It could have been worse. A lot worse.
Many of the companies rumored to be looking at Palm would have bought it mostly for the patents or the brand, and tossed aside everything else. But I think there's a good chance that HP bought the company to keep running it. HP has a long history of activity in the mobile devices market, but hasn't had a lot of knockout success there lately, other than in notebook computers. Palm makes it a player again, or at least potentially a player.
The press release makes it sound like HP was especially interested in the software side of Palm rather than the hardware. WebOS was mentioned six times (compared to one mention of Pre), and Todd Bradley, EVP of the Personal Systems group at HP, was quoted in the press release as saying, "Palm's innovative operating system provides an ideal platform to expand HP’s mobility strategy and create a unique HP experience spanning multiple mobile connected devices."
Sure sounds to me like they're planning to deploy the OS across different classes of devices. And tablets were reportedly mentioned specifically in the press conference after the deal was announced.
So overall, I think Palm users and developers should feel good about the deal. Obviously, everything will depend on execution. But at least the company's not being immediately dismantled, which could easily have happened.
Here are some other thoughts on the deal:
Upside for Palm device sales. With HP's huge sales infrastructure, the Pre can move quickly into a lot of interesting places Palm couldn't easily reach -- especially corporate sales, more international markets, and more operator deals.
Ominous news for Microsoft. Between the gains for Android and the Apple-driven trend toward mobile companies owning their own platforms, the market space for Microsoft's mobile software continues to shrink. But more important than that, HP is the number one Windows vendor, and it now owns its own operating system. That's not an immediate crisis for Microsoft, but it should keep someone there awake at night.
Can the old dog HP learn new tricks? Historically, HP has been pretty close to inept in two areas that Palm knows how to run: Managing a consumer developer community, and creating a great user experience by combining hardware and software. If HP is wise, it will keep the Palm teams intact and let them gradually spread those skills to the rest of the company. On the other hand, if HP tries to "help" the Palm folks execute, it will almost certainly drown them in process and bureaucracy.
What is HP's goal in personal systems? The thing that surprises me most about the Palm purchase is that the rumor mill in Silicon Valley said HP was moving away from differentiation in PCs. The company has laid off many of the Apple refugees who had come in to help run the PC business, and the quirky advertising seems to have faded into the background. Supposedly, HP was much more interested in emulating Acer than Apple in PCs. But the Palm deal positions HP as a much more direct competitor to Apple.
Maybe HP sees mobile as a different marketplace, where investment and innovation can pay off better.
PS: I won't even get into the irony of former Palm CEO Todd Bradley now controlling the company again. Let's just say Silicon Valley is a very small place.
mercredi 28 avril 2010
lundi 26 avril 2010
Samsung E1130 : Conçu pour les passionnés de plein air
Avec son design renforcé et son étanchéité aux éclaboussures et à la poussière, le Samsung E1130 est capable de faire face à n'importe quelle situation. Des fonctions de plein air pratiques, comme une lampe, la radio FM et le Bluetooth, viennent compléter les atouts de ce téléphone à toute épreuve.
Un mobile pratique
La prise en main est rapide et intuitive grâce au clavier très simple pour une prise d'appel, la rédaction de messages SMS ou la consultation des différents services. Vous apprécierez également la qualité de l'écran CSTN d'une taille de 1.52 pouces et de 65 000 couleurs.
La batterie Li-ion 1000 mAh vous assure une autonomie de 9h30 en communication et de 700 h heures en veille.
Fonctionnalité Bluetooth
Le Samsung E1130 possède une multitude de fonctionnalités pratiques. La technologie Bluetooth™ simplifie les connexions entre votre téléphone portable et vos accessoires. Sans utiliser de câbles, bénéficiez de kit main libre ou d'oreillette Bluetooth™ pour prendre très facilement la main sur votre portable. Ces accessoires sont utiles pour prendre ou passer vos appels sans toucher à votre mobile. Le Bluetooth™, vous permet de transférer facilement vos données (contacts, sonneries) de ou vers votre ordinateur.
Étanche à la poussière et aux éclaboussures
Compact et robuste, il est certifié IP54, cette norme internationale atteste de sa très grande résistance. En effet, il résiste à l'eau, à la poussière mais aussi aux chocs. Une coque renforcée et des matériaux de conception solides vous offrent une utilisation vraiment tout terrain. Ergonomique et pratique, une lampe torche est située sur la tranche supérieure de l'appareil.
Sécurité
Grâce aux différentes fonctions SOS, le Samsung E1130 vous permettra d'échapper aux situations inconfortables, voire dangereuses. Si vous perdez ou vous faites voler votre portable, la fonction traçage du mobile vous permet d'être alerté dès qu'une autre carte SIM est insérée dans le mobile.
Avec la fonction appel simulé, vous pouvez couper court à une situation délicate. Cette fonction vous permet, d'une simple pression sur une touche du clavier préalablement définie, de faire sonner votre mobile et de simuler un appel entrant.
Enfin, le Samsung E1130 dispose de la fonction Message SOS, qui vous permet, simplement, d'envoyer un message d'urgence à une liste de contacts prédéfinis.
dimanche 18 avril 2010
Lessons From the Fall of Palm
What went wrong?
Palm is now apparently prepping itself for a remainder sale, or new sugar daddy, or some other sort of deal that will change its current trajectory. I wish them well, and I hope they can remain independent and go on to accomplish great things in the future. But whatever happens, it's clear that the current incarnation of Palm has failed. Almost everyone I talk to in Silicon Valley is already speaking of the company in the past tense.
Most of the comments I've seen online blame the company's failure on the high marketing costs associated with selling hardware:
--Ed Snyder, an analyst with Charter Equity Research, told the New York Times: “They poured all their resources into developing a killer product. But they didn’t have the resources left to go to market.” (link)
--Engadget called Palm "a company that has more talent, history, and bright ideas than it has cash and customers." (link)
--Charlie Wolf of Needham & Company told Bloomberg: "It can't get scale. It doesn't have the resources to market the Palm OS and the Pre in a way that would break through the noise." (link)
--Even Palm CEO Jon Rubinstein blamed the problem on marketing challenges: "Palm webOS is recognized as a groundbreaking platform that enables one of the best smartphone experiences available today....However, driving broad consumer adoption of Palm products is taking longer than we anticipated." (link)
The quotes reflect the tech industry's stereotypical view of hardware businesses: They require huge marketing budgets, making them incredibly high-risk, high-cost investments. That's why you see thousands of software startups in Silicon Valley and only a handful of hardware ones.
