Complaints about Apple's new iPhone OS 3.1 are flooding the web, with one poster calling it "the buggiest update that Apple has yet released for the iPhone."
The problems being reported are legion. They include iPhones becoming totally unresponsive, dropped calls, poor battery life, difficulties with Wi-Fi connections, failed Microsoft Exchange syncing, dead GPS service, loss of signal after syncing, tethering no longer working in "legally" unlocked phones outside the US, and more.
It should, of course, be noted that on some message boards there's an "everything's fine with mine" post for every complaint - and we've experienced no problems with OS 3.1 on our iPhone 3GS - but the sheer volume of problems being reported can't be ignored.
Take the unresponsive-iPhone reports, for example. Tartly dubbed "Coma Mode," it's a hot topic (http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2151766&tstart=0) on Apple's own Apple's "Using iPhone (http://discussions.apple.com/category.jspa?categoryID=245)" user forum.
Reports vary, but they have one common thread: that the iPhone chooses to simply disregard all input and needs to be fully rebooted before it will work again. Users report seemingly random occurences, sometimes when the phone has been put to sleep, sometimes when it's locked, and sometimes just whenever it feel like it.
A blogger at the Detroit News provided a detailed description (http://apps.detnews.com/apps/blogs/techblog/index.php?blogid=192) of his attempted - and unsuccessful - workarounds, and a poster in an Apple thread (http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=10203961) entitled "Mysterious random total shut downs following 3.1 update" described how he reset his iPhone to factory settings, restored it, set Autolock to Off, deleted his email account, and removed all third party apps - all to no avail.
That poster also tried to downgrade his iPhone OS to version 3.0 - but, unfortunately, Apple's iTunes doesn't provide that option. One tech-savvy user, however, has posted a YouTube video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FByu96DuCR0) of how he used the Mac OS X Terminal to restore iPhone OS 3.0 from an iPhone running the iPhone 3.1 beta.
Finally, as of Thursday morning in a decidedly unscientific poll (http://www.phonesreview.co.uk/2009/09/16/poll-is-your-apple-iphone-useless-after-31-update/) on Phones Review, 70 per cent of respondents had answered the question "Is your Apple iPhone useless after 3.1 update?" with "Yes and I am so ticked off."
Even those lucky enough to have their iPhone remain functional after the OS 3.1 update are expressing frustration. On the Apple discussion boards alone, there are threads devoted to problems making and receiving calls (http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2159018&tstart=0) even when a strong signal is available, reduced battery life (http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2154857&tstart=90), flaky Wi-Fi (http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2158541&tstart=0), and disabling of tethering (http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2151255&tstart=15) in unlocked phones outside of the US.
Other users have reported a loss of signal after syncing (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lGMDL1qu9oQ) (YouTube video), and a multitude of problems reported on MacInTouch (http://www.macintouch.com/readerreports/iphone_touchplatform/index.html), Macworld (http://forums.macworld.com/index.php?/forum/2007-iphone/), and iPhone Chat (http://iphone-chat.org/tag/iphone-3g-not-restore), including problems with GPS service, the ability to restore, and many, many other problems.
And there's also a thread (http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=10166076) on the Apple discussion boards and a series of posts (http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r22999133-iPhone-31-breaks-Exchange-Sync-for-pre3GS-phones) on DSLReports about the inability to sync with Microsoft Exchange on iPhone 3G phones that have been upgraded to OS 3.1. This frustration, however, involves the new hardware encryption in the iPhone 3GS, and AppleInsider has a comprehensive article (http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/09/09/16/exchange_enhancements_in_iphone_3_1_cause_some_users_grief.html) explaining the problem and providing a server-side workaround for iPhone 3G users.
Apple did not respond to our request for comment. (Rik Myslewski -The Register) OS
Friday, September 18, 2009
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
WiFi 802.11n Standard approved
The latest version of Wi-Fi, 802.11n, received formal certification on Friday, despite the fact that more than 700 products have already been certified as compatible by the Wi-Fi Alliance.
Never let it be said that the IEEE hurries things: more than two years after the first 802.11n products (conforming to an early draft of the standard) came out the standards body has finally ratified the specification - which should give confidence to enterprises looking at the technology even if everyone is already using it at home.
In addition to the early draft-compliant devices we have Wi-Fi-Alliance-certified devices that conform to a later draft and are allowed to carry the "Wi-Fi" logo. The Alliance reckons it's certified more than 700 devices, all of which should (thankfully) be seamlessly compatible with devices conforming to the final specification.
This compatibility is achieved thanks to the last details of the specification all being options in the draft, so draft devices should connect seamless with their properly-compliant siblings.
But Enterprises have been reluctant to deploy 802.11n until the standard was formally approved: only 15 per cent of the devices approved under the draft version are aimed at enterprise users, compared to 30 per cent which were home-networking products - the rest being laptop computers (45 per cent) and other bits of consumer electronics.
IEEE approval will mean 802.11n appearing in more offices, but the length of time it's taken to get the standard approved reflects badly on the IEEE and its ability to react with a speed commensurate with the rest of the industry. (source: Bill Ray -The Regoster)
Never let it be said that the IEEE hurries things: more than two years after the first 802.11n products (conforming to an early draft of the standard) came out the standards body has finally ratified the specification - which should give confidence to enterprises looking at the technology even if everyone is already using it at home.
In addition to the early draft-compliant devices we have Wi-Fi-Alliance-certified devices that conform to a later draft and are allowed to carry the "Wi-Fi" logo. The Alliance reckons it's certified more than 700 devices, all of which should (thankfully) be seamlessly compatible with devices conforming to the final specification.
