by Jason Wilk on January 9, 2010
- I know, I’m sick of the Apple tablet rumor mill as well, but I couldn’t let this story slide by. It even brought me back to blog for a day, breaking my 3 month blog hiatus while I work on my Y Combinator startup.
- While the whole tech news world sits around waiting to see what the official deal with the Apple tablet is and if anyone is going to buy this thing, Apple has been quietly ensuring the instant success of their tablet device. How? Apple has been going around targeting their first major paying customer for the device, which is not the average consumer, but the Healthcare industry (sorry fan bois, you’re not first priority here). This is a move widely overlooked by the media, since Apple has generally tried to own the consumer arena, and besides the film industry, hasn’t dominated enterprise. Well, now that they own the music, mobile, laptop and every teenager market, the medical industry is the next up to take over. [What's my intel? My Dad plays golf with Cedas-Sanai hospital execs, who say they have been getting frequent visits from Apple about a new device in the last 6 weeks].
- Let’s talk this out. First, this makes perfect sense. The iPhone has already served as a great platform for medical applications. Companies like LifeScan have an app for users with Diabetes. Epocrates is another medical app which
let’s doctors view continually updated clinical data, check for drug-drug interaction, identify pills by physical characteristics and perform medical calculations such as BMI and GRF (pictured*). Then we have iChart, a “personal medical assistant,” which stores everything from patient data to charts and lists of medications in a streamlined, organized fashion (oh, and it regularly updates with new medical data pulled from healthcare networks). The problem with the iPhone is that it is too small to handle all of this data, not from a processor standpoint but just overall screen size. The tablet can pave a whole new way for medical applications and the way we interact with our doctors. You can certainly bet the iPhone will interact very well with the tablet, so syncing information back and forth with your doctor via both devices should be a breeze.
- Second, there is already a huge market here with real competitors (not just a Microsoft Courier). In 2007, a company called Motion Computing Inc. launched a product called C5, a tablet computer for doctors that claimed to eliminate the clipboard, scanner and cart-mounted computer on wheels often used in hospitals today. The product is widely used today, but it’s dated, weighs over 3 pounds and sells for $2199. Even at the highest speculated price, Apple’s tablet will cost only $1000.
Third, Obama. The President is on Apple’s side here with this one. He has made electronic record-keeping a key feature of his health-care reform effort (hint hint). Electronic records available through Apple’s tablet will save time, mistakes and lives.- Come on. Did you really think Steve Jobs was going to make a grand comeback just so you could play Doodle Jump on a 10 inch screen? Also, Joe Wilcox of Beta News, yes the world IS ready for a tablet.
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by David Heyerman on February 4, 2009
by Jason Wilk on February 3, 2009
by David Heyerman on January 26, 2009
- 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?
by Jason Wilk on January 19, 2009
- Google earnings expected to be grim when they are released Thursday. According to the WSJ, U.S. search advertising spend fell 8% in the fourth quarter of 2008 from the same period in 2007, according to a new study from search advertising firm Efficient Frontier, whose search industry spending index was flat for most of 2008. The study — which covers an undisclosed portion of the $750 million in annual spending the company manages globally — marks the first quarter of negative annual growth for its index in the several years Efficient Frontier has been gathering such data, says James Beriker, president and CEO of the firm”.
- Sampling a search advertising firm may not predict the whole industry pie that includes Google, Yahoo and MSN, but if search marketers are seeing revenues drop, it should be a good sample of what is to come.
- Here are a few things that might throw off the numbers for Google.
- First, if market share had anything to do with it, Google’s has actually grown to 72% over last year’s 65%. That a direct result of more online search adoption, and could help to offset falling revenues. I said the same thing with Amazon, where the reason why they had such a big holiday season was a simple math problem.
- Second, Google has been pulling out all the stops this quarter to find new avenues to drive revenue. In September, Google began allowing beer and wine companies to advertise, and as of recently hard alcohol companies. In addition, they have begun monetizing Google Maps, casual games, mobile search, and more for the first time ever.
- Third, Google has always said that in a bad economy, many retailers and other advertisers flock to Google because it’s one of the few places to keep a close eye on your pennies. Between Google Analytics and conversion tracking, it’s unlike any other form of advertising. Holiday advertising spend showed this.
- Fourth, Android, Google’s mobile operating system is expected to pick up quickly this year and is expected to out sell the iPhone’s OS by 2010.
- To me, it’s not this 4th quarter that is worrisome. Between Google adding new ways to monetize different products, adding significant market share and branding themselves as ‘the place to go to advertise in a bad economy’, they will be fine. However, I think Q1 will see tougher times for the search giant. Q1 will see a Google that has squeezed out revenue from any potential products, no holiday season and a slowly growing online search adoption through the first 2 quarters. Here are a few more stats from the study:
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- “Advertisers who spend less than $50,000 on search ads cut their spending by 23% year-over-year, while advertisers that spend more than $200,000 on search per month cut spending by 9% during that time. Purchases by advertisers who spend between $50,000 and $200,000 were relatively flat.”
- “Finance and automotive advertising continued to deteriorate. Search-ad spending among financial advertisers fell 20% compared to the fourth quarter of 2007. Search spending from automotive advertisers declined 15% during that period.”
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