Sometimes companies spar out their differences behind closed doors, and sometimes they have guys like Jen-Hsun Huang at their helms and the whole world gets to know how they feel and what they intend to do about it. The Tegrasaurus Rex has taken a recent interview with Fortune magazine as an opportunity to eloquently lay out his side’s case in the epic cross-licensing dispute between NVIDIA and Intel, and to let us all know that he sees “no reason” to settle with the Atom-making giant. Describing Intel’s argumentation as “completely nonsense,” NVIDIA’s fearless leader tell us that he’s eagerly anticipating the court clash scheduled for later this year. We can’t yet confirm whether or not he finished it off with a “bring your popcorn” instruction, but all his recorded words await in video form just after the break.
We all know by now that AT&T has secured the rights to furnish US iPad owners with 3G connectivity, but apparently the market desire for that service won’t be quite as big as we might have expected. That comes straight from Randall Stephenson himself, AT&T CEO and eternal believer in the power of i-branded devices, so it may have some legitimacy to it. Surely Randall’s dearest wish would be to announce his network is about to be overwhelmed by new subscribers, and the rather cooler news has already caused a small dint in AT&T’s stock price. Then again, this is hardly shocking news given that 3G on the iPad can be had on a month-by-month basis without contract, and in truth any subscriptions related to it would have to be achieved by AT&T’s own ingenuity — which, judging by its CEO’s comments, won’t be suffering any undue exertions any time soon. Not only that, Randall’s also taken the opportunity to advise us that higher data rates are likely for intensive users of unlimited 3G data plans — whether on the iPad or on smartphones. Way to endear yourself to the masses, dude.
In a conference call with investors yesterday, Steve Riggio described the Nook as a great success and the company’s best selling product. The former is predictable, but the latter is kinda weird. You typically wait to have more than one own-brand product in order to describe anything as “best-selling,” but we’ll give him the benefit of the doubt and assume he’s comparing the Nook against books published under the B&N name. It’s still disappointing that, much like Amazon, Barnes and Noble refuses to issue actual sales figures. The closest we get to that is Steve’s boast that the Nook’s release has fueled a 67 percent increase in online ebook sales — an effect that would have been even greater if the company had more stock of the device to sell. In the long term, he sees the Nook as a stimulant of traffic and sales, both in its retail and online stores, and a central component of his company’s strategy. As to the iPad? Steve skirted that question by noting that B&N ebooks are also available on PC, Mac, iPhone and BlackBerry devices. Which is good to know.
Aw, why don’t these CEOs say stuff like this in press conferences? Sony Ericsson’s head Bert Nordberg has shared with Swedish publication Sydsvenskan the rather salacious news that his company was asked to build the so-called Google phone before HTC… and it turned down the opportunity. Fearing brand dilution or something equally crazy, Nordberg states that Sony Ericsson is committed to building only its own-branded hardware and will not be a subcontractor to anyone. Haughty words from a company whose own Android device is still a good couple of months away from hipsters’ pockets, but we’re sure Bert knows best. After all, it’s not like HTC got a ton of positive press and brand awareness out of its partnership with Google, and it’s exceptionally clear that SE doesn’t need a dime of additional revenue. Oh, wait.
BlackBerry addicts won’t have to wait much longer to get a true browsing experience through their smartphones.
A new BlackBerry browser based on the Webkit layout engine is on its way and it will be extremely “network efficient,” Research In Motion co-CEO Mike Lazaridis told attendees at the Mobile World Congress conference in Barcelona Tuesday. What RIM did not mention is that Webkit layout engine is also used by the iPhone, Android and Symbian mobile operating systems.
“It’s going to be well worth the wait,” says Lazaridis.
The emphasis on network efficiency an interesting spin by a company whose cellphone browser is one of its weakest points. Unlike the iPhone, the Motorola Droid or any other smartphone today, the BlackBerry does not display web pages just the way your PC would. Instead, Blackberry users have to contend with a stripped-down, mobile version of a web page that is decidedly 1990s in its look. In what was seen as an attempt to solve the problem, last year RIM acquired Torch Mobile, which makes the Webkit-based Iris browser.
During his keynote, Lazaridis offered a quick glimpse into what the new browser could look like on the BlackBerry.
A better browser could put RIM on a stronger footing against rivals, writes Shaw Wu, an analyst at Kaufman Bros. in a research note to his company’s clients.
“Its current web browser is arguably the weakest part of the BlackBerry experience so a new version that will close the gap between Apple’s Safari, Palm’s WebOS browser and Google’s Chrome would be welcome,” says Wu. “We can’t help but wonder how many more units RIM could sell with a quality browse.” RIM sold 10.1 million BlackBerries last quarter compared to Apple’s 8.7 million iPhones.
