This is a massive move and also a risky one. Yahoo’s homepage sees about 170 million daily users who click in to do a variety of things. That huge traffic means that advertising placements earn big bucks from marketers — which inside sources said is typically upwards of $350,000 for a prime placement for a day, rising in price depending on complexity.

Thus, making any dramatic change to the powerful homepage is a big deal for Yahoo’s bottom line, especially in the important fourth quarter, when big advertisers spend a lot of money online and expect big results.

And the latest versions are certainly a major shift from Yahoo’s older look, with the latest using an interactive tiled approach at the very top that suggests the design spawn of Microsoft’s Windows 8 and Flipboard’s elegant social reading app.

As I noted last week, along with experiments in infinite scrolling, a simplified logo and giving search more prominence, Yahoo’s homepage change seems to be aimed at being consumed on touch-responsive, non-PC devices.

That’s no surprise, since Mayer declared in a recent earnings call that Yahoo was going to veer toward a “mobile first” sensibility. “Yahoo will have to be a predominantly mobile company,” she said.

She also has to aim at being a reliable digital company, it seems. In a bit of unlucky timing — even as Yahoo prepped the home page redo, as well as major overhauls of other products — its hugely popular Fantasy Football offering went down right as eight games were about to start at 10 am PT.

Yahoo acknowledged the slowness in its servers on Twitter, noting: “We’re still working to fix fantasy server issue & will update ASAP. We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience & appreciate your patience.”

Fantasy Football fans were livid, although this has happened before, especially to those who waited to do their lineup. But some were also funny about the screw-up, as you can see below:

Yahoo Fantasy Football site is down. The Republicans were right; America has officially collapsed. The apocalypse is upon us.

— Steve Fuller (@fullsteve) November 11, 2012

Dear Google, please develop a fantasy football platform. That will end Yahoo! as we know it. Love, Long Suffering Yahoo! Fantasy users.

— WFAN Audio Clips (@WFANAudio) November 11, 2012

As of two hours ago, Yahoo said it was still working on the problem. Presumably, it will be the first fix-it challenge for new COO Henrique De Castro, who starts this week.

Hopefully, Yahoo will not have such problems with the homepage rollout, once the final version is selected.

Until then, please check out two images of yet another version, which is similar — although not the same — as the one I posted last week. In the latest design, for example, the swooshy scroll at the top is smaller and a 300 by 250-sized ad unit is back in place at the top. Overall, it is a little bit more conservative, although still streamlined.

Here they are, along with a more dramatic one from last week and also a recent Yahoo homepage:

.

(Mark Sanchez photo: Debby Wong / Shutterstock.com)

A month ago, I posted an initial list of speakers for the 10th D: All Things Digital conference.

After a decade, the event — which is held in Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif., just south of Los Angeles, at the end of May — has attracted another amazing group of speakers, including: New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg; serial entrepreneur Sean Parker, who will appear with Spotify co-founder and CEO Daniel Ek; Zynga founder and CEO Mark Pincus; Federal Trade Commission Chairman Jon Leibowitz; LinkedIn Chairman and VC Reid Hoffman, who will appear with the social business site’s CEO Jeff Weiner; and Skype CEO Tony Bates.

Now, here’s another group of stellar speakers we’ve added to the programming lineup (and there are still even more big names to come in the weeks ahead): Oracle CEO Larry Ellison; former tech analyst superstar and now VC Mary Meeker of Kleiner Perkins; Intellectual Ventures’ Nathan Myhrvold; Pixar co-founder and Disney animation head Dr. Ed Catmull; and Visa President John Partridge.

Larry Ellison, CEO and founder of the enterprise giant Oracle, needs little introduction, as one of tech’s highest profile figures and a true Silicon Valley icon. Frankly, I think the short bio that’s on Oracle’s Web site says it all: “Larry Ellison has been CEO of Oracle Corporation since he founded the company in 1977. He also races sailboats, flies planes, and plays tennis and guitar.” There will be a lot to talk about with the voluble and always entertaining exec — who appeared at the D conference once before many years ago — from the current state of the tech industry to insights to where it’s all going. (In addition, Ellison has agreed to appear on a panel we are doing as a tribute to his close friend, Apple’s former CEO Steve Jobs.)

Another well-known tech figure is Meeker, who is now a partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, having joined the storied venture capital firm in early 2011. She focuses there on investments in its digital practice and via KP’s Digital Growth Fund, working with companies such as Spotify, Jawbone and One King’s Lane. But Meeker is perhaps best known for her long stint — 1991 to 2010 — as a star Internet research analyst at Morgan Stanley, where she brought many of the Internet’s great companies to the attention of Wall Street and beyond. She also wrote a series of groundbreaking reports on the landscape. That includes her annual “State of the Internet,” which Meeker will debut this year at the conference in an extended demo of her always riveting Internet trends presentation.

Nathan Myhrvold is also a tech legend, having worked for 14 years as chief strategist and CTO of Microsoft. But, instead of retiring, the avid inventor decided to focus on patents, founding and leading a controversial company called Intellectual Ventures, which buys them up and licenses them out (or sues if it doesn’t sell). With all the mishegas around patents right now, it’s a good time to have Myhrvold back to explain it all and perhaps to take some of the blame for the explosion in intellectual property lawsuits. (Myhrvold also co-authored a cookbook, “Modernist Cuisine,” so we hope we will also get some sort of futuristic cooking demo. Perhaps, Patently Delicious Flan?)

Speaking of tasty, the animation from Pixar over the years has been just that and it’s been one of Disney’s greatest acquisitions. Given how much Pixar has contributed to animation technology, we are glad to finally get Dr. Ed Catmull onstage. As co-founder of Pixar Animation Studios and president of Walt Disney and Pixar Animation Studios, he will discuss where entertainment and technology are intersecting and where they are not. Catmull is a geek’s geek in the industry — having also founded the computer graphics laboratory at the New York Institute of Technology, the computer division of Lucasfilm, as well as Pixar, which he did with chief creative officer John Lasseter. Get ready to talk about image compositing, motion blur, subdivision surfaces, cloth simulation and rendering techniques, texture mapping and the z-buffer. Also, Catmull’s five Academy Awards.

Lastly, it is perfect timing for bringing on John Partridge, president of Visa. With swirling issues around online identity theft, digital privacy, the future of money and the rise of upstart competitors such as Square, Partridge has his hands full at the credit card giant. One of the most neglected arenas in tech, the way we manage payments is perhaps the biggest story of the next era, especially as it relates to mobile and the rise of smartphones as all-purpose devices.

And in 2012 — which also happens to be the 10th anniversary of the confab of tech and media titans — it’s already shaping up to be another fantastic event in terms of programming, with a lineup of onstage appearances that is sure to make some news.

There are many more very big names to come, but Walt Mossberg and I are pleased to introduce the first group of interviewees, which will give you a glimpse into the firepower we expect at D10 in late May. It is again being held in Rancho Palos Verdes, just south of Los Angeles.

The initial speakers we have confirmed so far include: New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg; serial entrepreneur Sean Parker, who will appear with Spotify co-founder and CEO Daniel Ek; Zynga founder and CEO Mark Pincus; Federal Trade Commission Chairman Jon Leibowitz; LinkedIn Chairman and VC Reid Hoffman, who will appear with LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner; and Skype CEO Tony Bates.

It’s hard to imagine someone we have wanted to have onstage more than Michael Bloomberg, a man of many talents and interests. He’s known worldwide as the 108th Mayor of the City of New York. First elected in November 2001 (and again in 2005 and 2009), he is also one of the most compelling politicians in the U.S. today.

