Marketing Science

Netbooks slip under tablet shipments, achieve has-bEeen status

Augustine Fou — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 15:45:36 +0000

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/10/25/netbooks-slip-under-tablet-shipments-achieve-has-beeen-status/

Still unconvinced we’re headed towards a post-PC future? We can at least conclusively say we’ve entered a post-netbook present, as Q2 2011 marks the first time their numbers have been eclipsed by tablets, according to ABI Research. 13.6 million slates were shipped in the quarter, besting the 7.3 million the diminutive laptops were able to clock in When compared to the prior quarter, that works out to 112 percent or 7.2 million increase (!) for the former, and a 1.1 million decline for the latter. Cost apparently isn’t a driving factor, as the firm notes that tablets pack an average price of $600 — nearly double that of their trackpad-toting brethren. Oh, and in case you were wondering, 68 percent of tablets shipped were of Cupertino’s flavor. More cold hard facts await you in the PR after the break.

Continue reading Netbooks slip under tablet shipments, achieve has-bEeen status

Netbooks slip under tablet shipments, achieve has-bEeen status originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 25 Oct 2011 02:34:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Lenovo leaps past Dell for second place, still trails HP for the gold

Augustine Fou — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 20:08:11 +0000

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/10/17/idc-and-gartner-lenovo-leaps-past-dell-for-second-place-still/

IDC and Gartner have come out with their latest Q3 rankings of the world’s PC manufacturers, which means it’s time for us to do some dissecting. Not much changed at the top of the heap, where, according to IDC, HP still rules the roost with about 18 percent market share (despite that whole PC biz spinoff thing). But the most dramatic shift came from Lenovo, which scurried past Dell for second place, with 13.7 percent market share (13.5, according to Gartner) — a 36.1 percent jump from the third quarter of 2010 (25.2 percent, says Gartner). Dell’s pie slice, on the other hand, shrunk slightly to 12 percent this quarter, down from 12.6 percent last year. On the global scale, meanwhile, PC sales increased by about 3.6 percent compared to Q3 2010 (3.2 percent, in Gartner’s books), though both research firms acknowledged that this figure was well below their respective projections. Why? IDC points to several economic factors, including the threat of a double-dip recession, while Gartner blames the rise of “non-PC devices,” including tablets. Surprise!

Continue reading IDC and Gartner: Lenovo leaps past Dell for second place, still trails HP for the gold

IDC and Gartner: Lenovo leaps past Dell for second place, still trails HP for the gold originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 17 Oct 2011 07:37:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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"OH GOD, NO, IT’S HAPPENING AGAIN" [Playstation]

Augustine Fou — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 20:34:26 +0000

Source: http://gizmodo.com/5848961/an-important-message-from-sonys-chief-information-security-officer-oh-god-no-its-happening-again

Poor old Sony was hammered by both media and its own users earlier this year, after news broke of a large-scale hacking of its PlayStation Network. And now it’s happened again.

The latest case involves Sony detecting a mass attempt to sign in to PSN accounts with a job-lot of user names and passwords, which the company says it believes may have been obtained through a third-party rather than extracted from PSN itself. Fortunately, the “overwhelming majority” of user name and password combinations failed.

However, Sony believes approximately 93,000 accounts (33k in Europe) have been compromised, with outsiders able to correctly sign in to PlayStation Network using the stolen data. Those accounts have now been “temporarily locked” pending a new password reset and account validation scheme.

Sony says credit card data is safe, and it’ll refund anyone should they find evidence of any suspicious activity. [Sony via T3]

Image credit: NME.

Our newest offspring Gizmodo UK is gobbling up the news in a different timezone, so check them out if you need another Giz fix.

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HP Wants You to Print Magazines with Your Home Printer So You Can Waste More Paper and Buy More Ink [Printers]

Augustine Fou — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 20:32:24 +0000

Source: http://gizmodo.com/5849026/hp-and-conde-nast-are-creating-an-unholy-union-to-print-magazines-on-your-home-printer-so-you-can-not-read-them-and-waste-paper-and-buy-more-expensive-ink

Two wrongs don’t make a right. I think I learned that as a 4-year-old. Apparently, HP and Condé Nast skipped out on that life lesson because they’re combining two dying things—print media and printers—to create the unholiest of unions: your HP printer at home will print out Condé Nast magazines for you to read.