Lazaridis did not mention when RIM plans to release its new browser. But RIM could make it available as a public beta for its developers in April at the WES 2010 conference, says Wu.
“We believe this makes sense in helping work out kinks and bugs with such an important software release,” he says.
BlackBerrys are also better than other smartphones–for carriers that is–says Lazaridis. A BlackBerry is more efficient, consumes less bandwidth than competing smartphones and scales better than on telecom carrier networks, he says.
“Network operators can support three BlackBerry browsing sessions for every one other smart phone browsing session,” says Lazaridis.
Lazaridis’ comments were meant to highlight what some industry experts see as a possible bandwidth crisis facing the cellphone industry. Based on current data consumption patterns, operators are likely to find their available spectrum completely consumed in the next three to five years, according to analyst Peter Rysavy.
Capacity crunch, isn’t that a breakfast cereal? RIM’s Mike Lazaridis seems to have been a real grouch at MWC this week as apparently he hasn’t stopped talking about the doom and gloom awaiting mobile carriers over the next few years. Focusing on the bandwidth-hungry North American market, Lazaridis has criticized the apparently irresponsible network saturation growth, which he sees as being primarily driven by app-centricoperating systems. If you’re wondering who he could possibly be referring to, let Mike clarify it — according to him, you could carry five BlackBerry devices for each iPhone on a network. As evidence of his firm’s focus on efficiency, he points us to that freshly demoed WebKit browser, which he claims uses a third of the bandwidth required by the competition from Apple and Google. If only he wasn’t implying that owning a BlackBerry would save the internet, Mike’s sales pitch would be rather compelling — those are mighty impressive numbers he is citing.
Oh, this is as tasty as it is salacious. Acer founder and former chairman (now retired) Stan Shih has come out with the bold prediction that US computer brands are on the way out — if they do not adjust to the new reality of a PC market focused on low cost. When asked how he foresees Acer and ASUS establishing their brand credentials in the USA when they’re engaged in constant price wars, Shih resolutely stated that lowering costs and prices is the way to do it. Drawing an analogy to the fate of US television brands (pow!), Shih pointed out his belief that American vendors aren’t capable (slap!) of delivering the sort of affordability that the market is set to permanently demand. As harsh as his words may be, let’s not forget Acer recently jumped Dell for the number two spot in volume of global sales, so let’s not ignore what may in fact be prophecy rather than mere prattle.
Native app multitouch, you say? It’s a dream that most US Android users have failed to experience, but Motorola CEO Sanjay Jha has let loose some promising words. In an interview with Laptop, he asserted that the company will be more proactive in getting the two-finger (or more) shuffle into its Google devices — more specifically he said, “I think you will see us deliver multitouch in the majority of our devices going forward. There’s a complex set of factors, not all of them technical.” That last bit’s pretty ominous, but nothing we haven’t surmised before, and frankly, it all sounds a lot better than “we’ll consider it.” Also discussed in the interview is the inevitability of tablet experimentation, and the (un)likelihood of a Motoblur phone landing in Google’s online store. “I think clearly the bias is towards Google Experience devices.” Perhaps, but we’ll be interested to see what HTC has to say about that.
Just to clarify right out of the gate, the “year” Fast Company is referring to is 2009, but nonetheless, it’s an award we’re sure Jon is happy to have. 11 geeks were found worthy of the “Geek of the Year” award in ’09, with the likes of Evan Williams and Biz Stone (Twitter), David S. Goyer (the creator of Flash Forward on ABC), Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook) and Neill Blomkamp (the writer of District 9) joining him. The justification for Jon making the cut?
“He came on board as the new chairman of Palm and brought about the Web OS and the Palm Pre, the start of a line of products that is the best hope for reintroducing the geek masses to Palm.”
NVIDIA’s feud with Intel may be at an all-time high these days, but it looks like the company isn’t about to go as far as to produce its own Intel-compatible x86 chip, despite persistent rumors to the contrary. That word comes straight from NVIDIA’s alwaystalkative CEO Jen-Hsun Huang, who flatly said “no” when asked if there was any truth to the rumors. He further went on to add NVIDIA’s focus is on visual and parallel computing, and on “getting our GPUs into the lowest power platforms we can imagine and driving mobile computing with it” — as it’s now attempting to do with Tegra. In a separate discussion after a talk in Dubai, Huang also interestingly revealed that the computers in his household are “all Apple,” but he naturally didn’t just leave it there — head on past the break for the complete, must-read quote (as reported by Shufflegazine).
Read – CNET News, “Nvidia CEO says ‘no’ to Intel-compatible chip” Read – Shufflegazine, “NVIDIA CEO, visiting Dubai, says “I’m all Apple”
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