I think that's nuts. Hardware companies like Pure Digital (maker of the Flip camera) succeeded with virtually no marketing budget. Why? Because they made appealing products that filled a particular customer need. If you do that, hardware is easy to market virally. I think the lesson from Palm's failure isn't "making hardware is dangerous," it's "lack of focus in a small hardware company is dangerous."
I don't want to turn this post into an anti-Palm diatribe. As I said, I hope they survive, and I have enormous respect for the people who work there. But in the spirit of helping everyone learn from Palm's situation, here are the five lessons I think we should all take away from Palm's struggles:
1. Understand what problem you're solving. I asked this question when the Pre was first announced, and I'll ask it again now: What compelling problem does the Pre solve for what customer? (link) It's easy to answer that for successful devices:
--BlackBerry = great e-mail on the go for mobile professionals
--iPhone = the best entertainment and browsing on the go (later extended to include apps)
--Flip = the easiest way to capture video and share it online
What's the short pitch for Pre? Go check the Palm website. As of April 18, it featured three different positionings right on the front page: "Social networking at its best," "Advanced 3D games," and "Work smarter, stay connected." So it's a business / social networking / gaming tool. For all of those millions of people who want to do serious business, 3D games, and Facebook posts all at once.
This isn't a recent problem. At the time of the Pre announcement, Palm advocates described it as a device for people who want better e-mail than the iPhone and better entertainment than the BlackBerry. The implication was that there's a big center to the smartphone market that's frustrated by the lack of a keyboard on an iPhone and the lack of a music player on BlackBerry. Re-read Jon Rubinstein's quote above: "webOS is recognized as a groundbreaking platform that enables one of the best smartphone experiences available today." The assumption there is that millions of customers are looking to buy a "smartphone experience," as opposed to a tool that solves a particular problem.
If that unsatisfied center existed, Pre would have sold like hotcakes.
2. Take care of your friends. When Elevation Partners took control of Palm, the company wasn't just a famous brand. It also had a fairly large base of loyal customers and developers who had stuck with the Treo through a lot of angst and adversity. The new Palm did very little to keep those people loyal. The developers weren't given any way to bridge their existing applications to the new OS. Faced with starting over on webOS or starting over on the much larger iPhone base, guess what they chose. And Palm, which once prided itself on simplicity, made the Treo to Pre migration process into the sort of marathon experience that we used to tease Microsoft about. Here are some of the instructions from Palm's own website (link):
You can find some more discussion here.
This in itself wasn't a disaster. Any company has to set priorities, and Palm just didn't make the links to its legacy customers and developers a priority. But it meant Palm couldn't draw on a pool of friends to help it get sales off to a quick start. That put even more pressure on Pre to be a knockout hit from day one.
3. Move faster and slower. After the Elevation deal, Palm went through a very strange management transition. Jon Rubinstein was installed as Chairman and head of product development, Ed Colligan remained as CEO (so he was Jon's employee and boss at the same time), and Jeff Hawkins was supposed to remain as product guru. Palm said at the time that Jon would be the execution person and Jeff the visionary. "The combination of those two guys is one of the most dynamic... combinations on the planet," Palm said. Yeah, right. The real process was a creeping reorganization in which Rubinstein replaced the old Palm executive team in stages. I think Palm would have been better off with a single quick transition in which the new team was put in place all at once and given time to coalesce.
But if Palm moved too slowly on organizational change, it probably moved too quickly on product shipment. The Pre shipped without a finished development environment, frustrating the developers who were most motivated to create interesting software on it. And it had an OS that hadn't been tuned properly for performance, so even its most enthusiastic users had to apologize for its lack of responsiveness. Although there was a lot of pressure on Palm at the time to ship, in retrospect the company would have been far, far better off if it had waited a few more months and shipped a product that delivered a great user and developer experience.
4. What you do, do well. The old Palm's "zen" design principles said: "Find a problem, find the simplest solution, punt the rest." It was an appliance design philosophy translated into computing. The new Palm tried to boil the ocean. Its ambition to create a smartphone platform superior to iPhone forced it to compete on a very broad range of fronts, everything from OS to SDK to app store to hardware. Inevitably, Palm wasn't able to execute equally well in all areas, and some of the Pre's features were compromised due to lack of resources. Apple can get away with a flawed version one product because it has the financial resources to go back and fix its mistakes. Which brings me to the fifth lesson...
5. You're not Apple. Trying to beat Apple head-on is a rich man's game, the computing equivalent of fighting a land war in Asia. There are effective ways to compete with Apple on a budget, but they all involve avoiding or neutralizing its strengths, and targeting segments or tactics that Apple can't or won't pursue. Instead, Palm attacked head on. I'm picturing that Warner Brothers cartoon where Black Knight Yosemite Sam charges at full speed into the wall of a castle and bounces off flat as a pancake (link).
What it means for the rest of us
You'll notice that I didn't say anything about Palm's bizarre ads featuring a Borg hive queen (here and here). That's because they were a symptom, not a cause. When your product is right, the message will be simple and you won't need creepy ads to stand out. Often you won't need ads at all.
The mistakes highlighted by Palm are common in the tech industry. Here's what I think we should do about them:
--I know there are device companies out there right now where the employees are whispering to each other, "we've committed to shipping on a certain date, but the product won't really be ready." You know who you are. Don't let your company pull a Pre; speak up. If nothing else works, print this post and send it to your boss. The Board of Directors might fire you if you delay the launch, but they definitely will fire you if the product fails.
--I frequently talk with companies that are creating bundles of technologies rather than coherent solutions to problems (anybody want to buy a Verizon Droid? link). Ask yourself, who is my customer, and am I solving a problem that they care about deeply?
--I know investors who say, "I'll never touch hardware, it's too risky." Understand that you're missing opportunities where you could invest with a higher return, because valuations aren't being bid up by competing investors. The fault, dear investor, is not in our product category, but in our execution.
That's my take. What do you think? Where did Palm go wrong (if at all), and what do you think the lessons are for other companies?
Palm is now apparently prepping itself for a remainder sale, or new sugar daddy, or some other sort of deal that will change its current trajectory. I wish them well, and I hope they can remain independent and go on to accomplish great things in the future. But whatever happens, it's clear that the current incarnation of Palm has failed. Almost everyone I talk to in Silicon Valley is already speaking of the company in the past tense.
