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Compaq adds wireless voice, data to IPaq PDAs
By Douglas F. Gray
(IDG) -- Your existing Compaq IPaq PDA may gain wireless voice and data functions because of a technology upgrade Compaq is developing and expects to begin testing soon.
The technology will permit customers to browse the Web, send e-mail, and send and receive voice calls in Europe and North America using their personal digital assistants, Compaq says in a statement. The service is expected to be available later this year.
Compaq declines to discuss details but confirms that current IPaq users will be able to use the technology.
The enabling technology that Compaq is developing supports a tri-band global system for mobile communications (GSM) and general packet radio service (GPRS) device. Carriers are expected to begin trials soon.
The line between Pocket PCs and mobile phones continues to blur as phones gain data capabilities and PDAs acquire more communications functions.
IPaqnet Gains Resources
In the meantime, Compaq also has enhanced its Ipaqnet Mobile Internet wireless service by adding content providers. Information will now be available from a variety of new sources, including ABC News, Business Week, ESPN, and Yahoo's portal.
Wireless streaming audio and video is also available for IPaqnet customers using the Ricochet network and Microsoft Windows Media Player 7.1, Compaq says.
North American customers can also now access Lotus Domino messaging through the IPaq BlackBerry Wireless E-mail Solution, Compaq says. BlackBerry Exchange Server for Microsoft Exchange 2.1 is currently available, so IPaq BlackBerry users can synchronize with Exchange, as well as accepting and rejecting meeting notices, the company says.
Compaq got a boost recently when market researchers at Dataquest estimated that Compaq's handheld sales revenues are expected to exceed those of Palm's. However, Palm's devices typically cost less than Compaq's, so its unit sales may still exceed those of Compaq.
Compaq introduced its Pocket PC as part of its IPaq family last year. The Pocket PC runs a version of Microsoft Windows and handheld-size versions of common Microsoft applications.
New York nears approval
of handheld car-phone ban
Would be first state regulate cell phone use in vehicles
ASSOCIATED PRESS
ALBANY, N.Y., June 22 — The New York Senate approved a measure that would make the state the first in the U.S. to ban drivers from using hand-held cellular telephones.
THE APPROVAL CAME Thursday night after Gov. George Pataki and legislative leaders said an agreement on the proposal had been reached. The Assembly was to take it up on Monday.
“Finally, we will get the bird back in the cage,” said Assemblyman Felix Ortiz, who began his campaign for the ban in 1996 amid his colleagues’ snickers. “People were making a lot of fun of me, but it eventually became not only an issue at the state level, but on the national level.”
Lawmakers embraced the notion after independent polls showed New Yorkers favoring the ban by a wide margin. A March poll from the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute found that 87 percent of New York voters supported a ban.
Several counties across the state have already enacted such bans. Thirty-nine other states are considering similar laws, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
Violators of the New York law could be fined up to $100 beginning in December.
If approved and signed by Pataki, the New York proposal would take effect Nov. 1, but violators would get only a verbal warning for a month. Those nabbed after Dec. 1 would be ticketed, but they could get that dismissed through February by showing a receipt for a hands-free system
I find this rather interesting:
1] CPQ to come out with ipaq music center for the home audio market- a platform edig has stated it is involved;
2] CPQ-Openglobe announce jointly developing the ipaq music center due out in 1st half of 2001-but delayed to 7/15/01;
3] CPQ, Openglobe, and e.digital all listed as hardware partners w/ Rioport [a rather short list];
4]Thomson and Openglobe developing a Digital Media Manager;
5]Thomson uses a simple mini-kernel running on a Texas Instruments DSP for its MP3 player
Consider, for instance, Thompson Consumer Electronics' Lyra MP3 player. This groundbreaking convergence device uses no RTOS. Rather, it works with a simple mini-kernel running on a Texas Instruments DSP, which joins forces with an NEC microcontroller. In addition to supervisory functions, the DSP uses its onboard memory to perform sample-rate conversion, provide digital volume control, implement a five-band equalizer, and handle audio fast-forwarding and rewinding. The NEC chip controls the user interface, keyboard, and display, and runs the file system that reads music tracks off of CompactFlash memory cards.
Indeed, the fact that the Lyra doesn't need to write to memory at all allowed its designers to get by without an RTOS. Users load music into the CompactFlash cards using a PC, so many of the functions that would otherwise require an RTOS can reside on the PC. When the Lyra reads the card, it simply examines the file-allocation table, recovers the directory listing, and starts streaming the music. Similarly, the Lyra contains no music decoder. Instead, the PC places an executable file, which contains the decoding algorithm, along with the music file on the memory card. This approach will make it easy for Thompson to upgrade the system to handle new formats as consumer tastes and industry standards change.
THOMSON MULTIMEDIA AND OPENGLOBE(TM) TO COLLABORATE ON DEVELOPMENT OF DIGITAL MEDIA MANAGER
Las Vegas, Nevada, January 5, 2001 - The RCA Digital Media Manager, a new breed of home entertainment product that is now in development, will soon allow consumers to store their music collection, with over 4000 tracks, in one hard-disc device and offer easy access with a TV set to thousands of tunes as well as playback of DVD movies.
When the RCA Digital Media Manager comes to market later this year, it will incorporate design and service elements created by OpenGlobe, Inc., a convergence technology company that develops Internet-based home entertainment platforms and services. The design and development agreement is being announced at the International Consumer Electronics Show here today.
"OpenGlobe is providing key technologies that will enhance the consumer experience with the RCA Digital Media Manager. Through OpenGlobe's efforts, the product will provide consumers with details on the CD or DVD and even recommend other music or movies based on a user profile," said Mark Redmond, Vice President of Worldwide Audio, Thomson Multimedia, manufacturer and marketer of RCA entertainment products.
A music machine, video player, content organizer, and entertainment information center with Internet access capability, the RCA Digital Media Manager will be manufactured and marketed by Thomson Multimedia (NYSE: TMS). The device will utilize a hard-disc drive with the capability of storing a collection of more than 4,000 songs in the mp3 format. It will also play DVD discs, compact discs, mp3 files, and Internet Radio streams.
Thomson/OpenGlobe
Using the television, the RCA Digital Media Manager will display titles and cover art for compact discs and will permit consumers to build playlists of their favorite music without the hassle of "jewel box" cases and bulky CD changers. The Digital Media Manager allows the user to seamlessly navigate and interact with their music. The built-in software makes it easy to compress CD music in the mp3 format on the integrated hard-disc drive.
"OpenGlobe is extremely pleased to partner with Thomson to deliver powerful media services and platform technologies to their customers, delivering fully on our shared vision for CE-Commerce. Thomson is a true leader in digital media products and services, as exemplified by its HDTV, Lyra MP3, eBook and digital satellite dish receivers & service initiatives. Now Thomson will forge a new product category with its RCA Digital Media Manager."
No longer a mere means of transportation, the car is evolving into a mobile center integrated into the worldwide IT infrastructure.
Processing power is overtaking horsepower in car design, as
navigation, communications and entertainment systems converge
into a single, integrated environment. Imagine your in-car systems
consulting up-to-the-minute travel information to lead you around
traffic jams, checking the availability of hotel rooms as you enter a city, notifying you when that important e-mail has arrived, and
more! All of this integrated with the newest generation of in-car
entertainment and activated by the sound of your voice. Philips
Semiconductors' Car Infotainment Platform is putting the single
integrated automobile electronics system within reach of
manufacturers, enabling them to turn this vision of tomorrow into
today's reality.
Modular design key to interoperability
By Jack Morgan, Director, Automotive Segment, North America, Philips Semiconductors, San Jose, Calif.
EE Times
(06/22/01, 11:14 a.m. EST)
Telematics and navigation systems are now almost standard in high-end models and rental cars. Drivers are demanding simple guidance help when traveling in unfamiliar locations, and safety and convenience support and assistance. However, current systems are still rather expensive and, for cost-conscious owners of lower-end models, telematics is still more of a tempting option rather than a standard feature.
It is not just the availability of advanced silicon solutions that is driving developments forward. The number of service providers is also increasing rapidly, with most automotive manufacturers and rental companies around the globe offering various telematics and navigation packages. In addition, the infrastructure on which these systems are based is also growing. Global positioning systems (GPS) and cellular communications networks are already well advanced, while digital satellite and broadcast services, and traffic-monitoring systems, are expanding daily.
Automotive navigation systems have evolved rapidly since the introduction of simple GPS systems, with the availability of embedded high-performance microprocessor cores and systems-on-silicon approaches. This delivers open-platform flexibility together with the processing performance for a range of solutions from basic telematics features to fully featured high-end navigation and route-guidance systems.
With a dedicated telematics core, it is possible to add any number of key peripherals to the overall design, such as on-chip GPS correlator, UARTs for direct connection of cellular phones or a controller-area network (CAN) controller to interface with a car's power train network. Other software-based features, such as "dead reckoning," can also be implemented either by drawing data from dedicated sensors or from vehicle-management systems (i.e., wheel sensors, odometer) via the in-vehicle network.
Providing a fully integrated car infotainment/telematics system requires a wide selection of peripherals. Such a system should deliver a much greater range of features, such as dynamic navigation, route calculation and map matching/rotation as well as car radio, Internet access and e-mail.
The basic car radio has been the standard bearer for in-car entertainment for many years. Recently, however, this has changed as the digital era has taken hold. Not only has the introduction of satellite and terrestrial digital radio services changed the picture, but digital technology has vastly improved the listening quality of analog radio. Even today we are seeing digitally enhanced, high-quality car radios with integrated CD players appearing as standard in most vehicles, with an increasing range of other audio systems, such as MP3 players, available as aftermarket sales.
The all-important user interface is evolving into a true multimedia interface. Dedicated media processors offer the performance to handle all required audio, video and graphics processing. Speech-recognition systems are set to deliver true hands-free control over a wide range of features within the car, from simply turning accessories such as the air conditioning on or off, to automatically muting the various audio sources when answering or making a phone call.
Online integration
Mobile communications technologies are allowing the introduction of Internet-based services from basic e-mail retrieval to online booking along with emergency calling in case of an accident. In-car television, DVD players and games consoles are all soon to be available as entertainment for passengers, heightening the enjoyment factor on long journeys. This is, of course, just a brief overview of the monumental changes occurring within the car infotainment market, all of which are possible only as consumer-based automotive technologies come online.
What is required, however, is a lot more than just a selection of individual components and systems. An integrated, comprehensive and detailed design and development approach is necessary. In fact, it is the functionality of such systems that dictates how the system is built, with individual blocks being fully interoperable.
For example, data exchange between telematics and multimedia processors is a necessity to incorporate traffic-routing information into route calculation. This requires both systems to be connected via a bus bridge, in a way that guarantees that bus saturation and interrupts from one system do not adversely affect the performance of the other.
To achieve this interoperability while maintaining time-to-market constraints requires a modular design approach. This not only guarantees hardware compatibility but also ensures that predeveloped software for the telematics processor can be directly reused on a mobile multimedia platform, and so on.
Additional peripherals such as a graphics accelerator--as well as SDRAM and PCI interfaces, and interfaces to standard peripherals-can also be integrated. This is embodied in Philips Semiconductors' Nexperia approach, which has resulted in the development of the Nexperia Car Infotainment Platform (CIP) concept. By specifically developing a range of core infotainment hardware and software blocks that are fully interoperable and reusable, dedicated systems from a basic telematics processor right up to a fully featured, high-end infotainment system can be quickly developed.
Connectivity impacts telematics future
By John Slosar, Director, Telematics/Multimedia, Visteon Corp., Dearborn, Mich.
EE Times
(06/22/01, 11:17 a.m. EST)
We view telematics in the vehicle today a lot like the Internet 10 years ago. Back then, few Internet-based applications existed and access was painfully slow. Today, as wireless technologies proliferate and data rates increase, expect to see some truly innovative products for the Internet.
Consumer expectations about telematics have shifted as the perceived need for connectivity increases. The car radio is no longer a simple device for tuning in radio broadcasts, or even for playing cassettes or CDs. Instead, it's becoming a communications center, providing navigation, Internet access, automatic emergency assistance calls, vehicle tracking and in-vehicle entertainment.
The technologies that will enable these new products are being developed in partnerships among diverse companies with a vision to connect every area of a person's life. For instance, Visteon is working with partners such as Samsung, Intel, Microsoft, Lucent (Agere), IBM and Nintendo to provide a telematics environment that is easy to use and robust enough to endure the harsh vehicle environment.
Visteon is focused on developing speech technologies to enhance the user-vehicle interface. In-vehicle computing requires a completely new paradigm, the main impetus for which is to minimize driver distraction. Forget the mouse and keyboard-voice recognition will be the primary input device for vehicle-based computing. Text-to-speech technology will supplant the video monitors of today's desktop systems.
Voice technology is already in production in Jaguar's S-type platform. It allows drivers to control their phone, audio system and climate-control system without using their hands. The system can be configured in one of six languages. As a speaker-independent system, it does not require a lengthy training process as with most of today's PC-based voice-recognition software packages.
Two key technologies make telematics products possible. One is Global Positioning System (GPS) technology that can help pinpoint a vehicle's location or provide destination location information to the driver. The second key enabler involves the various wireless technologies-cellular, satellite, In-Band on Channel, Bluetooth, etc.-which provide a means to move data in and out of the vehicle.
By combining GPS and wireless technologies, designers can cater to a whole new set of consumer needs. Telematics suppliers have the advantage of historical precedence-namely, the Internet. Much can be learned from the evolution of the Internet and other service-based business models. The vehicle could be another node on the Internet.
Safety is at the core of telematics design and development and will likely follow the cell phone's evolutionary path. Early on, cell phones were primarily used to aid motorists in the event of a breakdown or accident. Now cell phones are essential to modern life. Telematics will likely follow the same evolutionary path: safety/security, communications, convenience, entertainment.
The second wave of telematics involves hands-free phone dialing. The third wave will provide drivers real-time data such as traffic information and weather updates. Real-time traffic information, combined with a navigation system, will enable dynamic updating of turn-by-turn navigation instructions-a much anticipated convenience that will help justify the cost of such systems, according to suppliers. Wireless delivery of all forms of data (e-mail, compressed audio/video and financial information) is integral to the telematics vision and promises to make the vehicle another access point into cyberspace.
Personal touch
Telematics will reach further into the fabric of society, on both personal and commercial levels. Nearly everyone needs to squeeze more time out of the day and wants to improve their quality of life. Telematics-enabled vehicles will lead to instant billing to your credit card as you pump gas. Or, if you want to reserve a parking space, you will be able to communicate when you want the space, and alert a gate that recognizes your car's electronic signature to open and let you park. Then you'll be billed for what you used.
Commercial uses, too, are restricted only by imagination. Truck fleets will gather data from engine modules to determine when a truck needs maintenance, when a load will reach its destination and if a load has been tampered with. Commercial fleets already use portable navigation devices such as Visteon's Portable NavMate to increase predictability and profitability.
lsat FWIW- ipaq music center was scheduled to released before 6/30 now due july 15
Smartening up home with new high-tech
By Stanley A. Miller Li, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
LAS VEGAS -- It's 2001, and some people were expecting flying cars and Jetsons-like homes filled with technological luxuries for the average family.
Like a big silver box that automatically dresses people when they step into it.
Or a medicine cabinet with robotic arms that brush your teeth, comb your hair and give a nice, close shave.
Well, the technology industry is still a long way from bringing those fantastic niceties to the American home. But at the Consumer Electronics Show, which was held here Jan. 6-10, more than 1,500 companies showing off their latest products had digital devices for every room in the house. The show is one of the country's largest technology trade events.
The idea of the digital home is the overriding theme because it wraps up so many things -- including high-speed Internet access, wireless networking, digital music and video, and hand-held electronics -- into one tidy package.
In his keynote address to open the industry-only trade show, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates said the home PC has become powerful enough to be the command center for a high-tech home, a sort of overmind that dominates the rest of the electronic components in the house.
"We can go back to the original dream of computers being able to do everything," Gates said. "The PC is going to be where you store the information and keep control. Throughout the house, all of the information will be available."
Gates watched as prototype PCs running an early version of Whistler -- the code name for Microsoft's next Windows operating system -- sent digital images over a wireless network to a digital picture frame hanging on a wall. The demonstration also showed digital music being sent to various smart devices, including a prototype alarm clock that can be programmed with specific music and announcements over the Net.
"It's all about the digital lifestyle," said Gates, who then unveiled the Xbox, Microsoft's television-video game-console system scheduled to be released in the fall.
