turning on your computer. Search and play more than 100,000 Internet radio stations, shows and podcasts–from around the world. Play songs, playlists and radio from the most popular music services like Deezer, iheartradio, Last.fm, Napster, Pandora, Rdio, Rhapsody, SiriusXM Internet Radio, Spotify, Wolfgang’s Vault, and more. And of course, Sonos can play your entire digital music library (such as iTunes) stored on a computer or Network Attached storage drive.

The Sonos Controller for Android is designed to work on any Android smartphone running Android 2.1 or later with a screen size of HVGA 320 x 480, WVGA 480 x 800 or WVGA 480 x 854. Sonos Controller for Android joins the family of Sonos Controllers which includes free apps for iPhone and iPad, a dedicated touchscreen controller, the Sonos Controller 200, and free software for your Mac or PC, included with every ZonePlayer. All controllers work together seamlessly.

Sonos will be demonstrating the Sonos Controller for Android at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain February 13-17, 2011. For a demonstration in person, you’ll find Sonos at the following locations:
• Android: Hall 8; Booth 8C25
• Motorola: Hall 8, Booth 8A28
• Sonos: Hall 7; Suite 7HS11

For more information about Sonos or to locate an authorized Sonos dealer in your area, please visit www.sonos.com or call 877.80.SONOS.

Whether he is walking the halls of Nokia’s headquarters in Espoo, Finland, or even just buying groceries at the market, Nokia’s chief executive is constantly flooded with suggestions for how the company should regain lost ground.

Elop recalled being at dinner just over a week ago and being approached by three young people who wanted to share their suggestions.

“The three of them couldn’t quite agree on what the right strategy was, but they clearly each had an opinion,” Elop said.

For his part, Elop has deeply considered three possibilities for its high-end smartphone business–sticking with plans to develop around MeeGo (a mobile version of Linux), shifting to Android or adopting Microsoft’s Windows Phone.

Without tipping his hand, Elop spoke with Mobilized last week about the pros and cons of the various options. The interview came before releasing his big “burning platform” memo and literally as the final decision was being made.

For Elop, it came down to which approach would offer enough differentiation and yet would also be part of an ecosystem that would be large enough to attract developers, advertisers, carriers and all the other partners.

“It’s not just differentiation but sustainable differentiation,” Elop said. He also said that as big as Nokia is, it can’t afford to go it alone.

It is also critically important to Elop that the company be more competitive in the United States. Although the company ships more phones worldwide than any other company, its presence in North America is basically nonexistent. And yet, he said, the U.S. is where the pace is set for the high end of the market.

“We need to be in the United States in one way, shape or form,” Elop said. “We have to have a viable way to reopen doors.”

So where did that leave the various options?

Although MeeGo left plenty of room for differentiation, that option would also mean trying to be unique at the same time, as the company would have to convince others to build on the platform.

“For it to be a valid ecosystem, that also implies other [phone makers]–our competitors–would be attracted to it as well,” Elop said. “That’s one of the things that give it critical mass and credibility.”

Although Elop didn’t say so in our interview, his comments in this week’s memo suggest that his confidence there was low.

“We thought MeeGo would be a platform for winning high-end smartphones,” Elop said in his memo to staff. “However, at this rate, by the end of 2011, we might have only one MeeGo product in the market.”

As for Android and Windows Phone, Elop said Nokia could offer a significant boost to either ecosystem.

“Android is growing very nicely; it has significant market share,” he said. “The combination of Android’s existing market share plus the market share that Nokia could bring to the Android ecosystem is a very large number and would signal a very substantial shift in the dynamics of the mobile operating system market.”

As for Redmond’s operating system, Elop said it is early days.

“Windows Phone is in its early formative stages in terms of getting customer traction and so forth. It’s a beautiful product and I say that as someone who is competing with it.”

However, that may not be the case much longer. While Elop was still leaving all doors open when he spoke with Mobilized a week ago, the options appear to have narrowed significantly in recent days. His memo on Tuesday appeared to rule out MeeGo as the best option, while a tweet from Google’s Vic Gundotra suggests Android is out and a tie-up with WIndows Phone is Elop’s final choice.

But, no matter what decision gets made at the high end, Elop said that the company probably needs a separate strategy at the low end of the market, where there is intense competition from Chinese phone makers building phones around low-cost chips from MediaTek.

Friday’s investor meeting will also address other aspects of the company, including its services strategy, its plans for its Navteq navigation unit and its plans to leverage its huge patent portfolio. The announcement also comes just ahead of the cell phone industry’s big trade show, Mobile World Congress, which gets going on Sunday in Barcelona.

Mobilized is here in London and will have live coverage of the meeting, which kicks off at 11 am local time. That’s 3 am PT, so set those alarm clocks early.

“We are focused on the tablet market and we’re focused on enabling it with webOS,” he said back in January. “But we think of the tablet as one piece of a broader ecosystem, one piece of the connected experience we’re going to create….As we think about webOS and how it enables everything from smartphones to tablets to PCs to potentially other large-screen devices, we see an enormous opportunity, both for ourselves and for our customers, to get the best Web experience, the best content experience, that they can.”

Join us here at 10:00 am PT and find out if he’s right.

9:51 am: HP’s pulled together quite an…Apple-esque event for us today. Herbst Pavilion is adorned with massive HP banners and inside, the media and analysts gathered here are mingling beneath atmospheric blue lights. Noticeably absent: any–and I mean any–sign of the Palm brand.

9:59 am: A quick spoiler ahead of the event, which should start any moment now: The tablet HP will be showing off today is called the HP TouchPad.

10:02 am: One decidedly un-Apple-esque element of today’s presentation: The music selection. No Beatles, Dylan or Clapton. Just borderline unbearable club music/electronica.

10:05 am: Ah. The refrain in the aforementioned unbearable soundtrack: “One touch is never enough…been waiting such a long time.” Wonder if HP commissioned it. If they did, I hope they didn’t pay too much.

10:10 am: Looks like we’ve got a packed room. The Palm developer community in its entirety (snicker)?

10:16 am: And here’s Bradley to kick things off.

10:16 am: Bradley: I’d like you think back to that moment in time when you experienced something for the first time. I vividly recall the first time I drove a whisper-quiet electronic car…my first video conference. We should all witness as many of these firsts as we can in our lifetime. At HP, we’re about creating these firsts.

10:18 am: Bradley talks up connected experiences and claims that HP will soon begin delivering robust ones to folks around the world.

10:19 am: Now a quick historical overview of HP tech: The first pocket calculator, the first ink jet printer.

10:19 am: Talking about HP’s scale now and the size of the market for connected devices. Bradley says the connected devices market is $160 billion and growing.

10:21 am: So how do we bring HP’s scale to webOS development efforts, Bradley asks, before recounting how the company has brought its engineering heft and resources to bear on the OS. “We keep the tools in the garage unlocked,” he says.

10:22 am: Quoting Packard now, “The reason for a company to exist is to make a contribution.”

10:23 am: We’ve seen a proliferation of devices, says Bradley, and an explosion in content and services. But no one before today has come forward with a solution that provides a continuous experience across devices…a solution that gives you access to your digital universe regardless of which device you use.

That’s our intention with webOS devices.

10:24 am: “You know the afternoon I first saw what we can do with WebOS across a range of devices was really one of those firsts I referred to earlier.”

And with that, Bradley welcomes Jon Rubinstein to the stage.

10:26 am: Today marks an important new beginning for us, says Ruby. “We began building webOS five years ago. It’s been a little over two years since we launched the Pre.”

He continues, citing various compliments webOS has received in the media.

10:29 am: Rubinstein remarks that the smartphone industry seems to be headed toward larger and larger devices. HP has evidently chosen to go in the opposite direction.

“We’ve been thinking small,” says Rubinstein. And with that he announces the HP Veer, a tiny credit-card-size webOS phone.

Full slide-out QWERTY keyboard
2.6 inch, 320 by 400 touch display
5 megapixel camera
HSPA+
8GB storage
Snapdragon 7230/800 MZ
HP mobile hotspot

“Never before has a smartphone done so much and felt so little.”

Veer will be available in early Spring.

10:33 am: And here’s another device: The Pre 3, “a powerful smartphone for professionals.”

10:34 am: Pre3 is a thin portrait slider, largest QWERTY keyboard in the line-up. 3.6-inch, 480×800 screen. Supports HD video, HSPA+ and EVDO RevA; world phone; 8GB or 16GB

10:36 am: “This is a phone that’s built for serious speed and serious fun,” says Rubinstein, adding that the device will be available this summer.

Both new webOS phones are Touchstone compatible. They’re also context aware and will display information based on where they’re docked (not entirely sure what that means yet).

