Skype 3G iPhone: 5M Downloads — But What’s the Usage? http://bit.ly/aZbdrV
Skype says that less than a week after it was made available, nearly 5 million people have downloaded the 3G version of its iPhone app, with the demand distributed across Europe, North America and the Asia-Pacific region. I was among them, even though I don’t have a 3G connection, and I’m pretty sure many others without 3G connections did the same. But how many people are actively using the service? Now that’s an important question, and one Reuters forgot to ask.
The company recently told me that the Skype app had been downloaded a total of 12 million times by owners of the iPhone and iPod touch. And while it plans to charge for 3G calls between Skype users starting next year, “We’re not going to want to price ourselves out of the market,” Russ Shaw, Skype’s VP of mobile, told Reuters. “I can’t ignore the fact that consumers (currently) use us for free.”
I wonder if, between AT&T’s new data tariffs and Skype’s charges, there will really be a cost advantage to using Skype. Regardless, we can expect to see its usage climb starting next week, when Apple introduces the newest version of the iPhone with multitasking features. Many people are likely to leave Skype running in the background, especially for IM and Skype-to-Skype call purposes.
Apple’s UK team are assembling a UK-specific “iPad-ready” website as part of the company’s push in support of HTML5.
The site is accessible via Apple’s UK website address equivalent, and is clearly not yet ready for prime-time, fielding place-holder text instead of site specific descriptions, however it underlines the importance of Apple’s attempt.
The site includes BBC iPlayer, The Times and The Sunday Times, Reuters and Livestation with an invitation to submit other sites to the Apple team.
This revelation follows Apple’s move to celebrate HTML5 with a new sample site last night.
Thanks to a reader for this tip.
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Private equity-backed retailer Toys R Us is likely to file for an initial public offering imminently, a source familiar with the situation said on Thursday.
An IPO by the toy retailer has been long expected, and sources told Reuters last month that the retailer was being considered for an IPO.
Toys R Us was bought by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co (KKR.AS), Bain Capital and Vornado Realty Trust (VNO.N) in 2005 for $6.6 billion.
A filing could be as early as tonight, the source said, adding that was not certain and things could change.
A separate source familiar with the situation said the size of the IPO could be around $1 billion.
The window for private equity exits reopened late last year after a long drought during the financial crisis, but the rocky markets over the past month have hurt companies’ plans to list.
Among the private equity-backed companies that have been taken public are KKR’s discount shopping chain Dollar General (DG.N), which floated in November.
Hospital operator HCA Inc, backed by Bain and KKR, earlier this month filed for an IPO of up to $4.6 billion, the biggest buyout-backed offering since the financial crisis began nearly three years ago.
Other IPOs are waiting in the wings, such as Nielsen, the world’s largest TV and consumer measurement company, which is owned by a consortium including Carlyle [CYL.UL], Blackstone Group (BX.N), a source has told Reuters.
Earlier this year, Toys R Us posted higher fourth-quarter earnings as strong toy sales offset weak demand for video games in the holiday shopping season.
Toys R Us was not immediately available for comment. Bain and KKR declined comment. Vornado was not immediately available for comment. (Reporting by Megan Davies; Editing by Steve Orlofsky and Lincoln Feast)
Rumors that their stock symbol was to be a backwards "R" have been debunked.
- Louis GrayToys R Us Files for $800 Million IPO
- Louis GrayRumors that their stock symbol was to be a backwards "R" have been debunked.
- Louis GrayROFL they aren't public?
- Alex Scoble
In a blog article on May 13, I wrote that Reuters had reported that Target "is also set to offer Amazon.com Inc's Kindle in all of its stores on June 6, the lone bricks-and-mortar retailer to offer the top-selling product in the growing electronic-reader market."'The Kindle will go on sale in Target’s 1,740 U.S. outlets on June 6, said Joshua Thomas, a spokesman for the chain. The move expands a pilot program that Amazon.com, the largest online retailer, started last month in 103 Target stores.