But Bloomberg is also a pioneer in terms of the business of digital news and information technology, having built a huge and groundbreaking media company and information service. Bloomberg (the company) has 310,000 subscribers to its financial news and information service, and more than 15,000 employees worldwide.

There will be a lot to talk about with him, from the upcoming presidential election to the state of our government to the future of innovation, news and technology.

Also sure to be voluble is Sean Parker, the legendary Silicon Valley entrepreneur who has been on the cutting edge of innumerable important digital trends of the recent decade. In 1999, Parker co-founded Napster, the controversial and industry-changing music service, at the age of 19.

He followed up with early contact information service Plaxo, and then shifted over to his critical involvement as founding president of Facebook in its early days as a start-up, an experience which was dramatized in the movie “The Social Network.” Parker continued to found and also invest in companies, from Causes to Spotify to his most recent, Airtime, a social video company that he is doing with his Napster co-founder Shawn Fanning.

Parker will be appearing onstage with Daniel Ek, another serial entrepreneur and technologist, who started his first company in 1997 at the age of 14. The Swedish native later co-founded online music phenom Spotify in 2006, with Martin Lorentzon.

The former CTO of Stardoll and founder of Advertigo leads a company that is changing the way music is delivered and consumed by fans, against a backdrop of intense change in the industry, succeeding even as a plethora of other services have stumbled.

Also a groundbreaker is Zynga CEO and founder Mark Pincus, yet another serial entrepreneur, whose latest effort in the online gaming arena has finally resulted in his biggest success. It recently went public, and now has a nearly $10 billion market cap.

Before founding Zynga in 2007, Pincus had already started three other companies: Push start-up Freeloader in 1995; automated tech-support company Support.com after that; and early social networking site Tribe.net in 2003.

(I met Pincus when he was at Freeloader in Washington, D.C., while writing a profile of him for the Washington Post, so I have enjoyed tracking his progress since then.)

Pincus is also an avid angel investor, with early stakes in Napster, Brightmail, Twitter and Facebook.

Reid Hoffman was another early investor in Facebook, along with many of Web 2.0’s most successful ventures. Well-known in Silicon Valley as an entrepreneur and VC, and recently dubbed the “start-up whisperer” by the New York Times (although I am not sure exactly what that means), he’s also chairman of LinkedIn, the business-networking service that also recently went public (at a $10 billion valuation, too).

He’ll appear with LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner, who started out life in Hollywood, but soon made his way to Silicon Valley as a top exec at Yahoo. After running its media division, Weiner spent a short time at venture firms before going operational again at LinkedIn.

What it takes to build and maintain momentum as tech companies move into more mature stages, as well as how the social networking space evolves, are among the many topics on tap for the pair.

The evolution of a start-up phenom — in this case, Internet telephony service Skype — will be among the topics covered by Tony Bates, who is now a president at Microsoft, which bought it last year.

As such, he is responsible, says the software giant in its description of his job, “for overseeing the company’s direction, strategy and overall mission to become a global communications service that will eventually reach billions of users.”

That’s a tall order for Bates, who came to Skype from a top job at Cisco. Bates has deep roots (or maybe, routing?) in the guts of the Internet, having done backbone-engineering strategy for Internet MCI. The U.K. native also holds nine patents.

Lastly, given all the activity we expect will happen between government regulatory agencies and tech companies over the next few years, we felt it was key to bring in FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz. He has been at the FTC as a commissioner since 2004, but was given the top job by President Barack Obama in 2009.

Among his priorities, according to his bio, is “promoting competition and innovation in the technology sector through law enforcement and policy initiatives; and protecting consumers’ privacy — especially while they are using the Internet.”

Uh-oh!

Leibowitz knows from regulation, having served as the Democratic chief counsel and staff director for the U.S. Senate Antitrust Subcommittee from 1997 to 2000, where he focused on competition policy and telecommunications matters, as well as a similar stint at the Senate Subcommittee on Terrorism and Technology before that.

There will be a lot more speakers to come, of course. But, so far, we think D10 is off and running fast.

Nokia spends about five times as much on mobile R&D as Apple. In fact, Nokia has nearly as many engineers working on its smartphone software platforms as Apple does for its entire product line. Says Dediu, “Symbian alone may cost twice as much to develop than the iPhone (including the hardware).”

A shocking metric, if correct. And a pretty dismal return on investment–unless there’s another version of Symbian in the pipeline that will best iOS.

PREVIOUSLY:

• Not Seeing Much Return on That Massive R&D Spend, Are You, Nokia?
• Nokia: Big and Slow

Hamstrung by institutional inefficiencies and the complexity of its legacy platforms, Nokia is spending a lot of money to gain traction in markets in which its handset lineup is clearly uncompetitive, and with little success. Instead it’s suffering steeper share losses at the high end of the market and margin erosion across its entire portfolio. And it’s spending about 4 times as much on R&D as Apple, which has recast the smartphone space from its own vision.

As Bernstein analyst Pierre Ferragu observes, Nokia’s business appears to be melting like an ice cube. “At this stage, we believe that even a good success of Symbian^3 would barely stabilize the business,” he says. “A real comeback will need much more effort … and a lot more time, unlikely to happen in the next couple of years, in our view.”

So what can be done? Though some observers argue Nokia should scrap Symbian, Ferragu says that’s impossible given the number of assets the company has that depend on it. The company can’t really make a big move to Android, either. That would undermine its current service strategy and alienate partners, European carriers looking for an alternative to iOS and Android, and Nokia’s developer community.

What it should do, he says, is redouble its efforts on MeeGo and make it a viable competitor to Android and iOS in markets like North America, while continuing to push Symbian to the rest of the world. And then it should integrate the two through QT, its cross-platform application and UI framework. Says Ferragu, “By migrating all UI developments of Symbian on QT, the company can generate significant cost savings, progressively drive the platform towards a single UI between MeeGo and Symbian and a single development environment for applications.”

What’s left to do after that?

Hope for the best.

As CEO Stephen Elop said during the company’s last earnings call, “Nokia must compete on ecosystem to ecosystem basis. In addition to great device experiences we must build, catalyse or join a competitive ecosystem. And the ecosystem approach we select must be comprehensive and cover a wide range of utilities and services that customers expect today and anticipate in the future.”

“Whatever the strategy is we outline on Feb. 11, we very clearly ensuring that it will give us the opportunity to reopen markets such as the U.S. and some others, where we have not recently been present.”

“We’re still in the early stages,” Microsoft Senior Product Manager Greg Sullivan told Mobilized in a phone interview on Wednesday. “When people use this phone, they really, really like it.”

Back in December, Microsoft said that 1.5 million Windows Phone 7 devices had shipped to carriers.

AT&T, which carries the broadest lineup of Windows Phone 7 models among the U.S. carriers, declined to give out specific sales figures, but said that sales have been steadily growing since launch and that 90 percent of customers said they would recommend a Windows Phone to others.

“We believe this shows that Windows Phone has a bright future in an intensively competitive space,” an AT&T spokesman told Mobilized.

LG had less-nice things to say, with an executive telling a mobile enthusiast site that early sales weren’t what it had hoped. “From an industry perspective we had a high expectation, but from a consumer point of view the visibility is less than we expected,” LG’s James Choi told Pocket-lint.

Sales are an important measure of success over the long term, but perhaps not even the best indicator of the platform’s long-term success, Sullivan said.

