Live from CES, Friday, 9 January 2009 9 January 2009
Posted by Steve Blum in Tellus Venture Associates.Tags: ceatec, CES, cisco, consumer electronics show, Intel, kiva, microfinance, murata, nissan
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OK, she can ride. But can she swim and run?
Last to first, real-time tweets from Las Vegas
Live from CES, 8 January 2009 8 January 2009
Posted by Steve Blum in Tellus Venture Associates.Tags: CES, consumer electronics show, echostar, Intel, iptv, municipal wireless, Nokia, panasonic, verizon, wirelesshd
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- WirelessHD press conference. Certification ready. 60GHz standard to link devices inside the same room to HDMI standards.
- Clear thinker: Paul Liao, CTO Panasonic. Uses Maslow’s hierarchy to rate & rank tech features.
- Clear, though, that there’s still a battle to be fought over how to split up content and application revenue in the wireless world.
- Recognition that consumers will have lots of devices, but don’t want to pay lots of money to connect them all. There’s hope.
- Went to Wireless Meets CE panel. Nokia, Intel, Panasonic, Verizon represented. Vague consensus: 1 sub fee/device model will “evolve”.
- Heading to LVCC, bus line wasn’t long at all.
- Charlie Ergen: kids love IPTV & it will spread from there. Complicated now but just wait.
- DISH will sell 1080p downloads via Internet.
- ETC pres Mark Jackson keynotes DISH news conf, doesn’t say “satellite” once. It’s about TV!
- IPTV is now an integrated feature in mainstream TV products, services & platforms.
- SlingGuide puts personal content search & control online.
- SlingLoaded distributes video: TVs, PCs, iPhone, car, whatever.
- EchoStar intros STB with IPTV, new “SlingLoaded” navigation across all video sources.
- Waiting for EchoStar press conf to start.
- At Sands, show feels empty so far.
WirelessHD tranceivers
Live from CES Press Day, 7 January 2009 7 January 2009
Posted by Steve Blum in Tellus Venture Associates.Tags: australia, CES, cisco, ericsson, flacks, german, Intel, japanese, lg, linksys, microsoft, netgear, new zealand, sony, t-mbile, tagolog, tmobile, toshiba, verizon, vodafone
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Last to first, real time tweets from Las Vegas…
- Bill Gates is the UrGeek. Love or hate him, he’s an original with historic scope. Heroic in classical sense. Ballmer…
- Listening to Steve Ballmer, Microsoft CEO. Microsoft will rule the world. Honest.
- Sony shows great respect for mobile telecom carriers. Has WiFi Walkman in pipeline, but no 3/4G product that would cause consternation for Sony Ericsson’s mobile carrier customers.
- Sony sez not in negotiations for NZ/Australia mobile carrier deals for netbook, sorry Lifestyle PC, but GSM deals in Europe are locked.
- Even so, Sony netbook, sorry Lifestyle PC, is way cool. 600 grams, 20 cm screen. Uses Windoze OS but has a Linux bios & can boot either way.
- Sony intros netbook, sorry Lifestyle PC. $900. Includes wireless data card. Verizon deal for US, T-Mobile, Vodafone in EU. Nothing in New Zealand or Australia. Sorry, mate.
- Of course, Sony is cautious. Sony Ericsson is in bed with, and enthusiastically servicing, mobile telecom carriers.
- For CES, Sony divides its business into “in-home” & “out-of-home”. But out-of-home is mobile carrier-friendly, not consumer-focused.
- A couple words of Tagalog got me the sympathy of the bartender, though.
- My Japanese & German is an advantage at CES, Italian & Spanish no help.
- Lots of consumer-grade PR minions at what are supposed to be trade press-class events. Frustrating.
- Snuck a peek at Intel booth, heavy on mobile Internet & 4G, at least the WiMAX flavor.
- Cisco likes femtocell technology, puts it in the same bucket as WiFi. Interesting perspective.
- Steve Ballmer is tonight’s keynote, but here’s the advance scoop: Microsoft Bob is back!
- Apple it’s not but it’s a start for Cisco. They’ll need a lot of help though.
- Linksys by Cisco new consumer brand strategy, paying attention to product design now
- People started leaving, slid in for Q&A. Service provider guy talking about making networks video aware.
- Cisco PR kiddies say look it up on their website later. Duh.
- Cisco press conf overfull. Sent to watch a live web feed. Didn’t work. What business are they in?
- Line for Toshiba press conf too long. One way to manage reduced attendance is to book a smaller room.
- Sharp showing big displays. Really big.
