Does Apple Get $36 Monthly Service Revenue for Each iPhone?

In Apple's earnings announcement the other day, it would be easy to overlook that it was starting to report results in both GAAP (generally accepted accounting principles) and non-GAAP forms. Accounting standards are a soporific to many, but when a company moves from one to the other, it's time to pay attention -- particularly when, like Apple, the company won't be using the same form of reporting as used by its competitors in what will likely be one of its major product lines: cell phones. But the combination of the two reports offer some insight into just how much money an iPhone makes for the company.

• Oct 28, 2008

What Do E-book Readers Need to Catch Fire?

Amazon certainly orchestrated a coup in getting Oprah Winfrey's endorsement of the Kindle. But while that will continue the product's momentum, it's unlikely to be enough to revolutionize the book business. That's because, as often happens, tech companies get too focused on what their technologies can do and forget to look closely enough at what consumers need to support long-established habits. But there are some upcoming developments, like e-paper, that could, with a few changes, help the business leap along.

• Oct 27, 2008

Components Suggest 2009 Downturn in Electronics

One way to get a fix on how the electronics market will do is by looking at projections for components and retail. If companies aren't buying parts, then pretty much by definition there aren't going to be enough products available to keep sales flat, even if consumers and businesses wanted to purchase. By that measure, things are looking grim for next year.

• Oct 27, 2008

Tech Roundup: Apple U., Handset Freefall, ZeroG Funding, Tech Firms Finance, More

Mobile analysts say brace for sharp drop in handset sales next year; Apple snags dean of Yale School of Management for continuing employee education program; ZeroG Wireless gets $17 million in funding for embedded Wi-Fi; tech firms expand lending to customers when banks cut back; and Microsoft studies how emerging markets use technology.

• Oct 27, 2008

Tech Roundup: Kindle Discount, Sprint Slams Android, Wipro Downturn, More

Wireless proteciton more often there but in weak form; Amazon offers an Oprah price break on the Kindle; Sprint's CEO slams Android; and Wipro expects downturn.

• Oct 26, 2008

Tech Roundup: Google Jet Fighter, Vista Lags Office, Vendor Channel Stuffing, More

Google top brass get fighter jet; Office sales growth leaves Vista in the dust; get ready for vendors to stuff inventory into their distribution channels; and Yang knows that he's right for Yahoo.

• Oct 25, 2008

Google Looks to Get Inside InVideo Viewers' Heads

Every now and then the latest scheme for improving advertising and getting a better response comes along. There have been focus groups, brand studies, media retention studies, psychological profiling, minute examinations of physical responses like eye movement -- anything you could think of. Now Google has taken up the query, partnering with MediaVest and NeuroFocus to use biometric measurements of viewer responses to InVideo ads. It's interesting in one of those science fiction movie type ways, but this is an old story in technical garb, and while it may sound good, it won't do what marketers really want.

• Oct 25, 2008

Matt Johnson Q&A: How to Price High Tech in Bad Times

One of the lemming-like constants of business is that when times turn bad, many companies immediately figure that since they aren't making much anyway, they'll drop their prices. It sounds crazy when you state it so simply, but if you've been around for longer than a couple of business cycles, you've seen it. But experts in pricing strategy -- a topic poorly understood by many executives -- will tell you that you might be doing exactly the wrong thing. I recently spoke with such an expert: Matt Johnson, a managing partner with Simon Kucher & Partners, a marketing consultancy known for its work in pricing.

• Oct 24, 2008

Tech Roundup: Apple Personal Networks, Oprah Kindles Amazon, More

Apple patents a personal network concept; Comcast doubles its consumer access speed, flaming the cable-telco Internet wars; camera sensor chips about to get even smaller and better; Intel dismisses Apple's ARM choice for iPhone and then takes it back; and Oprah endorses Amazon's Kindle.

• Oct 24, 2008

E-Commerce Forecasts Are All Over the Map

The fourth quarter for e-commerce will be very telling. Will online sales continue to grow even if the consumer is strapped? Or will e-commerce increasingly look like the rest of the retail sector? To wit: Amazon's fourth quarter outlook, which had a range so large that you wonder why the c...

• Oct 24, 2008

Amazon Officially Kicks Off Cloud-Computing Effort

Amazon Web Services EC2 (Elastic Compute Cloud) service has dropped the beta tag, added a service level agreement and launched Windows and SQL betas and plans a management console. Add it up and it appears that Amazon is giving prospective enterprise customers most of the things they need to take...

• Oct 24, 2008

Tech Roundup: Tata Says Hello US, Arista Gets Heavy Hitters, Sirius XM Debt, More

States compete for India-based Tata U.S. outsource campus; Arista Networks gets major talent from Sun, Cisco, and Stanford; AT&T pays $900 million for the privilege of selling the iPhone; Motorola excells in that critical category of green Wi-Fi; and Sirius XM Radio faces serious financial situation.

• Oct 23, 2008

Tech Roundup: Yahoo Ails, Time Warner Limits, Free Netbooks, More

Yahoo manages its business and stock price to a five year low; Time Warner experiments with limiting monthly traffic for consumer customers in Texas, IBM tries a consumer-type price inducement for low-end mainframes; several telecom wireless carriers are giving away netbooks; and Samsung drops its bid for SanDisk, possibly as a technique to drive the potential price even lower.

• Oct 22, 2008

Tech Roundup: Google Hiring Slowdown, Intel Mobile Platform, iPhone Games, More

Google slows hiring; Google, Nokia, and Intel busy on handheld platforms; iPhones offer an interesting game develoment challenge; Indian Reliance Communications, Orange Slovekia, and Carphone Warehouse in the U.K. give away netbooks; and TI bails on part of wireless business.

• Oct 21, 2008

Google Gets Schooled in Washington's Ways

In the ongoing arm-wrestling match between Washington politicians and Silicon Valley techies, chalk one up for Washington. A New York Times story about the fate of the Google-Yahoo ad deal takes note of Google's continued schooling in the ways of Washington. There have been earlier warnings tha...

• Oct 20, 2008

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