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To 3GS Or Not To 3GS. Is That Your Question?

by Jason Wilk on June 30, 2009

This is a great post by MG Siegler from TechCrunch today on those sitting on the fence about upgrading to the iPhone 3GS. I too am on the fence about getting the new phone, and this proved to be very helpful. Will I get the 3GS now however? Yes

“If you have an original iPhone from 2 years ago? Yes.

Yesterday marked the two-year anniversary for the people who bought the original iPhone on day one in 2007. That also means it marks the official end of those people’s contracts with AT&T (though many are eligible to end them, or get upgrades much earlier). If you’ve had your original iPhone this long, chances are that you’re a fan of it. And if you’re a fan of that version, you’re going to love the iPhone 3GS. Not only will its computing speed blow away that version, but since you skipped the iPhone 3G, you haven’t experienced the big increase in data speed that 3G offers over EDGE. I’ve talked to a few people who upgraded from the original iPhone to the iPhone 3GS, and all of them cannot believe how much better then device is in its third iteration.

If you have the iPhone 3G? Maybe.

There are simply too many variables at play here to answer this with a simple “yes” or “no.” I’ll address many of them below. But the biggest one for many users right now will be if you’re eligible to get the full $199 and $299 subsidy on the device. Even after AT&T’s relaxing of the rules a bit, most iPhone 3G owners still are not able to get the subsidy yet. If you cannot, I say wait until you can. If you can get the cheaper price now, the iPhone 3GS is probably worth it — if you don’t mind signing your soul over to AT&T for another 2 years. Which leads me to…

If you have never had an iPhone? Yes.

It’s an easy call if you want an iPhone and have never owned one, as this is the best one yet. Definitely get one, unless you have a strong dislike of AT&T. If so, skip to the next question.

If you hate AT&T? No.

This is a big “no.” If you really dislike AT&T, the iPhone 3GS only gives you more reasons to dislike them. MMS still isn’t working. Tethering still isn’t working. The iPhone 3GS has a chip that can handle data transfer speeds of 7.2 Mbps, but AT&T’s network isn’t ready for that, so that data speed is the same as with the iPhone 3G. And that faster AT&T network won’t fully be ready until 2011 — obviously, there will be at least one, and probably two more iterations of the iPhone by then.

And there will likely be a version of the iPhone that is not exclusive to AT&T by then as well. That possibility alone should be reason for a lot of people not to sign up for a new two year contract with AT&T. And unfortunately, that means no iPhone 3GS.

If you love video? Yes.

This is a big, emphatic “yes.” I truly believe the iPhone 3GS should have been called the iPhone 3GV, for “Video.” The device is simply great at shooting quick videos and giving you one-button publish capabilities to services like YouTube. While there were some video applications that worked on older jailbroken iPhones, like Qik, the quality of the video with the 3GS is leaps and bounds better. And the trimming capabilities on the phone are very simple to use. And playback looks great on the device. I could go on, but as I said already, if you’re really into video and want a great mobile device for doing it, the iPhone 3GS will be worth it for you. The Flip cam should definitely be scared.

If general speed is your only reason? No.

The iPhone 3GS is noticeably faster than the iPhone 3G, but in my opinion, that speed alone is not worth the upgrade price. One problem is that while apps do load faster, you still have to wait for AT&T’s often shoddy network to connect for many of the apps to work. As I noted above, the iPhone 3GS can handle faster wireless data speeds too, but AT&T’s network isn’t yet up to the same task, so it renders that advantage moot.

I have found myself getting frustrated with using the iPhone 3G after using the 3GS for a while due to the speed difference, but that’s only because I have a point of reference. If you haven’t used a 3GS yet, or don’t use it extensively, you shouldn’t have too much of an issue staying with your iPhone 3G (or buying a new one for $99) and still taking advantage of the new features in the 3.0 software upgrade.

If you’re really into iPhone games? Yes.

Having said all of that about speed, if you’re really into gaming on the device, the faster processor and better graphics chip will undoubtedly be worth it for you. I’ve been playing a bunch of games on the 3GS, including some larger ones like Tiger Woods PGA Tour, and the iPhone 3GS performs much, much better than the iPhone 3G does.