10:37 am: Moving on to the Think Big portion of today’s event: The HP TouchPad, the first device in the TouchPad family.

10:38 am: It weighs a little more than a pound and a half, just 13.7 mm thick.

9.7 inch, 1024×768 display
1.3 megapixel webcam
Beats audio
16 or 32 GB storage
Gyro, accelerometer and compass
Uses Qualcomm’s newest dual-core 1.2GZ Snapdragon processor.

“The TouchPad is screaming fast,” says Rubinstein.

10:40 am: So how will the TouchPad distinguish itself in the increasingly crowded tablet market? WebOS is the key here, says Rubinstein, noting the operating system’s powerful multitasking features, “an unmatched email experience” and Synergy.

If you own a webOS phone, all you have to do is enter your webOS user ID into the TouchPad and it will sync all your contacts, calendars, email, etc.

10:42 am: TouchPad comes bundled with Quickoffice for editing Microsoft docs. It suppors VPN, video calling, wireless printing and Adobe Flash.

10:43 am: Content-wise, the device supports the standard fare–movies, TV, books, magazine subscriptions, etc.

10:44 am: HP will roll the TouchPad out with some slick accessories: A case that doubles as a stand and a keyboard.

10:45 am: Rubinstein calls product manager Sachin Kansal to the stage to show off some of these devices’ features in depth.

10:46 am: First up, webOS exhibition mode, which displays photos or calendar while charging on a Touchstone.

10:47 am: Next, the TouchPad. Hardware looks pretty slick

Kansal demonstrates a reply to a text message showing up simultaneously on the TouchPad and Pre3 via Synergy.

10:48 am: Touting webOS’s multitasking features now. Swiping across a range of open applications that have been left open for use.

10:50 am: New feature: Card stacks–the ability to stack related windows on top of one another. A shopping list in notepad and a browser window open to one of the stores at which you plan to shop, for example.

10:51 am: Mail app seems to be having a little trouble rendering HTML

10:52 am: That said, webOS’s mail app does seem to be robust and elegant as well, particularly with Synergy working in the background to sync everything across multiple devices.

10:52 am: Nice multi-select feature in mail that allows for easy inbox purging.

10:53 am: Really talking up multitasking on the TouchPad.

“In webOS, multitasking was not an afterthought, it was a key feature we developed from the very beginning,” says Kansal, in a pointed jab at Apple.

10:56 am: Now a quick Flash demo. “Kung Fu Panda” preview. Looks fine and, remarkably, plays seamlessly without crashing the device.

10:57 am: Now on to in-app notifications. Unobtrusive and easily navigated and managed. Tap a notification and it launches the app you need to address it. Tap it again to delete the notification from the queue.

10:59 am: TouchPad keyboard includes numbers and letters on the same screen. Handy. Also something the iPad doesn’t offer.

11:00 am: Deep social networking integration. Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc., integrated into not just your address book, but photos as well. Connected photo albums allow users to view Facebook photo albums and the like within webOS’s photo app.

Quick demo of wireless printing from a connected photo album. “It just works,” says Kansal in an unintentional nod to an unmentioned rival.

11:03 am: Kansal says webOS has had a lot of success in building HTML 5 applications, but also a lot of success with Open GL games.

He demos a flight simulator/combat game that looks decent enough. Not Unreal-engine quality, but pretty good.

11:05 am: Moving on now to magazine subscriptions. A quick scroll through Sports Illustrated. “While on the one hand we are partnering with leading publishers like Time Inc. for magazines, we also want webOS to be a great platform for books, which is why we’re partnering with Amazon to bring Kindle to the TouchPad.

11:06 am: Standard Kindle reading experience, quick access to all Kindle controls and syncing with your Kindle libraries.

Ha. Kindle demo interrupted by phone call from Rubinstein. “Hey, you’re doing a great job out there. You know what, let’s switch to video.”

And there’s Rubinstein in a video call. Transition seems absolutely seamless.

11:09 am: Impressive demo so far.

Now this is interesting. Kansal pulls up a restaurant Web site on the TouchPad. He then takes his Pre 3 and places it on the TouchPad screen and the phone automatically launches a browser and directs it to the same restaurant Web site.

Very slick.

11:11 am: Rubinstein returns to the stage to talk about TouchPad partners. Among them: Dreamworks.

Rolling video of Dreamworks CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg recounting his experiences with the TouchPad. “HP has hit it out of the park,” he says before rehashing many of the features we’ve seen on display this morning.

“Seamless, integrated and intuitive.”

11:14 am: Uh oh. The Wi-Fi version of the TouchPad won’t be available until this summer, with a 3G version to follow.

Not the greatest shipping schedule, particularly if Apple brings the iPad 2 to market this spring as expected.

11:15 am: Moving on to the next partner: Qualcomm CEO Paul Jacobs.

“When you have the scale and size of a company like HP, you can work with anyone. And HP chose to work with us,” he says before rambling on about how fantastic Qualcomm and its wireless chips are.

11:18 am: Allow me to summarize Jacobs’s spiel in three words: Snapdragon is awesome.

11:21 am: Quick update from Jacobs: TouchPad is also awesome–even more awesome because it runs Qualcomm’s Snapdragon dual-core solution.

So what’s the device’s battery life like?

11:23 am: Ah. Jacobs just said Snapdragon enables “all day battery life.” Is that a euphemism for eight hours or six?

11:24 am: Rubinstein returns to the stage, talks up Beats by Dr. Dre, the audio system used in the TouchPad, and then welcomes Jimmy Iovine to the stage.

11:26 am: Iovine begins with a complaint about the degradation of audio quality that occurs between the recording studio and the PC. “Paul McCartney can record in the best studio in the world, but when you play his songs through a Dell computer it sounds like you’re listening to it through an old television.”

11:29 am: Today, the PC isn’t just a home stereo, but a tool for musicians–for recording and for performing, Iovine says. We should be demanding a better audio experience.

“HP is stepping forward. It wants to own music….The TouchPad is a musical instrument….Bottom line is that music is still the best app on the Internet and HP’s commitment to making it sound good is unparalleled. Working with them we’ve developed an audio solution that makes music feel and sound like it should….This is an incredible moment for the music industry.”

11:32 am: Steven McArthur, SVP of applications and services, takes the stage to talk about developers and application development.

“We’re expanding our footprint into a portfolio of world-class devices and we’re building the world’s largest platform of connected devices….HP is uniquely positioned to achieve this goal and webOS developers are uniquely positioned to take advantage of it.”

11:34 am: Talking up the Facebook app for webOS now.

Evidently, Facebook users rank the Facebook app for webOS as the best one on the market.

11:36 am: And now, Selfaware Games, purveyor of fine webOS card games enhanced with in-app payments. I’ve never played them, but Selfaware’s games look pretty rudimentary from the images on stage.

11:38 am: McArthur claims that the TouchPad will soon offer the best tablet gaming experience on the market. Hard to believe right now, given the webOS games I’ve seen to date, but you never know.

11:41 am: Rolling another video now. An overview of Time Inc. pubs, presumably with a cameo by a Time exec to follow.

11:42 am: And here’s a very excited Randall Rothenberg, chief digital officer of Time Inc.

11:44 am: Standard “Time and HP are both awesome” preamble.

Ah. Here’s a remark worth noting: “HP really understands the importance of maintaining our direct relationship with subscribers.”

Assume the “unlike Apple” is implied.

11:45 am: Demoing People mag on TouchPad. Talking up the device’s photo rendering and how that jibes with Time’s commitment to good photojournalism (not showcased particularly well by People, but …)

11:47 am: Moving on to Time magazine. Here the photo rendering stands out a bit more. Rothenberg’s right. The pictures look great.

When the TouchPad hits the market place, people will be able to download apps for Time, Fortune, People and Sports Illustrated.

11:49 am: An off-script anecdote from Rothenberg: “Thirty years ago when I was a very young journalist, I had the pleasure of meeting David Packard several times. He was very focused on innovation and American innovation, and all I can think of is that this day and devices like this represent his vision for how American innovation would inspire the global economy.”

11:51 am: Rothenberg says one in five adults will own a tablet by 2015.

11:52 am: Bradley returns to the stage to talk about big picture stuff. “We’re thinking beyond today,” he says. “We have a commitment to expand the webOS platform to other devices and form factors you haven’t seen before…. And we’re going to do this across the broadest base of devices we can….I’m pleased to announce today that we plan to extend webOS to the HP PC.”

11:56 am: “Introducing webOS to our PC customers later this year will drastically expand the platform, for us and for our developers.”

11:57 am: 11:57 am: This is obviously a huge shift for HP, which has been a Windows shop for a looong time now.