This compatibility is achieved thanks to the last details of the specification all being options in the draft, so draft devices should connect seamless with their properly-compliant siblings.
But Enterprises have been reluctant to deploy 802.11n until the standard was formally approved: only 15 per cent of the devices approved under the draft version are aimed at enterprise users, compared to 30 per cent which were home-networking products - the rest being laptop computers (45 per cent) and other bits of consumer electronics.
IEEE approval will mean 802.11n appearing in more offices, but the length of time it's taken to get the standard approved reflects badly on the IEEE and its ability to react with a speed commensurate with the rest of the industry. (source: Bill Ray -The Regoster)
A Blogger's Success Story
Lisa Sugar began blogging about celebrity gossip in her spare time four years ago. Now she and her husband, Brian, have a little media empire called, sensibly enough, Sugar Inc., with 12 blogs, 11 million readers a month and advertisers like Chanel and Sony.
The dream of quitting the day job and making a living from blog revenue has proved to be far-fetched for most bloggers. But a few entrepreneurs, like the Sugars, have found success in blog networks.
Such networks put blogs on various topics under some form of central control, like a digital-era Condé Nast. Though they do not command nearly the same ad rates that glossy magazines do, they are attracting ad dollars while magazines are losing them.
Sugar’s ad revenue increased 20 percent in the first half of the year, and the company is on track to double its revenue and turn a profit this year, said Mr. Sugar, the company’s chief executive. Gawker Media, one of the earliest and biggest blog networks, reported that ad revenue was up 45 percent in the first half of this year.
Both companies are private, and neither would disclose more specific figures, but by some estimates the larger networks have annual revenue in the low tens of millions of dollars.
Meanwhile, advertising revenue for magazines dropped 21 percent in the first half, and the number of ad pages sold dropped 28 percent, according to the Publishers Information Bureau.
The blog networks that have survived the downturn in advertising and the explosion of competing content on the Web credit their obsessive coverage of narrow topics, along with business models that reach beyond advertising.
“It’s actually really hard creating compelling content that brings an audience,” Mr. Sugar said.
Hobbyist bloggers first got the idea that their online entries could be profitable in 2002 when Nick Denton, a former reporter for The Financial Times, started what would become Gawker Media. The catty network quickly grew into a powerhouse, and it now has eight blogs, 20 million monthly readers and more than 150 full- and part-time employees. When Jason Calacanis sold his blog network, Weblogs Inc., to AOL for a reported $25 million in 2005, the notion that blogging could be a business was cemented.
Today, blog networks range from big, like Gawker and Sugar, to smaller and more focused, like The Business Insider, VentureBeat and the GigaOm Network, which cover business and technology. There are also large networks of blogs that share ads but not editorial control, like BlogHer and Glam Media.
Sugar’s blogs — with names like PopSugar (celebrity gossip), BellaSugar (beauty) and LilSugar (mothering) — are all edited and designed with 28-year-old women in mind. The writers and sales staff are fanatical about going after that ideal visitor, Mr. Sugar said. The posts are short, light and sarcasm-free, with big photos and headlines like “The Jolie-Pitts Bring the Twins to the Golden Arches” and “10 Sexy Bedhead Hairstyles to Try Today.”
Other blog networks take a similarly narrow focus. Gawker Media’s business cards used to read “Unhealthily obsessed,” said Lockhart Steele, the company’s former managing editor. He follows the same motto at Curbed, a company he founded that publishes blogs on real estate, dining, shopping and travel in New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco.
“We are completely obsessed with every square inch of the areas we cover,” Mr. Steele said. “It’s the classic blogger model: give people everything they could possibly want on a topic.” For the Curbed sites, that sometimes means two dozen posts a day just about New York real estate.
That all-encompassing coverage is meant to keep readers coming back many times a day, in turn attracting advertisers.
Blogs, with their unpredictable and sometimes edgy content, can be frightening to advertisers, but blog networks are less risky, said Shenan Reed, a founder of Morpheus Media, a digital marketing agency that represents brands like Louis Vuitton and L’Oréal.
“When you’re dealing with a company where the editorial control is living under one roof, you feel like there’s a consistency in the message, which is what makes Sugar, Gawker and Curbed fantastically interesting to us,” Ms. Reed said.
Blog networks also make it easier for advertisers, who do not have time to sift through the millions of blogs on the Web, to reach a big blog audience. For example, Morpheus ran an ad campaign for Neiman Marcus on the Sugar network in which it dressed each of the Sugar blogs’ cartoon mascots in outfits from the store, and readers could click on the clothes to buy them.
Yet for Sugar, the dream of growing a large and profitable media business on advertising alone did not come true.
“Outside of a few examples, I think people way overestimated the amount of ad revenue that was there for the taking for blogging as a business,” said Scott Rosenberg, author of the recent book “Say Everything: How Blogging Began, What It’s Becoming, and Why It Matters.”
In 2007, Sugar, which is backed by Sequoia Capital and has 105 employees, acquired ShopStyle, an e-commerce site. Today it brings in half of Sugar’s revenue. At ShopStyle, shoppers can browse online retailers’ selections, and Sugar gets paid when they click through to a retailer or make a purchase.
Sugar would not have been able to grow as it has without both sources of revenue, said Mr. Sugar, who was formerly vice president for e-commerce at J. Crew. The company plans to eventually make money selling virtual goods, too, like stilettos in a fashion game.
Blog networks have also had to change the type of content they publish. Though many started by publishing links to and commentary on other Web sites’ material, there is now so much material online that they need to offer original reporting to stand out, Mr. Steele said.
Each of Curbed’s sites has a full-time editor and a few freelancers, and they have started competing with local papers for scoops. Curbed often depends on readers’ tips and might publish 10 updates to an article in response to them.
When Gawker blogs get exclusive content, like leaked videos, they can get more than a hundred times their typical traffic. “Scoops pay,” Mr. Denton said.
Sugar gets press passes to the Oscars and recently started producing videos about shopping and celebrities. It also developed blogging software called OnSugar. When bloggers use the software to showcase clothes and readers click to buy them, the bloggers and Sugar get a cut. Sugar plans to eventually sell ads on these blogs.
“Perpetual movement is the essence of survival and prosperity online,” said Michael Moritz, the Sequoia investor who backed Google, Yahoo and Sugar. “If online media and entertainment companies don’t improve every day, they will just wind up as the newfangled version of Reader’s Digest — bankrupt.” (source: Claire Cain Miller-NYT)
The dream of quitting the day job and making a living from blog revenue has proved to be far-fetched for most bloggers. But a few entrepreneurs, like the Sugars, have found success in blog networks.
Such networks put blogs on various topics under some form of central control, like a digital-era Condé Nast. Though they do not command nearly the same ad rates that glossy magazines do, they are attracting ad dollars while magazines are losing them.
Sugar’s ad revenue increased 20 percent in the first half of the year, and the company is on track to double its revenue and turn a profit this year, said Mr. Sugar, the company’s chief executive. Gawker Media, one of the earliest and biggest blog networks, reported that ad revenue was up 45 percent in the first half of this year.
Both companies are private, and neither would disclose more specific figures, but by some estimates the larger networks have annual revenue in the low tens of millions of dollars.
Meanwhile, advertising revenue for magazines dropped 21 percent in the first half, and the number of ad pages sold dropped 28 percent, according to the Publishers Information Bureau.
The blog networks that have survived the downturn in advertising and the explosion of competing content on the Web credit their obsessive coverage of narrow topics, along with business models that reach beyond advertising.
“It’s actually really hard creating compelling content that brings an audience,” Mr. Sugar said.
Hobbyist bloggers first got the idea that their online entries could be profitable in 2002 when Nick Denton, a former reporter for The Financial Times, started what would become Gawker Media. The catty network quickly grew into a powerhouse, and it now has eight blogs, 20 million monthly readers and more than 150 full- and part-time employees. When Jason Calacanis sold his blog network, Weblogs Inc., to AOL for a reported $25 million in 2005, the notion that blogging could be a business was cemented.
Today, blog networks range from big, like Gawker and Sugar, to smaller and more focused, like The Business Insider, VentureBeat and the GigaOm Network, which cover business and technology. There are also large networks of blogs that share ads but not editorial control, like BlogHer and Glam Media.
Sugar’s blogs — with names like PopSugar (celebrity gossip), BellaSugar (beauty) and LilSugar (mothering) — are all edited and designed with 28-year-old women in mind. The writers and sales staff are fanatical about going after that ideal visitor, Mr. Sugar said. The posts are short, light and sarcasm-free, with big photos and headlines like “The Jolie-Pitts Bring the Twins to the Golden Arches” and “10 Sexy Bedhead Hairstyles to Try Today.”
Other blog networks take a similarly narrow focus. Gawker Media’s business cards used to read “Unhealthily obsessed,” said Lockhart Steele, the company’s former managing editor. He follows the same motto at Curbed, a company he founded that publishes blogs on real estate, dining, shopping and travel in New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco.
“We are completely obsessed with every square inch of the areas we cover,” Mr. Steele said. “It’s the classic blogger model: give people everything they could possibly want on a topic.” For the Curbed sites, that sometimes means two dozen posts a day just about New York real estate.
That all-encompassing coverage is meant to keep readers coming back many times a day, in turn attracting advertisers.
Blogs, with their unpredictable and sometimes edgy content, can be frightening to advertisers, but blog networks are less risky, said Shenan Reed, a founder of Morpheus Media, a digital marketing agency that represents brands like Louis Vuitton and L’Oréal.
“When you’re dealing with a company where the editorial control is living under one roof, you feel like there’s a consistency in the message, which is what makes Sugar, Gawker and Curbed fantastically interesting to us,” Ms. Reed said.
Blog networks also make it easier for advertisers, who do not have time to sift through the millions of blogs on the Web, to reach a big blog audience. For example, Morpheus ran an ad campaign for Neiman Marcus on the Sugar network in which it dressed each of the Sugar blogs’ cartoon mascots in outfits from the store, and readers could click on the clothes to buy them.
Yet for Sugar, the dream of growing a large and profitable media business on advertising alone did not come true.
“Outside of a few examples, I think people way overestimated the amount of ad revenue that was there for the taking for blogging as a business,” said Scott Rosenberg, author of the recent book “Say Everything: How Blogging Began, What It’s Becoming, and Why It Matters.”
In 2007, Sugar, which is backed by Sequoia Capital and has 105 employees, acquired ShopStyle, an e-commerce site. Today it brings in half of Sugar’s revenue. At ShopStyle, shoppers can browse online retailers’ selections, and Sugar gets paid when they click through to a retailer or make a purchase.
Sugar would not have been able to grow as it has without both sources of revenue, said Mr. Sugar, who was formerly vice president for e-commerce at J. Crew. The company plans to eventually make money selling virtual goods, too, like stilettos in a fashion game.
Blog networks have also had to change the type of content they publish. Though many started by publishing links to and commentary on other Web sites’ material, there is now so much material online that they need to offer original reporting to stand out, Mr. Steele said.
Each of Curbed’s sites has a full-time editor and a few freelancers, and they have started competing with local papers for scoops. Curbed often depends on readers’ tips and might publish 10 updates to an article in response to them.
