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jueves, 14 de abril de 2011

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For Flip Video Camera, Four Years From Hot Start-Up to Obsolete

For Flip Video Camera, Four Years From Hot Start-Up to Obsolete
The Flip video camera, conceived by a few entrepreneurs in an office above Gump’s department store in San Francisco, went on sale in 2007, and quickly dominated the camcorder market.

The start-up sold two million of the pocket-size, easy-to-use cameras in the first two years. Then, in 2009, the founders cashed out and sold to Cisco Systems, the computer networking giant, for $590 million.

On Tuesday, Cisco announced it was shutting down its Flip video camera division.

Even in the life cycle of the tech world, this is fast.

From the outset, the acquisition was an odd fit for Cisco, which is known for its enterprise networking services. To some analysts, the decision to shutter Flip was an admission by Cisco that it made a mistake.

“Cisco was swayed by the sexiness of selling to the consumer,” said Mo Koyfman, a principal at Spark Capital, a Boston venture capital firm. “They’re not wired to do it themselves, so they do it by acquisition. Flip was one of the most visible targets out there. But it’s really hard to turn an elephant into a horse. Cisco’s an elephant.”

But the rapid rise, and now demise, of Flip is also a vivid illustration of the ferocious metabolism of the consumer marketplace and of the smartphone’s power to destroy other gadgets.

“It was unusually fast,” said Brent Bracelin, an analyst with Pacific Crest Securities. “It’s a testament to the pace of innovation in consumer electronics and smartphone technology. More and more functionality is being integrated into smartphones.”

The rapid innovation of smartphones, he said, is “one of the most disruptive trends we’ve seen.”

As newer and faster technologies beget newer and faster technologies, consumers move on to the next big thing with alacrity. In four years, Flip has gone from start-up, to dominant camcorder maker, to defunct. It took I.B.M. about four years just to reach dominance with its PC in the early 1980s. The iPad is only one year old.

Just as the Flip was reaching its zenith, the smartphone was gaining traction among consumers. With its versatility in recording video and still images, as well as its ability to perform myriad other functions, the smartphone has since proved to be a far more desirable product than a single-function device like the Flip.

At the same time, the smartphone has crushed the market for GPS devices, put a serious dent in the point-and-shoot camera industry and threatens the existence of many other everyday devices — the wristwatch, the alarm clock and the portable music player.

For technology entrepreneurs, the Flip story may be a cautionary tale of another sort. Many entrepreneurs look at Facebook’s ability to rebuff suitors as an inspiration to stay independent. But Flip’s founders were paid more than half a billion dollars for their invention from one of the most deep-pocketed companies in Silicon Valley, offering an alternate lesson in the fine art of cashing out at the right time.

“There are a lot of young entrepreneurs who look at Flip as a huge success, and they should continue to,” said Jonathan Kaplan, a co-founder and former chief executive of the start-up that invented the Flip. “The demise of Flip has nothing to do with how great a product it is. Companies have to make decisions that sometimes people like you and I don’t always understand.”

Cisco said its decision to shut down the Flip division was part of an overall restructuring plan of its consumer business. “We are making key, targeted moves as we align operations in support of our network-centric platform strategy,” said John T. Chambers, Cisco’s chief executive, in a statement.

Cisco had made inroads into the consumer market over the last decade by purchasing Pure Digital Technologies, maker of the Flip, as well as Linksys, the home-network router manufacturer. Mr. Chambers embodied the exuberance for consumer products, saying he owned eight Flip devices.

The company declined to elaborate on its reasons for shutting the Flip division, but it has faced mounting pressure to shore up its profit margins. It remains the top-selling camcorder on Amazon today, and inspired many imitators. Existing camera heavyweights like Sony and Kodak rushed to release their own Flip-like camcorders, trying to chase Flip’s runaway sales.

Still, Flip’s luster began to fade, as a spate of smartphones with built-in cameras and editing applications hit the market. The unit, which sells cameras for $100 to $200, also struggled to match the rich margins of Cisco’s enterprise services, Mr. Bracelin said. In another sign of trouble, Mr. Kaplan, who became Cisco’s general manager of consumer products after Cisco acquired Pure Digital, left the company in February.

Several analysts saw the decision as an inevitable consequence of a mistake.

“I don’t think there’s an analyst on the planet who thought that Flip was a good acquisition,” said Alex Henderson, an analyst with Miller Tabak & Company. “Cisco had this idea that they wanted to be in the consumer’s home network, but they had a grand vision that was not grounded in reality.”

Stephen Baker, an analyst with NPD Group, “Cisco was never really committed to the product.”

Although the company never disclosed specific numbers on Flip, analysts estimated it accounted for a fraction of the Cisco’s business. Simon Leopold, an analyst with Morgan, Keegan & Company, said Flip probably had about $400 million in annual revenue, compared with roughly $40 billion for Cisco over all.

Cisco said that the changes would result in 550 layoffs and a pretax charge of less than $300 million in the third and fourth quarter of the fiscal year.

Verne G. Kopytoff contributed reporting.

