Sony

More mobile makers join Android

Paul Mah — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 05:36:32 -0500

News came in earlier this week that another 14 companies have elected to join the Open Handset Alliance (OHA), a Google-led consortium dedicated to the Android open-sourced mobile operating system. Consisting mostly of manufacturers and a couple of Telcos, some of the new members include ARM, Asustek, Garmin, Huawei Technologies, Sony-Ericsson and Toshiba. Most notable would be the inclusion of Vodafone, with its 280 million customers worldwide.

The official statement is that the "New members will either deploy compatible Android devices, contribute significant code to the Android Open Source Project, or support the ecosystem through products and services that will accelerate the availability of Android-based devices."

Certainly, having the members coming on board does not mean that they have decided to forsake other platforms. Manufacturers like Sony Ericsson or existing member like HTC Corporation will continue making devices based on other platforms. What it does mean is that the sales of the only Android-based phone to date--the T-Mobile G1--must have been exceptional, if not outright phenomenal. Once dismissed by Microsoft's Steve Ballmer, Android's future is certainly more certain now than ever.

To read more on the article:
- check out this article from the Register
- check out this article from BusinessWeek

Popularity of smaller PCs a cause of worry for industry

Paul Mah — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 05:47:51 -0400

The increasing success of netbooks, which come with little on-board memory and a comparatively slow processor, is apparently starting to worry industry players. Besides posing an outright challenge to the traditional notion of consumers wanting ever more powerful machines, low-cost netbooks also poses a threat to already thin profit margins. Some manufacturers such as Fujitsu are more upfront about the threat, noting that "It's a product that essentially has no margin." Others, like Sony, while admitting that it is investigating what customers want in a second PC, have declared that "We are not looking at competing with Asus." Not everyone is shying away though. For example, Hewlett-Packard recently entered the market with a scaled down notebook it calls the Mini-Note. Would you get a netbook as your primary work machine?

For more on the story:
- check out this article from the New York Times

Did sales of e-book readers exceed 1 million units?

Paul Mah — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 02:42:55 -0400

Evan Schnittman of OUPblog thinks that electronic e-book readers the likes of Amazon's Kindle and Sony's Reader could be close to a million units in 2008. Though some of the extrapolation might be too big a stretch, his analysis based on sales of the e-ink screen is interesting. Article