It sounds straight out of the webpages of the Onion but it’s true, Condé Nast magazines like Wired, Details, Epicurious, Glamour, Allure, Golf Digest etc. will be “delivered” to people’s personal HP web printers so that they can presumably read them without having to go to the magazine stand. This is real! You schedule when you want to read the mags and your HP printer starts spitting out the pages. (I’m assuming you have to staple the pages together yourself)

I guess this could work in a bizarro world where there is no such thing as tablets or laptops or computers or smartphones or the Internet or common sense but we’re not living in that world! Instead, we live in an era where people are ditching their printers cause they’re useless, people who have printers never print anything because printer ink is ass expensive and print media is dying (which is legitimately sad). But still, combining print and more print is the dumbest thing HP’s done this… month, I guess.

But HP is serious about this. And since they want to revive the printer as some sort of news hub, they’re offering a subscription service for printer ink delivery. It’s like Netflix but for printer ink! Subscriptions for HP Instant Ink will start from $5.99 to $10.99 per month depending on the product line (shipping included). This will not end well. [HP, Image Credit: photographer2222/Shutterstock]

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There Are More Wireless Subscribers In The U.S. Than People

Augustine Fou — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 20:10:47 +0000

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/wireless-subscribers-in-the-united-states-2011-10

CTIA released a new survey yesterday with some interesting data on wireless subscribers in the U.S. The survey covers January 2011 through June 2011.

Right now there are more than 327 million wireless subscriptions in the U.S. That’s about 20 million more subscriptions than there are people.

How is that possible?

The survey takes into account all wireless subscriptions, including tablets. Apparently, many people are carrying around more than one connected device.

Some other interesting stats from the survey:

The average local monthly wireless bill is $47.23.

1.138 trillion text messages received.

278.3 million active data-capable devices running. (That includes tablets, wireless hotspots, etc.)

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Sources All Over The Ad Tech Industry Think Google Is Going To Buy Akamai (AKAM, GOOG)

Augustine Fou — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 20:08:13 +0000

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/google-move-2011-10

What’s the next big move for Google?

We’re not sure, but multiple ad tech industry sources think Google is about to buy Akamai.

We’ve been chasing a rumor that Google is about to make a big ad tech acquisition. The one name that kept coming back at us was Akamai.

At this point, it’s mostly just a rumor, but almost a dozen sources inside and outside of Google are telling us that they’ve at least heard about a looming Google-Akamai deal.

Then again, Akamai is one of those companies that’s always mentioned as a take over target. Also: a high-level source at Akamai that we talked to shot down Google speculation.

Still, all of our sources think Akamai would be a good fit for Google.

There are two reasons.

REASON ONE: Akamai is sitting on a trove of valuable data that Google could use to vastly improve its business. Akamai delivers video and knows what people are watching, when they’re watching it, and how they’re watching it.

Google could use that information to improve search, video, display, everything. There’s a huge risk in “sniffing” the data from Akamai to influence other parts of Google as one source put it. Google would have too much information, and it would have even more government regulation.

REASON TWO: Akamai’s stock has been crushed in the last year. It’s off by 50%, so the company could be had for a decent price. A recent Bloomberg article speculated Akamai would sell for $7.4 billion or more.

If you know what Google is interested in buying, email us at jyarow@businessinsider.com or call Jay Yarow at 646.376.6037.

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Digital video game distribution finds brick and mortar camping, moves in for win

Augustine Fou — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 12:08:42 +0000

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/10/06/digital-video-game-distribution-finds-brick-and-mortar-camping/

Blame it on the economy, or simply chalk it up to a better way of earning revenue, but physical distributors of new video games are beginning to feel some major heat from the scrappy competition. While this mainstay segment still comprises the bulk of sales with $1.44 billion earned in the previous quarter, the combination of digital purchases, subscriptions, downloadable content, social network and mobile games — along with help from rentals and used purchases — now tops $1.74 billion dollars. This news comes from the NPD Group, and while we’re still scratching our heads at the logic of combining second-hand purchases with electronic distribution, it provides a strong indicator of consumers’ changing tastes and preferences (along with their willingness to spend). Does this industry titan simply need a new console or another Call of Duty to maintain supremacy? Perhaps a modest uptick in GDP? Or does this signal the changing of the guard for our favorite electronic pastime? There’s a full PR after the break, where you’re welcome to fire one off in the comments and let us know your take.

