GigaOM » Google phone

German TV Networks to Launch Hulu Clone

Janko Roettgers — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 08:00:01 +0000

European broadcasters RTL Group and Pro 7 Sat 1 Media AG are working on a joint German online TV platform to preempt any European Hulu expansion, the Financial Times Germany is reporting. The site will offer users free, ad-supported access to TV shows and movies for up to seven days after they air on TV. Both broadcasters are submitting plans for the platform to the European Commission today to get the go-ahead from Europe’s competition watchdogs, according to the report.

The Financial Times reports that the site will be open to competing broadcasters from Germany and Austria, including public broadcasters like German public TV heavyweight ARD. The site seems clearly inspired by Hulu, and a source quoted by the paper said that its aim was to aid participating networks in their competition with international Internet platforms.

However, there’s going to be one notable difference from Hulu: RTL and Pro 7 Sat 1 will only supply the technical infrastructure, but networks will still have to sell their own ads. This type of set-up is meant to avoid regulatory issues.

Hulu has been mulling international expansion for a while itself, but The Telegraph reported in April that it was ready to abandon a planned expansion to the U.K. because local broadcaster ITV decided against providing any of its content.

Disclosure: I occasionally contribute to a radio broadcaster affiliated with ARD.

Photo of the Berlin TV tower courtesy (CC-BY-SA) of Flickr user Matt Biddulph.

Related content on GigaOM Pro: Why Cable Operators Need an Apps Strategy (subscription required)

Why Nexus One Will Make Money for Google

Om Malik — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 16:51:08 +0000

Google, it seems, is having some teething problems with its foray into the topsy-turvy world of mobile handsets. From unhappy partners to unhappy customers, the search giant has been having a rough time with its Nexus One, currently the best Android phone on the market. So much so that GigaOM Pro Mobile curator Colin Gibbs wondered if it was time for Google to kill Nexus One. (Related from GigaOM Pro, sub. required: Google’s Mobile Strategy: Understanding the Nexus One.)

On the opposite end of the argument are analysts from Citigroup, who think that the device could be a monster hit and sell somewhere between 1 and 3 million units. It would become a massive revenue generator, Citigroup analysts including Internet Mark Mahaney predict. In a research note this morning, he writes:

Based on its first week sales traction, our review of comparable 1st-year SmartPhone unit sales, and input from CIRA Wireless Handset Analyst Jim Suva, we estimate Nexus One could potentially see between 1MM and 3MM unit sales in 2010, generating between $500MM and $1.6B in incremental revenue (3% to 8% accretive).

For additional context, we note from Kevin Chang, the CIRA Analyst who covers HTC Corporation, that HTC has build plans for 700,000 Nexus One units in Q1:10 and approximately 1.2MM for H1:10. This would seem to suggest a reasonable Year 1 range of 1MM to 3MM…..based in part on Chang’s analysis, we believe the Nexus One may generate a 10%- 15% operating margin, which implies that 1MM to 3MM Nexus One unit sales could generate between $0.12 and $0.55 in incremental ’10 EPS (0%-2% accretive). Finally, we note that given the relatively low Nexus One margin structure, every 1MM units sold would reduce GOOG’s overall operating margin by 1%.

And fourth, there is the obvious opportunity for Google to generate a sizeable new revenue stream in terms of handset sales. We offer our estimates later, but as quick comps, we note that the Motorola Droid is expected to sell almost 8MM units in its first year and that both of the iPhone 3G versions sold or are on track to sell well over 10MM units in their respective first years. Hypothetically, 10MM units of a $529 phone would generate $5.3B, which would be very significant for a company that generated approximately $17.4B in net revenue in 2009. Of course, the incremental operating profit would be much less significant, given the relatively much lower margins of handset sales vs. Google’s core business.

I find these estimates to be way too optimistic. The smartphone market continues to be very dynamic and fluid. The analysis also assumes that Apple and RIM are going to stand still. Other members of the Android ecosystem are going to do their best to keep Google at bay.

Now I’m not one to argue against Google’s capabilities, but we need to temper our enthusiasm around the Nexus One. Also we have to remember the reality: 20,000 Nexus One handsets were sold during the first week it was available, while Andy Rubin, head of Google’s mobile efforts, said he would be happy if Google sold around 150,000 of them.

