Friday, May 23, 2014

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Marvell loses ground with the slow death of 3G

Posted: 23 May 2014 02:41 AM PDT

Mobile chipmaker Marvell is suffering as demand for 3G chips slowly dies as the rise of 4G LTE demands different chips.

The company announced that its quarterly gross margin fell as demand for its chips used in third-generation mobile communication outweighed a rise in sales of its more profitable 4G LTE chips.

Marvell did better than expected in the first-quarter but overall the cocaine nose jobs of Wall Street are predicting worse to come.

Smartphone sales growth is shifting away from North America to China where buyers favour handsets priced below $200.

Chief Financial Officer Michael Rashkin said in a post-earnings conference call that the company's mix was skewed to 3G even though LTE did well and its margins came slightly below what was expected in the quarter.

Marvell's gross margin shrunk to 48.4 percent for the first quarter ended May 3 from 54.3 percent a year earlier.

The company said it expects second-quarter adjusted profit of 28 cents per share and revenue of $940 million-$980 million.

Wall Street was expecting a profit of 26 cents per share on revenue of $930.1 million.

The company has benefited from the multi-billion dollar rollout of long-term evolution (LTE) 4G networks in China, which accounts for a third of Marvell's total revenue.

Marvell's first-quarter net income rose to $99.5 million, or 19 cents per share, from $53.2 million, or 11 cents per share, a year earlier. Excluding items, earnings were 27 cents per share.

Revenue jumped 30 percent to $957.8 million. 

Google does evil to independent music business

Posted: 23 May 2014 02:39 AM PDT

The search engine Google has been accused of doing evil to independent music labels by forcing them to sign up for its streaming music subscription service.

The service has not officially been announced and will compete directly with Spotify, Deezer and their rivals.

But Google is using its control of YouTube to force indie labels to sign up to the new service according to the music industry trade association the Worldwide Independent Network (WIN).

YouTube is approaching labels directly with a "template contract" and threatening that if they do not sign it, all their music videos will be blocked on YouTube.

It also claims the terms of the contract are non-negotiable, and undervalue the music of these labels in comparison to Spotify, Rdio, Deezer and other subscription streaming services.

WIN had a press release saying that all planned when planned to issue a press release lambasting YouTube this morning, with quotes from YouTube opened new talks. However the press release was released to AFP under embargo and WIN forgot to retract it.

WIN chief executive Alison Wenham said in the original release that the small labels are businesses who rely on a variety of income streams to invest in new talent. They are being told by one of the largest companies in the world to accept terms that are out of step with the marketplace for streaming.

"We believe, as such, that these actions are unnecessary and indefensible, not to mention commercially questionable and potentially damaging to YouTube itself, given the harm likely to result from this approach."

Sending contracts directly to independent labels would be a controversial move; many are members of another trade body, Merlin, which negotiates collective licensing deals with new digital music services on their behalf.

Merlin chief executive Charles Caldas recently criticised YouTube in a speech at industry conference Music Connected, referring to a quote from musician Billy Bragg suggesting artists who criticise Spotify for its low royalty payments "should be marching to YouTube central with flaming pitchforks".

Caldas said YouTube pays the least but is the service that is the most well-funded and run by the biggest company in the world. Their figures are by far the worst, whether you measure them on a per-stream basis or a per-user basis.

WIN is concerned is over the "termination" letters that it says have been sent to labels, threatening to block their content on YouTube if they do not sign up to the new service. WIN has now given YouTube a 24-hour deadline to rescind those letters. 

US Senate backs patent trolls

Posted: 23 May 2014 02:38 AM PDT

The corrupt US senate has decided that patent trolls have more money than ordinary people have and has dumped a law to legislate the crippling trade out of existence.

While patent trolls destroy industries like technology, the big players have huge investments in patents and are not in favour of reform. Lawyers make a killing out of the frivolous patent cases and the powerful drugs companies depend on them.

Therefore, a proposal to club patent trolls over the head is now on hold indefinitely after the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Patrick Leahy, a democrat shelved the idea.

The law had backing across the house but Leahy suddenly took it off the table after Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid - another democrat - intervened at the last minute.

