Monthly Archives: January 2011

Ongo… where?

January 30, 2011 – 9:16 pm

TweetOngo is an ambitious digital kiosk. Launched last week, it was founded last year by Alex Kazim, a high-tech executive who worked at Ebay, Skype and PayPal. Kazim lined up an impressive group of investors: Gannett, The New York Times, The Washington Post and the venture capital firm Elevation Partners whose portfolio includes Facebook, Yelp [...]

Edited by Frédéric Filloux | Posted in newspapers, online publishing | Comments (14)

Earnings Season

January 30, 2011 – 9:15 pm

TweetWith three high-tech earnings announcements to cover, this week’s Note will have more breadth than depth. We’ll start with Amazon. The company’s Q4 2010 sales grew 36% to $12.95B, vs. $9.5B for the same quarter in 2009. Great! But not so fast–investors trashed the stock because Amazon’s numbers were “below expectations.” Yet despite losing 7% [...]

Edited by Jean-Louis Gassée | Posted in Uncategorized | Comments (10)

Apple’s bet on publishing

January 23, 2011 – 8:45 pm

TweetApple’s upcoming subscription plan is making large publishing companies hysterical. Rightfully so. Some of them built a complete business model for the iPad based on a commercial agreement that is now being revoked. Apple is not only changing the rules, but it does so in the worst possible way — in their usual cold My [...]

Edited by Frédéric Filloux | Posted in online publishing | Tagged | Comments (93)

Inside Apple’s numbers

January 23, 2011 – 8:39 pm

TweetOn Monday last week we hear Steve Jobs is taking another medical leave of absence and, on Tuesday, we get a look at Apple’s numbers for Q1 2011 (which is actually the last quarter of 2010). Brian Hall provides this crisp summary: • Sales: $26.74 billion, up 70.5% year over year • Profits: $6 billion, [...]

Edited by Jean-Louis Gassée | Posted in hardware | Tagged | Comments (19)

The Uncertain Future of Free Dailies

January 16, 2011 – 9:24 pm

TweetThere are signs. Not necessarily good ones. At ten in the morning in Paris, you still find piles of free dailies at almost every distribution point. At four in the afternoon, in the business district, outside one of the busiest subway stations, unopened stacks of copies of Metro lay soaked by the winter rain. Two [...]

Edited by Frédéric Filloux | Posted in newspapers | Tagged | Comments (10)

Wintel: Le Divorce

January 16, 2011 – 9:02 pm

Tweet The eponymous flick is mildly interesting, but we’re gathered here today to examine the Wintel breakup. After years of monogamy with the x86 architecture, Windows will soon run on ARM processors. As in any divorce, Microsoft and Intel point fingers at one another. Intel complains about Microsoft’s failure to make a real tablet OS. [...]

Edited by Jean-Louis Gassée | Posted in hardware | Tagged , | Comments (18)

Le Monde: a blueprint of a turnaround

January 9, 2011 – 6:29 pm

TweetThe iconic French newspaper Le Monde is about to begin a new chapter of its complicated history. Last September, what remains France’s most influential paper changed hands (see previous Monday Note Le Monde’s escape velocity and story in NY Times’ DealBook). Le Monde is now owned by a triumvirate: Xavier Niel, a telecom entrepreneur, provided [...]

Edited by Frédéric Filloux | Posted in journalism, newspapers | Comments (14)

Navigation’s Destination

January 9, 2011 – 6:23 pm

Tweetby Jean-Louis Gassée The frustrations began with the (many) limitations of the Pioneer after-market navigation system in the Toyota I use while in France. I can deal with the inscrutable UI and the belligerent touch screen—“resistive technology”, indeed–but I need up-to-date maps (which are clearly antiquated on this device) and a precise reading of my [...]

Edited by Jean-Louis Gassée | Posted in hardware | Tagged , | Comments (20)

iPad publishing: time to switch to v2.0

January 2, 2011 – 7:07 pm

TweetThere is no way around this fact: the first batch of magazines adapted to the iPad failed to deliver. Six months after the initial excitement, the mood has turned turned sour. See the figures below, they show the downturn in circulation for the much publicized iPad versions of a few American magazines: – Wired: 100,000 [...]

Edited by Frédéric Filloux | Posted in mobile internet, online publishing | Tagged | Comments (82)

iPhone = Mac 2.0

January 2, 2011 – 7:07 pm

Tweetby Jean-Louis Gassée There are two ways to interpret the equation above. Doomsayers will sing the licensing blues. By refusing to license the operating system—iOS, in this case—the iPhone will drown in a sea of Android smartphones. We’ve seen it before: Apple is repeating the mistake that allowed Windows clones to scuttle the Mac. Others, [...]

Edited by Jean-Louis Gassée | Posted in hardware | Tagged , | Comments (60)