Most of the comments I've seen online blame the company's failure on the high marketing costs associated with selling hardware:
--Ed Snyder, an analyst with Charter Equity Research, told the New York Times: “They poured all their resources into developing a killer product. But they didn’t have the resources left to go to market.” (link)
--Engadget called Palm "a company that has more talent, history, and bright ideas than it has cash and customers." (link)
--Charlie Wolf of Needham & Company told Bloomberg: "It can't get scale. It doesn't have the resources to market the Palm OS and the Pre in a way that would break through the noise." (link)
--Even Palm CEO Jon Rubinstein blamed the problem on marketing challenges: "Palm webOS is recognized as a groundbreaking platform that enables one of the best smartphone experiences available today....However, driving broad consumer adoption of Palm products is taking longer than we anticipated." (link)
The quotes reflect the tech industry's stereotypical view of hardware businesses: They require huge marketing budgets, making them incredibly high-risk, high-cost investments. That's why you see thousands of software startups in Silicon Valley and only a handful of hardware ones.
I think that's nuts. Hardware companies like Pure Digital (maker of the Flip camera) succeeded with virtually no marketing budget. Why? Because they made appealing products that filled a particular customer need. If you do that, hardware is easy to market virally. I think the lesson from Palm's failure isn't "making hardware is dangerous," it's "lack of focus in a small hardware company is dangerous."
I don't want to turn this post into an anti-Palm diatribe. As I said, I hope they survive, and I have enormous respect for the people who work there. But in the spirit of helping everyone learn from Palm's situation, here are the five lessons I think we should all take away from Palm's struggles:
1. Understand what problem you're solving. I asked this question when the Pre was first announced, and I'll ask it again now: What compelling problem does the Pre solve for what customer? (link) It's easy to answer that for successful devices:
--BlackBerry = great e-mail on the go for mobile professionals
--iPhone = the best entertainment and browsing on the go (later extended to include apps)
--Flip = the easiest way to capture video and share it online
What's the short pitch for Pre? Go check the Palm website. As of April 18, it featured three different positionings right on the front page: "Social networking at its best," "Advanced 3D games," and "Work smarter, stay connected." So it's a business / social networking / gaming tool. For all of those millions of people who want to do serious business, 3D games, and Facebook posts all at once.
This isn't a recent problem. At the time of the Pre announcement, Palm advocates described it as a device for people who want better e-mail than the iPhone and better entertainment than the BlackBerry. The implication was that there's a big center to the smartphone market that's frustrated by the lack of a keyboard on an iPhone and the lack of a music player on BlackBerry. Re-read Jon Rubinstein's quote above: "webOS is recognized as a groundbreaking platform that enables one of the best smartphone experiences available today." The assumption there is that millions of customers are looking to buy a "smartphone experience," as opposed to a tool that solves a particular problem.
If that unsatisfied center existed, Pre would have sold like hotcakes.
2. Take care of your friends. When Elevation Partners took control of Palm, the company wasn't just a famous brand. It also had a fairly large base of loyal customers and developers who had stuck with the Treo through a lot of angst and adversity. The new Palm did very little to keep those people loyal. The developers weren't given any way to bridge their existing applications to the new OS. Faced with starting over on webOS or starting over on the much larger iPhone base, guess what they chose. And Palm, which once prided itself on simplicity, made the Treo to Pre migration process into the sort of marathon experience that we used to tease Microsoft about. Here are some of the instructions from Palm's own website (link):
Decide where you want to move your Calendar/Contacts
The Data Transfer Assistant moves your info out of the desktop organizer and onto your phone. From there, your phone sends the data to the web account of your choice.
Your choices: Google, Microsoft Exchange, or Yahoo!.
Need help deciding where your info should go?
Skip this step if you already have an online account where you want to move the info from your old desktop organizer.
Create an account for one of these web services:
1. Go to Google.com: Create a Google account and set up a new account.
2. If you've never used Google Calendar, you'll need to sign in at least one time before proceeding. Go to google.com/calendar, and follow the login & activation steps until you see your calendar.
Microsoft Exchange for corporate users
Ask your IT Helpdesk for these four pieces of information.
* Incoming mail server name
* Domain name (if it's different from your incoming mail server name)
* Exchange username
* Exchange password
Yahoo! Calendar & Contacts
Contacts are transferred from Yahoo.com to the phone, but not from phone to Yahoo!
1. Go to Yahoo.com: Sign up for Yahoo! and create a new account.
Or back up your info to your online Palm profile
Ready to go - you already created an account when you set up your phone.
Set up the account on your phone
After creating an online account, add it to your phone. This ensures that your info moves correctly to the account.
1. On your phone, open Contacts.
2. Open the application menu and tap Preferences & Accounts.
3. Tap Add An Account and select the account you created above.
4. Enter the username and password for that account.
Sync your old device one last time
Skip this step if you do not have a previous Palm device.
To make sure you have the most up-to-date version of your info in Palm Desktop or standalone Outlook, synchronize your previous Palm device and your computer one last time.
Export your info using the Data Transfer Assistant
For fastest results, turn on Wi-Fi (if available) and plug in the charger before proceeding.
Download the tool: Data_Transfer_Assistant_1e.exe
After the download is complete, double-click Data_Transfer_Assistant_1e.exe in the location on your computer where you downloaded it.
Follow the onscreen instructions.
Note: When you connect the phone to your computer, some applications may launch automatically, moving the Data Transfer Assistant to the background. To return the Data Transfer Assistant to the foreground, click the Data Transfer Assistant icon on your computer's taskbar....
You can find some more discussion here.
This in itself wasn't a disaster. Any company has to set priorities, and Palm just didn't make the links to its legacy customers and developers a priority. But it meant Palm couldn't draw on a pool of friends to help it get sales off to a quick start. That put even more pressure on Pre to be a knockout hit from day one.
3. Move faster and slower. After the Elevation deal, Palm went through a very strange management transition. Jon Rubinstein was installed as Chairman and head of product development, Ed Colligan remained as CEO (so he was Jon's employee and boss at the same time), and Jeff Hawkins was supposed to remain as product guru. Palm said at the time that Jon would be the execution person and Jeff the visionary. "The combination of those two guys is one of the most dynamic... combinations on the planet," Palm said. Yeah, right. The real process was a creeping reorganization in which Rubinstein replaced the old Palm executive team in stages. I think Palm would have been better off with a single quick transition in which the new team was put in place all at once and given time to coalesce.
But if Palm moved too slowly on organizational change, it probably moved too quickly on product shipment. The Pre shipped without a finished development environment, frustrating the developers who were most motivated to create interesting software on it. And it had an OS that hadn't been tuned properly for performance, so even its most enthusiastic users had to apologize for its lack of responsiveness. Although there was a lot of pressure on Palm at the time to ship, in retrospect the company would have been far, far better off if it had waited a few more months and shipped a product that delivered a great user and developer experience.
