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AT&T Scales Up Its Content Delivery Ambitions
JUNE 22, 2011 AT 2:11 PM PT
AT&T has been in the content delivery business, broadly speaking, for a long time. Even when one refers to the nerdy niche business of “content delivery networks,” AT&T has still been doing that for quite a while.
But now the carrier is apparently getting serious. Ma Bell is announcing an initiative on Wednesday to greatly expand the services it offers in this area.
AT&T is hoping to take on folks like Akamai and Limelight Networks by offering what it claims will be a combination of faster speeds and lower prices.
“Our CDN (Content Delivery Network) technology not only delivers videos and other attention grabbers at lightning speed, but it delivers them efficiently and at low cost,” AT&T Assistant Vice President Sam Farraj said in a statement. AT&T said the new and improved CDN service should be available for customers by the third quarter of this year.
It’s part of a broader effort by the company to get into all those “cloud services” we hear about these days.
For now, the company is driving the service from its 38 Internet data centers around the world, though it plans to push content even closer to the customer in the coming years — potentially locating the files in smaller facilities, such as the central offices used to feed data and telephone traffic to homes.
AT&T has an incentive to do this beyond just making money from the CDN business. Bringing content closer to customers could also cut down on the amount of traffic being carried on its networks.
Arima smartphone shipments to boom in 2012
Daniel Shen, Taipei; Jessie Shen, DIGITIMES [Friday 17 June 2011]
Handset ODM Arima Communications is striving to sign contracts for smartphones with new clients, and extend the collaboration with its existing customers from feature phones to smartphones, according to industry sources. The sources expect Arima to ship 4-5 million smartphones in 2012.
The anticipated smartphone shipments are likely to account for 15-20% of Arima's total shipments, and contribute a larger 30-40% to the company's revenues for the year, the sources cited market watcher estimates as indicating.
The sources revealed that Arima has won orders for Android-based models from Japan-based vendors. Meanwhile, the handset ODM is vying for smartphone orders from Motorola, Sony Ericsson and LG Electronics, to which it currently supplies touch-enabled feature phones, the sources pointed out.
Arima is expected to see monthly shipments top two million units starting June, the sources said. Shipments will likely total 5.3-5.4 million handsets in the second quarter, and climb further to a record 6.5 million units in the third, the sources added.
In addition, the sources observed that Motorola has replaced Sony Ericsson as the largest client of Arima. Orders placed by Motorola may contribute 45-50% to Arima's total revenues in 2011, according to the sources.
In a recent interview, Arima president Owen Chen remarked that the company will start shipping 3G handsets and smartphones in the second half of 2011. It is working with both Qualcomm and MediaTek in 3G solutions, and focusing on the Android platform.
Nortel to hold patent auction on June 27
Nortel delays auction, cites significant interest
Acer slashing tablet shipment target by about 60% for 2011
June 15, 2011 | 11:40 am
Acer is cutting its tablet computer shipment target for 2011 by about 60%, after months of its slate-like devices failing to take off with consumers as the company had originally projected, according to a report.
The Taiwanese company, which is the second largest PC maker behind Hewlett-Packard, is also trimming its projected notebook shipments worldwide in an effort to "clear accumulated inventory," according to a Reuters report.
J.T. Wang, Acer's chairman, said at a shareholders meeting in Taipei on Wednesday that despite the company missing its last three quarterly forecasts, overall computer shipments were expected to pick up in the third and fourth quarter of 2011, Reuters reported.
"Wang told reporters after the meeting that the new target for tablet shipments this year was 2.5-3 million units, much lower than the 5-7 million units target set at the beginning of the year," the report said. "Acer said it expected to sell 800,000 tablets in each of the second and third quarters."
In March, Acer's former Chief Executive Gianfranco Lanci left the company after disagreeing on how to approach the tablet market, Reuters said. In May, Acer reported a 29.2% drop in total computer sales, the report said
HTC confident it can double smartphone sales in 2011
By Phil Goldstein Comment | Forward | Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn
HTC remains confident it will double its smartphone sales by year-end, according to a senior HTC executive, adding more fuel to the company's growth trajectory.
Jack Tong, president of HTC North Asia, said in an interview with Dow Jones Newswires that the company remains comfortable with its forecast of reaching 50 million smartphone shipments this year, up from 25 million in 2010, which was a record for the Taiwanese company.
HTC CEO Peter Chou told investors at the company's annual shareholder meeting that HTC's outlook for the second half of the year is strong. He said the company's supply chain was not affected by the Japanese tsunami and earthquake in March, and said, without elaborating, that HTC will have a "great year" in 2011.
The company was the world's fifth-largest smartphone maker in the first quarter, according to research firm IDC. HTC is one of the world's largest makers of devices running Google's (NASDAQ:GOOG) Android platform, and also supports Microsoft's (NASDAQ:MSFT) Windows Phone 7 platform.
JUNE 13, 2011
Contenders to Line Up for Nortel Patents
By PEG BRICKLEY
Companies trying to unseat Google Inc. from the lead position in the bidding on Nortel Networks Corp.'s patent portfolio have until 4 p.m. Eastern time Monday to take a shot at it. The list of contenders likely will include Microsoft Corp. Apple Inc., Research in Motion Ltd., and perhaps Telefon AB L.M. Ericsson of Sweden, Intel Corp. and China's ZTE Corp.
"We hope and plan for a vibrant auction that will be attended by people world-wide," said Lisa Schweitzer of Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton, the law firm running Nortel's U.S. bankruptcy liquidation.
Apple, Research in Motion and Ericsson didn't respond to inquiries seeking confirmation they would join in the competition. LTE couldn't be reached for comment, and Intel declined comment. Microsoft issued a statement that said, "Microsoft has a world-wide, perpetual, royalty-free license to all of Nortel's patents that covers all Microsoft products and services, resulting from the patent cross-license signed with Nortel in 2006."
Nortel, of Toronto, filed for insolvency protection around the world in January 2009, and began selling itself off in pieces six months later. This month, Nortel puts its last major asset, a collection of thousands of technology patents and patent applications, on the block after prolonged marketing.
Monday's 4 p.m. bid deadline can be pushed back, under the court-approved rules, if the company and the creditors who will be watching over Nortel's shoulder think it's justified.
Once the bid envelopes are opened, Nortel has time to decide who will actually kick off the bidding. Under the rules, Nortel is required to name the starting bid by high noon at least one day prior to the June 20 auction.
If past auctions are any guide, chances are the starting bid won't come from "stalking horse" Google. By definition, offers that come in Monday have to be higher and better, or at least as good as Google's $900 million proposition, or there won't be an auction at all.
Google's offer is likely just the opening move in a "chess game," said patent litigator and licensing adviser Michael Lennon, who is with Kenyon & Kenyon LLP. Private-equity investors could join bidding teams, as could patent licensing specialists like RPX Corp.
The prospect of picking up the wide-ranging, international portfolio of intellectual property will amp the intensely competitive technology players into "Wild West" mode, Mr. Lennon predicted. Nortel patents confer intellectual property rights over every major area of technology business, from wireless devices to Internet advertising, to voice-activated control packages to next-generation mobile data transmission to optical and data networking.
They are good for defensive uses, warding off infringement actions, as Google has said, and offensive uses, as well. They could also produce ready cash, through licensing.
Much as technology companies like to complain about having their innovations caught up in court fights, Mr. Lennon said, "They are all are asserting their intellectual property rights against each other all the time."
The sheer size of Nortel's portfolio expands the strategic options for buyers, said Robert Merges, a law professor at University of California-Berkeley's Boalt Hall School of Law and co-founder of the Berkeley Center for Law and Technology.
"The way this game is played, someone throws a stack of patents on the table, and someone else throws a stack on the table and the one with the shortest stack comes out on the losing end," Mr. Merges said.
Putting a price tag on individual patents isn't so tough, even in a litigious industry where a single claim of a single patent can mean hundreds of millions of dollars of damages, or tens of millions of dollars of legal costs. Mr. Lennon said appraisers can sit down and come up with an inherent commercial value for a patent "based on how much in damages a person could collect, analyzing profitability in the market of a product and how much is sold."
The final price for Nortel's collection of patents, however, is something that can perhaps only be determined by seeing what the market will bear, Mr. Lennon said.
"When you have a portfolio of this size, its potential to impact the markets that companies like Google or Apple are operating in, it's huge. It's almost unprecedented, almost impossible to put a value on it other than to put it up for auction. Like an Andy Warhol painting, it's not something you can put a number on in traditional ways," Mr. Lennon said.