“One of the key ways that we’ll measure success of Windows Phone is did we ship a phone people love,” he said, pointing to its customer-satisfaction data, which said that 93 percent of early customers are “satisfied” or “very satisfied,” adding, “That’s a really great number.”

At a very first glance, some of the new rules imposed by the feds might seem like they require the new company to offer up programming to any online player that wants to pay up.

And technically, they do. But the new rules have plenty of conditions and limits. So the bottom line is you’re not much more likely to get access to “30 Rock” via YouTube, or CNBC via iTunes, then you were before.

The new FCC and DOJ rules do give, say, Google the ability to buy access to some of NBC U shows or channels. But it would require Comcast’s competitors to do the same thing, first.

That is: Unless the people who are reluctant to put their stuff online because they don’t want to upset Comcast go ahead and put their stuff online, Comcast doesn’t have to, either. So it’s theoretically possible, but not probable.

And if it happens, it will happen haltingly. If Viacom sells someone online access to its MTV lineup of reality shows, that might require Comcast to offer up its reality show lineup on Bravo. But it wouldn’t entitle an online outlet to the police procedurals on USA.

The government also gives the option to, say, Netflix, to set up shop as another cable operator, and buy access to all of NBC Universal’s programming. But it would have to buy all of it–just like Time Warner Cable and Cablevision do when they make a carriage deal for NBC U’s shows.

And again, Comcast wouldn’t have to do that unless its peers did. Which means that if Netflix really wanted to set up shop as a direct competitor of the cable guys, it can do so. But it would have to operate exactly like the cable guys, just like the satellite guys did when they entered the market a couple of decades ago.

So if Netflix, or Apple or whoever really wants to offer a full suite of cable programming, at cable prices, it could. But that would be very, very expensive: Analyst Rich Greenfield estimates that the bill for NBC U’s programming alone would run a new entrant $1 billion a year.

Just as, or even more, important, is that those kind of bundled, take-it-or-leave-it deals are exactly the kind of thing that the cord-cutting crowd complains about.

They don’t want to have to pay for USA and Bravo and Syfy and MSNBC–they want to pick and choose channels, or shows. And pay a lot less.

“I don’t think cord-cutting was a major focus” of negotiations, Comcast EVP David Cohen said during a press conference this afternoon. And that may be true!

But the net result reads very much as if Comcast wanted to make sure the government didn’t force it to break its business model. And if that was the case, it got what it wanted.

The event is set to kick off shortly and Mobilized will have live coverage here.

1:05 pm: Well, despite timely warnings to get in our seats beginning at 12:45, it’s now five minutes after and the techno is still pumping.

1:11 pm: Okay. Getting started. Loud music gets louder. Cue video.

Tony Melone and Marni Walden take the stage and CEO Daniel Mead (at least I think it is Mead) is doing an intro.

1:15 pm: Another video now playing with partners. Since HTC CEO Peter Chou is in there, I think it is probably safe to say their oft-rumored LTE smartphone will make an appearance.

1:16 pm: Samsung and Ericsson execs also in the video.

1:17 pm: Verizon exec now touting the advantages of its 4G network including its spectrum, which it says will give it the best in-building coverage.

Also talking about how it is sharing its spectrum with rural service providers.

1:18 pm: Mead: “We’re very pleased to be part of bringing broadband to rural America.”

1:21 pm: Mead hands off to CTO Tony Melone to talk 4G and LTE.

Melone says that the company knows there is a lot of skepticism of the company’s move to go straight to LTE but that the bet is paying off with more networks and running faster than planned.

“The customer feedback we are getting is everything we had hoped for and then some,” Melone says.

Melone talks about 4G LTE plans.

Thirty-six months from now we will have the nation covered with LTE, Melone says. Two-thirds of the population will be covered in 2012. This year alone, he says, Verizon will add 140 new markets, including places like Little Rock, Detroit and Sioux Falls.

1:26 pm: On to devices.

Ten devices coming by mid-year being shown on stage: Four smartphones, two tablets, two notebooks and two mobile hotspots.

1:33 pm: LG CEO shows off the LG Revolution, what appears to be a slimmish smartphone.

Next up, Skype’s CEO talks about a new partnership that will allow for Skype to be always on and integrated into the address book of all of Verizon’s LTE smartphones,

1:34 pm: He’s followed by HTC CEO Peter Chou, who introduces the HTC Thunderbolt.

Chou says he’s been personally testing and using the Thunderbolt, which features the new Skype video chatting along with HTC’s Sense user interface.

“Let me tell you, it’s blazing fast,” Chou says.

Other features include a built-in 4G hotspot and a 4.3-inch Super LCD screen.

1:37 pm: He thanks Qualcomm and Google engineers that worked together to create the device, so guessing this one isn’t using Nvidia’s Tegra chip.

Next up is Electronic Arts VP Travis Boatman. EA’s mobile games lineup ranges from Monopoly and Tetris to Need for Speed and the FIFA 11 soccer game.

The new mobile version of Rock Band for Verizon’s LTE network lets people form a band and remotely jam over the network.

Samsung executive goes onstage to show off three devices for the LTE network, One is a mobile hotspot, one is a smartphone and the other is a 4G version of the Galaxy Tab.

Phone packs 4.3-inch Super Amoled Plus display, which is said to boost colors and offer improved display. It’s got an 8-megapixel rear-facing camera with HD video and a 1.3-megapixel front-facing camera for video chat.

The tablet has a 1.2GHz processor developed by Samsung, while the hotspots provide connections to up to five users at a time.

Most impressive is the fact that the Samsung executive pulled all three devices out of various pockets.

Marni Walden shows off the remaining devices–a Novatel MiFi hotpot that works with both 3G and 4G networks.

There is also a Compaq Netbook, an HP notebook, as well as the previously announced Motorola Xoom and Motorola Droid Bionic.

1:47 pm: On to Q&A (hoping laptop No. 2 holds out through the end of question time.)

First question has to do with LTE speeds, which often exceed the 5- to 12-megabit speeds promised. Mead says that the company’s goal is to meet the promised speed range once the network is fully loaded, something that is not the case today.

Next question is on battery life. Melone says the company believes it will be able to meet customer expectations in that regard.

The company says it won’t announce pricing or rate plans for the 4G products, beyond noting its current prices for 4G laptop cards and service.

As for simultaneous voice and data, Walden says the company intends that at least some of its 4G launch devices will support talking and accessing data at the same time.

“It could be on some devices and not all,” Walden says.

Walden also confirms all the phones it showed Thursday are running Android.

1:55 pm: Asked about net neutrality, Mead says that what the industry needs is “unfettered development.”

“We think the free market system works very well, and we don’t need a lot of heavy intervention.”

“Currently, we have no plans to introduce Google’s latest Android handset,’’ KT spokesman Lee In-won told the Korea Times. Evidently, SK Telecom–the country’s largest carrier–holds a similar view, and the reason seems to be the tight control Google is exerting over the device’s local marketing and customization. SK officials, for example, say they’re having difficulty getting SK’s T-Map navigation service onto the Nexus S.

With the S, Google has taken a dim view of the overlays and carrier add-ons that often mar the Android experience, adding little benefit while undermining its usability. Presumably, the difficulties to which SK refers are the result of this. If the Nexus S is to be pure Android, Google can’t allow its carrier partners to compromise by piling crapware and inferior pay services atop it, can it?

As of this writing, Google has not responded to requests for comment.

