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Sony Trying to Buy All of Mobile Phone Maker Sony Ericsson

Sony is negotiating to buy Ericsson’s 50% stake in mobile phone maker Sony Ericsson, according to the Wall Street Journal. The move makes sense only if Sony intends to combine its operations for smartphones, tablets, handheld media players, gaming devices and, most importantly, online media services and apps and make them the most important part of Sony’s future. In short, stop thinking so much about and spending so much on TV sets!

Although Sony Ericsson is the world’s sixth largest hand set maker, it is an also-ran in smartphones with hardly a blip in smartphone market share. Still it made a profit of $120 million on revenue of $8.5 billion last year. The 50-50 joint venture was created in 2001.

No price for the buy-out was given. A portfolio of technology patents that belong to Ericsson is a complication as well as Sony Ericsson losing money in 2008 and 2009.

The Journal’s sources told it that Sony hopes to integrate tablets, smartphones, handheld gaming consoles and PCs to save on costs and synchronize the development of mobile devices. Let’s hope it also intends to do some innovation in products and services. Sony owns two brand names that have a lot of cachet globally, and both PlayStation and Walkman could be powerful marketing tools.

The fact that Sony’s online services will be separate from its mobile division is a handicap and a mistake that Sony should not make.

Sony’s purchase of the 50% stake that Bertelsmann owned of Sony BMG Music has worked out nicely because Sony Music is doing quite well these days.

But then, Sony’s always had all the pieces to do what Apple has done in digital media — both with hardware like the iPod and online services like iTunes — but Sony has never delivered. It seems too focused on salvaging its TV business, which Samsung, LG, Vizio and soon the Chinese have decimated. Amazon, which used to call itself the world’s largest book shop, is eating Sony’s lunch in eBooks and eReaders, a product category that Sony practically invented.

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Red Bee Media Lands Exclusive Multi-Year Deal with Liberty Global’s UPC

We have entered a world that increasingly provides consumers access to content on their TV set from pay TV companies, OTT services, on demand and their own locally stored content. The pay TV companies are being forced to offer access to all of it. For the subscriber, finding what they want to watch with a search of metadata and an electronic program guide (EPG), receiving impartial recommendations and getting accurate and complete information about available content has become one of the challenges of the digital media era.

Liberty Global, the largest cableco outside the States, thinks it has found a solution in Red Bee Media.

The UK’s Red Bee Media has signed an exclusive multi-year deal to provide metadata search and a recommendation engine for Liberty Global’s upcoming Horizon initiative that it will begin deploying at its UPC Broadband in Holland in 2012. Red Bee’s “next generation” metadata, it said, will help UPC subscribers find what they want to watch, whether it’s on pay TV, the Web or stored locally on the subscriber’s PCs or media server.

Red Bee Media will create and deliver metadata services for the Horizon platform. UPC Broadband said Red Bee Media will also supply metadata for its existing digital TV platforms in the Netherlands, Ireland and Switzerland.

The Horizon platform integrates pay TV, Web-delivered and personal content via a DVR that’s made by Samsung with technologies from Intel (for the processor), NDS, Nagravision, IOKO, Celeno (for its multi-MIMO Wi-Fi chips) and Empathy Labs.

A “simple and intuitive” interface plus a recommendation engine will let subscribers view and wirelessly share content on multiple TVs and other devices throughout the home, UPC said.

Andrew Kearney, VP of TV products at UPC Broadband, said, “Digital television has radicalized the way we watch television and opened up new opportunities for broadcasters to promote and stream their content across multiple platforms. Metadata is critical to the success of any TV platform, and Horizon is no exception.”

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Asus, Acer Join Tizen Brigade; HTC May Follow

Asus and Acer will join the Tizen brigade by shifting their Meego efforts to it, according to DigiTimes, and HTC is “currently evaluating its decision.” However, Asus is already selling a Meego-based netbook and Acer has planned a Meego-based tablet. The two have not said what they plan to do about those products.

DigiTimes also reported that Samsung will integrate its Bada OS with Tizen and a new Tizen app store will merge those of Meego and Bada.

A Different Viewpoint
Wireless Watch’s Caroline Gabriel says a development environment for Tizen will be based around HTML5 and the carrier driven WAC (Wholesale Application Community), which shows LiMO’s roots as an attempt to provide an operator friendly alternative to Android and iOS.

There is little chance that Tizen will have any success in robbing Android and iOS of their market share in mobile devices, she said. Like Meego, whose biggest market share is the in-car market, Tizen may find a role in the “Internet of things” as a growing range of devices require an embedded browser and connectivity, and an OS to support them.