Read more: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304778304576375832688371692.html#ixzz1PAdFb1CY
HTC set to challenge Apple as top smartphone vendor in the US
Daniel Shen, Taipei; Steve Shen, DIGITIMES [Friday 10 June 2011]
HTC's Android-based smartphones the HTC Thunderbolt and Inspire 4G ranked as the top-selling models for Verizon Wireless and AT&T, respectively, and it has a chance to challenge Apple as the number one smartphone vendor in the US before Apple launches its next-generation iPhone, according to industry sources.
Sales of Android phones by Verizon are on par with the CDMA-version iPhone, with the HTC Thunderbolt the second most popular model trailing after iPhone, said the sources, citing data compiled by investment firms.
Additionally, the Inspire 4G is the best-selling Android phone for AT&T, with sales of the model almost three times higher than those of Motorola's Atrix 4G, added the sources.
Also thanks to its cooperation with Sprint Nextel and T-Mobile USA, HTC took the second-ranked position in the smartphone segment in the US in the first quarter of 2011, according to data released by market research firm Canalys.
With the absence of a next-generation iPhone, and the fact rival Motorola has been forced to postpone the launch of its 4G models, HTC has a chance to further narrow the gap in market share against Apple before the third quarter, the sources commented.
Arima Communications lands new 2.5G handset orders from Sony Ericsson
Daniel Shen, Taipei; Steve Shen, DIGITIMES [Friday 10 June 2011]
Arima Communications has landed orders for two 2.5G feature phones, the Mix Walkman and txt pro, from Sony Ericsson with volume shipments to begin in the third quarter of 2011, according to industry sources.
The Mix Walkman and txt pro both are both equipped with the touch control interface found in Sony Ericsson's Xperia mini-series lineup, a video recording-enabled camera, and both support Wi-Fi functionality. The txt pro is also optimized to support social networks such as Facebook and Twitter.
Arima will begin small volume shipments of txt pro in June, but shipment volumes will expand substantially starting July alongside shipments of the Mix Walkman, said the sources, indicating combined shipments of the two models will top 500,000-600,000 units a month in the third quarter.
Arima is also expected to receive orders for two additional models from Sony Ericsson in the second half of the year, bringing total handset shipments to the vendor to over one million units a month starting the fourth quarter, the sources noted.
Arima shipped 1.71 million handsets in May, the highest monthly level so far for the year. Arima's handset shipments are expected to reach five million units in the second quarter and to top 22-23 million units for all of 2011, the sources estimated.
I believe they're penciled in for 2014.
Motorola to Sell 4G Smartphone Through Sprint
By Greg Bensinger and Hugo Miller - Jun 9, 2011
Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc. introduced its first so-called fourth-generation smartphone for Sprint Nextel Corp. (S)’s network today, deepening a partnership with the third-largest U.S. wireless carrier to boost sales.
The Photon, which has a 1-gigahertz processor and an 8- megapixel camera, will be available this summer, Sprint Chief Executive Officer Dan Hesse said at an event in New York today. It will run on Google Inc. (GOOG)’s Android software like other Motorola smartphones. No price was given.
Motorola and Sprint are teaming up as they look for an edge against larger rivals. Motorola is trying to differentiate itself against Apple Inc. (AAPL) and Research In Motion Ltd. (RIM), as well as other handset makers that use the Android software such as Samsung Electronics Co. and HTC Corp.
“We have a long-standing relationship with Sprint and we are thrilled to open a new chapter of working together,” Motorola Mobility CEO Sanjay Jha said at the event. “We are showing the breadth of this partnership.”
Sprint is facing competition from Verizon Wireless and AT&T Inc. (T), which is seeking regulatory approval for its proposed $39 billion purchase of T-Mobile USA Inc. Motorola Mobility, based in Libertyville, Illinois, makes phones for the Droid line at Verizon Wireless and also manufactures the Atrix for AT&T.
Feature Phones
Until now, Sprint has mainly sold Motorola feature phones, or devices that lack sophisticated Web-browsing and e-mail capabilities. Feature phones are usually less profitable since consumers typically pay little or no money for data service, on top of charges for voice calls.
“We used to have a lot of devices on Sprint, primarily on the push-to-talk network,” said Jha in an interview. For “4G phones to go up in sales, that’s very important for us.”
Android’s share of U.S. smartphone subscribers jumped 5.2 percentage points to 36.4 percent in April from three months earlier, according to ComScore Inc., making it the fastest growing smartphone platform.
Hesse also unveiled the Motorola Triumph, which will be available with the Sprint’s Virgin Mobile brand for prepaid customers. Sprint and Motorola will release at least 10 new phones together in 2011, he said.
Nortel auction highlights rise of patent marketplace
By Ameet Sachdev
2:37 PM PDT, June 7, 2011
One of the more intriguing auctions scheduled this month won't involve fine art or vintage sports cars or other expensive trinkets, but it is expected to attract some deep pockets.
The bankrupt telecommunications company Nortel Networks is selling a cache of patents that cover a wide range of technologies used in wireless phones and infrastructure, Internet search and social networking.
"We think it's likely that the Nortel portfolio will sell for several billion dollars," said Raymond Zenkich, a partner at Red Chalk Group, a Chicago-based patent broker. "I don't think there's ever been a patent portfolio sold for this amount."
Google Inc., whose Android software is used in smartphones made by Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc., set the opening bid for the private auction at $900 million.
The winner will take home a formidable patent portfolio that could be used to develop new products or services. The patents also could be used as a legal weapon in the highly litigious wireless industry. The U.S. Justice Department is reportedly concerned that a tech giant like Google or Apple Inc. could leverage the Nortel portfolio to stifle competition or extract huge licensing fees from rivals.
The sales process is being run by a boutique Chicago-based law firm, Global IP Law Group, in tandem with the Lazard investment bank. It's a high-profile assignment for the 2-year-old law firm that specializes in intellectual property.
The Nortel auction highlights the growing importance of the marketplace for patents where values are set outside the courtroom by buyers and sellers. Several companies have sprung up just to buy patents. They generate revenue by licensing their technology or suing those who infringe their patents.
Patents are much harder to value than traditional assets such as financial securities or real estate. After all, a patent is really just an exclusive right to develop an invention for a certain period of time.
It's no surprise, then, that a whole industry of brokers, lawyers and engineers has recently formed to help companies and inventors figure out what patents are worth.
David Berten was an associate at Kirkland & Ellis and a partner at Bartlit Beck Herman Palenchar & Scott and Competition Law Group before founding Global IP Law Group in March 2009.
The company's timing could not have been better. Nortel filed for Chapter 11 in early 2009 in Delaware, Canada and Europe. A few months later, the company said it would sell its businesses, including its patent portfolio.
In October 2009, Nortel selected Global IP Law Group to become its intellectual property consultant. It was a huge undertaking for a small firm. Berten and his partners spent the next three months reviewing some 6,000 patents.
A key bucket of Nortel's patents involves a next-generation mobile data technology now being adopted by carriers, known as LTE. The patents are valuable because they relate to broadly deployed technologies, Berten said.
He and his partners working with Lazard have spent several months in a confidential bidding process. In April, Nortel chose Google's offer as the starting point of the auction, also known as the stalking-horse bid.
The auction will start June 20 behind the closed doors of a New York law firm.
Nokia Debt Rating Cut to Lowest Investment Grade by Fitch on Market Share
By Diana ben-Aaron - Jun 7, 2011
Nokia Oyj (NOK1V), the world’s biggest maker of mobile phones by volume, was downgraded to the lowest investment grade by Fitch Ratings, which cited the fast-dropping market share of the company’s Symbian smartphones.
The long-term rating for Espoo, Finland-based Nokia was cut two notches to BBB- with a negative outlook, Fitch said in a statement today.
Nokia on May 31 slumped to the lowest price in 13 years in Helsinki trading after cutting its forecasts for the devices and services unit on lower prices and competition from Google Inc. and Apple Inc. Nokia Chief Executive Officer Stephen Elop is readying a line of phones based on Microsoft Corp.’s Windows Mobile 7 operating system to replace the Symbian line. The new phones are expected to debut at the end of this year.
The lead time for establishing the Windows Phone range “places an uncomfortably long phase of pressure on the existing handset business and raises the spectre of further cash flow deterioration and increased leverage metrics beyond the end of 2011,’’ Fitch analyst Stuart Reid said in the statement.
Nokia shares dropped 0.8 percent to 4.52 euros as of 2:38 p.m. in Helsinki.
On June 1, Moody’s Investors Service placed Nokia’s A3 credit rating on review for a possible downgrade. About 4.7 billion euros ($6.9 billion) of senior debt is affected, Moody’s said at the time.