[Image courtesy bradleyolin / flickr]

Continue reading Digital video game distribution finds brick and mortar camping, moves in for win

Digital video game distribution finds brick and mortar camping, moves in for win originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 06 Oct 2011 14:32:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Steve Jobs Lived To See Apple Triumph Over Microsoft (AAPL, MSFT)

Augustine Fou — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 11:57:55 +0000

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/chart-of-the-day-steve-jobs-saw-apple-triumph-over-microsoft-2011-10

One of the defining threads that ran through Steve Jobs’ life was his battle with Microsoft and Bill Gates.

Though Steve Jobs was always seen as the cool innovator, for a long time Gates and Microsoft were the winners in business.

Microsoft’s success ate at Jobs. It became the world’s most valuable company, and Gates the world’s richest man, because “Windows just copied the Mac,” as Jobs put it in his 2005 commencement speech at Stanford.

Upon returning to Apple in 1997 he told the faithful, “We have to let go of this notion that for Apple to win, Microsoft has to lose.” Once Jobs and Apple did that, and began focusing on iPods, iPhones, and iPads, the company’s earnings and valuation soared.

After years of fighting as an underdog, Apple’s market cap blew by Microsoft‘s last year, making it the world’s most valuable tech company.

Jobs and Apple had finally and definitively triumphed over Microsoft. It’s fitting Jobs was able to enjoy that in the last year of his life.

Did he need market approval? Probably not. But you know he loved getting it.

In reaction to Jobs’ death, Gates was as gracious as could be. He wrote, “The world rarely sees someone who has had the profound impact Steve has had, the effects of which will be felt for many generations to come. For those of us lucky enough to get to work with him, it’s been an insanely great honor. I will miss Steve immensely.”

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Android extends lead over Apple, holds 44 percent of smartphone market

Augustine Fou — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 12:02:25 +0000

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/10/06/comscore-android-extends-lead-over-apple-holds-44-percent-of-s/

Gather ’round, everyone, because a fresh batch of ComScore numbers has just arrived. According to the research firm, Android remains in firm control of the smartphone platform market, commanding 43.7 percent, followed by Apple (27.3 percent) and RIM (19.7 percent). In fact, Google extended its share by nearly two points over last month’s figures, while Apple’s iOS grew by just 0.3 points, but further distanced itself from RIM, which now sits 7.6 points behind. On the manufacturing side of the equation, Samsung remains top dog, accounting for 25.3 percent of all mobile subscribers (including both smartphone and feature phone users), followed by LG (21 percent) and Motorola (14 percent). Apple, meanwhile, sits a distant fourth, at 9.8 percent, followed by RIM, which rounds out the top five with 7.1 percent market share. Number crunchers can find more fodder in the full PR, after the break.

Continue reading ComScore: Android extends lead over Apple, holds 44 percent of smartphone market

ComScore: Android extends lead over Apple, holds 44 percent of smartphone market originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 06 Oct 2011 07:27:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Kindle Fire Could Be Profitable After All (AMZN)

Augustine Fou — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 12:36:42 +0000

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/new-estimate-amazon-kindle-cost-2011-10

With Amazon only charging $200 per Kindle Fire, it’s widely assumed the company is taking a major loss on each device sold.

That might not be the case, after all, according to a new estimate of the cost of Kindle parts by UBM TechInsights, which says the Kindle Fire’s parts are $150 in total. This would suggest Amazon is breaking even, or turning a profit on each Kindle sold.

Obviously, a Kindle Fire is more than parts. It has to pay people to put to them together, it has to pay for shipping, storage, etc. UBM TechInsights doesn’t have an estimate for those costs.

For a point of comparison, UBM estimates the iPad’s components cost $270 for a wireless version, and the BlackBerry PlayBook’s components cost $170 for a 16GB version.

Previously we saw an estimate that the Kindle’s parts cost $210, and we saw an estimate that it was losing $50 per device.

Here’s the breakdown from UBM:

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