Related GigaOM Pro Research: Google’s Mobile Strategy: Understanding the Nexus One

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

In the First Week, Google May Have Sold 20,000 Nexus One Phones

Om Malik — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 09:13:46 +0000

When I spoke with Google’s mobile boss, Andy Rubin, he said that Google would be happy to sell about 150,000 Nexus One devices. That number, he said, would be enough for the Google Phone to get in front of a majority of American phone buyers who might want to take a look at it. Well, let’s just say a fraction of the job might be done. According to Flurry, a San Francisco-based mobile application analytics company, Google may have sold about 20,500 units of the Nexus One, which if you read my review is the best Android phone on the market.

In the past, Flurry has been fairly accurate in giving guesstimates as to first-week sales, thanks to its relationships with 10,000 app developers. They estimate that the “Nexus One was outsold by Droid by more than 12 times, myTouch 3G by 3 times and iPhone 3GS by a staggering 80 times.” Of course, Google didn’t spend a lot of money on marketing — that isn’t part of the plan — as Rubin explained to me.

Cannibalization may also be playing a role as the Nexus One competes against the myTouch 3G for any new T-Mobile customer. In effect, sales are now split between the two handsets. And while Google, in an effort to avoid channel conflict with T-Mobile, appears to have set the direct-to-consumer price for the handset at over $500 dollars, the high price point combined with the fact that the handset is only considered an “evolutionary” improvement over previous Android devices, indicates that Google did not take the steps to maximize first week sales. (Flurry Press Release)

I think 20,500 Nexus Ones sold might be a tad on the high side, considering Google has been giving away the phone to its employees and has seeded the market with giveaways. Regardless, it will be interesting to see how Google carries on pushing this device in the coming months. The company is experiencing a backlash over customer service issues and more recently about confusion over service cancellation charges.

Related GigaOM Pro Research:
Google’s Mobile Strategy: Understanding the Nexus One

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

So the Google Phone Is Real

Om Malik — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 17:34:48 +0000

Yes, Virginia, there really is a Google Phone! And no, I don’t mean all those Android-powered devices, but instead a Google-branded phone that’s made by an original equipment maker. The company has started giving away these devices to its employees, who started tweeting about it last night, and it had to make an announcement this morning. In a blog post on the Android Blog, Mario Queiroz, vice president, Product Management writes:

We recently came up with the concept of a mobile lab, which is a device that combines innovative hardware from a partner with software that runs on Android to experiment with new mobile features and capabilities, and we shared this device with Google employees across the globe. This means they get to test out a new technology and help improve it. Unfortunately, because dogfooding is a process exclusively for Google employees, we cannot share specific product details. We hope to share more after our dogfood diet.

Amazing, crazy, why? Those were the first things that ran through my mind when I read that Google is actually making a device. This is very much a page out of Microsoft’s playbook. Microsoft makes specification designs, and Google seems to be doing just that. Of course, just as Microsoft and its Zune came along to compete with all those Play4Sure MP3 players, Google can make its own hardware and thus compete with the same folks who are betting the farm on Android.

The company says it’s doing this for its employees, but why shouldn’t we believe it will start selling it to consumers? After all, Google has the brand and the means to do that. If I were Motorola, then I wouldn’t be happy, because now I’m going to be competing with a Google-branded device. I need to talk to Google about the rationale of this decision before passing judgment. I’ve fired off emails to Motorola and other Android supporters.

Reading between the lines, Google’s decision to release a device shows it’s worried about the fear of fragmentation of the Android ecosystem that we’ve often talked about. By putting its stake in the ground, the company is hoping it doesn’t make the mistake that Microsoft made by dragging its feet in releasing Zune and ceding the market to Apple’s iPod. The iPhone, despite the issues with AT&T’s pokey 3G network, as eloquently pointed out by Verizon in its ads, continues to sell like a monster. Google doesn’t have much time and needs to respond fast.

On the plus side of the news — maybe you can return those Droids now that Time magazine has put its hex on the device.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

BlackBerry Buzz: LTE BlackBerry to China; Bolt Updated

James Kendrick — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 02:28:39 +0000

It’s Tuesday and that can only mean it’s time for our weekly feature, the BlackBerry Buzz. The Buzz is where you’ll find out what’s been going on in the BlackBerry brambles. You’ll hear about everything that’s worth knowing in the awesome world of the BlackBerry. RIM has announced they are bringing the BlackBerry to China, and not just any old phones. The deal with China Mobile calls for BlackBerry models that will work on the LTE network. We don’t expect to see any LTE models on this side of the globe any time soon.