U.S. Probes Bidding for Nortel Patents
By THOMAS CATAN
WASHINGTON—The Justice Department is scrutinizing likely bidders for a giant trove of patents being sold this month by the bankrupt Canadian telecom-equipment maker Nortel Networks Corp. amid concerns the patents could be used to unfairly hobble competitors in the wireless industry, according to people familiar with the matter.
The department's antitrust division has been reviewing Google's Inc.'s $900 million opening bid, although it hasn't found any major competitive issues that would lead it to challenge its purchase of the patent portfolio, the people said.
The agency has greater concerns about another possible bidder, Apple Inc., which has often asserted intellectual property rights against other companies. Apple has been in talks with the Justice Department to address its concerns, those people said.
Apple didn't respond to a request for comment. A spokesman for Google declined to comment.
The trove contains some 6,000 patents spanning key portions of the modern tech world, including wireless video, Wi-Fi, Internet search, social networking and the fourth-generation mobile data technology being adopted by many carriers, known as LTE.
The unusual sale of such valuable assets has sent ripples through the tech industry and stirred worries at the Justice Department and elsewhere that the patent could be misused by companies to stifle innovations developed by rivals or demand high-tech ransom payments.
"You're acquiring a stockpile of nuclear weapons as far as patents go," said Alexander Poltorak, chief executive of General Patent Corp., which isn't advising any of the parties in the Nortel auction being held on June 20.
Others said to be interested in bidding include BlackBerry device maker Research In Motion Ltd., and several patent-licensing firms. RIM didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.
The inquiry is the latest sign of heightened interest at the Justice Department's antitrust division into whether intellectual property rights, which include patents, trademarks and copyrights, are being used too broadly to stifle competition and innovation in high-tech industries.
Postyle, great summation. The only thing I would add is that in discussing Apple, Bill sheepishly confirmed he was outwitted by their success, numbers wise. But twice he made the point that the license was for 'licensed products only'. And the follow up comment by the other gentleman that IDCC was limited as to what they could say.
The implication seemed to be that there was something out there, or coming, that was NOT covered by the license and may provide incremental revenue. The ipad? An LTE iphone? Or something completely new?
Patent giant seals deal with Micron
Deal with Intellectual Ventures grants access to patents
By John Letzing, MarketWatch
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — Intellectual Ventures, the invention and patenting giant led by former Microsoft Corp. executive Nathan Myhrvold, said Tuesday that it has reached an intellectual property agreement with semiconductor firm Micron Technology Inc.
Intellectual Ventures said in a statement that Micron (NASDAQ:MU) has agreed to a deal whereby the company has gained access to Intellectual Ventures’ more than 30,000 patents.
“Micron can acquire patents from IV to help defend against companies that may assert patents against them, and IV has the opportunity to acquire patents from Micron,” Intellectual Ventures said.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed. An Intellectual Ventures spokeswoman declined to comment.
Intellectual Ventures has elicited both respect and resentment, as a result of an invention and patenting process that has amassed an intimidating arsenal of intellectual property, which the firm has generally not used to directly produce any products. Intellectual Ventures was founded in 2000.
During a public appearance in March, Myhrvold, who once served as Microsoft’s (NASDAQ:MSFT) chief technology officer, disclosed that Bellevue, Wash.-based Intellectual Ventures saw $700 million in revenue last year, while its total licensing revenue to that point had grown to roughly $2 billion.
Apart from Micron, companies that have reached licensing deals with Intellectual Ventures include business software firm SAP AG (NYSE:SAP) and Taiwanese mobile device maker HTC Corp.
Intellectual Ventures has said that it has sought to avoid litigation over its intellectual property, though the firm filed lawsuits against nine different firms related to licensing disputes in December.
Defendants in the December litigation included semiconductor firms Elpida Memory Inc. (TOKYO:JP:6665) and Hynix Semiconductor Inc.
“Some companies have chosen to ignore our requests for good faith negotiations and discussions,” Intellectual Ventures said at that time.
Micron general counsel Rod Lewis said in the statement released by Intellectual Ventures on Tuesday that the newly-disclosed agreement “provides Micron strategic access to IV’s substantial patent portfolio to help drive future innovation and continued expansion of our award-winning products.”
Marvell first-quarter revenue misses expectations
SAN FRANCISCO | Thu May 26, 2011 4:15pm EDT
(Reuters) - Marvell Technology Group (MRVL.O) posted first-quarter revenue of $802 million, down 6 percent and below expectations as a key smartphone chip customer struggles to compete against Apple (AAPL.O).
Marvell's first-quarter profit was $147 million or 22 cents a share, compared with $206 million, or 30 cents a share, a year earlier. Adjusted net profit was 29 cents a share.
Analysts on average expected Marvell, whose processors are used in Research In Motion's (RIM.TO) BlackBerry smartphones, to report first-quarter revenue of $825.6 million, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
Shares of Marvell fell 2.4 percent to $14.21 in extended trading after the earnings report. The stock closed up 2.68 percent on the Nasdaq.
HTC to begin volume production of Puccini tablet PCs in June
Yenting Chen, Taipei; Steve Shen, DIGITIMES [Thursday 26 May 2011]
HTC has entered the final stages of testing for its 10.1-inch Puccini tablet PCs, with volume production slated for June 2011. The tablet will be powered by a Qualcomm MSM8660 1.5GHz processor and runs on Android 3.0.1, according to sources in the supply chain.
Puccini will have a touch panel supporting both resistive and capacitive touch technologies and its touch pen will be able to work on specified software and areas, the sources noted.
HTC is purchasing 10.1-inch touch panels from AU Optronics (AUO) and Wintek for Puccini tablets , while buying 7-inch panels from Cando and Wintek for its Flyer tablets, added the sources.
AUO, after selling its holdings of a 19.9% stake in Cando to TPK Holdings, is integrating its production of touch sensors and touch modules in house, the sources revealed.
A New Tablet From Acer Challenges iPad on Price
By SPENCER E. ANTE
The tablet-computer race is heating up. The latest entrant, Acer Inc.'s Iconia Tab A500, is the first to offer compelling competition to Apple's dominant iPad in one crucial area: price.
F. Martin Ramin for The Wall Street Journal
The Iconia Tab has been keenly anticipated, if only because Acer, a Taiwanese company that made its mark by offering sharp but inexpensive laptops and netbooks, is the world's second-largest PC maker after Hewlett-Packard Co. The Iconia Tab is Acer's first to run Google's Android operating system, and joins an increasingly crowded tablet field that features the PlayBook by Research in Motion Ltd., Motorola Inc.'s Xoom, LG Electronics Inc.'s G-Slate and Apple's own iPad2, which went on sale in March.
A WiFi-only version of the Iconia Tab went on sale on April 24 for $449.99. A new model that works on AT&T Inc.'s 4G wireless network is slated for release this summer for an as-yet-undisclosed price.
I have been putting the Iconia Tab through its paces, and, in my view, it offers the best value of any Android tablet on the market. While it doesn't beat either iPad overall, the Iconia Tab offers a decent alternative to Apple, especially for multimedia enthusiasts who want to display their content on a TV, PC or smartphone without additional gear.
Trying to best Apple hasn't been just a matter of hardware and software design— it has also been a pricing challenge. The first-generation iPad launched at $499, and Apple has knocked it down to $399. So far, the new Android-based tablets have induced sticker shock.
The base price of a Wi-Fi-only Xoom is $599 and the G-Slate will run you $750 without a phone contract. The PlayBook retails for $499, but requires a user to link up a BlackBerry phone to run basic apps such as email.
The Iconia Tab is a relatively light, metallic device with a 1 gigahertz, Nvidia dual-core processor, 16 gigabytes of storage, front- and rear-facing cameras, superb sound from Dolby and a high-resolution, 10.1-inch, multitouch screen. It runs the new version of Android, Honeycomb 3.0, a more reliable and elegant operating system than the Android system used on last year's tablets.
The 1.33-pound iPad 2 is lighter than the Iconia Tab, which tips the scales at 1.69 pounds, but the Acer's promised battery life of eight hours of gaming and video use and 10 hours of Web browsing matches Apple's claimed 10 hours.
The Acer tablet also offers a few key features not available on the iPad.
Chief among them is the ability to transfer home movies, family vacation pictures or other content off of the tablet to your TV or PC through an HDMI port, microSD card, or USB port. Apple sells a digital audio/visual adapter that does the same thing for HDMI compatible displays, but it costs $39.
