Wal-Mart (NYSE:WMT) has agreed to acquire over-the-top (OTT) content provider Vudu, according to a New York Times report today. Terms of the acquisition weren’t released, but the companies reportedly informed Vudu’s Hollywood studios and TV manufacturers of the deal today. The acquisition could make Wal-Mart, already a leader in DVD sales, a formidable competitor in OTT service delivery as well.
It seems that most of Google’s (NASDAQ:GOOG) attempts to help consumers end up hurting Internet Service Providers (ISPs) the most. Now it’s getting its video site YouTube involved in the fray as well. YouTube today launched a new Video Speed Dashboard, a graphical depiction of users’ download speed and how it compares to other users on their ISP, nearby subscribers to other ISPs and the state, national and global averages. (more…)
Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) Buzz, Google’s foray into social media, seems to have the most potential (for good and for harm) on mobile. The service is getting mixed reviews this week, but – for me – the more I hear about the mobile version and the privacy issues inherent in it, my main reaction is: Google is sure lucky it’s not a telco.
Buzz, which integrates Gmail with updates from Facebook, Twitter, Flickr and other social networks, automatically exposes to the world the names of the people you email the most. So, for example, a jealous girlfriend can see whom her boyfriend’s been emailing, or a boss can tell if her employee is in cahoots with the competition. Liken this to a mobile operator exposing a list of people you call the most, and I can only imagine the uproar that would ensue. (more…)
The wide variety of smartphones coming to market, coupled with the increasingly sensitive data being inputted into these devices, has created security issues that enterprises have not had to deal with in the past. The good news for enterprises – and mobile security vendors – is that the number of smartphones protected by advanced security software will increase fivefold over the next five years, according to a new study by ABI Research. (more…)
Nuance Communications (NASDAQ: NUAN) today inked a deal with Samsung Electronics to embed its on-device self-service software, Nuance Mobile Care, in select mobile phones. The relationship builds on one announced earlier this week to bring Nuance’s XT9 predicative text service to Samsung’s mobile phones. (more…)
For those of you have been following the VoLGA issue, here’s a video that might amuse–or offend–you. The debate over how exactly to extend bread-and-butter voice and SMS services over the all-IP data network is becoming contentious. On one side are the advocates of IP multimedia subsystem (IMS)-based solutions and on the other are those that favor a more generic solution, utilizing operators existing 2G and 3G circuit-switched infrastructure. Even within those camps there are some big disagreements.
Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) confirmed its acquisition of music streaming company Lala today, a potentially huge move if – but only if – it leads to music streaming for all Apple products. While the service as it is today takes more of a “taste-and-buy” approach to music than a pure subscription model, some believe Lala will mean a streaming subscription service is in the cards for Apple.
By now it’s commonly known that consumer data habits on Apple’s (NASDAQ:AAPL) iPhone haven’t been friendly to AT&T’s (NYSE:T) overloaded 3G network. The average iPhone user consumes five to seven times the monthly bandwidth of an average wireless subscriber, and two times the amount of an average 3G smartphone user, according to Bernstein Research senior analyst Toni Sacconaghi. As smartphone penetration continues to increase, his belief is that usage-based pricing is inevitable in the US. (more…)
Nokia Siemens Networks and private equity firm One Equity Partners have jointly bid for Nortel Networks’ (OTCBB:NRTLQ) Metro Ethernet business, challenging Ciena’s (NASDAQ:CIEN) bid for those assets in advance of an auction to be held on Friday, Reuters is reporting.
NSN was expected to bid on the assets, which include Nortel’s optical gear, but NSN’s own current reorganization efforts complicated the picture. A joint bid with a partner could give it enough financial backing to overcome that complication, however.
Analysts have predicted that NSN would be able to beat much-smaller Ciena in a bidding war, not just because of its greater capitalization but because it would exact more synergies from such a deal that Ciena would, allowing it to pay a higher price. Ciena offered $521 million in cash and stock, which was originally estimated as slightly less than half of the 2009 revenue from Nortel’s Metro Ethernet unit. But its revenues dropped about 26% from a year earlier in the third quarter.
NSN was outbid for Nortel’s wireless assets this year by rival Ericsson.
High-definition voice, a relatively nascent technology, is coming to the Android operating system, courtesy of Global IP Solutions (Oslo Børs: GIPS). The company is enabling Android mobile application developers to build voice-over IP-enabled clients with its VoiceEngine Mobile. Free mobile social networking application Nimbuzz will be the first customer to implement the HD technology for free mobile VoIP calls. (more…)
companies reportedly informed Vudu’s Hollywood studios and TV manufacturers of the deal today. The acquisition could make Wal-Mart, already a leader in DVD sales, a formidable competitor in OTT service delivery as well.
It seems that most of Google’s (
