The FCC has reportedly (finally) said it won’t approve the LightSquared broadband-in-the-sky plan because of interference with GPS services. I’ve never been a fan of the whole notion (two years ago I shocked one of the equipment vendors by telling them I didn’t think it would ever happen) because I don’t think the service would…
Alcatel-Lucent’s New Broadband and IBM’s New Cloud
I’ve been speculating on the role that WiFi might play in the future mobile broadband ecosystem, and Alcatel-Lucent has apparently been doing the same. The result is their latest enhancement to their lightRadio line, which they call “lightRadio WiFi”, a development that addresses the reality of mobile broadband—it’s not all about 3G and 4G but…
Another Look at TV, and the Cloud
The speculation on Apple’s and Google’s plans for entertainment products seems endless, but it also seems to be ramping up. As is always the case with rumors and speculation, it’s far from clear that there’s any substance behind the stories, but there are at least some grounds to wonder a bit. After all, there aren’t…
Reading the Earnings
Cisco and Alcatel-Lucent both delivered their quarterly numbers late last week, and in both cases the numbers were decent, but the fortunes of the two companies’ stock was different. Cisco’s declined after its report, and Alcatel-Lucent climbed significantly. The question is whether there was a difference in the numbers that justified the different investor reaction,…
Strategy or Tactics?
Juniper’s partner conference this week has managed to catch the eye of Wall Street, which makes it more important than these sort of events typically are. It’s not an accident; Juniper has been promoting its event more than usual too. The new J-Partner program will spend more, promote partnerships more, and be dedicated to “driving…
More Facets of Video Future
Video and streaming are obviously going to be hot topics for a long time, and there’s interesting stuff happening all through the food chain. The question is whether the ecosystem that’s being pushed in so many directions at so many levels is going to converge on anything that all the players can survive in. CES…
Bumps in the Internet Video Road?
Apple may be moving into the educational market in a different way, going after the enormous, highly politicized, and highly profitable textbook business. The details of this move aren’t known at this point but there are some interesting questions about the whole textbook-ebook thing that bear review. It might be something actually useful in education….
Learning from Microsoft’s Mistakes
The story that PC sales slipped in 4Q, first raised as a Microsoft comment yesterday, is now being quasi-confirmed by more detailed shipment data released by various Wall Street researchers. One, citing Gartner, says that y/y growth in PC sales was well below seasonality in the quarter, and the expectation overall is that PC sales…
Is the Cloud the Star of CES?
What’s the lesson of CES so far? That a tablet is a window on the cloud. Eric Schmidt danced around that point with his notion of Android making your house cooperate with you by essentially sensing your behavior. Walk into a room and it’s like the old song; “The room was singing love songs…” because…
Reading Into Juniper’s Miss
Surprise, surprise! The latest data from the European Telecommunications Operators Association shows that costs are up and revenues are down, and the author wonders how long this sort of imbalance can go on without compromising spending. Maybe it already has; we noted that Acme Packet showed weakness that could be a symptom of a capex…