4. What you do, do well. The old Palm's "zen" design principles said: "Find a problem, find the simplest solution, punt the rest." It was an appliance design philosophy translated into computing. The new Palm tried to boil the ocean. Its ambition to create a smartphone platform superior to iPhone forced it to compete on a very broad range of fronts, everything from OS to SDK to app store to hardware. Inevitably, Palm wasn't able to execute equally well in all areas, and some of the Pre's features were compromised due to lack of resources. Apple can get away with a flawed version one product because it has the financial resources to go back and fix its mistakes. Which brings me to the fifth lesson...
5. You're not Apple. Trying to beat Apple head-on is a rich man's game, the computing equivalent of fighting a land war in Asia. There are effective ways to compete with Apple on a budget, but they all involve avoiding or neutralizing its strengths, and targeting segments or tactics that Apple can't or won't pursue. Instead, Palm attacked head on. I'm picturing that Warner Brothers cartoon where Black Knight Yosemite Sam charges at full speed into the wall of a castle and bounces off flat as a pancake (link).
What it means for the rest of us
You'll notice that I didn't say anything about Palm's bizarre ads featuring a Borg hive queen (here and here). That's because they were a symptom, not a cause. When your product is right, the message will be simple and you won't need creepy ads to stand out. Often you won't need ads at all.
The mistakes highlighted by Palm are common in the tech industry. Here's what I think we should do about them:
--I know there are device companies out there right now where the employees are whispering to each other, "we've committed to shipping on a certain date, but the product won't really be ready." You know who you are. Don't let your company pull a Pre; speak up. If nothing else works, print this post and send it to your boss. The Board of Directors might fire you if you delay the launch, but they definitely will fire you if the product fails.
--I frequently talk with companies that are creating bundles of technologies rather than coherent solutions to problems (anybody want to buy a Verizon Droid? link). Ask yourself, who is my customer, and am I solving a problem that they care about deeply?
--I know investors who say, "I'll never touch hardware, it's too risky." Understand that you're missing opportunities where you could invest with a higher return, because valuations aren't being bid up by competing investors. The fault, dear investor, is not in our product category, but in our execution.
That's my take. What do you think? Where did Palm go wrong (if at all), and what do you think the lessons are for other companies?
vendredi 16 avril 2010
Nouveaux Zylo™ et Spiro™ par Sony Ericsson : pour les accros de musique et de réseaux sociaux !
Wakman™ addicts, branchés musique et « réseauteurs » systématiques, réjouissez-vous ! Après avoir vendu plus de 130 millions de mobiles Walkman™ dans le monde entier, Sony Ericsson lance Zylo™ et Spiro™. Ce nouveau duo conserve de la célèbre gamme de mobiles musicaux toutes les fonctionnalités incontournables des mélomanes auxquelles s’ajoute le meilleur des réseaux sociaux… le tout à un prix très accessible !
Twitter™, Facebook™, TrackId™, fonctionnalités Walkman™, tout est dans Zylo™ et Spiro™ !
De Twitter™ à Facebook™, les utilisateurs peuvent rester en contact avec leurs amis d’une simple pression sur un bouton, tout en écoutant leur musique favorite sur le lecteur Walkman™ intégré.
Zylo™ et Spiro™ intègrent également l’application TrackID™. Vous ne retrouvez plus le nom de ce jeune talent pop qui passe en boucle à la radio ? Comme l’ont déjà fait les autres mobiles Sony Ericsson Walkman™ 129 millions de fois en 2009, Zylo™ et Spiro™ trouvent le titre de l’artiste et de la chanson en quelques secondes.
Et côté design, le duo n’est pas en reste puisqu’il arbore le design « Human Curves » qui fait la singularité des nouveaux nés de la gamme Sony Ericsson. Pour plus de praticité, un clavier Azerty coulissant a également été étudié pour faciliter la rédaction de textes, SMS ou mises à jour sur les réseaux sociaux.
« Avec plus de 130 millions d’appareils vendus à ce jour, la gamme Sony Ericsson Walkman™ connait un grand succès. Depuis son lancement en 2005, elle fait ainsi l’objet d’un grand intérêt de la part des clients. En associant les meilleures fonctions Walkman™ à une myriade d’applications dédiées aux réseaux sociaux, Zylo™ et Spiro™ permettent à un très large public d’accéder à toute l’expertise Sony Ericsson en matière de communication et de divertissement », déclare Estelle Gibert, Directrice Marketing et Communication de Sony Ericsson France.
Sony Ericsson Zylo™ et Spiro™ : le meilleur des fonctionnalités Walkman™ mais pas seulement !
Caractéristiques-clés de Zylo™ :
- Le fameux lecteur de musique Sony Ericsson Walkman™
- Format FLAC à haute définition – la meilleure qualité sonore jamais disponible sur un téléphone mobile
- Votre chanson favorite en fond sonore, même lors d’un appel - vous avez acheté une chanson et brûlez d’envie de la partager avec vos amis ? Ecoutez votre trouvaille avec votre interlocuteur, en fond sonore de votre appel.
- TrackID™ - identifiez une chanson
- PlayNow™ - achetez de la musique 24h/24, 7j/7
- Restez connectés avec Facebook™ et Twitter™
- Partagez des photos avec Flickr® et Picasa™
- Envoyez des clips vidéo sur YouTube™ en deux clics
Caractéristiques-clés de Spiro™ :
- Le fameux lecteur de musique Sony Ericsson Walkman™
- Musique mobile – jack 3,5 mm, Bluetooth™ stéréo et radio FM
- TrackID™ - identifiez une chanson
- Téléchargez de la musique à partir de PlayNow™
- Retrouvez vos amis sur Facebook™ et Twitter™
Le mobile Sony Ericsson Zylo™ avec Walkman™ est compatible avec les réseaux UMTS HSPA 900/2100 et GSM GPRS/EDGE 850/900/1800/1900, UMTS HSPA 850/900/1800/1900 et GSM GPRS/EDGE 850/900/1800/1900. Il sera disponible au début du 3ème trimestre, en couleur noir, argent et rose.
jeudi 15 avril 2010
Nouveau smartphone Sony Ericsson Vivaz™ Pro : le meilleur du divertissement, le clavier Azerty en plus !
Les smartphones Sony Ericsson Vivaz™ et Vivaz™Pro sont de faux jumeaux ! Et pourtant, ils vous semblent en tous points identiques : même nouveau design « Human Curves » (inspiré des lignes humaines et qui caractérise l’ensemble de la gamme Sony Ericsson), mêmes écrans tactiles, mêmes fonctions vidéo HD. Alors, comment distinguer le Vivaz™ du Vivaz™ Pro ? C’est simple : l’un est 100% tactile alors que l’autre associe à l’écran tactile un clavier Azerty coulissant et un capteur de 5,1 mégapixels !
