Why? Do they expect the tablet to be Wi-Fi-only like the iPod touch? That would certainly make things a lot easier for the carriers.

No. Most analysts I spoke to said the probability that Apple’s new offering will support mobile broadband is quite high. “I can’t imagine it not having it,” Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster told me.

There are other good reasons not to fear the tablet as a bandwidth hog. First, the device will presumably rely heavily on Wi-Fi to off-load wireless traffic onto the wireline network, the assumption being that it will be used most often in locations with Wi-Fi access–homes, schools, libraries, cafes and whatnot. Moreover, a mobile broadband plan will likely be optional.

Second, despite all the hype and hoopla, initial unit sales of an Apple (AAPL) tablet are likely to be too low to have much of an impact.

As Munster told me: “…turn the clock back and look at the iPhone and the first year Apple sold 5.5 million units in the US and the ASP was $475. At that time there were no issues with AT&T’s network. The issues began occurring last year, right around the time we saw the hockey stick in iPhone adoption.”

Regarding the tablet, Munster says, “If this device is $800-$1000, I think adoption is going to be much lower than the hype would lead you to believe. So the bottom like is this: on a per-unit basis it might put a lot of stress on the network, but there will be too few of them on the street to collectively have a real negative impact.”

Presumably, that will give the carrier, whatever company that may be, time to build out in anticipation of increased adoption. A good thing, since a tablet may well pose unique network challenges, particularly if it is used as a streaming video viewer, says Sanford C. Bernstein analyst Craig Moffett.

“Streaming video is uniquely demanding traffic, as it is both bandwidth intensive AND latency sensitive,” Moffett explained. “That’s a recipe for disaster. For that reason, it’s unlikely that carriers would invite that type of usage. A large screen tablet would likely rely heavily on download-to-watch-later to sidestep the latency problem, and would almost certainly provide incentives to shift the most bandwidth-intensive applications to the wired network via Wi-Fi.”

But that’s a future scenario. “I don’t see this as a device that will in the next 12 months inspire people to save their money to buy it, the way they have with the iPhone,” says Munster, who sees Apple selling about 1.4 million tablets in calendar year 2010, assuming it ships in March.

“Certainly, it will take off in due time–this is the future of publishing,” Munster concludes, “but it takes 2-3 years for these things to really get going.”

PREVIOUSLY:

• Apple Announces Jan. 27 Special Event: “Come See Our Latest Creation”
• Major Apple Product Announcement Set for Wednesday, Jan. 27
• Apple Pitching Tablet to Publishing Industry; Spring Launch Expected
• Time (Finally) for the Tablet? Apple Developers Supersizing Their Apps for January Event.
• The Apple Tablet Is Delayed? So What?
• $1.9 Billion in Capex? What’s Apple Planning?
• Apple’s Tablet: Read Different?
• Imaginary Demand for Mythical Apple Tablet Exceeds All Estimates
• Apple Tablet Coming to AT&T?
• New From Piper Jaffray Analyst Gene Munster: The Apple iPad
• Rumored Apple Netbook Actually an E-Book?
• iTablet: Apple’s Killer App for Higher Ed
• iFugly

International Business Machines Corp. (IBM) is now almost alone in the market for mainframes: high-end computers that run everything from Amtrak’s reservation system to benefits payments for the Social Security Administration. Market-researcher IDC estimated that in 2008 mainframes accounted for 9.9 percent of the world-wide $53 billion server market.

Toni Sacconaghi, an analyst for Sanford C. Bernstein, estimates that IBM’s direct revenue from sales of its System Z mainframes was about $3.5 billion, or less than 4 percent, of its $103.6 billion in2008 revenue.

Read the rest of this post on the original site

And that may well be the case. IBM (IBM) was reportedly offering $9.40 a share for Sun (JAVA), nearly double Sun’s share price before investors caught wind of talks between the two companies. Seems a good price for Sun given its current situation. Certainly, there are no other offers on the horizon. Nor are there likely to be. “Others have already passed over Sun–given that, we’re unsure who would step up to the plate,” Edward Jones analyst Bill Kreher told Bloomberg. “We are unsure if the company can execute a successful turnaround on its own. Their future is very uncertain.” Toni Sacconaghi, an analyst with Sanford C. Bernstein, agreed. “A collapse in the talks has considerably weakened Sun’s hand, as we see no other likely suitors,” he said in a research note.

If that’s the case and discussions with IBM are truly finished–and there’s a chance that they might not be–Sun could be left facing some unpleasant options. “Sun will have to take alternatives by either splitting up or downsizing,” said George Weiss, a Sun analyst at Gartner. “Sun still has several options, since there are parts of the company that could bring value to one or several companies on the market. But those companies probably won’t want to acquire Sun as an entire entity.”

And that may well be the case. IBM (IBM) was reportedly offering $9.40 a share for Sun (JAVA), nearly double Sun’s share price before investors caught wind of talks between the two companies. Seems a good price for Sun given its current situation. Certainly, there are no other offers on the horizon. Nor are there likely to be. “Others have already passed over Sun–given that, we’re unsure who would step up to the plate,” Edward Jones analyst Bill Kreher told Bloomberg. “We are unsure if the company can execute a successful turnaround on its own. Their future is very uncertain.” Toni Sacconaghi, an analyst with Sanford C. Bernstein, agreed. “A collapse in the talks has considerably weakened Sun’s hand, as we see no other likely suitors,” he said in a research note.

If that’s the case and discussions with IBM are truly finished–and there’s a chance that they might not be–Sun could be left facing some unpleasant options. “Sun will have to take alternatives by either splitting up or downsizing,” said George Weiss, a Sun analyst at Gartner. “Sun still has several options, since there are parts of the company that could bring value to one or several companies on the market. But those companies probably won’t want to acquire Sun as an entire entity.”

BoomTown hates to miss any possible opportunity to reference a Charlton Heston movie and, thus, was struck by a report by a Wall Street analyst that Google (GOOG) and Amazon (AMZN) will be the sole survivors of the most recent digital age.

Sanford C. Bernstein analyst Jeffrey Lindsay said as much in a 310-page report, “U.S. Internet: The End of the Beginning” he penned, noting that only the search giant and the e-commerce pioneer had legs.

Yahoo (YHOO)? Acquired by Microsoft (MSFT).

IAC (IACI)? Split up into five too-teeny, ineffective parts.

And eBay (EBAY)? Acquisition bait for a “Microsoft-like suitor,” if it cannot goose the growth in its key auction business.

While BoomTown loves a good predictions piece as much the next blogger, the report’s conclusions feel like it has a bit of a backward-looking tone.

That’s because who knows what tomorrow brings, in a world few geeks survive.

Oops, now I am channeling the love song “Up Where We Belong” from “An Officer and a Gentleman,” and that can’t be good.

Suffice it to say, there is a new company you’ve never heard of–that might not even exist yet–and that’s the one everyone really needs to be scared of.

But not scarier than this video in anime and with guns inexplicably blazing, using the Joe Cocker/Jennifer Warnes song–though BoomTown definitely likes it–here: