AT&T: Simply Addicted to the iPhone
The launch of Apple’s new iPhone 3GS was the best sales day ever for AT&T’s retail stores, while the number of orders taken at its online store also hit an all-time high, according to an internal memo obtained by MacDailyNews, a blog devoted to all things Apple. While the memo doesn’t outline the precise number […]
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The Bell Tolls for Plasma TVs
In the market for a new TV? These days, there are bargains galore, especially when it comes to those with plasma screens. The Wall Street Journal reports that the growing popularity of their LCD cousins has TV makers such as Pioneer and Vizio phasing out their entire plasma TV line-ups. Others may soon follow suit.
One can […]
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Mobile Phone Sales to Decline Over Next 5 Years
Mobile phone sales are going to decline sharply over the next five years, to the tune of 1.04 billion devices, according to Informa Telecoms & Media. In its new report, “The Financial Crisis: Analyzing the impact on global mobile markets,” the research firm has revised its forecast for device sales over the next five years […]
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What Went Wrong With Joost?
Joost, a much-vaunted online video startup, today announced that it will offer a white-label video hosting platform, thus entering a crowded market littered with the carcasses of other failed video hosts. The company is also losing its famous chief executive, Mike Volpi, whom it’s replacing with Matt Zelesko, the current vice president of engineering. And […]
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LogMeIn Prices At $16 A Share, Windfall for VC Backers
LogMeIn, a Woburn, Mass.-based company that is going public has priced at $16 a share, according to The Wall Street Journal. LogMeIn will start trading tomorrow under the ticker, LOGM. With 6.7 million shares on sale, LogMeIn raised a total of $107.2 million. That’s on the the higher end of the range, showing that there […]
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Sense Gets New Funding, Focuses on New Markets
Sense Networks, a location-based services company headquartered in New York, said today it’s raised an undisclosed amount of money from investors led by Intel Capital. Citing a gag order from Intel, CEO Greg Skibiski not only wouldn’t say how much the round was for, he wouldn’t disclose who the other investors were. Such an attempt […]
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Comcast Starts Selling Wireless Broadband Service
Comcast, the largest US cable company and one of the biggest broadband service providers in the country says it has started to sell a new wireless broadband service, High-Speed 2go across cities in its cable footprint. Here are some facts:
Comcast will offer its own wireless laptop cards and the service will not have any […]
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Cablevision Network DVR Gets Supreme Court Blessing
Cablevision today got further blessings from the Supreme Court, which decided not to hear an appeal in the networked DVR-related litigation. We have been following this story pretty closely, and frankly, it is good to see an end to litigation around this technology. Many studios and TV networks such as Paramount, Disney, CBS and […]
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Looking Back at Structure 09: Some Fun Moments & Photos
Last week, we hosted our second annual day-long infrastructure conference, Structure 09, in San Francisco. The sold-out event brought together some of the industry’s leading minds to discuss the issues surrounding web infrastructure. If Structure 08 was about the what and why of cloud computing, Structure 09 not only looked at the progress made over […]
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Next Hot Tech IPO: LogMeIn
The almost moribund market for technology initial public offerings might make a comeback if Woburn, Mass.-based software maker LogMeIn has a successful debut on the public market. The company is looking to raise $107.2 million, and the deal will be priced this coming Tuesday. The company is offering a total of 6.7 million shares […]
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MJ’s Death Makes Web Traffic Spike, But No Internet Meltdown
I couldn’t help but notice the irony in yesterday’s events. At our Structure 09 Conference, just as panelists started discussing the challenges of managing web infrastructure, we heard that TMZ.com and Twitter had buckled under the massive traffic load that resulted from the news of pop star Michael Jackson’s cardiac arrest and eventual death. (Related: […]
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The Strange Tale of Wi-Fi Startup Whisher
Back in 2006, when Wi-Fi was all the rage, we saw many startups paint a future in which we’d be able to hop from one hot spot to another seamlessly, sharing the bandwidth for free when we could and buying it when we had to. Well, the future turned out to be entirely different. […]
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Comcast: TV Everywhere Will Eat Into Your Metered Broadband
While on the conference call to announce the TV Everywhere initiative being promoted by Time Warner and Comcast, I asked Comcast CEO Brian Roberts if the content being streamed as part of this new effort would be free from the 250GB-a-month bandwidth quota his company has started imposing on this customers.