In a video interview with Mobilized just after his onstage appearance at D: Dive Into Mobile, Lurie said the iPhone remains the company’s flagship, but said he is also focused on Android, BlackBerry and Windows Phone 7. Beyond that, he said he looks forward to a day when most of the gadgets on the shelves at Best Buy have some sort of wireless connection–either directly to the cellular network or to another device that is connected.

As for the iPhone, Lurie said he expects that even if Apple were to start selling the phone through another carrier, AT&T would still be able to offer it.

“It’s a very, very important device and it will continue to be for us,” Lurie said. “If anything ever changes, I expect that relationship to continue.”

That said, Lurie went on to say that the company is focused on a broad lineup that includes the BlackBerry Torch, Android devices and Windows Phone 7 models.

Here’s the video:

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20101209/talking-4g-iphone-and-more-with-atts-glenn-lurie/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20101018/live-apple-earnings-call-2/ http://allthingsd.com/20101018/live-apple-earnings-call-2/#comments Mon, 18 Oct 2010 22:58:07 +0000 Peter Kafka http://mediamemo.allthingsd.com/?p=24788 Steve Jobs made a rare appearance during today’s Apple’s earnings call and spent most of his time beating up his rivals, past and present. Summary: The iPhone has left Research in Motion’s BlackBerry in the dust. And while Google’s Android phones and tablets-to-be looked impressive, they weren’t.

Great fun to listen to for Apple watchers. But not that meaningful, really–mostly positioning and spin. There was at least one important nugget, though: Apple has a specific shopping list, with some very big-ticket items on it.

Jobs wouldn’t lay those out, of course. But when asked if he planned on spending any of Apple’s $51 billion (!) in cash via a dividend or stock buyback, he explained that he had something else in mind. From my notes, a combination of direct quotes and paraphrase:

“We strongly believe that one or more very strategic opportunities may come along that we’re in unique opportunity to take advantage of because of our cash,” and we want to keep our powder dry “because we feel that there are one or more” opportunities in the future.

M&A guys, start your engines!

The “what will Apple do with all its cash” speculation story is a time-honored tradition–I seem to remember writing one four or five years ago, when Apple had $6 billion or so lying around, and discussing whether it made sense for Jobs to buy a music company like Universal.

But I don’t remember Jobs every signaling his desire to go shopping quite as openly as this before (feel free to correct me in comments if I have this one wrong). Two caveats:

• Jobs is famous for saying one thing and doing…something else. So don’t get too riled up about this.
• Just because Jobs is talking about spending money on “opportunities” doesn’t mean he’s talking about buying a company. He could be talking about big, hairy capital expenditures, like the billion-dollar server farm Apple is finishing up in North Carolina.

Still. It’s hard not to read or hear that quote and not think that he’s thinking about some very big buys. Like what?

A lot of folks will assume that Jobs is talking about buying a big content producer. Music doesn’t make any sense, because there’s little value left in that business. But if Jobs wants to make headway in the TV business, perhaps it makes sense for him to snag a big broadcaster or programmer to give him the leverage he needs with the Comcasts, Viacoms and Time Warners of the world.

Or you could make the same argument for other content makers, like game studios. The biggest one, Electronic Arts, has a market cap of a mere $5.21 billion. Jobs could give ERTS shareholders a hefty premium and still have plenty of walking-around money.

Or perhaps it makes zero sense for Apple to be in the content business, because it’s done just fine not being in the content business to date.

So then what?

Feel free to throw your own guesses in, but I’ll kick off with my own: It’s a company that has yet to compete with or brush up against Apple in any significant way. And it’s one that Apple seems unlikely to be able to move aside, even if it wanted to. And it’s one that’s already competing directly with Google, which has to make Jobs like it even more.

And, if you believe this L.A. Times report, Jobs is already strolling around Palo Alto with its CEO: What do you think of Apple buying Facebook? Discuss….

Earlier

Apple investors who got their first look at the company’s earnings numbers don’t like them–AAPL is trading down seven percent after hours. Let’s see if Apple executives can soothe their concerns during the earnings call.

You can listen in for yourself via this link, or follow along in my liveblog below:

Live Blog

Apple or Apple’s IR company trying some very, very mellow string and piano stuff while we wait.

CFO Peter Oppenheimer kicks off. “Outstanding results” for September quarter. Highest quarterly revenue, earnings.

Mac products and services: 3.9 mm Macs. Record quarter. 27% y/y growth. Double market growth for Q.

IMac, Macbook, Macbook Pro all good. Asia/Pacific performing best.

IPods: 9.1 million.

ITunes revenue more than $1 billion.

IPhone. “Extremely pleased” with 14.4 million unit sales; basically doubled y/y.

$8.6 billion in sales value of iPhones alone.

Heaping praise on iPhone 4 (justified) and stressing iPhone’s move into corporate market, rattling off blue-chip customers.

IPad. “Thrilled” with momentum. “Great enthusiasm” from customers.

65% of Fortune 100 deploying or piloting iPad. Lists some of them.

125 million iOS device sales last month.

200,000 registered iOS developers.

“Very happy” with results of iAd so far.

On to Apple stores. More records here.

Expects to open 40-50 stores next year, 50% of them outside U.S.

IPhone sales mix “better than expected”–boosted overall margin.

$51 billion cash hoard. [Deep, longing sigh from everyone in media, tech business.]

For the year: 5x revenue and 10x earnings compared with five years ago.

“Very enthusiastic” about lineup, “extremely confident” in new product pipeline.

Rare appearance from Steve Jobs!

Had to drop by for first $20 billion quarter.

“We’ve now passed RIM, and I don’t see them catching up to us in the foreseeable future.”

They have to move into software/platform development, and I don’t think they can.

So what about Google?

Apple is activating 275,000 iOS devices per day on average over the past 30 days; peaked at 300k iOS devices some days. 300,000 apps in app store.

Unfortunately, there is no solid data on how many Android handsets sold each quarter.

Google loves to characterize Android as open, Apple as closed. “We find this a bit disingenuous.”

Windows is “open.” But Android is “very fragmented.” OEMs like Motorola install own stuff to make their phones stand out. We don’t do that.

Shout out to “Twitterdeck” ( I think he means Tweetdeck) and their challenges running 100 versions of Android client. “Compare this to iPhone, where there are two versions of the software…to test against.”

Meanwhile, at least four app stores on Android. “This is going to be a mess for both users and developers.”

Apple’s app store has 3x apps compared with Google marketplace.

“Even if Google were right, and the real issue was closed vs. open, it’s important to remember that open systems don’t always win.”

For instance: Microsoft’s [miserable] “PlaysForSure” strategy, RIP.

Google’s “open” argument is a “smokescreen.” Real issue is what’s best for customer–”fragmented vs. integrated.”

Integrated is a huge advantage for us, because it’s better for customers, and better for developers. “We are very committed to the integrated approach no matter how many times Google tries to characterize it as closed.”

Now! On to our tablet competitors:

First of all, only a few credible competitors.

Second, most of them are pushing 7.5″ screen. That means they are just at 45% size of our 10″ screen. “You heard that right….This size isn’t sufficient to create great tablet apps.”

Extolling features of iPad size vs. teeny tiny tablet competitors: They’re “tweeners”–too small to compete with iPad, too big to compete with smartphones.

IPad has 35,000 apps. New crop of tablets will have “near zero.”

Competitors having a hard time coming close to iPad pricing, even with their puny screens. We make our own everything, and this results in an “incredible product, at a great price.” Our competitors will “likely offer less, for more.” They’ll be “DOA. Dead on arrival.”

Questions and Answers

Supply constraints on iPad?