11:59 am: From a post I wrote earlier this year:

In Palm’s webOS, HP has an elegant OS that it controls, something the company–a longtime Windows shop–has never had before. And with it, it can begin untethering itself from Microsoft and differentiate its brand in a market in which most devices not sold by Apple are all running some variant of Windows. Remember, webOS is scalable. And while Palm lacked the means to scale it, HP does not. It’s one of the biggest tech companies in the world, and once it brings its engineering acumen and marketing heft to bear on the OS, my guess is we’ll see it evolve into a much larger platform that extends beyond smartphones to tablets, ultraportables and other connected devices. And HP, for the first time in its history, will be firmly in control of both its hardware and software.

12:00 pm: Rubinstein joins Bradley to wrap things up. Thanks the company, the webOS team and, oddly, some celebs in the audience–MC Hammer and Serena Williams.

Then another restatement of HP’s commitment to webOS and its plans to create this massive global ecosystem we’ve been hearing about all morning.

“With this versatile operating system on top of HP’s reach, we will create a vibrant global ecosystem for our developers, partners and customers.”

12:03 pm: One last video reel showing off the hardware announced today–Veer, Pre 3 and TouchPad–and the event concludes.

Memo to tech CEOs everywhere: Now that’s how to write an internal memo.

That would be the 1,300-word one that Nokia CEO Stephen Elop (pictured here) apparently penned for employees at the Finnish telecom giant, which inevitably leaked to the media (in this case, kudos to Engadget for getting the whole thing, which is below).

Elop uses the harsh but cogent metaphor of a burning oil platform to take a bracing opening shot at turning around Nokia, which has lost market share–and, more importantly, mindshare–to both Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android mobile operating system.

This is not breaking news to anyone in the wider tech world, of course. But for the CEO to say it so flatly and brutally to the insular troops at Nokia makes it remarkable.

As you can read, it’s dramatic all right, and just the kind of thing a lot of leaders at troubled companies–Hello, Yahoo!–could learn a thing or two from.

That’s because it’s honest and also genuine, and with enough of a direction and glimpses into pending action–to be revealed later this week at an event to unveil a new strategy–that it’s not just a diatribe by a new manager about how bad the previous managers were.

There is clearly plenty of that, of course, which is no surprise. But with rumors of an imminent significant management overhaul–which few execs ever do enough of at the start of their tenure, when it is easiest–there seems to be teeth to the memo too.

And although the burning platform part will get all the attention, perhaps the most important observation was in one particular passage that outlines exactly the giant challenge Nokia faces to catch up:

The battle of devices has now become a war of ecosystems, where ecosystems include not only the hardware and software of the device, but developers, applications, ecommerce, advertising, search, social applications, location-based services, unified communications and many other things. Our competitors aren’t taking our market share with devices; they are taking our market share with an entire ecosystem. This means we’re going to have to decide how we either build, catalyse or join an ecosystem.

Because, as it has turned out, it is all about ecosystems and using them to provide consumers with the best and most seamless experience possible.

Walt Mossberg and I will be interviewing Elop–the former Microsoft exec, who is neither a Nokia insider nor Finnish–about all this and more at the ninth D: All Thing Digital conference in late May.

Obviously, there will be a lot to talk about.

But, until then, here’s Elop’s memo below in its entirety.

I also reposted a video interview I did with Elop in April of 2009 in which he talked about making Microsoft a more open and innovative place, the changing business model of software and more.

Also below is a video Elop ordered up while running Microsoft’s Business Division as part of an “Envisioning” series.

These see-into-the-future videos were done by Microsoft Office Labs as part of a “Productivity Future Vision” series that sketched out a landscape of smartphones, touchscreens everywhere and a whole lot of cool interacting.

It would be nice if he can drag Nokia back into that world–although Elop’s memo is a good start.

Hello there,

There is a pertinent story about a man who was working on an oil platform in the North Sea. He woke up one night from a loud explosion, which suddenly set his entire oil platform on fire. In mere moments, he was surrounded by flames. Through the smoke and heat, he barely made his way out of the chaos to the platform’s edge. When he looked down over the edge, all he could see were the dark, cold, foreboding Atlantic waters.

As the fire approached him, the man had mere seconds to react. He could stand on the platform, and inevitably be consumed by the burning flames. Or, he could plunge 30 meters in to the freezing waters. The man was standing upon a “burning platform,” and he needed to make a choice.

He decided to jump. It was unexpected. In ordinary circumstances, the man would never consider plunging into icy waters. But these were not ordinary times–his platform was on fire. The man survived the fall and the waters. After he was rescued, he noted that a “burning platform” caused a radical change in his behaviour.

We too, are standing on a “burning platform,” and we must decide how we are going to change our behaviour.

Over the past few months, I’ve shared with you what I’ve heard from our shareholders, operators, developers, suppliers and from you. Today, I’m going to share what I’ve learned and what I have come to believe.

I have learned that we are standing on a burning platform.

And, we have more than one explosion–we have multiple points of scorching heat that are fuelling a blazing fire around us.

For example, there is intense heat coming from our competitors, more rapidly than we ever expected. Apple disrupted the market by redefining the smartphone and attracting developers to a closed, but very powerful ecosystem.

In 2008, Apple’s market share in the $300+ price range was 25 percent; by 2010 it escalated to 61 percent. They are enjoying a tremendous growth trajectory with a 78 percent earnings growth year over year in Q4 2010. Apple demonstrated that if designed well, consumers would buy a high-priced phone with a great experience and developers would build applications. They changed the game, and today, Apple owns the high-end range.

And then, there is Android. In about two years, Android created a platform that attracts application developers, service providers and hardware manufacturers. Android came in at the high-end, they are now winning the mid-range, and quickly they are going downstream to phones under €100. Google has become a gravitational force, drawing much of the industry’s innovation to its core.

Let’s not forget about the low-end price range. In 2008, MediaTek supplied complete reference designs for phone chipsets, which enabled manufacturers in the Shenzhen region of China to produce phones at an unbelievable pace. By some accounts, this ecosystem now produces more than one third of the phones sold globally–taking share from us in emerging markets.

While competitors poured flames on our market share, what happened at Nokia? We fell behind, we missed big trends, and we lost time. At that time, we thought we were making the right decisions; but, with the benefit of hindsight, we now find ourselves years behind.

The first iPhone shipped in 2007, and we still don’t have a product that is close to their experience. Android came on the scene just over 2 years ago, and this week they took our leadership position in smartphone volumes. Unbelievable.

We have some brilliant sources of innovation inside Nokia, but we are not bringing it to market fast enough. We thought MeeGo would be a platform for winning high-end smartphones. However, at this rate, by the end of 2011, we might have only one MeeGo product in the market.

At the midrange, we have Symbian. It has proven to be non-competitive in leading markets like North America. Additionally, Symbian is proving to be an increasingly difficult environment in which to develop to meet the continuously expanding consumer requirements, leading to slowness in product development and also creating a disadvantage when we seek to take advantage of new hardware platforms. As a result, if we continue like before, we will get further and further behind, while our competitors advance further and further ahead.

At the lower-end price range, Chinese OEMs are cranking out a device much faster than, as one Nokia employee said only partially in jest, “the time that it takes us to polish a PowerPoint presentation.” They are fast, they are cheap, and they are challenging us.

And the truly perplexing aspect is that we’re not even fighting with the right weapons. We are still too often trying to approach each price range on a device-to-device basis.

The battle of devices has now become a war of ecosystems, where ecosystems include not only the hardware and software of the device, but developers, applications, ecommerce, advertising, search, social applications, location-based services, unified communications and many other things. Our competitors aren’t taking our market share with devices; they are taking our market share with an entire ecosystem. This means we’re going to have to decide how we either build, catalyse or join an ecosystem.

This is one of the decisions we need to make. In the meantime, we’ve lost market share, we’ve lost mind share and we’ve lost time.

On Tuesday, Standard & Poor’s informed that they will put our A long term and A-1 short term ratings on negative credit watch. This is a similar rating action to the one that Moody’s took last week. Basically it means that during the next few weeks they will make an analysis of Nokia, and decide on a possible credit rating downgrade. Why are these credit agencies contemplating these changes? Because they are concerned about our competitiveness.

Consumer preference for Nokia declined worldwide. In the UK, our brand preference has slipped to 20 percent, which is 8 percent lower than last year. That means only 1 out of 5 people in the UK prefer Nokia to other brands. It’s also down in the other markets, which are traditionally our strongholds: Russia, Germany, Indonesia, UAE, and on and on and on.

How did we get to this point? Why did we fall behind when the world around us evolved?