Another nice feature allows a user to create up to five different home screens with an assortment of icons and apps that you choose. Finally, the Iconia supports the Adobe Flash technology, the computer code that supports videos on many websites. It's a capability notably excluded by Apple.
But the Iconia and its Android brethren prove again that when it comes to a tablet's software—long an Achilles' heel of the tablet market that kept it from fulfilling its promise—they are still playing catch-up to the Apple whizzes.
Honeycomb is a far more stable operating system than its previous version, Android 2.2—dubbed Froyo—which frequently crashed and was far from intuitive to use. Still, apps on the new, Honeycomb version crashed infrequently when used over a few days. And it still pales in comparison to Apple's operating system, which is much easier to learn and use.
For example, while the iPad offers access on its home screen to basic apps such as a Web browser, still and video cameras, and email, the Iconia forces users to click on an "Apps" icon in the top, right-hand corner of the screen to find those apps.
Even at this point, you can't just move the apps to your home screen. To do so requires a user to click on an even less obvious plus sign in the same top right corner, which then offers access to an "App shortcuts" screen. This allows a user to drag and drop icons to the home screen.
Another major downside of the Iconia and other Android tablets is that the operating system isn't currently supported by several top Web video providers such as Netflix or Hulu.com. That underscores the No. 1 drawback of the Android tablets—a lack of third-party applications optimized for the tablet's screen. While iPads can run just over 95,000 apps designed for a tablet, Android claims fewer than 100.
Google says many existing Android apps, though built for phones, will work nicely on tablets. That was true for Angry Birds, which worked great.
That monumental app gap will shrink, as it did on the smartphone, but until it does, the Iconia and other Android tablets will be challenged to compete with the iPad.
For now, the Iconia is the best choice for consumers looking for an alternative to the iPad, and for those willing to be patient as software designers get to work and roll out more goodies for Android tablets throughout the year.
AT&T to Launch 4G LTE Service This Summer
By ROGER CHENG
AT&T Inc. said it plans to launch its super-fast wireless network in five cities this summer as it looks to catch up to Sprint Nextel Corp. and Verizon Wireless.
The company earlier this year said it would speed up its deployment of the network, underscoring the importance of keeping pace in the wireless speed game. With the wireless industry increasingly touting a faster "4G" connection, carriers are under the gun to build out increasingly sophisticated networks.
AT&T, and rival T-Mobile USA, have inadvertently caused some confusion about 4G services. Earlier this year, AT&T began calling its upgraded 3G network 4G, although the service failed to meet expectations due to the slow expansion of its enhanced ground infrastructure. The company is investing in a next-generation technology called Long-Term Evolution for its summer rollout, the same technology used by Verizon Wireless.
John Stankey, head of AT&T's business-solutions unit, disclosed plans to launch the network in Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Houston and San Antonio at an investor conference on Wednesday. He added he expects to rollout 4G LTE to 10 additional markets by the end of the year.
The rollout is more modest than the effort made by Verizon, which launched its LTE network in 38 markets and 60 commercial airports. AT&T has said that its faster 3G service would allow for a more-gradual transition to 4G.
Verizon Wireless, jointly owned by Verizon Communications Inc. and Vodafone Group PLC, recently announced its own expansion of 21 markets, and expects to cover 76 by June 16. Sprint and partner Clearwire Corp. offer 4G services using a different technology in 77 markets. The companies are also looking at moving to LTE as well.
Mr. Stankey, meanwhile, said AT&T should see growing revenue from its business-services arm as the telecommunications giant exits the year.
AT&T's business unit has lagged behind some of its other faster-growing units such as its wireless or home U-Verse Internet and TV businesses as the economy has struggled with continued high unemployment and a slow recovery.
Spending from local governments continues to be challenged, Mr. Stankey said. "I don't know if that's the most robust place," he said.
On cloud services, Mr. Stankey said he would prefer to work with partners and grow AT&T's business organically. He said he didn't see any assets that would fit with the company in this area. Rival Verizon Communications recently bought data-center and hosting-service provider Terremark to augment its cloud offering.
Mr. Stankey added he was excited about the deal to buy T-Mobile USA, noting that he expects the transition of phones and networks to occur over two years, or roughly the lifespan of an average cellphone.
Acer defers launch of tablet PC and smartphone
Acer will postpone the launch of Iconia A100, an Android 3.0 7-inch tablet PC, from May-June as originally scheduled to August-September 2011 because Android 3.0 has some compatible issues with 7-inch screen and Google is currently busy resolving other issues, acording to industry sources.
Since Android 3.0 was specifically designed for 10-inch display, Acer has found that many appliactions are incompatible with its 7-inch device. Therefore, the company has decided to postpone the launch of the product, the sources said.
Samsung Electronics and High Tech Computer (HTC) also have 7-inch tablet PCs in their product lines. But since Android 2.x is currently showing no issues supporting 7-inch panels, Samsung and HTC have been able to launch the Android 2.2 7-inch Galaxy Tab and Android 2.3 Flyer respectively.
Acer believes that the 7-inch device will have its own unique market and will be suitable for female users as the device is lighter in weight, the sources said. But since the company is unwilling to give up the latest Android version, the company has decided to delay the launch of the product by about one quarter, the sources added.
In addition, Acer will also delay its 5-inch smartphone, Iconia Smart, from May to July due to short supply of key components arising from the earthquake in Japan, the sources added.
Gartner Says 428 Million Mobile Communication Devices Sold Worldwide in First Quarter 2011, a 19 Percent Increase Year-on-Year
Apple, Samsung and HTC Reported Strongest Results in an Increasingly Smartphone-Dominated Market
Egham, UK, May 19, 2011—
Worldwide mobile communication device sales to end users totaled 427.8 million units in the first quarter of 2011, an increase of 19 percent from the first quarter of 2010, according to Gartner, Inc. Smartphones continued to outpace the rest of the market, and a newly competitive mid-tier smartphone market will drive smartphones into mass adoption and accelerate this trend.
“Smartphones accounted for 23.6 percent of overall sales in the first quarter of 2011, an increase of 85 percent year-on-year,” said Roberta Cozza, principal research analyst at Gartner. “This share could have been even higher, but manufacturers announced a number of high-profile devices during the first quarter of 2011 that would not ship until the second quarter of 2011. We believe some consumers delayed their purchases to wait for these models.”
Overall, the earthquake and tsunami in Japan will have a smaller effect on the mobile communication devices market than initially anticipated. There is currently about six to seven weeks worth of inventory of finished products in the channel and about four weeks worth of inventory for components. Gartner estimates that manufacturers' sales into the channel will drop in the second quarter of 2011, while sales through to consumers will be flat.
Nokia sold 107.6 million mobile devices in the first quarter of 2011 (see Table 1). Its market share declined 5.5 percentage points year-on-year, and its share has reached its lowest since 1997. Nokia will aggressively lower average selling prices (ASPs) in markets where communications service providers (CSPs) control the sales channels, in order to maintain shipments of Symbian devices while waiting for its first Windows Phone 7 devices to reach the market. However, Nokia will face challenges from Android competitors and from some Japan-induced supply constraints.
Samsung experienced its strongest first quarter ever. The shift to higher end smartphones, such as the Galaxy line, led to an increase in ASPs. This helped to offset an increase in materials costs. Samsung made numerous product announcements during the first quarter of 2011. These included numerous Galaxy smartphone announcements (such as the Galaxy S II), a bada device (Wave 578), and new models of the Galaxy Tab tablets (10.1 and 8.9). These new devices, along with the effects of seasonality and expansion into emerging markets with touch and dual-SIM devices, should help improve Samsung's performance in the second quarter of 2011.
Apple sold 16.9 million units to end users worldwide, more than doubling its sales of iPhones year-on-year. This market-beating growth came from all regions: the iPhone is now available in 90 countries from 186 CSPs. “This strong performance helped Apple consolidate its position as the fourth largest brand in the mobile communication market overall,” said Carolina Milanesi, research vice president at Gartner. “Considering the higher than average price of the iPhone this is a remarkable result and highlights the impact that a strong aspirational brand can have on a product.” Inventory levels at the end of the first quarter of 2011 were slightly higher than usual, as Apple not only continues to expand in markets such as China, where distribution is more fragmented, but also extends its reach with new CSPs.
HTC recorded a very strong first quarter with 9.3 million mobile communication devices sold and moved to the No. 7 position. Strong high-end products helped HTC perform well with all major US CSPs, and in the first quarter of 2011 it became the No. 2 smartphone manufacturer in the region, overtaking Research In Motion.