COO Tim Cook: We’ve got a handle on it. And note that we’re expanding distribution in the U.S. and internationally, with more countries to come.

Question about margins I didn’t quite catch.

Oppenheimer: Sold more iPhones than planned, and commodity prices came down, so that helped.

Q for Steve. Please talk about “iPad opportunity.” Size of business, etc., two years or more down the road?

Jobs: “The iPad is clearly going to affect notebook computers. The iPad proves it’s not a question of if, it’s a question of when.” Already seeing “tremendous” interest from education and “much to my surprise, from business.”

“The more time that passes, the more I am convinced that we’ve got a tiger by the tail here.” We’ve trained tens of millions of people on this OS via the iPhone. “I see it as really general purpose, and I see it as very big.”

Could it be the second biggest business after the iPhone?

“I try not to predict, I try to report.” We’re selling more iPads than Macs.

What about Flash? Any update?

“Flash memory? We love flash memory” [hohoho]

A question on iPhone demand, which I missed.

Q: Steve, “You are the tablet market.” Do you see tablet competitors cutting into your market in the same way you cut into RIM’s market? Won’t that fragment the market?

“I have a hard time imagining what those strategies…are.” Pricing won’t work. “Flash hasn’t presented any problem at all; as you know, most video on the Web is now presented in HTML5.” The iTunes store is dominant and “we’re not done” working on stuff for the future.

Q: Smartphones–”Do you see that as a zero-sum game?”

Jobs: As you know, most phones in the world aren’t smartphones. They’ll convert over time, so there will be room for multiple competitors, but “eventually it will turn into a zero-sum game, or close to that.”

Q: For Oppenheimer: Another margins question.

A: We do see a small sequential decline. Higher-than-expected mix of new iPods and new iPads. We’ve been very aggressive on pricing there, and that’s what’s pushing down margins.

Q: Steve, how’s your Apple TV “hobby” coming? And what’s up with streaming media?

Jobs: We don’t talk about unannounced products, but I’m happy to tell you what we know about Apple TV. We have moved to streaming. It’s all streaming. Everything is rented, and/or soon to be streamed from iPad or iPhone.

So far we’ve sold 250,000 new Apple TVs. “I’m thrilled with that.” And with Airplay set up, “it will give people another big reason to buy it.”

Another margin/guidance question. Seems to be the same one repeated each time, with the same answer.

Q for Steve: Key risks for company?

The goal is to make the best devices in the world. “It’s not to be the biggest. As you know, Nokia’s the biggest… but we don’t aspire to be like them.”

Android is the biggest competitor. Outshipped us in June quarter as we transitioned. We’re waiting to find out what happened in this quarter. “I don’t know how we’ll find out” though.

Our approach is to create products that “just work” and “their approach is very different from that.”

Questions for Steve and Tim: Aspirations for iPhone and iPad. In Mac, you didn’t aspire to high market share; in iPod, it was the opposite–you own that market. In the past, Tim you’ve described iPhone business as closer to the iPod model. Steve, you sort of said something different. Please resolve that difference: Biggest, or best?

Jobs: “Nokia makes $50 handsets. We don’t know how to make a great handset for $50.” We want to make “breakthrough, best products,” and “drive costs down” while making them better through “relentless improvement.”

We have a very low share in the phone market. Single digits. And a very high share in tablets. But we don’t think about it that way.

The reason we won’t make a seven-inch tablet isn’t because of price point, “it’s because we don’t think you can make a great tablet with a seven-inch screen.” And as a software company, we think of software first. Developers don’t want to build for all these different platforms and devices, and on this small screen. “It’s not about cost, it’s about value, when you factor in the software.”

Q: Okay, but if the market moves toward lower-functionality smartphones and “dramatically lower price points,” then you’ll cede share, right?

Jobs: “You’re looking at it wrong.” You’re looking at it as a hardware guy who doesn’t really know about software. You assume that software “can come alive on this product that you’re dreaming of. But it won’t” because developers want to build for better products, with faster processors and better screens.

Q: You have about $50 billion in cash. What are you going to do with that? Why not return it to shareholders?

Jobs: “We strongly believe that one or more very strategic opportunities may come along that we’re in unique opportunity to take advantage of because of our cash” and want to keep our powder dry “because we feel that there are one or more” opportunities in the future.

Missing next question about iPhone and iPad penetration into corporate market.

[Market not sold on Apple's story yet, btw: Stock still down 5.84%.]

Question for Oppenheimer. Guess what? It’s about gross margins. Any change in manufacturing, etc? Any color at all?

Oppenheimer: Don’t provide product-specific gross margins. Always trying to lower costs, though. “We were happy” with gross margins for quarter. Down slightly because of product mix, as I’ve said over and over.

Q: Talk about demand from carriers to pick up iPhone 4.

Cook: The pressure I’m feeling is about supply. That’s the problem. At the country level, we have 166 relationships in 89 countries. In many countries, we went to more than one carrier. Latest one of those is Germany.

IPhone 4 in 85 of 89 countries. Will be in all 89 by end of year.

What happens to margins and subsidy when you go nonexclusive?

We don’t give information out on specific markets, but you can see that our ASPs have stayed above $600.

For Steve: Why do you have advantage in price on iPad, as opposed to PC?

Jobs: We engineer so much of it ourselves. Everything from chip to battery to enclosures. We’ve learned so much. We’ve learned a lot, developed a lot of our own components, where competitors have to go through middlemen. “This is a product we’ve been training for for the last decade.”

Call is over. You can hear the whole thing on a podcast later this evening.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20101018/live-apple-earnings-call-2/feed/ 56 http://allthingsd.com/20101007/apple-to-end-verizon-iphone-rumors-in-2011/ http://allthingsd.com/20101007/apple-to-end-verizon-iphone-rumors-in-2011/#comments Thu, 07 Oct 2010 14:10:33 +0000 John Paczkowski http://digitaldaily.allthingsd.com/?p=50336

“We would love to carry [the iPhone], but we have to earn it. I can’t speak for Apple.”

– Verizon CEO Ivan Seidenberg

So that “Verizon-ready” CDMA iPhone that Apple will begin mass-producing by the end of the year? Verizon will actually be selling it. This according to an updated version of the same Wall Street Journal story I pointed to Wednesday that says, explicitly, what the first version did not: “Apple Inc. is making a version of its iPhone that Verizon Wireless will sell early next year.”

Evidently, Verizon (VZ) has, in the words of CEO Ivan Seidenberg, earned the right to carry it. Or at least that’s what the Journal’s being told.

Asked for his thoughts on the report at the CTIA conference in San Francisco yesterday Lowell McAdam, Verizon’s president and chief operating officer, declined to confirm a deal with Apple.

“This is one of those things that rolls out every few weeks whether there’s a basis for it or not,” he said. “I can’t give you any insights. But I think Apple is the one that has to make that announcement. What I’ve always said is I expect at some point in time our business interests are going to align. I think things like LTE are another great reason why they’d want a device or tablet on that network. But I don’t have anything to say today about timing.”

