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Ready to Rumble or Make Nice? Activist Shareholder Daniel Loeb Could Strike Sooner Than Yahoo Thinks.

Kara Swisher — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 18:14:38 +0000

For someone who is still mulling things over about what to do about his more than five percent investment in Yahoo, hedge fund investor and activist shareholder Daniel Loeb has been very busy lately getting his arsenal ready.

While deciding whether to mount a proxy fight — a potentially nasty public fight with the Silicon Valley Internet giant that sources said could start much earlier than the expected February 24 filing date to make a board challenge — he’s also had at least one phone meeting with new Yahoo CEO Scott Thompson in the last week to talk about the company’s future.

Sources said the talk was cordial, although the pair were not yet discussing any kind of rapprochement, which presumably could lead to board seats for Loeb.

But how far Loeb will go and how far Yahoo will give are the big open questions that are about to be answered.

The earliest nominations for directors by outsiders like Loeb can be submitted is February 24. He then has a month after that to propose a competing slate.

Starting last fall when he started accumulating Yahoo shares, Loeb had aggressively called for the ouster of Yahoo’s Chairman Roy Bostock and director and co-founder Jerry Yang. Yang stepped away from Yahoo earlier this month and Bostock just announced his upcoming departure this week.

Despite the renewed communication with Yahoo, Loeb is still acting like he might opt to fight — or at least freak out Yahoo enough to cooperate.

Among his recent activities, according to many sources:

* Attempting to assemble an alternate slate of directors — including trying to persuade high-profile entrepreneurs such as David Goldberg and Max Levchin to join his board. Loeb has been to Silicon Valley several times to stir that pot.

* Meeting with a spate of powerful tech execs, here and elsewhere, in order to gain support for his battle and search for his own preferred leaders for Yahoo. A favorite is Hulu CEO Jason Kilar.

* Working on hiring a top outside crisis communications firm to handle the expected onslaught of media mudslinging that is sure to take place.

* Buttonholing large Yahoo investors to join him and getting, sources said, more support than expected from bigger ones. That’s no surprise: Capital Research Global Investors and Capital World Investors, Yahoo’s biggest institutional shareholders, voted against the company’s board in its last proxy battle and has been much disgruntled with the latest Yahoo stumbles.

* Recently reaching out to top Yahoo execs, including both Yahoo’s Chief Product Officer Blake Irving and Americas head Ross Levinsohn. Irving was so spooked by Loeb’s hello-there, several sources said, that he sent an email to Yahoo’s top staff about the contact attempt, noting he did not return the call (teacher’s pet alert!).

These are, of course, classic activist tactics by Loeb, aimed at getting the changes he wants made at Yahoo by applying real and perceived pressure.

Loeb had previously criticized the company’s talks with private equity investors, saying the prices being discussed were too low, which helped scuttle those talks.

Yahoo has also tried to gird itself and to assuage other shareholders and the media, as it can hardly stand what a proxy fight will do to its already battered image.

Some recent moves to look like it is on the move include: Loudly negotiating with its Asian partners for a big payday; making significant board changes; and hiring Thompson. Next up, as I previously reported, a large-scale restructuring and the inevitable cost-saving layoffs.

Who wins — and who blinks — in this Loeb versus Yahoo face-off, though, is still to be determined.

Can’t Buy Me Love … But You Can Buy Me Gadgets

Lauren Goode — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 20:54:58 +0000

When Valentine’s Day rolls around, some people think roses, chocolate, Words With Friends by candlelight and Forza Motorsport 4 marathons.

Others think (non-iPad) tablets and daily deals.

According to new consumer data from PriceGrabber.com, topping the list of electronically-oriented Valentine’s Day gifts purchased over the past couple days are the HP Slate 500 tablet — remember that one? — and the Asus Eee Pad Transformer TF 101 tablet. The results, which will be released in full later today, are based on merchant referrals through PriceGrabber, a Kayak-like, Experian-owned site for comparative shopping.

Also in PriceGrabber’s Valentine’s Top 3: A 55-inch 3-D LED TV from Samsung; with a price range of $1,995 to $3,528, this love offering is probably best for someone you’re truly committed to.

This latest report only factors in purchases made on Monday and Tuesday of this week. Over the weekend, Apple’s 64 gigabyte iPhone 4S was one of the most popular purchases, alongside that big Samsung TV.

The shopping survey also indicates that the daily deals sector might get some love this year, with 42 percent of shoppers saying they plan to use an offer from Groupon or LivingSocial for purchasing gifts.

In my own inbox, I’ve gotten some pretty interesting deal offers over the past few weeks — including (but not limited to) his-and-hers massages, half-off flower bouquets, and a “bargain”-priced private dinner at Le Cirque (no sign yet of last year’s shooting-range deal for Valentine’s Day).

Despite the lean toward coupons — and in spite lingering economic woes — the majority of U.S. consumers plan to spend the same amount on this Valentine’s Day as they did last Feb. 14, according to PriceGrabber’s report.

(Image credit: Harle/Flickr)

Four Yahoo Board Members to Depart, Two New Ones Arrive and Three More on the Way (Like I Said)

Kara Swisher — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 20:38:25 +0000

According to sources close to the situation, Yahoo will announce the impending departure of four of its longtime board members, including chairman Roy Bostock.

The others headed out the door are Hewlett-Packard exec Vyomesh Joshi, Gary Wilson and Arthur Kern.

I had reported in several previous posts that this exact group of directors was leaving, and noted in one yesterday that it was about to happen, and that new board members were also on the way.

And, presto, it is so!

(Update: Yahoo confirmed all in a letter it just released from Bostock, which I have posted separately.)

Yahoo’s two new directors are former Rovi CEO Fred Amoroso and LiveOps Chairman (and former CEO) Maynard Webb, who was once COO of eBay (pictured, left to right).

Rovi does digital entertainment technology, while LiveOps offers cloud-based enterprise solutions.

The Silicon Valley Internet giant will also be adding three more board members, said sources, but those people are not confirmed as yet.

And it is not clear who will be chairman of Yahoo’s board, either. Intuit CEO Brad Smith has a full-time job, and the newly installed Weather Channel CEO David Kenny does, too.

Sources said the news is coming after the markets close, with other updates, including: The news-free status of its ongoing strategery (the Asian deal is coming along — blah, blah, blah — but you read that here yesterday in much more detail); ladling praise on new CEO Scott Thompson (also formerly of eBay); and giving props to co-founder Jerry Yang, who stepped away from the board and from the company several weeks ago.

The moves by Yahoo are designed to thwart a possible proxy fight that might be coming from activist shareholder Daniel Loeb, who has been working on a board slate of his own.

It’s been hard for him, and also for Yahoo, to attract significant names to the board. The two new additions are solid tech execs, although certainly not high-profile appointments.

Yahoo declined to comment.