His answer: No. […]
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Comcast, Time Warner Team Up To Control TV On The Internet
Sometime tomorrow, Comcast and Time Warner will announce a partnership to promote the concept of TV Everywhere. Jeff Bewkes, chairman and CEO of Time Warner and Brian Roberts, chairman and CEO of Comcast will have a joint media conference tomorrow in New York. The deal makes it painfully obvious that everything cable companies do — […]
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Counting Down to Structure 09 — 30 Tickets Left
Wow…just like that, the second edition of our web and Internet infrastructure conference, Structure 09, is here. On Thursday, June 25, I will be hosting this day-long event at which the leading luminaries of both the Internet in general and web infrastructure in particular will discuss the future of cloud computing, its best-kept […]
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Ooma Raises $18.3 Million, Resets Valuation
Ooma, a Palo Alto, Calif.-based startup that specializes in VoIP hardware and complimentary voice services, has raised a total of $18.3 million in new funding — of which $3.5 million came as a bridge loan from the investors. TechCrunch had previously reported that the company raised $14 million in the new round, which was led […]
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Can Twitter Become the New Casual Gaming Hub?
If the growing number of games being played on it are any indication, then San Francisco-based micro-messaging service
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A Clear Lane To Nowhere
It was one of those logical ideas that couldn’t go wrong. Tightened security at the airports meant that one had to spend extra hours at the airport going through the security checks. It was something that wasn’t convenient for for busy executives who didn’t want to waste hours standing around in the security lines. From that […]
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Nortel Falls To Telecom’s Titanic Shift
Earlier this month, when I wrote about Telecom’s Titanic Shifts and the decline of the once mighty service providers, in passing I noted the slow-mo descent of Western equipment makers. With the mega-growth registered by non-Western carriers as dominant equipment buyers, we have seen the rise of two hardware giants: Huawei and ZTE.
Their rising […]
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Google’s OpenSocial Evangelist Leaves Google
Kevin Marks, one of the leading voices on Google-backed OpenSocial and Friend Connect, has left the Mountain View, Calif.-based search engine, he announced on his blog. With his exit, Google might have lost one of its most visible evangelists. Kevin, who in the past worked at Technorati, is one of the smartest guys I have […]
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T-Mobile’s MyTouch Worth the Wait
Visitors to Google’s I/O conference earlier this year received a surprise gift: a new touchscreen Google phone made by HTC. The svelte gadget is the second major Google Android device on the market, and sometime in August, you’ll be able to buy one from T-Mobile USA. T-Mobile is going to sell it for $199 with […]
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iPhone Still Leads the Superphone Derby
The consumer love affair with Apple’s iPhone shows
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Could Facebook and Twitter Go Public?
Could Facebook and Twitter, two of the hottest web-centric companies around, go public? I posed that question to legendary investment bank co-founder Bill Hambrecht during an interview at this morning’s GigaOM Bunker Series session. We’ve recently started hosting the monthly events in order to provide an intimate forum at which some of the most pressing […]
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Senate Commerce Committee Approves Julius Genachowski
Julius Genachowski is one step closer to becoming the next chairman of the Federal Communications Commission. The Senate Commerce Committee approved Genachowski and Robert McDowell, who is going to serve as an FCC commissioner for the second term. Now the Senate is going to vote for a final approval. We think Julius is going to […]
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Telecom’s Titanic Shift: How The Mighty Have Fallen
For past few years I have been saying that we are amidst a titanic shift in the telecom landscape, with the center of gravity is moving away from the U.S., leading to the rise of new telecom giants which in turn is fueling the rise of upstart equipment makers such as Huawei and ZTE Corp. […]
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How iPhone 3.0 Will Impact Wireless Networks
Nowhere has the impact of the iPhone been more evident than in the rise of mobile data usage, and with the release of version 3.0, such usage is set to spike even further upward. An improved user experience, new multimedia features and push notifications will see networks come under and even heavier load.