. . .
“We’re currently the exclusive bricks-and-mortar retailer for this popular e-reader which practically flew off the shelves during our 100-store test,” Kathryn Tesija, Target’s executive vice president for merchandising, said last week on the call.
. . .
The Kindle sells for $259 and isn’t available in other stores. The device will be displayed prominently at the front of aisles in the electronics section [and] will be available for customers to handle, Thomas said. '
Kindle to be in ALL Target stores June 6 - CONFIRMED
- Rob Diana
Nokia sells just 100,000 N900s after first five months: so? originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 28 May 2010 05:37:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Really? Comparing it to the Nexus One, which was also widely considered unsuccessful for Android? And on top of that the comparison showing that the N1 sold non-trivially more units in 74 days than the N900 sold in 5 months? I'd say that yes, that's a problem for Nokia.
- felixThomson Reuters sees revenue growth by second half of 2010 amid product launches *AKA WestlawNext!! - http://bit.ly/bm5wNl
[Direct Link]Reading - Pressure mounts on BP as Obama eyes next steps (@Reuters) http://bit.ly/ck7ZrW
[Direct Link]Jim Finkle, reporting for Reuters:
Ellison says he learned that Sun’s pony-tailed chief executive, Jonathan Schwartz, ignored problems as they escalated, made poor strategic decisions and spent too much time working on his blog, which Sun translated into 11 languages.
“The underlying engineering teams are so good, but the direction they got was so astonishingly bad that even they couldn’t succeed,” said Ellison. “Really great blogs do not take the place of great microprocessors. Great blogs do not replace great software. Lots and lots of blogs does not replace lots and lots of sales.”
Heh.
- felix"The United States posted an $82.69 billion deficit in April, nearly four times the $20.91 billion shortfall registered in April 2009 and the largest on record for that month, the Treasury Department said on Wednesday."
- Jason HuebelAlso FTA: "Department officials said that in prior years, there was a surplus during April in 43 out of the past 56 years."
- Jason Huebel:) RT @jhaynie: RT @reuters: Google's Android takes No 2 spot from iPhone in US http://bit.ly/cqzrGg #android #iphone #google
[Direct Link]"Scientists have found out how some fat cells are turned into calorie-burning brown fat known as brown adipose tissue rather than into the white fat associated with obesity.
The discovery may help researchers develop ways to fight the obesity epidemic that is sucking up health budgets and resources in rich nations and quickly spreading to the developing world.
Stephan Herzig of the German Cancer Research Center in Heidelberg, who led the study, said scientists could now try using stem cells to generate brown fat cells in a lab dish to then implant them into the body and help speed up calorie burn.
"Now that we know some of the signals that are required to generate brown cells, we have the tools to put everything together and try it out," he said in a telephone interview. "
- RAPatton"Experimenting on mice in the lab, Herzig and a team of scientists in Germany and Switzerland found that an enzyme called COX-2 triggers development of fat cells to become brown fat, instead of white fat.
White adipose tissue hoards fat by using our bodies -- particularly our bellies and thighs -- as a large storage unit, while brown adipose tissue is a sparse form of fat that helps keep newborns warm and helps adults burn calories.
Once activated by cold temperatures, brown fat burns calories faster than regular fat.
The researchers, whose study was published in the journal Science on Thursday, also found that mice who were genetically engineered to produce high levels of COX-2 burned energy faster and were protected from obesity.
Scientists estimate that as little as 50 grams of brown adipose tissue in a normal adult human would be enough to increase energy consumption by 20 percent."
- RAPatton"COX-2 is critical for the production of prostaglandins -- hormone-like substances that play a role in a wide range of functions essential to a healthy body, including regulation of the immune system.
Painkilling drugs called COX inhibitors like aspirin and ibuprofen block COX enzymes. But Herzig said this doesn't mean that taking these drugs makes you fat, since the COX-2 function needed for brown fat to burn calories operates differently."