Un clavier Azerty pour des emails, SMS et mises à jour sur les réseaux sociaux simples et rapides
Alors que certains préfèreront un smartphone 100% tactile, d’autres seront à la recherche d’un smartphone combinant à la fois écran tactile et clavier Azerty, pour vivre une double expérience communication et divertissement.
Toujours à l’écoute de ses utilisateurs et pour répondre à leurs besoins, Sony Ericsson, après avoir annoncé il y a quelques semaines le Sony Ericsson Vivaz™, lance le Sony Ericsson Vivaz™ Pro, ajoutant un clavier Azerty à l’écran tactile.
Qu’il soit question d’emails, de SMS ou de mises à jour sur les réseaux sociaux, le clavier Azerty du Sony Ericsson Vivaz™ Pro permet une gestion rapide et efficace des textes et messages.
« Chez Sony Ericsson, nos axes de Recherche & Développement sont directement inspirés des usages actuels et à venir que nous décryptons chez les consommateurs. C’est dans cette optique que nous donnons vie aujourd’hui au Sony Ericsson Vivaz™ Pro. Petit frère du Sony Ericsson Vivaz™, il allie écran tactile et clavier Azerty. Le Sony Ericsson Vivaz™ pro répond ainsi à la demande croissante des utilisateurs d’appareils Azerty, sans nuire aux fonctionnalités de divertissement… toujours illimité avec Sony Ericsson ! », souligne Estelle Gibert, Directrice Marketing & Communication de Sony Ericsson France.
Un écran tactile et des vidéos HD pour toujours plus de divertissement
A l’instar de celles capturées par son ainé, les vidéos se produisent et se diffusent en HD avec le Sony Ericsson Vivaz™ Pro. Forts d’un smartphone à plateforme ouverte, les utilisateurs peuvent également personnaliser Vivaz™ Pro grâce aux multiples applications à télécharger via PlayNow™ et sur la Symbian Developer Community.
Caractéristiques clés du Sony Ericsson Vivaz™ Pro
« Emailez », « textotez », « updatez » vos statuts, grâce au clavier Azerty coulissant complet, pour une saisie plus rapide
Restez en contact par emails, Twitter™, Facebook™, votre blog ou le « tchat »
Voyez la vie en grand avec l'écran tactile 16:9 de 3,2 pouces
Capturez chaque instant en HD puis partagez-les sur YouTube par Wi-Fi™
Accédez immédiatement aux applications, aux jeux et à la musique disponibles sur PlayNow™
Le Sony Ericsson Vivaz™ pro est compatible avec les réseaux UMTS HSPA 900/2100 / GSM GPRS/EDGE 850/900/1800/1900 et UMTS HSPA 850/1900/2100 / GSM GPRS/EDGE 850/900/1800/1900.
Il sera disponible à partir du 2ème trimestre, dans les couleurs noir et blanc.
Disponible en option, le kit oreillette stéréo hi-fi MH710 se marie parfaitement avec le Sony Ericsson Vivaz™ Pro. Le son est clair et de haute qualité lors de vos déplacements, la gestion de la musique est simplifiée et la prise des appels se fait d'un simple effleurement.
A propos de Sony Ericsson
Sony Ericsson est une joint-venture fondée à 50/50 par Sony et Ericsson en octobre 2001, dont le siège est basé à Londres. Dans un contexte où les nouveaux modes de communication, via Internet et les réseaux sociaux, sont au centre de nos loisirs, la vision de Sony Ericsson est de devenir le leader du Divertissement et de la Communication. Sony Ericsson offre ainsi au consommateur des expériences uniques grâce à des mobiles, accessoires, contenus et applications innovants.
2424actu sur iPhone dès le 14 avril
Orange lance l'application 2424actu sur iPhone
Après 2 mois d’avant-première en version LITE, Orange lance l'application 2424actu à tous ses clients iPhone. Téléchargeable sur l’App Store dans la rubrique « Actualités », l''application est gratuite.
Un service multi-écrans d'un nouveau genre
Disponible depuis octobre 2009 sur Internet - www.2424actu.fr - et depuis le mois de mars sur la TV connectée LG, 2424actu propose un accès gratuit en quelques clics à une multitude de contenus diffusés en partenariat avec les grands médias de la télévision, de la radio et de la presse en ligne. (La liste complète des partenaires média est disponible sur www.2424actu.fr)
Avec l’application 2424actu, Orange propose désormais à ses clients iPhone un service multimédia innovant, respectueux de la pluralité éditoriale et qui donne accès à l’information dans toute sa variété. 2424actu est en effet la seule application sur iPhone qui permet de voir et revoir, par sujet, les extraits vidéos des derniers journaux télévisés, d'écouter des extraits radio et de consulter articles de la presse en ligne.
2424actu se distingue des autres applications d’actualité par son design, son ergonomie et la richesse des sources d’information. L’application classe l’actualité par thématique : internationale, politique, économique, sportive, sociale et culturelle.
Les sujets sont présentés sous forme de frise. En sélectionnant un sujet, l’utilisateur accède directement au résumé AFP associé et peut consulter l’ensemble des sources disponibles sur le sujet.
L’application intègre également une fonction recherche par mot-clé.
Compatible Wi-Fi, Edge, 3G/3G+ d’Orange, l’application 2424actu offre une qualité et une continuité de service optimales quel que soit le réseau utilisé.
Comment bénéficier de l’application 2424actu sur son iPhone ?
Pour profiter sans contrainte de l’ensemble des contenus de l’application 2424actu en France métropolitaine, Orange recommande à ses clients ses offres et options incluant la TV d'Orange sur mobile (Forfaits Origami, Origami plus et Origami pour iPhone avec avantage TV, Options TV et TV max). A défaut, le téléchargement et la consultation de ces contenus seront facturés au tarif de l’offre détenue par le client.