When Gawker blogs get exclusive content, like leaked videos, they can get more than a hundred times their typical traffic. “Scoops pay,” Mr. Denton said.
Sugar gets press passes to the Oscars and recently started producing videos about shopping and celebrities. It also developed blogging software called OnSugar. When bloggers use the software to showcase clothes and readers click to buy them, the bloggers and Sugar get a cut. Sugar plans to eventually sell ads on these blogs.
“Perpetual movement is the essence of survival and prosperity online,” said Michael Moritz, the Sequoia investor who backed Google, Yahoo and Sugar. “If online media and entertainment companies don’t improve every day, they will just wind up as the newfangled version of Reader’s Digest — bankrupt.” (source: Claire Cain Miller-NYT)
Saturday, September 12, 2009
ProtoStar Satellite Operator Filed For Bankruptcy
BANGALORE, July 29 (Reuters) - Satellite services operator ProtoStar Ltd filed for bankruptcy protection along with its five affiliates on Wednesday and said it was looking to sell its satellites through a court-supervised auction.
The Bermuda-based company, which has two satellites, said its lenders support the restructuring plan and had agreed to provide debtor-in-possession (DIP) financing. Companies rely on DIP financing to fund operations while in bankruptcy.
The company was formed in 2005 to launch and operate high-power geostationary satellites to lease capacity to Asian direct-to-home (DTH) satellite television and broadband service providers.
The company said in court documents that in March, Agrani Satellite Services Ltd, which had agreed to lease capacity on ProtoStar's first satellite, terminated the contract. Protostar said it disputes the validity of the termination notice.
Court documents show that ProtoStar's working-capital lenders declared an event of default in April and were soon followed by other secured lenders.
The company, which employs about 22 people, listed assets and liabilities in the range of $100 million to $500 million in its Chapter 11 filing.
It lists Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co (PLDT) (TEL.PS), to which it owes $27.5 million, as its largest unsecured creditor.
The case is In re: ProtoStar Satellite Systems Inc, U.S. Bankruptcy Court, District of Delaware (Delaware), No.09-12658. (Editing by Gopakumar Warrier, Vinu Pilakkott)
The Bermuda-based company, which has two satellites, said its lenders support the restructuring plan and had agreed to provide debtor-in-possession (DIP) financing. Companies rely on DIP financing to fund operations while in bankruptcy.
The company was formed in 2005 to launch and operate high-power geostationary satellites to lease capacity to Asian direct-to-home (DTH) satellite television and broadband service providers.
The company said in court documents that in March, Agrani Satellite Services Ltd, which had agreed to lease capacity on ProtoStar's first satellite, terminated the contract. Protostar said it disputes the validity of the termination notice.
Court documents show that ProtoStar's working-capital lenders declared an event of default in April and were soon followed by other secured lenders.
The company, which employs about 22 people, listed assets and liabilities in the range of $100 million to $500 million in its Chapter 11 filing.
It lists Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co (PLDT) (TEL.PS), to which it owes $27.5 million, as its largest unsecured creditor.
The case is In re: ProtoStar Satellite Systems Inc, U.S. Bankruptcy Court, District of Delaware (Delaware), No.09-12658. (Editing by Gopakumar Warrier, Vinu Pilakkott)
Friday, September 11, 2009
Android installed quietly in More Mobile Phones
Google's Android platform isn't often cited when end users discuss the leaders in the mobile phone market. Typically, those discussions are dominated by companies such as Apple, Research In Motion and even Microsoft. But it's Google that's quietly gaining ground in the space.
The company is behind more phone releases running its Android operating system than you might think. Aside from the T-Mobile G1—the first Android-based phone to hit store shelves—HTC's MyTouch 3G is currently offered to consumers. HTC also announced the Tattoo Tuesday that promises some neat functionality for European users. It's the company's fourth Android-based phone.
But HTC isn't alone. Companies like Motorola, LG and even Acer have signed on to produce Android-based products. Google's partners in the Open Handset Alliance have joined at such a rapid rate that the company hopes to have up to 20 Android-based phones available by the end of 2009. It could more than double that number by the end of 2010. And yet, Android doesn't receive the kind of respect or attention Apple does. It's an afterthought when it comes time to analyze the mobile phone market.
Admittedly, that is mainly due to the fact that Android doesn't hold the kind of market share its competitors do. In fact, it's trailing far behind Apple's iPhone, RIM's BlackBerry devices and even Windows Mobile.
But it may not stay that way much longer. Unlike Apple, which has tied its future to one product, Google decided to follow in Microsoft's footsteps and open up its software to vendors. And unlike Microsoft's Windows Mobile, which provides a subpar experience, Google's Android mobile operating system is a fine alternative to the iPhone.
The Experience
In the cell phone market, providing an experience is a key success factor. If a phone doesn't have a touch-screen, doesn't sport some kind of multitouch technology and doesn't have an App Store, most users won't find as much value in it. Those are requirements that Apple has put in place, and like it or not, its competitors have to play ball.
And Google is playing ball. Its Android operating system boasts outstanding software that appeals to just about anyone who uses it. In fact, it's a nice alternative to Apple's iPhone software.
The company is behind more phone releases running its Android operating system than you might think. Aside from the T-Mobile G1—the first Android-based phone to hit store shelves—HTC's MyTouch 3G is currently offered to consumers. HTC also announced the Tattoo Tuesday that promises some neat functionality for European users. It's the company's fourth Android-based phone.
But HTC isn't alone. Companies like Motorola, LG and even Acer have signed on to produce Android-based products. Google's partners in the Open Handset Alliance have joined at such a rapid rate that the company hopes to have up to 20 Android-based phones available by the end of 2009. It could more than double that number by the end of 2010. And yet, Android doesn't receive the kind of respect or attention Apple does. It's an afterthought when it comes time to analyze the mobile phone market.