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Counting Down to iPhone 3.0 OS
The world (or at least iPod Touch and iPhone owners) is eagerly awaiting the release of the new iPhone 3.0 OS, which is likely to be available for download at 10 a.m. PDT. There have been rumors flying around that the download is going to be late by a day.
These rumors are patently false. We […]
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Tips on Innovation & Enterprenuership from Jeff Bezos
Listening to Jeff Bezos, founder and chief executive officer of Amazon is like going to startup school where you learn that failure is part of enterprenurial growth. In the past whenever I have talked to Bezos, one thing that has stuck in my head: his willingness to be wrong and unflinching abhorrence for the status […]
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Downturn Slows Telecoms (Except in India & China)
We have long talked about it, and now there are numbers to back it up: global economic downturn has taken its toll on the telecom business. The entire telecom ecosystem – from broadband providers to equipment sellers are in a world of a hurt. The fact that many large markets in the western world […]
With a Big Push, IBM Gives Cloud Computing Its Blessing
When it comes to upstart technologies, IBM is a kingmaker, says The New York Times. Thanks to its dominant position in selling IT services to mega-corporations, the company can turn nascent efforts such as personal computers (in the 1980s) and Linux (in 2000) into major technology trends, the Times says. And now, it is endorsing […]
Do Facebook Vanity URLs Equals Kill Twitter Vol. 2?
This past Friday, Facebook started issuing vanity URLs to its 200 million plus community. It was a big change for the social networking company that has so far used unique numerical identifications to identify its members.
Not any more — now you can go to Facebook.com/OmMalik and friend me. (I am It was such a […]
One Man’s Answer to the iPhone 3G S Surcharge
Given my views on AT&T’s network and my recent break-up with my iPhone, I have watched the release of the new iPhone 3G S with mild amusement. Many on our team are looking to upgrade and like many of their fellow current iPhone owners have been complaining about the AT&T $200 surcharge for upgrading to […]
Three Years & Counting…
Happy Birthday to us — we are three years old!
It seems like only yesterday that I was sitting at the Starbucks near my old office with my friends Nitin Borwankar and Dave McClure, along with ace web designer Mike Rundle (via phone), plotting the design of a new GigaOM. I was making plans to leave […]
Amazon’s EC2 Service Suffers Outage
Looks like Amazon Web Services’ Elastic Compute service went down for an extended period this evening. It is not clear as to the extend of the problem. Amazon on their AWS status website explained that it had lost connectivity in a part of its network because of a “localized power issue.” Apparently the cause […]
Ironic But True. Many On Twitter Are Just Silent
Yesterday we heard from Harvard Business School researchers that only 10 percent of Twitter users are generating almost 90 percent of the content. Today, HubSpot, a Cambridge, MA-based start-up has released a study that not only backs-up the findings of the HBS study, but also offers more granular information about the Twittersphere.
The company crunched the […]
Why Carriers Love Social Networks On Mobiles
Though they probably never saw it coming, mobile phone companies have a new secret weapon: social networking. Indeed, thanks to our growing usage of social networks like Facebook as communication tools, more and more people are signing up for mobile data plans, which are far more lucrative than increasingly commoditized voice services. Of course, […]
Today, We Think Twitter Is Dead. (For Now)
I woke up this morning, checked the news and realized that I didn’t get the “today we think Twitter is dead” memo. Last week, Twitter was on the cover of Time magazine, deemed to be a life defining technology. Today, Twitter is making gloomy headlines.
Compete.com says Twitter’s growth flattened in May 2009, […]
Open Source Router Gets $10M, Teams Up With Citrix
Vyatta , a Belmont, Calif.-based company that makes open source routing platform has raised $10 million in Series C funding led by Citrix Systems. Previous investors Comcast Interactive Capital, Panorama Capital and ArrowPath Venture Partners also invested in this round of funding. The company had previously raised a total of $18.5 million in funding.