Here are their bios from the Rovi and LiveOps Web sites, if you want to know more:

Fred Amoroso is a member of Rovi Corporation’s Board of Directors.

Fred Amoroso is a member of Rovi Corporation’s Board of Directors. Fred Amoroso previously served as Rovi’s president and chief executive officer from July 2005 to December 2011. Prior to joining Rovi, Mr. Amoroso served as an advisor to Warburg Pincus, an investment firm from September 2004 to June 2005. From July 2002 to August 2004, Mr. Amoroso served as the president, chief executive officer and vice chairman of Meta Group, an information technology research and advisory firm. From October 1999 until its merger with IBM in January 2002, Mr. Amoroso served as president, chief executive officer and a director of CrossWorlds Software, Inc. Prior to CrossWorlds, Amoroso was a member of the world-wide management committee of IBM, was general manager of IBM Global Services Asia Pacific and held various other executive positions at IBM. Before joining IBM, Amoroso held various positions at Price Waterhouse, now PricewaterhouseCoopers, including lead technology partner.

Mr. Amoroso holds a B.S. in systems engineering and M.S. in operations research from Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn.

As Chairman, Maynard brings almost 30 years of experience developing and leading high-growth companies to his role at LiveOps. From December 20, 2006 to July 18, 2011, Maynard was also LiveOps CEO. He joined LiveOps from eBay where he served as Chief Operating Officer. At eBay, Maynard directed engineering and technology operations, product development, customer support, trust and safety, global billing, human resources, and legal functions. Prior to eBay, Maynard was Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer for Gateway, Inc. He has also held management and leadership positions at Bay Networks, Quantum Corporation, Thomas-Conrad Corporation and IBM. A respected member of the Silicon Valley technology community, Maynard sits on the boards of several successful companies, including Salesforce.com, Admob and Baynote. Maynard holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Florida Atlantic University.

Yahapocalypse Now? Q4 Results, Proxy Fight, Board Hijinks and Asia Solution Combine for Busy Month for Yahoo.

Kara Swisher — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 21:12:44 +0000

If you thought things were going to quiet down with Yahoo now that it has installed new CEO Scott Thompson in place, think again!

That’s because of a very unusual — well, to be fair, unusual for most companies, but not for perpetually storm-tossed Yahoo — confluence of important events about to take place all at once over the next six weeks.

And, like a very dicey game of corporate Jenga, each has the ability to upend and impact the other significantly, either for the good or, well, for the bad.

Here are the four horsemen of the possible Yahapocalypse, all riding into town very soon:

Q4 Results: Yahoo will report its fourth quarter earnings on January 24th, after the markets close. While sources said the company has managed to turn around what was looking like a first-class disaster, it’s still not going to be a pretty picture when it comes to advertising growth, consumer engagement and other key metrics.

Simply put, Yahoo needs to show investors a fast-growing business. Instead, sources said the Q4 results will likely come in at the bottom of the expected range, which should be unimpressive, even though this has been business as usual at Yahoo for some time.

If Google and others have strong reports, of course, it will make the situation worse.

Along with goosing its ad business again, Yahoo needs to spur innovation and intro some cool new products in new arenas to make Silicon Valley and others perk up.

Proxy Fight?: Weak results will give a nice lift to potential efforts by activist investor Daniel Loeb of Third Point — a major Yahoo shareholder — to wage a proxy fight for control of the company. He’s already here in Silicon Valley this week searching for possible board members for an alternate slate of directors.

As I wrote earlier today, the earliest nominations for directors can be submitted is February 24. Loeb then has a month after that to submit a competing roster.

Worse for Yahoo, many of Yahoo’s major investors are mulling backing Loeb if he initiates a battle for control of the company.

There’s no doubt that Loeb is and means to be a thorn in Yahoo’s side — he already made a lot of noise about its consideration of partial investments from private equity firms, due to low share prices — until major changes take place at the company.

And by major, Loeb’s intent seems to be along these baseball lines: Throw the bums out!

Board in Flux: Speaking of the board, it’s not the pretty picture of solidarity as you might think.

Actually, no one in their right mind thinks that. This board is about as dysfunctional as they come. (It’s like that group on “American Horror Story,” minus the bald dwarf in the basement.)

Right now, several sources report, various factions are jockeying over which board members go and which stay. The Wall Street Journal reported last week on a formal search for new board members to replace outgoing ones, but it’s much more complex than just that.

While some departures seem most obvious — longtime board members Vyomesh Joshi, Arthur Kern and Gary Wilson — the really interesting part will be the possible exit of Chairman Roy Bostock.

While it now is more of a when rather than an if, many sources report, how it goes down is the key part of the move. And who will be the chairman then will be the big conundrum — either an internal candidate, such as David Kenny, or a fresh-eyed outsider.

Another question mark: Whether co-founder Jerry Yang could also move along off the board with Bostock. While Internet company founders usually stick on boards, it’s not a given, especially with all the turmoil at Yahoo, some of which is related to Yang.

For now, make no mistake, Bostock is still in charge of the board and Yang is the only real power behind that power, despite the recent influence of director Brad Smith.

But, with all the pressure by shareholders, some sources suggest that it might finally be time for some significant change at the board level, starting with the pair most associated with all its troubles.

Or, um, not.

If there is going to be any action at all, expect it before February 24th — when Loeb can start making real trouble.

Asian Solution: A lot of the above hinges on whether Bostock and Yang can deliver the promise of a deal with its long disgruntled Asian partners, Alibaba Group and SoftBank.

The trio is now engaged on negotiations about a tax-free deal, in which Yahoo would sell back some of its stakes in its Asian properties and get money and other operating assets in return.

While it’s good news that the talks are finally proceeding with some level of normal functionality, it’s still a complex situation and one with a lot of outstanding questions.

Most important: Which operating assets will be bought in the deal to hand over to Yahoo? And also, what will the valuations be?

Sources close to the situation said that the talks remain slow-going and frustrating — “The stop-and-go of all time,” joked one person involved. But they are moving forward, which is no small thing when it comes to these three.

That’s critical for Yahoo, which can ill afford to disappoint shareholders if no lucrative, cash-rich deal happens in Asia. And, it needs to happen before Loeb can act on a proxy fight too, since a successful end to its Asian issues will negate his momentum dramatically.

Oh Yeah, Running the Core Business Stuff: As usual, a full and fraught month for Yahoo and its directors, who have other things to do, I assume.

But not me and not new CEO Thompson. By the way, the former eBay exec will presumably be very busy doing some significant rejiggering of the core Yahoo business in the meantime.

Could that mean a new product direction for Yahoo, for example, around data? Could it mean a passel of new execs? Could it mean layoffs?

Or, could it mean Thompson will finally solve the ultimate sword-in-the-stone question: What is Yahoo?

And that, in the end, will be the real victory.