That might give Intel some useful influence in the embedded space, she said, where it is starting to push Atom, it is effectively abandoning Meego in its primary mobile drive, in smartphones, tablets and ultrabooks. Intel now seems more likely to support Android and Windows, recognizing that it will not succeed in making an own-controlled OS dominant, she said.

11,000 Libraries Offer Kindle eBooks

About 11,000 of the US’s 122,000 public libraries offer eBooks that can be read on Amazon's Kindle.

Each library determines how long the eBook can be checked out. Readers can write in the margins, which the library saves until the next time a person checks out the same book.

The outfit OverDrive provides the eBooks services to public libraries and schools.

There may be a shortage of books to check out, at least initially. The Los Angeles Public Library has 8,700 of its more than two million books available on Kindle and the New York Public Library has about 14,000 of its 15 or so million available. A new royalty plan may be needed.

Facebook Could Become THE Place to Watch Movies, TV Shows

Facebook, with 800 million subscribers, may soon become the most popular Web site for watching movies and TV shows and listening to music. Virtually everyone between 12 and 25 years old logs into Facebook multiple times a day, much more than they do to Netflix, Hulu, Apple’s iTunes or any other online video service.

At the Facebook developer forum F8 this week, founder Mark Zuckerberg showed, with help from Netflix founder Reed Hastings, apps from Hulu and Netflix that are pop-up players that let users view shows from their Netflix Timeline.

“We’re excited about all of these great applications and the social aspect of Netflix,” Hastings said, but added that an “outdated privacy law” prevents it from integrating Netflix into Facebook in the US. The integrated Netflix app will be available outside the States but not in the US at launch because of the 1988 Video Privacy Protection Act. There is a proposed bill in Congress that would clarify the law and let users access the integrated app.

DirecTV, Dish’s Blockbuster, Flixster and Dailymotion were also shown as Facebook video partners.

Warner Bros, Miramax Films and the BBC are already renting their goodies on Facebook. Miramax said it hopes to reach 150 million or more Facebook friends within the next 18 months.

One benefit for content owners is that they can show their content on any device that supports Facebook: PC, iPad plus any smart TV or adapter that has a full Facebook app — some apps, like the one on Roku STBs is just a photo viewing app, and it is unclear if these will be updated with the extended entertainment platform. It can also be shown in any and every country with the click or two of a mouse.

The service will allow Facebook friends to share their favorite music, movies and TV shows, becoming their primary entertainment hub. Facebook, as we have reported several times, is developing its own music platform and will offer content from third-party services.

Facebook made the announcement this week at its F8 conference, a move that could:

- Directly threaten online services like iTunes, Netflix, Hulu, Amazon and its LoveFilm plus Walmart’s Vudu. However, these services can launch their own Facebook apps to sell and rent content.

- Allow recording companies and even artists to sell directly to consumers.

- Give movie producers and TV networks a distribution route directly to consumers — no middle man needed and no cut of the revenue to distributors.

- Allow studios and TV networks to distribute to every device that supports Facebook — and they all do or will shortly.

- Enable content owners to distribute to any and every country.

Facebook might even display the music or show a friend is enjoying.

Spotify, Rhapsody, Rdio, MOG and France’s Deezer are included in the launch of the Facebook music platform. Some will be free with ads, some paid and some will offer both options, according to rumors.

Facebook is adding new versions of its “Like” button such as “Read,” “Watched” and “Listened.”

What will Google and Apple do? What does this do to Sony and Microsoft and their dreams of success in the online video market?

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Digital Albums Outsell Tracks for Second Time

Thanks in part to Lil Wayne’s “Tha Carter IV,” digital albums sold better than digital tracks for the second time in the history of this digital era, according to Billboard.

Billboard said that last week, digital album sales represented more purchased music than digital singles, as singles 22.4 million units and albums sold 2.28 million units, but when multiplied by 10 to account for the number of tracks on an album they account for 22.8 million units.

Most albums do consist of more than 10 tracks but the 10-track-per-album method is the traditional measure used to calculate album equivalents.

Lil Wayne’s album sold 362,000 digital copies this week, representing 38% of all its sales, and the Red Hot Chili Peppers album “I’m With You” sold 104,000 digital copies, representing 45% of its total sales.

This is only the second time tracks from digital albums surpasses digital tracks purchased individually. The last time this happened was in November 2010 when the Beatles’ catalog launched on iTunes.