Whatever. As I’ve said before, at this point I’d be happy to see the iPhone added to Verizon’s lineup, if only to stop this endless conga line of rumors.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20101007/apple-to-end-verizon-iphone-rumors-in-2011/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20101001/microsoft-plugs-in-some-new-presidents/ http://allthingsd.com/20101001/microsoft-plugs-in-some-new-presidents/#comments Fri, 01 Oct 2010 19:43:17 +0000 Voices http://voices.allthingsd.com/?p=30580 For those of you scoring at home, it’s time to update your hand-drawn Microsoft org chart. Here are the lineup changes at the presidential level, as announced today: Kurt DelBene becomes president of the Business Division, which includes Office, replacing Stephen Elop, who left to head Nokia. The mobile and gaming units, which had been combined under the now departed Robbie Bach, are independent again, with Andy Lees taking the helm of Mobile Communications and Don Mattrick leading Interactive Entertainment.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20101001/microsoft-plugs-in-some-new-presidents/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20100524/google-eyeing-invite-media/ http://allthingsd.com/20100524/google-eyeing-invite-media/#comments Mon, 24 May 2010 18:00:37 +0000 John Paczkowski http://digitaldaily.allthingsd.com/?p=41326

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20100524/google-eyeing-invite-media/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20100524/verizon-stands-to-sell-7-8-million-iphones-a-year/ http://allthingsd.com/20100524/verizon-stands-to-sell-7-8-million-iphones-a-year/#comments Mon, 24 May 2010 12:01:15 +0000 John Paczkowski http://digitaldaily.allthingsd.com/?p=41269 AT&T’s iPhone-exclusivity deal hasn’t yet expired; nor has Apple announced plans to sell the device through a second U.S. carrier. But that’s not stopping analysts from speculating about what might happen when it does.

Riffing on rumors of a Verizon (VZ) iPhone, Morgan Stanley (MS) analyst Katy Huberty theorizes in a research note this morning that given the opportunity, nearly 17 percent of the carrier’s customers would upgrade to an iPhone (see chart below; click charts to enlarge).

“According to our [Alphawise U.S. consumer iPhone survey], there is substantial pent up iPhone demand within the Verizon installed base as 16.8 percent of Verizon subscribers said they are ‘very likely’ to purchase an iPhone if offered on the Verizon Network,” Huberty writes.

“This 16.8 percent is higher than AT&T subscriber’s 14.6 percent extreme interest in the current AT&T iPhone,” Huberty elaborates, “and well above the overall iPhone extreme interest of 7.5 percent.”

Assuming Verizon does add the iPhone to its smartphone lineup and that most of its subscribers who said they were “very likely” to purchase the device do so over a two-year period, Huberty figures Verizon stands to sell about seven million to eight million iPhones annually.

Interestingly, Huberty’s forecast for Phone demand at Verizon does not assume sizable subscriber losses at AT&T. In her view, the end of the carrier’s iPhone-exclusivity deal won’t be the blow some observers claim. AT&T (T) and Apple (AAPL) will obviously remain partners, she says.

In markets where the iPhone has gone from single-carrier to multiple-carrier distribution–France, for example–the carrier that lost exclusivity hasn’t suffered much at all. Beyond this, there’s the issue of early-termination fees, which will make it difficult for current AT&T iPhone users to flee. Says Huberty:

• 60 percent of the iPhone base is locked until 2H11/1Q12. An iPhone refresh could bring a new wave of subs to AT&T and extend the lock-down of those who upgrade. 80 percent of AT&T’s postpaid subs are sticky customers (70 percent are on a Family Plan (FP); 40 percent on business discounts).
• For current subs, the Early Termination Fee (ETF) is $175 falling $5/mo for the term of the contract; for new smartphone subs it’s $325, falling by $10/mo. Every line on a FP has a contract/ETF of its own. In addition, customers would have to pay for a new device if switching carriers.

One final point: Huberty sees Apple shares hitting $400 sometime in 2011. Why? “The market underestimates the earnings power of Apple’s mobile Internet devices,” she wrote. “We view the combination of new product launches, broader distribution [carrier, international, enterprise], more attractive pricing and strong upgrade rates as the key demand drivers over the next two years.”

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20100524/verizon-stands-to-sell-7-8-million-iphones-a-year/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20100512/china-mobile-maybe-if-we-keep-talking-about-an-ipad-deal-it-will-come-true/ http://allthingsd.com/20100512/china-mobile-maybe-if-we-keep-talking-about-an-ipad-deal-it-will-come-true/#comments Wed, 12 May 2010 16:59:44 +0000 John Paczkowski http://digitaldaily.allthingsd.com/?p=40384 China Mobile, China’s largest wireless phone operator, hasn’t yet managed to negotiate a deal to add Apple’s iPhone to its smartphone lineup. But that hasn’t dashed the company’s hopes of becoming a carrier for the iPad when it finally arrives in China.

Speaking at the annual shareholders meeting today, CEO Wang Jianzhou said the company has a keen interest in the iPad, suggesting that a distribution deal for the device may be a topic of discussion in talks China Mobile (CHL) claims to be having with Apple (AAPL) about developing a TD-SCDMA-capable iPhone.

It also suggests that China Mobile may be getting a bit desperate for Apple’s hardware now that a new version of the iPhone that supports both 3G and China’s homegrown WAPI wireless standard appears to be headed to China Unicom (CHU), Apple’s carrier partner in the country. This is, after all, the second time this spring we’ve heard about China Mobile “expressing interest” in the iPhone and iPad.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20100512/china-mobile-maybe-if-we-keep-talking-about-an-ipad-deal-it-will-come-true/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20100325/bing-gets-a-spring-revamp/ http://allthingsd.com/20100325/bing-gets-a-spring-revamp/#comments Thu, 25 Mar 2010 18:00:19 +0000 John Paczkowski http://digitaldaily.allthingsd.com/?p=37348

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20100325/bing-gets-a-spring-revamp/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20100322/palm-pre-plus-pixi-plus-to-go-head-to-head-against-iphone-on-att/ http://allthingsd.com/20100322/palm-pre-plus-pixi-plus-to-go-head-to-head-against-iphone-on-att/#comments Mon, 22 Mar 2010 15:04:54 +0000 John Paczkowski http://digitaldaily.allthingsd.com/?p=36981 Palm’s partnership with Verizon hasn’t done much to bolster flagging sales of the company’s smartphones. Perhaps they will fare a bit better with AT&T.

Or perhaps not.

Against the backdrop of the CTIA Wireless show in Las Vegas, Palm (PALM) this morning said AT&T is adding the Palm Pre Plus and Palm Pixi Plus to its handset lineup, an announcement expected since early January.

The two phones will be sold for $150 and $50 respectively, with a two-year contract and after an annoying $100 mail-in rebate. No word yet on availability. Palm says only that the devices are coming “soon.”

With today’s announcement, Palm’s devices will soon be available through three of the four major carriers in the U.S. Will this breadth of distribution be enough to keep the company afloat? Tough to say. As I noted earlier, the company’s relationship with Verizon (VZ) has not been as successful as Palm had hoped.

As CEO Jon Rubinstein noted during Palm’s last earnings call, Verizon was a bit too focused on new Android handsets like Droid to give the Pre and Pixi much of a marketing and sales push. In fact, to drive demand at Verizon and raise apparently limited customer awareness of Palm’s smartphones, the company sent out brand ambassadors to train Verizon’s sales staff.

Given the iPhone’s high profile on AT&T (T) and rumors that Apple (AAPL) is prepping a new iteration of the device for summer release, one wonders if Palm’s smartphones will be anything more than an afterthought for the carrier and its customers.