Come West, Daniel Loeb: A Silicon Valley Visit As Yahoo's Activist Shareholder Mulls Proxy Fight

Kara Swisher — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 18:21:36 +0000

When you own a large chunk of a major Silicon Valley Internet company, it’s probably not a surprise that you want to come to the center of the tech world to have a look around.

But Yahoo — of which Third Point’s Daniel Loeb owns over five percent — is unlikely to get a visit from the activist shareholder, who is in California this week.

Several sources said he has contacted many former Yahoos and other tech execs for meetings in the Internet heartland to chitchat about digital issues.

And, of course, search for possible board members for an alternate slate of directors, in case he decides to wage a proxy fight against Yahoo.

The earliest nominations for directors can be submitted is February 24 for those “shareholder proposals not intended for inclusion in proxy materials and for nomination of director candidates,” according to Yahoo’s corporate bylaws on such matters.

Loeb then has a month after that to submit a competing slate. In addition, many of Yahoo’s major investors are mulling backing Loeb if he initiates a battle for control of the company.

But it’s not a definite move as yet. The New York-based investor has not decided whether he will take on a proxy fight, sources said, given he has yet to assess Yahoo’s new CEO, former eBay exec Scott Thompson.

Thompson was president of the online commerce site’s PayPal payments division.

But while there is a formal process, you will hear a lot of noise coming long before that, unless Yahoo gives Loeb board seats to quiet him down — which is unlikely but possible.

Such an ugly fight is not one Yahoo can afford to have, and it has already shown some cloddish sensibilities in its response to a recent letters by Loeb asking for the ouster of its Chairman Roy Bostock and co-founder and director Jerry Yang.

But given how badly the last Yahoo shareholder tussle with Carl Icahn went, another proxy battle could be deadly, and might drag on through the first half of 2012. In his Yahoo tussle, Icahn ultimately got three seats on the Yahoo board, but eventually went away with everyone the poorer.

And no one wants a replay of that.

For Yahoo (And Me, Too), Time Is Brain

Kara Swisher — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 22:38:45 +0000

I hate to use a personal story to make a professional point — but when I was in the hospital recently, after suffering from a mini-stroke, I got an important piece of health advice that, oddly enough, applies perfectly to Yahoo, the Silicon Valley Internet icon I cover very closely.

I know, I know, but listen up …

When I was close to going home, one of my doctors told me I had to make sure I paid attention to any signs that might indicate a recurrence. The issue around any possible future ischemic attack taking place, he said, is speed in getting critical care once any unusual symptoms become apparent, such as numbness, tingling, confusion and cognitive difficulty.

That’s because every second of delay translates to increased damage to cerebral cells that could badly impact speech, movement and worse.

“Remember,” the doctor intoned with great and very appropriate gravity. “Time is brain.”

Yes, indeed it is — for me, and also very much so for Yahoo these days.

Leaving aside my own mortality, one of the most important issues going forward for Yahoo’s long-hoped-for revival will be how quickly the company moves in the next month, in what has so far been a lugubrious and rumor-heavy process to figure out its strategic plan in the wake of the firing of CEO Carol Bartz in early September.

That means — going into a major holiday season — Yahoo has about 30 working days to make what has to be a complex and multiparty deal. It is likely to include private equity firms, big companies, Asian partners, investment bankers, major shareholders and scrutiny from the media, in an effort that is approximately akin to herding cats.

This from a board that has often moved with snail-like reflexes in the midst of much more minors crises, and has shown a talent for disaster.

So, while speed is sometimes the enemy of reason, in this case, it is now more necessary than ever before.

There are three key reasons why Yahoo’s leaders have to perform quickly now, each of which could spell even more turmoil for the long-troubled company, if botched.

The first is the possibility — actually, the probability — of a proxy fight that might begin informally just after the new year.

That’s when you could start hearing from someone like activist shareholder Daniel Loeb of Third Point — who has been vocal about ousting Yahoo board members, including co-founder Jerry Yang. Yahoo directors are fully aware that he is eyeing this ugly option, which will include readying an alternate slate of directors.

According to a Yahoo spokeswoman, the earliest nominations for directors can be submitted is February 24 for those “shareholder proposals not intended for inclusion in proxy materials and for nomination of director candidates.”

But while there is a formal process, you will hear it coming long before that, unless Yahoo gives Loeb board seats to quiet him down — which is unlikely but possible.

Such a noisy fight is not one Yahoo can afford to have, and it has already shown some cloddish sensibilities in its response to a recent letter by Loeb — who has many more shares than Yang, and should still be accorded a certain amount of respect, no matter what he says.

Given how badly the last Yahoo shareholder tussle with Carl Icahn went, another proxy battle could be deadly, and might drag on through the first half of 2012. In his Yahoo tussle, Icahn ultimately got three seats on the Yahoo board, but eventually went away with everyone the poorer.

Second, Yahoo will report its fourth-quarter earnings in late January, which will likely continue to show weakness in key sectors of its business. While interim CEO Tim Morse is doing a laudable job given the shaky circumstances, drops in advertising revenue growth, engagement and search are not anything Yahoo can keep making excuses for.

While it is likely the company’s beleaguered operating execs will pull out the stops to make the numbers look better — a new game I like to play is “how many homepage ads can they jam in there at the quarter’s end?” — it’s no panacea for the kinds of dramatic and even drastic changes that new ownership will have to make, sooner than later.

And, speaking of beleaguered, perhaps the most important reason that Yahoo has to get the lead out and clarify its situation is due to one consistent thing about the company: Talent attrition and employee fatigue.

Speaking to one exec after another in recent weeks, it is dead clear that Yahoo is increasingly hard-pressed to hold on to the best of its current employees, or to attract any terrific new ones.

The impact on product innovation, morale and more is obvious.

One exec who has long been one of the more cheerleader types for Yahoo — often calling me out in the past for being too negative on the company’s prospects — has recently turned weary, cynical and even depressed about the future — so much so that I now find myself bucking up the worker.

“You can’t hire anyone, since you can’t tell them honestly who their bosses might be in three months,” said the staffer. “And you can’t look anyone who works for you now in the eye and tell them it will turn out right in the end, either, given the track record so far.”

Indeed. And, more than any other factor that could hurt Yahoo in the competitive tech sector, brain drain is what will always get you in the end.

Exclusive: MSN U.S. Head Scott Moore to Depart Portal

Kara Swisher — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 09:51:53 +0000

Scott Moore, who runs the U.S. arm of Microsoft’s MSN portal, will depart the company, according to sources.

The well-known content exec is reportedly headed to another job, sources said.

Moore has worked at Microsoft twice in this career — first as publisher of its Slate online magazine. He came back to the software giant in early 2009, after a stint at Yahoo running its media operations.

