Comment On Why The Idea Of A Netflix For E-books Makes Sense By Mathew Ingram

I agree, Darren -- it would be nice if libraries could come up with a competitive offering, and they still might, but Amazon so far looks best equipped to do so. Thanks for the comment.

Comment on Why the idea of a Netflix for e-books makes sense by Mathew Ingram

Backlink: http://gigaom.com/2011/09/12/why-the-idea-of-a-netflix-for-e-books-makes-sense/#comment-655036

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Comment on Blackberry teams up with HTC Sense creator by Om Malik

I think the key for RIM would be to improve the Blackberry OS experience on the touch devices. We have to remember that Blackberry is primarily a keyboard device and touch is not an natural interface for the platform. I am actually pretty excited to see how this shakes out and what emerges from the collaboration.

Comment on Blackberry teams up with HTC Sense creator by Om Malik

Backlink: http://gigaom.com/2011/06/13/blackberry-you-i-labs/#comment-631114

Here's Why Microsoft Buying Nokia Might Actually Make Sense (MSFT, NOK, RIMM)

Today's wacky mobile industry rumor is that Microsoft could be interested in buying Nokia's mobile phone division, on the heels of the companies' Windows Phone 7 partnership.

Now, this is pretty out-there. The deal would be huge -- Nokia's market cap is $32 billion -- and it would be a big shift in Microsoft's focus. So it's easy to laugh this off as a big, silly rumor.

But there's one reason why Microsoft potentially buying Nokia actually makes sense.

Because it's the only way that Microsoft could ever make enough money off Windows phones to matter.

Apple, HTC, and RIM have shown that when a smartphone company is performing well, there is a healthy amount of profit to be made. Apple likely makes a few hundred dollars in profit per iPhone sold, for example.

Meanwhile, Microsoft has been trying to use the Windows model for mobile operating systems for the last several years, and that just doesn't really work in mobile. The per-device license fees are just too small -- likely less than $15 per phone -- and don't add up to big-enough numbers to make much of a difference, especially for a company as big as Microsoft.

If Microsoft did buy Nokia, and could somehow, miraculously, figure out a near-Apple-like quality of hardware and software integration, and sell a bunch of phones, there's quite a lot of profit that can be made. (Especially if they can do something creative with Skype, which Microsoft bought last week.)

And that's why Microsoft may want to own the whole thing, and not just sell Windows Phone 7 licenses to Nokia, who makes the real profit on the device sale.

(Yes, this could potentially alienate other potential partners, like HTC, Samsung, etc. But if it's not going to get Android-like distribution from those companies, that's a risk worth taking if Microsoft can make all of the profits from Nokia smartphone sales. Meanwhile, a Nokia-Microsoft deal would almost certainly end the potential for Microsoft to acquire RIM.)

Again, this is way out there, and would be very risky. But it's not completely stupid.

Read: How To Use Your iPhone On Vacation (The Right Way!)

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See Also:

• The Ad-Supported Kindle Is Amazon's Best Seller
• Google And Amazon Leave The Door Wide Open For Apple's "Music Locker" To Dominate
• Microsoft: Skype Buy Is About Business, Not Consumers

Here's Why Microsoft Buying Nokia Might Actually Make Sense (MSFT, NOK, RIMM)

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Microsoft Buying Skype Would Make No Sense (MSFT)

Microsoft has entered the mix in the latest round of Skype acquisition rumors, according to Om Malik

But a simpler interoperability deal between Skype and Microsoft's corporate messaging service Lync would make a lot more sense than a straight acquisition.

Skype's corporate team was reportedly working around the clock this weekend getting ready for a major partnership announcement this week. Last week, Facebook was rumored to be considering a buyout or joint venture, which would help boost the messaging product Facebook introduced last year.

Google was also supposedly looking at a joint venture, although it's hard to see how Skype would add to what Google already has with Google Talk. But Google might take the plunge just to keep Skype out of Facebook's hands.

What about Microsoft?

Microsoft already has voice and video chat in Windows Live Messenger for consumers, and voice chat plus video conferencing in Lync and Lync Online for businesses. It's very hard to see what Skype would add to either product, other than a stronger brand name for consumers.

Microsoft might be interested in Skype for some intellectual property or a piece of technology, but at $3 billion plus, that's an expensive technology acquisition.

Finally, Microsoft has been very shy about doing acquisitions in the last couple of years -- particularly large ones.

What's more likely: some sort of interoperability deal between Skype and Lync (and Lync Online) so that customers of one service can easily look up contacts and place calls to users on the other service. That would help Skype make inroads into the enterprise and add a frequently requested feature to Lync.

Microsoft might make a small investment to convince Skype to do the deal, just as it did with Facebook back in 2007 to get an advertising deal. That turned out to be one of the best investments Microsoft ever made.

See also: A Big Acquisition Is Just One Of 10 Crazy Ideas To Get Microsoft's Stock Soaring.

For the latest tech news, visit SAI: Silicon Alley Insider. Follow us on Twitter and Facebook.