If you’re a developer? Yes.

Likewise with the gaming, if you’re a developer making apps on the iPhone, you’ll undoubtedly love the faster speeds the 3GS offers. Plenty of developers, such as Facebook’s Joe Hewitt, are already raving about this.

If battery life is your main reason? No.

The battery life on the 3GS does seem to be better, but it’s hard to know if that’s just due to the fact that this is a fresher battery compared to the one in the year-old iPhone 3G. Apple has stated that the battery in the 3GS does boost times for certain things (like browsing the web on WiFi), but it also apparently is leading to some overheating.

I’ve also noticed that the auto-brightness setting on the iPhone 3GS is much dimmer than on the iPhone 3G. I’ve done a number of tests to make sure I wasn’t just seeing things, or it wasn’t a one-time fluke. For whatever reason, the iPhone 3GS is much dimmer when auto-brightness is turned on, and this undoubtedly saves some battery life too. The dimmer setting doesn’t bother me at all until I look at it side-by-side with the the iPhone 3G.

The iPhone 3GS also has a feature that allows you to tell you the percentage of your battery has left. This is a pretty nice feature, but it does get a bit nerve-racking.

If you have very oily hands? Yes.

This may sound like a joke, but the iPhone 3GS’s new oleophobic (anti-oil) screen coating really is making a noticeable difference on my iPhone’s screen. While you may assume that my iPhone 3G has a dirtier screen simply because it’s older, I had a protective covering on the screen up until the day before I got the iPhone 3GS, so basically the screens were in the same condition a week ago. Now, one is constantly much more dirty.

If you’re excited about voice control? No.

The voice control feature would seem to be a nice touch, but it’s pretty wonky in my experience with it. More than a few times I’ve tried to tell the device to play music by a certain band, and it will end up calling someone — and without fail it is usually someone I really don’t want to be calling.

The “play more songs like this” which kicks in the iTunes Genius features is by far the best part of the whole thing. Otherwise, it’s just a system that is too slow to activate, and too inaccurate.

If you want a better cameraphone? Yes.

While I’ve already raved about the video capabilities, the camera itself is so much nicer than the iPhone 3G’s. This camera is 3.2 megapixels compared to the old version’s 2 megapixels. But the real difference is with the auto-focus, which turns crap pictures, good.

The camera isn’t as nice as some of the ones found in phones by Nokia, but it’s definitely good enough for your average point-and-shooting in good light.

If you want more storage? Yes.

There’s no denying that having 32 GB (on the more expensive model) versus 16 GB is nice. I remember buying my first iPod five years ago — it was a hard-drive based model with 40 GB of storage. The thing was a brick. Now the iPhone has just about as much storage, which is pretty crazy.

And considering you can now not only shoot movies on this device, but can download them from iTunes with the 3.0 software, you might need that extra space.

For the compass? No.

Don’t get me wrong, the compass is interesting, but aside from Google Maps and maybe the GPS apps, I really don’t see the point of it. And for the first few days I had no idea how to activate the compass features in Google Maps — you have to tap the location button (in the lower left corner) twice. I hope some applications arise that do cool things with it, but I certainly wouldn’t buy the device for this.

Overall? Maybe (See Above).

As I said, there’s really no clear-cut answer as to if you should get the device. You really need to look at the functionality and use cases above, and determine where you reside with regards to those things. If you think a bunch of stuff is missing from the list, you’re probably thinking about features that are a part of the iPhone 3.0 software. Most of those work on the older iPhones as well. If something like cut, copy & paste is most important to you, that works on the iPhone 3G, so it probably makes sense to stick with that device. Or if you don’t have one, consider paying $99 to get one — that seems like a hell of a deal.

If you’re a really big fan of the iPhone, you probably already bought this new model. But it’s the fence-sitters that this post is meant to help. Both those who are unsure if the time is right to get their first iPhone, or if it’s worth it to upgrade.