Despite Gates' vision of high-tech homes ruled by personal computers, many of the gadgets, gizmos and Internet appliances displayed here operate independently of the PC but still bring computer technology into every room of the house.
Let's start with the living room.
Compaq's iPaq music center can add digital music to any home stereo system. The device creates digital music files from audio CDs placed into it and stores the tunes on a 20-gigabyte hard drive that can hold days' worth of music.
The iPaq, which looks a lot like a typical stereo CD player, connects to a television set, so users can navigate through their music by remote control. The device also plays music over the Internet and hooks up to other stereo components, so music lovers can convert their cassettes, LPs or even 8-tracks to digital file format.
Compaq representatives would only say the player will be "competitively priced" and be available within the first half of the year.
from the FWIW department---
OPENGLOBE™ JOINS FORCES WITH COMPAQ TO CREATE NEW INTERNET-ENABLED, HOME ENTERTAINMENT DEVICES
New Alliance Brings the Power of Digital Media into the Family Room
Indianapolis, Indiana, January 5, 2001 OpenGlobe, a premier convergence technology and innovative CE-Commerce™ company, announced an agreement with – Compaq (NYSE: CPQ) to co-develop the iPAQ Music Center, an audio product and PC application that augments Compaq’s iPAQ product line. Through this alliance, OpenGlobe will provide an array of services, relative to digital entertainment and CE-Commerce, to the consumer through the device itself.
Bernie Sepaniak, President of OpenGlobe said, "OpenGlobe is extremely pleased to work with Compaq in extending the power of digital entertainment and services throughout the home. Our relationship will capitalize on Compaq’s strengths in personal computers, Internet appliances, and home networking, which complement OpenGlobe’s powerful media services and entertainment platform technologies. Together we will deliver fully on our shared vision for CE-CommerceTM."
The iPAQ Music Center will enable users to automatically identify, store and organize thousands of digital tunes. It will also act as an electronic music guide allowing quick and easy location of any song through personalized and customized play lists. Among other features, it will also enable an entertainment center to broadcast Internet radio.
"OpenGlobe complements Compaq’s vision to deliver easy-to-use, connected devices that fit our users’ lifestyles," said Michael Brown, Director, Entertainment Products, Compaq Computer Corporation. "As we expand our iPAQ product line into the consumer entertainment space, our collaboration with OpenGlobe enables us to provide a highly integrated approach to home entertainment and relevant services."
OpenGlobe will be celebrating this announcement with Compaq at a launch event to kick off the international Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas this afternoon, and will be offering information and technology demonstrations from the OpenGlobe booth (LVCC 3&4, # 6347) throughout the show.
About OpenGlobe.
OpenGlobe, Inc., is a convergence technology company providing Internet-based home entertainment platforms and services to consumers through established consumer electronics and personal computer manufacturers. OpenGlobe tightly integrates the Internet, innovative media management, content, profiling/buying services and hardware technologies, extending the entertainment experience. Based in Indianapolis, the company will enable a wide array of entertainment products to become customer relationship tools, deliver end-to-end CE-Commerce™ services, and combine digital media and Internet power – products and services that entertain simplicity™. For more information about OpenGlobe, please visit www.openglobe.net.
=========================
from Rioport website:
Media Device Manufacturers
Our Partners
RioPort is joining forces with the leaders in the digital audio industry in order to provide our customers with the best products and services available. Check out our growing list of partners below!
Compaq
E.digital Corporation
Eiger
Maycom Co., Ltd.
MPMan
Nike
OpenGlobe
SONICblue
Samsung Electronics Co, Ltd.
Sewon Telecom Co., Ltd.
Unitech
To Napster forums users:
Napster is in the process of launching a membership service this summer. As part of that launch, we're building improved forums with more features and functionality.
Until then, we're temporarily closing down the forums. Napster would like to thank our user community, and we look forward to serving you with our new and improved forums shortly.
In the meantime, please feel free to visit the chat rooms accessible from the Napster application.
Thank you for your continued support.
Napster
NY TIMES interview w/ BMG ceo:
June 10, 2001
Thomas Middelhoff Has a Hunch
By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK
Thomas Middelhoff, chairman and chief executive of the media giant Bertelsmann, kicked off his crusade to save Napster on the afternoon of Oct. 31 last year in the ballroom of the Essex House hotel on Central Park South. Before a crowd of journalists and camera crews, Middelhoff mounted a dais with Shawn Fanning, Napster's 19-year-old founder. Everyone knew Fanning: the bashful cult hero who had brought free music to the masses, the embodiment of the libertarian ethos of the Internet.
Not many recognized Middelhoff. Forty-seven years old, 6- foot-4, slender and broad-shouldered, he was dressed the part of a buttoned-down media baron -- thick knot in his cream-colored tie, starched collar and dark double-breasted suit. From Bertelsmann's headquarters in Gutersloh, Germany, Middelhoff presides over a media empire that includes the book publishing behemoth Random House; the record labels RCA, Arista and Windham Hill; an international portfolio of newspapers and magazines, including YM and Family Circle; and Europe's largest television studio, radio and television broadcaster, Internet portal and online store.
Speaking in an unmistakably German syntax, Middelhoff announced that Bertelsmann was coming to the rescue of Napster, the music industry's nemesis. The plan was that Bertelsmann would pay Napster $60 million to help convert its free music-sharing network into a fee-collecting subscription service that would pay copyright holders for permission to circulate their songs. Fanning, glancing down shyly and biting his lip, thanked Middelhoff with a Napster T-shirt.
"It looks very good," Middelhoff said, making the most of the unlikely scene. "I have five kids. They would die to get it." Getting a laugh, he hammed it up. "It is XXL." Then he turned to Fanning and opened his arms for a bear hug. To the befuddled audience, it was J.P. Morgan cuddling up to Pretty Boy Floyd, and for a moment even Fanning looked surprised.
Middelhoff met me at the hotel that morning and tipped me off to his bombshell. He clearly got a kick out of my momentary confusion. "Bertelsmann and Napster -- are you surprised?" he asked, leaning back in his chair and letting his long arms dangle to the sides. "Let's be honest," he said with a grin. "Napster is pretty cool."
The essence of Napster is file-sharing, a technology designed to let fans feed off one another's enthusiasm for music. Its users transfer their favorite songs from compact discs to files on their computers, and Napster's software allows other users to scan these collections from afar and copy the music they want directly onto their own hard drives. After a year and a half in business, its vast network of registered users -- more than 37 million at the time the deal was announced -- had digitized an estimated three billion recordings. Fanning and company even added chat rooms and instant messaging to facilitate user bonding.
Middelhoff was almost rhapsodic about the potential for building communities. "When a Napster user is sitting at his PC and he's connected with somebody in Europe or in Latin America or in Asia, then they don't share only the file," Middelhoff said. "They are saying, 'Hey, can you remember when this band performed, and what did you do, did you have your first kiss? And by the way, where do you live?' This was Shawn Fanning's genius."
Even before the ink on his Napster deal was dry, Middelhoff was predicting that Bertelsmann would find a way to apply the file-sharing model to every form of media imaginable, from family photos to video games, digital films and television, even electronic books. Consumers would share anything that could be browsed or disseminated, probably paying a monthly subscription fee to participate.
Plenty of people had tossed around similar ideas for video games or films, but few could figure out how to make money and respect copyright. And none of them were heads of major media companies. But here was Middelhoff, saying that file-sharing would eventually constitute a change in the consumption of popular culture as revolutionary as radio or cable television.
It would also constitute a major strategic coup for Bertelsmann. In exchange for a loan, Bertelsmann received the right to buy a majority stake in Napster later. This would secure a foothold on every user's hard drive. Napster isn't just a Web site that users choose to visit or skip. It is a piece of software users download to their own machines -- the Napster "client" that acts as a gateway to its network the way the Netscape browser is a gateway to the Internet. It provides a direct line to the consumer, through which a company could observe habits and pitch products. That intimate connection is the Holy Grail of the media business, driving Time Warner's merger with AOL, Universal's sale to the French company Vivendi and Rupert Murdoch's pursuit of the digital satellite television company DirecTV.
Of course, domesticating Napster into a legitimate business would require settling its lawsuit and winning the cooperation of Bertelsmann's rivals, including AOL Time Warner and Vivendi Universal. Most people at the record labels were convinced that Napster's principal attraction was giving away their music free.
But Middelhoff promised that Napster would allay those fears by limiting its sound quality, ensuring that users would still buy compact discs. He was confident that through his personal connections, he would be able to persuade his competitors to let Napster use their music once he explained its advantages as a new source of revenue and form of promotion. "I had dinner recently with the heads of the other media and entertainment companies," he told me the morning of the news conference. "They see that file-sharing is going to be a fact."
His powers of persuasion are formidable. I nodded along as he spoke in a torrent of enthusiasm about Napster's power. "Thirty-seven million users can't all be criminals," he said, leaning forward in his seat and staring intently into my eyes. Only after I left did I realize that he had told me next to nothing specific about making this fabulous vision a reality. Wouldn't charging fees alienate Napster's fans? Could he really convince his rivals to settle their suit? How many people actually wanted conversation along with their music?
Since then, the obstacles have only mounted. Neither of the top two executives at Bertelsmann's music division -- BMG Entertainment, which supports the suit against Napster -- attended the show at the Essex House, and over the next few weeks half a dozen BMG executives quietly resigned. (Bertelsmann says they left for other reasons.) Middelhoff's competitors have not settled their suit; instead, they won a court injunction, forcing Napster to pull copyrighted songs from its service. When the other companies announced plans for competing online jukeboxes, newspapers began preparing Napster's obituaries.
But you would never know it from talking to Middelhoff. Sounding more triumphant than ever, he now vows that Napster's new law-abiding, fee-collecting service will open for business this summer, in time to hold on to its franchise.
Middelhoff climbed to the top of one of the most careful and close-mouthed companies in the world through a combination of energetic showmanship, trust in his hunches and appetite for risk. His gambles have not always worked, but his instinct once paid off in a gigantic way -- seven years ago, when he staked his career at Bertelsmann on a partnership with a little-known entrepreneur named Steve Case and his beleaguered start-up America Online. Today, Middelhoff credits that venture with his position at Bertelsmann, and he believes his instincts about Napster are just as good. "When I saw file-sharing, I knew, Wow, this is now a phase of the Internet," he says. "I was convinced that Napster would be a big business just like I was convinced that AOL would be a big business -- because I knew it."
Middelhoff cultivates the image of a kind of goofy Superman. The first thing anyone notices about him is his remarkable pace, partly because he brings it up. He spends more than half his time jetting around the world, and he often talks of his frenetic travels as a kind of competitive athletic achievement. Sitting down at a meeting this winter in San Francisco, just moments after an all-night flight from Gutersloh, Middelhoff passed a note of mock concern to a colleague: "You look tired."
A few years ago, he made an agreement with his wife and five children to spend at least one day a weekend with them on their farm outside Gutersloh, but he has not been able to keep it. Wherever he is, he rises every morning at 5:45 to swim and work out, then begins returning e-mail by 7:15 and stops working around 10:30 p.m.
When he checks into a hotel, he carries his own bags, talking all the while on a hands-free cell phone. His long strides carry him so fast that his aides skip steps to keep up. In his suite of offices overlooking Times Square, he races from room to room, checking e-mail messages in one and dropping into meetings in another. In between, he raises his hand and calls out "Espresso!" which one of his secretaries instantly fetches. He is an avid skier and tackles the slopes the same way he handles the rest of his business: plunging straight down, immediately on his cell phone again for the trip up the lift.
Middelhoff's most memorable trait, however, is not his speed but his laugh -- a toothy guffaw that is a striking contrast to his otherwise courtly demeanor. He uncorks it even in formal settings, giving the disarming impression that you are old friends the first time you meet. He has an earnest faith in his own charisma and its power to motivate others. Last summer, he rented out Radio City Music Hall to introduce himself to Bertelsmann's 4,500 U.S. employees. He strode onto the stage before two video images of himself and threw his sport coat into the audience like a pop star. "Do you have passion?" he implored. "I love Bertelsmann. I would die for this company."
But the effect is leavened by a constant shtick, a penchant for laughing at his own grandiosity. Before the crowd at Radio City, he played a video starring some of his top executives. Strauss Zelnick, then head of Bertelsmann's music division, appeared on-screen, seemingly responding to Middelhoff's idea for Whitney Houston's next single to be a duet. "You singing with Whitney, Thomas?" Zelnick said, snapping a pencil in mock exasperation. Dan Brewster, head of Bertelsmann's magazine division, held up a prototype of YM's cover, with Middelhoff's head affixed to the body of Britney Spears in a bathtub of diamonds. To dramatize Bertelsmann's new thinking about the Internet, Middelhoff has begun appearing in German television commercials in a "Star Trek" uniform, with the slogan "We Pursue Big Ideas -- No Matter Where They Lead Us."
Middelhoff traces that new thinking back to Nov. 2, 1994, the day he first met Steve Case. It was probably the most formative event in his adult life. At the time, AOL was desperate for cash, but Case showed no sign of weakness. Instead, he boldly promised that one day AOL would dominate the market for consumer online services, and he eventually offered an apparently lopsided deal: for Bertelsmann to put up all $150 million for a joint European venture but give AOL a 50 percent stake for its expertise. He also insisted that Bertelsmann buy a stake in AOL.
Middelhoff saw the "stickiness" in AOL's consumer-friendly features, and it was the businessman's equivalent of love at first sight. "We had dinner, and after the dinner it was clear for me, I have to do it with this company," Middelhoff recalled. "I trusted him immediately." Middelhoff agreed to finance AOL Europe and to buy a 20 percent stake in AOL for $200 million. Bertelsmann's board, however, was outraged at the expense, and he reluctantly scaled back the deal to a 5 percent stake for $50 million.
Middelhoff describes his personal debt to Case with a remarkable ingenuousness, and he waxes nostalgic about his time spent on AOL's board. "I changed tremendously over these six years," he said. "I learned a lot about the Internet and so on, but also it changed my personal style, the way I am seeing the world. Before then, I was much more of a typical German business executive, but now I believe myself to be a real mixture: first American and then European."
For his part, Case, who is actually five years younger than Middelhoff, describes his development the way an older brother might. "I think what he takes away from the AOL experience is that a company took some bold bets at a point when basically everybody was criticizing them, stuck with those bets through a lot of ups and downs and created a significant new franchise."
As AOL's business exploded, the many naysayers on Bertelsmann's board began to rue the decision to limit their investment to 5 percent instead of 20 percent, and Middelhoff's stock at the company began to rise. Mark Wossner, his predecessor as Bertelsmann's chairman, insists that Middelhoff was picked to succeed him before the AOL partnership bore fruit. But it is a measure of Middelhoff's admiration for Case that he openly credits him with his own success. "It's not only a joke when I say, 'Thanks to the success of AOL and thanks to Steve, I got my chairman's position at Bertelsmann."'
As chairman, Middelhoff began to implement some of his lessons from America Online. For one thing, he began throwing open-collared shirts into his rotation of dark suits. He did away with the longstanding custom of addressing Bertelsmann executives as "Herr Doctor" in deference to their business degrees. He lectured executives on the importance of "low hierarchies, direct communication, direct access" and bought each of Bertelsmann's 74,000 employees a personal computer. He changed the official language for internal business from German to English. ("We are not a German company -- we are an international company," Middelhoff often repeats.) Again and again, executives at the company say, he admonishes them, "Yes, this is just like what Steve Case did at AOL. . . . "
"I am sure everybody at Bertelsmann hates me because of all of Thomas's stories," Case said. "But that is O.K. My sense is that I am used there as a kind of device to create change."
Middelhoff likes to say that he is importing American political values as well. After the European press unearthed evidence that Bertelsmann printed Nazi propaganda during World War II and then lied about it for decades, Middelhoff persuaded Reinhard Mohn, patriarch of the family that has controlled Bertelsmann for 166 years, to create an independent commission of historians to expose the truth.
His outspokenness about Bertelsmann's past has sparked its own controversies. Last month, Middelhoff became the first German ever honored by the Jewish U.J.A.-Foundation, which gave him its Steven J. Ross humanitarian award. His selection drew angry complaints from many Holocaust survivors, and he apologized for not anticipating the problem.
