While Blackberry, Samsung, and Sony have for the most part been unsuccessful in selling their tablet devices, Apple continues to enjoy incredible profits with another 15 million units estimated to sell within the second half of this year. So what makes Amazon’s attempt to compete any different?

Price. At only $199, the Fire is less than half the price of its competitors, making it an extremely attractive alternative considering its software is even based on Android. But how is it possible for Amazon to profit from this? User content is even saved on Amazon Cloud Storage for free. The answer lies in Amazon’s overall business. Unlike Blackberry, Samsung, and Sony, Amazon is an online retailer. As long as users purchase ebooks, magazines, music, movies, tv shows, etc. from their Kindles, then it does not matter if Amazon makes any profit on the device itself. This simple difference may be the answer to competing with the much more expensive iPad 2. As Blackberry is struggling to get rid of their Playbooks, 95 000 people have ordered the Fire on just the very first day it was announced.

Amazon, together with Google, may stand a chance against Apple. Which would be especially nice for Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, considering he also owns €1.5 Billion worth in stocks of Google.

Read more at: http://www.independent.ie/business/jeff-bezos-the-battle-of-the-tablets-2893086.html

Research in Motion is in trouble. Since 2008, Research in Motion has lost “almost 84 percent of its value” dropping in worth from $80 Billion to less than $13 Billion in just a few short years.

What was once know as “the business phone” is now fading into the background behind the iPhone and mass of Android phones. Known mostly for its security and reliability, RIM has taken major damage to its reputation with not a first connection failure, but second in recent succession. For personal use, BBM had been Blackberry’s main exclusive feature. 4 days without the instant messaging however, has caused many to lose faith in the product and make the switch (which might have happened anyways since Apple’s iMessage is now essentially taking away one of Blackberry’s strongest selling points).

Things need to change. Financial analysts and shareholders are in the process of trying to get executives Lazaridis and Balsillie to leave their positions, and are hoping for some transformational chief executive to appear and turn around the company. With innovative leadership and more technology expertise on board, many believe RIM can turn around and come back. Being acquired by Oracle is another option. But something needs to be done quickly.

More at: http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/biz/archives/2011/10/17/2003515934/3

With Google’s $12.5 Billion acquisition of Motorola Mobility, they not only gain an advantage Apple previously had, but they gain significant intellectual property as well.

The added capability of developing the physical hardware of the phones produced, as well as the android software, gives Google the complete control over the final product just as Apple has. Google can do exactly what they want with their devices, which will be quite interesting considering the innovation the company possesses. Whether it be new features or better integration of software however, Google must ensure that its other users (mostly HTC and Samsung) are not left behind. Google has promised for this deal not to affect the other companies and ensures quality in treatment, but they must make sure they believe it and do not turn to Microsoft for their software.

The second advantage Google gains, and perhaps their main motivation for the deal, is in the patents the company has. Right now Motorola has over 17000 patents (with another 7500 waiting to be approved) which David Drummond, Google’ chief legal officer, says puts Google “in a very good position to protect the Android ecosystem for all of our partners”. This large scale acquisition of patents however, is one in which both Google and Microsoft are aggressively pursuing.

Read more at: http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-20092362-94/google-to-buy-motorola-mobility-for-$12.5b/

Microsoft has finally closed the 8.5 Billion dollar deal to acquire the largest video calling software, Skype. What does this mean for Microsoft?

Users

With Google’s G+ user base quickly rising to 40 million users in competition with Facebook, Microsoft is also rapidly expanding its user base. Microsoft’s purchase of Hotmail in 1997 has allowed them to build up to their incredible 500 million active users a month. With the addition of Skype however, Microsoft instantly gains access to 145 million more active users.

Patents

With the acquisition of Skype Microsoft has gained 50 patents to its collection, including patents in “networking, speech recognition, and user interface”. The fact that Microsoft is also trying to purchase 6000 patents from Norton shows their aggressive competition against Google and their gains in patents from Motorola.

Integration

Skype’s video calling capabilities make deeply integrating the software into Window’s smart phones and positioned as a competitor to Apple’s iPhone Face Time very likely. Skype will also probably be found as part of the Window Live Messenger instant messaging program, adding features to their existing video chats. Finally, Skype has potential to be found incorporated into Outlook’s contacts and into the Xbox Live experience.

Read more at: http://www.networkworld.com/community/node/78945