This acquisition makes sense for a variety of reasons. Personally, I've been using SageTV as replacement for Dish network from Nov 2010. I've also been watching this company for some two years now. They have nifty little new hardware device (HD 300) that plays almost any multimedia file you throw at it. They also have a very nice DVR and EPG guide for those of us want to use OTA transmission and get rid of Cable/Satellite.
Now that Google has acquired SageTV one wonders what their plan is? Is SageTV going to be the base platform for building Google TV ver 2.0? What SageTV features are going to be integrated in to Google TV? Will Google continue to support DVR functionality in SageTV?
How about hardware HD 300? Is it going to be a reference platform for Google's partners (Logitech/Sony)? Is there a plan to build DVR-in-the-Cloud?
Two companies that will be watching closely are going to be NetFlix and Apple. SageTV offers a fantastic platform to build advanced multimedia capabilities. Only if Google can get license agreements with Studios and Television Networks they will be in a much better position to compete against Apple and possibly threaten NetFlix.
Should Google get into the bidding game for Hulu with Yahoo? (Does it make sense to Yahoo to acquire Hulu?). Hulu is still trying to prove its business model (free vs paid) to its overlords. It is not hugely successful in raising its advertisement revenue. Google has ambition to extend its search and advertisement beyond YouTube into the living rooms. Google TV is complicated to setup and expensive to buy for a common person. Combining the Hulu content with YouTube on the content side and simplifying setup and also reducing the cost with SageTV will be a big win for Google. Now Apple should worry about this compelling eco-system from Google.
Silicon: Intel reinvents chip design with 3D and 22nm
- Intel announced that it is going to use 3D chips technology in forth coming chips.
- High lights:
- Pack more processing power with a small form factor
- Less power consumption
- Extend Moore's law.
- Business Leaders
- Keep on the lookout for similar offerings from NVidea and AMD.
- Carefully compare alternative architectures (eg. ARM) against this.
- What sort of devices you can build with this architecture?
- How your existing investments in other architectures are affected?
- For End Users
- Interesting times ahead with more powerful, lighter, smaller and long lasting devices on the horizon
- More choice in terms of devices
- Expect to pay more initially for devices based on this new design.
- Video: Intel's Mark Bohr Explains the Design
Cisco Cius in NCIS: Los Angeles
- NCIS: Los Angeles is one program I llike to watch once in a while. SageTV records it automatically every week. I watch it whenever I've sometime to spare.
- This week Cisco Digital Display systems signage in building J piqued my interest with a reference to NCIS: Los Angeles. As usual NCIS: Los Angeles catered to in the building J showed that my favorite show was going to feature Cisco Cius.
- I'm a skeptic of the utility of Cius Tablet . I for one think Cisco would be better of creating a software for Telepresence End Point that runs in Android and iOS tablets.
- Well... I'm not the product manager!!!?
- I had the same thought when Cisco acquired Pure Digital (flip). I know you would say it is hindsight 20/20!.
- Product placement is a marketing technique used by many companies to promote their product to much wider audience.
- New products get introduced to much wider audience.
- Movies and TV shows get another source of revenue
- NCIS: Los Angeles is too generous in product placements.
- Recently one of the episodes prompted me to search for a sexy Chrysler car in the episode. In the end it wasn't Chrysler rather an expensive Aston Martin Rapide.
- Who would've thought Navy detectives would drive such an expensive car.
- Clever product placement.. huh.
- In the "Plab B" episode, NCIS analyst Nell uses Cius in the office and (surprisingly) in the moving car, in High Def!. Nice, does that demonstrate Cius's 3G capability!
- Remember "Super Size Me?". The same team has created another documentary that deals with the product placement in movies and TV shows, called "Greatest Movie Ever Sold" . I can't wait to watch it (in NetFlix - ofcourse).
Groupon... four months post Google offer! Doesn't look pretty.
- What goes on in the minds of Groupon management these days? Remember they turned down $6B dollar offer from Google in December, 2010. I thought it was a dumb decision by Groupon to turn down that offer from a giant internet company. They could've done much better with the muscle power of Google and built a strong barriers to entry for competition. It seems competition is mounting pressure everyday and the eventual successful IPO might be in jeopardy.
- Today every company that has a website with reasonable traffic seems to have a desire to tap in to this "Local Deals" market and consumers are tired of it.
- Local businesses are already feeling the negative effect of advertising with Groupon.
- Google plays a bigger part in it. Google shows recent Groupon deals in its local search page.
- Imagine the reaction of your regular customer when they learn the discounted price somebody paid for the expensive dinner they just had.
- Think about another issue, when a coupon expires Groupon shows your competitors deals "similar" offer. How would you feel about that?
- What was Groupon's strength again? Network effect? ( they had most number of local businesses posting deals with them?). How difficult it is for competition to reach out to these local businesses?
- At&T has announced that it is going to launch Groupon Competitor. It makes sense, it already has a relationship with local businesses through its Yellow Page Service.
- Expect announcement shortly from other Yellow Page companies. There are no barriers to entry in to this market for the entrenched players. So why wait?
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