Perhaps the most significant lesson Middelhoff took away from AOL was that the Internet was fundamentally altering the media world, faster even than anyone predicted, and that now was the time for empire building. As AOL's stock soared, Middelhoff began to bet again on the next big idea. He tried unsuccessfully to buy Amazon.com, then poured money into a host of online stores, including CDNow.com, the joint venture BarnesandNoble.com and Web sites for Bertelsmann's book and music clubs. Like most online retailers, Bertelsmann's have yet to make profits. The company sank more than $300 million into Bol.com, which Middelhoff acknowledges was a big disappointment. Bol.com was recently folded into Bertelsmann's book and music clubs, and a third of its staff was laid off.
In 1999, however, when Middelhoff decided to sell Bertelsmann's stakes in AOL and AOL Europe, his timing was impeccable. It was the peak of the tech-stock boom, and Bertelsmann's $50 million investment in AOL had increased some 28 times in value, to $1.4 billion. AOL bought back Bertelsmann's stake in AOL Europe for about $8 billion. With the partial disposition of its other Internet investments, Bertelsmann was left with a war chest exceeding $16 billion. In four years, Middelhoff had more than doubled the size of one of the biggest media companies in the world.
Case elected to take advantage of his soaring stock price as well, by acquiring Time Warner, Bertelsmann's main rival, which meant that Case and Middelhoff were now officially competitors. "It is a little strange," Case admitted. "But you have to remember, the competition is about business. It isn't personal."
Middelhoff maintains that the companies compete only in isolated arenas, like music or magazines in the United States. "If we are in some sense competitors, O.K., then we compete, but fair," Middelhoff said. "I believe that today we are best friends."
n Feb. 12, Middelhoff's bold vision for Napster became a fight for its survival. A United States appellate court approved the record industry's request for a preliminary injunction, restricting Napster's use of copyrighted songs. Middelhoff had just arrived home in Gutersloh at 10:45 p.m. when Hank Barry, Napster's interim C.E.O., called with the news. Over the next two hours, Middelhoff decided on a response: Napster would take its case to the public in a news conference in San Francisco, the day before the Grammys, and he would fly over to lend the force of his personality to the cause.
The morning of the event, Hilary Rosen, president and C.E.O. of the Recording Industry Association of America, screamed at Barry over the phone, demanding that he call it off. But Middelhoff was already in the air. As the news conference began, he sat chewing candy and genially reached over to fix Shawn Fanning's collar. First, Barry laid out a proposal: if the industry would settle its lawsuit, Napster would promise to pay the music companies a total of at least $200 million a year as a kind of deposit on income from Napster's planned subscription revenue.
Then Middelhoff took the microphone, beginning his remarks with an account of his overnight flight. "We all together are having a huge and historical chance," he said, smiling cheerfully. "At least, Napster should be kept alive for an effective transition to a legal, paid service." He promised that Joel Klein, the former head of the U.S. Department of Justice's antitrust division, whom Middelhoff recently hired, was contacting the rest of the industry players.
After the meeting, Middelhoff ran out of the room, pausing just long enough to grab another handful of Gummi Bears. "I love Gummi Bears," he murmured, as his press secretary scrambled to catch up.
The offer was an obvious publicity stunt -- there was no guarantee Napster would be able to pay those bills, and $200 million was a tiny fraction of what the record companies claimed they stood to lose in sales. But the proposal was also a first salvo on a different front: Washington.
At Barry's suggestion, and after a few calls from Middelhoff, Senator Orrin G. Hatch urged Congress to hold a new round of hearings on digital music. "I was pleased when Bertelsmann took the initiative in harnessing the consumer demand evidenced by Napster," Hatch said on the Senate floor. "I again urge the other major music-industry players to take significant steps toward this end." Suggesting that the other labels were standing in the way of progress, Hatch intimated that Congress might mandate cooperation with Napster.
The other record companies, however, thought little of the proposal. "They need to shut down -- then we can talk," Richard Parsons, co-chief operating officer of AOL Time Warner, told reporters.
The next night, Middelhoff attended the Grammy Awards, where he sat near Parsons and Gerald Levin of AOL Time Warner. "Hey, Dick, great statement," Middelhoff teased. He kept up a resolutely cheerful front at BMG's own party after the awards, but there were signs that his campaign to rehabilitate Napster's image was failing to take hold. A spokesman advised a guest to remove the Napster pin from his lapel, saying, "You don't want to wear that in here." And Middelhoff found himself warmly welcomed into the V.I.P. lounge by a confused partygoer as "the man who put Napster out of business." He nearly spit out his wine.
By the time I met with Middelhoff a few days later, Bertelsmann's rivals were planning new digital jukebox services in an effort to steal Napster's 80 million registered users. AOL Time Warner was creating a service of its own, and Vivendi Universal and Sony Music teamed up to start another, to be called Duet. For one anomalous moment, Middelhoff seemed almost mournful about Napster's predicament. "What is Duet?" he said. "Nobody asked the consumers to know whether they like Duet. What we know is that these people love Napster." The music industry, Middelhoff was convinced, was squandering a rare marketing opportunity by dispersing Napster's millions of fans. "The music industry is killing their own music lovers. They are acting aggressively against the interests of their own consumers. So maybe Napster can't survive all these different circumstances. So what? It is not a problem for Bertelsmann and BMG. Everybody will survive. But the music industry will have made a tremendous mistake, a tremendous mistake. It is shame."
Since then, the struggle over the future of digital music has come down to a kind of media-mogul Realpolitik. Music industry executives all say they plan to license their catalogs of songs to anyone, but in the short term each hopes to use access to its music as leverage to build its own distribution service. Middelhoff holds a valuable card, an archive of copyrights stretching from Elvis Presley to Whitney Houston and Dave Matthews. Bertelsmann's rivals need Bertelsmann's music for their own digital jukebox plans as much as Bertelsmann needs theirs for Napster. And Middelhoff will let his rivals have access to his company's music only if they play ball with Napster. So, for now, it is a standoff.
On April 2, Middelhoff struck a deal that he now calls a crucial victory. Bertelsmann, AOL Time Warner, EMI Group and the Internet company RealNetworks formed a partnership called MusicNet that would pool their music catalogs and develop a common format for digital music. MusicNet will license its catalog to any service that meets security and legality requirements, including Napster, if it pulls off the promised transformation. "This was the breakthrough," Middelhoff told me the next day. "This means that Napster will definitely survive."
n truth, Napster's fate will probably be decided this summer, when all of the companies creating online music services plan to open them for business. AOL Time Warner and RealNetworks are basing theirs on MusicNet's technology and repertory. Sony and Vivendi struck a deal with Yahoo! to develop Duet using another platform and their own songs. With typical bravado, Middelhoff has vowed repeatedly that Napster will convert to subscriptions by July 1 -- If not, it should be shut down," he said.
But people involved say Napster will probably miss that deadline. And many obstacles remain. The lawsuit continues, leaving the threat of liability over Napster's head. It will now have to compete against huge companies with proven track records building online communities. Adding software that tracks usage and protects copyrights may gum up its works. And even if it succeeds, its competitors will be quick to imitate it.
As Napster has blocked access to hundreds of thousands of copyrighted titles, the most popular hits have vanished. What remains are mostly obscure older songs, bootlegs, small indie recordings and world music. The average number of songs available from each user has fallen from 220 in February to just 37 in April, according to the news and research firm Webnoize. The number of files downloaded has fallen from 2.79 billion in February to 1.59 billion in April. Still, the traffic remains high -- close to six million people still sign on every day, and hundreds of thousands volunteered to test an early version of its pay service.
And Napster remains, for the moment, the only contender banking on file-sharing rather than on downloading songs from a central server. That gives it a few distinctions. It provides the sense of interconnection that Middelhoff finds so inspiring; its open system offers a potentially limitless selection of recordings; and passing files directly between users can be more efficient than sending them all the way from a central server.
People around Middelhoff at Bertelsmann assert that his friends from AOL agree in their hearts about the future of file-sharing. But when I asked Case, he did not sound so sure. "The jury is still out in terms of how Thomas's bet on Napster plays out," he said. "A lot of people criticized it, and some still do. There are strong feelings about that at a lot of companies, including among people here at AOL Time Warner."
Was it naive of Middelhoff to think he could use his personal connections with rival media executives to bring them around? "Maybe a little," Case said. "Maybe overoptimistic. But that does not mean it wasn't the right decision to make. Time will tell, but everybody recognizes it was a bold move. A year ago, most people didn't talk about Bertelsmann or have much of an appreciation for it. But Napster has helped Middelhoff put himself on the map and put Bertelsmann on the map. It demonstrated that he had a seat at the table on these issues and he was willing to make bold bets. You know, Babe Ruth was the home-run king, but he struck out a lot."
Far from admitting defeat, Middelhoff is effectively doubling down. In February, he managed to persuade Mohn, whose family foundation owns Bertelsmann, to agree to sell a quarter of the company to the public within four years. The decision, which was a byproduct of a complicated European television deal, will greatly increase Middelhoff's power over Bertelsmann's far-flung divisions. It will also mean investors in the stock market will be scrutinizing Middelhoff's plans, including his scheme for Napster.
Middelhoff says that he is sticking to his instincts, just as he did when he first met Case. "When I did my investment in AOL, most analysts said, 'Oh, my God, this guy's company will be dead very soon,"' he says. "Maybe I am wrong, maybe I am right. I cannot predict how the consumer will react. But even if the judge closed Napster down completely, I have no regrets, because I believe that Napster has 18 months more experience in file-sharing technology. And it has a very powerful brand. If we leverage it, and if we add new content, then we have a realistic chance to be a worldwide brand for peer-to-peer file-sharing across every media. This technology is going to be enormous for the future."
RealNetworks Licenses Content Delivery Technology to Cisco
RealNetworks has teamed with Cisco Systems to incorporate Real's media delivery technology into Cisco's content networking products. Cisco's networking products will include Real's audio and video delivery capabilities. Cisco will also resell the RealSystem IQ platform to its enterprise customers, and will work with Real to market and sell digital delivery solutions to ISPs and network service providers. RealSystem IQ's suite of products is providing some of the technology behind Real's MusicNet digital music subscription platform.
European Commission Investigating MusicNet, Duet
The European Commission (EC) has launched preliminary antitrust investigations into two forthcoming online music services backed by the major label groups. The two services are Universal Music Group and Sony Music-backed Duet and MusicNet, which is backed by RealNetworks, Warner Music Group, EMI Recorded Music and BMG Entertainment. The EC is a European regulatory body that seeks to ensure fair business practices, similar to the Federal Trade Commission in the U.S. European Competition Commissioner Mario Monti disclosed the investigations in a speech today, saying "there are potentially a number of issues which merit close examination." Monti said he was unable to disclose details of the investigations. Calls to EC representatives seeking to learn the scope of the investigations were not returned by press time. Regulatory scrutiny in Europe provided a significant hurdle to the AOL Time Warner merger and is cited as the reason EMI Recorded Music's proposed mergers with Warner Music Group and Bertelsmann failed.
June 11, 2001 Universal, Sony Announce Leadership, Brand for Music Service
Universal Music Group and Sony Music Entertainment today disclosed two top executives and a name change for the planned music subscription service known as Duet. Sony and Universal named Andrew Schuon CEO and president of PressPlay, the new name for the music service the two companies expect to launch in late summer. The companies also named Michael Bebel to serve as the service's chief operating officer. Schuon, who previously served as president and CEO of UMG's Farmclub.com, will oversee PressPlay's operations. Bebel will oversee PressPlay's business affairs, finances and lead its technology implementation. Bebel previously served as the executive vice president of business development for UMG's ELabs division. The PressPlay service, expected to launch in the U.S. this summer and in Europe in the fall will first offer access to streaming music, adding music downloads later. PressPlay currently has agreements to offer music from Sony and Universal only. Subscription pricing has not yet been disclosed. Yahoo will market the service to visitors to its online properties, including Yahoo Music.
Tin- I found this very interesting; if you go to the following URL, it lists the top 25 global semiconductor companies:
http://www.e-insite.net/index.asp?layout=print_page&articleID=CA82175&publication=e-insite&a...
The top seven are as follows:
1] intel
2] toshiba
3] nec
4] samsung
5] texas instruments
6] STMicroelectronics
7] motorola
e.digital is publicly involved with intel, toshiba, samsung and texas instruments. NEC is a member of VoiceTimes and would not be shocked to someday read of a voice-enabled PDA connection. STM is the chipmaker behind DataPlay and therefore at the very least an indirect relationship. Lastly, IMHO, i believe we will learn that edig is involved with mot/ibm in the iRadio project. I know of no edig involvement w/ mot's dragonball chips. FWIW
tin--from the article you posted--"During my extensive investigation into the realm of evolving flash storage solutions, it became apparent very early on that M-Systems is playing a major role in the advanced digital set-top box market. Companies such as Motorola, Microsoft's WebTV, Scientific Atlanta, Sony, NetGem and many others have all selected M-Systems' flash disk data storage products for use with their advanced set-top box designs."
Wireless Internet redefining computing: Compaq chief
By David Tanaka, posted Jun 08, 2001
The future of computing is the Internet, and the future of the Internet is wireless access to dense data.
So said Michael Capellas, president and chief executive officer of Compaq Computer Corp. during a 45-minute talk to media and analysts in Toronto on June 6.
''The explosion of the wireless Internet is going to be unbelievable,'' said Capellas (below), pointing out that it took just a year for wireless Internet to gain 50 million users. By comparison, it took the World Wide Web about four years, and personal computers about 13 years to achieve that many users.
Capellas said it is not wireless alone, or the Internet alone that is reshaping the personal computing landscape, but the confluence of the two. And where these two forces come together is where the action will be.
As the Net economy recovers from the dot-com meltdown of last year, a more realistic approach to the Internet, what Capellas referred to as ''practical innovation'' is taking hold, where content, richer and more varied, again will be king.
''Content is going drive the next generation of the Web,'' he said, and the content will be characterized by ''higher and higher density of data.''
The other side of the coin is access to that dense data: every Internet user, from corporate to consumer, will expect the delivery of rich corporate, consumer or personal information anywhere and on any device.
''Internet access will be driven less by a traditional PC and more about one of the alternate devices including smart phones,'' said Capellas.
This of course poses a huge challenge for site developers. ''When we write applications, we'll have to be able to write those applications to a form factor,'' he said. ''If I've written an application where I want to deliver a map, I want to deliver content, I want to deliver a piece of research, I don't know if I'm sending that off to a three-inch cellular phone screen, a 42-inch screen that's sitting in your living room, a high-resolution colour screen, a low-resolution BlackBerry screen - or what the form may be. It may be voice activated in your car.''
Capellas said that in the face of content delivery becoming the Internet's foundation, Compaq has had to ask itself whether a vertically integrated business based largely on the supply of computing hardware and related IT services is enough; whether a horizontally integrated approach of ''pulling all the pieces together'' is what is needed. And for Capellas, it is clearly the latter.
''One of the absolute megatrends in (business) customer buying is that customers are tired of putting the pieces together,'' he said. ''It's hard to do and takes a huge amount of technical savvy. So we've watched that market shift. Those companies that can horizontally integrate - and very clearly IBM is one of them, very clearly we're one of them - are going to be one of the foundations that you see.''
And it gets back to the data, which is becoming more complex, rich and in Capellas' words, more dense. ''You simply won't be able to architect the way you do - you'll have to have a better ability to have the data flow at a horizontal level.''
Within that horizontal data flow, Capellas sees the resurgence of mainframes and their huge data repositories, the explosion of mid-tier servers to match the proliferation of Web-based services, and the continued expansion of post-PC access devices, from palmtop devices to an emerging class of personal digital accessories.
And tying all that together is what Compaq's future is about, in Capellas's eyes.
http://c.moreover.com/click/here.pl?p20256233
A common subject often discussed by industry observers in recent months is whether Apple Computer (Nasdaq: AAPL) will re-enter the mobile computing market. Analysts have been suggesting that the mobile computing industry is ready for explosive growth.
Because of this potentially reinvigorated market, some have suggested that Apple should create a mobile handheld device based on Apple's newly released operating system, OS X. Others have suggested that Apple take advantage of the growing market for mobile devices by breathing new life into the company's ill-fated Newton project.
With Palm computing in a current state of financial crisis, many are suggesting that Apple's chief executive officer Steve Jobs follow through with his long-expressed desire to purchase Palm (Nasdaq: PALM), now that the company's low stock price makes it ripe for the picking.
Even though Apple could probably pull off any one of the preceding scenarios and do so with considerable success, it is my belief that the company needs to enter the portable market with a considerably different business model. If Apple merely creates miniature computers, it will risk being considered an industry follower rather than a leader.