Admittedly, that is mainly due to the fact that Android doesn't hold the kind of market share its competitors do. In fact, it's trailing far behind Apple's iPhone, RIM's BlackBerry devices and even Windows Mobile.
But it may not stay that way much longer. Unlike Apple, which has tied its future to one product, Google decided to follow in Microsoft's footsteps and open up its software to vendors. And unlike Microsoft's Windows Mobile, which provides a subpar experience, Google's Android mobile operating system is a fine alternative to the iPhone.
The Experience
In the cell phone market, providing an experience is a key success factor. If a phone doesn't have a touch-screen, doesn't sport some kind of multitouch technology and doesn't have an App Store, most users won't find as much value in it. Those are requirements that Apple has put in place, and like it or not, its competitors have to play ball.
And Google is playing ball. Its Android operating system boasts outstanding software that appeals to just about anyone who uses it. In fact, it's a nice alternative to Apple's iPhone software.
Saturday, September 5, 2009
Google's China Chief left the Company to setup a New Venture
Google’s high-profile China chief Lee Kaifu is set to announce his resignation from the company.
Lee, who has been China president and a Google global vice-president since 2005, will go to work for a start-up, mainland media reports said.
Since setting up in China Google has taken about one-fifth of the search market from leader Baidu, but the latest figures show it lost 1.6 points to Baidu in Q2, and now trails with 19.8% of the market to Baidu’s 75.7%.
Taiwanese-born Lee joined the company from Microsoft in controversial fashion, sparking legal action against Google over a non-compete agreement he had signed with his former employer, Microsoft Corp.
Lee, who has been China president and a Google global vice-president since 2005, will go to work for a start-up, mainland media reports said.
Since setting up in China Google has taken about one-fifth of the search market from leader Baidu, but the latest figures show it lost 1.6 points to Baidu in Q2, and now trails with 19.8% of the market to Baidu’s 75.7%.
Taiwanese-born Lee joined the company from Microsoft in controversial fashion, sparking legal action against Google over a non-compete agreement he had signed with his former employer, Microsoft Corp.
Friday, September 4, 2009
iPhones Caused ATT Network Overload
Slim and sleek as it is, the iPhone is really the Hummer of cellphones.
It’s a data guzzler. Owners use them like minicomputers, which they are, and use them a lot. Not only do iPhone owners download applications, stream music and videos and browse the Web at higher rates than the average smartphone user, but the average iPhone owner can also use 10 times the network capacity used by the average smartphone user.
“They don’t even realize how much data they’re using,” said Gene Munster, a senior securities analyst with Piper Jaffray.
The result is dropped calls, spotty service, delayed text and voice messages and glacial download speeds as AT&T’s cellular network strains to meet the demand. Another result is outraged customers.
Cellphone owners using other carriers may gloat now, but the problems of AT&T and the iPhone portend their future. Other networks could be stressed as well as more sophisticated phones encouraging such intense use become popular, analysts say.
Taylor Sbicca, a 27-year-old systems administrator in San Francisco, checks his iPhone 10 to 15 times a day. But he is not making calls. He checks the scores of last night’s baseball game and updates his Twitter stream. He checks the local weather report to see if he needs a coat before heading out to dinner — then he picks a restaurant on Yelp and maps the quickest way to get there.
Or at least, he tries to.
“It’s so slow, it feels like I’m on a dial-up modem,” he said. Shazam, an application that identifies songs being played on the radio or TV, takes so long to load that the tune may be over by the time the app is ready to hear it. On numerous occasions, Mr. Sbicca says, he missed invitations to meet friends because his text messages had been delayed.
And picking up a cell signal in his apartment? “You hit the dial button and the phone just sits there, saying it’s connecting for 30 seconds,” he said.
More than 20 million other smartphone users are on the AT&T network, but other phones do not drain the network the way the nine million iPhones users do. Indeed, that is why the howls of protest are more numerous in the dense urban areas with higher concentrations of iPhone owners.
“It’s almost worthless to try and get on 3G during peak times in those cities,” Mr. Munster said, referring to the 3G network. “When too many users get in the area, the call drops.” The problems seem particularly pronounced in New York and San Francisco, where Mr. Munster estimates AT&T’s network shoulders as much as 20 percent of all the iPhone users in the United States.
Owners of the iPhone 3GS, the newest model, “have probably increased their usage by about 100 percent,” said Chetan Sharma, an independent wireless analyst. “It’s faster so they are using it more on a daily basis.”
Mr. Sharma compares the problem to water flowing through a pipe. “It can only funnel so much at a given time,” he said. “It comes down to peak capacity loads, or spikes in data usage. That’s why you see these problems at conferences or in large cities with high concentration of iPhone users.”
When thousands of iPhone owners descended on Austin, Tex., in March during South by Southwest, an annual technology and music conference, attendees were unable to send text messages, check their e-mail or make calls until AT&T installed temporary cell sites to amplify the service.
AT&T’s right to be the exclusive carrier for iPhone in the United States has been a golden ticket for the wireless company. The average iPhone owner pays AT&T $2,000 during his two-year contract — roughly twice the amount of the average mobile phone customer.
But at the same time the iPhone has become an Achilles’ heel for the company.
“It’s been a challenging year for us,” said John Donovan, the chief technology officer of AT&T. “Overnight we’re seeing a radical shift in how people are using their phones,” he said. “There’s just no parallel for the demand.”
