More people are accessing Wi-Fi hotspots at cafes and airports via handheld devices, according to a new study from In-Stat. While, last year, devices like smartphones accounted for 20% of total connects to Wi-Fi hotspots, in 2009 that number jumped to 35%. And by 2011, smartphones should account for half of hotspot connects -- and challenge laptops' dominance of Wi-Fi hotspots, In-Stat estimates.
It's clear why this is happening: More smartphones feature built-in Wi-Fi capabilities. More carriers are promoting these features. More places, such as bookseller Borders, have recently made Wi-Fi access available for free. All that is contributing to increased use of hotspots with all devices. Hotspot usage has increased by 47%, to 1.2 billion connects in 2009, In-Stat estimates.
The findings may also indicate that people increasingly use their smartphones to do many of the things they used to reserve for their netbooks and laptops. The handsets are now larger than they were only several years ago, with easier-to-use keyboards and screens. So consumers increasingly find they can use them for everything from surfing the Web to typing e-mails to gaming. When tablets debut some time next year, they could further accelerate this shift from laptops and netbooks to handheld devices.
Bankrupt gearmaker Nortel has just inched closer to becoming a gearmaker no more. On Dec. 23, the company announced a preliminary agreement to sell a unit that makes software and gear for making cheap Web calls to telecom gearmaker Genband for $282 million, a sum that is subject to adjustment.
The agreement is not final: More companies could bid for the unit in an auction early next year. Nortel has already sold a number of other business units over the summer.
Once the sale of this unit, called carrier VoIP and application solutions, is complete, Nortel will be left with only a few holdings, including a unit that sells so-called multi-service switches, which direct traffic along communications networks. It also still owns the majority stake in the LG-Nortel joint venture, which has sold wireless telcommunications equipment to carriers in South Korea. And Nortel still owns as much as $2 billion worth of patents, which it might hold on to or sell separately. I suspect that Nortel will finish selling its assets in the first half of 2010.
CJ O Shopping Co., South Korea's second-largest cable-television shopping channel operator, agreed to buy a controlling stake in On*Media Corp. for 434.5 billion won ($369 million) to help expand its customer base.
Gunze Ltd., Japan's third-largest maker of touch screens used in products such as Apple Inc.'s iPhone, said it aims to triple production at its Taiwan display- film venture to meet demand from smart phones. The stock rose.
Canon Inc., the world's largest camera maker, rose to the highest in more than a year in Tokyo trading after the company kept its dividend-payment unchanged in the face of declining earnings.
Google Inc., the most popular Internet search engine, said it received a second request for information from the Federal Trade Commission on its planned acquisition of mobile-advertising company AdMob Inc.
Google Inc.'s Android mobile software may offer as many as 150,000 applications by the end of 2010, as the company chases Apple Inc. for downloads, according to a mobile-application research firm.
BlackBerry service resumed as phone maker Research In Motion Ltd. released new software to fix program flaws, which caused a second disruption in less than a week.
Red Hat Inc., the Linux software maker whose sales and profit in the latest quarter exceeded analysts' estimates, said demand for its products is reviving, especially in North America.
News Corp., owner of the Twentieth Century Fox film studio, is at an impasse in talks on a possible bid for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc., according to a person with knowledge of the situation.
New York Times Co. and Gannett Co. jumped in New York trading after a Wells Fargo & Co. analyst said advertising sales were improving and upgraded both publishers' shares.
BlackBerry users faced a second disruption in less than a week last night, prompting phone maker Research In Motion Ltd. to release new software to restore e- mail service.
Citadel Broadcasting Corp., the owner of radio stations in cities including New York and Chicago, filed for U.S. bankruptcy protection in Manhattan with a deal to shed $1.4 billion of debt.
Red Hat Inc., the Linux software maker whose sales and profit in the latest quarter exceeded analysts' estimates, said demand for its products is reviving, especially in North America.
No one can complain that the last two years have been light on drama. We had the worst financial crash in living memory, and some of the biggest banks in the world effectively came under state control.
There's a theory making the rounds comparing Greece with Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. Letting Lehman go broke, the story goes, was the worst policy error of the credit crisis; with that lesson learned, the global authorities will do anything to stop a European Union member from defaulting.
Research In Motion Ltd. said some BlackBerry users in the Americas are facing service delays, the second time the company has reported a disruption to the e-mail system in less than a week.
Red Hat Inc., the Linux software maker whose earnings exceeded analysts' estimates last quarter, said demand for its products is rebounding, particularly in North America.
Traditional telcos are showing healthy appetite for Web calling start-ups. European carrier O2 is in talks to acquire Jajah for $200 million, according to reports. The acquisition comes on the heels of Google's November acquisition of Gizmo5 and British Telecom's 2008 purchase of Ribbit for $105 million. So, what does this mean for Skype?
The recent slew of deals may offer insight into where the largest Web-calling outfit in the world, Skype, is heading. Earlier this fall, Skype regained its independence from eBay, and is now the largest stand-alone Web-calling provider. While its private equity investors have told me in the past that they are in no hurry to offload Skype, they'll need to exit their investment at some point, either through an Initial Public Offering, or a sale. The Jajah deal, if it goes through, would indicate that the world's traditional telecom players want in on the Web-calling game. One of these telcos may want to purchase Skype in the future. Jajah didn't return a request for comment.