Although in mature markets the shift from feature phones to smartphones is accelerating, smartphones overall moved down-market in the first quarter of 2011. Several manufacturers, including HTC, Sony Ericsson, Alcatel and ZTE, announced a broader portfolio of mid-tier devices, mainly based on Android, which will reach the market in the second quarter of 2011.
Android and Apple's iOS continued to dominate the smartphone operating system (OS) wars (see Table 2). However, the big news in the first quarter of 2011 was Nokia's strategic alliance with Microsoft on Windows Phone 7, and the retirement of Symbian. “This will precipitate a competitors’ rush to capture Symbian's market share in the midtier,” said Ms. Cozza.
In the first quarter of 2011, RIM announced that it would transition its BlackBerry portfolio to the QNX platform in 2012. This should make its smartphones more competitive in graphics, performance and touch, and unify RIM's tablet and smartphone user experience.
Windows Phone saw only modest sales that reached 1.6 million units in the first quarter of 2011, as devices launched at the end of 2010 failed to grow in consumer preference and CSPs continued to focus on Android. In the long term, Nokia's support will accelerate Windows Phone's momentum.
Gartner analysts said that the shift toward an ecosystem focus, application and services is the critical success factor for device manufacturers. “Every time a user downloads a native app to their smartphone or puts their data into a platform's cloud service, they are committing to a particular ecosystem and reducing the chances of switching to a new platform. This is a clear advantage for the current stronger ecosystem owners Apple and Google,” said Ms. Cozza. “As well as putting their devices in the context of a broader ecosystem, manufacturers must start to see their smartphones as part of a computing continuum.”
“The 13.3 million-unit growth in channel inventory, along with some softness in demand from users in emerging markets registered at the start of the second quarter of 2011, is leading us to be cautious about sales in the reminder of the year,” said Ms. Milanesi. “We are currently revising down our 2011 sales estimate as a result of these trends, and expect it will likely drop to between 1.790 billion and 1.795 billion units.”
Additional information is in the Gartner report "Market Share Analysis: Mobile Devices, Worldwide, 1Q11" The report is available on Gartner's website athttp://www.gartner.com/resId=1688625.
Apple is unlikely to launch LTE-enabled iPhone 4S smartphones in 2011 as originally planned due to problems concerning yield rates of LTE chips offered by Qualcomm, according to industry sources. Meanwhile, the top-three telecom carriers in China – China Mobile, China Telecom and China Unicom – have all expressed to their interest to sell iPhone 4S in the China market.
Apple is likely to delay the launch of its LTE-enabled iPhones to 2012, said the sources, noting that the industry had also long been skeptical about the launch of LTE iPhones in 2011 as the implementation of LTE networks has not yet matured.
In other news, the sources indicated that China Mobile is expected to reach an agreement with Apple to sell iPhone 4S smartphones in China in September at the earliest due to its large subscriber base.
By the end of 2011, the number of 3G mobile subscribers in China is expected to top over 61.9 million, of which 26.99 million subscribers will use China Mobile's TD-SCDMA networks, the sources noted.
Toshiba in Discussions to Buy Landis & Gyr
BY CHRIS V. NICHOLSON
Toshiba is in advanced talks on a deal worth more than $2 billion to acquire Landis & Gyr, a Swiss smart-metering company, a person with direct knowledge of the matter said on Tuesday.
With an acquisition, Toshiba would add a technology that helps utilities and consumers monitor energy use to its so-called smart community division, which aims to help cities become more energy efficient.
It is also a fresh sign that Japanese corporations are looking to expand abroad, after it was revealed last week that the Takeda Pharmaceutical Company of Japan was in advanced talks to buy the Swiss biotechnology company Nycomed for up to $14 billion.
Toshiba has emerged as the sole potential buyer for Landis & Gyr after a competitive bidding process, the person said. Swiss media outlets have reported that strategic buyers like Siemens, ABB and General Electric had expressed interest, and Bloomberg News reported last week that the private equity firms TPG Capital and EQT of Sweden had made offers.
While Toshiba declined to comment on media speculation, Keisuke Ohmori, a spokesman for the company, said that it was “seeking various ways to expand in the smart community field.”
Landis & Gyr, based in Zug, Switzerland, was bought in 2004 by the Australian investment group Bayard for an undisclosed sum. The group is run by Cameron O’Reilly, who became chief executive of Landis and changed Bayard’s name to Landis & Gyr Holdings.
The company makes gas and electricity meters, information networks and software that increase the transparency of energy production and consumption with an eye to better energy management.
Landis claims consumers can save up to 15 percent on energy costs using its meters, which are are one of the building blocks of a smart grid, or an energy supply system that anticipates and adapts to usage levels.
A spokesman for Landis & Gyr declined to comment.
The Swiss company has about 5,000 employees and operates in more than 30 countries, according to its Web site.
Toshiba is best known for its computers and electronic appliances, but it also has semiconductor and power generation businesses, which it sees as growth areas, alongside smart grids.
The company is building a pilot smart grid on Miyako island, one of the most southern in Japan’s archipelago, where it is combining combine solar energy with smart metering. It is also helping to build two smart grids in a joint experiment conducted in New Mexico.
Or it could mean that as part of the conversion negotiation, the first quarter fee was waived, hence the retroactive $2m write down.
Admittedly, the release lacks a certain amount of clarity!
Here's rmarchma's list, who else would it be?
Fixed-Fee royalty of $195.8m as follows:
Samsung ...$102.8m ($25.7m per quarter)
LG .........$57.4m ($14.35m per quarter) Expired 12/31/10
Pantech....$15.6m ($3.9m per quarter)
Apple......$8.4m ($2.1m per quarter)
Amended fixed-fee License 2nd qtr...$3.5m (Q2:$.5m, Q3:$1.5m, Q4:$1.5m)
Lucent ....$2.8m ($700,000 per quarter)
Unidentified fixed-fee Licensee $5.3m ($1.35m per quarter, arising from Q3, 2008 conversion from per-unit to fixed-fee license)
Question for the board:
Other than Apple, who has a fixed fee at $2M/qtr???
Anyone???
HTC April revenues hit record
Daniel Shen, Taipei; Adam Hwang, DIGITIMES [Monday 9 May 2011]
Taiwan-based smartphone vendor HTC generated historically its highest monthly consolidated revenues at NT$38.729 billion (US$1.33 billion) in April 2011, growing 4.57% on month and 113.41% on year, according to the company.
HTC's January-April consolidated revenues of NT$142.885 billion hiked 154.72% on year.
According to industry sources in Taiwan, HTC will ship 8-9 million handsets in the Asia Pacific market in 2011
Google Rivals for Nortel Assets May Mean Bids Top $1 Billion
By Hugo Miller, Steven Church and Olga Kharif - May 5, 2011 2:40 PM PT
Google Inc. (GOOG) is facing possible rival bids for Nortel Networks Corp.’s portfolio of technology patents that could push the sale price to more than $1 billion.
RPX Corp., a San Francisco-based patent-buying firm, is considering a bid for the assets, Andrew Kent, an attorney for the company, said during a bankruptcy court hearing this week. Research In Motion Ltd. (RIM) is also weighing an offer, two people familiar with the company’s plans said last month.
Nortel, a Canadian phone-equipment maker that filed for bankruptcy in January 2009, is selling about 6,000 patents and patent applications. The portfolio will give the winning bidder rights to control and license wireless-video technologies and others that may be valuable for future generations of smartphones such as Apple Inc. (AAPL)’s iPhone and RIM’s BlackBerrys.
Google, whose Android software runs phones made by Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co., offered $900 million for the patents last month, in what Toronto-based Nortel said was a starting point for an auction. To top Google’s bid, companies have to offer at least $929 million under rules approved by the two courts overseeing Nortel’s bankruptcy.
“I believe RPX can go higher,” Peter Holden, a partner at Coller Capital, which reviewed the Nortel portfolio, said in an interview. “The Nortel portfolio is a big threat to everybody. Whoever buys this has a very big nuclear weapon. Moving forward, there’s only RPX and a cash-rich corporation that will counter the Google bid.”
The price for the patents may reach $1 billion or $1.5 billion if there’s a bidding war among multiple groups, he said.
Previous Auctions
Nortel’s previous auctions involved bidders who drove up prices.
The company’s wireless equipment business was bought by Ericsson AB in 2009 for $1.13 billion after six rounds of bidding that included Nokia Siemens Networks and MatlinPatterson Global Advisers LLC. Last year, Ciena Corp. (CIEN) acquired Nortel’s optical-networking business for $773.8 million in cash.
