“Google Losing up to $1.65M a Day on YouTube” and other links…
David Silversmith: “All the numbers are well below the estimated maximum of $753 million Google is spending annually, based on our calculations. So, depending on whose version of revenues you accept, Google is losing anywhere from $513 million to $663 million annually on YouTube, or anywhere from $1.4 million to as much as $1.65 million every day…” This sounds like “bad business” unless Google can prove to investors that they are losing money in order to destroy competitors and potential competitors…
“Silverlight strikes out with MLB”
ZDNet: “First, baseball wanted Microsoft to make it possible for users to download Silverlight without having to possess administrative rights. When people are at work, it's often the company that possesses those rights and employees would need authorization to download the player. That frustrated plenty of MLB.com subscribers, according to the sources. …The other major issue was that baseball considered Silverlight too unstable. There were some high-profile glitches, including last year’s opening day, which saw many MLB.com subscribers struggling to log in and others who were unable to watch games. The malfunctions lasted several days. The rift between Microsoft and MLBAM began to grow and hasn’t stopped, said the sources, adding that lawyers for each side are still arguing over Microsoft’s responsibility.” This “other major issue” sounds like a bunch of bullshit—what the hell does Silverlight media playing have to do with not being able to log in? The first issue is legitimate one… no one could possibly be intoxicated with pride over the Silverlight install experience.
“No More OpenMoko Phone”
Slashdot: “OpenMoko had high intentions: the offspring from Taiwanese electronic manufacturer First International Computer (FIC) wanted to produce an Open Source smartphone. Not only with Open Source software pre-installed, but with free drivers and open specifications of the hardware components. This would give programmers as well as users complete freedom. Up to now the manufacturer has produced two models, the first has sold 3,000 units and the second one 10,000. Both models were targeted primarily to developers. From the beginning, OpenMoko had to fight with different problems. The smartphones came onto the market after a huge delay. Some phones came with construction defects.” Traditional corporate interests that are satisfied with increasingly dependent consumers not losing any sleep over this loss. I’m not quite sure that the OpenMoko would be considered Open hardware anyway…
Comments
ed, 2009-04-22 16:48:28
The OpenMoko discussion on Slashdot is pure utter BS. I rarely found a mobile phone that was not highly flawed in the design or programming. The problems they suggested about OpenMoko can be made against many closed source phones.
It is more than obvious what is really going on - the mobile carriers make profits trying to push new shiny phones to their customers every 24 months. In a sense, if a phone is launched with flaws, we never saw real updates or patches and instead was sold up to a newer model with a new plan.
It was never meant to be to have a reliable mobile phone so the complaints about OpenMoko is at best incredible.