cancersurgeries.net

Carr, in a guest column for BusinessWeek Online, wrote that he worried Dell didn’t understand how the computer market and consumer tastes where changing. (Full disclosure: I was the editor on that column, but Carr’s spotless writing made my job pretty easy.) In fact, he found then-CEO Kevin Rollins’ dismissal of the
iPod as a “fad” and a “one-product wonder” troubling. Carr found a nice way of saying, “Are you kidding me?”

Is Dell the Ford of computers?

Carr nailed Dell on this. For people who want to understand how the computer industry works (and how in many ways it’s not all that different from other industries), the column he wrote for BusinessWeek should be required reading. Carr compared Dell’s run in the 1990s to Ford’s early success in the auto industry. Like Ford with its Model T, Dell stuck with its bland box strategy for too long. Carr wrote:

(Credit:
Dell)

Ford was slow to respond to the rise of the mass-class market for cars. Finally, however, it took action. On May 25, 1927, Ford announced it was discontinuing the Model T and would close down its main factory in order to revamp it for a new line of more attractive models. But the carmaker’s glory days were over. It would never again come close to dominating the market the way it had just a few years before.

Like Dell with PCs, Ford Motor came to dominate the
car market a century ago by turning the automobile into a cheap, mass-market product. Other manufacturers couldn’t compete with Ford’s extraordinarily efficient operations. By the early ’20s, sales of Ford’s drab but well-built Model T surpassed those of all other U.S. automakers combined.

Correction, 1:20 p.m. PDT: This blog initially had an incorrect first name for the former CEO of Dell. He is Kevin Rollins.

The 1990s were for the computer industry what the 1920s were for the automotive industry. One size fits all is long gone. Consumers are going mobile and making statements about who they are with the computers they buy. The question now is whether Dell & Co. can find a way to prevent history from repeating.

Tech pundit Nicholas Carr predicted Dell’s current predicament more than three years ago.

But Dell’s issues go a lot deeper than managing expenses, and adding a line of nicely colored laptops and a new ad agency, as Dell has done, won’t make them go away. In short, Dell just isn’t cool anymore, and it probably never was.

Spin forward three years to the onslaught of bad Dell news: Rollins is long gone, and Michael Dell is back in the corner office, trying to get his company back on track. Dell announced Thursday that layoffs are likely to go deeper than the 8,800 already announced. It has lost the biggest computer maker mantel to Hewlett-Packard (CNET blogger Don Reisinger has a nice take on Dell’s market share issues), and the stink of the subprime loan mess could even rub off on the Round Rock, Texas, company.

Then the market changed. As consumers began to take cars’ basic functions for granted, they started seeking a little pizzazz in their vehicles. An unadorned black roadster was no longer enough–everyone suddenly wanted a stylish set of wheels. Niches proliferated. Fashion mattered.

Ford was out-innovated by General Motors, which understood consumers wanted style, taste, something that represented who they are. That’s something Apple has always understood about its customers. Even HP got a handle on this several years ago. By 1926, GM’s Chevrolet was taking market share away from Ford. By 1927, Chevys were outselling the Model T. Carr continued:

Ford’s fall stands as a cautionary tale for all companies that have thrived by riding the commoditization wave of a new consumer product. If Dell wants to continue to rule in the home as well as the workplace, it may need to class up its act. Rather than dismissing fads, Rollins should try starting a few.

The government is planning drastic measures. I hope for the sake of the athletes, visitors, and Beijing residents that they have clear, clean skies. But let’s not kid ourselves: the pollution problem in Beijing is not going to go away any time soon. Cleaning up for two weeks may be a nice show, but the city really needs drastic measures. My favorite option: even bigger car taxes than exist now, and get that subway going.

This does not mean that the air will not get cleaner this month. Large numbers of personal vehicles, as well as cargo trucks that do not have Beijing license plates, will be taken off the roads in efforts to reduce
car pollution. Additionally, the hyperactive construction with huge numbers of buildings scheduled for completion or undergoing rushed renovation before the Games will stop completely late this month when a citywide construction freeze goes into effect.

Despite advertised measures to decrease pollution, as the one-month countdown to the Beijing Olympics approaches, the government’s numbers rank Beijing as having the dirtiest air in China.

With a rating of 98, officially a “blue sky day” but only by two points, Beijing yesterday had the dirtiest air among monitored cities according to the Chinese government Web site that releases daily pollution figures.

Only four other cities, including the capitals of Sichuan, Qinghai, and Liaoning Provinces, ranked above 90 on the scale.