There’s a chance this could happen again soon, as digital track sales are up 11% so far this year and digital album sales are up 20% this year.

Jesta Digital’s Bitbop Launches Online/3G Subscription Service in Germany

Watch out Netflix, Hulu, Amazon and your LoveFilm! Here comes Bitbop!

The German-American company Jesta Digital is launching its online and 3G video service Bitbop in Germany with full-length, commercial-free US and German TV series on PCs, tablets and smartphones. The monthly subscription is €9.99 ($14). It’s a bit like Hulu Plus and will add movies in the future.

The company did not say whether it will try to persuade makers of smart TV sets, Blu-ray players and smart TV adapters to add the Bitbop app to their devices. It’s presumed that Jesta will unless deals with content owners prohibit that.

Bitbop subscribers get unlimited viewing of about 3,000 episodes from series such as “Entourage,” “Sex and the City,” “Sopranos” and “Breaking Bad.” German titles include “Stromberg,” “Anna und die Liebe” and “Die Wochenshow.”

Bitbop has content deals with about 15 TV broadcasters and studios including ARD, ZDF, ProSiebenSat.1, Viacom’s MTV Networks and Paramount, Sony Pictures and Time Warner’s HBO and Warner Bros.

Bitbop has been testing the German service since May 2011.

Chris Hoerenz, chief marketing officer of Jesta Digital said, “The convergence of TV, the Web, smartphones and tablets has long been a topic of discussion at IFA. Consumers now expect to watch their favorite programs when they want and where they want on the device of their choice. Bitbop Germany answers that demand with a fairly priced, high-quality mobile entertainment service that finally gives consumers the ability to stream and download television programs across a variety of devices.”

Well, consumers also want to watch on their TV sets so we expect Jesta Digital will add that capability.

Reid Genauer, VP of marketing, said Jesta Digital is working with content providers “to help define the new and diverse ways that popular entertainment can be viewed and enjoyed.” He said Bitbop lets consumers create “a fully customized TV viewing experience” by combining intuitive content discovery tools with the flexibility of watching from home or on the go.”

Bitbop was previously Fox Mobile Group until the investment firm Jesta Group acquired it from News Corp in December 2010 and placed it under the Jesta Digital umbrella. In the States, Bitbop has been available since in August 2010 but only on mobile devices.

We don’t know whether it supports Apple’s AirPlay, which would let iPads stream the videos to a TV that is connected to an Apple TV.

In the States, Jesta Digital operates other mobile services such as Jamba, Jamster, Mobizzo and iLove.

The German launch was made this week at the IFA trade fair in Berlin.

Will HP Halve Its PC & Printer Operations?

HP chief Léo Apotheker has made it clear that he doesn't see HP as a consumer products company because it's too slow in moving to accommodate the changing market. He wants to spin out or sell the PC operations and concentrate on selling software and services to the corporates. However, his announcements do not explain two seeming contradictions:

- Many HP PCs are sold to businesses, and the server business is thought to be very profitable. Wouldn't any acquirer of the PC division want to get the server operation? Without servers being included, the value of HP's PC business drops significantly.

- If you walk into any electronics retailer that sells PCs, you see lots of HP printers, both ink jet and laser. The consumer portion of HP's printer operations are large and profitable. If Apotheker wants out of the consumer business, does he plan to cut the printer operations in half?

Without the corporate server and printer operations, the value of HP's PC business would be a great deal less.

Apple & Samsung Are at Top of CE Market

It has become clear that Apple and Samsung are the two leading contenders for supremacy in the digital media era.

What they both have, as does LG to a somewhat lesser degree, is a flair for hardware design. Consumers are attracted to their products and retail store sales reps typically recommend Samsung TVs and Apple iPhones, iPads and iPod touchs.

The companies are quite different in some ways. Samsung makes semiconductors including the processors that go in Apple's iOS gear, TV sets and Blu-ray players, for example, but they butt heads in smartphones, tablets and PCs (sort of). Apple offers the iTunes store and media manager, for which Samsung does not have an answer. Apple is gaining more control over its sales and service operations by opening retail stores that are near the consumer. Samsung remains a distant and often difficult-to-reach company.

Apple clearly has the lead in software, but Samsung chairman Lee Kun-hee has publicly called for his company to upgrade its software efforts even to the point of making acquisitions.

The likes of Sony, Nokia and the Wintel gang that included HP, Dell, Acer, Lenovo and Asus are becoming also-rans in the digital media market. Evidence of that show in the PC makers' quarterly financial reports. Apple's revenues in China have even passed China-based Lenovo, for example.