It’s a tough call — but simplified: If video is the feature you most care about, then get it. If not, consider the iPhone 3G for $99. If you’re worried about AT&T, don’t get either — wait to see if Apple renews its exclusive deal with AT&T next year. Even if it does, you can be sure another phone, more advanced than the iPhone 3GS, will be on the verge of being revealed”

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Panasonic Sales Slump Spurs Layoffs And Shutdowns

by David Heyerman on February 4, 2009

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Panasonic announced today that they’re expected to post their first loss in six years with a forecasted net loss of $4.3 Billion, by year end March 31st, 2009.
The companies already taking extreme measures to neutralize the losses. They’ll be cutting near 5% of their workforce (a wopping 15,000 jobs) and closing down 27 factories……eeeeesh.
Will the cutbacks make room for their acquisition of Sanyo?

See other Panasonic related stories:

Panasonic To Announce New Technology; Making An EV Move?

Panasonic Buys Sanyo To Boost Solar & Battery Production

So……What’s Green At CES?

Solar Sector To Bail Out Declining Chip Industry?

Solar Sector 2008 Wrap Up: Isn’t It Ironic, Don’t You Think?

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AOL CEO’s Letter To Staff Regarding Layoffs

by Jason Wilk on January 28, 2009

AOL CEO Randy Falco’s letter to the staff about laying off 10 percent of its workforce (around 700 people). Falco blames the economy flattening advertising revenue. Looks like pouring money into Platform A, AOL’s advertising network which launched September 2007, wasn’t a good idea. Here is the letter:

Dear AOL colleagues,

I’m writing to tell you about some important decisions we’ve made about AOL’s business and why we’ve made them.

The deepening economic recession has affected every corner of the economy, including our own. Online marketers have tightened their ad buying across the board, reducing their spend by hundreds of millions of dollars.

As a result, we will be reviewing our entire organization to further align resources and expenses against the real revenue opportunities in this difficult market. Part of this will involve consolidating groups to gain efficiencies that will unfortunately lead to head-count reductions. We anticipate this will result in a net reduction of our workforce of up to 10% over the next several quarters–and we will attempt to finalize all domestic actions by the end of March. Reducing our workforce is never easy, particularly in the current climate, but our goal in doing this is to provide our core businesses the resources they need to thrive. Please know that, as always, we’ll be doing everything we can to help and support those affected, including offering severance packages and other services.

To further keep employment costs down, we will also forgo merit pay increases in 2009. This is a painful decision, but one that many companies have prudently taken to help minimize the number of layoffs they have to make.

To provide some perspective on these decisions, right now we’re two years into a three-year turnaround plan. Since day one, our strategy has focused on building and growing mutually dependent publishing, advertising and social media businesses to take advantage of the shifting media landscape. We’ve worked shoulder-to-shoulder to make considerable progress during this time.

We acquired best-in-class companies across the digital advertising space (AdTech, Third Screen Media, Lightningcast, buy.at, TACODA and Quigo, respectively) and integrated them with Advertising.com to build Platform-A, the largest, smartest display advertising platform in the world.

We grew our MediaGlow audience via an efficient content development model that in 2008 enabled us to launch more than 20 new sites that are generating significant page view (up 64% year over year in December), engagement (up 39% year over year) and unduplicated user (70+ million) numbers. This momentum will continue in 2009 with our goal of creating an additional 30+ editorially curated sites focused on consumer passion points.

We combined Bebo with our longtime community assets AIM and ICQ as well as newer acquisitions Goowy, Yedda and SocialThing, to build People Networks, gaining AOL a foothold in the critical social media space, with more announcements to come on the next phase of development in both the social media space and in the integration of social and publishing capabilities.

This progress continues to put AOL in a strong position to capitalize on our new business model when the recession ends.

In addition to focusing our investments, a successful turnaround plan also requires us to realign our cost structure against this three-pronged business model–making difficult decisions to cut costs in areas that aren’t critical to our growth. Splitting out the Access business improved the transparency of what’s working and what’s not, and allowed us to make better decisions about exiting businesses that weren’t performing while investing in growth areas. A successful turnaround plan also mandates we control costs, operate with healthy margins and position the company for sustainable growth. As you know, we’ve moved repeatedly to bring discretionary expenses in line to spare across-the-board job cuts.