The mobile computing market is not scheduled for explosive growth because consumers are suddenly realizing that they need the mobile devices that have been in existence for the last decade. Rather, the mobile computing market is set to explode because of recent extreme advances in the ways mobile devices communicate with each other.
Behind the Times
Consumers in the United States are likely not privy to new communications advances, such as 3G, that have been in existence in Asia and Europe for quite some time, as it was only recently that the U.S. has finally been brought up to speed in this area.
These advances in mobile communication allow streaming video to be achieved over standard mobile communications networks.
Recently, several conceptual designs were created to take advantage of the new generation of portable technology. These designs are what I like to call ''me too'' devices. They were created to do nearly everything a desktop computer was designed for, but due to their small size, limited power and near-zero expandability, they manage to do none of their designated tasks exceptionally well.
Simply Surprised
The creators of those devices don't appear to be following the three unstated rules for portable computing. Keep it simple, keep it simple, keep it simple.
Because of this looming problem, I think that none of these devices has the potential to capture the expected market growth. It surprises me that the designers did not think to use the one aspect of this impressive technology that makes it especially marketable: Streaming digital video.
What About Apple?
You may be asking, ''Where does Apple fit into all this?'' Well, Apple has always been a company that has managed to excel when it comes to design simplicity. Simplicity is the reason why I believe Apple has the potential to be the market leader in this area.
Being a diehard Apple aficionado, I thought it would be fun to play armchair CEO for a day and design a digital device that takes advantage of these upcoming technologies with Apple's sense of style, simplicity and core strengths in mind.
I've created a blueprint and PhotoShop-generated color composite of my design, which can be download in Adobe's PDF file format by visiting: http://www.osopinion.com/images/e-ring.pdf .
The eRing Key Ring
I titled my conceptual design ''eRing,'' as the device would also conveniently double as a key ring. The name eRing was also ideal as it would reinforce Apple's Internet marketing focus without bringing about yet another of the the oh-so-tiresome ''i'' names.
After toying with several differing shapes for my mobile device, I settled on a tried-and-true, yet slightly larger-than-average Tamagochi-esque shell, as this design had already proven itself within the industry in the digital pet craze that (thankfully) died a couple years ago.
On one side, the e-Ring boasts a 1.5 x 1 inch color LCD display below a miniature microphone, video camera eye and speaker. When flipped over, the opposite side reveals a LCD numerical display, numeric keypad, and two function buttons labeled ''Call'' and ''iDisk.''
Portable P2P
The eRing allows individuals to contact other eRing users by dialing their designated numbers, and pressing the ''Call'' button. Video communication from person to person would only be established when the spring-loaded sides of the device were given pressure (so as to conserve limited battery life, which video tends to eat up quickly).
Alternatively, an individual could establish a streaming video feed, by selecting ''iDisk'' (rather than ''Call''). This option would save up to 15 minutes of streaming video footage on Apple's existing free iDisk web hard drive in the company's QuickTime file format.
In an age were companies are starting to offer unwanted monthly software subscription services to achieve additional revenue streams, Apple could buck the trend by creating monthly network connection subscriptions similar to those of cellular companies, all while invigorating Apple's QuickTime video file format.
Okay Apple, I designed it -- you build it!
http://www.osopinion.com/perl/story/11120.html
Get Ready for the Vivaldi—Excuse Me—Vivendi String Quintet
By Larry Powers
MusicNet has made a deal for Napster to become its third major distribution network, along with America Online and Real Networks. The newspapers and Internet articles were filled with it last week. The quintet of the big Five Majors is on the way next, as they string along with Napster and MP3.com to obtain an established audience.
Distribution power is the key to their planned business on the Internet. Vivendi, as soon-to-be owner of MP3.com, isn’t waiting to be convinced, but just maneuvering for the right terms. Then it will link its two catalogs in Duet, Universal (29% market share) and Sony (9% share)—to the three catalogs already in MusicNet, BMG (18% market share), EMI (11%), and Warner (13% share). Vivendi’s decision to say yes, which will necessarily follow from its estimated $500 million investment in MP3.com (what good is the investment without being able to offer all the music?), may well give it a leadership role in the String Quintet. Now a few variations on the major themes, and an attempt to dispel the background noise of certain instruments.
Distribution Power
The last two weeks of deals—on top of discussions, on top of protests about stale lawsuits, etc.—all dissolve into one reality. The Majors have been trying to control the distribution of music over the Internet since 1998, and they have squelched many small usurpers in the early stages of the Internet. The Majors are acting as if they are in competition with each other. But they can’t really compete effectively because they each need the other’s catalogs to build a viable distribution system for the Internet. Meanwhile, two big defendants in last year’s lawsuits have held onto a meaningful pool of music buyers—Napster and MP3.com. Only these two entities provide a ready market for Internet music—with a claimed 6 million daily users still intact, there are probably still 40 million active Napster users waiting to consider a good subscription deal. Maybe half that number is left on the present/past customer database of MP3.com and its music locker MyMp3.com.
Both customer pools, totaling 60 million, matter to all five Majors, and both the 30 million clients of Internet portals AOL Time Warner and the estimated 10 million(?) who use Yahoo will also matter, although these are people of all ages and not defined as lovers of music. Vivendi (and its smaller distribution partner Sony) need access to all these millions of Napster, MP3.com and “portal” people quickly. The only way to get it is to grant access to their music catalogs to the other Majors and get their catalogs in return. It is Vivendi versus BMG/Warner, with the two smaller music companies going along. Warner has become enormously powerful in this horse-trade because of the long-term value of its additional 60 million cable customers as targets of music marketing over the Internet. But with a 29% market share of the top-selling music, Vivendi Universal remains powerful.
Technology Is Secondary
RealNetworks has excellent, secure technology for playing and streaming music over the Internet, and has retained the largest ownership share—40%—in MusicNet, the consortium of BMG/Warner/EMI, each with 20%, designed as their marketing vehicle over the Internet. But it has not been proven yet on the scale necessary to stream hundreds of thousands of songs at once from a few central servers.
MP3.com also has excellent technology but will face the same scaling-up problem when used on Duet. Vivendi paid a big price to buy this technology and catch up with MusicNet. But if the predicted overall deal on music licensing occurs, a little technology sharing should be in the cards as well, because all five Majors want to see both distribution vehicles succeed.
The leadership role here should fall to CEO Rob Glaser of RealNetworks (interim CEO of MusicNet as well). He has a proven track record of solving music streaming problems effectively, and against the embittered competition and power of his former employer, Microsoft. AOL also has top technology talent in its Nullsoft-Winamp division (one key executive also invented Gnutella), and with the brilliant team at MP3.com pitching in, the problems will be solved across the board. None of the Majors will want to lose sales because of technology flaws at any Internet music site to which they have licensed catalog on a royalty basis. When companies with virtually unlimited capital have to solve a technical problem, they get it solved. Young engineers with fresh ideas always come up with something new, but Glaser and the other pros here were all typical young engineers, and that’s how they made their business careers. While rushing to launch something by late summer, technical mistakes will be made, but so what? AOL weathered many technical problems for years and still came out on top, and music subscriptions and downloads over the Internet have become a kind of “public utility”—where else are the present 100 million fans waiting out there going to get it?
Furthermore, at this point antitrust concerns about five oligopolists sharing technology to get music they own out to the public at a fair price, are minimal. Cooperation may well be what an enlightened court would order, against the backdrop of consumer deprivation for two years, and the Bush administration won’t take them to court anyway. Rob Glaser with RealAudio, as the current leading supplier of streaming music technology to everyone on the Internet, is a natural for statesmanlike management of the technology problems ahead. If you want to get a streaming video feel for his approach, go to www.realnetworks.com, the section on “Company,” and play his testimony before Congress recently, explaining MusicNet. It is followed by a well-done audio press interview of Napster CEO Hank Barry and Glaser on the announcement of the Napster-MusicNet deal.
But wait, there are problems already. The Wall Street Journal carried a piece Thursday, 6/7/01, saying the Majors feel Glaser didn’t consult with them enough on the Napster license from MusicNet. Owners of 40% of MusicNet (not BMG) are restless, and pressure is building to appoint another and permanent CEO and get going with regular, formal board meetings for this strong startup, but startup nonetheless. “Privately, music executives said they don’t think Napster can meet the [security] conditions,” says the Journal article. Napster still raises the hackles of the Majors every time any of them, or their agents, deal with it. But I wonder if the “executives” quoted so often are just trying to raise the bar on Napster, and veto anything it tries to do by way of good faith compliance. Napster’s survival may have made a lot of second level executives and lawyers look bad, and they are spoiling to get even, perhaps.
Napster Redux
Napster is reborn now, trying to obey the court orders (reporting in court last Wednesday on compliance). Napster now is required to license the MusicNet (RealAudio) platform to gain access to licensed music from the three Majors therein. Using this intermediary should sanitize defendant Napster for the guys in MusicNet who still want to appear to be aggressive plaintiffs, but it won’t satisfy the diehards. But having MusicNet as the trading post is also a balm to Vivendi Universal, who professes undying dislike for Napster while it still needs to license product from MusicNet. So if MusicNet handles a sublicense deal for Napster to Vivendi Universal, the old enemies don’t need to deal with each other. “Remember the market shares”—Universal/Sony at 38% and the others at 42%. The MusicNet service, with day-to-day power temporarily residing in CEO Rob Glaser, is a useful vehicle to bring in Vivendi and Sony’s catalogs, and also make Napster’s marketing power available to Vivendi, Sony and MP3.com. Sometimes a good go-between can settle a war the parties can’t settle for themselves, and Glaser has made a productive start with the first deal with Napster.
We note that all of these music platforms are based upon central servers, made secure by RealAudio’s chosen technology or someone else’s acceptable to all music licensors, with subscriber members able to pass the music among themselves (with deductions from their subscription quotas per month). This leaves the Gnutella, Aimster, Freenet and other decentralized peer-to-peer projects hanging in the wind with no licensed music and lots of ongoing litigation. This is all the more reason for the five Majors to join a sales quintet and achieve marketing mass as soon as possible, after two years of selling time wasted in the distraction of litigation. I don’t mean to suggest the litigation was a waste—Napster was just plain wrong, and the copyrights had to be protected, as we have said in several articles.
Napster isn’t standing still either, having just licensed the Loudeye music preference technology, part of a varied group of preference engines that we wrote about some months ago, Making Music for An Audience of One. The Loudeye system for analyzing a user’s musical taste will enhance the subscription marketing system being put into effect with music from three Majors and ultimately five. Such technologies will undoubtedly pop up on MusicNet, Duet and MP3.com as well.
Armed with a conditional good-housekeeping seal of approval from three Majors, the next coup for Napster will be to make a good deal with the music publishers (National Music Publishers’ Association), settling their royalty rate for Internet subscriptions and sales. See our earlier article on this, Publishers Protest, Labels Balk. The publishers should reach out to make a sensible deal with Napster, knowing it will set a pattern for peace with the MusicNet, Duet and other Internet ventures involving the Majors. Napster has also just hired a former U.S. deputy attorney general to coordinate the solutions to its various legal controversies.
The Napster Litigation Is Just Talk From Now On
As the Napster alliance with MusicNet was announced, each Major went out of his way to say, we’re still suing, still keeping their “feet to the fire” in court, and we won’t let them get into business ahead of us. But in my respectful opinion, it’s all guff, and the heart has gone out of this case except in lawyers’ papers. The appeals court set the rules, and Napster is still here in diminished form, so why not face reality?
All five Majors need Napster’s distribution power, and, further, need a user-friendly central server model. The next battle is to fight off the Gnutella threats with central server security, controlled file transfers, and organized marketing techniques. Forget about someone really trying to assess damages against new partner Napster and its ultimate financial sponsor Bertelsmann. If Universal could recover a pitiful $53 million from MP3.com and turn around and commit an estimated $500 million investment to buy it, the others can grow up fast as well and quit personalizing a corporation as an “enemy” when most of the wrongdoing executives are not in power any more. Japan and Germany were enemies of the U.S. too, but their people and talents have had much to offer the U.S. since 1945. I could foresee the other Majors soon wanting a stock interest in Napster as well, whether held in their MusicNet and Duet vehicles or more directly. The peace we have been predicting, and predicting, since November 2000 (see Notice to All Napster Users) may finally be at hand.
"Carrot on a stick" vs. "the carrot or the stick."
The Usenet Newsgroup alt.usage.english has debated this expression several times, most recently in spring 1998. No one there presented definitive evidence, but dictionaries agree that the proper expression is "the carrot or the stick".
One person on the Web mentions an old "Little Rascals" short in which an animal was tempted to forward motion by a carrot dangling from a stick. I think the image is much older than that, going back to old magazine cartoons (certainly older than the animated cartoons referred to by correspondents on alt.usage.english); but I'll bet that the cartoon idea stemmed from loose association with the original phrase "the carrot or the stick" rather than the other way around. An odd variant is the claim broadcast on National Public Radio March 21, 1999 that one Zebediah Smith originated this technique of motivating stubborn animals. This is almost certainly an urban legend.
Note that the people who argue for "carrot on a stick" never cite any documentable early use of the supposed "correct" expression. For the record, here's what the Supplement to the Oxford English Dictionary has to say on the subject: "carrot, sb. Add: 1. a. fig. [With allusion to the proverbial method of tempting a donkey to move by dangling a carrot before it.] An enticement, a promised or expected reward; freq. contrasted with "stick" (=punishment) as the alternative."
[Skipping references to uses as early as 1895 which refer only to the carrot so don't clear up the issue.]
"1948 Economist 11 Dec. 957/2 The material shrinking of rewards and lightening of penalties, the whittling away of stick and carrot. [Too bad the Economist's writer switched the order in the second part of this example, but the distinction is clear.]
"1954 J. A. C. Brown Social Psychol.of Industry i. 15 The tacit implication that . . .most men . . . are . . . solely motivated by fear or greed (a motive now described as 'the carrot or the stick')
"1963 Listener 21 Feb. 321/2 Once Gomulka had thrown away the stick of collectivization, he was compelled to rely on the carrot of a price system favourable to the peasant."
The debate has been confused from time to time by imagining one stick from which the carrot is dangled and another kept in reserve as a whip; but I imagine that the original image in the minds of those who developed this expression was a donkey or mule laden with cargo rather than being ridden, with its master alternately holding a carrot in front of the animal's nose (by hand, not on a stick) and threatening it with a switch. Two sticks are too many to make for a neat expression.
For me, the clincher is that no one actually cites the form of the "original expression." In what imaginable context would it possibly be witty or memorable to say that someone or something had been motivated by a carrot on a stick? Why not an apple on a stick, or a bag of oats? Boring, right? Not something likely to pass into popular usage.
This saying belongs to the same general family as "you can draw more flies with honey than with vinegar." It is never used except when such contrast is implied.
Innovation and Integration - Sharp's Calling Card
Sharp Microelectronics of the Americas is a leader in devices and solutions that reduce your part count, your board size, and your costs.
Our parts and products pack the most performance into the smallest dimensions. The components, packaging and integration skills Sharp has developed to make these products possible are also helping thousands of design engineers throughout North America bring their own ambitious ideas to market.
At Sharp Microelectronics of the Americas, we not only offer you state-of-the-art flat panel displays, Flash Memory, Microcontrollers, System-On-Chip devices, Imaging products, Optoelectronics, and RF components -- we have the skills and the flexibility to apply and integrate microelectronics intelligently to meet your performance, profit and time-to-market goals.
You can find it all here. We're your broadest-line microelectronics resource, and a world leader in integration.
Sharp Microelectronics of the Americas Teams with TSMC for Volume Manufacturing of System-on-Chip and Microcontroller Designs
Sharp Microelectronics of the Americas Teams with TSMC
for Volume Manufacturing of System-on-Chip and Microcontroller Designs
CAMAS, Wash., June 11, 2001 – Sharp Microelectronics of the Americas (SMA), a U.S.-based division of Sharp Electronics Corporation, announced today that it has formed a relationship with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (NYSE: TSM) for volume production of SMA’s latest microcontroller (MCU) and System-on-Chip (SoC) designs.
These advanced products are being designed by engineers at SMA’s new North American Design Center based in Camas, Wash., and will be manufactured in production volumes using TSMC’s 0.35 and 0.25 micron CMOS logic and EmbFlashtm processes. Future SMA products will be targeted towards TSMC’s production-proven 0.18 micron logic and EmbFlashtm processes, which are slated for production in the 3Q01 timeframe.