La rubrique « mes droits d’accès » au sein de l’application 2424actu précise via un message personnalisé en fonction du forfait ou de l’option du client, les contenus disponibles via le réseau Edge, 3G, 3G+ ou Wi-Fi ainsi que la tarification appliquée.
lundi 12 avril 2010
Apple présente en avant-première iPhone OS 4
Inclut le mode multitâche, des dossiers, iBooks, une boîte de réception unifiée et plus encore
Apple® a présenté le 8 avril en avant-première son logiciel iPhone® OS 4, dont une version bêta est désormais à la disposition des développeurs inscrits au programme de développement pour iPhone (iPhone Developer Program). La version bêta du logiciel iPhone OS 4 comprend un kit de développement logiciel (SDK) actualisé avec plus de 1 500 nouvelles API (interfaces de programmation d’applications) et plus de 100 nouvelles fonctionnalités qui seront mises à la disposition des utilisateurs d’iPhone et d’iPod touch® dès cet été. Parmi les nouveautés, citons : le multitâche pour les applications tierces ; des dossiers permettant de mieux s’organiser et facilitant l’accès aux applications ; un logiciel Mail amélioré avec une boîte de réception unifiée, le passage rapide d'une boîte de réception à une autre et l'organisation des messages par fil de discussion ; une meilleure prise en charge des besoins des entreprises avec une protection des données encore renforcée, la gestion des appareils mobiles, la distribution sans fil des applications et plus encore ; iAd, la nouvelle plate-forme publicitaire mobile d’Apple ; enfin, iBooks, le formidable nouveau lecteur d’ebooks doublé d’une librairie en ligne qui vient de faire ses débuts sur l'iPad™.
« iPhone OS 4 est la quatrième version majeure du système d’exploitation mobile le plus évolué au monde », a déclaré Steve Jobs, CEO d'Apple. « Nous offrons plus de 100 nouvelles fonctionnalités, dont le mode multitâche, les dossiers, une boîte de réception unifiée, une prise en charge approfondie des besoins des entreprises et une version pour iPhone de notre lecteur iBooks et de la librairie en ligne iBookstore. »
Le nouveau mode multitâche d'iPhone OS 4 permet aux utilisateurs de passer rapidement d’une application à l'autre et fournit aux développeurs sept nouveaux services leur permettant de doter leurs applications de fonctionnalités multitâches. Ces services comprennent notamment le son en arrière-plan, qui permet à des applications telles que Pandora de diffuser une musique de fond, et VoIP, qui permet aux applications VoIP de recevoir un appel VoIP même si l’iPhone est en veille ou si l’utilisateur est en train d’utiliser d’autres applications. iPhone OS 4 apporte le mode multitâche aux applications tierces tout en économisant la batterie et en préservant les performances des applications de premier plan, possibilité qui s’est révélée jusqu’à présent hors d’atteinte sur les appareils mobiles.
Les dossiers permettent aux utilisateurs de mieux s’organiser et d’accéder plus facilement à leurs applications. Il suffit de glisser l’icône d’une application sur une autre icône pour créer automatiquement un nouveau dossier. Le dossier reçoit automatiquement un nom en fonction de la catégorie de l’App Store dont est issue l’application en question (par exemple, « Jeux »). Ce nom est ensuite facilement modifiable par l’utilisateur. Grâce aux dossiers, les utilisateurs peuvent désormais accéder à plus de 2 000 applications sur leur iPhone et les organiser. Ils peuvent également créer et gérer des dossiers iPhone sur leur Mac® ou PC à l'aide d'iTunes® 9.2.
iPhone OS 4 offre la meilleure expérience de courrier électronique sur téléphone mobile grâce à sa nouvelle boîte de réception unifiée, qui permet aux utilisateurs de voir les messages de leurs différents comptes d’e-mail au sein d’une même boîte de réception. Il suffit de quelques pressions du doigt pour passer d’une boîte de réception à l’autre et voir les messages d’un seul et même compte. Par ailleurs, les utilisateurs peuvent désormais regrouper leurs messages par conversation pour ne pas perdre le fil de leurs échanges via e-mail, et ouvrir les pièces jointes à l'aide d'applications compatibles issues de l'App Store.
iAd, la nouvelle plate-forme publicitaire mobile d’Apple, associe l’émotion des spots TV à l’interactivité des pubs web. Aujourd'hui, lorsque les utilisateurs cliquent sur des pubs mobiles, ils sont presque systématiquement détournés de leur application et envoyés vers un navigateur web qui charge la page web de l'annonceur. Les utilisateurs doivent ensuite revenir à leur application et il leur est souvent difficile, voire impossible, de retrouver l’endroit précis où ils se trouvaient. iAd résout ce problème en affichant en plein écran la vidéo et le contenu publicitaire interactif sans jamais quitter l’application et en laissant aux utilisateurs la liberté de revenir à leur application quand ils le souhaitent. iPhone OS 4 permet aux développeurs d’intégrer facilement des opportunités iAd au sein de leurs applications. Les pubs sont acheminées sur l'appareil de façon dynamique et sans fil. Apple commercialisera et diffusera les publicités, et les développeurs toucheront 60 % des revenus dégagés par iAd, selon la norme en vigueur sur le marché.
La version bêta d’iPhone OS 4 inclut une pré-version de Game Center. Celle-ci contient un ensemble d’API qui permettent aux développeurs de créer des applications offrant la possibilité d’inviter des amis à participer à un jeu, de lancer une partie multijoueur avec recherche de partenaires, suivre les performances et comparer les meilleurs scores sur un tableau de résultats. Les applications créées avec les API GameKit fonctionneront avec Game Center, le nouveau réseau social de joueurs d'Apple et qui sera mis à la disposition des utilisateurs d’iPhone et d’iPod touch dans le courant de l'année.
Les nouveautés d’iPhone OS 4 destinées aux entreprises apportent des améliorations en termes de sécurité, d’évolutivité et de compatibilité. Le nouveau service de gestion des appareils mobiles (Mobile Device Management) peut être intégré avec des serveurs tiers pour configurer, interroger et même effacer ou verrouiller sans fil des iPhone ainsi gérés. iPhone OS 4 permet aux entreprises d’héberger en toute sécurité et de distribuer sans fil à leurs employés les applications développées en interne. La nouvelle fonction de protection des données exploite le code secret d’un utilisateur comme clé de cryptage afin de protéger les e-mails et les pièces jointes stockées sur l’iPhone. iPhone OS 4 offre désormais la possibilité de définir un code secret plus long et plus complexe, ce qui permet de renforcer encore la sécurité de l’iPhone et des données qu’il contient. iPhone OS 4 permet aux responsables informatiques de définir plusieurs comptes Exchange ActiveSync. Il est compatible avec Exchange Server 2010 et offre la prise en charge des futures applications de VPN SSL de Juniper Networks et Cisco.
À ce jour, plus de quatre milliards d'applications ont été téléchargées depuis le révolutionnaire App Store et quelque 185 000 applications sont à la disposition des utilisateurs dans 90 pays. Plus de 85 millions d’utilisateurs d'iPhone et d'iPod touch dans le monde entier peuvent ainsi faire leur choix parmi un incroyable éventail d'applications réparties en 20 catégories, telles que jeux, économie et entreprise, actualités, sports, forme et santé, références ou encore voyages.
