Matters in DVD war and the China

It will take more time to see who will come out the winner. From the data so far, Blu-ray seems to be winning for outsold titles and their supporters. If someone asked me about the winner of DVD wars in this moment, I would say Blu-ray which has more spec, security and supporters matters.

See this chart I made for "matters in DVD battles" blow.


However, the most important thing to watch out is the China’s movement. China is probably going to develop better DVD format with lower price and more spec. Even though they don't have any supporters right now, I believe many things will be changed with China's new format. Let us take a careful look for another DVD war.

Those technologies are young and immature, and have room to improve so we have got to watch and wait for their competition with market dynamics. For the argument of Blu-ray and HD-DVD debate, see this blog. I'll keep spy on the China's wind.

Nokia and NavTeq

Nokia's purchase of Navteq has been widely reported (see this, for example). I think you might be interested in this analysis from TechCrunch ... as you think about the value chain in information services provision, you might consider what other strategic investments may be in the offing.

Returns from Verizon's FiOS investment

The telecommunications industry is one that is characterized by large up front investments with uncertain future revenue streams. Verizon's FiOS project, is a classic example of such investment. I have blogged about this before (see this and this).  As this article points out, the early returns are encouraging for Verizon.

This article also points out the relationship between long term strategic investment, investor relations and competition.  Prior to this investment, Verizon had twisted pair loops that prevented them from offering "triple play" services. 

But this has not been without controversy, especially given the current regulatory climate in the US.  The short story is that Verizon is not required to offer these services on an unbundled basis.  Observers have reported that Verizon is killing the copper loops replaced by FiOS, preventing people from reverting to copper later, and also eliminating their requirement to offer unbundled loop elements to broadband competitors (see this, for example).  So Verizon is forestalling competition with both their own (older) technology and with potential competitors who might use this infrastructure. 

Do you think that this behavior should be regulated?  Some have argued that the public "owns" the infrastructure because they have paid for it through regulated rates for many years.  Do you agree with this?  If so, is Verizon right to remove the older infrastructure?

Adblock and Alternative Business Model

There have been a number of posts recently like this one relevant to the subject of micropayments and Adblock. Many of the websites depending on advertising to keep it alive are suffred from the use of Adblocks, extention for Firefox. This article presented some Alternative Online Business Models. Even though all of these models are nice complements to advertising but there are no standalone business models for anyone trying to generate serious revenue online.

Couple months ago, Joe, co-founder of Rouxbe, came up with a very interesting variation on the alternative sponsorship model. Getting advertisements you like to see!!! Take a look at this brilliant model and let's discuss about it.

iPhone Owners Denied Warranty Service

Some mad iPhone users are 'seeking respondents for possible class action lawsuit against Apple Inc. relating to refusal to service iPhones and related accessories under warranty.' Alexander Wolfen in his post analyzes reaction of users on Apple's claims to void any warranty services for unlocked or with third-party software or used as data-storage by some other software.
Apple once again repeats the same mistake (as it was with iPod). It was obvious from the very beginning, that a product with such an aggressive marketing and tremendous popularity will be eventually reverse engineered and unlocked. And now when it finally happened Apple is threating iPhone owners. We also remember that all these people are (or may be better to say 'were') Apple's clients and so threating is not good for business. Especially if scandal grows into suite case.
Initially, position of Apple about custom third-party software was not clear (pro, con). Now it is clear to everyone.