Plasma shipments are on the rise everywhere, but they are particularly healthy in China, where they rose 285 percent in the last year.

“Sony and Samsung launched what we termed ‘fighter models,’ because they were designed to reach new pricing lows,” said Paul Gagnon, who monitors the TV industry for DisplaySearch. Vizio’s smaller plasma was specifically launched “to blunt the impact” of Samsung’s and Sony’s moves into smaller-and-cheaper sets, he added.

The result has been a resurgent plasma TV business. DisplaySearch is reporting that shipments of plasma worldwide increased 52 percent from the same quarter a year ago, or 3.4 million units. That’s way behind LCD TV shipments, but it’s encouraging for a technology that many of the biggest vendors had basically left for dead.

But it doesn’t appear there are going to be bold moves on the part of plasma to steal some more share and get ahead. For all the brands, said Gagnon, “it’s all about maintaining price differential.”

(Credit:
LG Electronics)

Still, the news is encouraging to an industry that was wringing its hands back in March over running out of places to sell its rapidly maturing, but still-pricey sets.

Sony and Samsung tend to set the pace on price reductions, and Gagnon of DisplaySearch says the other brands will all react in order to maintain their brand position in the market. If Samsung drops its 42-inch LCD $100 in the coming weeks, expect Panasonic to do the same on its 42-inch plasma.

It appears the TV industry’s self-prescribed medicine of pushing smaller flat-panel sets is working.

To be sure, LCD TVs are still the new television of choice for most. LCD shipments jumped 47 percent in the last year to reach 23.7 million units (compared to plasma’s 3.4 million units) in the second quarter worldwide, DisplaySearch says.

Vizio’s 32-inch plasma sells in club stores for about $550, while Samsung and Sony’s 32-inch LCDs each retail for $699, the lowest price each has ever offered for that size TV.

Despite LCD’s established presence in many North American living rooms, it appears that the introduction of smaller sizes and lower prices are helping retailers to move plenty of product. Last year, LCD shipments to the region were dropping. But second-quarter shipments increased almost 30 percent from a year ago.

And LCD prices have still been dropping more quickly than plasma. With major shopping opportunities like Labor Day, the beginning of football season, and Black Friday fast approaching, plasma’s recovery could be brief.

The second-quarter check-up is in, and the industry is in far better health than a year ago. DisplaySearch’s Quarterly Global TV Shipment and Forecast Report was released Thursday, and worldwide TV shipments increased 11 percent from the same period in 2007, but just 3 percent from first quarter of 2008.

Around that same time, some of the bigger tier-one manufacturers began pushing smaller screens in an attempt to attract buyers who might be tightening their budgets as gas and food prices rose.

Vizio made a splash with its 32-inch plasma, a size that hasn’t been available in that technology in the U.S. for a while. Even the big guys like Panasonic, LG, and Sony and Samsung were going small: 32, 40, 46 inches.

commentary

While kudos are in order for Novell UK and Sirius, the greater importance is the precedent it sets for open source, generally. If this helps to open up the UK to open source, what with its massive amounts of IT waste on proprietary technology and its traditional affection for Microsoft, then this is just a first step toward an open, successful future.

As The Inquirer reports, two open-source companies, Novell UK and Sirius, have been granted access to the UK’s ?80 million ($149 million) Software for Educational Institutions Framework, which enables them to supply software to the UK public sector. There may be additional open-source vendors chosen but the official list won’t be released until Wednesday, September 24.

The UK’s procurement frameworks, a fast-track process for public sector purchasers, handled ?4.4bn of business in the year to April 2008. They are not meant to prevent companies not on the lists from selling to the public sector but, said (Mark) Taylor (CEO of Sirius), this had not been the experience of the Open Source community.

“Schools would say, ‘we want this stuff, it doesn’t cost us anything and its really good’,” said Taylor. “The LA would say, ‘well the software’s not on the list, there isn’t a supplier who can supply it on the list, so you’re on your own with that.”

Open source has long been the ugly stepchild of UK government information technology, but in a recent turn of events, it may finally be gaining ground with the British.

In other words, it’s a bit like getting on a General Services Administration schedule in order to sell to the U.S. federal government. There are ways around it, but working with the GSA makes it so much easier.

How important is this selection? Very.

Easy file sharing. iDisk now makes it even easier to share files that are too big to email. Simply select a file in the iDisk web app and click the Share File button to generate an email with a download link. You can also optionally add password protection and set an expiration date for the link. For more details, view this tutorial.

