Apple keeps shining brighter. The Cupertino, CA-based computing, electronics and entertainment giant issued its fiscal Q4 07 earnings report today and the news was stellar across the board.
Revenues jumped 29% year-over-year and 15% sequentially to $6.2 billion, while net income soared by 66% year-over-year and 11% sequentially to $904 million.
Fueling the growth were very strong sales in iPods, aided by Apple's launch of a very attractive line of new iPod models during the quarter. Apple sold 10.2 million iPods during the quarter, up 4% year-over-year and 17% sequentially, Mac sales were particularly strong, with Apple shipping 2.2 million computers during the quarter, a rate 23% higher year-over-year and 34% sequentially.
iPhone sales, still not a big part of Apple's financial performance, were likewise strong, with Apple selling 1.1 million units, bringing the total number of iPhones sold so far to 1.4 million.
All this good news is just a run-up to what no doubt will be a record-breaking holiday sales season for Apple. And to think just about a year ago folks were fretting about where Apple would find growth.
As we rush to get ready for The New Video Summit next Monday in Boston, I'm putting the finishing touches on a gargantuan document that all Summit-goers will get in downloadable PDF format: a directory of top/noteworthy Internet and mobile video noteworthies. (We've got big plans, however, for an interactive web-based database...more on that later.)
This directory provides descriptions, URLs and complete contact information for 222 sites, services, technologies and companies that are smack in the middle of the web and mobile video revolutions. I've pasted a table of the directory entries below, although I don't have space enough to explain this interesting mix.
And it is a mix of different types of video options, ranging from YouTube to Zvue, from video sharing sites to traditional TV shows on the web.
But Internet and mobile video are moving targets and the boundaries are blurring all the time. Does a website that shows a lot of Brightcove-published videos belong on this list? Beats me. Internet video is already becoming almost as ubiquitous as graphical images, so in a sense practically every web site, every company is an Internet video-related business.
Yet there's no denying that a certain group of companies and a number of web-based video services are influential enough, or historically important enough, to be considered "noteworthies" for our directory. Notably not included, for the most part, are a lot of pure tech providers or network operators or entertainment production houses. We're saving those guys for later...
Am I missing anybody? Drop me a line at cynthia at emediadynamics.com or cynthia at ipdemocracy.com to let me know who else should go in this directory.
For those of you who haven't seen it today, the normally mild-mannered and gadget-oriented Walt Mossberg has this piece that rails against the U.S. mobile phone system and how wireless carriers restrict the kind of mobile devices and applications that consumers can use.
Here's a sample paragraph of Walt's screed:
A shortsighted and often just plain stupid federal government has allowed itself to be bullied and fooled by a handful of big wireless phone operators for decades now. And the result has been a mobile phone system that is the direct opposite of the PC model. It severely limits consumer choice, stifles innovation, crushes entrepreneurship, and has made the U.S. the laughingstock of the mobile-technology world, just as the cellphone is morphing into a powerful hand-held computer.
He even goes so far as to call the big wireless carriers (AT&T, Verizon Wireless, T-Mobile, Sprint) "the Soviet Ministries."
Like the old bureaucracies of communism, they sit athwart the market, breaking the link between the producers of goods and services and the people who use them. To some extent, they try to replace the market system, and, like the real Soviet ministries, they are a lousy substitute. They decide what phones can be used on their networks and what software and services can be offered on those phones.
In short, Mossberg is mad about how stupid the U.S. is when it comes to cell phones. The surprising spleen that Walt vents even prompted Mathew Ingram to welcome the influential WSJ columnist to the blogosphere because the piece really does read more like something written by a particularly riled blogger than the usually straightforward consumer tech reviewer.
This outburst will surely play into the hands of Google and others who pushed the FCC into incorporating open access provisions in the upcoming 700 MHz auctions (which Verizon is now seeking to invalidate). After all, if the current state of the U.S. cell phone industry makes Mossberg mad as hell, the feds are playing with fire if they don't force mobile carriers to open up.
