Nokia to No Longer Sell Phones for the 1%

PDFPrintE-mail

Nokia prepares to sell UK subsidiary Vertu-- maker of the most expensive mobile phones in the world-- according to the Financial Times.

Nokia VertuProceeds of the sale will obviously fund Nokia's current restructuring process

Created back on 1998, Vertu markets the niche luxury market (better known as "the 1%") with hand crafted phones carrying matching exorbitants price tags. Many Vertu models come complete with precious metal components and can cost up to €235000.

Less luxurious is the software inside the phones-- despite all the bling, Vertu phones still run on Symbian. They do have a Siri-beating feature in the shape of a "concierge" button summoning a team of assistants making taxi and restaurant bookings for customers.

Vertu phones have the strongest following in Russian and M. Eastern markets, most probably (or certainly) amongst oligarchs and oil barons.

The FT says the company makes annual revenues of around €200-300M, and is likely to attract other luxury goods brands. Nokia is still to comment on the story, though.

Go Nokia Prepares to Lose its Bling Tone

Eric Schmidt Predicts Google TV Success

PDFPrintE-mail

Logitech might describe the Revue STB as "a mistake," but Google chairman Eric Schmidt remains optimistic on the future of Google TV, making a bold prediction-- "by the summer of 2012, the majority of the TVs you see will have Google TV embedded in it."

Eric SchmidtSchmidt was speaking at the LeWeb 2011 conference keynote in Paris, France.

Google TV is available in only 2 forms so far-- a Sony IPTV and the previously mentioned Logitech Revue, described by company as "a mistake of implementation of a gigantic nature" not tuned to what customers what.

Sony is yet to make any further announcements involving Google TV, particularly since it works on a "four screen strategy" uniting TV, PCs, consoles and mobile devices.

Meanwhile other TV vendors prefer to ship their own Smart TV systems.

However, Schmidt remains confident Google TV will be successful, and his reasoning comes through the success of Android in the mobile device market.

Schmidt believes Android will trump iOS for apps in 6 months from now, as more developers migrate towards the OS due to the global number of vendors-- and, being Android-powered, Google TV will follow the same pattern to become the dominant Smart TV platform.

Will Google manage to convince any vendors to adopt Google TV over their own systems? The latest Android iteration, Ice Cream Sandwich, might be slick and accomplished, but TV is an even more fractured market than mobile ever was. Then again, Google does own Motorola Mobility...

Watch Eric Schmidt at LeWeb 2011 (Google TV talk starts at around 39:00)

Go Logitech CEO: Revue "A Mistake"

CompactFlash Gets Speedier Successor

PDFPrintE-mail

The CompactFlash Association reveals the follow-up to the CompactFlash format-- the XQD specification, using PCI Express technology to reach data transfer speeds starting from 2.5Gbps to up to 5Gbps in the future.

XQDThe CompactFlash format currently has a niche in high-end devices, as professional SLR and video cameras.

The association says the card will write data at a minimum of 125MBps, wheras today's CompactFlash cards write at a maximum of around 100MBps.

It also aims at professional photography and video applications-- promising "video capture over multiple capture files and across file system updates without dropping frames, enabling high quality 1080p capture at high frame rates with either under- and overcranking functionality."

The technology should hit the market sometime in 2012, and has backing from both Nikon and Canon.

Go CompactFlash Association Announces XQD Specification

Adding Wifi to USB Storage

PDFPrintE-mail

Sanho plans to provide wifi connectivity to any device with a USB port with the HyperDrive CloudFTP, a pocket-size adapter turning any USB storage into a wireless file server.

CloudFTPIt not only creates an ad-hoc wifi network (working independently of the internet or other existing wifi networks) to share connected USB data, but also connects automatically to online cloud-based storage services such as iCloud, Dropbox and box.net.

Alternatively it can also join existing wifi networks, sharing storage with devices on the same network.

Wifi-enabled devices can access connected USB storage via either HTML5 web app, dedicated iOS/Android app or FTP client.

A 2600mAH li-ion rechargeable battery powers the USB port and devices for up to 5 hours, according to Sanho.

The company managed to collect required funding for the device via Kickstarter, and should start production on the first CloudFTP batch soon.

Go HyperDrive CloudFTP

More to Pay: LCD Price Fixing

PDFPrintE-mail

After the $585m government fine for price-fixing, Sharp, Samsung and other LCD makers now must pay $388 million to settle the class-action suit from end users.

LCDThe companies won’t admit to the crime, but Sharp, Samsung, Chimei Innolux, LG and four other LCD manufacturers agreed on a settlement in a price fixing case from a 2007 class action lawsuit.

That suit specifically cites LCD panels sold between 1999 and 2006: the companies were alleged to have driven the price up. For that, the group will pay a total of $388 to settle the claims, with Sharp paying out the largest single amount of $105 million – Samsung with $82.7 million, followed by Chimei Innolux with $78 million, and LG with $70 million.

The government gets their big dollar lawsuit…the end-users cash in on a class action…but the integrators and installers get…nothing!

Go Price Fixing Scandal

Page 814 of 993