By purchasing Skype, a telco would gain the service's 521 million registered users as well as global presence: Anyone, anywhere with an Internet connection can make Skype calls. A U.S. telco may be able to compete with carriers in Europe and Asia. It may also be able to expand its portfolio of services, and to provide them for less. BT's Ribbit, for instance, lets users of Google Wave to participate in live conference sessions, and to leave each other audio messages. It's easy to imagine a traditional telco selling such a service as part of its video offerings for corporate customers.
That said, Skype's value is in the billions, so not many telcos can afford to take it on. Having acquired Web-calling start-ups already, BT and O2 are less likely to be in the running. Still, there are lots of other service providers out there with deep pockets.
Now that the Obama Administration has named the person who will be charge of national cyber-security issues, the question will now turn to what that person will need to do to ensure that the nation's digital infrastructure is protected.
President Obama today named Howard A. Schmidt, a former chief security officer at Microsoft and a former chief information security officer at eBay to the position of Cybersecurity Coordinator. The position was recommended after a 60-day review of the nation's computer and network security needs.
That review produced a report finding that the nation was "at a crossroads," where digital information permeates national life, but using infrastructure that is inherently vulnerable to disruptive attacks. The report also called for creating "public-private partnerships" intended to bring government agencies and the private sector together in cooperation to share information and resources to fend off attacks before they happen, and coordinate responses when they occur.
That will be Schmidt's job. Computer security industry experts said Schmidt has the unique combination of experience in law enforcement, government administration and private industry to navigate the job. Currently president and CEO of the Information Security Forum, a nonprofit computer security industry organization based in London, he served as vice chairman of the Critical Infrastructure Protection Board and as a special advisor for cyberspace security under President George W. Bush. He's also a former agent with the Federal Bureau of investigation, where he led the Computer Exploitation Team at the National Drug Intelligence Center. He also served in the US Air Force, working in its Office of Special Investigation Computer Forensics Lab.
"Howard knows how Washington works, he has a strong career in the information security arena, and understands firsthand the issues involved," says Richard Forno, principal consultant at KRvW Associates, an information consulting and training firm based in Alexandria, Va.
Forno, who has lectured at the National Defense University on information security, says he's skeptical about the ability of anyone in the new position to carry out the job given. "While I remain cautiously optimistic about the ability of any cybersecurity coordinator to meet their mandate given the historic nature of the position, Howard's appointment certainly gives an opportunity for a well-qualified person to try and make a real difference and bring us one step closer towards a meaningful and more importantly, effective, national cybersecurity posture."
That sentiment was echoed by others in the security field. Bruce Schneier, chief security technology officer at BT, and a widely sought expert on information security, has criticized the idea of appointing a "cybersecurity czar." As he wrote on his blog: "Schmidt is good, but I don't know if anyone can do well in a job with lots of responsibility but no actual authority. But maybe Obama will imbue the position with authority -- I don't know." In a Dec. 11 blog post, Scheier criticized the concept of a cybersecurity czar position: "If you're going to appoint a cybersecurity czar, you have to give him actual budgetary authority -- otherwise he won't be able to get anything done."
Ken Silva, CTO at Verisign, the company that operates much of the infrastructure that underpins the Internet, praised Schmidt, saying the White House "Couldn't have picked a better man for the job than Howard."
"Security has to be a top-of-mind issue, both in the private sector and in government, from the board of directors level all the way down to the level of individual contributors," Silva said. "Howard knows the issues, and now he's going to have to go about tackling them."
Schmidt recorded a short video message for the White House Web site after his appointment was announced. I've embedded it below.
An improved version of the ZonePlayer home audio system, unrivaled for ease of use and sound quality, pipes digital tunes around the house in high fidelity
Over the weekend, bookseller Barnes & Noble notified some customers who ordered the Nook e-book reader that the device wouldn't arrive in time for the holidays. Its consolation gift, $100 toward online purchases for each late Nook, is only part of the cost the company is likely to pay for the blunder.
Barnes & Noble has taken orders for as many as 50,000 of the $259 readers, estimates Forrester Research analyst James McQuivey. He guesses the company will miss shipment on about 2% to 4% of the devices, adding up to $100,000 to $200,000 worth of gift certificates. That's store credits and not cash, so Barnes & Noble will no doubt recoup some of that investment. Still, it's not an insignificant cost and "It certainly doesn't give them any ground against Amazon and Sony," McQuivey says.
Sony says it will avoid a belated Christmas, announcing on Monday that all orders of its $399 Daily Edition reader that were placed by Dec. 20 will begin shipping Dec. 23 and arrive "in-time for the holidays." Meanwhile, Amazon has shown no signs of supply issues for the Kindle, despite the company's claim last week that the e-book reader is having its best month of sales ever.
For Barnes & Noble, the late fee that's harder to measure is the damage done to its credibility as a device maker, say analysts. The company's inability to meet consumer demand suggests to Forrester's McQuivey that the product was rushed to market. "The perception is going to be that they don't have their act together," he says. Barnes & Noble blames the delay on unexpected demand.
With the e-reader category evolving so rapidly, the Nook's tardiness could also rob it of the momentum it will need to face off against the next generation of devices. During January's Consumer Electronic Show, at least two hyped e-book readers are expected to be shown off to potential buyers: the dual-screen Entourage eDGe and the sleek, flexible Plastic Logic QUE. Though such devices may run into startup snags of their own, they are likely to raise the bar for any would-be buyer of the Nook.