This is what I have been trying to understand. I believe at least some of it has been due to our attitude inside Nokia. We poured gasoline on our own burning platform. I believe we have lacked accountability and leadership to align and direct the company through these disruptive times. We had a series of misses. We haven’t been delivering innovation fast enough. We’re not collaborating internally.

Nokia, our platform is burning.

We are working on a path forward–a path to rebuild our market leadership. When we share the new strategy on February 11, it will be a huge effort to transform our company. But, I believe that together, we can face the challenges ahead of us. Together, we can choose to define our future.

The burning platform, upon which the man found himself, caused the man to shift his behaviour, and take a bold and brave step into an uncertain future. He was able to tell his story. Now, we have a great opportunity to do the same.

Stephen.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20110209/nokias-stephen-elop-didnt-start-the-fire-but-his-burning-platform-certainly-lights-one/feed/ 3 http://allthingsd.com/20110207/hps-webos-app-ecosystem-is-uncertain-and-thats-a-good-thing/ http://allthingsd.com/20110207/hps-webos-app-ecosystem-is-uncertain-and-thats-a-good-thing/#comments Mon, 07 Feb 2011 23:01:23 +0000 John Paczkowski http://digitaldaily.allthingsd.com/?p=57318 Hewlet-Packard CEO Léo Apotheker says he doesn’t think the company has been telling its story as well as it could have over the past few years. On Wednesday, he’ll have his first chance to begin retelling it when HP’s Palm division holds an invitation-only event in San Francisco, at which it’s expected to introduce its long-rumored webOS tablet. This will be our first look at HP’s new ecosystem–smartphones, connected devices, apps and the OS that ties them all together–and likely be the beginning of a slow untethering from Microsoft’s Windows OS. And if Palm has done it right, webOS could finally become a viable challenger to iOS and Android–particularly the latter, which has had a mixed reception in the tablet market. But that means coming to market with not just a compelling tablet OS and hardware, but a burgeoning applications and content ecosystem–something not easily achieved. As J.P. Morgan analyst Mark Moskowitz wrote today, the ubiquity of HP’s related app ecosystem is uncertain. Whatever hardware the company rolls out on Wednesday needs to spur developers to embrace webOS. “Otherwise,” said Moskowitz, “there is risk that HP introduces a suitable device with a strong operating system, only to be deficient in attracting end users’ ‘eyeballs’ because of a weak applications and content ecosystem.”

The caveat here is that HP’s new tablet (or tablets) presents developers with an enormous opportunity precisely because its app ecosystem is uncertain. It’s going to be a lot easier to score a hit there than it is in Apple’s App Store, where developers must compete for users’ attention with hundreds of thousands of apps. And if you do score a hit there, it might even set the stage for you to translate that success to larger mobile platforms that are generally tougher to break into.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20110207/hps-webos-app-ecosystem-is-uncertain-and-thats-a-good-thing/feed/ 7 http://allthingsd.com/20110202/analyst-meegos-a-joke-nokia-needs-windows-phone-7/ http://allthingsd.com/20110202/analyst-meegos-a-joke-nokia-needs-windows-phone-7/#comments Wed, 02 Feb 2011 23:10:20 +0000 John Paczkowski http://digitaldaily.allthingsd.com/?p=57014 Some unsolicited advice for Nokia CEO Stephen Elop ahead of next week’s big Capital Markets Day gathering: Scrap the company’s Meego OS and forge a Windows Phone 7 hardware alliance with Microsoft. Otherwise, prepare to be eclipsed once and for all by the upstart rivals that have already bested you in the smartphone space.

That’s the gist of Berenberg Bank analyst Adnaan Ahmad’s open letter to Elop and former colleague Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer. “[Stephen] announce an EXCLUSIVE deal with your ex-colleague, Steve: you get access to their Windows Phone 7 (WP7) intellectual property scot-free and access to the US market where your share has dived to the low single-digit level, and in so doing cut your bloated handset business R&D budget by at least 30 percent,” Ahmad writes. “Get rid of your own proprietary high-end solution (MEEGO)–it’s the biggest joke in the tech industry right now and will put you even further behind Apple and Google. Focus your high-end portfolio around WP7, and over time you can take the cost down (that’s Steve’s job and cost base) to get this into the mid-range market. Push your Symbian solutions into the low-to-mid-range smartphone market as quickly as possible to defend market share versus Android’s upcoming lowered cost ecosystem.”

An interesting, albeit unoriginal, idea, particularly coming as it does after Elop’s assertion that Nokia “must build, catalyze and/or join a competitive ecosystem” to effectively compete in the handset industry. And it has its merits–for Microsoft, access to Nokia’s massive global market share, and for Nokia, the ability to go to market with an OS that isn’t a joke, as Ahmad notes. That said, while Microsoft is certainly a valuable ecosystm partner, it’s not yet all that valuable in the mobile space. But it could be.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20110202/analyst-meegos-a-joke-nokia-needs-windows-phone-7/feed/ 14 http://allthingsd.com/20110202/microsoft-goes-after-google-again-this-time-on-web-video-formats/ http://allthingsd.com/20110202/microsoft-goes-after-google-again-this-time-on-web-video-formats/#comments Wed, 02 Feb 2011 14:00:15 +0000 Ina Fried http://mobilized.allthingsd.com/?p=3351

The war between Google and Microsoft is clearly heating up.

After being accused of copying Google’s search results on Tuesday, Microsoft is now going after Google, accusing it of injecting inconsistency and legal uncertainty into the Web video arena by natively supporting only the newly open-sourced WebM video format in its Chrome browser, rather than the H.264 format preferred by Microsoft and Apple.

In response, Microsoft said it will build a Chrome plug-in that will restore support for H.264, an older and more commonly used video format. Microsoft said it plans to support H.264 in the next version of Internet Explorer, although it will also allow plug-ins that enable WebM support.

“Our point of view is totally clear,” Internet Explorer head Dean Hachamovitch writes in a blog post being posted on Wednesday. “Our support for H.264 results from our views about a robust web and video ecosystem that provides a rich level of functionality, is the product of an open standards process like the W3C’s HTML5 specification, and has been free from legal attacks. Microsoft is agnostic and impartial about the actual underlying video format for HTML5 video as long as this freedom continues.”

For its part, Google has said its decision to base its HTML5 video support around WebM is due to the royalties associated with H.264.

“We acknowledge that H.264 has broader support in the publisher, developer, and hardware community today (though support across the ecosystem for WebM is growing rapidly),” Google said in a blog post in mid-January.

However, it said, “To use and distribute H.264, browser and OS vendors, hardware manufacturers, and publishers who charge for content must pay significant royalties–with no guarantee the fees won’t increase in the future.”

Google added that, to companies like itself “the license fees may not be material, but to the next great video startup and those in emerging markets these fees stifle innovation.”

Hachamovitch, meanwhile, encouraged more discussion on the topic.

“Web video is still, in many ways, in its infancy,” he said. “Working through these questions is part of moving the web forward. The web is a product of consensus and open dialog. This post is meant to be part of the dialog.”

Your move, Google.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20110202/microsoft-goes-after-google-again-this-time-on-web-video-formats/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20110127/nokia-ceo-elop-lays-groundwork-for-new-strategy-to-be-announced-next-month/ http://allthingsd.com/20110127/nokia-ceo-elop-lays-groundwork-for-new-strategy-to-be-announced-next-month/#comments Thu, 27 Jan 2011 13:30:28 +0000 Ina Fried http://mobilized.allthingsd.com/?p=3056 Although Stephen Elop is waiting until a Feb. 11 investor meeting to fully outline the company’s new strategy, he offered a few tantalizing hints during Thursday’s earnings conference call.

Specifically, Elop talked about his perceptions of the company’s strengths and weaknesses and what that new strategy must accomplish for the company to turn around its fortunes, particularly at the high end of the market.

“There are clearly some gems upon we will build Nokia’s strategy,” Elop said. At the same time, he said the company must move faster than it has if it hopes to regain lost ground. In particular, Elop said the company must have a better strategy around operating systems.

“The game has changed from battle of devices to war of ecosystems,” Elop said, adding later that “Our industry has changed and we have to change faster.”

Elop hinted at a change in the company’s strategy for the high end, which has focused on the Symbian operating system with a planned shift to the mobile Linux-based MeeGo operating system. He didn’t give specifics, but did draw a distinction between the low and high ends of the markets, suggesting a dual-OS strategy may still be the plan.

At the high end, he talked about the importance of developers and services, while at the low end, he said, the key characteristics are brand, scale, price, distribution and speed. Elop also noted that because of different chipsets, it doesn’t always make sense to serve the lower end of the market with the same operating system as is used for top-end smartphones.