At MSN, he was U.S. executive producer, responsible for leading the content and programming strategy for the service. Some of his most prominent initiatives were several innovative sites with Hollywood producers BermanBraun, as well as a rehaul of MSN in 2009.

What Microsoft does next with its portal business is a big question, of course, as it has aimed all its firepower — and gigantic piles of money — at its Bing search service. Thus, MSN, while one of the more highly trafficked sites on the Web, has often taken a back seat.

As Yahoo Board Meets Tomorrow, Investors Ready Thumbscrews

Kara Swisher — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 23:56:55 +0000

The Yahoo board will be meeting in Silicon Valley tomorrow to discuss a wide range of worrisome issues facing the troubled Internet giant.

Meanwhile, several sources said, even more private equity investors are weighing making major investments in the company, all pretty much aimed at ousting said directors.

So far, that has only been Third Point’s Daniel Loeb, whose massive hedge fund now owns 5.1 percent of Yahoo.

Loeb appears tomorrow at the high-profile Delivering Alpha investor conference in New York at 2 pm PT, where he is expected to take another swing at Yahoo’s board.

His next moves, sources said, could include buying up more shares to put the pressure on and also presenting his own alternate slate of directors, much as activist investor Carl Icahn did several years ago at Yahoo.

Translation: Forget AOL’s CrunchGate — this is big-boy corporate battling!

Add that to the pile on Yahoo’s board meeting agenda, along with some other critical issues that include: Outlining the criteria for any CEO candidate and a discussion of headhunting firms to hire; a review of strategic alternatives, including a presentation by its investment advisors, Allen & Co.; and how to stabilize the company and reassure its dusting-off-their-resumes employees.

Finding answers to these questions is going to be difficult enough, but the ever increasing pressure from outside investors is going to make it even harder.

Some definite tire-kickers reportedly looking at a bid include Providence Equity Partners, Silver Lake, Blackstone, Texas Pacific Group and even KKR.

While KKR has reportedly close ties with Yahoo Chairman Roy Bostock, he is now the main target for pretty much everyone else.

That includes Loeb, as well as other major Yahoo shareholders.

That’s no surprise: Bostock, who is also on the boards of Morgan Stanley and Delta Airlines, has presided over a series of gaffes at Yahoo since he became chairman in 2008 (he’s been on the board since 2003).

Those have included: Yahoo’s bungled effort to stave off a takeover by Microsoft several years ago; the too-long enthusiasm for CEO Carol Bartz, who was hired in early 2009 and fired last week; sitting unusually still as competitors such as Facebook, Google and more have out-innovated and outgrown Yahoo; and, of course, the falling knife of a stock, which has dropped precipitously since Bostock has been in charge of the board.

As Loeb wrote in a letter he sent to the company:

“It is time that certain members of this Board were held accountable for its past failures and their individual roles. Accordingly, we insist that Mr. Bostock, who championed Ms. Bartz’s hiring and led the charge against the Microsoft deal, promptly resign from the Board.”

Said another source with knowledge of the situation: “Under Roy’s leadership, this weak and bumbling board took too long to fire a clearly failing CEO and now has no plan, except throwing up their hands and hoping someone comes along.”

Here is one certainty: Someone is going to come along and it is not going to be pretty.

Jack Shafer on the Media Beat

Voices — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 05:00:41 +0000

Sure there’s a future. Slate only laid off a few in what is a publication recession. If the car makers laid off an equal percentage, would we ask if the car industry had a future?

– Jack Shafer, who was laid off from his job as Slate’s media critic last week, during a Poynter.org career chat

Screen Industry Success Is a Touching Story

John Paczkowski — Thu, 30 Dec 2010 11:37:37 +0000

Here’s a truism: 2010 was a banner year for the touchscreen industry.

Driven by the steady proliferation of multitouch smartphones and tablets–one in particular–the worldwide touchscreen industry will probably see 30 percent year-over-year growth in 2010 by the time the year is over. So says NPD DisplaySearch, which figures suppliers shipped 6.3 million tablet/mini-note touchscreens in the first half of 2010 and more than 20 million in the second half. Quite the upward trend and one that we’ll almost certainly see continue next year as the iPad juggernaut rolls on, more Android tablets arrive at market and consumer and enterprise demand for all of them grows. Wintek and TPK Touch Solutions have a lot to look forward to next year.

Multitouch Pioneer Jeff Han Starts to Think Small (Devices)

Ina Fried — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 14:00:35 +0000

For years now, Jeff Han has been working on large-screen multitouch displays.

Han and his company, Perceptive Pixel, are best known for creating the giant touch wall that John King and others at CNN use to break down elections.

While Apple, Microsoft and others have targeted consumers, Perceptive Pixel has focused on niche professional markets, especially the defense and government sector.

But, after years of watching the small touchscreen device market from the sidelines, Han said he thinks he is pretty close to creating his first products that will run on those devices.

“Mobile is interesting,” he said in an interview last month at his New York offices (in the Manhattan building that Google is buying, with the amazing roof view seen below). “How can you ignore a billion devices being sold every year?”

Han said there is a reason he has stayed focused on the high end of the market.

“I have a personal bias,” he told Mobilized. “I want computers to be functional, not just playful.”

The modern tablet, he said, is the first consumer device that has enough pixels and the precision sensors to potentially be of interest to Perceptive Pixel. In particular, Han said he is intrigued by the idea of using tablets to allow meeting participants to interact with a nearby larger touchscreen that might be in use by someone leading a meeting.

“We’re looking at mobile and slate devices as a way to tie into this family of collaboration [products],” he said, noting that’s where Perceptive Pixel is spending its energy when it comes to mobile, as opposed to coming up with some killer app that works only on smaller screens. “There are a lot of smart people creating mobile apps.”

Han said his first mobile efforts should come out early next year–in the first quarter or early in the second quarter, though he wouldn’t give more specifics.

Whatever Perceptive Pixel ends up doing in the tablet space, Han said his plan is to eventually have it support multiple operating systems, though Han said the company will probably only qualify certain devices. So far, he said, Apple’s iOS and the iPad seem best suited to the applications he has in mind, while the real-time touch performance on Android has certain issues.

“We’re not going to just let it run on anything out there,” he said. “Some of them just can’t guarantee a good user interface.”

Here is the video interview Mobilized did with Han:

[ See post to watch video ]

Samsung to Jobs: We're Going to Sell a Million of These "DOA" Tablets

John Paczkowski — Thu, 04 Nov 2010 21:07:38 +0000

According to Apple CEO Steve Jobs, the “handful of credible tablets” currently headed to market will be “dead on arrival.” So the claim with which Samsung launched its Galaxy Tab slate in its home market today was somewhat brazen.

“We have received a very good market response in countries in Southeast Asia and Europe,” J.K. Shin, president of the company’s mobile business, told reporters at an event in Seoul. “I estimate we will be able to sell more than a million units worldwide by the end of this year.”

