There’s a very interesting and meaty feasibility study (warning .pdf link) for a city-wide municipal FTTH proposal in San Francisco. The document is worth reading as an introduction to the methods and difficulties of wiring an urban city with fiber… but I would disagree strongly with the opening paragraph:
San Francisco leads the nation in innovative municipal public service and in private sector technology innovation.
I suppose SFO could be innovative in it’s radical implementation of socialist policy and inefficiency. And I would argue that their neighbor to the south, known as ‘Silicon Valley’ is slightly better known than San Francisco for technology innovation.
Hat tip James Enck
Microsoft Windows is the Tin Man of the computing world. It has no heart.
Continue reading ‘Apple Lust’
We’ve been significant investors in Zarlink (ZL) since this fall and feel it is one of the stronger examples of an undervalued comm-semi asset poised to benefit from an inevitable consolidation in the industry. Followers of this site know this is a key theme for us.
Zarlink CEO Kirk Mandy managed to echo our logic in the Zarlink FQ307 financial results conference call last week.
Continue reading ‘Zarlink CEO on Consolidation’
China recently stepped up efforts to reign in market exuberance. It is illegal for Chinese to buy stocks on margin, though this rule is largely ignored. Beijing has been stepping up enforcement as well as parading negative investors on state run TV.
I guess this is their version of the Fed Chairman addressing congress.
Continue reading ‘Chinese Irrational Exuberance’
Intel (INTC) has nearly completed a complete clawback of server market supremacy with today’s announcement that Sun Microsystems (SUNW) will closely collaborate with Intel. After substantially improving their devices and surpassing the benchmarks set by AMD (AMD), Intel is back in the drivers seat when it comes to high margin server CPUs. This was an outcome I felt was never in doubt.
Continue reading ‘Intel Inside the Sun’
align="right" class="alignright" />
The Bloghaus was a Bellagio suite sponsored by Seagate and outfitted with massive bandwidth connectivity, uber-LCD displays, free beer, and best of all - very interesting people. It was a great place to retreat for good connectivity and companionship amidst the cultural sewer that is Las Vegas. The Bloghaus completely re-invented the concept of the Press Room.
Continue reading ‘The Bloghaus at CES 2007′
One big takeaway from CES 2007 was the emergence of 802.11n Wi-Fi components and equipment. One year ago, such devices were very bleeding edge and not readily adopted due to a lack of confidence in a stable IEEE standard. This year was entirely different with multiple vendors happily embedding devices supporting the standard. I expect that devices that use anything but 802.11n next year will be an anomaly.
Continue reading ‘802.11n is Not About the Speed’
Viewed in the context of last week’s CES, the iPhone’s greatest impact should be felt by incumbents. Why? The iPhone has enlightened consumers to the fact that existing mobile phone interfaces suck. But people are mistaken if they think a $599 iPhone is going to sell 10M units in 2008. It will take a $299 iPhone 2.0 to make this happen.
Continue reading ‘iPhone v2.0 is the Real Weapon’
Attending CES is a great way to meet people willing to enlighten you with another side of an argument. The surprise topic that emerged was HDMI.
Continue reading ‘Silicon Image - Convergence Spoiler’
I lost track of how many companies were showing LCD’s at CES 2007. Lot’s of no name Chinese companies have jumped into the fray, with their only differentiator being price. Sure, Sony (SNE) and others have the highest quality panels, but a large part of the growth in panels will be at the low-end of the pricing range. The result is The LCD Supply Chain gains importance as product is commoditized.
Continue reading ‘Low End LCD Suppliers Evolve’
Anyone walking around the floor of CES 2007 could clearly see that LCD has won, and Plasma Displays are dead. The plasma guys like Panasonic (PC) are fighting a rear guard action to extract returns on their sunk Plasma investment costs. Plasma will will ship fewer incremental panels as demand for large size flat panels explode, and absolute market share for Plasma will plunge. I don’t expect to see any additional investment by manufacturers in Plasma.
Continue reading ‘LCD Killed The Plasma Screen’
My notes from CES are so long that it just doesn’t make sense to put them into a single blog post. Here is a quick snapshot summary.
- LCD has won, Plasma Displays are dead.
- LCD Supply Chain gaining importance as product is commoditized.
- HDMI is everywhere but a war may be brewing.
- 802.11n is now prime time.
- Consumer VoIP is everywhere.
- Mobile Phone User Interfaces Suck Courtesy of the iPhone
- Carriers are taking control of the networking hardware in the home.
- Home networks are becoming complex and difficult to manage.
- Blu-Ray vs. HD-DVD is Stalemated (nothing to write here, what an idiotic battle. Downloading is the ultimate winner anyway)
- Sony OLED Technology is Incredible
- IPTV Choices are Proliferating
- The Bloghaus re-invented the concept of Press Room
There is an excellent interview with Marc Faber on Bloomberg. He takes issue with the concept of using interest rates as a measure of liquidity, and correctly points out that the public is too concerned with interest rates as a measure of liquidity and not concerned enough with credit growth.
Continue reading ‘Marc Faber on Liquidity’
I love it when a plan comes together.
I’m here in Vegas and Microsoft (MSFT) has announced that the Xbox 360 will be morphed into a set-top box, delivering IPTV like functionality. This is something I predicted almost a year ago, based on the fact it made sense and Microsoft appeared to telegraph this.
Continue reading ‘Xbox IPTV Announced at CES’
I had a long conversation with someone who posed this question. I know little about WiMAX but I know people who know great deal, people who have put their money where their mouth is. The question I pose isn’t whether WiMAX is going to be successful, but why is Intel (INTC) pouring so much money into making it a reality?
Continue reading ‘Why Does Intel Care About WiMAX?’
Published
. AAPL, AKAM, AMD, CMCSA, COMS, CSCO, CVC, GOOG, INTC, MSFT, SNE, T, TIVO, VZ.
Prediction is an entertaining activity better suited for stimulating discussion than providing an absolute outlook on the future. Therefore, the bolder and more controversial, the better. Keep that in mind as you read and respond.
Continue reading ‘Nyquist Predictions For 2007′
Contact Me
Latest Comments
RSSAndrew Schmitt, Patrick, Ben, Tony Fisch, Andrew Schmitt [...]
ohad, Ohad, Andrew Schmitt, Taro A, Taro A [...]
Charlie Brown, Frank Coluccio, Iain Verigin, Bill Baker
Craig Easley, michael goldman, Andrew Schmitt, Steve, JC [...]
Andrew Schmitt, Siddharth Sheth, FC, Iain Verigin
Nitin, Nitin, Craig Matsumoto, Kris Tuttle, iain
Ben Felten, Andrew Schmitt, Ben Felten, Frank A. Coluccio, Julian [...]
Fred, alandal, bet, Andrew Schmitt, Jack Horowitz [...]