But we’ve also had to make many hard decisions along the way. And this moment is no exception. We’re at a pivotal point in AOL’s transformation, and need to be even more strategically focused and operationally efficient as we weather the economic storm.

In addition to the head-count reductions and the 2009 merit pay decision, we are also making changes throughout the organization to improve efficiency and better align it to our three core businesses. This includes a review of our international operations and our global shared-services functions. In addition, we will continue throughout the year to carefully and thoroughly review all our products and services to make sure every one fully supports our strategy and has the potential for growth.

Finally, we are going to realize significant savings by continuing to consolidate our facilities–for example, moving from two buildings to one in Mountain View, from two floors to one in Los Angeles, and leasing unused space on our Dulles campus.

With these and other changes, we will take significant annual run-rate costs out of our business while, importantly, retaining the flexibility to invest in our growth strategy.

I know all this will raise questions, but I wanted to share as much as I could with you now. Senior management will provide more details as appropriate to their teams in the weeks ahead.

As difficult as things look right now, the economy eventually will turn around. Some companies will use this time prudently and make difficult decisions to come out of it in better shape–growing toward areas of opportunity, scaling back in others and maintaining a line on costs all around. Our only choice is to be one of these companies. With your continued hard work and dedication, we will position ourselves to emerge a stronger company ready to lead in a vibrant online market.

Randy

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Solar Sector To Bail Out Declining Chip Industry?

by David Heyerman on January 26, 2009

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Heading into 2009, the global semiconductor industry will take a serious downturn in sales revenues. 2008 saw a decline of 4.4% from 2007, and analysts are predicting a 16% decline in 2009. Although layoffs and budget cuts will most likely occur, chip companies might just see the light again…..enter the aggressively growing solar industry.
iSuppli came out with a study in June which claimed investment in solar cell production would match that of the semiconductor industry by 2010. So, are we looking at a huge boom in the solar industry, or more hype being casually neutralized by the economy? Many recent developments point towards the former.
Hemlock Semiconductor announced back in December that they’d raised $3 Billion to expand their current polysilicon manufacturing capabilities. They’ll be adding a new production building to their Hemlock, Michigan location and building a brand new facility in Clarksville, Tennessee.
Chip giant, Intel, has been moving towards solar for a while now investing near $100 million into solar startups. This summer alone, they invested $50 into photovoltaic solar cell startup SpectraWatt, and an additional $37.5 million into German thin-film solar module producer, Sulfercell. Just a few days ago, Intel revealed a 10KW solar installation at their New Mexico manufacturing plant.
We’ve also seen some gigantic companies team up to get a piece of the solar pie as well. Panasonic plans to buy Sanyo, Sharp joined forces with Tokyo Electron, and IBM teamed up with Tokyo Ohka Kogyo all in attempt to boost solar capabilities. We even saw a chip company release their own solar technology when National Semiconductor launched SolarMagic.
There are, however, many who argue the other side of the equation. With the economy in a serious slump and spending on the backburner mixed with a potential oversupply of polysilicon, many analysts are predicting a bad year for the solar industry. CEO of Novellus Systems, Rick Hill, openly remains skeptical about the apparent solar expansion necessity. Back in September, we saw Cypress Semiconductors completely divest themselves of their stake in SunPower (previously owned 52%).
So what will happen? Will the solar sector blast its way through the recession and carry the semiconductor industry along with it, or will they both ruin eachother with oversupply and unnessesary investments?