FURTHER READING:

• Palm: Pssst. Wanna Buy 1.15 Million Smartphones?
• Palm Pileup: Weak Smartphone Sales and a Gruesome Q4 Forecast
• Could Be Worse, Could Be Raining: Palm’s AT&T Launch Delayed?
• Could WebOS Licensing Be Palm’s Salvation?
• Palm’s Salvation? Less Push, More Pull.
• And if Palm’s Project JumpStart Doesn’t Work Out, There’s Always “Project Defibrillator”
• Double Face-Palm: Analysts React to Palm’s Lowered Guidance
• Time to Start Looking for a Buyer, Palm?
• 2010: Year of the Palm? Maybe Not…
• Analyst: Palm May Be Acquired in the Next Two Years

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20100322/palm-pre-plus-pixi-plus-to-go-head-to-head-against-iphone-on-att/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20100318/china-mobile-getting-desperate-for-an-iphone-ipad-deal/ http://allthingsd.com/20100318/china-mobile-getting-desperate-for-an-iphone-ipad-deal/#comments Thu, 18 Mar 2010 16:16:49 +0000 John Paczkowski http://digitaldaily.allthingsd.com/?p=36713 Four years after starting talks with Apple, China Mobile, China’s largest wireless phone operator, is still seeking to add the iPhone to its smartphone lineup. But these days, the company sounds a bit more optimistic about a deal. During a Thursday news conference, China Mobile CEO Wang Jianzhou said the carrier hopes to soon sell a version of the iPhone that supports its TDSCDMA (time division synchronous code division multiple access) network, as well as Apple’s iPad.

“We’re hoping we’ll come to an agreement on the iPhone as soon as possible,” Wang said. “We will continue to express our interest in the iPhone. But not just the iPhone, also the iPad.”

Of course, China Mobile (CHL) has been expressing interest in the iPhone for years now, with little to show for it. But perhaps the company is feeling a new sense of urgency now that rival China Unicom (CHU) and Apple (AAPL) are rumored to be discussing plans for a Wi-Fi-enabled version of the iPhone, something that was previously impossible because of a government regulation prohibiting the sale of Wi-Fi devices that don’t support China’s homegrown WAPI wireless standard.

As iPhonAsia.com’s Dan Butterfield recently noted in an interview with NeonPunch, “China Mobile is already suffering leakage of grey-market iPhone subscribers who are ‘upgrading’ to China Unicom’s faster WCDMA 3G network. Grey-market iPhone owners had heretofore been using their real (but illicitly obtained) iPhones on China Mobile’s EDGE 2G network. If the rumored (fourth gen) iPhone for China Unicom includes the WAPI/WiFi combo, this could greatly accelerate iPhone adoption and put pressure on China Mobile to respond with an iPhone offering of their own.”

[ Image Credit: NeonPunch]

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20100318/china-mobile-getting-desperate-for-an-iphone-ipad-deal/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20100308/china-mobile-hopes-to-sell-wifi-iphone-hopes-being-the-operative-word-here/ http://allthingsd.com/20100308/china-mobile-hopes-to-sell-wifi-iphone-hopes-being-the-operative-word-here/#comments Mon, 08 Mar 2010 17:53:26 +0000 John Paczkowski http://digitaldaily.allthingsd.com/?p=36304 A quick update on Apple’s relationship with China Unicom, the company’s carrier partner in China.

According to China Unicom Chairman Chang Xiaobing, the two companies are discussing plans to debut a Wi-Fi-enabled version of the iPhone, something they couldn’t do previously because of a government regulation prohibiting the sale of Wi-Fi devices that don’t support China’s Wired Authentication and Privacy Infrastructure wireless standard.

Evidently, Beijing has recently revised that regulation and now permits the sale of Wi-Fi phones in the country as long as they also support WAPI, and this change has reignited talks between the two companies.

“I know that in the market there is hope we will offer an iPhone with Wi-Fi,” Xiaobing told reporters attending the annual session of the National People’s Congress. “We have been holding talks with Apple in this area.”

Whether the talks go anywhere is another question. As Dan Butterfield observes at iPhonAsia, an iPhone that supports two different wireless standards would require Apple (AAPL) to customize the device for the Chinese market, something it has been loath to do in the past.

“It runs against Apple’s DNA to build a special model iPhone solely for one market…even if that market is China,” Butterfield writes.

“But,” adds Butterfield, “…never say never! The current model iPhone for China Unicom is already a special production run (no WiFi chip + many ‘for China’ apps preloaded). If China Unicom commits to a sufficiently large iPhone pre-purchase, then Apple may entertain the idea of a WAPI/WiFi iPhone.”

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20100308/china-mobile-hopes-to-sell-wifi-iphone-hopes-being-the-operative-word-here/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20100226/palm-jumpstart/ http://allthingsd.com/20100226/palm-jumpstart/#comments Fri, 26 Feb 2010 16:05:23 +0000 John Paczkowski http://digitaldaily.allthingsd.com/?p=35681

Will lousy brand awareness be Palm’s Waterloo? With weaker than expected launches of the Pre and Pixi at new carrier partner Verizon, it’s beginning to look like it.

Certainly, Palm’s leadership appears to believe that insufficient carrier support is largely to blame for its current woes. In an all-hands memo to employees yesterday (full text below), Palm CEO Jon Rubinstein said the company is taking some extraordinary measures to address unexpectedly weak sales for its handset lineup. To drive demand at Verizon and raise its customers’ apparently limited awareness of webOS, Palm (PALM) has initiated Project JumpStart, a sort of product evangelism outreach program.

“To accelerate sales, we initiated Project JumpStart nearly three weeks ago. Since then, nearly two hundred Palm Brand Ambassadors, supplemented by Palm employees from Sunnyvale, have been training Verizon (VZ) sales reps across the U.S. on our products. Early results from the stores have already shown improvement on product knowledge and sales week over week. You may have also seen a growing number of Palm ads on billboards, bus shelters, buses, and subway stations–all getting the word out about Palm.”

A wise move, particularly given reports that Verizon sales reps unfamiliar with Palm’s smartphones often opt to pitch more familiar devices like Motorola’s (MOT) Droid and RIM’s Blackberry to new customers. Additional in-store training should help drive sales volume, assuming Palm’s offerings are compelling and differentiated enough to withstand comparison with rival devices.

The question, of course: Are they? And while initial reviews of the Pre and webOS operating system suggested they were, it’s hard not to look at Palm’s current situation and conclude that they really might not be–particularly with new and impressive Android and Windows Phone 7 devices headed to market and Apple (AAPL) and Research in Motion (RIMM) both presumably working on refreshes of their iconic devices.

“Given the sizable discounts now prevalent on the Pixi, it now suggests that the real problems for the Pixi and the Pre go beyond insufficient carrier support and unfocused TV advertising campaigns,” CL King analyst Lawrence Harris observed in a research note to clients this morning. “Rather, consumers are not finding the Pixi a compelling product in an increasingly competitive smartphone market.”

If that’s truly the case, these Palm Brand Ambassadors the company is sending to Verizon (VZ) have their work cut out for them, at least at the moment. Sources close to Palm tell me the company plans to introduce at least one new smartphone this year. Perhaps that will be the device that drives demand and pushes the company back to profitability.

Team,

This morning we announced preliminary results for our 2010 third quarter. Since the quarter has not yet closed, it is too soon to offer exact numbers, but we stated that we expect to report revenues for Q3 between $300 and $320 million. We also announced that we expect our revenue for this fiscal year to fall below the guidance we gave to Wall Street, which ranged from $1.6 to $1.8 billion. As we mentioned in our press release, our softer than expected performance is due to slower than expected customer adoption of our products, which in turn has prompted our U.S. carrier partners to put additional orders on hold for the time being. On a positive note, we expect to exit the quarter with over $500 million in cash on our balance sheet. We’re scheduled to announce our full financial results in March.