So one million Galaxy Tabs sold in a little under 60 days. Certainly seems possible–assuming the device isn’t DOA, as Jobs predicts. After all, Apple sold one million iPads in 28 days and more than two million in less than 60. And according to some early reviews, the Galaxy Tab is among the best Android tablets headed to market. And if that doesn’t prove to be the case, Samsung has a few others in the pipeline that may fit the bill. Said Shin, “Various tablet sizes will be launched by many companies next year. In order to cement our strong presence in the tablet market, Samsung is also preparing other kinds of tablet devices.”

Growing Interest in BlackBerry PlayBook

John Paczkowski — Mon, 01 Nov 2010 14:42:53 +0000

Research in Motion’s BlackBerry PlayBook tablet is still a ways off from market, but its mindshare is beginning to grow following a recent and impressive live demonstration at Adobe’s MAX conference.

New data from ChangeWave shows a promising trend in PlayBook purchasing intentions. The research house surveyed 3,108 consumers with an eye toward determining tablet and netbook demand and found the PlayBook to be the second most popular choice among respondents planning to buy a tablet. Eight percent of respondents expressed interest in it. That’s significantly less than the 80 percent who professed interest in the iPad, which, predictably, claims a daunting lead, but it’s significantly greater then the three percent who claimed interest in Samsung’s Galaxy tablet and the two percent who said they’d like Hewlett-Packard’s forthcoming Slate.

Which, as RBC analyst Mike Abramsky notes, is promising. Extrapolating from that eight percent figure, he estimates that RIM may sell as many as six million PlayBooks in 2011 (calendar) to claim 13 percent of the market.

WebOS Developers Win a Dream Date With HP

John Paczkowski — Thu, 16 Sep 2010 10:00:54 +0000

Hewlett-Packard has a bunch of webOS hardware in the pipeline–smartphones and other Web-connected devices. And when it ships them, app developers–even those who defected from webOS creator Palm–will be falling over themselves to write software for them.

This according to HP’s (HPQ) defacto webOS evangelist Rahul Sood, who says we’ll see the first fruits of the HP-Palm union in the year ahead. “…Over the next 12 months we will see the makings of a new portfolio and the beginning of something great again,” Sood said this week. “There are great things to come that fit multiple types of consumers. Over time you will see the community grow. You will see app developers flock to HP as they jockey for position in the catalog. All of this may sound like a dream but it’s completely attainable.”

Figuring prominently in that dream, webOS 2.0–scheduled to be released later this year, and a slate (or “PalmPad“) that will run it. As I’ve reported here before, the latter is expected at market sometime in early 2011. According to Phil McKinney, CTO for HP’s Personal Systems Group, that’s still a hard date.

Apple's iPad: Present and Future King

John Paczkowski — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 10:00:58 +0000

With no true rival to challenge it, the iPad will likely continue to dominate the tablet market for at least the next two years. According to new estimates from iSuppli, Apple’s (AAPL) device will claim 74.1 percent of the tablet market in 2010. And while that share is certain to slip as worthy competitors emerge, it won’t slip that much. By 2012 the iPad will still hold about 61.7 percent of the market, leaving the remainder to the horde of tablets following it.

“Companies are quickly developing products that match or exceed some of the surface hardware specifications of the Apple iPad,” said iSuppli analyst Rhoda Alexander. “But it’s still unlikely that any of the competitors will be able to equal the overall performance experience of the iPad. Apple’s complete integration of hardware, software, operating system and applications is a major piece of what makes the device a standout. And on that basis—an integrated hardware/software design—we don’t see anything in the marketplace at present that seems likely to rival what Apple is offering in tablets today.”

But what about new products in the pipe? That Chrome OS tablet that Google (GOOG) is supposedly working on. Or Hewlett-Packard’s (HPQ) webOS offering?

Alexander figures the iPad’s most interesting near-term competition will be HP’s device, but she doesn’t see it appearing before 2011. And she views Google’s rumored Chrome OS tablet as a non-starter–at this point, anyway. Evidently, iSuppli sources say the initial Chrome OS doesn’t yet support multitouch. So we’re not likely to see touch-enabled Chrome devices until 2011 or beyond. “Even then, Google faces some significant challenges in premiering a new operating system and migrating directly from smart phones to tablets,” Alexander said. “More than likely, Google will take an interim step up to the smart book market before jumping into the tablet fray with the Chrome OS.”

HP to Ship Microsoft Tablet This Year, webOS Tablet Next Year

John Paczkowski — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 13:25:12 +0000

Hewlett Packard’s (HPQ) webOS tablet will arrive at market in early 2011, after the company ships its Microsoft-powered sibling — presumably that Windows 7 Slate Steve Ballmer uncrated during his CES 2010 opening keynote. “As we look at tablet sales and slate sales that was a big part of the reason we acquired Palm.,” Todd Bradley, executive vice president of HP’s Personal Systems Group, said during a company earnings call Thursday. “You’ll see us with a Microsoft product out in the near future, and a WebOS-based product in early 2011.”

Noticeably absent from Bradley’s list: that Android device that was supposed to arrive at market in the fourth quarter of 2010. As I reported in July that tablet has been tabled–at least for the time being.

Google in the Library With a Candlestick: Demand Media's Traffic-Murder Mystery (Except It Didn't Die)

Kara Swisher — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 15:30:58 +0000

Smart investors will decide whether or not they like online content maker Demand Media, which recently filed to go public.

Before Wall Street buys into the IPO, those investors will peruse the financial disclosures, assess the management and analyze the market for creating content that uses digital tools to gauge consumer demand and assign stories based on those results.

And they will also look closely at the Santa Monica, Calif., start-up’s traffic, which has been growing steadily since its founding several years ago.

Except, insisted two bloggers in posts on the exact same day earlier this week, it looked like Demand’s traffic dramatically fell off over the last month.

First, Dan Primack from peHUB, using data from Quantcast, noted a huge traffic drop-off, although he did add that other analytic groups were not showing such declines.

He then spun what he himself called “an alternate (and unsubstantiated) theory” that Google (GOOG) had somehow tweaked its search algorithm and kicked Demand’s knees in some doing-some-evil plot to get into the content business itself.

If you are thinking it was grassy-knoll time, as I did, you are not far off.

But, by the end of the post, Primack wheeled back as fast as Demand’s traffic had supposedly declined, noting that a Quantcast spokesperson attributed the Demand traffic plunge to a “measurement tag that had fallen off.”

(Don’t you hate when that happens? That’s why we use digital superglue here at All Things Digital to keep those pesky measurement tags affixed firmly!)

But that seemingly bad data from Quantcast also popped up in a post by Slate’s James Ledbetter, who also noted a precipitous decline for Demand in late July.

He tried to throw out a number of scenarios and theories to explain the possible plunge, none of which were supported by much proof, either. But it all sounded juicy and sneaky!