The bill would have made it more difficult for patent holders to file frivolous lawsuits, adding new requirements that would force lawsuit losers to cover litigation costs for both sides and patent holders to state their accusations more explicitly.

According to the republicans, Reid was got at by the lobbyists who paid to have the law shelved.

This is the third time in three weeks the majority leader has blocked legislation with bipartisan support in the Senate, the laws backer Republican John Cornyn said.

"It’s disappointing the majority leader has allowed the demands of one special interest group to trump a bipartisan will in Congress and the overwhelming support of innovators and job creators."

It looks like the lobby groups came from groups who make a killing from being patent trolls namely trial lawyers, universities, pharmaceutical companies and biotech companies.

The University of Vermont and a biotech coalition each sent letters to Leahy opposing the legislation.

"We believe the measures in the legislation … go far beyond what is necessary or desirable to combat abusive patent litigation, and would do serious damage to the patent system," reads one of the letters. "Many of the provisions would have the effect of treating every patent holder as a patent troll."

Leahy acknowledged there had been a sudden amount of pressure from the lobby groups in the hours before the deadline.

But Washington thinks it is more likely that passing the legislation out of committee would put greater pressure on Reid to bring it up for a floor vote, which would put the democratic leader at even more uncomfortable odds with the groups that wanted him to sink the bill.

In other words, the US will have to suffer from patent trolls because its senators are corporate lapdogs for those who want to use the system to cripple industry to make a quick buck.

Makes you really regret that revolution now doesn’t it?

HP slashes 16,000 more jobs

Posted: 23 May 2014 02:35 AM PDT

The maker of expensive printer ink, HP, is to cut 16,000 more jobs as part of a restructuring programme, which has already gutted the company.

The layoffs are part of a ramp-up of CEO Meg Whitman's years-long effort to turn around the personal computer maker and relieve pressure on its profit margins.

Whitman said her turnaround remained on track and her raised target reflected how HP continued to find surplus fat to trim.

Some analysts are a little concerned that Whitman might have seen more trouble ahead and if more jobs may be cut. Morale at HP must be getting lower and lower as it appears that the restructuring just does not stop.

To be fair HP has a lot of staff. About three years ago it was thought that it had hired about 250,000. In its first restructuring it 27,000 jobs. That number rose to 34,000 last year.

On Thursday, it estimated another 11,000 to 16,000 more jobs needed to go, scattered across different countries and business areas. This means that Whitman's restructuring has cost about 50,000 jobs.

The Silicon Valley company is trying to reduce its reliance on PCs and move toward computing equipment and networking gear for enterprises.

So far, it does not appear to be working. The company posted a disappointing one percent drop in quarterly revenue, as it struggled to maintain its grip on the shrinking personal computer market and weak corporate tech spending.

HP is looking to cut back more in "areas not central to customer-facing and innovation agendas," Whiteman said. 

Apple offers Phone 5S owners big penises

Posted: 23 May 2014 02:33 AM PDT

The marketing team at Apple appears to have taken a page from spam which promises men large endowments if they buy their products.

The latest advert for the Apple iPhone Phone 5S has a soundtrack from a popular beat combo called the Pixies crooning a number called Gigantic.

Obviously, the people at Apple thought "gigantic" is exactly the sort of message it wanted to get across --- after all it does have a bigger screen, sort of.

However they should have looked at what the lyrics were really about before paying for the licence to use it on their adverts.

The song is all about a woman's observation of an attractive black man making love to another woman, culminating in the chorus: 'Gigantic, gigantic, gigantic... A big, big love.'"

In otherwords, it is about how a bloke with a large wang is a good thing. When you know this the advert takes on a completely new meaning. It is about associating your phone with getting a big dick, rather than just a big dick actually owning one, which is closer to the reality.

But what Apple has failed to realise is that when it comes to comparing size, its latest effort is not really that big in comparison to its rivals. So while it is bragging about the size of its screen it does so knowing that there are people out there which much bigger offerings which can make customers' eyes water.

Then we would have thought that a large number of its customers are women who would not really want to be waving a penis extension about. All up, this is probably another own goal from Apple.
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