AT&T says that the majority of the nearly $18 billion it will spend this year on its networks will be diverted into upgrades and expansions to meet the surging demands on the 3G network. The company intends to erect an additional 2,100 cell towers to fill out patchy coverage, upgrade existing cell sites by adding fiber optic connectivity to deliver data faster and add other technology to provide stronger cell signals.
As fast as AT&T wants to go, many cities require lengthy filing processes to erect new cell towers. Even after towers are installed, it can take several months for software upgrades to begin operating at faster speeds.
The company has also delayed bandwidth-heavy features like multimedia messaging, or text messages containing pictures, audio or video. It is also postponing “tethering,” which allows the iPhone to share its Internet connection with a computer, a standard feature on many rival smartphones. AT&T says it has no intention of capping how much data iPhone owners use.
The upgrades are expected to be completed by next year and the company has said it is already seeing improvements.
But AT&T faces another cost — to its reputation. AT&T’s deal with Apple is said to expire as early as next year, at which point other carriers in the United States would be able to sell the popular Apple phones. Indeed, a recent survey by Pricegrabber.com found that 34 percent of respondents pinpointed AT&T as the primary reason for not buying an iPhone.
“It’s a P.R. nightmare,” said Craig Moffett, a senior analyst with Sanford C. Bernstein & Company.
AT&T might be in the spotlight now, analysts say, but other carriers will face similar problems as they sell more smartphones, laptop cards and eventually tablets that encourage high data usage.
Globally, mobile data traffic is expected to double every year through 2013, according to Cisco Systems, which makes network gear. “Whether an iPhone, a Storm or a Gphone, the world is changing.” Mr. Munster said. “We’re just starting to scratch the surface of these issues that AT&T is facing.”
In preparation for the next wave of smartphones and data demands, all the carriers are rushing to introduce the next-generation of wireless networks, called 4G.
Analysts expect that in a year or so, AT&T’s network will have improved significantly — but it may not be soon enough for some iPhone owners paying for the higher-priced data plans, like Mr. Sbicca, who says he plans to switch carriers as soon as the iPhone becomes available on other networks.
“What good is having all those applications if you don’t have the speed to run them?” he said. “It’s not exactly rocket science here. It’s pretty standard stuff to be able to make a phone call.” (source: Jenna Wortham-NYT)
It’s a data guzzler. Owners use them like minicomputers, which they are, and use them a lot. Not only do iPhone owners download applications, stream music and videos and browse the Web at higher rates than the average smartphone user, but the average iPhone owner can also use 10 times the network capacity used by the average smartphone user.
“They don’t even realize how much data they’re using,” said Gene Munster, a senior securities analyst with Piper Jaffray.
The result is dropped calls, spotty service, delayed text and voice messages and glacial download speeds as AT&T’s cellular network strains to meet the demand. Another result is outraged customers.
Cellphone owners using other carriers may gloat now, but the problems of AT&T and the iPhone portend their future. Other networks could be stressed as well as more sophisticated phones encouraging such intense use become popular, analysts say.
Taylor Sbicca, a 27-year-old systems administrator in San Francisco, checks his iPhone 10 to 15 times a day. But he is not making calls. He checks the scores of last night’s baseball game and updates his Twitter stream. He checks the local weather report to see if he needs a coat before heading out to dinner — then he picks a restaurant on Yelp and maps the quickest way to get there.
Or at least, he tries to.
“It’s so slow, it feels like I’m on a dial-up modem,” he said. Shazam, an application that identifies songs being played on the radio or TV, takes so long to load that the tune may be over by the time the app is ready to hear it. On numerous occasions, Mr. Sbicca says, he missed invitations to meet friends because his text messages had been delayed.
And picking up a cell signal in his apartment? “You hit the dial button and the phone just sits there, saying it’s connecting for 30 seconds,” he said.
More than 20 million other smartphone users are on the AT&T network, but other phones do not drain the network the way the nine million iPhones users do. Indeed, that is why the howls of protest are more numerous in the dense urban areas with higher concentrations of iPhone owners.
“It’s almost worthless to try and get on 3G during peak times in those cities,” Mr. Munster said, referring to the 3G network. “When too many users get in the area, the call drops.” The problems seem particularly pronounced in New York and San Francisco, where Mr. Munster estimates AT&T’s network shoulders as much as 20 percent of all the iPhone users in the United States.
Owners of the iPhone 3GS, the newest model, “have probably increased their usage by about 100 percent,” said Chetan Sharma, an independent wireless analyst. “It’s faster so they are using it more on a daily basis.”
Mr. Sharma compares the problem to water flowing through a pipe. “It can only funnel so much at a given time,” he said. “It comes down to peak capacity loads, or spikes in data usage. That’s why you see these problems at conferences or in large cities with high concentration of iPhone users.”
When thousands of iPhone owners descended on Austin, Tex., in March during South by Southwest, an annual technology and music conference, attendees were unable to send text messages, check their e-mail or make calls until AT&T installed temporary cell sites to amplify the service.
AT&T’s right to be the exclusive carrier for iPhone in the United States has been a golden ticket for the wireless company. The average iPhone owner pays AT&T $2,000 during his two-year contract — roughly twice the amount of the average mobile phone customer.
But at the same time the iPhone has become an Achilles’ heel for the company.
“It’s been a challenging year for us,” said John Donovan, the chief technology officer of AT&T. “Overnight we’re seeing a radical shift in how people are using their phones,” he said. “There’s just no parallel for the demand.”
AT&T says that the majority of the nearly $18 billion it will spend this year on its networks will be diverted into upgrades and expansions to meet the surging demands on the 3G network. The company intends to erect an additional 2,100 cell towers to fill out patchy coverage, upgrade existing cell sites by adding fiber optic connectivity to deliver data faster and add other technology to provide stronger cell signals.