- RAPattonThe four-story structure, the best short-term hope of controlling the spewing crude, was lowered to the seabed almost one mile below the surface in an attempt to funnel the escaping oil to a surface tanker. ...under pressure from the Obama administration to limit the damage from what could be the worst oil spill in U.S. history. BP has said it will pay all legitimate costs, a bill that is likely to run into the billions of dollars.
- Mitchell Tsai
Given the state of the startups, getting acquired by one of the web giants is viewed a preferred way to cash-in on one’s labors. And there is no one with a bigger wallet than Mountain View, Calif.-based search giant, Google. And it seems the company is looking to open its wallet even wider and that is good news for web startups.
In its latest 10-Q filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, Google said that during the first three months of 2010, the company bought nine companies for a total of $145 million. The nine would include Docverse and Aardvark. In addition to these nine companies, Google paid $123 million in stock and cash for On2 Technologies and is still waiting approval for its $750 million offer for mobile ad-network, AdMob. But that’s old news. What should matter to start-ups is this bit buried deep inside the 10-Q:
We expect to increase the number of acquisitions we make in the remainder of 2010 compared to 2009. These acquisitions generally enhance the breadth and depth of our expertise in engineering and other functional areas, our technologies, and our product offerings.
This is in keeping with what Google CEO Eric Schmidt said in late September 2009: company will buy at least one company a month.
“Acquisitions are turned on again at Google and we are doing our normal maneuvers, which is small companies…My estimate would be one-a-month acquisitions and these are largely in lieu of hiring,” he said. “There may be larger acquisitions, but they really are unpredictable.” [Reuters]
Now what are the kind of start-ups would Google be interested in? I would narrow the focus down to two — Mobile and Social. The company has made it abundantly clear that its mobile ecosystem are Google’s next big opportunity. For instance, its acquisitions of Toronto-based Bumptop that was announced over the weekend, Israeli games company LabPixies and mobile app maker Plink. Similarly, Google would do whatever it takes to keep enhancing the Android platform.
Whether it is mobile location or some other core mobile technology, if it makes Android better than Apple, Google is going to find a way to buy it. If I was a betting man, I would say Google would spend lavishly on startups and technologies that help establish the Google payment platform and bolster the feeble Google Checkout efforts.
Social is where I expect Google to spend a lot of its acquisition energy. As Facebook starts to increase its social dominance over the web, Google is going to respond by buying what it can’t build. Innovative social services, especially with an infrastructure twist will be likely candidates for Google.
Now play Google and share your likely acquisition candidates with rest of us.
Photo: Eric Schmidt at the Annual Meeting 2007 of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, January 26, 2007. Copyright World Economic Forum. Photo by Severin Nowacki via Flickr / CC BY-SA 2.0.
For Startups, Some Good News From Google
- Rob DianaGuzzle Turns Out 2.0 http://bit.ly/a9IUXz
Paris-based Lemonchik has announced Version 2.0 of their topic-by-topic aggregator, Guzzle. Do you...dig?
Guzzle's new backend, Nibble, has been rewritten from scratch. Nibble receives PubSubHubbub notifications and every story is automatically processed with Reuters Calais technology, adding rich semantic encoding information. There's also a new user interface, categories and archives and a magazine-like "extended view."
Sponsor
To set up a Guzzle page you search terms and the service searches down rich content, tearing out spam by the roots and never even stopping to say its sorry.
"Guzzle constantly monitors hundreds of feeds. Each new article is carefully inspected, analysed. The language it has been written in is detected, and important keywords, places, companies and people's name are extracted and indexed."
If you're like me, you looked at a thing called Guzzle by an outfit called Lemonchik from a place like Paris and you expected cocktails. A sidecar, perhaps, in a space-age bachelor pad set in an alley off the place de la Bastille.
Well, who said life was fair?
Discuss