The Bolt browser has been updated to version 1.6, bringing faster page rendering. The new version also adds a password manager. Bolt can now be set as the default browser for the BlackBerry for users who wish to do so.

Foursquare for the BlackBerry will be entering into beta soon. The social network based on locations is growing in popularity, and BlackBerry owners will soon be able to join in the fun.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

Apple Sued Over MMS: But Who Really Uses It?

Liam Cassidy — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 19:25:16 +0000

According to a report this week on The Mac Observer, Apple and AT&T have been presented with a class action lawsuit by a customer who accuses them of misleading the public by advertising the MMS capabilities of the iPhone 3GS despite not making those capabilities available in the U.S. when it launched.

(Yawn.) I’ll let you mull over whether the accusation is fair; the plaintiff, Francis Monticelli, says in the suit that “MMS functionality was one of the reasons people chose to buy or upgrade… it has [become] clear that AT&T’s network does not support MMS.”

TMO points out Apple made it quite clear MMS functionality would not be available in America at the launch of the iPhone 3GS. Surely you remember the hilarious (and embarrassing) murmur of amusement and derision from the audience at this year’s Worldwide Developer Conference when Scott Forstall introduced MMS? “29 of our carrier partners in 76 countries around the world will support MMS at the launch of iPhone OS 3.0,” Forstall announced, then, trying to keep a straight face, added, “In the United States, AT&T will be ready to support MMS later this summer.”

Still, that little fact hasn’t stopped Monticelli suing, though I’m sure he won’t get far. I’ll never quite understand the litigation-happy nature of some of my American cousins (here in England we prefer to send strongly-worded letters of complaint) but it got me thinking about the now-forgotten drama of iPhone MMS. I can’t help wondering — was it really such a big deal? I mean, now you’ve got it, do you ever use it? Would you truly miss it if it disappeared overnight?

When MMS first appeared via the iPhone OS 3.0 update I couldn’t wait to try it out. I took a photo of a bowl of apples (go figure) and sent it to a pal. “I have MMS!” I declared, proudly. “So?” he enquired, puzzled. (I forget sometimes not everyone is an iPhone user and therefore have always had MMS.) That was back in June, a good five months ago. It was the first — and last — iPhone MMS I ever sent.

Old Habits…

Color me conditioned by my experience with previous iPhone OS limitations, but if I want to send someone a photo I instinctively use the Mail app. I’m not alone, either — fellow iPhone owners never send me MMS messages but also choose to use Mail instead (I know because of all those “Sent from my iPhone” footers I keep seeing).

I’m trying to figure out when and how this habit started; it’s easy to say it’s the result of Apple’s decision not to support MMS functionality, but if I force my grey cells to work a little harder, and think back to those dark times before the iPhone, I don’t have any fond memories of MMS. Sure, I had the function on every one of my old phones, but I barely ever used it. So perhaps my aversion to MMS started then…

Either way, I don’t care for MMS. It’s a clunky old technology that never mattered to me. Not even my most geeky of friends ever bothered using it, with or without adding an iPhone into the equation.

Apple’s Chief of iPod/iPhone Marketing Greg Joswiak once said the iPhone originally didn’t include (amongst other things) MMS functionality because it wasn’t high on the list of features customers wanted from their mobile phones.

Naturally, there was an outcry. People were either ambivalent (they didn’t care or simply accepted email was an adequate alternative) or they were furious. Spend a little time picking through any of the popular Mac discussion boards from 2007 onward and you’ll find plenty of disgruntled punters lamenting Apple’s decision to not support the feature.

You know how, when a child isn’t playing with a toy, and you try to take the toy away, the child will instantly want it and make a scene if they don’t get it? It’s that peculiarly human tendency to want what we don’t have, or what is being taken (or withheld) from us. Well, I wonder, was the outcry over MMS the same thing? And now we have it, how many of us are actually using it?