This time, RPX, which represents companies including Sony Corp. and Cisco Systems Inc. (CSCO), had questions about the auction rules governing joint bids by multiple companies, Kent, with the law firm McMillan LLP in Toronto, said in comments to Ontario Superior Court Judge Geoffrey Morawetz in Toronto.
Before Nortel won court permission on May 2 to hold the auction, the company’s agreement with Google prevented Nortel officials from talking to RPX or any other potential bidders, according to court records. That ban has now been lifted.
Bidding Deadline
Nortel has set up a database with details about the patents that potential bidders can access after signing an agreement to keep the information confidential. Bidders must notify Nortel of their intention to participate in the June 20 auction by June 13, according to the bidding rules.
Greg Spector, an RPX spokesman, confirmed that Kent represents the company and declined to comment further.
RPX, which began trading yesterday on the Nasdaq Stock Market, rose 78 cents to $24.66 at 4 p.m. New York time. Google slid $1.52 to $534.27.
RPX has spent more than $250 million buying patents since its inception in July 2008 for companies including Cisco, Sony, Samsung and Nokia Oyj (NOK1V), according to an investor prospectus.
Google’s Bid
Google may want the patents to protect handset makers like Samsung and Motorola that have adapted Google’s Android operating system for mobile devices, Holden said. Companies such as Apple have sued several manufacturers of Android devices alleging patent violations.
“If successful, we hope this portfolio will not only create a disincentive for others to sue Google, but also help us, our partners and the open source community--which is integrally involved in projects like Android and Chrome-- continue to innovate,” Kent Walker, senior vice president and general counsel for Google, said in an April 4 blog.
A call to Nortel Chief Strategy Officer George Riedel’s office was referred to Nortel’s press office, which declined to comment in an e-mail. A message left for Google spokesman Aaron Zamost wasn’t returned.
RIM co-CEO Mike Lazaridis declined to say whether it will bid on Nortel’s patents when asked by an investor at the company’s annual analyst day on May 2. Jim Brady, a Cisco spokesman, and Lisa Gephardt, a Sony spokeswoman, declined to comment.
Bidding Group
RPX’s other clients include SAP AG, Sharp Corp., Verizon Communications Inc. (VZ), Panasonic Corp. and Google, according to the same prospectus. The bidding group for a particular set of patents could include some clients and not others, said Holden.
Nortel filed for bankruptcy after a loss of $5.8 billion as its customers put off spending on new equipment amid the recession. Since then, Nortel has raised about $3 billion for its creditors by selling businesses, with the patents portfolio the last of the major assets to be sold.
The case is Nortel Networks Inc., 09-10138, U.S. Bankruptcy Court, District of Delaware
RPX Considering Bid for Nortel’s ‘Nuclear Weapon’ of Technology Patents
By Hugo Miller, Steven Church and Olga Kharif - May 5, 2011
RPX Corp., a patent-buying firm that represents companies including Sony Corp. and Cisco Systems Inc. (CSCO), is considering a bid for Nortel Networks Corp.’s portfolio of technology patents, said an attorney representing RPX.
Nortel, a Canadian phone-equipment maker that filed for bankruptcy in January 2009, is selling about 6,000 patents and patent applications for wireless, wired and digital technologies. Google Inc. (GOOG) offered $900 million for the patents last month, in what Toronto-based Nortel said was a starting point for an auction.
RPX organized a group that is considering a bid for the patents, attorney Andrew Kent said during a May 2 bankruptcy court hearing. The San Francisco-based company had questions about the auction rules governing joint bids by multiple companies, he said.
“We might be one of those parties,” Kent, with the law firm McMillan LLP in Toronto, said in comments to Ontario Superior Court Judge Geoffrey Morawetz in Toronto.
Greg Spector, an RPX spokesman, confirmed that Kent represents the company and declined to comment further. RPX, which began trading yesterday on the Nasdaq Stock Market, climbed $4.88, or 26 percent, to $23.88.
The company has spent more than $250 million buying patents since its inception in July 2008 for companies including Cisco, Sony, Nokia Oyj (NOK1V) and Samsung Electronics Co., according to an investor prospectus. A successful bid would see it control and license wireless-video and LTE, or long-term evolution technology crucial to future generations of smartphones such as Apple Inc. (AAPL)’s iPhone and BlackBerrys made by Research In Motion Ltd. (RIM)
Google’s Bid
To top Google’s bid, companies have to offer at least $929 million under rules approved by the two courts overseeing Nortel’s bankruptcy.
“I believe RPX can go higher,” Peter Holden, a partner at Coller Capital, which reviewed the Nortel portfolio, said in an interview. “The Nortel portfolio is a big threat to everybody. Whoever buys this has a very big nuclear weapon. Moving forward, there’s only RPX and a cash-rich corporation that will counter the Google bid.”
The bidding for the patents may reach as much as $1.5 billion, he said.
Google may want the patents to protect handset makers like Samsung and HTC Corp. that have adapted Google’s Android operating system for mobile devices, Holden said. Companies such as Apple have sued several manufacturers of Android devices alleging patent violations.
RPX Clients
“If successful, we hope this portfolio will not only create a disincentive for others to sue Google, but also help us, our partners and the open source community--which is integrally involved in projects like Android and Chrome-- continue to innovate,” Kent Walker, senior vice president and general counsel for Google, said in an April 4 blog.
A call to Nortel Chief Strategy Officer George Riedel’s office was referred to Nortel’s press office. A message left there was not immediately returned. Jim Brady, a Cisco spokesman, and Lisa Gephardt, a Sony spokeswoman, declined to comment.
RPX’s other clients include SAP AG, Sharp Corp., Verizon Communications Inc. (VZ), Panasonic Corp. and Google, according to the same prospectus. The bidding group for a particular set of patents could include some clients and not others, said Holden.
RIM is also considering a bid, two people familiar with the company’s plans said last month. RIM co-CEO Mike Lazaridis declined to say whether it will bid when asked by an investor at the company’s annual analyst day on May 2.
Nortel filed for bankruptcy after a loss of $5.8 billion as its customers put off spending on new equipment amid the recession. Since then, Nortel has raised about $3 billion for its creditors by selling businesses, with the patents portfolio the last of the major assets to be sold.
The case is Nortel Networks Inc., 09-10138, U.S. Bankruptcy Court, District of Delaware (Wilmington).
Baseband processors still essential, says Petrov Group
With the proliferation of tablets and smartphones application processors are in the limelight, but another group of mobile processors, basebands, deserve attention too, according Lj Ristic, managing director for mobility/wireless business at the Petrov Group. Baseband processors, often called phone modems, are essential to the performance of mobile devices – they make communications between devices possible and also provide additional support for some basic multimedia features. Without basebands the functioning of mobile devices would have been impossible.
With the advancement of communication technology and communications standards the complexity of baseband processors has grown in time.
The telecommunications industry has not done a good job when it comes to harmonization of standards. However, where standardization has failed the inventiveness of engineering has succeeded in designing baseband products capable of supporting all standards and multiple bands. But that has also led to the complexity of basebands since every next generation of products has to be backwards compatible and capable of supporting all legacy standards. For example a 3G mobile device needs to work on three 3G bands as well as on four EDGE/GPRS/GSM bands; or an LTE capable mobile device would work on LTE bands, 3G bands, and four 2G bands. Each time we adopt a new standard the complexity of baseband processor to support that standard goes up, said Petrov Group.
Because of their complexity and the need for reliable function there is a special certification process for baseband processors before they are approved for use. The process is lengthy and involves comprehensive testing. The approval of baseband means that it can be used in mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets. It also means that manufacturers of mobile devices want to use the same basebands as long as possible without changing them and going through another risky certification process. One of the consequences of this approach is that the life cycle of basebands is certainly longer than the life cycle of application processors, commented Ristic. Changing an application processor and keeping the same baseband will lead to new features and product differentiation with reduced risk to the phone or tablet manufacturer.
A closer look points to two crucial distinctions among baseband processors. For lower tier phones (also called basic phones, white-box phones, or feature phones) that mostly use the GPRS/GSM and EDGE standards there is a clear trend of integration of baseband together with transceiver and power management (and even FM radio) on the same chip. This reduces the cost and time to market, both being of paramount importance for low-end phones manufacturers. Basebands for low-end phones are also setting another trend; they offer multi-SIM features, crucial for design of dual-SIM (or multi-SIM) phones which are becoming very popular in India, China, Africa, Russia, Brazil, and other countries where there is a high use of low-end phones.