"We selected TSMC because it is also a leader in embedded Flash technology and can provide the additional production capacity that we are looking for," said Terry Thomas, SMA’s director of marketing for microcontroller and System-on-Chip products/designs. "Embedded flash provides our customers with a powerful tool for system-on-chip designs because it is production-proven and shortens their time to market."
"TSMC’s leading edge technology is ideally suited to Sharp Microelectronics’ market focus – Internet-enabled appliances, home and office automation, and industrial applications," said Sam Chu, director of TSMC’s advanced technology product marketing group. "By combining SMA's engineering and applications expertise with TSMC’s advanced SoC process knowledge, we can help SMA deliver highly integrated SoCs for fast-time-to-volume."
The decision to operate a design center in North America was a notable departure for Sharp, which previously designed all products in Japan. The Camas, Washington-based team of engineers is now responsible for the design of all new 8-, 16-, and 32-bit MCU / SoC products based on market- and customer-driven requirements.
SMA has completed licensing agreements for the ARM 7TDMI-S, ARM 720T and
ARM 922T, as well as the 8051 E-Warp to provide the foundation for MCU / SOC development.
About TSMC
TSMC is the world's largest dedicated semiconductor foundry, providing the industry’s leading process technology, library and IP options and other leading-edge foundry services. TSMC operates two six-inch wafer fabs and nine eight-inch wafer fabs in three countries, including its two joint ventures fabs – Vanguard and SSMC – and its North American subsidiary, WaferTech. In 2000, TSMC produced the foundry industry's first 300mm customer wafers and began constructing two dedicated 300mm fabs. TSMC's corporate headquarters are in Hsin-Chu, Taiwan. More information about TSMC is available through the World Wide Web at http://www.tsmc.com.
About Sharp Microelectronics of the Americas
Sharp Microelectronics of the Americas (SMA), Camas, Washington, is a U.S.-based company and a division of Sharp Electronics Corporation which is a subsidiary of Sharp Corporation, Osaka, Japan. Sharp is a worldwide developer of core digital technologies that are playing an integral role in shaping the next generation of electronic products for consumer and business needs. SMA offers breakthrough memory, LCD, opto, CCD, RF/IR, microcomputer and system-on-chip components, along with packaging and integration skills that help design engineers throughout North and South America bring their ambitious ideas to market. SMA is dedicated to improving people’s lives through the use of advanced technology and a commitment to innovation, quality, value and design. More information about SMA is available through the World Wide Web at http://www.sharpsma.com.
Note: all trademarks and registered trademarks are the property of their respective companies. ARM7TDMI™ ARM 7TDMI-S, ARM 720T, ARM 922T are trademarks of Advanced RISC Machines (ARM) Ltd. 8051 is a trademark of Intel. M8051 E-Warp is a trademark of Mentor Graphics.
An Interview with Arnold Chen, General Manager,
Semiconductor Products Group, Agilent Technologies Taiwan
"The video phone market will be driven by the advent of 3G era. The images' transmission will become popular, which resulting in a much bigger memory size. At the same time IrDA technology, aiming at high-speed transmission, will be widely used as well," said Arnold Chen.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Responding to the oncoming of wide-band network and wireless communication, various technologies for wireless transmission are competing with each other fiercely. With the advantages of size, power consuming, speed, and cost, IrDA is becoming a fatal attraction to the market for portable devices. While IrDA has obtained some achievements through the efforts supported by many multi-national software and hardware companies, Bluetooth technology, featuring a better networking configuration and longer length of transmission, is also trying to grab a significant share of the market with a threatening manner. Under the menace caused by Bluetooth, how IrDA find its niche on the market has brought a challenge for all the makers of IrDA receiver.
As a leader in the field of IrDA technology, Arnold Chen, general manager of Semiconductor Products Group from Agilent is talking about Agilent's development strategy for both IrDA and Bluetooth and road map for related-products.
More application for IrDA
Q : Recently, people are concerning about if it is possible that IrDA is going to be replaced by Bluetooth. From the view of function, what is the difference between the transmission modes provided by them? What are the advantages they have when designing?
A: In general, the transmission mode provided by IrDA is point-to-point, while that by Bluetooth multi-port connection, similar to wireless LAN. However, methods they used to transmit are quite different from each other. The newly launch of Bluetooth mobile phone from Ericsson is also included a build-in IrDA, which is an example to explain that any transmission mode meets the requirements from the makers is the best.
To tell more details, Bluetooth has a hand start in longer transmission length (about ten meters) together with a good capacity of piercing through by using the ISM band. Moreover, the multi-mode transmission mode has also laid a solid foundation for building a wireless LAN environment.
By contrast, IrDA, based on the physical characters of infrared, provides point-to-point transmission which is shorter in terms of lenght and easily blocked. Though not as capable as Bluetooth, IrDA is more convenient while designing. Compared with Bluetooth whose radio will go anywhere, IrDA can provide a higher level of security. A newly emerging application called Irwallet has fully utilized this advantage, which allows users to use PDA or mobile phone to pay money through an electronic payment system.
On top of that, IrDA is more cost effective when carrying out. Cost for implementing a Bluetooth system with a transmission rate about 1Mbps is as much as US$20 to US$30. In a bid to lower the cost, the chip maker should be focus more on how to optimize the design and mass production. On the contrary, prices for IrDA system are as low as US$2, which, obviously, is an advantage that Bluetooth can not compete against now.
Q : What is the reason for IrDA is not widely acceptable? What are the technologies that makers are facing?
A: Although products with build-in IrDA functions existed, people who used this kind of device were not as many as our expectation. One of the reasons was that software for devices with build-in IrDA is not easy to operate and maintain. Also the procedure of setting is complicated. However it will become easy to use when the setting completes.
To cater to the trend that portable devices are getting thinner, makers have to do anything to shrink the chips. The issue of eye safety needs to be considered seriously when technology developing further. In general, infrared ray is a kind of invisible light and has a light source. The smaller the light source is, the more damaged the eyes will be. Therefore brightness for a shrank chip will be small, which resulting in making a sensor difficult to receive the signal delivered by infrared ray. To find a balance point between the size of a chip and a light is always one of our goal to achieve. One thing for sure is that eye safety for our IrDA products is definitely safe.
Q : How is your development in high-speed IrDA module?
A: We are not ready to set a standard for VFIR IrDA with a speed at 16Mbps. Though the job on LAP and transceiver had been finished, we are trying to find partner to develop back end decode/encode ICs. Super I/O, provided by NS, ALi, Winbond and UMC, was good enough when the speed was at 4Mbps. But when speed upgrade to 16Mbps, the original clock rate can not meet the requirements, therefore help from CPU is needed. Some of the latest chipset are capable of supporting IrDA. Our products that have to go with our partner are at the stage of engineering sample, expecting to official launch in 2002.
Similar example happened four years ago. At that time SIR was driven by traditional UR. Now some companies are developing encode/decode or supre I/O to deal with FIR or 16Mbps VFIR both of which are not able to drive by UART.
Lower power consumption
Q : What is your object when your company carries out IrDA in the future?
A: The first will be power consumption. How to decrease the power consumption as low as possible is one of our focus to implement product. we have reached to the level of 2.4V. Now we are moving forward to 1.8V and 1.5V.
The second issue will be transmission rate. From the view of the system, transmission rate vary with products. For example, what a speed ate for PDA is not necessary high because the memory size it includes is not so large. On the other hand, memory size in devices like video telephone will be large to perform the image transmission, which will bring a significant demand for IrDA.
Focusing on NA and Portable Device
Q : What is your comment on the future development of IrDA application market?
A: In terms of application, notebook computer is still the major segment for IrDA. Shipment of notebook computer with build-in IrDA function is expecting to reach to 40 million units within the year, and hope to up to 64 million units in 2003. Meanwhile PDA is another segment that can not be neglected. In spite of the fact that the production value for PDA is less than US$21 million this year, it might double to over US$45 million in 2003. Also production value for IrDA modules is expecting to reach US$259 million this year. An estimated capacity in 2003 will reach US$424 million, representing a CPGR of 33 percent. In the field of mobile phone, products from both Motorola and Nokia are equipped with IrDA function while Ericsson provides IrDA accessories. We can imagine that IrDA will be necessary for any portable device in the future.
Any Device, Any Data and Any Network.
CP Technology and IBM moving towards 3A Generation
http://www.computex.com.tw/show_Special.asp?id=165
Intel Claims World's Smallest, Fastest Transistor
By Duncan Martell
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Intel Corp., the world's largest semiconductor maker, has developed what it says is the fastest and smallest transistor ever.
The breakthrough means that Moore's Law, which stipulates that the number of transistors on a chip doubles every two years, will remain on the books until at least 2007.
Intel was scheduled to announce the development on Sunday at the Silicon Nanoelectronics Workshop in Kyoto, Japan.
In its research labs in Hillsboro, Oregon, Intel engineers have designed and manufactured a handful of transistors that are only 20 nanometers, or 0.02 microns, in size. By comparison, the transistors found in the latest chips in use today measure 0.18 microns from one side of the transistor gate to the other.
The implications of developing such small and fast transistors are significant: Silicon will be able to be used to make chips until 2007, and it will make possible microprocessors containing close to 1 billion transistors running at 20 gigahertz by that year. Today's Pentium 4 processors have about 42 million transistors and run at 1.7 gigahertz.
``There's been a lot of talk and concern about the end of Moore's Law,'' Gerald Marcyk, the director of components research for Intel's technology and manufacturing group, told Reuters this week. ``So far, we haven't hit any fundamental limits with respect to our transistor technology.''
NO MOORE
Even so, it appears that Moore's Law is close to running out of steam. Some of the components in the transistors Intel announced -- such as the silicon dioxide gate, a layer that prevents the metal on top from short-circuiting out the silicon underneath when current is passed through it to make the transistors function -- are only three atoms thick.
``You can't really scale much lower than three atoms thick,'' Marcyk said, referring to the two oxygen atoms and one silicon atom bound together that constitute the gate.
By the time Intel -- and others -- roll out semiconductors with transistor gates 0.02 microns wide, those chips will last for one more processor generation. Such a generation, in Intel's case, typically lasts about three years. This means that Moore's Law -- formulated by Intel co-founder Gordon Moore decades ago -- will last into the next decade.
After that, the dimensions get so small that a new material will be required, and researchers across the globe are trying to figure out what it will be.
That is where something called high-k gate dialectrics comes into play.
``We're going to have to invent a new kind of material to replace the silicon dioxide,'' Marcyk said. ``And right now, that process is what I like to call the random walk through the periodic table (of the elements).''
SOFTWARE POSSIBILITIES
Of course, a microprocessor is ultimately only as powerful and useful as the software programs that are written to run on them. But processors with 1 billion transistors, Marcyk said, leave the field wide open.
For example, computers and hand-held devices will be able to understand commands in natural language, as well as handwriting. An investor could check his stock portfolio in the morning and find that the computer has analyzed the portfolio, market trends, economic data and such to present a number of options.
``You log on in the morning and (the computer) gives you two or three options: 'Have you thought about doing one of these things? I've done the calculations for you,''' Marcyk said.
Transistors, as they get smaller, require less power, so microprocessors in 2007 will consume less power in all than those on the market today, Marcyk said.
Not surprisingly, Andy Grove, Intel's hard-charging and hypercompetitive chairman, has taken an interest in the research on just how much longer transistors based on silicon can continue to work.
``One of the things Andy Grove keeps asking me is, when do they stop working?'' Marcyk said. ``And I say I don't know yet. I keep shrinking them, and they keep working.''
Loudeye to fight Napster pirates
Company will provide security for music files
Friday, June 8, 2001
By JOHN COOK
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER
Seattle-based Loudeye Technologies received a much-needed boost yesterday, announcing that it would create "digital fingerprints" for the legally troubled Napster music network.
The agreement follows an announcement earlier this week that Napster would join MusicNet, a subscription-based music site operated by Seattle-based RealNetworks and three major record labels. As part of that agreement, Napster -- which has been sued by the five largest music labels for copyright infringement -- pledged to use technology that would make it difficult for users to download music files for free.
The agreement with Loudeye, however, will apply to a separate subscription music service that Napster plans to launch next month. The service, which will operate under the Napster name, will revolve around independent and small record labels, a Napster spokeswoman said.
Loudeye will create digital fingerprints, also known as digital signatures, for more than 2 million music tracks in the Napster catalog.
It will also be responsible for attaching this security feature to new releases listed through Napster. The initial process of securing 2 million music tracks will take several weeks, said John Shaw, vice president of corporate communications at Loudeye.
Without the digital fingerprints, music tracks could be illegally copied and transferred over the Internet at will. Although the fingerprints do not stop users from posting pirated songs, they would allow Napster to determine whether a music file listed on its network is copyright protected.
Shaw said the deal proves that Loudeye is the "go-to guy" for digital music services. He also said it could lead to an expanded role with Napster and possibly MusicNet.
"Presumably it puts our technology under the MusicNet umbrella at some point down the road, so it is an excellent foot in the door for us," Shaw said. "I don't want to speculate about a MusicNet deal, but certainly it positions us very favorably."
RealNetworks spokesman David Brotherton said that Napster's Loudeye-based security measures must be supplemented by the digital rights management technology furnished by RealNetworks if Napster is to be a distributor in MusicNet. It's important that all MusicNet distributors use the same digital rights management scheme, and that scheme will be provided by RealNetworks, he said.
RealNetworks hasn't yet spelled out how its copyright protection software will work.
Loudeye did not release terms of the deal with Napster, saying only that it was a "significant" multiyear strategic agreement.
Analysts applauded the announcement and said it should help Loudeye's battered stock. Shares of Loudeye have tumbled 90 percent in the past year, touching a low of 50 cents in April. Yesterday, the stock jumped 45 percent to close at $1.76.
"It is a really big win for Loudeye," said Sasha Zorovich, an analyst at Robertson Stephens. "They are getting traction with premier music services. They recently did a deal with AOL, and now this with Napster clearly shows that their services are in the sweet spot of media going online."
Zorovich said his firm will retain a neutral rating on the stock until Loudeye can establish a solid recurring revenue model through its music sample service. Last week, Loudeye said it would provide music samples on some Web sites operated by AOL Time Warner Inc.
John Corcoran, an analyst with CIBC World Markets, said yesterday's deal should be a morale booster for the streaming media company.
Although several companies compete against Loudeye in the music storage, sample and security arena, Corcoran said Loudeye is starting to establish itself as a strong full-service provider.
"This helps legitimize Loudeye as a major player in the services and infrastructure portion of the online music space," he said. "That's where they are focusing their business, that's where there is going to be significant growth in the near term, and the flurry of deals related to Loudeye I think is going to continue. Strategically it is a strong positive for the company and it has had an impact on the stock price today."
Founded in 1997, Loudeye now employs 175 people.
Music-Swap Services Lean Away From Napster Model
REDWOOD CITY, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 2001 JUN 8 (NB) -- By Brian McWilliams, Special to Newsbytes.
Napster founder Shawn Fanning may be the father of peer-to-peer music swapping, but the embattled company's imitators are increasingly rebelling against Napster's model in favor of what they say is a superior technical architecture.
In recent months, many of the most popular alternatives to Napster have repudiated the centralized system pioneered by Fanning and are building purely distributed systems.
Under Napster's architecture, more than 200 company-owned servers connected to high-speed networks are used to store indexes of user's file libraries and to answer search requests. It's proven to be a fast and reliable system capable of supporting millions of users.
But centralized file-sharing networks are also expensive to build and maintain - as well as being a huge target for legal challenges.
"You're talking a few hundred thousand dollars a month to maintain that kind of hardware, and in this market, there's really no way to recover that cost. Even if you had a few million users every day you'd have to be hitting them with a lot of ads and junk to support that kind of infrastructure," said Kevin Hearn, founder of Frontcode Technologies, a Windsor, Ontario-based company that developed WinMX, a leading Napster alternative.
Nearly 2 million people use WinMX each week to search for and exchange files - all with minimal network infrastructure costs to Frontcode other than its Web site, according to Hearn.
WinMX is among the file-sharing services that have recently ditched their server hardware and are letting participating users' PCs handle the search and indexing chores. To do this, the services are pulling the plug on their participation in the OpenNap network, an open-source implementation of the Napster protocol.
OpenNap served WinMX and many other upstart file-exchange services well during their fledgling days. But in early 2001, as the popularity of on-line music swapping surged, and Napster's legal troubles caused its users to seek alternatives, the servers operated by OpenNap participants strained under the load, according to Hearn and other service operators.
Faced with shelling out big money to scale up their networks and with legal threats of their own, most of the bigger OpenNap operators are now going it alone and releasing "serverless" client software.