Although Elop didn’t name any names, he did talk about the need for the company to “build or join a competitive ecosystem,” suggesting that it might be open to shifting to a competing platform. And while he wouldn’t confirm such a move, he said that the company could pull off such a switch because of its strong brand and relationship with operators.

Among the possibilities that have been suggested are Android and Windows Phone 7. The company has also canceled or delayed plans for two U.S. smartphones, suggesting that a change may be afoot.

“We made a decision to not proceed as people thought we would proceed,” Elop said.

It has also suffered delays of its E7 smartphone, which was to ship last quarter and now isn’t expected to contribute meaningfully to the bottom line until the second quarter.

The new strategy, Elop said, must be one that can “re-open doors” in markets such as the United States, where the company is weak.

“Clearly there is a pattern of disappointments in the United States,” Elop said.

Earlier in the day, Nokia reported that December quarter profits fell 20 percent as the company “faced significant challenges” and lower margins.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20110127/nokia-ceo-elop-lays-groundwork-for-new-strategy-to-be-announced-next-month/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20110125/survey-pre-release-appeal-of-playbook-half-that-of-ipad/ http://allthingsd.com/20110125/survey-pre-release-appeal-of-playbook-half-that-of-ipad/#comments Tue, 25 Jan 2011 16:30:44 +0000 John Paczkowski http://digitaldaily.allthingsd.com/?p=56321 Strong buying intentions are developing around Research In Motion’s BlackBerry PlayBook ahead of its presumed March launch. Extrapolating from a post-CES consumer survey, RBC* analyst Mike Abramsky concludes the device could sell four million units this calendar year and in excess of six million units in its first full year at market.

“The data shows PlayBook appealing to early adopters and power users, given its differentiation from iPad,” Abramsky told clients, noting that six percent of the survey group said they were “likely” to buy a PlayBook. Of those, one percent were “very likely” and the remaining five percent “somewhat likely.”

So six percent of respondents are very/somewhat likely to buy the PlayBook once it becomes available. That’s about half the level of interest expressed in a similar survey of iPad-buying intentions ahead of that device’s debut last year. And Apple ended up selling 14.8 million iPads in 2010, far beyond analyst consensus estimates of 3.3 million. So Abramsky four- to six-million forecast might not be that far off–assuming the PlayBook proves to be all that RIM claims.

That said, the tablet market today is very different than it was prior to the iPad’s debut. And with the legion of new tablets headed to market, including the iPad 2, Abramsky’s forecast could prove optimistic. Remember, despite the leverage of RIM’s installed base and the promise of the BlackBerry’s security and manageability, the PlayBook is still missing some of the platform elements that have made the iPad so successful–a thriving apps ecosystem, a vertically integrated platform and iTunes.

*Barbara Stymiest, chief operating officer at RBC Financial Group, sits on RIM’s board of directors. RBC also makes a market in RIM Securities.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20110125/survey-pre-release-appeal-of-playbook-half-that-of-ipad/feed/ 3 http://allthingsd.com/20110125/tool-for-creating-iphone-and-android-games-now-speaks-windows-as-well-as-macs/ http://allthingsd.com/20110125/tool-for-creating-iphone-and-android-games-now-speaks-windows-as-well-as-macs/#comments Tue, 25 Jan 2011 12:30:11 +0000 Ina Fried http://mobilized.allthingsd.com/?p=2896 Corona, a tool for creating games that can be played on both Android and iOS devices, is getting even more versatile.

Until now, the software development tool has worked only on Macs. However, its creator plans to announce on Tuesday that Corona work can now be done on Windows machines as well.

Corona has been used to create games such as Doodle Dash (now called Tilt Monster) and Bubble Ball–a physics game created by a 14-year-old Utah boy that has risen to the top of free games in the App Store.

Moving Corona to Windows should open it up to more developers, according to its maker, Palo Alto, Calif.-based Ansca Mobile.

“We’re excited to finally bring the power of Corona SDK to the Windows operating system,” CEO Walter Luh said in a statement. “Windows’ vast number of users will clearly mean a larger Corona SDK community and ecosystem, but more importantly, we think Corona SDK will play a big role in making mobile development much more popular and accessible.”

However, although the Windows program can be used to finalize Android games, iOS games still have to be compiled on a Mac because Apple requires the use of its Mac-only Xcode tool. Also, the new Windows version is still classified as a beta.

Ansca Mobile is also changing the pricing for Corona. It will remain free while programs are in development. Programmers who want to use the tool for only Android or iOS development can now do so for $199 per year, while the pro account for publishing to both platforms will remain priced at $349 a year.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20110125/tool-for-creating-iphone-and-android-games-now-speaks-windows-as-well-as-macs/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20110124/apples-app-downloads-are-booming-apples-app-revenues-are/ http://allthingsd.com/20110124/apples-app-downloads-are-booming-apples-app-revenues-are/#comments Mon, 24 Jan 2011 15:08:23 +0000 Peter Kafka http://mediamemo.allthingsd.com/?p=28474 A year ago, Apple’s customers had downloaded three billion apps. Now that number has jumped to 10 billion.

That’s an astonishing jump, and it speaks volumes about the growth, and usage, of Apple’s iTunes/iPhone/iPad/iPod ecosystem.

It’s harder to figure out what it means for Apple’s financials, but we can guess: Not nearly as much.

App downloads increased 233 percent in the last year. But revenue growth at the iTunes store, which distributes them, is much more modest.

In Apple’s last fiscal year, which ran up to Sept. 25, 2010, iTunes revenue grew roughly 23 percent. During Apple’s most recent quarter, iTunes revenue grew at the same rate.

Apple also sells music and videos, and now books via iTunes as well, but doesn’t provide any breakdown by category, so anything beyond those stats is guesswork. (And even getting to iTunes revenue numbers requires a small leap of faith*.)

But for what it’s worth, I’m assuming that revenue from apps is increasing at a faster clip than the numbers above suggest. Because digital music sales, which used to power iTunes sales, are slowing.

In any case, it shouldn’t be a huge shock to see that big app-download numbers don’t translate into big dollars for Apple, since the majority of app downloads are free.

Still, it’s a good reminder that Apple has always maintained it’s not trying to make money with the iTunes store–it’s a “bit over break-even,” CFO Peter Oppenheimer said last year.

iTunes’ real job is to give people more reasons to buy Apple’s hardware. And that’s working out very well indeed.

*iTunes revenue requires a bit of guesswork, because Apple doesn’t usually break out the store’s numbers, but lumps them into a “music related products and services” category, which includes accessories, etc. But the vast majority of that total comes from iTunes. And in the last quarter, Apple gave us something much closer to a real iTunes number: “revenue exceeding $1.1 billion.” FYI: That works out to about 77 percent of Apple’s “music-related products” number for that quarter.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20110124/apples-app-downloads-are-booming-apples-app-revenues-are/feed/ 14 http://allthingsd.com/20110124/qa-bill-gross-ubermedia-goes-for-a-third-name-and-strategy/ http://allthingsd.com/20110124/qa-bill-gross-ubermedia-goes-for-a-third-name-and-strategy/#comments Mon, 24 Jan 2011 09:00:10 +0000 Liz Gannes http://networkeffect.allthingsd.com/?p=2619 Last week the year-old start-up PostUp, formerly known as TweetUp, renamed itself UberMedia. So much for worrying about brand recognition!

The Pasadena, Calif.-based company also acquired the independently developed BlackBerry application UberTwitter, adding to its acquisition of Echofon (the Twitter client for iPhone and other Mac devices) at the beginning of the month and Twidroyd (Twitter for Android) in September. Update: On Monday UberMedia said it had acquired an additional company, Mixx, the former competitor to Digg that now curates social media channels for brands.

UberMedia, despite its seemingly perpetual identity crisis, has particular notoriety because its founder and CEO, Bill Gross, first popularized paid search advertising with his company GoTo.com in the late ’90s. When Gross first launched the company last April, he said he’d do the same thing for Twitter.

Since then, Twitter has launched its own ad system and tightened up on permissions for rival ad networks.

UberMedia has let its Twitter account recommendation widgets languish, but says they will be relaunched soon as a new product called FollowMe. Meanwhile, the Twitter clients the company has acquired have a combined three million active users. They are some of the leading independent options, despite somewhat precarious positioning now that Twitter has launched its own official clients for most every platform.

Gross is traveling in Europe this week, but UberMedia COO Jon Kraft got on the phone with NetworkEffect over the weekend to say that there is indeed a method behind all this name-changing and client-acquiring madness. Here’s an edited transcript:

NetworkEffect: Why the name UberMedia?

Kraft: Obviously we’re very excited about the acquisition of UberTwitter, and we felt like our mission had expanded a bit since we first launched. It was really all about this paid search platform, and PostUp was a great name….