Disponibilité
La version bêta du logiciel iPhone OS 4 et le SDK sont d’ores et déjà à la disposition des adhérents au programme de développement pour iPhone, à l’adresse suivante : developer.apple.com. iPhone OS 4 sera disponible cet été sous forme de mise à jour pour les utilisateurs d’iPhone et d’iPod touch.* Une version d’iPhone OS 4 arrivera cet automne sur iPad.
Apple a révolutionné l’informatique personnelle avec la sortie de l’Apple II, puis a réinventé l’ordinateur personnel avec le lancement du Macintosh. Aujourd’hui, Apple continue d'ouvrir la voie avec ses ordinateurs, son système d’exploitation OS X, les suites iLife et iWork et ses applications professionnelles sans équivalent. À l’avant-garde en matière de musique numérique avec ses iPod et l’iTunes Store en ligne, Apple a également réinventé la téléphonie mobile avec son iPhone et son App Store révolutionnaires, et a récemment introduit le magique iPad, qui dessine l’avenir des appareils multimédias et informatiques mobiles.
*Certaines fonctionnalités peuvent ne pas être disponibles sur tous les produits. Par exemple, le mode multitâche nécessite un iPhone 3GS ou un iPod touch de 3ème génération (modèles de fin 2009 d’une capacité de 32 Go ou 64 Go).
mercredi 7 avril 2010
Ovi Cartes devient gratuit dès aujourd’hui sur le Nokia E71 et le Nokia E66
Suite aux demandes de nombreux clients, le Nokia E71 et le Nokia E66 offrent désormais une navigation piétonne et routière gratuite. Depuis le mois de janvier, la dernière version d’Ovi Cartes avec navigation piétonne et routière gratuite a été ajoutée à plusieurs mobiles, dont le Nokia E72, le Nokia N97 mini et le Nokia X6. Pour répondre aux attentes des clients, l’équipe Ovi Cartes a développé une nouvelle version destinée au Nokia E71 et au Nokia E66.
Les utilisateurs d’Ovi Suite peuvent télécharger les cartes de pays les plus récentes sur leurs mobiles et les consulter ensuite en mode hors ligne pour bénéficier de la navigation gratuite. Le processus de portage de la dernière version d’Ovi Cartes sur les mobiles existants n’est pas totalement terminé, mais la fonctionnalité de navigation est pleinement opérationnelle. En raison de contraintes techniques pour porter l’application sur des mobiles existants, nous ne pouvons pas actuellement proposer certains contenus populaires, tels que les guides Michelin et Lonely Planet. En outre, notez que ces deux mobiles seront les derniers de notre gamme de mobiles S60 3.1 ou plus anciens à prendre en charge cette version d’Ovi Cartes. En revanche, tous les nouveaux smartphones Nokia seront dorénavant fournis avec une navigation pédestre et routière gratuite.
Ces deux mobiles Eseries rejoignent ainsi le modèle Nokia N86 8MP, dont la récente compatibilité a déjà pu être expérimentée par certains utilisateurs.
Liste des mobiles compatibles avec Ovi Cartes : Nokia N97, Nokia N97 mini, Nokia 5800 XpressMusic, Nokia 5800 Navigation Edition, Nokia E52, Nokia E55, Nokia E72, Nokia 5230, Nokia 6710 Navigator, Nokia 6730 classic, Nokia X6, Nokia N86 8MP et, avec des fonctionnalités différentes, Nokia E71 et Nokia E66.
La mise à jour est disponible dès maintenant sur http://www.nokia.fr/ovicartes , et elle le sera prochainement sur l’Ovi Store. Pour télécharger les cartes utilisez Nokia Maps loader sur votre PC.
Les services ainsi que certaines caractéristiques peuvent dépendre du réseau et/ou de la carte SIM, ainsi que de la compatibilité des appareils utilisés et des formats de contenu pris en charge.
Sur www.nokia.fr/boutique vous pouvez acheter facilement nos mobiles et accessoires.
À propos de Nokia
Aider les utilisateurs à rester connectés entre eux et avec ce qu'ils ont de plus cher : telle est la mission de Nokia, qui allie pour cela la technologie mobile la plus avancée à des services utiles et personnalisés. Chaque jour, plus d'1,2 milliard d'utilisateurs communiquent les uns avec les autres via leur téléphone mobile, leur smartphone ou leur ordinateur mobile performant Nokia. Aujourd'hui, Nokia intègre à ses mobiles des services innovants (musique, navigation GPS, applications, e-mail, etc.), disponibles via Ovi (www.ovi.com). Désormais propriété de Nokia, NAVTEQ est leader sur le marché des solutions complètes de cartographie numérique et de navigation. De son côté, Nokia Siemens Networks fournit des équipements, des services et des solutions pour les réseaux de communication du monde entier.
jeudi 1 avril 2010
A dissenting view on the Yahoo - New York Times merger
The reactions to the New York Times - Yahoo merger announcement this morning were predictably brutal. "The best corporate merger since AOL-TimeWarner," TechCrunch wrote. On the radio this morning, one of the commentators talked about "the blind leading the crippled," and joked that they should both merge with General Motors so we could "get all the deadwood together in one place." The impromptu picketing of Yahoo headquarters by angry Flickr users probably didn't help.
I have a different take on the deal, though. After years of failed "new media" ventures based more on hope than synergy, I think this one might actually make business sense. Here's why:
No more paid content fantasies. The Times had been headed down the road toward making its content paid-only for anyone reading more than a few articles a month. In my opinion, this was a huge roll of the dice that could have destroyed the company's long-term prospects. The Times online edition is the most popular newspaper site in the US, and has been very gradually closing the gap with CNN, the US online news leader. Moving to a paid model would have cut the Times audience very substantially, leaving some other news operation to seize the number one position. As we know from other areas of the web, there are very strong network effects online. Once the Times surrendered the online traffic lead, I think its role as the newspaper of record in the US would have gradually been lost.
No more Yahoo search fantasies. Yahoo has had a terrible time deciding what sort of company it wants to be. For a long time it was supposed to be a "new media" company, which apparently meant it had the business practices of a film studio without the cool movie premieres. Many people in Silicon Valley still think of Yahoo as the failed Google wannabe, which is kind of like criticizing Sweden for failing to be Germany.
Unfortunately, Yahoo has been feeding that comparison lately with radio ads touting the benefits of Yahoo search. One was a scenario about a woman who was able to use search to find where a movie was playing, but not the actual showing times of the movies. Let's do a reality check, gang. Have you ever looked up a movie online? Do you know how hard it is to confirm where a movie is playing without also finding the showtimes? The effect of the ad is to position Yahoo as the search engine for stupid people.