- Line for Toshiba press conference out of control. Must be giving away free stuff.
- Netgear also showing IPTV player and home media center. Category is getting crowded, not much secret sauce anymore.
- Netgear has no deals with mobile carriers but sez they’ll appreciate increased data usage. Not convincing.
- CE guys determined to hang gizmos on mobile data networks: weeds in the walled garden!
- Streaming TV + tethered wifi router = bandwidth hell for carriers. CE guys are on the march!
- Netgear introing wifi router with slot for 3G data modem card. Sez 1 use is streaming TV.
- Skipped main event, checked out stuff afterwards. LG showing netbook, usual mobile phones, nice. Just nice.
- Line for LG press conf already strung out at 7:30am
Live from CES Unveiled, pre-press day, Tuesday 6 January 2009 6 January 2009
Posted by Steve Blum in Tellus Venture Associates.Tags: apple computer, asus, blaupunkt, boxee, broadcom, CEA, CES, consumer electronics show, hd radio, igo, Intel, lenovo, msi, novatel wireless, powermat, sigma, truphone
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Last to first, real time tweets from Las Vegas…
- Tethering is deciding battle between mobile carriers & CE industry. CE guys don’t get it, think it’s a tech problem. It’s the money!
- Novatel Wireless hasn’t signed any carriers yet. Expects to Real Soon Now. If they do, it’s a significant market signal re tethering.
- Novatel Wireless also into tethering. Selling gizmo combining mobile data card, embedded Linux, WiFi tethering. Serves 5 users at once.
- Blaupunkt has Internet car radio. Needs tethering-capable mobile phone. Don’t count on mobile carriers cooperating with the biz model.
- Buzzword Alert! iGo makes travel adaptors. Nice, same sh** different year. But now (pause for effect & wink knowingly) “we’re green”.
- Boxee talking to Sigma & Intel. Broadcom reportedly doesn’t care yet: he who is last is lunch.
- Boxee vs AppleTV. Good interfaces. AppleTV tied to iTunes. But
- Boxee runs on an AppleTV & pisses off Steve Jobs. Great business model!
- Boxee runs on 1 GHz processor or better now, working towards reducing code to run as embedded app with less horsepower.
- Boxee managed $4 mil in VC financing last month. In this market that’s like winning the Nobel prize. Nobody gets funded these days.
- Boxee runs on Mac, Windoze, Linux. Takes content from all sources, including your computer. Puts it on TV. TV, photos, music, whatever.
- Boxee only potential disruptor at this press event. Open source media center software. Takes content from everywhere, puts it anywhere.
- HD Radio has neat idea. Listen to song on radio, push button, tag song, sync with iPod, buy song from iTunes. GPS integration too.
- Lenovo on same track as MSI, good not revolutionary. When you have a hot category, take market share, not press clips I guess.
- MSI Wind product looks good, not game-changing. WiFi, but no WiMAX. When I asked, PR person thought WiMAX was a kind of hard drive.
ASUS has best new stuff. Love the netbook with the swivel screen. Turns into a tablet PC or e-reader. Under 1kg. WiMAX on roadmap.- Three netbook makers pushing hard at CES: MSI, ASUS, Lenovo.
- CES Unveiled, big turnout nice buffet. Open bar, but Powermat display has bigger line. This crowd is fueled by electrons, not booze.
Make that ASUS chairman Jonney Shih.- @jodrell Truphone Anywhere uses GSM to make a plain old mobile voice call to a voip portal. Nice but not mobile voip.
- Microsoft guy unveils a rad new concept: voip. Next hot idea from Redmond: padded laptop cases!
- ASUS hot on WiMAX, introing a 512GB solid state drive
- ASUS press conf packed, already learned something: it’s pronounced “ah-zeus”.
- In car TV top product pick for young parents, other mobile TV products getting lots of attention. More dough for services and content for sure.
- Early leader for WTF award: HD diving mask.
- Services seen as integral part of media product sales, “wouldn’t make sense without”.
- Mobile, cloud computing, green tech all getting serious attention. Squares with VC predictions for 2009.
- E-readers a top growth product in 2008, albeit from a small base
- Green products, mobile stuff, embedded Internet, input & display tech tagged as top trends for 2009.
- Early leader for Alice in Wonderland award: “CE is a necessity not a luxury”. So are cars, and auto sales are zip.
- Early leader for understatement of the show: “consumer spending is in transition”.
- CES state of the industry press conf: DTV, mobile phones, video games & PCs account for 70% of CE sales in 2008.