But Gregor Rohda, a researcher with online entertainment research firm Webnoize, predicted that the experiment with pure peer-to-peer networks will ultimately prove fruitless for Napster alternatives.
"These fully distributed platforms are such inefficient architectures that they can't deliver the consumer experience that users leaving Napster are used to, and that's going to be something that these alternatives are going to seriously struggle with," said Rohda, who notes that some early adopters of the distributed Gnutella technology, such as BearShare, are currently contemplating a move toward more centralized models.
Still, new devotees to the decentralized model are coming out of the woodwork every day. WinMX launched its WinMX Peer Networking Protocol in April, and MusicCity.com, once the biggest OpenNap operator with more than 30 servers, has licensed a pure, peer-to-peer client from Amsterdam-based FastTrack and in April re-branded it "Morpheus."
Meanwhile, FileNavigator, the OpenNap client formerly recommended by MusicCity, has moved to a proprietary distributed network in a new beta version. Also climbing on the distributed P2P bandwagon is MyNapster, a former OpenNap participant which recently joined the legion of developers using the fully-distributed Gnutella network.
Because searches and file trading occur outside of the companies' infrastructure, proponents of distributed networks believe they can't be held liable for contributory copyright infringement.
"When you're in a decentralized network, there's no authority to monitor or filter any of the files being traded. We make the tool, but we can't be held responsible for how people use it. That would be like saying Netscape is responsible when someone uses its browser to download pirated software from a Web site," said Hearn, who reports that WinMX has received no serious legal challenges from Canadian or US entities.
While it remains to be seen which model is best for peer-to-peer file swapping, the move to a distributed platform will at least buy the commercial Napster alternatives some time as they seek to build sustainable businesses, Rohda said.
WinMX is at http://www.winmx.com .
Intel, Intel, Intel--Indeed, speaking of evolving electronics, RCFoC readers George Duval and Don McArthur point us to a recent Intel announcement that they've now etched the core circuitry for both a cell phone and a PDA onto a single experimental chip (http://www.intel.com/pressroom/archive/releases/20010517comp.htm),
"The cell phone circuits will be five times more powerful than existing, stand-alone cell phone circuits, while consuming a fraction of the battery power required for today's devices...
Within the next five to 10 years, we should not be surprised to see devices such as wearable computers or even video watch phones become widely available."
You can view a video describing this new combo-technology through a link on this page from the May 16 News.com: http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1006-200-5952785.html?tag=dd.ne.dht.nl-hed.0#
Tin---And Speaking Of PDAs...
Soon too, our PDAs may be running longer between charges or battery replacements. Germany's Fraunhofer Department of Energy Technology is demonstrating a new "combo" power supply, which combines a hydrogen fuel cell and a new type of solar cell.
According to the April 18 ZDNet News (http://www.zdnet.com/enterprise/stories/main/0,10228,2709345,00.html), this new device, which can be built-in to surfaces such as the lid of a PDA, can supply enough energy to make pocket devices independent of the power line. One matchbox-sized sample displayed at the Hanover Fair provides ten watts at eight volts -- enough power to run a camcorder. (From this initial sketchy information, it's unclear to me if the solar cell replenishes the hydrogen, or if hydrogen has to be occasionally added as a fuel, but it's certainly an interesting portable power direction.)
Between ever-more power-miserly electronics and better (and newer) "batteries," I have no doubt that that day will come when I can forget about touting chargers. Just like today's electronic watches that rarely run out of power, we'll simply expect all of our pocket electronics to "work" all the time, without a second thought. And that will change how we think about, and how we use, our personal silicon servants.
http://www5.compaq.com/rcfoc/20010611.html
Voice and MP3 Enabled PDAs
April 12, 2001 Eiger Technology Inc.
*Who is Eiger?
*Corporate Structure
*Corporate Objectives
*Review of 2000/Q1 2001 Share Price Activity
*Eiger Today
*Eiger Core Revenues Today
*Eiger Revenue Growth Tomorrow
*Major Industry Trends
*North American Distribution
*Summary
Who is Eiger ?
Eiger Technology, Inc. is a Canadian publicly traded company with
facilities in Silicon Valley, California and Korea, that specializes in the
R&D, design, manufacturing and distribution of electronic and computer
peripherals
*56K modems
*Digital Subscriber Line (DSL)
*Digital Audio Player(MP3)
*GSM/GPRS wireless communication technologies
Major Industry Trends
MP3 Based Distribution of Music
*$1.5 Billion in digital music revenues from subscription and
pay-per-download models by 2005 (Jupiter Communications)
*New Subscription-Based Online Music Portals (Mid/Late 2001)
* MusicNet (AOL, Bertelsmann, EMI, RealNetworks)
*Yahoo and Duet (Universal & Sony)
*Stand-alone MP3 Player sales expected up 80% in 2001, to
1.8 million units (Computer Electronics Association)
*Worldwide shipments of digital audio players will grow to 26 million
in 2005 (Market researcher IDC)
*Devices using alternatives to flash memory will control a large piece
of market share toward 2005 (IDC)
Major Industry Trends
3G Wireless Technology (GSM/GPRS/EDGE/UMTS)
*Evolution to 3G Technology significantly expands data capabilities of
wireless networks.
*Fully enable desktop internet applications over the mobile network
*Mobile Telephony applications - beyond voice
*internet access and web browsing
*textual and visual information
*still images (digital camera)
*entertainment (MP3, video)
*videoconferencing
*transactions
Major Industry Trends
Wireless Internet Statistics
Major Industry Trends
Multi-Functional Portable Electronic Devices
*Internet and MP3 Enabled Cell Phones
*Voice and MP3 Enabled PDAs
*Internet and Voice Enabled Toys and Appliances
*Wireless Music Delivery
*Big Push towards listening music over cell phones and PDAs driven by
demand for mobile access to music collection (Yankee Group)
*Market growth of Audio enabled mobile devices a function of
network infrastructure/bandwidth
Eiger has assembled the technologies and manufacturing
capabilities for tomorrow's internet-enabled products
under one umbrella
Music Distribution System,“Keitaide-Music”
Yoshihiro Hori, Hiroshi Takemura, Miwa Kanamori, Takatoshi Yoshikawa,Toshiaki Hioki
SANYO Technical Review, Vol.33, No.1, pp.27-33(2001)
As the world’s social infrastructures become increasingly digital, the widespread distribution of music and other content over networks is anticipated. On the other hand, concerns about copyright infringements by content suppliers are preventing the progress of content supply methods.
We evaluated both user and security requirements for a mobile phone network together with four other companies, and established a set of system standards called “Keitaide-music” technical specifications for distributing music to mobile phones.
These technical specifications cover the areas of security, protocol, memory cards and terminals based on content protection technology, and can also be adapted to other networks.
MP3 Goes Pro
By Stuart Kiang June 7, 2001
MP3's creators ready a better-sounding version of the ubiquitous online music format and finally reveal their licensing scheme for streaming MP3.
MP3Pro is backwards compatible with MP3. (Photo courtesy of Creative Technology, Ltd.)
Threatened by the growing success of competing audio formats like Microsoft's Windows Media, Thomson Multimedia will debut MP3Pro on June 14 and detail its long-awaited plan to charge royalties for streaming MP3.
MP3 is a system of audio encoding and decoding that has become a de facto standard for music transmission on the Internet. MP3Pro is an enhanced version promising greater efficiency and higher performance that will "position MP3 much better for the streaming market," says Henri Linde, who manages MP3 licensing for Thomson.
This could mean better sound quality for users constrained by the relatively slow speeds of dial-up modems, as well as the ability to pack more music into limited-storage portable MP3 players.
Music That Stays High
MP3Pro enables audio encoding at "half the [present] bit rate while maintaining the same quality," says Linde. This means that music encoded at 128 kilobits per second—the MP3 bit rate widely considered to produce "near CD" quality—could be encoded at 64 kilobits per second, significantly reducing the transmission speed required for continuous streaming over the Internet. File sizes should be reduced by half.
At the same time, MP3Pro will bring "a clear quality improvement at the upper end," says Linde. In a direct comparison between music encoded at 80 kilobits per second and the uncompressed digital recording of the same music, "no one so far has had the 'golden ears' to be able to hear a difference," he says.
The claimed improvement in sound quality is due to a new encoding tool called spectral band replication, which allows the compressed audio signal to include high-frequency sounds that had formerly been discarded by audio encoders working at a low bit rate. At 64 kilobits per second, for example, normal MP3 encoding tosses out sounds above 10 kilohertz, whereas human hearing usually extends up to 18 or 20 kilohertz. Enough of these high frequencies are retained in MP3Pro to make the decoded signal sound brighter, as well as more accurate and natural.
In addition, the new format was designed to be backwards compatible with MP3, so that music encoded in MP3Pro will play on existing MP3 players. However, an updated decoder is needed to get the full benefit of the enhanced sound, says Linde.
MP3Pro was developed by Coding Technologies, a company headquarted in Stockholm, and is being licensed by Thomson Multimedia. The development team at Coding Technologies includes 12 former employees of the Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits, the German research institute that created the MP3 format.
A demo version of the new codec (encoder/decoder) will be available for download at the RCA Web site on June 14, says Linde. The first hardware players for MP3Pro are expected this fall.
License to Share
Last year, Thomson notified MP3 users that royalties for MP3 streaming, or MP3 broadcasting, would not be charged "until the end of the year 2000," while it gauged "where this new market is going."
This left users in the uncomfortable position of not knowing what the licensing cost of streaming MP3 would be, or when payments would fall due. In contrast, the licenses for software and hardware MP3 decoders had been set at $0.50 per unit with a minimum fee of $15,000 per year.
This week, Linde revealed Thomson's licensing policy for streaming or broadcasting "pure MP3." The royalty rate is two percent of revenues related to streaming, with a minimum fee of $2,000 per year.
This licensing model aims to find "the right middle ground between consumer acceptance and profitability for content providers," Linde says.
"If MP3 is used for free distribution on the Internet, we will not charge royalties," he says. But "if people monetize, the inventors should have their fair share," he adds.
For MP3Pro, Thomson will also offer a license based on "revenues related to streaming," such as advertising, Linde says. The royalty rate for MP3Pro will be three percent of revenue, with a minimum fee of $3,000 per year.
Linde estimates that 80 to 90 percent of the market for streaming MP3Pro would only be required to pay the minimum fee. "Not that many will be earning $100,000 from streaming," he says, "so it will amount to a $3,000 flat fee for most of the people."
Internet Audio Goes Commercial
Since last year, directions for Internet audio have become clearer, as content owners scramble to establish online revenue streams.
Major labels, spurred by the explosion of online music trading that brought the MP3 format to instant notoriety, have been intent on buying the infrastructure and assets of formerly free music channels—most notably Napster—so as to launch online music subscription schemes that will start this summer.
Bertelsmann has bought myplay.com and CDNow, as well as a majority share in Napster. In addition, Bertelsmann's BMG has partnered with Warner Music, EMI and RealNetworks to form MusicNet, a system for online music services that could tap Napster's more than 70 million users.
Meanwhile, Vivendi Universal, owner of the Decca, Deutsche Grammophon, MCA and Philips labels, has formed a rival music service with Sony, called Duet, and has bought MP3.com and EMusic.
In this climate, a key factor determining a company's choice of format for online music distribution is security—the ability to prevent, or at least deter, unlawful copying of digital music.
To combat the perception that other audio-compression formats may be better suited for copyright protection, Thomson will announce "a secure MP3 product in June," says Linde.
"We are working on a security scheme around MP3 and MP3Pro with one of the established security-solution providers," he adds.
Nokia Says Mobile Web to Take Off Next Year
By Paul de Bendern
ESPOO, Finland (Reuters) - Nokia (news - web sites) (NOK1V.HE), the world's largest mobile phone maker, said a market for high-speed mobile Internet phones may exist by Christmas, but a full range of applications will not be available until early next year.
The industry hopes GPRS (General Packet Radio Service)-based services will be a lucrative business that reignites consumer interest ahead of the launch of even more powerful and expensive third-generation (3G) mobile services in coming years.
``GPRS will start during the second half of the year and I think that by Christmas time it will be a true market, but that's more for the phones than for the services,'' Anssi Vanjoki, Executive Vice President of Nokia Mobile Phones, told Reuters in a recent interview.
His comments suggested that the GPRS mobile Internet in Europe and Asia -- excluding Japan -- may need even longer to take off than earlier expected, preventing carriers from generating revenues from the services any time soon.
Nokia decided to start selling GPRS phones, also known as 2.5-generation, in Europe only from the third quarter of this year, later than its nearest rival Motorola (NYSE:MOT - news), because it felt the market was not yet ready.
Nokia has said that from the fourth quarter it will be selling millions of GPRS-enabled phones.
Because of Nokia's huge global mobile phone market share of over 35 percent, the decision by the Finnish company to wait on the launch has slowed the take-up of wireless Internet services in Europe and some parts of Asia, say industry experts.
GPRS phones can maintain a constant connection to the Internet, which means users will be notified when e-mails arrive, but only use network capacity when they are downloading.
NOKIA SAYS TECHNOLOGY NOT SALES DRIVER ''GPRS as such offers nothing, it is just the packetizing of the radio space,'' said Vanjoki, who is also a member of Nokia's executive board.
He said technology that would make it possible to offer attractive services like music, video and picture messaging, was not yet ready.
``You need some efficient applications platforms like multi-media messaging to do it and that is only going to be (available) in the first half of 2002 and that's when we will see the consumer excitement for the services start to happen,'' Vanjoki added.
He said the mobile phone industry had learned that you should not build up high expectations for new technologies because they take time to mature.
``So you are better off if you introduce that (new technology) as a sideline to the main thing,'' Vanjoki said.
Europe's first flirtation with Internet mobiles using Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) technology over slower 2G networks disillusioned customers because handsets were in short supply and Web access was limited, slow and sometimes impossible.
Vanjoki said consumers would not buy Nokia's first GPRS phone, the 8310, for its mobile Internet technology but rather because of its fashion appeal and range of features.
``The motivation to buy it is the 169 (changeable) covers, the in-built radio or that it is the smallest possible phone around. So the justification to buy it is not GPRS, that's an additional reason to buy it,'' he said.
This suggests that Nokia is banking on handset designs to boost phone sales in the third and fourth quarter, and its competitors will be under pressure to follow suit.
Motorola also has started to put more focus on the design and user-friendliness of its range of six GPRS phones which are being launched this year in Europe.
40 PERCENT MARKET SHARE
Vanjoki shrugged off skepticism about Chief Executive Jorma Ollila's comments last month that Nokia could achieve a global mobile phone market share of over 40 percent in the long term.
``We are not taking any dramatic conclusion that high market share cannot be sustained. Time will tell if it can be sustained,'' he said.
Nokia had a market share of over 35 percent -- possibly as high as 37 percent -- in the first quarter, and has said it was on target to reach its goal of a 40 percent global market share.
Motorola also boosted its position in the first quarter of 2001 to over 13 percent and told Reuters on Wednesday that it had raised it by a further one to two percentage points in the April to June
LAWRENCE MAGID: Look to external hard drives to fill storage needs
Copyright © 2001 Nando Media
Copyright © 2001 Los Angeles Times Syndicate
Los Angeles Times Syndicate
(June 8, 2001 09:50 a.m. EDT) - There was a time when Iomega Corp.'s Zip Disk was the de facto standard for backing up and moving data from one PC to another. Those little disks, which typically cost about $7.50, were perfect back when 100 megabytes seemed like a lot of data.
But with large multimedia files, 100 MB doesn't go as far as it used to. Iomega has since introduced a 250-MB Zip drive that resulted in gaping yawns from PC users now that most PCs come with CD-RW drives that enable you to back up your data on cheap 700-MB CDs that can be read by any CD-ROM drive.
But CDs are inadequate for very large files. Eventually, we'll all have high-capacity DVD burners in our PCs, but not until the cost of the drives and the media come down to earth.
In the meantime, there are some reasonably priced ways to add external storage to PCs. Several companies - including QPS Inc., Maxtor Corp. and LaCie - make external hard drives that can connect to a PC via either a Universal Serial Bus or FireWire port. USB and FireWire make it easy to add a drive, but FireWire is much faster.
I have a 20-gigabyte QPS Que! M2 hard drive plugged into the FireWire port of my desktop machine. Installation took only a couple of minutes. I didn't even need to install software drivers. The device, which is about two-thirds the size of a videocassette and weighs only 1 1/2 pounds, can easily be moved from one machine to another as long as both machines have FireWire ports.