If you’re in the States and didn’t jailbreak your iPhone, MMS is still fairly new to you and you might still be enjoying the novelty of finally getting it working. So, while MMS is fresh in your minds (and your iPhones) perhaps you can answer the question — where do we really stand with MMS?

Is it an indispensable tool Apple had no business keeping from us this long? Or should we reluctantly (and perhaps a little bashfully) admit it wasn’t worth all that fuss and noise — Apple was right not to make it a priority and, if we’re really truthfully honest, we never used it anyway…

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

There Really Might Be a Google Phone. No Seriously!

Om Malik — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 15:58:19 +0000

[qi:gigaom_icon_google-android] We’ve gone back and forth on the existence of a Google phone for a long time now. In the beginning, there was a talk of a Google Phone that turned out to be Android, Google’s mobile operating system targeting handset makers such as HTC, Motorola and Samsung. Now there is word that Google might actually be looking to make its own handset. Again! This comes from Ashok Kumar, a veteran technology analyst with Northeast Securities. In a note to his clients, Kumar notes that “Google is expected to launch a self branded -smartphone by year end followed by –netbook (sic) early next year.”

According to Kumar, Google will embed the same iteration of Android as the one currently being used in the Motorola Droid and the device will be based on Qualcomm baseband chips. Google will also introduce its own branded netbook, again embedding Qualcomm Snapdragon, early next year. Acer, one of the largest PC makers in the world, recently said that it would be making an Android-based smartphone and a netbook.

About six months ago, I heard that Google had been extremely conflicted over its desire to make a Google phone. I’ve spoken to some of my sources, who have indicated that Google wants to do its own phone in order to better integrate its services. But at the same time it didn’t want to tee off its partners.

It would be a very curious move for Google, considering that Android is finally building up the momentum it needs to take on more established rivals such as RIM, Nokia and Apple. The decision to make its own branded device would certainly sow seeds of dissension in the Android camp. Already there are fears of too many flavors of Android causing confusion in the market. The handset makers who are betting the farm on Android, Motorola for instance, must feel double-crossed.

We called Google’s spokespeople to ask about the company’s plans and got this response: “Unfortunately, we do not comment on market rumor or speculation.” My view is that even if Google makes this device, success isn’t assured. Google, for all its success in online advertising and search, has yet to prove that it can build a product-centric infrastructure like, say, Microsoft and Apple. Google, in fact, would be fighting its own corporate structure.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

Android This Week: Motorola Unveils the Cliq

James Kendrick — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 13:00:34 +0000

The big Android news this week, without question, was the launch of the Motorola Cliq, a smartphone that sports a sliding keyboard and is optimized for social network interaction. The Android platform, of course, is designed to make the most out of a continuous web connection, and Motorola has designed the Cliq to be a social media champ. The phone, which will be dubbed the Dext outside of the U.S., will appear on the T-Mobile U. S. network later this year.

Also unveiled was the cloud-based MotoBlur, which can be used to build a totally integrated interface to multiple social networks, like Facebook, Twitter and MySpace. The Motorola Cliq uses MotoBlur to make it easier to handle multiple social network accounts from one screen.

In the meantime, while the term app store tends to conjure up images of the one from Apple, that’s due to change. The Android Market has quietly passed the 10,000-mark in terms of the number of apps available.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

Hands-on: Motorola’s First Android Phone

James Kendrick — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 18:00:56 +0000

Motorola has followed through on its promise to enter the Android smartphone market, unveiling the Cliq, a small phone with a sliding QWERTY keyboard. The company has added its own home screen magic, called Moto Blur, that graphically integrates all user messaging accounts. Messages received appear on the screen no matter how they were sent, whether via email, text message or social network.

We cornered a Motorola rep backstage at the Mobilize conference just before the phone was announced and shot a quick video of it in action. It invokes images of an iPhone, although one with a nice keyboard that slides out of the screen. The keyboard feels really good to use, and the performance of everything is very fast. The phone will be available later this year with T-Mobile in the U. S.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

Hands-on: Motorola's First Android Phone

James Kendrick — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 18:00:03 +0000

Motorola has followed through on its promise to enter the Android smartphone market, unveiling the Cliq, a small phone with a sliding QWERTY keyboard. The company has added its own home screen magic, called MotoBlur, that graphically integrates all user messaging accounts. Messages received appear on the screen no matter how they were sent, whether via email, text message or social network.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.