The DECE will soon find itself trying to convince consumers to buy a piece of digital content online that they buy once and watch anywhere. But if it’s going to show the value of its Ultraviolet rights locker, it’ll be fighting against on-demand rentals. Read More »
SYN Analysis
Globally, mobile broadband subscriptions are set to double in 2011, up to 1 billion from 500 million last year. This growth rate is increasing and it corresponds very highly to another growth rate: that of smartphone sales, which recently jumped 93 percent per year. Read More »
Nvidia said today Intel will pay the graphics chipmaker $1.5 billion as part of a legal settlement. The agreement shows how fast things are changing for Intel and the computing industry as power efficiency is trumping performance, and entertainment is winning out over productivity. Read More »
Square, the mobile payment start-up co-built by Twitter founder Jack Dorsey, has taken on $27.5 million in new funding to help it compete in the increasingly competitive mobile payments market. The latest funding comes from Sequoia Capital, giving the start-up a reported valuation of $240 million Read More »
Bob Muglia is leaving Microsoft. More accurately, he’s “retiring” this summer because CEO Steve Ballmer decided that the Server and Tools Business, which Muglia leads, needs new leadership. One has to ask what’s going on at Microsoft and what Steve Ballmer has in mind. Read More »
Verizon Wireless is widely expected to announce a version of the Apple iPhone for Verizon customers tomorrow, ending more than three years of official U.S. iPhone exclusivity on AT&T. Here’s why the onslaught of iPhones won’t hurt Verizon’s data network in contrast to AT&T’s struggles. Read More »
Cable companies and TV programmers are faced with a startling new reality: They are no longer the gatekeepers that decide what consumers see on their new Internet-connected TVs. In this new app-based world, their content is increasingly being placed against options from online services like Netflix. Read More »
The U.S. isn’t the only government knocking on Twitter’s door right now, it turns out. Officials on the other side of the Atlantic are also casting their eyes over the site — if for very different reasons. Their focus is on disclosing paid Tweets. Read More »
Porn producers have been going after BitTorrent file sharers with mass lawsuits, but courts have made it harder to actually unmask users based on their IP address. Some porn studios now think it’s time to fight piracy with cheaper and better online video offerings instead. Read More »
Android’s share of the mobile market might be growing rapidly, but if it really wants to generate Apple-style levels of consumer excitement, it could learn some lessons from the legion of iPhone copycats that are all the rage across China. Read More »
App analytics firm Distimo reported that 49 percent of the revenue on iPhone apps came from in-app purchases in both free and paid apps. The news underscores the importance of in-app payments and the emergence of the freemium model as a revenue driver for app makers. Read More »
Three new reports suggest that opportunities for technology jobs are outpacing the wider job market. Postings for information technology positions grew by 82 percent over December 2009, and the position of software engineer has been named “the nation’s best job.” Other technology-related jobs also rated highly. Read More »
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