And before that you had another name, TweetUp.

Yes, but as we started to grow our business on the client side, we saw ourselves increasingly as a media company. We’re not crazy about the fact that we’ve changed our name twice now, but hopefully we’ll build a company around that brand.

How did this acquisition strategy come about?

We first bought Twidroyd seven months ago, and we really loved what we learned about the way consumers use Twitter.

What is the involvement of the founders of the companies you bought? Are they all running their respective apps?

Obviously a big part of what makes those companies exciting is the passion of the founders, so we encourage them to operate fairly independently.

Who is the staff of UberMedia?

We have some business development to create partnerships, but the vast majority is engineers. We have a little over 40 employees as a distributed team.

And what’s happened to the sponsored Twitter accounts and tweets?

We’re still very excited about what we’re doing with the marketplace, but there are a number of other innovations that we’re planning. The bigger vision is to innovate inside the Twitter ecosystem.

What does that mean in the context of Twitter competing within its ecosystem, especially through Twitter clients? That doesn’t seem like a category other start-ups and investors are investing in as much today.

It’s not easy to organically grow a new Twitter client from scratch, it’s a real challenge. But I think the Twitter platform is still greatly under-leveraged, and there’s surprisingly low penetration of Twitter users today.

But it’s not as if Twitter allows application makers to just make whatever money they want on its platform.

Twitter has been understandably conservative about wanting to protect the user experience across their platform, so we’re being conservative as well and thinking of other ways to innovate and monetize.

What is your company’s relationship with Twitter?

It’s a great relationship. I can’t talk details about what we’re discussing, but the relationship is quite good.

Are you raising more funding? [UberMedia, which launched out of Gross's Idealab, had previously raised $3.5 million from Index Ventures, Betaworks, Revolution, First Round Capital and others.]

We’re not talking about our funding right now, but obviously you have to raise money in order to grow aggressively.

Will you keep acquiring? It seems like you have Twitter clients for most of the major platforms now.

It is possible, but not top of our priority list.

One things you have not had is a problem with agility.

That’s a concise way to put it.

What about Bill Grosss involvement? Is he still CEO or is he doing other Idealab stuff?

Absolutely. He’s head-down 100 percent on this project.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20110124/qa-bill-gross-ubermedia-goes-for-a-third-name-and-strategy/feed/ 1 http://allthingsd.com/20110119/ipad-rivals-there-are-no-ipad-rivals/ http://allthingsd.com/20110119/ipad-rivals-there-are-no-ipad-rivals/#comments Wed, 19 Jan 2011 15:50:43 +0000 John Paczkowski http://digitaldaily.allthingsd.com/?p=56007 If one were to portion out the tablet market as it exists today, one might allot a segment to Apple, another to Google, one to Microsoft and, soon, another to Hewlett-Packard’s Palm.

If Apple COO Tim Cook were to portion it out, he’d divide it in two–iPad and Not-iPad– and it wouldn’t be an equitable division. Asked during Tuesday’s Apple earnings call for his thoughts on the horde of tablets unveiled at CES and now hurtling their way to market, Cook summarily dismissed them all.

“If you look at what’s shipping today, there’s really not much out there,” he said. “Generally speaking, there’s two kind of groups that are on the market today. The ones that are using Windows-based operating system, are generally fairly big and heavy and expensive, have very weak battery life, and require a keyboard or a stylus as an input device. And from our point of view and what we’ve seen, consumers aren’t really interested in them.

Then you have the Android tablets which are running an operating system that wasn’t really designed for a tablet. Google has said this, and so this is not just an Apple view by any means. And so basically, you wind up with a sort of a scaled-up smartphone, which is a bizarre product in our view. So frankly speaking, if a customer does a side-by-side comparison of one of these with an iPad it’s hard for me to understand why they wouldn’t select the iPad.…There are no rival tablets in the market right now that we’re concerned about. The next-generation Android tablets aren’t shipping yet, and so today, they’re vapor. We’ll assess them as they come out.”

And continue to innovate in the market.

Said Cook, “We’re not sitting still. And we have a huge first-mover advantage. And we have an incredible user experience from iTunes to the App Store, and an enormous number of apps and a huge ecosystem. We’re very, very confident with entering into a fight with anyone.”

And with an 87.4 percent share of the worldwide “media” tablet market, according to IDC, who wouldn’t be?

[Image credit: Gizmodo commenter Ahubbuch]

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20110119/ipad-rivals-there-are-no-ipad-rivals/feed/ 25 http://allthingsd.com/20110119/could-nokias-miracle-be-microsoft/ http://allthingsd.com/20110119/could-nokias-miracle-be-microsoft/#comments Wed, 19 Jan 2011 11:00:31 +0000 John Paczkowski http://digitaldaily.allthingsd.com/?p=55809 Now that Nokia has a new CEO, should it adopt a new smartphone strategy as well? There are strong arguments on both sides. On the one hand, Nokia has put an awful lot of money and effort into Symbian^3 and MeeGo, the mobile operating systems with which it hopes to regain high-end leadership in the industry. On the other, the person who defined that strategy, former CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, was ousted last September after an ugly 70 percent decline in Nokia’s market value.

Should Stephen Elop, Nokia’s new CEO, continue executing the strategy established by his ousted predecessor, strengthening it by improving execution and operating costs? Or should he map out an entirely new strategy, perhaps one based on a third-party operating system. Canaccord Genuity analyst T. Michael Walkley favors the latter, suggesting Nokia make the jump to Android or Windows Phone 7. And interestingly, he feels WP7 is the better option of the two.

Why?

Well, for one thing, Elop is a Microsoft veteran. He seems to have left the company on good terms and presumably still has close ties to it. For another, Microsoft and Nokia are a better cultural fit than Google and Nokia. And finally, the two companies need each other to succeed in the mobile market long term.

“We believe Microsoft needs more support from a leading device OEM to compete with Android longer term and Nokia likely needs to adopt a new high-end smartphone strategy to stem smartphone share losses,” Walkley says. “Further, Microsoft could create a differentiated tablet strategy with stronger enterprise support and Nokia could clearly benefit with a tablet and smartphone combined strategy that is offered by competitors….We believe the combination of Microsoft’s marketing muscle and software expertise with WP7 and Nokia’s global brand, distribution and scale advantages could drive solid sales of WP7-based devices worldwide. Additionally, it would provide Nokia a much-needed re-entry into the North American market, where its market share has stagnated at low-single-digit levels for multiple years.”

In other words, a Nokia-Microsoft alliance could bolster the WP7 ecosystem to the point where WP7 becomes a third dominant mobile OS alongside Android and iOS.

That would suit Microsoft–which has been struggling with mobile for years–just fine. But what about Nokia, which still makes quite a bit of money selling feature phones in the BRIC countries?

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20110119/could-nokias-miracle-be-microsoft/feed/ 8 http://allthingsd.com/20110107/live-microsoft-browser-boss-dean-hachamovitch-at-dces/ http://allthingsd.com/20110107/live-microsoft-browser-boss-dean-hachamovitch-at-dces/#comments Fri, 07 Jan 2011 22:28:59 +0000 Peter Kafka http://mediamemo.allthingsd.com/?p=27756

Microsoft’s Internet Explorer browser is still the world’s most popular, but its dominance is being steadily eroded by competition from Mozilla, Google and Apple. Can a new, aggressive approach to privacy change that? Can Microsoft really protect users from tracking across the Web–and do users really care?

Dean Hachamovitch, who oversees IE for Microsoft as a corporate VP, gives Walt Mossberg an update on the browser wars.

Greetings! We’ll be starting shortly. If you were in the room right now with our select crowd, you would have just heard some Aerosmith. And now, one of my favorite Van Morrison songs : “Jackie Wilson Said.” Also, we’re not using the classic red D interview chairs for this one. Going with a kind of teal blue. Now you know!

Some Isley Brothers now.

Some Elvis Costello. Don’t know this one, though.

And…here’s Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher.

Kara is wearing something that might have been bedazzled. Walt’s wearing Waltwear.

An update on the state of the ATD empire, which is getting much bigger.

Walt brings on Dean Hachamovitch.

Dean, by the way, is wearing a black long-sleeve shirt that says “private” in big white letters. Hope someone asks him about it.

Ah, and Dean has a “private” shirt for Walt, too. We’ll get to privacy in a bit, it seems.

DEAN: Working on IE 9, in beta, downloaded over 20 million times. Most important is its performance. It’s amazingly fast. Also, it blurs the boundary between Web sites and apps. And also, some talk about privacy.

WALT: Okay, that was a nice ad. But please talk about reports that you’ve been eclipsed in Europe by Firefox.