As fast as AT&T wants to go, many cities require lengthy filing processes to erect new cell towers. Even after towers are installed, it can take several months for software upgrades to begin operating at faster speeds.
The company has also delayed bandwidth-heavy features like multimedia messaging, or text messages containing pictures, audio or video. It is also postponing “tethering,” which allows the iPhone to share its Internet connection with a computer, a standard feature on many rival smartphones. AT&T says it has no intention of capping how much data iPhone owners use.
The upgrades are expected to be completed by next year and the company has said it is already seeing improvements.
But AT&T faces another cost — to its reputation. AT&T’s deal with Apple is said to expire as early as next year, at which point other carriers in the United States would be able to sell the popular Apple phones. Indeed, a recent survey by Pricegrabber.com found that 34 percent of respondents pinpointed AT&T as the primary reason for not buying an iPhone.
“It’s a P.R. nightmare,” said Craig Moffett, a senior analyst with Sanford C. Bernstein & Company.
AT&T might be in the spotlight now, analysts say, but other carriers will face similar problems as they sell more smartphones, laptop cards and eventually tablets that encourage high data usage.
Globally, mobile data traffic is expected to double every year through 2013, according to Cisco Systems, which makes network gear. “Whether an iPhone, a Storm or a Gphone, the world is changing.” Mr. Munster said. “We’re just starting to scratch the surface of these issues that AT&T is facing.”
In preparation for the next wave of smartphones and data demands, all the carriers are rushing to introduce the next-generation of wireless networks, called 4G.
Analysts expect that in a year or so, AT&T’s network will have improved significantly — but it may not be soon enough for some iPhone owners paying for the higher-priced data plans, like Mr. Sbicca, who says he plans to switch carriers as soon as the iPhone becomes available on other networks.
“What good is having all those applications if you don’t have the speed to run them?” he said. “It’s not exactly rocket science here. It’s pretty standard stuff to be able to make a phone call.” (source: Jenna Wortham-NYT)
Thursday, September 3, 2009
Skype Sold to Private Investors for US$3.1 Billion
SAN FRANCISCO — With its sale to private investors, the online calling service Skype has thrown off the last of the shackles that limited its growth and potential as a unit of eBay. Now its challenge is to turn its global popularity into bigger profits.
EBay announced on Tuesday that it was selling Skype to a group led by Silver Lake Partners, a private equity firm in Silicon Valley. As part of the deal, which values Skype at $2.75 billion, the buyers agreed to pay $1.9 billion in cash, which includes a loan from eBay of $125 million, for 65 percent of the company. EBay, which is based in San Jose, Calif., will retain a 35 percent stake.
Skype offers free software for computers and smartphones that lets people make free voice and video calls to other Skype users over the Internet. It makes money primarily by charging for calls to landlines and cellphones around the world, although its rates are generally far below those of traditional phone companies.
When it acquired Skype in 2005, eBay said it hoped the service would support its auctions and its PayPal payment service by letting buyers and sellers discuss transactions. But eBay users were not so chatty.
The deal announced Tuesday would essentially allow Skype to go back into start-up mode. For example, it will be able to conceal investments in projects and new technologies from the public — and from rivals — instead of disclosing them in eBay’s public regulatory filings.
The company will also be able to lure new employees with its own stock, which could become valuable if Skype’s buyers decide to sell shares in an initial public offering.
“This gives us a great set of investors who are going to add a lot of value to the business,” said Josh Silverman, Skype’s chief executive. “And as a stand-alone company we are focused solely on communications, and there is always benefit to focus.”
The group buying Skype includes the London venture capital firm Index Ventures and Andreessen Horowitz, a new venture capital firm co-founded by Marc Andreessen, the Netscape co-founder.
The deal completes a journey that began early last year, when Meg Whitman, eBay’s longtime chief executive, left the company and her deputy, John Donahoe, took over. Mr. Donahoe moved Mr. Silverman over from Shopping.com, another eBay division, and gave Skype, which is based in Luxembourg, wide latitude to operate independently.
“All the previous presidents had a really short leash back to San Jose, and the company was basically a bureaucratic mess,” said Phil Wolff, editor of Skype Journal, a blog covering the service. “With the changes last year, the company got a strong leadership team and a strong sense of direction.”
The result has been steady, solid growth, even as competing Internet calling services like Google Voice came on the scene. Skype, which had 276 million registered users in the first quarter of last year, ended July with 480 million.
Revenue rose to $170 million in the second quarter of this year from $136 million in the same quarter a year earlier. EBay does not break out Skype’s profits but says it has been profitable for 10 consecutive quarters.
In a sign that Skype may have discovered new opportunities outside the personal computer, the Skype application for the iPhone has been one of the most popular programs for the device since it was released in March. Skype has also struck deals to place its service on Nokia phones.
Egon Durban, managing director at Silver Lake Partners, said the iPhone application was “a great example of what we feel are the attractive opportunities for the company to develop.”
“This is one of the leading Internet franchises with terrific growth prospects,” Mr. Durban said. He gave no specifics on features Skype might offer, but said it was easy to imagine possibilities. He also said the buyers had no plans for a public offering.
Some of Skype’s newest features may suggest directions for the company. The latest version of its software, released this year, emphasizes face-to-face video chats. Skype now says that 34 percent of calls between Skype users include video, and such chats have become a popular way for people around the world to connect with one another.
In addition to working on allowing outside programmers to weave Skype’s features and infrastructure into their own programs or Web sites, the company is also working on replacing the service’s underlying peer-to-peer technology. That is partly out of legal necessity. The rights to that technology remain with Skype’s founders, Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis, who have sued eBay in a British court over some changes eBay made to it. That case is to go to trial next year.