Faster syncing with Mac and PC. Changes you make to contacts and calendars on your Mac (Address Book and iCal) or PC (Microsoft Outlook) are now automatically pushed up to the cloud every time you make an update. Likewise, changes you make on me.com, iPhone, or iPod touch are automatically pushed to your Mac or PC. As a result, your contacts and calendars update faster across all your devices. To take advantage of faster syncing, be sure you’re running Mac OS X Leopard 10.5.6 (Mac) or MobileMe Control Panel 1.3 (Windows).

In order for all of this to work properly, you must be using Mac OS X Leopard 10.5.6 or the MobileMe PC Control Panel 1.3. The iPhone or iPod Touch must have firmware 2.2 or later.

“Dear MobileMe member:

Now that push is in business again, syncing with Macs or PCs is faster. Any updates that you make to contacts or calendars on your
Mac in iCal or Addressbook, or on your PC using Microsoft Outlook are automatically and rather quickly pushed to the cloud. Conversely, any updates made to MobileMe data at me.com, or on an iPhone or iPod Touch is pushed back your Mac or PC. Finally, all your contacts and calendars will update across your devices much faster than previously.

Read Apple’s letter to MobileMe subscribers below and note the additional information about file-sharing using iDisk, which was previously announced a few weeks ago.

Over the past few months, we have been working hard to make MobileMe the best service it can be. Here is a summary of the improvements and performance enhancements that have recently been completed.

Better web app performance. We have also improved the overall performance of the web apps at me.com including faster start time in Calendar and searching in Contacts. For more details, see this support article.”

Push was part of the initially tragic launch of MobileMe in 2008–a launch so poorly implemented that the word “push” was removed from descriptions of MobileMe until synchronization between computers and mobile devices (i.e.
iPhone and
iPod Touch) would perform at an acceptable level.

Apple distributed an e-mail recently to MobileMe subscribers that detailed some improved features, but the biggest news from that e-mail was the fact that push is back.

Improved notifications and sync on iPhone. Reliability of new email notifications and syncing of contacts and calendar with MobileMe have both been improved. To get the best MobileMe experience on your iPhone or iPod touch, you should be running iPhone Software 2.2 or later.

Hoshino, the drive’s creator, is being really literal about it, as you can see, actually making the drive look like an ear of corn. Cute.

(Credit:
Gearlog)

That’s what happens when you go to any press conference or industry conference these days. Vendors and public relations agencies, trying to be environmentally conscious, are putting press releases and product images on USB keys instead of paper.

It’s a great idea until those USB sticks start to pile up. As of now I’ve got 23 on my desk, and that’s even considering I give them away as often as I can. Still, eventually these will end up in the garbage.

I don’t really care what it looks like, something like this is very welcome. As evidence I offer a picture of my desk, below.

(Credit:
Josh Lowensohn/CNET Networks)

Luckily there are other companies thinking along these same lines. Some PC makers have already started incorporating biodegradable plastics. Fujitsu makes a notebook that’s half corn-based materials, and half regular plastics.

A Hong Kong company says it’s come up with a biodegradable USB drive. It’s made out of fermented corn material, something called polylactide, which will actually break down in a way that doesn’t harm whatever landfill it ends up in.

(Via Gearlog)

OK, seriously, why hasn’t someone thought of this before?

It’s always tough to correctly interpret translations, but check out the report from La Repubblica and read it for yourself. In short, the report claims that Apple is getting ready to launch a 3G iPhone in Italy with Telecom Italy, and that the carrier will not have to pay Apple a share of the data revenue earned from iPhone users, nor will it have an ongoing exclusive. As a result, the iPhone will be more expensive there than in other countries.

A report out of Italy Monday suggests that Apple is planning to revamp its business model with the launch of the
iPhone in that country.

The Italian iPhone might be more expensive if Telecom Italy doesn't have to share data revenue with Apple.

Telecom Italy’s supposed agreement with Apple is not exclusive per se, but the carrier will have an “advantage” of several months over its competitors, according to the report. I wonder if several such agreements are being readied ahead of the expected launch of the 3G iPhone in June.

It’s long been thought, however, that at some point Apple would have to open up the iPhone to other carriers to increase the size of the official market for the device. After all, tons of iPhones are already being used unofficially across the world, with more than 400,000 in China alone. In February, Apple COO Tim Cook suggested the company was open to cutting iPhone deals with more than one carrier per country.