DEAN: Yes, we used to have 90 percent market share back in the ’90s. But now we look at how many people choose to use our most recent versions. “We are delighted that IE 6 market share is going down. We are delighted that IE 7 market share is going down.”

DEAN: And bear in mind how much the Internet is growing. “There are a lot of different factors. It’s a very complex situation.”

WALT: Okay, on to privacy. Safari used to have some kind of privacy feature, but that’s old. Then in IE 8, you introduced a new feature, not by default, which tried to extend that protection to other sites on the Web you traveled to.

DEAN: You were describing “over the shoulder privacy.” But we’re also concerned about tracking. There are two kinds of tracking: “Expected tracking” and “creepy stalking.”

Pandora and Amazon are expected tracking. You want them to know what you’re doing. But the important thing is that you have visibility and control, and you get benefits.

For instance, when I go to Amazon, they know that I bought Spice Girls and Fergie, and they tell me other stuff I should get.

WALT: Some of that tracking isn’t sophisticated enough.

DEAN: Anyway, creepy stalking is bad. Because consumers aren’t aware of what’s going on, and they don’t have control of it.

WALT: We don’t allow slides at our conferences usually, but we’re going to make an exception. Please show us some slides!

Dean is showing people a monitor that shows you what cookies were attached to a certain NPR page, which includes tracking info that comes from Facebook integration.

Now a Fox News page with similar info.

A reminder that cookies, by the way, aren’t the only tracking info involved here. Also pixels, etc.

But even once you root around and look at the pixels and tracking info, you might not really understand what you’re looking at or who is behind them.

WALT: Microsoft is a big Internet advertiser and publisher. Don’t you do some of this stuff?

DEAN: Yes, and in addition to us and Google, etc, there is an amazing ecosystem of information brokers. There’s a huge industry around this.

WALT: So what’s coming?

DEAN: With the new rev of IE 9, first quarter of 2011, you’ll be able to “go to a Web page, click on a button and you’ll be protected from tracking.” Any Web page can do this.

It will block content on that page. It will be an open publishing platform.

WALT: Why would a publisher want to do this? They have a legitmate need to want to know things about you, to serve you better ads, right?

DEAN: We have a lot of interest from a lot of different organizations that want to make lists. Publishers, government agencies, consumer advocacy, etc.

WALT: So, I have to download a list from someone I trust to make this work. Will you maintain this list?

DEAN: No. People will find these lists the same way that they find other things on the Web they like. From Facebook, or friends, or wherever.

We think it’s important to have people exercise judgment in making these lists. The most important thing is that you go off to the Web and find one you have confidence in.

WALT: But why do I have to hope that I go to sites that have these buttons?

WALT and DEAN are trying to explain how the list and button combination will work. Frankly, I’m confused. We’ll have to circle back to this.

WALT: A cynical journalist might suggest that you’re embracing privacy and wearing a shirt because Firefox et al are eating your lunch.

DEAN: Paying Windows customers want a great experience that includes privacy, including through their browser. But another way to view people who use browsers is that they’re objects to be boxed and sold. We don’t believe that. We believe Windows customers should have a great experience with their browser.

WALT: As opposed to?

DEAN: Well, Chrome, for instance, is funded by advertising.

WALT: So is The Wall Street Journal.

DEAN: I think advertising is great. But be careful about connecting advertising with tracking. We have advertising customers, and we want them to be delighted. And we have Windows customers, and we want them to be delighted. We have a unique position on this that gives us an opporunity to lead.

WALT: All the other browsers have a privacy mode.

DEAN: But that’s for “over the shoulder” privacy, not tracking.

WALT: Some of this tracking stuff is very hard to block. Can you really protect a user from all of it?

DEAN: Good question. Flash, for instance, enables tracking “Flash cookies” and they’re inherent in Flash. Only way to turn them off is to turn Flash off.

WALT: So this won’t block Flash cookies?

DEAN: It will if you tell it to.

WALT: But that’s pretty extreme.

DEAN: Yes. We’re touching on the ambiguity to the consumer about what actually is important and worthwhile tracking, and what isn’t.

We want to help consumers make progress being in control, but it’s a work in progress. It’s happening in Berkeley and in Brussels.

WALT: Let’s switch gears. Some people, not mainstream people, are debating whether the future of entertainment and progress and productivity will be on the browser and in the cloud. Google is pushing that via Chrome OS, and they also have Android apps that store local cloud on the device. Where do you come down on that?

DEAN: It’s a great case of “and”–you’ll have local apps and cloud versions. Like with Office mail, etc. We’re doing work on speed and safety so you can feel more comfortable in the cloud. “I think it’s the best of both worlds.”

WALT: So not a religious issue? Just practicality?

DEAN: Yes.

Questions and Answers

Q: What do you think of what the FTC says about privacy?

DEAN: The paper they put out in December is a good framework. And they’ve responded positively to what we’ve put out. They’re in favor of self-regulation, and we’re eager to work with them. I’ve had conversations with them, and what they say makes sense.

WALT: You’ve been talking to competitors about working together on this?

DEAN: We’ve been talking across the industry.

Q: Who is supposed to make banking, etc., more secure? This isn’t just about someone saying something on Facebook, but opening up the wrong window and having your bank account drained.

DEAN: We take it very seriously. “Security is an industry issue. I have to say it that way, because anything that we can talk about here has multiple parties involved.” if your Facebook is hacked, was it using your banking password?

Q: I’m talking about a national security issue.

DEAN: There’s a lot of working going on within the industry, working with law enformecement, to make things more secure.

WALT: But since you have the biggest market share, there’s a lot of responsibility on you. What do you do about that?

DEAN: Well, one thing we do is put out updates every eight weeks, because things change.

But really, “the best thing you can do to remain secure is to keep all your bits updated….That would make such a difference.”

Q: Firefox has plug-ins like AdBlock, that let you block ads. They seem to be effective at blocking things like beacons, too. Are they effective and can you do something analogous?

DEAN: Add-ins require installation, etc. You need a list, too. But we’re building that functionality into IE, so you don’t need to download anything else. We’re also working with people who make lists for AdBlock Plus, and they’re eager to work with IE 9 as well.

WALT: But AdBlock blocks ads, too. You’re not going to do that, right?

DEAN: It comes down to the list. If a list author lists sites that involve ads, then they’ll go away, too.

WALT: So you could surf the Web without seeing ads?

DEAN: It depends on the list.

WALT: I do think ads are good, by the way. [Me too!]

DEAN: Right. “Ads are great!”

But this is one of the reasons the ad industry wants to create lists for this. So they can distinguish tracking from nontracking.

Q: You’ve been talking about desktop browsers. Will these features come to mobile as well?

DEAN: “We’ll be talking about our mobile browser very soon, and I’ll just smile, and you can infer from that.”

Q: How much more value does tracking really add to advertising?

DEAN: Hard for me to answer that. Maybe the next time you have one of these things, you could have someone from the ad industry.

WALT: Good idea.

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]]> http://allthingsd.com/20110107/live-microsoft-browser-boss-dean-hachamovitch-at-dces/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20110106/maybe-ultraviolet-the-ginormous-media-cloud-locker-thingwont-fail-after-all-what-do-you-say-steve-jobs/ http://allthingsd.com/20110106/maybe-ultraviolet-the-ginormous-media-cloud-locker-thingwont-fail-after-all-what-do-you-say-steve-jobs/#comments Thu, 06 Jan 2011 08:01:14 +0000 Peter Kafka http://mediamemo.allthingsd.com/?p=27667 I’m very, very wary of typing this, because it’s about a yet-to-be-released product that’s being demoed at the Consumer Electronics Show.

Which means it could all be from the Island of Pretendistan, which supplies a good portion of the stuff you see every year at CES.

But! It’s possible that “UltraViolet,” the super-ambitious/probably-way-too-unwieldy coalition of just about every big media and tech company except Apple, may actually work. If Steve Jobs will let it.

The big idea behind UltraViolet is that it will let consumers purchase media that can work on multiple devices, using a cloud-based “rights locker.” So someone who bought, say, a “Harry Potter” DVD can watch it on their Blu-ray player, but also on their iPad, or their friend’s Google TV, or whatever.

It’s supposed to start rolling out this spring, and it’s a good idea. In theory.

In practice, even if the group putting this together–everyone from Akamai to Sony to Microsoft to Time Warner–can get the technology to work on every platform, the fact that Apple isn’t playing along is a huge problem. The music industry used to have a “works on most devices except for Apple” standard, and it was called Windows Media Audio. Remember? No?

But today Akamai, which is powering the back end for UltraViolet, will demo a version of the service on four devices: A Windows-based PC, a Mac, an iPad and an iPhone.