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See Also:

• Microsoft's Secret Plan To Disrupt Google Maps On The iPhone
• Google Apps Partner Thinks Microsoft Is Full Of It
• Electronic Arts Is Already Testing The Next Xbox

Microsoft Buying Skype Would Make No Sense (MSFT)

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Talking About A Sense Of Place

As a precursor to last week’s mashup* Digital Trends event, I chatted to Paul Squires of Imperica about my location trends in more detail than the mashup* format would have allowed for. The write-up from that interview is now up on Imperica’s web site and, thanks to them adopting a Creative Commons  license, I’m able to reproduce it here.

Talking About A Sense Of Place

Backlink: http://www.vicchi.org/2011/02/10/talking-about-a-sense-of-place/

FACEBOOK: Now It All Makes Sense

Now it all makes sense.

The reason it doesn't matter that Goldman's Facebook investment vehicle almost certainly violates the SEC's rules is that Facebook has announced that it will exceed 500 shareholders this year regardless of whether Goldman's clients are treated as a single shareholder or as many shareholders.

Because of this, Facebook will have to file detailed disclosures with the SEC by May 1, 2012, 120 days after the end of the fiscal year in which it breaks the 500 shareholder threshold.

Prior to this announcement, many observers had been left scratching their heads as to how the SEC could permit Goldman to use such an investment mechanism, which seemed obviously designed to avoid increasing Facebook's shareholder count above 500 (Goldman's clients will invest via a "special purpose vehicle" in which all of Goldman's Facebook investors will be aggregated into a single fund). Using such SPVs for this purpose is against SEC rules, and there seemed no other logical explanation for why Goldman would do it.

And there still is no obvious other explanation, except perhaps saving Facebook the trouble of having to deal with so many new shareholders and allowing Goldman to charge its clients massive entry AND exit fees that it wouldn't be able to charge if it were merely selling them Facebook stock.

(Actually, come to think of it, those are two pretty good explanations!)

But, in any event, it's all moot. 

Now that Facebook has said it will exceed the 500 shareholder threshold this year regardless, the SEC's likely "remedy" has already been achieved.  By the end of April of 2012, if not before, everyone will finally know the full details about Facebook's financial performance and business.

Bear in mind, however, that this does NOT mean the company has to go public. All it has to do is file financial statements.

So the crazed masses who are being shut out of Goldman's "private Facebook IPO" may even then still have to watch from the sidelines.

See Also: Meet Facebook's Soon-To-Be Billionaires

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See Also:

• FACEBOOK DETAILS LEAKED: Company Is Much More Profitable Than Everyone Thought
• GOLDMAN SACHS WINS AGAIN: Scores Huge Money, Fame, Bragging Rights On "Blowout" Facebook Deal

FACEBOOK: Now It All Makes Sense

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Why The Windows-ARM Rumors Make No Sense (MSFT, AAPL, GOOG, RIMM, MOT)

Peter Bright from Ars Technica has an excellent rundown of the recent rumors that Microsoft is porting desktop Windows to the low-powered ARM processor for tablets.

His conclusion: the rumors just don't make sense.

Here's why.

• The main advantage of ARM is better battery life. But the main problem with Windows on tablets isn't battery life, it's lack of a usable touch interface and compatible touch applications.

• Porting the full desktop version of Windows to ARM would be both incredibly expensive and useless: it wouldn't solve the touch interface problems, and it wouldn't have the main advantage of Windows on Intel, which is compatibility with hundreds of thousands of existing apps and hardware peripherals.

• Creating a special embedded version of desktop Windows and letting hardware makers pick and choose the pieces they want to use (as Microsoft did with Windows CE) would be even worse: every "Windows" tablet would potentially have a different user interface, different features, and work with a different set of programs.

• Building a new tablet OS for ARM processors based on desktop Windows might solve the touch interface problems, but still wouldn't run traditional Windows desktop apps. So why bother? It would make much more sense to build the tablet OS based on Windows CE, which has run on ARM processors forever. In addition, Microsoft has already built a great touch interface and development platform on top of Windows CE--Windows Phone 7.

This is probably why Microsoft wasn't even thinking of porting desktop Windows to ARM a year ago.

The logical conclusion: Microsoft isn't announcing a version of desktop Windows that supports ARM. Instead, it'll announce a new platform based on Windows CE--now called Windows Embedded Compact--with some new user interface elements for tablets. This is exactly what ZDNet's Mary Jo Foley speculated on Tuesday.

The company will probably come up with a neat new name like Windows Embedded for Tablets, and folks who don't follow Microsoft closely will assume it's a completely new OS.

But this initiative will fail unless Microsoft does the same thing it did with Windows Phone 7 and places restrictions on hardware makers so that all Windows tablets look and work approximately the same way. If Microsoft lets hardware makers run wild with the tablet OS, like they can (and do) with Windows Embedded Compact on tablets today, then the entire project becomes meaningless.

Even if Microsoft follows the Phone 7 route for tablets, the company has to get this puppy to market fast, or the iPad and onslaught of Android and other tablets will bury it.

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See Also:

• Windows 8 For Tablets? Too Late
• A Year Ago, Microsoft Wouldn't Even Consider Windows On ARM
• Microsoft To Miss Tablet Surge Just Like It Missed Smartphones

Why The Windows-ARM Rumors Make No Sense (MSFT, AAPL, GOOG, RIMM, MOT)

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