The post actually seemed more of a lark for Ledbetter than any real reported analysis.

And comScore Director of Industry Analysis Andrew Lipsman even stressed in the comments of the Ledbetter piece that “there is no such traffic drop-off at Demand and there may be other inorganic reasons behind the apparent decline you noted in your article.”

Indeed, according to comScore (SCOR), which is sometimes considered an undercounter of Web traffic by publishers, Demand’s traffic is actually up to 58.7 million unique monthly visitors in July, a rise of seven percent from the previous month.

That’s actually the best Demand has done since last fall, as you can see here from comScore’s numbers since last September, during which time its traffic rises and falls by small amounts:

Demand’s U.S. Unique Visitors (000)

Sep-2009 52,495
Oct-2009 52,710
Nov-2009 49,278
Dec-2009 47,166
Jan-2010 51,327
Feb-2010 50,017
Mar-2010 55,481
Apr-2010 55,915
May-2010 56,261
Jun-2010 54,619

These numbers, as you will see, are not quite as gripping, showing a very slow march forward, as did Demand’s financials.

As I wrote in a post earlier this week, titled “The Lesson of Demand Media: The Online Content Business Is a Looooong March to the Big Time”:

The media business at Demand is still small, relatively speaking to other big content companies, with the content and media part of the revenue representing almost 60 percent of the business (a domain registrar business makes up for the rest).

And, most importantly, it is still unprofitable.

[Demand] said that, for the six months ended June 30, the company posted a loss of $22.3 million on revenue of $114 million. It was an improvement over a loss of $28.9 million on revenue of $91.3 million in the same period of 2009.

Using less strict accounting, on an operating basis, the picture is better, with the company’s loss cut to $4.7 million from $12.3 million in the same six months.

And using even less stringent non-GAAP financial rules, called, “Adjusted OIBDA,” Demand said in its regulatory filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission Friday that it made $25.6 million in profits.

Like I said, not so riveting, but also not so bad.

Which comes to BoomTown’s own theory: If you want a good story, buy a good book.

Dell's Streak: a Tiny Tablet That Takes Calls, Too

Walter S. Mossberg — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 02:02:23 +0000

In just a few months, Apple’s iPad has established that there is indeed a consumer market for a multitouch tablet computer.

The 1.5-pound slate with a 10-inch screen has already sold more than 3 million units, even though it costs $499 for the cheapest model, surprising many analysts. And Apple (AAPL) says over 20,000 third-party apps have been written especially for the iPad’s large screen and features, in addition to the more than 200,000 iPhone apps it can also run.

[ See post to watch video ]

As a result, other companies, big and small, are racing to produce multitouch tablets that go beyond the narrow functions of e-readers such as Amazon’s (AMZN) Kindle. Like the iPad, they are meant for a wide variety of uses, including Web surfing, social networking, email, games, productivity, navigation, book reading, and playing music and videos. And, like the iPad, they will pose a threat to the primacy of the laptop for portable computing, and especially to the smallest laptops, the netbooks.

This week, a second big computer company, Dell (DELL), is joining the new tablet war in the U.S. But Dell’s first offering in the category, called the Streak—first introduced in the U.K.—is very different from the iPad, and somewhat peculiar. It’s much smaller—with just a 5-inch screen—and makes cellular voice calls, something the iPad can’t do.

It is really a tweener device, a design compromise. Depending on how you use it, the Streak can be considered a giant smartphone or a minitablet. Dell is positioning it as a tablet, but, to me, it’s more of a very large smartphone, but one that, for many, will be too large to carry around comfortably.

Depending on how you buy it, the Streak can cost either less or more than the base $499 iPad. It goes on sale Aug. 13 at $300 if you sign up for a new two-year AT&T (T) contract, which must include a data plan. (The cheapest iPad with cellular data connectivity is $629.) Or, you can get a Streak for $550 without an AT&T contract. Dell says neither U.S. version can be used with any other phone carrier, though the $550 model can be used as a Wi-Fi-only device, just like the $499 iPad.

Dell’s Streak runs on Google’s Android operating system, with access to some 70,000 thirdparty apps available in the Android Market store.

The Streak will be available only through Dell’s website, not at any stores, not even AT&T’s.

The Streak runs on Google’s (GOOG) Android operating system, and has access to the 70,000 or so third-party apps available in the Android Market app store. But I couldn’t find, and Dell couldn’t identify, any apps written especially for its larger screen. In fact, a few Android apps I tested seemed to crowd all their icons into just a portion of the Streak’s screen, especially when the device was held vertically, leaving lots of white space.

The Streak’s 5-inch screen is much larger than the iPhone’s 3.5-inch display, or the 3.2-inch screen on the new BlackBerry Torch. But it didn’t feel radically larger to me than the 4.3-inch display on some of the newer Android smartphones, such as the HTC EVO, which, while bulky for a phone, is still much easier to fit in a pocket than the Streak is.

The Streak is a long, skinny device. It’s 6 inches long and 3.11 inches wide, about a fourth the footprint of the iPad, which isn’t meant to go in a pocket, but considerably longer and somewhat wider than the EVO, which is. It’s much lighter than the iPad, at just under half a pound, but heavier than many smartphones.

In my tests, I found I could carry the Streak comfortably in the pocket of loose jeans, or in a suit jacket’s inner pocket, but not in a shirt pocket or the pocket of more fitted pants. It would take up a lot of room in a small or medium-size woman’s handbag. And it looks somewhat ridiculous when held up to the ear to make a phone call.

And, despite the larger physical size of the Streak’s display, its screen resolution, which governs sharpness and how much content can fit on a screen, is lower than even the iPhone 4′s much smaller screen, and is too low to display high-resolution video (though an optional dock can output hi-res video to a TV.)

Also, the Streak comes with the outdated 1.6 version of Android, though Dell says it will eventually be upgradeable to the latest edition.

In my tests, the Streak delivered both moments of pleasure and moments of frustration. When held horizontally, the screen felt luxurious, with lots of room, and good sharpness and color, for playing video or viewing photos. Even in portrait mode, reading books using the Amazon Kindle app was a much better experience than on any smartphone I’ve tested, though not nearly as good as on the iPad or Kindle e-reader.

The screen also holds plenty of app icons and more large widgets than other Android phones I’ve tested. And there are convenient bars at the top for quickly checking notifications, adjusting wireless settings, managing screens and accessing apps that aren’t on the main screens.

The Streak also has generous memory for an Android phone. It comes with 19 gigabytes of total memory, including a removable 16 gigabyte memory card. Two gigabytes of the internal memory can be used to store apps—excellent for an Android phone, but much less than on the iPad.

Its 5-megapixel rear camera took sharp photos and fair videos, and phone calls sounded clear. The large screen was a big plus for Google’s free voice-prompted navigation app. Battery life was very good, easily lasting a full day, and the battery is removable.