Posted by Cynthia Brumfield at 1:14 PM | Print | Comments (0)
In a move that solidifies the sometimes elusive link between social networking and the TV business that News Corp. sought when it purchased MySpace, MySpaceTV unveiled yesterday its first original web video series called "Roommates."
The 3-minute episodes follow four young women in their 20s who have moved to Los Angeles following college graduation, a show that hits the MTV/VH1 reality show demographic. A new episode will play each day until December 21.
Of course it comes complete with the ability to post comments on the characters MySpace profiles as well as audience polling, which will help develop the "plot." Ford Motors is sponsoring the series and viewers can purchase soundtracks from the show for $.99/each.
Posted by Cynthia Brumfield at 9:45 AM | Print | Comments (0)Internet video site ManiaTV is relaunching today with a new focus on professionally produced video content. The company has decided to jettison 3,000 channels of user-generated content for good reason: it doesn't make money.
ManiaTV says that 80% of its visitors watched only professionally produced content and that advertisers "wanted to distance themselves as far as they possibly could from the user-generated content," according to CEO Peter Hoskins. Great quote from Hoskins that summarizes ManiaTV's decision to jettison all the cat videos and dorm-room documentaries:
The user-generated world was dumpster diving for gold, and we didn't find any gold in the dumpster.
ManiaTV is going to produce content itself using pros and will launch a studio to supply content.
Is this the beginning of the long-awaited shake-out of companies that had staked their business models on making money off of user-contributed videos? Even YouTube, the vast reservoir of user-generated content (Hoskins tells former ManiaTV contributors to head on over to the Google-owned site if they want to post their crap...actually what he says is "We would love for them to go to YouTube and have great success there"), is counting mostly on professional videos for its in-video ad revenues.
Posted by Cynthia Brumfield at 8:59 AM | Print | Comments (1)
Two Bush administration cabinet members, Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt and Homeland Security head Michael Chertoff have joined the blogosphere. Although many government agencies have started blogs, Leavitt and Chertoff are the first cabinet members to pen their entries themselves.
Chertoff states in the Homeland Security blog (called "Leadership Journal") that
I've started this journal to open a dialogue with the American people about our nation's security. I would like to hear your thoughts about the steps we're taking to keep the nation safe. This way, we can learn more about concerns you have within your states and communities. And I want to hear fresh ideas and even constructive criticism about our Department.
To its credit, Homeland Security does accept some constructive criticism in the form of comments, but clearly deletes some comments that violate its comments policy (no personal attacks, vulgar language, racial slurs). Interestingly, the blog notifies readers when a comment has been deleted with the following statement: "Comment deleted. This post has been removed by the blog administrator."
Otherwise, Chertoff's is not much of a surprise, reiterating and amplifying the Administration's positions on various matters related to homeland security.
Leavitt's blog, on the other hand, is a delightful and colorful personal journal of the obviously passionate cabinet member's travels, events, thoughts, feelings and, of course, policy positions. Although Leavitt predicted when he started his foray into "blogdom" that most of his posts would be a few paragraphs long, most are at least 500 to 800 words and one post, about a trip Leavitt made to an African orphanage written on August 20, ran 2,444 words.
Leavitt doesn't hold back on expressing emotions or injecting personal asides either. In one post, about visiting locations where genocide occurs, he writes "These are dark places that left my spirit sober and cold."
In his most recent post about attending the Bill and Melinda Gates Malaria Forum, he adds color by trying to describe the couple's famous home.
Yes, their home is spectacular. Unfortunately, I am not good with remembering decorating details. I routinely fail in satisfying my wife's requests for specifics on design, fabrics and art. I do remember the trampoline room and original documents of Napoleon in the library.
It's doubtful that either Chertoff or Leavitt will ever go "off script" with their blogs, but the fact that government officials at this level are personally blogging (as opposed to leaving blogs to PR staff) can only be good for government, the public and historians.
Hat tip to Steve Rubel.
Posted by Cynthia Brumfield at 7:04 AM | Print | Comments (0)
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