I use it to keep a backup copy of my important data and recently drafted it for extra duty to transfer about 15 GB from my old PC to a new one. QPS offers the device with several capacities and prices: 6 GB for $249, 10 GB for $279 and 20 GB for $379. If your PC doesn't have a FireWire port, you can usually add one for about $60 for a desktop machine or about $120 for a notebook PC.
LaCie makes similar drives that connect via the USB port. Although USB is slower than FireWire, the next generation of the protocol will be almost as fast.
Iomega recently began shipping a new-style external hard drive that uses removable cartridges to store data. The Iomega Peerless comes in three parts. One connects the device to your PC. A base station holds the cartridge, which contains either a 10- or 20-GB removable hard drive.
Iomega makes a USB interface and separate interface for FireWire, but if you buy a USB device and later want to upgrade to FireWire, you won't have to buy an entire new system - just spend $80 for a new interface.
The unit is easy to install and fits nicely on the desktop. If you have a separate base station, it's extremely easy to move the cartridge from one machine to another. Even if you don't, you can easily unplug the unit from the USB or FireWire port and move it to another machine. The Peerless also works with Macs - virtually all of which have FireWire and USB, making it an ideal way to transfer large amounts of data between PCs and Macs.
A unit with a 20-GB drive costs $399. A 10-GB version costs $359. You also can buy the drive cartridges separately for $159 for 10 GB and $199 for 20 GB.
Although not quite as fast as most internal IDE drives, the Peerless is much faster than a CD, a Zip or a floppy and is suitable for storing data and software. It comes with Altiris PC Transplant software that you can use to copy programs and personal settings from one PC to another.
It also comes with MGI PhotoSuite, MGI Videowave software and MusicMatch Jukebox, which, in addition to providing some useful applications, also makes the marketing statement that the device is positioned as a multimedia storage system for people who are creating or playing large video, photography and audio files.
The only problem with using removable hard drives for backup is that they are too expensive to use just to archive data. For that purpose, you're still better off storing your data on CD-R discs, Zip Disks, a tape backup system or an Internet backup system such as @backup.com
Internet appliances: Down, but not yet out
By Ian Fried
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
June 8, 2001, 8:00 a.m. PT
TAIPEI, Taiwan--With all the Internet appliances dotting the floor of this week's Computex trade show, one might think that the scaled-down computers are selling well.
That would be a false impression.
In fact, just 150,000 of the Web-surfing gadgets were sold in the United States last year, compared with more than 48 million PCs, according to market researcher IDC.
"We're still trying to find the market," said Chris Chuang, marketing manager for First International Computer's networking and information group. "Even our customers, they don't know where the market is."
But, despite complaints that there are few buyers, FIC and nearly all the major Taiwanese computer makers have prominently placed new Internet appliances in their booths at the giant Computex show here.
Monitor makers such as ViewSonic and motherboard makers such as Micro-Star International had prototype systems on display. Processor makers such as Via Technologies and National Semiconductor were touting the chips that power such devices. Even software vendors were on hand to offer browsers that could run on them.
That's despite the fact that many big-name companies that entered the market have now decided to retreat. 3Com pulled its Audrey appliance that was aimed to bring the Internet to the breakfast table. Gateway is rethinking its Net gadget strategy after launching one device in conjunction with America Online.
The market leader, Compaq Computer, this week cut the price of its two MSN-based Internet appliances.
IDC recently chopped its forecast for what it calls the Web terminal market. The market researcher now projects that 2.7 million units will ship by 2005, down from an earlier forecast that 5.5 million devices would ship in 2004.
So, if sales are so slow and the future so bleak, why are there so many new designs coming to market?
In many cases, it is just a way for computer makers to try to use up extra capacity in a slow PC market. Many Taiwanese component makers also are hoping that new business in devices such as Internet appliances can keep them going as much of the island's PC business moves to mainland China.
In addition, the U.S. market may not be the best indicator of overall demand, say those who think Internet appliances may soon have their day. Developing nations appear to be a primary target.
Monitor maker MAG Innovision, which makes CRT-based Internet appliances, said it is looking to sell its products to Internet service providers and Net cafes in places like India and China, where PC ownership is low.
Even those skeptical of the market for such products are nonetheless doing work in that area, such as chipset maker Silicon Integrated Systems. "I personally don't think that the (Internet appliance) market is ready," said Shing Wong, senior vice president of the company's multimedia division and U.S. operations.
Despite his skepticism, Wong backs the company's decision to develop a processor for such appliances that combine its chipset functions with a CPU from Rise Technology.
"Putting some investment and looking into it is the right thing to do," Wong said.
DataPlay Closes $55 Million Financing; Kodak, Intel, Olympus and Trans World
Entertainment Participate in Financing
Business/Technology Editors
BOULDER, Colo.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 8, 2001--DataPlay, Inc.,
announced today that it has closed a $55 million round of financing,
bringing the total capital raised since the Company's inception to
$119 million. This financing includes significant investments from
leading consumer electronic device manufacturers, technology companies
and retail distribution. DataPlay is committed to becoming a standard
for the distribution and recording of digital content such as music,
video, digital images, games and software in the consumer electronics
marketplace.
This current round of financing includes investments from Eastman
Kodak Company (NYSE: EK), Intel Capital, Olympus Optical Company,
Ltd., Trans World Entertainment (Nasdaq: TWMC), meVC Draper Fisher
Jurvetson Fund I (NYSE: MVC), Imation Corporation, Sequel Venture
Partners, Colorado PERA, Portage Venture Partners, SG Cowen Securities
Corporation, A.G. Edwards Capital, Graystone Ventures and musician
David Crosby.
"DataPlay digital media is a creative, exciting technology that we
expect will make a huge impact on the way people use and store digital
content not only with digital cameras, but all consumer electronics,"
said Yusuke Kojima, Division Manager, Olympus Optical Co., LTD. "We
view DataPlay as an integral part of our efforts to incorporate
advanced technologies that let our customers get more use and
enjoyment out of Olympus products."
The DataPlay solution includes three primary offerings: DataPlay
digital media, DataPlay micro-optical engine and ContentKey(TM), a
content distribution, marketing and e-commerce tool. DataPlay's
miniature optical media, approximately the size of a quarter, allows
access to all forms of digital content across all digital devices and
platforms, including images, documents, software, games, video and
more. One 500 MB digital media can hold over 11 hours of music
downloads or five complete pre-recorded albums of CD-quality music,
hundreds of high-resolution photographs or dozens of games, and will
retail for around $10.
"DataPlay digital media is an ideal solution for today's
technology-savvy consumer," said Robert Higgins, chairman and CEO of
Trans World Entertainment, the largest specialty music retailer in the
United States including FYE, Camelot, Record Town, Coconuts Music &
Movies and Strawberries. "By offering DataPlay products through our
retail stores, we are continuing to satisfy our customers' demand for
the most advanced entertainment choices."
DataPlay's strategy to penetrate the market quickly and
effectively is built upon numerous strategic partnerships for
developing devices and providing content for use with the DataPlay
digital media. Leading consumer electronic developers, such as Toshiba
Corporation, Samsung Electronics, Olympus, Creative Labs and SonicBlue
are developing portable music players/recorders, digital cameras, PC
peripherals, PDAs and portable games that will support the DataPlay
format. As a result of these strategic relationships, DataPlay will
extend its reach to hundreds of thousands of potential consumers when
the product goes to market this fall. In addition, Universal Music
Group, EMI Recorded Music, BMG Entertainment and Rosetta Books are
currently planning to release pre-recorded music and e-book content on
DataPlay digital media for use in multiple consumer electronic
devices.
DataPlay anticipates digital media containing pre-recorded content
to be available by Q4 2001, coinciding with the availability of
DataPlay-enabled consumer electronic devices and blank media.
"There's a tremendous amount of excitement and momentum
surrounding DataPlay's technologies and products, and we're moving to
capitalize on that enthusiasm by assembling strong investors and
partners," said Steve Volk, chairman and CEO of DataPlay.
In January of this year, DataPlay won the Best of Show Award for
Mobile Devices and Best Overall Lifestyle Product at the Consumer
Electronics Show in Las Vegas, an event that has built a reputation
for being the preeminent venue for the industry's most promising
companies and products. DataPlay was recognized for its value,
usability, inventiveness and design. DataPlay also received the CES
Innovations 2001 award in the Blank Media category at the show in
recognition of its innovative consumer electronics product.
About DataPlay, Inc.
DataPlay, Inc. was incorporated in November 1998 to develop a
Web-enabled digital content recording and distribution media for
portable Internet appliances and hand-held consumer entertainment
devices. Headquartered in Boulder, Colorado, the Company employs more
than 175 people in the United States, Singapore and Japan. Visit
DataPlay on the Internet at www.dataplay.com.
--30--alx/sf*
CONTACT: Dotted Line Communications
Aimee Clark, 415/292-1933
aimee@dottedlinecomm.com
The Big Bumpy Shift: Digital Music via Mobile Internet
The promise and rise of mobile Internet technologies and markets will be remembered as one of the most profound global information technology developments of the next few years. Mobile Internet technologies and practical applications necessary for widespread public use are advancing rapidly in Japan and are likely to catch on quickly in other countries. The remarkable adoption of mobile Internet in Japan and the popularity of digital music file sharing services such as Napster in the United States create a situation in which powerful synergies are possible between these two fundamental forces. Digital music via mobile Internet creates attractive opportunities for music artists, music consumers, entrepreneurs, and major music labels facing an uncertain future for music industry distribution practices. The realization of such opportunities depends not only on technological and business innovations, but also on the willingness among all parties involved to collaborate in equitable and valuable ways.
Contents
Introduction
A Mini-Net Called "i-mode"
Music Industry: Big Market, Big Questions
Music Industry Meets Mobile Internet
Music Industry Needs and Opportunities
Conclusion
Introduction
The year 2000 will be remembered by information technology observers for the trans-Pacific explosion of two seemingly unrelated Internet-driven phenomenon: NTT DoCoMo's i-mode mobile Internet service in Japan and digital music file-sharing services such as Napster in the United States. I-mode is gaining approximately half a million subscribers each month, and according to one study Napster user numbers in the United States increased from 1.1 million users in February 2000 to 6.7 million users in August 2000 [1]. I argue in this essay that the fundamental forces driving these two trends will pull each other into a powerful synergy, creating opportunities for content and service providers, music artists, music consumers, and major music labels. I first discuss features of i-mode that account for its popularity in Japan and potentially in other markets. Next I outline the challenges posed by digital file sharing to existing music industry distribution practices and propose a scenario for how mobile Internet and digital file sharing services might merge to leverage their strengths and generate new opportunities. Finally, I outline some of these new opportunities after discussing the needs of artists, consumers, and major labels in the era of digital music.
A Mini-Net Called "i-mode"
NTT DoCoMo's i-mode mobile data service, launched in February 1999, has become a cultural phenomenon in Japan [2]. Introduced with first-to-market and big-name branding advantages over competitors J-Sky and EZweb, i-mode has racked up monthly subscriber increases of between fifty thousand and one million. As of October 31, 2000 i-mode had 14 million subscribers (see Figure 1).
Figure 1: I-mode Subscriber Increase Trend (in millions)
In comparison, EZweb had approximately 4.2 million and J-Sky 3.5 million subscribers at the end of October 2000.
Observers attribute i-mode's popularity to a variety of factors, but three are particularly significant. Perhaps most important is the convenient billing system devised by NTT DoCoMo, in which all costs associated with third-party content access and data transmission are included in the monthly DoCoMo telephone billing statement. I-mode users pay on average 1,500 yen (US$15) per month for i-mode content or services from vendors approved by DoCoMo. That 1,500 yen is comprised on average of 300 yen (US$3) for basic i-mode service, 100-300 yen (US$1-3) for content service subscriptions, and 900 yen (US$9) for data traffic fees. Credit card or online micropayments are not popular in Japan due to security concerns among consumers and to cultural preference, so the opportunity to pay for i-mode content services through a trusted telecommunications company is attractive.
Second, all third-party content available to subscribers from the i-mode content menu has been carefully selected and in some cases shaped by DoCoMo's content gatekeepers and strategists to meet certain rigid standards of quality. For example, hyperlinks from official i-mode content pages to external sites are not allowed, sex-related content is banned, and until recently banner advertising also was not allowed. The result of such controlled content is that subscribers know what to expect and can conveniently locate content from the well-organized content menu page.
Finally, aside from a limited number of content services targeting English speakers in Japan, i-mode content and the service menu used to access content is in Japanese. This linguistic factor is critical for removing the barrier to Internet use experienced by the great majority of Japanese. A related convenience is freedom from the tyranny of non-intuitive "qwerty" keyboards, because i-mode is navigated via dual thumb dexterity on the handset control buttons.
Although a convenient billing system, rigorously regulated content offerings and a native language user experience have contributed to i-mode's explosive popularity, these same features have raised questions regarding what many observers perceive to be its "walled garden" architecture, what I refer to as a "mini-net." Critics argue that i-mode should not be considered a mobile Internet service because i-mode shares few features most users of the Internet have come to expect, such as unrestricted access to any kind of content made available by a wide selection of service providers. Regardless, there is no disputing that i-mode is working in Japan, and that other markets appear ready for take-off. Analysts' projections for mobile Internet users suggests a huge market for service and content providers, with Asia-Pacific leading a global user base pegged at 484 million by 2005 (see Figure 2).
Figure 2: Mobile Internet Users Worldwide (in millions)
The Strategis Group projects global e-commerce mobile revenues at US$3.5 billion in 2000, US$37.8 billion in 2002, and skyrocketing to US$140.2 billion in 2004. By region, Europe leads the revenue forecast with US$51.1 billion by 2004, followed closely by Asia-Pacific at US$46.5 billion and North America at US$32.4 billion. An estimated 1.2 billion mobile telephone subscribers, 322 million mobile Internet users, and 373 million mobile e-commerce buyers in 2004 will drive these revenues. Global mobile e-commerce comprised only of goods, services, and information is estimated to be worth US$200 billion by 2005, generated by 500 million users.
But will the i-mode mobile Internet business model catch on outside Japan? NTT DoCoMo's global aspirations are clear in its recently announced collaboration with AOL Japan [3], as well as partial purchases of overseas telecommunication companies. Talks with Telecom New Zealand in October 2000 and the significant US$9.8 billion, 16% equity purchase of AT&T Wireless in November 2000 mark DoCoMo's latest international forays. What remains to be seen is the degree of compatibility of NTT DoCoMo's i-mode service with other markets. The technology that supports i-mode and the HTML-friendly mark-up language used to write content is easily exportable, but cultural factors will force service and content providers to pay attention to market-specific telecommunication environments and needs of consumers. In the next section I discuss one potentially powerful mobile Internet application for the U.S. market and perhaps for many youth-driven Internet markets worldwide: digital music access and file sharing.
Music Industry: Big Market, Big Questions
Despite complaints and panic-induced lawsuits against file sharing services such as Napster by major music labels in the United States, the U.S. and global music markets are flourishing. The global market has grown by 3.4% annually since 1991 and the U.S. music market is the largest in the world, having grown 71% in value since 1991 to U.S. US$13.2 billion in 1998 [4]. More importantly, Napster use appears to be boosting music sales both online and offline. One study, commissioned by Napster and prepared by Peter S. Fader, associate professor of marketing at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, found that "over 91% of Napster users buy as much or more music than before they used Napster, with 28% purchasing more" [5]. Even so, the major music labels and their mouthpiece the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) appear to be frantically searching for a strategy to maintain control and revenues. The industry is being challenged not only by technology innovators such as Napster, Gnutella, and MP3.com, but also by alliances of music artists and supporters such as the Future of Music Coalition.
Internet research firm Jupiter Communications suggests that if the music industry were to let players like Napster stand it would drive incremental sales, but if the industry partnered with networked music-sharing technology companies through licensing schemes, the benefit would be exponentially greater. Jupiter also proposes that "a subscription service to an online music community with high-quality digital music, virus protection, and a wide variety of content could eventually be a more successful driver of revenues for recorded music than individual downloads sold through an online store." Of the five biggest music labels, at least Universal and Bertelsmann seem to be paying attention. Bertelsmann announced at the end of October 2000 a legal settlement with Napster in which Bertelsmann's e-commerce group will partner with Napster to create a membership system to allow paid users to download high-quality songs from Bertelsmann Music Group's entire catalogue. Napster CEO Hank Berry suggested membership fees of US$4.95 per month, but neither party has released information regarding a start of service date. Universal may have swung an even sweeter deal with MP3.com. After watching Bertelsmann, Sony Music Entertainment, Time Warner's Music Group and EMI settle in court with MP3.com for approximately US$20 million each, Universal waited and eventually settled out of court with MP3.com for US$53.4 million. As part of the deal Universal also reportedly bought warrants for up to three million MP3.com shares.