So far, Apple has cut exclusive deals with four carriers to sell the iPhone: AT&T in the U.S., O2 in the U.K, T-Mobile in Germany, and Orange in France. In exchange for their exclusive right to distribute the iPhone, those carriers give Apple a share of their data revenues earned over the life of the contract, believed to be around $18 a month per user in AT&T’s case.

(Credit:
CNET Networks)

Speed matters, and getting top speeds on Windows may require using native Windows libraries, graciously offered by Microsoft back in 2004 as open source.

Hanselman calls out the reason for WTL’s inclusion:

commentary

However, not everything came free of charge (and effort) from Microsoft, as Hanselman points out, and it appears from a recent PCWorld article by Neil McAllister that the effort to bring Chrome to the
Mac and Linux will be even harder. Hanselman writes:

Chrome uses abstraction libraries to draw the GUI on other non-Windows platforms, but for now, what sits underneath part of ChromeViews is good ol’ WTL. Makes sense, too. Why not use a native library to get native speeds? They are using WTL 8.0 build 7161 from what I can see.

Looks like The Chromium authors may have disassembled part of the Windows Kernel in order to achieve this security feature [Data Execution Protection] under Windows XP SP2. Probably not cool to do that, but they’re clearly doing it for good and not evil, as their intent (from reading their code) is to make their browser safer under XP SP2 and prevent unwanted code execution.

All of which means that while Microsoft’s open-source efforts may ensure it will take first place in the Chrome bake-off, Google is forcing the early adopters to stick with
Firefox, rather than experiment with Chrome. The trendsetting crowd is with the Mac and, to a lesser but still significant extent, Linux, not Windows. (Of course, some data doesn’t support this contention.)

In a fascinating post, Scott Hanselman pulls apart the Google Chrome browser to discover Windows inside or, rather, Windows Template Library (WTL). WTL was open sourced by Microsoft back in 2004 and went somewhat silent until now, when it popped up in Google’s open-source browser.

So the Chrome authors have had to cut some corners to make the browser secure on Windows. Microsoft may not like the approach, but as Hanselman notes, at least Google is doing it for benevolent purposes.

Fine. But what I really want to see is Chrome for the Mac (and Linux). For this, however, PCWorld’s McAllister suggests that we “shouldn’t hold our breath,” as the “Mac build is a work in progress that is much closer to the start than the finish.” In part, this is because Google needs to code around Windows platform-specific elements like WTL.

It might make sense to aim for the mainstream (i.e., corporate IT, which would get the most benefit from an JavaScript-optimized Web browser), but the mainstream isn’t in the habit of trying out the latest and greatest.

Personally, I think Google needs the entrepreneurial CIO and CTO if it hopes to make Chrome stick. That crowd, however, is likely not a Windows crowd. Time will tell if this was a strategic error on Google’s part.

Find more deals, coupon codes, and bargains on CNET’s Shopper.com.

Update at 8:35 a.m. PDT: Alas, the player is no longer available at that price, and the sideline deal on the Samsung BDP-1500 Blu-ray player (posted earlier) appears to have disappeared from RadioShack’s site.

Because it’s a refurb, it comes with only a 30-day warranty (but at least it’s from the manufacturer). Plus, CNET had a fairly lengthy list of complaints about the player, though I don’t consider any of them deal-breakers. (You can read my own review of the BD-HP20U over at Wired’s Gadget Lab.) This is by far the lowest price I’ve seen on a Blu-ray player, so if you’re in the market, act fast.

Online clearinghouse Second Act has refurbished Sharp BD-HP20U Blu-ray players for $169.99. Ground shipping will run you about $15. According to the product page, this deal ended Sunday, so I don’t know how much longer it’ll be available.

We spend a few minutes debating the impact of Carl Icahn joining the Yahoo board and what it means for Jerry Yang’s future. Larry thinks that Yang bought himself more time to turn things around. If so, he will need to speed up delivery on the Yahoo Open Strategy and build a social layer into Yahoo’s collection of services.

Finally, we discuss the impact of Facebook Connect, which will let users access and feed their Facebook profiles and friends on any Web site. It’s Facebook’s way of extending its platform to embrace other services and get more data and pages flowing through its social portal.

On this week’s EIC Squared podcast, ZDNet Editor in Chief Larry Dignan and I discuss the news of the week. It was a big week for Microsoft, with several announcements and teases from its meeting in Seattle with financial analysts. Steve Ballmer is still bullish on the online space, but not on Yahoo. We also talk about Kevin Johnson’s departure from Microsoft. (See coverage on the Microsoft financial analyst meeting from Ina Fried and Mary Jo Foley.)