And besides, it put the focus back on search, where Yahoo is destined to be an also-ran forever. The company shouldn't drop that business (it generates a lot of cash), but it's not the future engine of Yahoo's growth.
So, what is Yahoo's future? I think its biggest strength, what we used to call in business school its "core competence," is its ability to pair brand ads with content. Yahoo is world class in its ability to work with major brand advertisers to match their online ads with words and pictures that attract the people they want to target. It's not as sexy a business as search advertising (because the revenues and growth rates are not as good), but it's a real business and Yahoo does it better than anyone else I know of.
Yahoo's challenge, in my opinion, has been that not all of its content is top quality, so some of its sites are not as attractive to advertisers as they should be. In places where Yahoo has great content, such as Yahoo Finance, the engine seems to work very nicely. In other areas, Yahoo's content is very me-too, and so are the results.
The synergy. The New York Times' challenge is that it has great content but can't make the online audience large enough to pay for its huge editorial staff (the Times currently reaches 1.25 percent of global Internet users each day, according to Alexa). Yahoo's challenge is that it has huge reach (27% daily reach of global Internet users) but inconsistent quality. Pair the Times' outstanding content with Yahoo's reach and advertising expertise, and maybe you could make the world's most powerful online publisher.
Anyway, that's what the merger's going to test.
Next steps: Clear the decks. To make the merger work, both companies are going to need to focus on what they do best, which means paring away the other businesses they've added in the past as diversification experiments. In the NYT's case, that means letting go of a lot of other media properties the company has picked up over the years. There's going to be just one national news leader, not three, and it doesn't make sense to keep on paying full editorial staffs at several different places, many of them duplicating each others' work.
And at Yahoo, that means stepping back from being an internet conglomerate. Search is important as an on-ramp to quickly get eyeballs to the content of the new Yahoo, but it's not the long-term goal in itself. A friend at Yahoo told me the other day that a third of the company would probably quit if Yahoo decided to focus on publishing. My thought: that might be better than gradually bleeding the best and the brightest throughout the company as they lose faith in Yahoo's overall direction.
A human resources executive at Apple once listened to employees complaining about a reorganization, and then said, "when the caravan starts moving, the dogs all bark." It was a heartless comment, but he had a point. In that spirit, the picketing by Flickr users is probably a sign of healthy change.
Or it would be if any of this post were true. But it's April 1, and I'm indulging in a little bit of tech industry fantasy. In this case, though, I'd call it a dream.
Memories of past April Firsts:
The tech industry bailout (link)
iPhones worn as body piercings (link)
Spitr: Twitter meets telepathy (link)
Sprint and Google, a match made in Kansas (link)
I have a different take on the deal, though. After years of failed "new media" ventures based more on hope than synergy, I think this one might actually make business sense. Here's why:
No more paid content fantasies. The Times had been headed down the road toward making its content paid-only for anyone reading more than a few articles a month. In my opinion, this was a huge roll of the dice that could have destroyed the company's long-term prospects. The Times online edition is the most popular newspaper site in the US, and has been very gradually closing the gap with CNN, the US online news leader. Moving to a paid model would have cut the Times audience very substantially, leaving some other news operation to seize the number one position. As we know from other areas of the web, there are very strong network effects online. Once the Times surrendered the online traffic lead, I think its role as the newspaper of record in the US would have gradually been lost.
No more Yahoo search fantasies. Yahoo has had a terrible time deciding what sort of company it wants to be. For a long time it was supposed to be a "new media" company, which apparently meant it had the business practices of a film studio without the cool movie premieres. Many people in Silicon Valley still think of Yahoo as the failed Google wannabe, which is kind of like criticizing Sweden for failing to be Germany.
Unfortunately, Yahoo has been feeding that comparison lately with radio ads touting the benefits of Yahoo search. One was a scenario about a woman who was able to use search to find where a movie was playing, but not the actual showing times of the movies. Let's do a reality check, gang. Have you ever looked up a movie online? Do you know how hard it is to confirm where a movie is playing without also finding the showtimes? The effect of the ad is to position Yahoo as the search engine for stupid people.
And besides, it put the focus back on search, where Yahoo is destined to be an also-ran forever. The company shouldn't drop that business (it generates a lot of cash), but it's not the future engine of Yahoo's growth.
So, what is Yahoo's future? I think its biggest strength, what we used to call in business school its "core competence," is its ability to pair brand ads with content. Yahoo is world class in its ability to work with major brand advertisers to match their online ads with words and pictures that attract the people they want to target. It's not as sexy a business as search advertising (because the revenues and growth rates are not as good), but it's a real business and Yahoo does it better than anyone else I know of.
Yahoo's challenge, in my opinion, has been that not all of its content is top quality, so some of its sites are not as attractive to advertisers as they should be. In places where Yahoo has great content, such as Yahoo Finance, the engine seems to work very nicely. In other areas, Yahoo's content is very me-too, and so are the results.
The synergy. The New York Times' challenge is that it has great content but can't make the online audience large enough to pay for its huge editorial staff (the Times currently reaches 1.25 percent of global Internet users each day, according to Alexa). Yahoo's challenge is that it has huge reach (27% daily reach of global Internet users) but inconsistent quality. Pair the Times' outstanding content with Yahoo's reach and advertising expertise, and maybe you could make the world's most powerful online publisher.
Anyway, that's what the merger's going to test.
Next steps: Clear the decks. To make the merger work, both companies are going to need to focus on what they do best, which means paring away the other businesses they've added in the past as diversification experiments. In the NYT's case, that means letting go of a lot of other media properties the company has picked up over the years. There's going to be just one national news leader, not three, and it doesn't make sense to keep on paying full editorial staffs at several different places, many of them duplicating each others' work.
And at Yahoo, that means stepping back from being an internet conglomerate. Search is important as an on-ramp to quickly get eyeballs to the content of the new Yahoo, but it's not the long-term goal in itself. A friend at Yahoo told me the other day that a third of the company would probably quit if Yahoo decided to focus on publishing. My thought: that might be better than gradually bleeding the best and the brightest throughout the company as they lose faith in Yahoo's overall direction.
A human resources executive at Apple once listened to employees complaining about a reorganization, and then said, "when the caravan starts moving, the dogs all bark." It was a heartless comment, but he had a point. In that spirit, the picketing by Flickr users is probably a sign of healthy change.
Or it would be if any of this post were true. But it's April 1, and I'm indulging in a little bit of tech industry fantasy. In this case, though, I'd call it a dream.
Memories of past April Firsts:
The tech industry bailout (link)
iPhones worn as body piercings (link)
Spitr: Twitter meets telepathy (link)
Sprint and Google, a match made in Kansas (link)
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