The big question still remains: Will partnerships such as those engineered by Napster and Bertelsmann or MP3.com and Universal actually generate revenues? A July 2000 essay in the Economist argues that if the music labels can put their songs online in a format that is more organized and more appealing than their illegal competitors can, fans will be willing to pay something for that privilege [6]. Although online sales - both CD and digital downloads - represented only 2.4% of total music sales for 1999, according to one survey 50% of online U.S. youths ages 16-22 report that they will purchase music online in the near future. Online Internet economy publication The Standard reports Jupiter's prediction of download sales in particular to increase through 2004, reaching 25% of total music sales in 2005 [7]. Media Metrix forecasts that in 2005 76 million users will purchase US$5.4 billion of music online, and another US$1 billion will be spent on online music subscriptions. In October 2000 - before their dances with MP3.com and Napster - both Universal Music and BMG announced new online initiatives to capture some of this projected revenue, with BMG charging users per download. Singles are priced from US$1.98 to US$3.49, and albums are going for between US$9.98 and US$14.98. Universal is experimenting with a subscription model offering users unlimited access to more than 20,000 songs. The Universal plan is not offering actual downloads of music, however. Instead, users can listen to streaming song files, which are extremely difficult to record and share at high audio quality.
The online music file access strategies as currently conceived by the major labels, including the two joint initiatives with Napster and MP3.com, are likely to fail for three main reasons. First, few music consumers purchase music of only one particular label, so until the major labels create some form of low-priced, comprehensive access from one Web site to all of the songs in their combined catalogs, any consumer response will be tepid at best. Separate subscriptions or memberships to each of the four big labels will not be an attractive option. More importantly, BMG's current per song or per "CD" download model is priced at levels similar to CD costs in a physical store, giving consumers little incentive to move from existing no-cost file sharing services.
Second, streaming of music as planned by Universal will not replace the appeal of downloading song files because the ability of consumers to share music appears to be a major motivation behind current use of Napster, MP3.com and similar services.
Finally, current industry initiatives appear to make no concessions to music artists' increasing dissatisfaction with recording contract restrictions enforced by major labels and what many artists and supporters consider to be unreasonable percentage takes of sales revenue. Although it is not clear given the popularity of free file sharing services that music consumers feel compelled to pay artists for their music, if paid subscription access becomes the dominant model in the future there may be increased interest among consumers in seeing that artists get a better deal from the labels than in the past. Put differently, if consumers are forced to pay for digitally downloaded music, many probably will demand that artists get a fair deal. In fact, some well-known artists have declared a kind of unilateral divorce from the labels and have pledged to support innovative schemes by entrepreneurs that give artists more control and compensation for their art, and give consumers the flexibility and convenience of digital downloading.
To compound RIAA's headaches, researchers at Xerox PARC, Princeton, and Rice University recently claimed to have cracked four digital watermark technologies created by RIAA's Digital Music Initiative (SDMI) encryption scheme. Following this claim, the five major music labels driving the SDMI announced the results of a challenge posed by SDMI in which two of its five copyright protection technologies were apparently thwarted. Critics on all sides are attacking SDMI as a waste of time and resources, and many analysts believe that the effort will die on the vine. In the next section I describe some possibilities for music experience innovation using mobile Internet business models and technologies.
Music Industry Meets Mobile Internet
Noted UC Berkeley economist Hal Varian argued in a recent New York Times essay that to encourage consumers to pay for music, current music industry distribution practices will need to change to offer more value to consumers. Varian suggests that the music industry could, for example, adopt a strategy (recently employed by author Stephen King) of releasing just ten seconds or so of a new song and delivering the entire song for digital download only after receipt of a certain fee sent by a minimum number of consumers. Motivation could take the form of artist T-shirts, autographs, or some kind of interaction with artists. A survey of young Americans reveals another potentially potent motivator - mobility. The study found that among those young people who do not use online file sharing services, one key reason is lack of portability [8].
Enter the mobile Internet. Although mobile MP3 players such as Diamond Multimedia's Rio have been on the market for years, until now the convenience of one easily portable unit with digital telephone, e-mail, Web browsing, music download, and music file playback capabilities has been denied consumers due to technological challenges and uncertain market conditions. But Japan's DDI Pocket Inc, an affiliate of KDDI, has announced 30 November 2000 release of just such a service called Sound Market, made possible with Sanyo's RZ-J91 mobile Internet unit (which has a compact digital camera built in as a bonus). Promotional literature for the service claims that a three-minute digital music file of CD quality will be downloadable in 7-8 minutes at 32 KBPS. Data transmission fees will be 13 yen (US$0.12) per minute. Headphones are used for playback and copyright protection of downloaded music is afforded by a technology called Secure MMC - but any such technology is unlikely to foil determined hackers. Sony also has developed a prototype mobile Internet unit that employs a small external clip for MP3 playback. That external clip probably will make its way into the unit's interior in later versions.
Consumers are likely to balk at these high prices and slow downloading times, however. KDDI apparently recognizes this, and announced 1 November 2000 that with the start of 3G services in 2001 it will lower per packet data transmission costs dramatically to accommodate music and video downloads. Currently KDDI charges between 0.1 yen and 0.3 yen per 128 byte packet. It is not clear, therefore, when music downloading and sharing via some kind of mobile Internet telephone device in Japan or elsewhere will actually attract significant numbers of users. What is certain is that data transmission rates and telephone device data storage capacity will increase, and data transmission costs will drop.
Despite these problems, music over mobile Internet is a compelling proposition. The main significance of mobile Internet digital music access is the new level of flexibility and convenience afforded the consumer. The digital music revolution has shown that music consumers want music quickly, any time, in any configuration, and at minimal or no cost. Add "music any place" to the formula, and the ability of consumers to beam music files quickly between mobile units via infrared (IrDA) or Bluetooth, and the value of digital music distribution strategies using mobile Internet devices is clear. Even so, is mobile Internet music likely to play in the United States?
This question brings us full circle to NTT DoCoMo's i-mode service. I believe that the success of the i-mode model or any other mobile Internet service in the United States will depend largely on two factors: (1) pricing structures low enough to attract users accustomed to low, flat monthly fees for wired Internet use, and (2) consumers' perceptions of content value. As noted earlier, data transmission costs will need to be low enough to support consumer downloading and sharing of relatively large digital music files. Advances in compression technology and data transmission rates hopefully will help to keep costs down. Regarding content, the animation characters or telephone ring melody selections so popular in Japan may not persuade many U.S. consumers to reach for their wallets. For music services, content providers should consider how to reduce relational distance between music artists and music consumers through strategies such as fan-to-fan communication forums, concert ticket contest prizes and e-mail dialogue opportunities. Furthermore, although NTT DoCoMo's strategy of consolidating third-party content services on one mobile Internet service billing statement may prove attractive in the United States, it is likely that potential U.S. users will prefer less control over content by telecommunication companies or other providers.
Mobile Internet music access eventually will hit the United States, but Japan will be first. NTT DoCoMo announced on 2 August 2000 that by the end of 2000 i-mode-capable handsets will allow i-mode users to download music files. Japan Telecom has announced plans to offer music downloading via 3G mobile phones by December 2001. Charges will be shown on user phone bills, and music downloads also will be available from train station kiosks. Java developments are critical for making mobile Internet music a reality, because Java will allow device users to download software directly to mobile terminals, and the software will run on the CPU of the device. Content providers will gain flexibility in service offerings, and will enjoy reduced production and delivery costs of multimedia content such as music, video, and games because with Java it no longer will be necessary to store GIF files on high-end servers. Java's digital identification cards also will improve security for mobile commerce applications. The first Java service for mobile Internet devices will be offered by South Korean carrier LG Telephone, with release scheduled for September 2000. NTT DoCoMo plans to release a similar Java service in December 2000, with KDDI and J-Phone scheduled to offer services in 2001.
One potentially big barrier to smooth uptake of Java for mobile Internet devices in Japan is compatibility problems. Although the Java service to be used by NTT DoCoMo is Sun Microsystems' Kilobit Virtual Machine (KVM), which is a likely candidate for industry standard, NTT DoCoMo has adjusted the application programming interface, in effect tweaking the standard. The result is that even if J-Phone and KDDI opt for KVM Java, applets probably will not run similarly on the services of all three carriers, creating huge headaches for content providers.
When might the United States become mobile Internet music capable? As of July 2000, the U.S. and Canada lag far behind many Asian and European countries in mobile Internet usage. Cahners In-Stat Group forecasts that in 2002 100 million handsets will be sold in the U.S., up from 55.7 million in 1999. The U.S. Commerce Department reported in June 2000 that in the U.S. mobile telephone subscriber numbers will grow by an average of 16.8 million users per year over the next four years reaching 187.6 million in 2004. By 2001, 68% of users will have digital Internet access-capable telephones. In 2000 800,000 Americans are expected to use Web-enabled handsets. But as of July 2000 only about 6% of mobile devices in the U.S. and Canada are Web-enabled, whereas nearly 100% of mobile devices in Japan should be Web-enabled by 2001. Moreover, as of July 2000 only 7% of Americans report wanting access to mobile Internet services.
Regardless of apparently mild interest by Americans in mobile Internet and in a display of enormous industry confidence in the future of mobile Internet, IBM recently announced that by 2002 it will not ship any software without mobile capabilities. IBM's move probably is in response to a recently passed law in the United States mandating that all cellular phones sold after 1 October 2001 have physical location identification features to assist emergency crews to react to calls for assistance. A mobile Internet commerce provider called SNAZ Commerce Solutions also has announced plans to introduce i-mode service to the United States and Europe, taking advantage of NTT DoCoMo's strategic alliances with AOL, AT&T Wireless, and Dutch telecommunications company KPN. SNAZ's i-mode service, slated for rollout in late 2000, currently is in beta testing in Europe.
Music Industry Needs and Opportunities
The coming possibilities of digital music over mobile Internet create excellent opportunities for music artists, entrepreneurs and especially the major labels to consider reforms in existing music industry practices. Unlike in Japan, where prohibitively high wired Internet access costs controlled by NTT have encouraged a quantifiable split between the wired Internet and mobile Internet user populations, mobile Internet users in the United States are more likely to use wired Internet for some purposes and mobile Internet for others. This means that the introduction of mobile Internet in the United States should increase both B2B and B2C e-commerce activity in all service and product markets where a mobile Internet presence makes sense, such as digital music file access and sharing. To envision how mobile Internet services might bring value to digital music practices, it is necessary to consider some of the apparent needs of the music industry, music consumers, and music artists.
Music industry needs:
Must create viable revenue model or models for digital music downloading.
Must retain collaboration with artists (or artists might go directly to consumers).
Must relax artistic control over artists and copyright control over consumer activities enough to satisfy the critical needs of both groups.
Music consumer needs:
Music any time, anywhere.
Lower than CD prices for music if forced or motivated to pay for online access.
Total music purchase and access flexibility.
To connect more closely with artists.
Music artist needs:
Greater ownership of music.
Greater percentage of music revenues.
Greater contract flexibility.
Greater marketing options (e.g., direct access to consumers via Internet).
Given the various needs suggested above, questions to address in any effort for meaningful music distribution reforms include (1) What added value can consumers be given to motivate them to pay for access to music? And (2) How can major music labels regain the trust of artists and consumers through more equitable revenue-sharing schemes and a music access environment that goes beyond the advantages of current file sharing services? Monthly subscription models via wired Internet will need to reflect such added value offered to consumers. Although one study revealed that 58% of college students will pay US$15.00 per month for unlimited download privileges [9], and another study found that 78% of Napster users are willing to pay US$12.89 for a monthly subscription, these figures do not take into account possible deal sweeteners such as limited access to artists, contests, or music-related information services.
Mobile Internet will add value to wired Internet digital music services because it will increase music access and purchasing convenience to consumers while enhancing e-commerce opportunities for service providers and artists by un-tethering music consumers from desktops. Importantly, mobile Internet also will create opportunities for consumers to communicate with each other at work, school, or on the street about favorite music artists and songs and to share song files, effectively contributing to the marketing of music. In addition, the lure of increased music revenues potential of mobile Internet services might encourage the music labels to open their music catalogues to downloading with pricing structures that satisfy both users and artists. If the big labels resist they may find that enterprising businesses step in quickly with valuable services to take at least some of the revenues pie from them.
Above all is the need for recognition by all concerned parties that what underlies the new digital economy and prospects for mobile Internet music is, as pointed out by John Perry Barlow, not things as possessions, but rather relationships and synergies. Referring to the digital music copyright fracas, Barlow suggests a memorable guide for right thinking: "If I sell you my horse, I can't ride him after that. If I sell you what I know, we both know it" [10]. This fundamental tenet of most Internet activities is reflected in the popularity among some entertainment fans of "fanfic," which involves the often elaborate written positing of scenarios related, however loosely, to particular popular movies or television shows. Fanfic empowers consumers to participate in the creation of alternative futures, and some observers argue that entertainment industry officials should embrace and encourage such involvement rather than attempt to suppress it with cease and desist orders against fanfic Web sites [11].
The collaborative opportunities available to visionary mobile Internet-related businesses during this chaotic transition are suggested by a speech music artist Courtney Love delivered May 2000 at the Digital Hollywood conference. Proclaimed an exasperated Love, "I'm looking for people to help me connect me to more fans ... there's an unbelievable opportunity for companies who dare to get it right ... I'm leaving the major label system and there are hundreds of artists who are going to follow me." Momentum for change seems to be building, with the Future of Music Coalition planning a "Policy Conference for the Future of Music" for January 2001. The stated goal is to "draw together the strongest voices in the technology and independent music communities" to discuss how both groups can work together.
Conclusion
The introduction of mobile Internet music access and file sharing likely will be met with considerable skepticism in many markets, particularly in the United States where mobile Internet as a concept has been slow to excite consumers. But just as the remarkable success of NTT DoCoMo's i-mode mobile Internet service eventually caused consumers in the United States to take notice, Japanese technological and market innovations will spur tremendous growth in mobile Internet music in both countries. The mobile Internet model or models that eventually take root in the United States to support mobile Internet music probably will borrow one or more features from NTT DoCoMo's i-mode service such as its billing system, but should be shaped strategically around unique U.S. telecom market structures and the specific needs and Internet practices of U.S. consumers.
Globally, increasing consumer enthusiasm over digital music file sharing likely will force monumental changes in existing relationships between artists, music companies, and consumers, with opportunistic new businesses filling as yet unrealized business needs. The upheaval in the music industry will create huge opportunities for entertainment-related content providers and application developers, and may force major music labels to loosen certain copyright restrictions on selective downloading and sharing of music materials and performances. The initial disruption created by these transformations is projected to result in a massive shift in music revenues by 2005, with artists gaining US$1 billion and third party service vendors gaining US$2.8 billion [12].
Then there is China, the most promising mobile Internet market in the world. In 1999 there were 43 million cellular telephone users in China, with an additional 20 million expected to join the ranks in 2000. The Economist reports 57 million mobile telephone users in China as of July 2000. This penetration rate represents only 1% of China's population, leaving tremendous room for growth. By the end of 2000, 10% of China's mobile telephones should be Web-enabled, with handset prices dropping 10%-15% annually.
Mobile Internet devices will not replace the wired Internet in most markets any more than mobile telephones have replaced wired telephones. The two platforms will coexist in various configurations and ratios depending on local telecommunications infrastructure, applications development, and consumer demand. More certain is the flexibility and empowerment millions of users worldwide will gain from any time any place access to information and services such as digital music. How and when we get there will depend largely on the imagination of technologists and entrepreneurs, the wisdom of regulators, and the willingness of currently antagonistic parties to collaborate to realize an exciting new social possibility.
About the Author
Daniel P. Dolan, Ph.D., is Assistant Professor and Senior Research Fellow at the Center for Global Communications, International University of Japan. He has published a wide range of essays on trends and social impacts of new information technologies, and was interviewed on CNN about Y2K in Japan. Dolan has interdisciplinary interests in human communication studies beyond digital technologies, from Japanese mass media practices to rhetorical strategies employed by new religious movements to facilitate commitment among members.
E-mail: shonandan@hotmail.com
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