On the other side, high-end basebands targeting smartphones and tablets (which mostly use 3G and 4G standards because of the higher data rates needed to experience media reach applications) are made as stand alone. They are digital in nature and more complex than basebands for 2G. At the same time transceivers for 3G and 4G are also more complex; they use higher order modulation for communications, and they are mixed-signal in nature. Integration of two complex chips with two different sets of challenges would exponentially increase the risk, thus keeping them separate makes logical and strategic sense, according to Petrov Group.
It should be pointed out that modern semiconductor technology offers more than one option for integration. What cannot be done (or is not smart to do) at the silicon level can be done with packaging. Packaging technology has made tremendous progress in the last decade to the point that 3D packaging has become a reality. We are witnessing products with package on package, package in package, or through-mold vias technology, which enable a compact form factor for products combining processors and memories, or processors and transceiver, to mention a few. For example Qualcomm is well known for multichip solutions that include baseband, transceiver, and power management chip together in a single package. This integration approach allows for optimization and a different choice of silicon nodes for standalone chips.
It is also interesting to note that currently baseband products are clustered at the 65nm node. This is one generation behind standalone application processors or integrated mobile processors (processors that integrate baseband, application processor and GPU on a single chip) that are already at the 45/40nm node. We expect this lagging trend to continue. By the time basebands migrate down to the 40nm node, although LTE basebands are currently doing it, the other two will be already at the 32/28nm node. This is in line with the fact that the life cycle of baseband products is longer than the life cycle of application processors, noticed Ristic.
Baseband Processor Market
The baseband processor market is directly related to the mobile device market (which includes handsets and tablets).
The highest growth segment, tablets, is expected to reach more than 200 million units by 2015. The smartphone segment is the second highest growth segment to reach 1.2 billion units by 2015. The non-smartphone segment will stay at the level of 2010 in a number of units. Here two opposite trends cancel each other – the GPRS/GSM segment will decline while the EDGE segment continues to grow.
On the handset side, the low-end devices based on the GPRS/GSM standard dominated the market in 2010 with 57% of market share and almost 900 million units. This segment will significantly decline by 2015 down to 25% of market share, while all other segments will grow. The other three segments, EDGE, WCDMA, and CDMA 2000, were close to each other in 2010 with 15%, 11%, and 15%, respectively. By 2015 the 3G HSPA/WCDMA segment will become the biggest thanks to smartphone growth. The CDMA segment will also grow but its market share in 2015 will remain the same as in 2010, says Petrov Group.
For all practical purposes the LTE segment was nonexistent in 2010, although many trials have taken place worldwide laying a foundation for future use. LTE got an additional boost thanks to the Digital Dividend Initiative which made UHF frequency bands, 700MHz and 800MHz, available for use. This is important for the future of LTE since the cost of operation at these bands is much lower than at 2.6GHZ and also the propagation characteristics are much better in buildings (less attenuated). The LTE segment is expected to reach about 10% market share by 2015.
On the tablet side it is expected that among tablets featuring phone-connectivity the 3G HSPA/WCDMA segment will dominate the market with approximately a 2 :1 ratio compared to the CDMA 2000 segment. It is also expected that the predominant tablet segment will be tablets without phone-connectivity but with Wi-Fi/WiMAX connectivity.
Baseband processors are directly correlated to mobile devices. For each mobile device with phone-connectivity one baseband is needed. The total number of basebands reached 1.5 billion in 2010 and will reach more than 2.5 billion by 2015 (this is with the inclusion of integrated mobile processors). If integrated mobile processors are excluded the number of basebands will reach more than two billion by 2015, said Ristic.
The GPRS/GSM and EDGE market segments combined (GGE basebands) were represented in 2010 by 1.1 billion which was about 73%. These two segments combined will lose the market share by 2015 declining down to 43%. The GGE segment is becoming a commodity type of the product and the price-war that we saw in 2010 among MediaTek, Spreadtrum, and MStar will lead to a further decline of ASPs for these products.
On the other hand, the high-end baseband segment with 3G and 4G capability will be still able to command premium because of the complexity of these baseband processors. Multi-mode 3G/4G basebands reached about 400 million units in 2010 and they will pass the one billion mark by 2015, representing about 40% of market share, reaching the GGE baseband group in number of units and exceeding it significantly in dollar value. This will happen thanks to smartphone and tablet growth.
Integrated mobile processors represented only 30 million units or 2% of market share in 2010 – all of these being Snapdragon processors shipped by Qualcomm. Integrated mobile processors should reach about 16% of market share by 2015 and grow to about 400 million units in volume.
In summary, by 2015 the baseband processor market will be the biggest segment in units among mobile processors reaching 2.2 billion units while integrated mobile processors will reach 400 million units, concluded Petrov Group.
HTC 1Q11 revenues, net profit hit records
Daniel Shen, Taipei; Adam Hwang, DIGITIMES [Monday 2 May 2011]
Taiwan smartphone vendor HTC posted historically highest quarterly revenues of NT$104.16 billion (US$3.50 billion) and net profit of NT$14.83 billion in the first quarter of 2011, according to the company at an investors conference on April 29.
HTC shipped 9.7 million smartphones in the first quarter, growing 6% on quarter and 192% on year with ASP standing at US$359. For the second quarter of 2011, HTC expects shipments of 11.0-11.5 million smartphones to generate revenues of NT$120 billion with net operating margin of 15-16% and gross margin of 28.5-29.5%.
Another blowout quarter for Apple. Someday...someday...sigh
another blow out Quarter for QCOM. Someday, someday... sigh...
RIM Said to Consider Bid Topping Google for Nortel Patents
By Hugo Miller and Steven Church - Apr 15, 2011
Research In Motion Ltd. (RIM) is considering a bid for Nortel Networks Corp.’s portfolio of wireless technology patents that would top Google Inc. (GOOG)’s $900 million offer, two people familiar with the plans said.
RIM, maker of the BlackBerry smartphone, is considering whether to bid alone for the assets or to potentially save money on a joint bid to stop Google acquiring all 6,000 Nortel patents and patent applications, one of the people said.
IEEE Approves IEEE 802.16mTM Advanced Mobile Broadband Wireless Standard
The WirelessMAN-Advanced Air Interface, already approved by ITU-R as an IMT-Advanced technology, provides a future evolution path for existing IEEE 802.16TM service providers
PISCATAWAY, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--IEEE, the world's largest professional association advancing technology for humanity, today announced that the IEEE Standards Association (IEEE-SA) Standards Board has approved IEEE 802.16mTM (“Amendment to IEEE Standard for Local and metropolitan area networks, Part 16: Air Interface for Broadband Wireless Access Systems - Advanced Air Interface”).
“Our organization was able to efficiently harmonize these innovative technologies into a clear set of specifications guiding the future development of the mobile broadband marketplace.”
IEEE 802.16m provides the performance improvements necessary to support future advanced services and applications for next generation broadband mobile communications. In October 2010, ITU-R agreed to incorporate this technology into its IMT-Advanced Recommendation specifying systems that support low to high mobility applications, a wide range of data rates in multiple user environments, high-quality multimedia applications, and significant improvements in performance and quality of service.
A globally relevant standard, IEEE 802.16m incorporates innovative communications technologies such as multi-user MIMO, multicarrier operation, and cooperative communications. It supports femto-cells, self-organizing networks, and relays. Major worldwide governmental and industrial organizations, including ARIB, TTA, and the WiMAX Forum, are adopting this standard.
“We are delighted that IEEE has recognized the completion of this comprehensive technical effort that has involved hundreds of creative and diligent professionals from over twenty countries during the last four years,” said Dr. Roger Marks, Chair of the IEEE 802.16 Working Group. “Our organization was able to efficiently harmonize these innovative technologies into a clear set of specifications guiding the future development of the mobile broadband marketplace.”
Research In Motion Enters License Agreement with Intellectual Ventures
BELLEVUE, Wash., March 30, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Intellectual Ventures (IV) announced today that it has entered into a license agreement with Research In Motion (RIM). The deal provides RIM with access to IV's extensive patent portfolio of more than 30,000 IP assets.
Becoming an IV licensee provides access to additional products and services to address both short-term and long-term IP-related matters. As an IV customer, RIM can now complement its own strong patent portfolio with access to IV's portfolio and can leverage IV's portfolio in its future licensing negotiations.
"Intellectual Ventures offers an efficient way to access the invention rights companies need to stay competitive within the market," said Mario Obeidat, head of telecommunications licensing at Intellectual Ventures. "RIM has always been an innovator on the forefront of the mobile communications world, and by becoming a licensing customer of IV, they can have access to a broader set of patents to assist them in the management of their IP-related business matters."