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Microsoft Earnings And Future Looking Grim

by Jason Wilk on January 23, 2009

Microsoft Corp is expected to miss internal revenue projections when their earnings come out tomorrow. Wall Street is looking for quarterly revenue of $17.1 billion, according to Reuters Estimates, short of Microsoft’s own target of $17.3 billion to $17.8 billion.With that, there is further confirmation that the rumors of Microsoft announcing job cuts tomorrow are true. 6,000 to 8,000 employees or 6 percent to 8 percent of its 95,000 are expected to be getting cut.
Although Microsoft could hardly help this past year’s economic outcome seeing as global sales of software and video games have slumped, investors will be pressing Microsoft for what is to come of the still reigning software giant. In the last 5 years, the company has taken a few significant blows that put a grim outlook on the company over the next decade.

1. Zune. Microsoft missed an opportunity to be the top music player and application provider, having to settle for the mediocrity of the Zune player.Expect layoffs in this department, the game is over. Update: “Zune platform revenue decreased $100 million or 54% reflecting a decrease in device sales.”

2. Windows Mobile. Used to be ahead of the game, just not ahead of the times. Microsoft really missed the boat to be the first player in a standardized mobile platform for WinMo phones without a locked deck. Apple stormed onto the scene with a phone for consumers, combining the ease of the iPod with the user experience of a real internet browser. A year later the phone opened to third party developers to sell applications creating yet another billion dollar marketplace for Apple, The App Store. This could and should have been Microsoft. by the time the App Store came out, over 18,000 mobile applications for Windows Mobile existed around the web from third party developers that never had a home on deck where their creations were aggregated, promoted and sold. Investors will be hounding Microsoft about the upcoming release of Windows Mobile in Barcelona, which finally will feature an applications marketplace (Screenshots here).The iPhone has passed WinMo is market share, and faces increasingly stiff competition from new comer Google Android, Palm’s Pre and of course Blackberry. The question is, can they jump back into the game or is it too late?

3. Search. 2008 could have been the beginning of a prosperous new search brand combining Microsoft and Yahoo. Microsoft Live is down to a measly 5.56% market share against Google’s 72%. This is yet another market Microsoft was too late to get into and the future doesn’t look bright. The only real hope is to buy Yahoo, which will most likely happen in 2009, although even Yahoo’s market share is declining and may be on the fritz for good. Yahoo market share is down to 17% from 21% last year. Investors will be asking some serious questions tomorrow regarding the future of this deal and if it’s likely to happen. I hate to say the search game has been won, but has it?

4. Software. Sales of Windows software for PCs and laptops are expected to drop 3 percent from a year earlier, making it the toughest quarter in eight years. The popularity of netbooks using Linux based software in 2008 and increasing market share from Apple Laptops is seeing Windows left in the dark. It’s tough to bet long term on Microsoft Software as you can see where young computer users are adopting Apple products. Let’s not forget the conversation about the shift of software into the cloud, making desktop applications extinct for 90% of us that don’t need encrypted enterprise desktop apps. Windows 7, which just released in Beta will be a big topic tomorrow, as Vista contained many bugs and dissatisfied many loyal users. Needless to say, I am down all the way on Microsoft.

Update. Microsoft outed their earnings. Here is what happened. You guessed it, TinyComb was right on again. Microsoft Corp. today announced revenue of $16.63 billion for the second quarter ended Dec. 31, 2008, a 2% increase over the same period of the prior year. Operating income, net income and diluted earnings per share for the quarter were $5.94 billion, $4.17 billion and $0.47, declines of 8%, 11% and 6%, respectively, compared with the prior year. Client revenue declined 8% as a result of PC market weakness and a continued shift to lower priced netbooks. However, strong annuity licensing drove Server & Tools revenue growth of 15%. Entertainment and Devices revenue grew 3% driven by strong holiday demand for Xbox 360 consoles with a record 6 million units sold in the quarter. As part of this plan, Microsoft will eliminate up to 5,000 jobs in R&D, marketing, sales, finance, legal, HR, and IT over the next 18 months, including 1,400 jobs today. These initiatives will reduce the company’s annual operating expense run rate by approximately $1.5 billion and reduce fiscal year 2009 capital expenditures by $700 million.

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To 3GS Or Not To 3GS. Is That Your Question?

Panasonic Sales Slump Spurs Layoffs And Shutdowns

Solar Sector To Bail Out Declining Chip Industry?

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