But the Streak also crashed on me several times. On one occasion, it started vibrating endlessly, only stopping when I removed and replaced the battery.

The device has a front-facing camera—unlike the iPad, which has no camera at all. But video calling isn’t integrated, unlike on the new iPhone, and requires you to sign up for a third-party service.

Twice the device proclaimed it couldn’t find the memory card and had to be restarted before it could. Twice, the YouTube app failed to load any content.

Also, the buttons on the top edge for turning the Streak on and off and for taking pictures are very close together and easily confused for each other. And the camera button eventually stopped working for me altogether. The speaker, located on the back, sounded tinny when playing music. And it was too easy to block the rear camera with a thumb or finger when holding the Streak naturally.

Dell sees the Streak as a tablet first, with phone calling as a secondary function. It may well appeal to people for whom the iPad is too large to carry around, yet want some of the tablet experience coupled with a phone. But tweener devices can be hard to love and Streak buyers will have to overlook some of the shortcomings I encountered.

Find Walt Mossberg’s columns and videos at the All Things Digital Web site, walt.allthingsd.com. Email him at mossberg@wsj.com.

Viral Video: Windows 7 Slate vs. Apple iPad

Kara Swisher — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 12:10:55 +0000

I really don’t have to say more, because you geeks lap up just this kind of video.

That’s because it shows a Hanvon slate, using the Microsoft (MSFT) Windows 7 operating system, being put through its paces–email, video, browsing, mapping–against an Apple (AAPL) iPad.

Let the innovation games being, but I personally think they are both winners!

Enjoy:

Wonder If RIM's Blackpad Will Have a Roller Ball App

John Paczkowski — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 18:17:54 +0000

Does RIM really have a tablet in the works? “Two people familiar with the company’s plans” tell Bloomberg that it does and plans to launch it in November just in time for the annual holiday spending binge. The device will likely be called “Blackpad”, which is better than Flatberry, I suppose–but not much. And it will be about the same size as Apple’s iPad. It will support Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, but not 3G, and is rumored to be outfitted with cameras for videoconferencing. Pricing will be competitive with that of the iPad. Which is wise, if the same thing can be said of the device itself.

And that’s a big if, as I’ve noted here before: “With the iPad, Apple (AAPL) has shown us that success in the burgeoning tablet market requires good design, a robust OS and a vibrant app platform. And at this point, RIM (RIMM) doesn’t really have these things. The BlackBerry OS might be great for email-focused handsets, but will it translate well to a larger slate form factor? That doesn’t seem likely, though one never knows.”

Microsoft Totally Going to Make Things Happen in Tablets

John Paczkowski — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 08:00:09 +0000

Microsoft–which foresaw the tablet PC, but failed to commercialize it–has a lot to prove in the market currently dominated by Apple’s (AAPL) iPad, and every intention of proving it. Bringing Windows-based slates to market “is job one urgency around here,” said CEO Steve Ballmer at the company’s Financial Analyst Meeting Thursday. “No one is asleep at the switch….We have got to make things happen. Just like we had to make things happen on netbooks, we have to make things happen on Windows 7 and slates.”

And just how does the company propose to “make things happen”?

Well, that’s not entirely clear, but make no mistake, things are definitely going to happen.

“We’re working with our hardware partners, we’re tuning Windows 7 to work on slates,” Ballmer explained. “We’ve got the user base, we’ve got the user familiarity. We’ve got everything on our side if we do things really right.”

Of course that’s often the case with Microsoft (MSFT). The problem is, it doesn’t always manage to do things really right. Certainly, it didn’t manage it with Windows Vista. Or Windows Mobile. Or Zune. Or, more recently, Kin. Who’s to say this time will be any different?

Not that it even matters if it is, as Jefferies analyst Katherine Egbert wrote in a note to clients this morning: “If you stop thinking of Microsoft as an innovator and start thinking of them as a fast, low cost, mass market follower, you’ll stop being disappointed in their inability to divine new markets and realize they are staring at some of their largest growth opportunities ever.”

Liveblogging Microsoft’s Financial Analyst Meeting (Afternoon Session): Hey, Steve Ballmer is All In!

Kara Swisher — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 20:15:07 +0000

BoomTown has been in Redmond, Wash. today to attend Microsoft’s annual Financial Analyst Meeeting, where top execs from the software giant have been taking the stage to talk about All Things Microsoft.

I liveblogged this morning’s sessions here, and now the afternoon opened with CEO Steve Ballmer.

The pugnacious exec has been under a little bit of pressure from Wall Street, due to the company’s naggingly limp stock price, even though Microsoft (MSFT) just turned in record results for its fourth quarter

He has even been subject to an ongoing series of rumors, scuttling around the tech sector, that Ballmer would even be replaced due to the moribund shares.

That did not happen today, with Ballmer appearing as confident as ever, very loud and proud, hanging out and kibitzing with investor dudes (they are all dudes here, for the most part) at the technology showcase after the morning session.

Like a particularly aggressive tour director on “The Love Boat,” in fact, he even ordered the analysts to go see all the stuff on display, such as a mobile data center, Windows 7 Phones and its gesture gaming technology now called Kinect.

We complied.

After a lovely lunch, here is a report of the action at the afternoon session at FAM:

1 pm PT: Ballmer took to the stage to talk about Microsoft’s consumer businesses.

First to get praise: Xbox, a money-losing, but very innovative business.

Read the screen: FY10 A Great Year. FY11: Even better.

Ballmer was hot on Kinect, which will be “wow.”

Next: Bing!

Share was from eight to 12.7 percent, frequent releases, mobile focus and strong brand awareness.

Yay. Except the part about Google (GOOG) still having a 70 percent share of the search market.

“We’re not confused, we have a lot of work to do here,” said Ballmer, who noted the price tag for competing in search was high. “It’s going to take a lot more.”

A lot.

Office 2010 was next and it’ll be cloudier, touchier, socialier than ever.

Next up: Windows 7–a definite home run, with an almost 93 percent share on laptops.

“Suffice it to say, Windows is the tide that floats all boats,” said Ballmer.

That is, of course, except that PCs are being inevitably supplanted by many other types of other consumer devices.

Thus, Ballmer moved onto tablets, which he called slates and convertibles.

He took some shots at Apple (AAPL), and promised something would be coming soon.

It better.

Ballmer did admit the truth: “They’ve sold certainly more than I’d like them to sell, let me just be clear about that.”

Then it was onto a demo of some new stuff, including the availability of a “Personal Cloud” for users of Windows 7 and Windows Phone 7.

Essentially, as many companies have been trying to do, it a way for consumers to have access to photos, music and more anywhere on any device.

There was also a new Windows synch feature, which is part of this anything-anywhere-anytime-any device theme.