The investment […]
Salesforce to Build Palm Pre App
Salesforce.com, a San Francisco-based SaaS company, is planning to offer a native Palm Pre app later this year, according to Chief Executive Officer Marc Benioff. I stopped by Salesforce’s office earlier today to chat about Marc’s keynote address at our upcoming Structure 09 conference. Salesforce already offers a native application for the BlackBerry and iPhone […]
Hadoop Summit: We Have 10 Tickets to Give Away
Hadoop, the open-source software framework, is one of the technologies we have been following closely. If you are equally interested in Hadoop, then we have 10 free tickets for The Hadoop Summit that is going to be held this Wednesday, June 10, at the Marriott in Santa Clara, Calif. Speakers will include folks from Yahoo!, […]
Follow our Apple’s WWDC Keynote Coverage
Our sister site, The Apple Blog is live blogging the Apple WWDC event currently under way in San Francisco. For latest updates, check out the Live page. In addition they are tweeting alerts from the event @theappleblog. NewTeeVee co-editor Liz Gannes is also on the ground and will be filing her reports both for […]
Five Lessons Entrepreneurs Can Learn From Craig Barrett
Craig Barrett, Intel’s former chairman and CEO, has offered up some great rules that helped guide his business life. In a profile for The Wall Street Journal, Michael Malone talked to the recently retired Barrett about his work ethics, business philosophies, and working with Intel legends like co-founders Gordon Moore and Bob Noyce and former […]
Of Bollywood, Cricket and Broadband
Over the weekend, I stumbled upon Speakeasy, a newish blog from the editors of The Wall Street Journal. It covers off-business subjects such as art and film. One of the posts that caught my eye: ”Panting After Slumdog.” The grimace-inducing headline notwithstanding, the post talks about how some companies are looking to cash in on […]
Goodbye Old Friend. R.I.P. Rajeev Motwani
Rajeev Motwani, one of the savviest angel investors in Silicon Valley, a Stanford professor and most importantly a close and personal friend passed away earlier today.
It is hard for me to write this post — this morning the news of Steve Jobs’ improving health put me in a good mood. My day is ending with […]
The Summer of the Superphone
Last September, on the eve of our first Mobilize conference, John SanGiovanni, co-founder and VP of product design at Zumobi, talked to us about the coming era of the superphone. Eschewing the smartphone moniker, SanGiovanni noted how this new class of handsets — led by none other than the iPhone — were starting to become […]
Boxee vs Hulu: Battle of The Words
Chris Albrecht over on NewTeeVee has a video interview with Boxee CEO Avner Ronen thought of Hulu’s recent launch of its desktop app. He also talks about the new TV-friendly browser YouTube launched this week. Also check out my post about why Hulu doesn’t quite much care about Boxee.
Ma Bell and Its Vanishing Phone Lines
Three years ago, the wireline revenues of U.S. phone companies were forecast to decline about 3.3 percent annually through 2009. Talk about underestimating those numbers — take a look at the following graph and you see that AT&T’s consumer line business is evaporating faster than raindrops in the Sahara.
Roughly a year later, I […]
Shozu Says No to Ads, Instead Will Sell Apps
Shozu, a mobile software company that has so far made money by selling advertising on its services, has decided to change models. Shozu software allows mobile users to upload photos and videos captured by mobile phone cameras to various online services such as Flickr and social networks.
It has been particularly successful on the iPhone platform. […]
AT&T’s Slowing Down on U-verse
AT&T executives have been shouting from the top of the rooftops that they are a wireless company, touting mobile as key to the carrier’s future. And while they have been making those pronouncements, Ma Bell has been quietly slowing down its U-verse deployments. Earlier today, in a note to his clients, John Hodulik, an analyst […]
Will AT&T Buy DirecTV?
Chase Carey, chief executive officer of DirecTV, is leaving the satellite TV provider and going back to News Corp. to take the chief operating officer reins from Peter Chernin. He will also be the deputy chairman and president of Rupert Murdoch’s company. John Malone, who bought DirecTV from Murdoch, can’t be happy about this. That […]
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