Intellectual Ventures engages with companies of all sizes to meet their current business needs and provide strategic guidance on forward-thinking intellectual property. IV combines scale and expertise to structure sophisticated deals designed to help companies strengthen their market position by reducing their current risk and providing access to the invention rights they need to stay competitive.
InterDigital Announces Pricing of Private Offering of $200 Million of 2.50% Senior Convertible Notes
9:00a ET March 30, 2011 (Business Wire)
InterDigital, Inc. (NASDAQ: IDCC) announced today the pricing of its private offering of $200 million aggregate principal amount of 2.50% Senior Convertible Notes due 2016, which was upsized from the previously announced $150 million offering, to be sold to qualified institutional buyers in reliance on Rule 144A under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended. InterDigital(R) has granted the initial purchaser of the notes a 13-day option to purchase up to an additional $30 million aggregate principal amount of notes, solely to cover over-allotments, if any. The offering is expected to close on April 4, 2011, subject to certain closing conditions.
The notes will be InterDigital's senior unsecured obligations. The notes will pay interest semi-annually in cash on March 15 and September 15 at a rate of 2.50% per year, and will mature on March 15, 2016. The holders of the notes will have the ability to require InterDigital to repurchase all or any portion of their notes for cash in the event of a fundamental change. In such case, the repurchase price would be 100% of the principal amount of the notes being repurchased plus any accrued and unpaid interest.
Prior to December 15, 2015, the notes will be convertible only upon the occurrence of certain events and during certain periods, and thereafter, at any time until the business day preceding the maturity date. The notes will be convertible at an initial conversion rate of 17.3458 shares of InterDigital common stock per $1,000 principal amount of the notes, which is equivalent to an initial conversion price of approximately $57.65, which represents a 32.5% conversion premium to the closing sale price of $43.51 per share of InterDigital common stock on the NASDAQ Global Select Market on March 29, 2011. In addition, following certain corporate transactions that occur prior to the maturity date, InterDigital will, in certain circumstances, increase the conversion rate for a holder that elects to convert its notes in connection with such a corporate transaction. Upon any conversion, the conversion obligation will be settled in cash up to the principal amount and, to the extent of any excess over the principal amount, in shares of InterDigital common stock.
In connection with the offering of the notes, InterDigital has entered into a privately negotiated convertible note hedge transaction with an affiliate of the initial purchaser of the notes (the "hedge counterparty"). The convertible note hedge transaction will cover, subject to customary anti-dilution adjustments, the number of shares of InterDigital common stock that will initially underlie the notes. InterDigital has also entered into a privately negotiated warrant transaction with the hedge counterparty relating to the same number of shares of InterDigital common stock. The strike price of the warrant transaction will initially be approximately $66.35 per share, which represents a 52.5% premium to the closing sale price of InterDigital common stock on the NASDAQ Global Select Market on March 29, 2011. In addition, if the initial purchaser exercises its over-allotment option to purchase additional notes, InterDigital expects to sell additional warrants and to use a portion of the proceeds from the sale of the additional notes and from the sale of the corresponding additional warrants to enter into an additional convertible note hedge transaction. The convertible note hedge transactions are expected to reduce the potential dilution with respect to InterDigital common stock upon conversion of the notes. However, the warrant transactions will have a dilutive effect to the extent that the market price per share of InterDigital common stock exceeds the applicable strike price of the warrants on any expiration date of the warrants.
In connection with establishing its initial hedge of the convertible note hedge transactions and warrant transactions and concurrently with, or shortly after, the pricing of the notes, the hedge counterparty and/or its affiliate expect to purchase InterDigital common stock in open market transactions and/or privately negotiated transactions and/or enter into various cash-settled derivative transactions with respect to InterDigital common stock. In addition, the hedge counterparty and/or its affiliate may modify its hedge positions by entering into or unwinding various derivative transactions with respect to InterDigital common stock and/or by purchasing or selling InterDigital common stock in open market transactions and/or privately negotiated transactions following the pricing of the notes from time to time (and are likely to do so during any conversion period related to a conversion of notes). Any of these hedging activities could also increase, decrease or prevent a decrease in, the market price of InterDigital common stock.
InterDigital estimates that the net proceeds from the offering of the notes will be approximately $193.4 million (or approximately $222.5 million if the initial purchaser exercises its over-allotment option in full), after deducting the initial purchaser's fees and estimated offering expenses. In addition, InterDigital expects to receive proceeds from the sale of the warrants described above. InterDigital expects to use a portion of the net proceeds from the offering of the notes and the proceeds from the sale of the warrants to fund the cost of the convertible note hedge transaction. InterDigital expects to use the remaining $183.9 million of net proceeds from the offering of the notes for general corporate purposes, which may include, among other things: acquisitions of intellectual property-related assets or businesses or securities in such businesses; capital expenditures; and working capital.
The notes and the shares of InterDigital common stock issuable upon conversion, if any, have not been registered under the Securities Act or applicable state securities laws and may not be offered or sold in the United States except pursuant to an exemption from the registration requirements of the Securities Act and applicable state securities laws.
This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy these securities, nor shall there be any sale of these securities in any state in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such state.
To paraphrase Occam's Razor: "when you have two competing theories which make exactly the same predictions, the one that is simpler is the better."
My WAG, IDCC is attempting to buy the Nortel patents for a combination of cash and debt.
Nortel's creditors have publicly stated they were not sure if they were better off selling now or keeping the patents, monetizing them and selling later for a bigger payoff. The parties have apparently agreed on a package that would allow the creditors to partially stay in the deal and get some upside through the warrants. The rest is just noise.
In short: win/win.
The Case for Midcap Dividend Stocks
Last Friday, after the Federal Reserve said the bigger banks could once again hike dividend payouts, investors scrambled to buy shares of blue chip financials. But when Foot Locker announced in February it was hiking its dividend, investors barely noticed. Maybe they should have: Investing pros say midsized companies that pay dividends may be a better bet than the giants.
About 244 mid-sized companies – defined as having a market value between $750 million and $3 billion – pay dividends, compared to 384 dividend-payers in the Standard & Poor's 500 index. But those that do possess many of the same appealing traits as their larger counterparts – strong cash flows, stable business models and less volatility than non-dividend-paying stocks, says Mitch Schlesinger, the chief investment officer at FBB Capital Partners.
There's also added potential for faster growth, traditionally a reason investors like midcap stocks in general. Standard & Poor's estimates profits at midsized firms will grow 22% this year, compared to just 15% for their larger brethren. "A case can be made that midcap stocks offer a mixture of growth characteristics with the stability of dividend payments," says Todd Rosenbluth, a mutual fund analyst for Standard & Poor's. That faster earnings growth often translates into rapid dividend growth, says Schlesinger, making for a virtuous circle that rewards investors.
On the other hand, dividend payouts at midsized firms are typically lower than blue chips': The average yield in the S&P midcap index is 1.1%, compared to 1.9% for the S&P 500. And dividend or no, midcap tend to be riskier than bigger, more-established companies, and are prone to speedier price swings, Rosenbluth says. The category has also been on a tear over the past two years – the S&P 400 midcap index is up about 136% compared to the S&P 500's 91% gain – and some analysts worry that run may soon be over. Consider: Since 1949, midcaps have gained an average of 4% in the third year of a bull market, compared to 5% for large-caps.
To protect against some of that risk, Schlesinger recommends investing only in midcaps with stable earnings and cash flow to support their dividend. How do you spot stability? First, make sure the dividend yield isn't growing faster than the company can afford. One way to measure is to compare a company's projected earnings growth rate to its dividend-growth rate – so a company boosting its dividend by 20% should also be notching 20% earnings growth. Investors should also steer clear of companies with excessive debt – a tactic of many smaller companies trying to fuel their growth, says Tom Cameron, the chairman of Dividend Growth Advisors. Right now, Don Wordell, who runs the dividend-oriented RidgeWorth Mid-Cap Value Equity Fund ( SAMVX ) , likes Ingersoll-Rand ( IR: 48.18, +0.18, +0.37% ) , a heating and air-conditioning systems maker, which is expected to grow earnings 30% this year and has a 0.6% dividend. Schlesinger recommends clothes manufacturer VF Corporation ( VFC: 95.42, +0.26, +0.27% ) , owner the Nautica and North Face brands, which pays a hefty 2.6% dividend and has an estimated 2011 earnings growth rate of 9.9%.
Read more: The Case for Midcap Dividend Stocks - SmartMoney.com http://www.smartmoney.com/investing/stocks/the-case-for-midcap-dividend-stocks-1300919364674/#ixzz1HqkwCcGf