Mobile Ad Space Bursting With Potential but Few Experts

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apple, apple's, behavior, iphone

Published Aug. 16, 2010 at 5:07 p.m.
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First smartphones were redefined as powerful social media/Net devices and then: Boom! The advertising industry grabbed on in search of new sources of cash income. But the new ad business are finding everything a bit new and scary, and are still finding their feet ... Apple's iAd Slow Off the Starting Block ... There's been a bit of buzz about Apple's innovative rich-content iAd system recently. Firstly it was reported to be a success, with developers and ad partners finding the whole system

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The Talent Drains From Spotify: Maybe They Know Something We Don't

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apple, strategy

Published Aug. 16, 2010 at 4:46 p.m.
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Last week, Spotify lost its chief designer, Ragnar Anderson, to Facebook, prompting Austin Carr to wonder whether Facebook was starting up its own music service. This week Paul Brown, the Senior Vice President of SVP of Strategic Partnerships, is off to pastures new, leaving the music streaming service after a year and a bit. Talent drains are nothing new, but Brown's departure to a non-music-related startup, after just 16 months in such a senior position, must have Daniel Ek and Martin

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Intel's Biggest Rival: ARM Chips in Servers and Smartphones

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apple, development, performance

Published Aug. 16, 2010 at 1:44 p.m.
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Forget Intel versus AMD--that was a chip-maker battle of yesteryear, played out inside your desktop PC. Now the real CPU war is happening inside smartphones and servers, where Intel is playing a desperate game of catch-up to ARM and a few new pretenders, and there're billions of dollars at stake ... Server chip maker Smooth-Stone has just raised $48 million of venture cash to fund development of ARM-based server chips. The 12-man company is just two years old, but its bold plans to challenge

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“Daddy, What’s a Brand?” and 9 More Awkward Questions for Uncertain Times

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apple, employee, problem-solving, strategy

Published May 10, 2010 at 4:29 p.m.
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Naked, without its logo ... 1. "Daddy, what's a brand?" Chiquita, Victoria's Secret, The GOP, Amnesty International. They all use marketing and invite trust in a distinct belief system. They're all, to one degree or another, brands. For a brand, nirvana is when your good name is so widely endorsed that it enters the language. "Pass the Kleenex." "Google it." But that's the top of a long and slippery slope--look at Toyota and Tiger Woods. A healthy brand drives up your stock, and vice versa.

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Tech Companies Amassing Cash Billions, But Spending Frugally

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apple, apple's, development

Published April 27, 2010 at 12:02 p.m.
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According to the Financial Times, the ten largest U.S. tech companies have added $65 billion to their cash reserves over the last year. What are they doing with the money? Not a lot, it would seem ... The FT pins the growth at something like a 40% increase in the "cash mountains" the big tech companies own, and it's all during the last year. Importantly, this apparent gain in fortune has occurred even while really big, established names like Microsoft, IBM and Cisco Systems are reporting

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Today in Most Innovative Companies

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apple, performance, steve jobs

Published March 15, 2010 at 7:48 p.m.
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Daily news of note from our Most Innovative Companies, including Microsoft, Apple, Nokia, Frito-Lay, and Google ... Nokia: Apple and Nokia have been at loggerheads ever since they sued and countersued one another over patent-infringement. Now, Nokia is upping the ante, requesting Apple's antitrust claims against the Finnish mobile device maker be thrown out, and accusing the Cupertino-based firm of some unfair legal diversions. According to a Nokia court document: "These non-patent counterclaims

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Report: $499 iPad Costs Apple $230 to Make, Bring on the Discounts!

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apple, development, iphone

Published Feb. 10, 2010 at 1:53 p.m.
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iSuppli has again done its trick of totaling a device's component costs to show the kind of profits the maker can get. This time, it's the fabled iPad ... and iSuppli's data implies there's room for Apple to maneuver on sales price ... iSuppli reckons that the most expensive part of the device will be its screen, which tallies with the unusual IPS display tech, and the emphasis Apple itself put on the screen quality. Here's what it and other key components likely cost Apple: ... The screen: $80

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Big Record Labels Bailing on Spotify for U.S. Launch?

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apple, interview, strategy

Published Feb. 10, 2010 at 1:33 p.m.
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Spotify CEO and co-founder Daniel Ek hit the New Music Seminar in L.A. last week and all but boasted that his streaming music service which carries 7 million users in Europe will launch stateside as early as March ... But in recent days, music industry execs have sounded anything but on-board. Edgar Bronfman, the CEO of publishing behemoth Warner Music Group, told analysts in an Earnings Call yesterday that cloud music services like Spotify aren't the answer for WMG: ... "Free streaming services

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iPhones Might Get Automatic Location-Aware Ads

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apple, apple's, iphone, iphone's, management

Published Jan. 16, 2010 at 3:09 p.m.
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Some attention has been lavished on a recent Apple patent that involves using custom icons on the iPhone's homescreen--darn useful for contacts management. But inside the patent is something far more intriguing: adverts that know where you are ... Most commenters on the new patent are concentrating on the way it will relate to contact management on the iPhone--essentially it'll revolutionize the way it's currently done by letting you drop contacts onto the iPhone's home screens, complete with a

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Cracks Show in Google's Nexus One Strategy

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app store, apple, apple's, iphone, strategy

Published Jan. 11, 2010 at 4:49 p.m.
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Google's Nexus One just keeps popping into the news, but this time its for all the wrong reasons: Barely a week since its launch, the complaints targeted against it are growing from lots of angles. Did Google make a boo boo? ... Over at PCWorld is the most damning collection of charges against the Nexus One, and that's even without ripping into the nastiness of the "superphone" label used by Google's team during the launch event. That's since been called into question, after it turned out the

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