Microsoft Demonstrates Windows Phone Updates


Microsoft ha desvelado sus planes para la próxima versión de su plataforma Windows teléfono el miércoles a las MEZCLA , empresa conferencia anual de desarrolladores de la de Las Vegas.

En la conferencia y en un comunicado de prensa , Microsoft dijo que añadir múltiples tareas a la siguiente generación de su sistema operativo móvil. Esto permitirá a los usuarios escuchar audio mientras se utilizan otras aplicaciones, o cambiar rápidamente entre programas en el teléfono.

A pesar de teléfono de Windows 7 llegará al mercado a por lo general buenas críticas el año pasado , los críticos citados teléfono de la imposibilidad de realizar múltiples tareas como un gran defecto.

La compañía también dará a los desarrolladores que construyen aplicaciones para la plataforma Windows Phone mayor acceso al hardware de un teléfono, incluyendo el sensor de la cámara y el movimiento. Esto permitirá a los programadores construir una nueva gama de aplicaciones, incluyendo las experiencias de realidad aumentada, que mezcla en directo de vídeo con datos superpuestos, dijo Microsoft. Los desarrolladores tendrán acceso a las actualizaciones de nuevo en mayo.

Aunque algunos de estos cambios pueden parecer triviales en comparación con las capacidades de otras plataformas móviles, incluyendo IOS de Apple y Android de Google , la velocidad con la que Microsoft está mejorando Windows Phone indica su dedicación al software.

En el comunicado de prensa, Microsoft dijo que en la actualidad hay registrados 38.000 desarrolladores de Windows de teléfono que ha construido más de 13.000 aplicaciones.

Microsoft también dijo que daría a los desarrolladores de juegos más amplio acceso a la Xbox 360 controlador Kinect Microsoft. Por ejemplo, los desarrolladores tendrán acceso a la cámara Kinect. http://billionaires.forbes.com/article/037r7cG8S9fwN?q=Microsoft+Corporation

Online Ad Revenue Continues to Rise

Online Ad Revenue Continues to Rise
Internet advertising revenue continues to rise, according to a report released Wednesday by the Interactive Advertising Bureau and PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Advertising revenue for the full year reached a record high of $26 billion, a 15 percent increase over 2009. Revenue for the fourth quarter increased 16 percent to $7.45 billion from the same period last year and was the fifth consecutive quarter exhibiting growth.

“We are probably out of the woods when it comes to the impact of the great recession,” said Sherrill Mane, the senior vice president of industry services at the IAB.

Despite a slight decrease in overall revenue share, search advertising was still the most popular ad format with $12 billion ad dollars spent in 2010, representing nearly half of the overall ad revenue.

For the first time, the report estimated the revenue for mobile advertising — including search and display ads delivered through tablets and smart phones — at between $550 million and $650 million.

Display advertising showed the fastest growth, with advertisers spending $10 billion dollars on video, banners, sponsorships and rich media ads. The category grew 24 percent compared to 2009. Classified advertising remained consistent at around 10 percent of total revenue and lead generation decreased to about 5 percent of total revenue for the year.

Industries showing increases in their digital advertising spend included retail, packaged goods, health and pharmaceutical and travel and leisure. The telecommunications and technology industries showed decreases in ad spending.

Would You Sign My Kindle?


El Sr. Waters, un consultor senior de Estados Unidos Comando de Operaciones Especiales de la Sede, de repente se preguntó, "¿Cómo es que el mundo de la tecnología puede poner un hombre en la luna y no puedo acceder a un libro electrónico?"

Con los consumidores acostumbrados a la enseñanza de la música y películas en dispositivos liliputienses, son también cada vez más la lectura de Tina Fey , Scott Turow y Suzanne Collins en Kindle, rincones y iPads. Puede ser un die-hard Haruki Murakami ventilador y no tiene una sola novela de su en su biblioteca.

Y eso sólo va a ser más común. Para 2015, las ventas de libros electrónicos en Estados Unidos se espera que se triplique a casi US $ 3 mil millones, según Forrester Research. Pero el gran cambio ha creado un dilema: ¿qué, entonces, los autores de autógrafos en firmas de libros?

Algunos lectores han recurrido a pedir a los autores a firmar el dorso de su iPads y los casos de su Kindle. Pero la creciente demanda de soluciones más elegantes cuenta con empresas de software y comercialización luchando para impulsar firma de libros en la era digital. http://lisnews.org/would_you_sign_my_kindle

The agreement is expected to clear the way for Motorola Solutions to complete the sale of its networking division to Nokia Siemens Networks.

Separately, in a filing Wednesday with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Motorola Solutions and Nokia Siemens said they expected to close the sale by April 29, pending approval by Chinese regulators.

The companies also said the price Nokia Siemens would pay for Motorola Solutions’ networking unit had been reduced to $975 million from $1.2 billion. The companies did not explain why the price had been reduced.

Motorola Solutions and Huawei issued a joint statement late Wednesday in Beijing. Motorola Solutions said it had agreed to drop a lawsuit filed last year in an Illinois court accusing Huawei of conspiring with several Motorola workers to steal trade secrets.

Motorola Solutions, which focuses on business customers, split off from Motorola in January. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/14/technology/14huawei.html

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