I realize this news is difficult to swallow. We made this announcement today to prevent a surprise for Wall Street when we announce quarterly earnings in March. In the meantime, the entire executive team has been working extremely hard to improve product performance, and have implemented a number of initiatives to increase awareness and drive sales.

Dave Whalen and I just returned from a very successful meeting with Verizon Wireless, where they acknowledged that their execution of our launch was below expectations and recommitted to working with us to improve sales. To accelerate sales, we initiated Project JumpStart nearly three weeks ago. Since then, nearly two hundred Palm Brand Ambassadors, supplemented by Palm employees from Sunnyvale, have been training Verizon sales reps across the U.S. on our products. Early results from the stores have already shown improvement on product knowledge and sales week over week. You may have also seen a growing number of Palm ads on billboards, bus shelters, buses, and subway stations–all getting the word out about Palm.

All of these efforts are examples of how we are working to accelerate adoption and grow distribution of webOS. In the next few weeks, your management will work with you to make sure your priorities are laser-focused, primarily on helping to increase sales, improve product quality and differentiate the Palm product experience.

Our goals are taking longer than expected to achieve, but I am still confident that our talented team has what it takes to get the job done.

We’ll schedule an all-hands meeting after our earnings announcement in March, and I’ll be happy to answer your questions.

Go team!!!

jon

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20100226/palm-jumpstart/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20100219/summer-of-sprint-4g-smartphone-due-by-mid-year/ http://allthingsd.com/20100219/summer-of-sprint-4g-smartphone-due-by-mid-year/#comments Fri, 19 Feb 2010 19:05:14 +0000 John Paczkowski http://digitaldaily.allthingsd.com/?p=35239 Sprint has long needed an edge in the wireless market, and a few months from now it will finally get one: A smartphone designed to run on its 4G WiMax network (Clearwire) with data speeds up to 10 times faster than 3G. Originally expected at market in the second half of the year, the device is evidently now being prepped for launch in the first half.

No word yet on what sort of smartphone we’re talking about here, although the Supersonic, an Android device HTC is rumored to be building, seems like a good candidate. With Sprint’s 4G service currently available in only 27 U.S. markets, whatever device the company debuts will have to be dual mode 4G/3G, and it’s my understanding that the Supersonic fits that bill.

In any event, the acceleration of Sprint’s 4G phone strategy is exciting news for the carrier, which has a lot riding on it. As Sprint CEO Dan Hesse said during the company’s last earnings call, Sprint is looking to “make a lot of hay” with 4G.

“Internally we call 2010 the year of 4G,” Hesse said. “Its going to be the year that we’re the only game in town and it’s a combination of we need to get more markets turned up and we need to get a better device lineup and then we think we can really start to show some sizable progress in that regard.”

With rival Verizon (VZ) planning to go live with its own LTE-based 4G network later this year, he had better hope so.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20100219/summer-of-sprint-4g-smartphone-due-by-mid-year/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20100211/palm-otr/ http://allthingsd.com/20100211/palm-otr/#comments Thu, 11 Feb 2010 21:45:27 +0000 John Paczkowski http://digitaldaily.allthingsd.com/?p=34769 With a new distribution deal with Verizon (VZ) in hand and another with AT&T (T) in the works, Palm is about the last company you’d expect to shut down production of its entire smartphone lineup. Yet, that’s what it did. As OTR Global reported in a breathless alert this morning (see below), Palm manufacturing partners Foxconn and Compal have temporarily shut down production of the Pre, Pre Plus, Pixi and Pixi Plus.

But not for any worrisome reason, as the OTR note seemed to imply.

No, Palm handset production was shut down in observance of Chinese New Year. And, contrary to OTR, which suggested that production might not resume in March, production will indeed resume by March. In fact, sources close to the company say current plans call for it to resume near the end of this month.

Anyway, here’s Palm’s statement on the matter. Presumably, now that the statement has been issued, Palm (PALM) shares will recover some of the losses they suffered earlier today because of OTR’s note. But Palm shorts, I’m sure, had a field day with this one.

“Palm regularly adjusts its product manufacturing levels to manage inventory,” the company said in a statement sent to Digital Daily. “In anticipation of the Verizon Wireless launch and Chinese New Year, we increased production levels prior to February, and anticipate ramping production back up after the Chinese New Year ends.”

Palm Inc. Alert
Palm Orders Production Halt of Pre and Pre+ in February
February 11, 2010
PALM, S, VZ, 2038 HK, 8078 TT
Sources: 3 sources Taiwan handset component supply chain (all repeats)
Key sources in the Taiwan handset supply chain said Palm Inc. has ordered assembler Foxconn International Holdings Co. Ltd. to suspend production of both the Pre and Pre+ in February. “The decision is very sudden, and Foxconn was told to reduce all February Pre forecast to zero on Wednesday and nobody knows whether shipment will resume in March,” said a key source. The source said the CDMA2000 Pre to Sprint and the CDMA2000 Pre+ to Verizon were affected.
Pixi Production Suspended Too?
One source said Palm also told Compal Communications Inc. to suspend shipment of the Pixi and Pixi+ in February, while another source said that production is still going ahead with the Pixi+ to Verizon, but actual delivery in February will amount to less than 5,000 units.
Reporter: Van Tran
Editor: Hartmut Leuschner

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20100211/palm-otr/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20100108/rbc-on-palm-2010/ http://allthingsd.com/20100108/rbc-on-palm-2010/#comments Fri, 08 Jan 2010 16:28:07 +0000 John Paczkowski http://digitaldaily.allthingsd.com/?p=31945 For Palm, the coming year won’t be an easy one. The company is still in hairy financial straits after posting an $85.4 million loss in its last quarter, and there’s much to be done to reinvigorate its brand, especially as competition in the…[sigh]…“superphone” market continues to heat up thanks to Apple (AAPL) and Google (GOOG).

But according to RBC Capital Markets analyst Mike Abramsky, Palm (PALM) is coming around and 2010 will be an inflection point for the company, which will thrive as it enlists more carriers worldwide to expand its installed base–carriers like Verizon (VZ) and France’s SFR, which both announced the addition of the Palm Pre Plus and Pixi Plus to their handset lineups at the Consumer Electronics Show yesterday.

AT&T (T) will be joining Verizon and SFR, although Palm seems to be a bit coy about this officially).

“Palm’s growing global distribution and developer momentum are a clear signal to us of Palm’s unique strengths and differentiation amidst competition, and bodes well for future Smartphone leadership,” Abramsky wrote in a note to clients today.

“While addressing awareness challenges,” the analyst added, these “significant carrier agreements and innovations are clear signposts towards Palm’s successful turnaround–which in our view investors should not dismiss.”

So, even though Palm’s share of the global smartphone market fell to 1.4 percent in the third quarter from 2.7 percent a year earlier, things are looking up. “While addressing near-term turnaround challenges (e.g. awareness), we foresee further upside for the shares as Palm’s product portfolio broadens, its install base expands, it gains scale and momentum–and investor concerns dissipate,” Abramsky concludes.

And if things shouldn’t quite pan out that way, Abramsky notes, there’s always this: “Palm also remains an attractive acquisition candidate.”

PREVIOUSLY:

• Palm’s Biggest Problem: Sprint
• Palm Disappoints
• Palm Posts Loss, Announces Stock Offering
• Analyst: Palm’s Special Sauce Is Finger Lickin’ Good
• Palm: The Turnaround Story of the Year
• Pre Makes Palm a New Man in Only Minutes a Day
• Palm: Execution Is Everything

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