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Showing posts from September, 2011

iPhone 5 vs Nexus Prime Hype

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This Tuesday, October 4, 2011, Apple is going to announce the iPhone 5. The iPhone 5 will most likely go on sale within a couple weeks of the announcement. Maybe even within a couple of days! Verizon, Samsung, and/or Google will announce the Nexus Prime the following Tuesday, October 11, 2011. The Nexus Prime is expected to go on sale late October or early November. For those of you that are unfamiliar with the Nexus line of phones, think of it as the closest thing we have to a pure "Google Phone". The Nexus Prime would then be the "Google Phone III". * The next thirty days are the most anticipated days in the history of cell phones. If you are thinking of buying a cell phone in the next month, do not! At least not until you see what the iPhone 5 and Nexus Prime are about. Consider yourself fortunate that you are looking for a phone during this time. You have two phones that are finally worthy of each other. If we cannot get Pacquiao vs Mayweather, life ha...

The Netflix Gamble

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Netflix stock was trading at around $295 per share in July 2011. Now, Netflix stock is at around $130 per share. What happened? Three big things happened. Netflix split the pricing for streaming and DVD mail services. The streaming service price stayed the same, but it was no longer free with the DVD mail service. Also, the DVD mail service went up in price. Netflix failed to renew its Starz contract for streaming, which included Disney and CBS content. Netflix officially splits its streaming and DVD mail services. The streaming content will remain Netflix and the DVD mail services will be called Qwikster. Separate accounts are required. This lead to Netflix losing customers. 600,000 lost customers by the time this quarter ends in September. Netflix thought they would be adding 400,000 customers this quarter.  Was it smart for Netflix to focus on streaming? Yes. They have to be aggressive about their streaming service, which they have been. The DVD mai...

Six Months After AT&T Bought T-Mobile USA

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Six months have passed since the AT&T deal to buy T-Mobile was announced, see link  here.  I was confident the deal would go through. After all, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) does a horrible job at preventing monopolies/oligopolies. I, along with 44,000 thousand other people (that has to be a record), filed a public comment on the FCC page for filing 11-65,   "In the Matter of applications of AT&T Inc. and Deutsche Telekom AG for consent to assign or Transfer Control of licenses and Authorizations ." Here is my public comment filed on May 02, 2011: I strongly urge the FCC to not allow the acquisition of T-mobile USA by AT&T because it would negatively impact the cell phone industry for consumers with higher prices and less innovation. The higher prices and innovation will be a direct result of decreasing the number of national carriers from 4 to 3. AT&T can say what they want about regional carriers (i.e., Metro PCS)...

Google TV Eleven Months Later

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Eight months ago, I wrote about Google TV not being able to succeed at the $300/$400 price range. See full article here,  previous Google TV article. Google must have read my article or maybe microeconomics started to make sense for them. The previously $300 Logitech Revue  is now $100! And the previously $400  Sony Internet TV Blu-Ray Player  is now $250! I officially feel "dirty" for buying Apple TV for $100. Ugh. How was I suppose to know that the Logitech Revue price was going to drop by 67%? At least I am not in the camp that bought the Logitech Revue for $300. If you are looking for a machine to stream Netflix onto your television, buy the Google TV Logitech Revue. If you are looking for a Blu-Ray player buy the Sony Google TV model. Since my last post about Google TV, "The Goog" has bought Motorola Mobility. Motorola Mobility not only makes phones, but have the rights to a large amount of cable and satellite boxes. So you know Google is going ...