For eBay, selling Skype — particularly at a valuation higher than many analysts had thought possible — offers partial redemption for a deal that many Internet analysts said was an awkward fit. EBay paid $2.6 billion for Skype, and performance incentives lifted the final price to $3.1 billion.
“The purchase was a serious mistake by Meg Whitman. It was an attempt to buy growth, which investors saw through instantly,” said Jeffrey Lindsay, an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein. The new eBay management found ways for Skype to generate revenue, he said, “and now they sold it at a great price.”
Mr. Donahoe said eBay did not regret having bought Skype when company executives believed eBay was in a mortal struggle with Google, which was also pursuing the service. He said the spinoff would allow eBay to focus on its core e-commerce and online payment businesses and avoid extra distractions.
“We don’t regret having done this at all. We compete in a dynamic market, and you have to move quickly and take risks,” Mr. Donahoe said. “When we bought Skype we thought it had synergies with our other two businesses, and it turns out it did not. But it also turned out that it’s a great stand-alone business.” (source: Bradstone, NYT)
EBay announced on Tuesday that it was selling Skype to a group led by Silver Lake Partners, a private equity firm in Silicon Valley. As part of the deal, which values Skype at $2.75 billion, the buyers agreed to pay $1.9 billion in cash, which includes a loan from eBay of $125 million, for 65 percent of the company. EBay, which is based in San Jose, Calif., will retain a 35 percent stake.
Skype offers free software for computers and smartphones that lets people make free voice and video calls to other Skype users over the Internet. It makes money primarily by charging for calls to landlines and cellphones around the world, although its rates are generally far below those of traditional phone companies.
When it acquired Skype in 2005, eBay said it hoped the service would support its auctions and its PayPal payment service by letting buyers and sellers discuss transactions. But eBay users were not so chatty.
The deal announced Tuesday would essentially allow Skype to go back into start-up mode. For example, it will be able to conceal investments in projects and new technologies from the public — and from rivals — instead of disclosing them in eBay’s public regulatory filings.
The company will also be able to lure new employees with its own stock, which could become valuable if Skype’s buyers decide to sell shares in an initial public offering.
“This gives us a great set of investors who are going to add a lot of value to the business,” said Josh Silverman, Skype’s chief executive. “And as a stand-alone company we are focused solely on communications, and there is always benefit to focus.”
The group buying Skype includes the London venture capital firm Index Ventures and Andreessen Horowitz, a new venture capital firm co-founded by Marc Andreessen, the Netscape co-founder.
The deal completes a journey that began early last year, when Meg Whitman, eBay’s longtime chief executive, left the company and her deputy, John Donahoe, took over. Mr. Donahoe moved Mr. Silverman over from Shopping.com, another eBay division, and gave Skype, which is based in Luxembourg, wide latitude to operate independently.
“All the previous presidents had a really short leash back to San Jose, and the company was basically a bureaucratic mess,” said Phil Wolff, editor of Skype Journal, a blog covering the service. “With the changes last year, the company got a strong leadership team and a strong sense of direction.”
The result has been steady, solid growth, even as competing Internet calling services like Google Voice came on the scene. Skype, which had 276 million registered users in the first quarter of last year, ended July with 480 million.
Revenue rose to $170 million in the second quarter of this year from $136 million in the same quarter a year earlier. EBay does not break out Skype’s profits but says it has been profitable for 10 consecutive quarters.
In a sign that Skype may have discovered new opportunities outside the personal computer, the Skype application for the iPhone has been one of the most popular programs for the device since it was released in March. Skype has also struck deals to place its service on Nokia phones.
Egon Durban, managing director at Silver Lake Partners, said the iPhone application was “a great example of what we feel are the attractive opportunities for the company to develop.”
“This is one of the leading Internet franchises with terrific growth prospects,” Mr. Durban said. He gave no specifics on features Skype might offer, but said it was easy to imagine possibilities. He also said the buyers had no plans for a public offering.
Some of Skype’s newest features may suggest directions for the company. The latest version of its software, released this year, emphasizes face-to-face video chats. Skype now says that 34 percent of calls between Skype users include video, and such chats have become a popular way for people around the world to connect with one another.
In addition to working on allowing outside programmers to weave Skype’s features and infrastructure into their own programs or Web sites, the company is also working on replacing the service’s underlying peer-to-peer technology. That is partly out of legal necessity. The rights to that technology remain with Skype’s founders, Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis, who have sued eBay in a British court over some changes eBay made to it. That case is to go to trial next year.
For eBay, selling Skype — particularly at a valuation higher than many analysts had thought possible — offers partial redemption for a deal that many Internet analysts said was an awkward fit. EBay paid $2.6 billion for Skype, and performance incentives lifted the final price to $3.1 billion.
“The purchase was a serious mistake by Meg Whitman. It was an attempt to buy growth, which investors saw through instantly,” said Jeffrey Lindsay, an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein. The new eBay management found ways for Skype to generate revenue, he said, “and now they sold it at a great price.”
Mr. Donahoe said eBay did not regret having bought Skype when company executives believed eBay was in a mortal struggle with Google, which was also pursuing the service. He said the spinoff would allow eBay to focus on its core e-commerce and online payment businesses and avoid extra distractions.
“We don’t regret having done this at all. We compete in a dynamic market, and you have to move quickly and take risks,” Mr. Donahoe said. “When we bought Skype we thought it had synergies with our other two businesses, and it turns out it did not. But it also turned out that it’s a great stand-alone business.” (source: Bradstone, NYT)
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