At this point in the afternoon, I have to say that the thought of a hyper-sharing world of endless data shooting all over the place was exhausting.

I suddenly started thinking about starting a site called Hermit.com–please don’t visit, as I have nothing to share with you and I don’t care what you’re doing either.

Where were those sugary donuts, Microsoft?

I perked up at the demo of the Windows Phone 7, which is very slick and looks terrific. As with Bing, it is nicely differentiated from Apple’s iPhone or Google’s Android mobile operating system.

There is some nice automatic integration in the Windows 7 Phone with Facebook, the powerful social networking platform, with cool blue dots as the updating signal.

2:06 pm: Ballmer was back, declaring he’s not only a PC, but “I’m a Phone too!”

Not quite as catchy a motto, but I like the effort.

Ballmer also touched on Microsoft’s retail stores, which I like to call Not-Apple-But-They-Look-Like-Them Stores.

Next up: CFO Peter Klein, whom I have never seen in person. Let me say, compared to most Microsoft execs, he is unusually young looking, as if he just got his driver’s license.

But he is clearly a smartie, pulling out all the big graphs of money stuff, discussing the economics of the cloud and how it will will result in profit growth.

Many wish the boxed software business did not have to die, but it is on its last legs, so it’s time to hug the cloud for dear life

Klein’s argument that it will all be okay: Microsoft will sell to more users, they’ll earn more per customer and customer satisfaction is increased.

He walked through the numbers, which have been good, noting he hoped for more of the same.

2:31 pm: It’s Q&A time, with Ballmer coming out and calling for “ENERGY!” from the group.

If there were donuts, perhaps! Otherwise, it’s more of a snoozy afternoon situation. Zzzzzzz.

While waiting for other execs to get onstage, Ballmer made a kind of humble-pie statement for shareholders, noting he is a big one too and wanted the stock price higher.

“I’m all in,” he declared, noting he still held 86 percent of his shares in Microsoft since he arrived decades ago.

Of course, that 14 percent represents billions of dollars to have to scrape by on.

The first question was: Wassup with tablets? “It feels like right now you are not completely clear,” said the questioners.

Ballmer was a bit defensive, with his voice going up and up some more. It’ll use Intel (INTC) chips and Windows, but he was still not more specific.

“We’ll be in market as soon as we can,” he said, which was to say that he was not saying.

The next few questions were about financial details and costs. Again, Ballmer noted the returns were strong and other execs said the company had discipline.

More about the cloud, which COO Kevin Turner continued to declare was a big focus. “The proof’s in the pudding,” he said. “But clearly, we have to execute.”

Another question about the tablet, which seemed to annoy Ballmer, who made a lot of noise about being ready to compete.

One tidbit: The Windows 7 tablet will print.

Wheeeee!

After declaring Google’s Android, a “weird collection” of phones, he repeated that Microsoft was all in with its tablet.

Well, get in then!

A good question is asked about what Ballmer thought would be a good sign of progress on mobile phones a year from now.

Well, more share and to stop the downward slide of it.

Then a key question: What if Windows 7 Phone does not work, if it is like the failed Vista operating system software.

For the first time, Ballmer answered quietly: “It won’t be.”

And, then much louder, he’s all in.

Exclusive: HP's Android Tablet Tabled

John Paczkowski — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 10:00:30 +0000

Hewlett Packard is working on a variety of tablet PCs, running a variety of operating systems. Among them, an Android device that was supposed to arrive at market in the fourth quarter of 2010. But no longer. Sources in position to know tell me that HP’s Android slate has been delayed and won’t ship before the end of the year as planned.

Why? That’s not entirely clear, but evidently the tablet has been tabled–at least for the time being.

Perhaps, HP (HPQ) has decided to focus its resources on the future webOS slate PC that its new Palm unit is developing. That device has a rumored fall launch date, and we’re already halfway through summer.

Or perhaps the company is reconsidering its multi-OS tablet strategy in light of the Palm acquisition. After all, HP has said repeatedly it is “doubling down” on webOS. “We’re going to increase [R&D spending on webOS],” HP’s Jim Burns said during a conference call announcing the deal. “And we’re going to increase sales and marketing as well. We’re going to take this platform, which today exists for smartphones only, and make it much broader than that.”

Seems that would be a lot easier to pull off if the company wasn’t simultaneously developing slates for three different operating systems–webOS, Microsoft’s (MSFT) Windows 7 and Google’s (GOOG) Android.

Perhaps, HP has concluded the same thing.

Microsoft Plans "Hardcore" Tablet Thrust

John Paczkowski — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 15:18:24 +0000

Microsoft is taking a “hardcore” approach to the tablet market.

During his keynote address at the company’s Worldwide Partner Conference in Washington, D.C., this morning, Microsoft (MSFT) CEO Steve Ballmer said the company will soon introduce a number of Windows 7-based slates, targeted at both consumers and enterprises.

“This year one of the most important things that we will do in the smart device category is really push forward with Windows 7-based slates and Windows 7 phones,” he said. “We want to give you a great consumer-oriented device, but a device that fits and is manageable with today’s enterprise IT solutions. They’ll come with keyboards. They’ll come without keyboards….They’ll be dockable. And they will be in many form factors, many price points and many sizes. But they will all run Windows 7….They will run Windows 7 applications. They will run Office.”

And they will be built by 21 manufacturers, including Asus, Sony (SNE), Dell (DELL), Fujitsu, Lenovo, Panasonic and, yes, Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) too. Though HP is developing a tablet based on Palm’s webOS, its work on that Windows 7 tablet Ballmer showed off at CES in January evidently continues.

“Over the course of the next several months you will see a range of Windows 7-based slates that I think you’ll find quite impressive,” Ballmer said. “This is a terribly important area for us. We are hardcore about this.”

Hardcore, eh? So I guess your approach to the mobile market would be softcore, then?

[Image credit: JavierGC]

Confirmed! Secret Microsoft Plans to Improve Windows!

John Paczkowski — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 15:15:42 +0000

So those purported confidential Microsoft (MSFT) documents describing Windows 8? Totally legit, sources close to the company tell me.

Also totally uninteresting as far as eyes-only “vision” documents go (click on images below to enlarge). Their big revelations? Windows 8 will boot more quickly than its predecessors. It will likely include an app store. Instead of using a password, it might use facial recognition to log in users. It will be more closely connected to the cloud. It will be more energy efficient. It’s intended for a variety of different PC form factors–slate, laptop and all-in-one. And finally, it’s being developed with an eye toward aping the “it just works” simplicity and quality for which Apple (AAPL) products are known–“This is something people will pay for!”

Improved energy efficiency! Faster start-up! An app store! Support for slates!

Fascinating.

So the next iteration of the world’s most popular operating system will be an evolutionary one picking off low-hanging fruit was left after Windows 7? Tell us something we didn’t already know.