The UltraViolet people still don’t have Apple’s buy-in on the project, but the demo is meant to prove that the coalition can still work with Apple’s products, even if Apple doesn’t formally sign up. They’re accomplishing that by playing the Mac stuff on a Web browser, and on the iPhone and iPad via an iOS app that Akamai hasn’t submitted to Apple yet.

But the Akamai people say they don’t see why Apple will have a problem with the app, and stress they’ve been working closely with Apple to make sure that their tech synchs with the iOS platform.

They could be right, too. Apple lets plenty of other companies sell products that compete with Apple’s own media offerings via the App Store: Amazon’s Kindle, Pandora, Hulu, Spotify (sort of), etc.

If so, then UltraViolet really could pan out, if the coalition doesn’t screw it up with byzantine restrictions and pricing tiers–$X amount for a DVD, $X+Y for a DVD with iPhone privileges, etc. (It’ll probably do just that, actually.)

Still, Steve Jobs has been very successful at tending a walled garden. And if UltraViolet really works, it means he’d be letting someone else manage Apple customers’ media, and letting all that work he’s put into nurturing the Mac/iTunes/iOS ecosystem go to waste.

Theoretically possible. But so is a lot of the stuff we see at CES that never shows up anywhere else.

AKAMAI DEMONSTRATES DELIVERY OF ULTRAVIOLET ENTERTAINMENT

· Prototype unveiled at CES for delivering content that meets the UltraViolet specifications
· UltraViolet is a new industry standard that makes it easier for consumers to purchase, access and watch digital entertainment from a variety of locations and devices

2011 International Consumer Electronics Show, Las Vegas – January 6, 2011 – Akamai Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: AKAM), the leading provider of cloud optimization services, today announced its involvement with the Digital Entertainment Content Ecosystem (DECE) LLC, and demonstrated a prototype for delivering digital home entertainment content according to DECE’s recently announced UltraViolet specifications. UltraViolet represents a new way for consumers to enjoy greater choice and flexibility in how, when and where they collect and watch digital movies and TV shows.

While not yet commercialized, the prototype Akamai unveils at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) will detail how its video delivery platform will allow consumers to experience UltraViolet movies and TV content they have purchased. It is also designed to enable retailers to more easily bring UltraViolet services to market. When consumers buy UltraViolet entertainment, the access rights to that content can be stored in their UltraViolet account and digital locker, which is accessible across multipleplatforms and devices. In addition to easy access, UltraViolet is designed to increase the value of digital entertainment by enabling streaming as well as download and burn to physical media functionality.

“One key facet of UltraViolet’s open-specs design is the ability for world-class infrastructure and B2B service providers like Akamai to accelerate retailers’ deployments, with premium-quality enablement and delivery on a cost-efficient basis,” said Mark Teitell, general manager of DECE. “As a member of DECE, Akamai’s prototyping of this UltraViolet experience is a great example of how individual companies’ initiative and market development will combine with our industry-standard technical specs to bring UltraViolet to consumers this year.”

The integrated Akamai video delivery platform and the UltraViolet digital locker are designed to enable leading retailers to quickly bring premium, turn-keyUltraViolet-compliant services to market. Beginning with the sale of physical media like Blu-ray discs that come with UltraViolet, retailers will be able to extend their relationship with consumers to include UltraViolet-compliant services to stream high definition content to connected devices such as Internet TVs and Blu-ray players, and mobile apps for smartphones and tablets.

“Over the last decade, Akamai has had the privilege of working with the top retailers, consumer electronic manufacturers and media and entertainment companies to accelerate their websites and enable high-quality digital media experiences,” said Steven Chester, Akamai Vice President of Film. “Akamai believes that our distributed global network is uniquely able to provide the scale, security and quality required for the industry’s next phase of business model innovation. Akamai’s goal is to enable retailers and content providers to take advantage of the incredible opportunity presented by UltraViolet, and be a part of bringing the next generation of premium home entertainment services to the market.”.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20110106/maybe-ultraviolet-the-ginormous-media-cloud-locker-thingwont-fail-after-all-what-do-you-say-steve-jobs/feed/ 10 http://allthingsd.com/20101217/apple-to-dominate-tablet-market-until-2012-at-least/ http://allthingsd.com/20101217/apple-to-dominate-tablet-market-until-2012-at-least/#comments Fri, 17 Dec 2010 12:00:38 +0000 John Paczkowski http://digitaldaily.allthingsd.com/?p=54501 In 2011 tablet revenues will rise to $24.9 billion, and by 2012 they’ll reach $34.1 billion. And Apple will claim the lion’s share of both, according to J.P. Morgan analyst Mark Moskowitz. Which isn’t all that surprising, really. As Moskowitz observes, while the concept of the tablet has been around for more than a decade now, it wasn’t established and mainstreamed until Apple introduced the iPad in January 2010. And Apple set the bar so high with the device that rivals are finding it tough to match it, let alone surpass it.

“Our assumption is that Apple’s dominance will remain firmly intact in the near to mid-term, but gradually, technology improvements and component cost declines will enable the laggards to offer ‘good enough’ solutions to loosen some of Apple’s grip,” Moskowitz says. “Of note, we expect a host of competitive tablets in 2H 2011, following the release of Android 3.0 this coming spring. The upgraded Android operating system should gradually improve the competitiveness relative to Apple’s iOS. Our conversations with industry contacts indicate that the current version of Android does not provide a computing rich experience, which is a requisite of tablets.”

But a gradual improvement in the competitiveness of Android tablets isn’t nearly enough to slow the iPad juggernaut. Presumably, a lot of those first-generation Android 3.0 tablets will arrive at market about the same time as the second generation of the iPad. That alone should allow Apple to maintain a comfortable lead, but the company has iOS and the iTunes content ecosystem working in its favor as well.

“With tablets, we view form factor, operating system robustness, and content ubiquity as critical demand enablers, and here, we expect Apple to dominate,” Moskowitz concludes. “Similar to the iPhone, the iPad reflects Apple’s ability to introduce unrivaled technology experiences for the customer. The key factor driving the separation from other tablet vendors stands to be Apple’s content ecosystem. With tablets, we think that offering a trove of applications, as is industry practice in smartphones, will not be enough. The ability of the user to access content, such as movies and TV shows, is increasingly important for tablet users. This dynamic is where Apple has fought hard to secure access to content, and we think it will take time for other vendors to establish a similar content ecosystem.”

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20101217/apple-to-dominate-tablet-market-until-2012-at-least/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20101214/gmail-founder-says-chrome-is-doome/ http://allthingsd.com/20101214/gmail-founder-says-chrome-is-doome/#comments Tue, 14 Dec 2010 17:42:32 +0000 Ina Fried http://mobilized.allthingsd.com/?p=879 The founder of Gmail (and FriendFeed) is predicting a very short life for Google’s still-in-beta Chrome OS.

In posts on FriendFeed and Twitter, Paul Buchheit said on Tuesday that he thinks Google will axe the product next year, either fusing it with Android or killing it outright.

Chrome OS will meet that fate, Buchheit said on FriendFeed “because ChromeOS has no purpose that isn’t better served by Android (perhaps with a few mods to support a non-touch display).”

Buchheit is certainly not the first person to question Google’s dual-operating-system strategy. (Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer notably did so at last year’s D8 conference, although the soon-to-be exiting Ray Ozzie followed up that he actually sees Android as a bet for the present state of mobile while Chrome OS is a bet on a cloud-based future.)

“Yeah, I was thinking, ‘Is this too obvious to even state?’, but then I see people taking ChromeOS seriously, and Google is even shipping devices for some reason,” Buchheit wrote on FriendFeed.

Google originally hoped to have Chrome OS-based computers for sale this year, but has run into some delays. Last week, the company released a beta version of the software and distributed to testers an unbranded laptop running the operating system. However, it’s worth noting that in doing so, Google has hardly made the strongest hardware case for the operating system, using a relatively bulky netbook with a reliable, but hardly power-sipping Intel Atom processor.

The idea of merging the two operating systems has some merit. Doing so would pair a top-notch browser with an ecosystem that already has a lot of applications and developers.

For now, the operating systems are distinct, with Android running hundreds of thousands of applications and used largely on phones, along with a few tablets, such as Samsung’s Galaxy Tab. However, Google VP Andy Rubin confirmed after his appearance at last week’s D: Dive Into Mobile that the company is working on a new version of Android, known as Honeycomb, that is geared exclusively to tablets. (The full video of Rubin’s onstage appearance was posted on our site earlier today.)

Acer and a couple of other hardware makers have said they plan to do Chrome OS netbooks next year once the software is ready.

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