By Gabriel Madway
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Apple Inc Chief Executive Steve Jobs holds his annual face-to-face meeting with shareholders on Thursday, and there will be no shortage of questions for a company famously stingy with information.
Apple’s shares have been treading water around the $200 mark since last October, despite a strong December-quarter earnings report and massive hype around the iPad tablet, Apple’s newest consumer device to be launched in late March.
With a market capitalization that has approached $200 billion in recent weeks, analysts say investors may be looking for a fresh catalyst to send shares that have already more than doubled from a year ago, even higher.
Shareholders want to know what Jobs has planned for the iPad, whether the iPhone can sustain its growth momentum amid greater competition, and what the company will do with its eye-popping $40 billion cash balance.
“It’s a big company now and there are questions about the limits to growth in any market, and once you hit that $200 billion number, which they’re close to, people have questions,” said Pacific Crest Securities analyst Andy Hargreaves.
The iPad has generated nearly as many questions as publicity, since no one knows what the consumer appetite is for a so-called “third category” of mobile device, which bridges the gap between smartphones and laptop computers.
“For most investors at this point, the iPad is a show-me story,” Oppenheimer analyst Yair Reiner said. Although Reiner is bullish on the device, he said some see it as a niche product, unlike the iPhone, iPod or MacBook.
Analysts’ estimates put first-year iPad sales at about 2 million to 5 million units. It will appear in stores as early as the end of March, starting at $499.
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By Phil Stewart
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Pentagon announced on Friday it has authorized the use Twitter, Facebook and other so-called “Web 2.0″ sites across the U.S. military, saying the benefits of social media outweighed security concerns.
The decision, which comes at a time of growing concern over cyber-security, applies only to the military’s non-classified network.
But it could mean big changes for large portions of the armed forces, including the Marines, which had selectively banned social media on work computers.
The Department of Defense also had bans in place since 2007 on accessing certain bandwidth-gobbling Web sites like YouTube on its network.
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Goldman Sachs economist Jim O’Neill thinks so, and discussed his concerns on Bloomberg Television. Japan has a declining savings rate and an exploding deficit. Its debt/GDP ratio is 200%, twice that of Greece. While the Eurocrats can probably bail out Greece if they want to, we would move into really unpredictable territory if the Japanese situation becomes untenable.
LONDON (Reuters) – British cable TV operator Virgin Media has chosen online video publisher Brightcove to provide and support short videos for its more than 11 million monthly website visitors.
The two firms said in a statement that Virgin Media would use the Brightcove platform to carry its online news, music and entertainment content alongside adverts.
The Nasdaq-listed British cable firm, which has recently launched an online music video service, said Virginmedia.com would be at the heart of its entertainment line-up.
Media companies around the world are increasingly making their content available online, to reach new users and the advertising money that is available on the Web.
Brightcove has said it has also seen an increase in companies asking about their services since the start of the economic downturn, as they look to launch new services but hold back the costs.
Brightcove, which is privately held, already has partnerships with British broadcasters ITV Channel 4, Five, BSkyB and STV. The firm last week announced a deal with Turner Broadcasting to support its content throughout Europe.
(Reporting by Kate Holton; Editing by Greg Mahlich)
By Yinka Adegoke
NEW YORK (Reuters) – New Yorkers who want to watch online videos or family photos on their TVs will soon be able to do so on their own personal TV channel if they are Cablevision Systems Corp subscribers.
It is the latest attempt by the U.S. cable TV industry to remain relevant as a rising number of subscribers spend more time watching videos and viewing photos and chatting online.
Cablevision, which serves 3 million homes in the New York area, will start a trial service in June for customers who buy both video and Internet access from the company.
Named PC to TV Media Relay, Cablevision said the technology will allow the customer to transfer anything available for display on their PC for viewing on a dedicated TV channel.
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NEW YORK (Reuters) – Xerox Corp has sued Google Inc and Yahoo Inc, accusing them of infringing the document management company’s patents related to Internet search.
In a lawsuit filed last Friday in the U.S. District Court in Delaware, Xerox said Google’s Web-based services such as Google Maps, YouTube and AdSense advertising software, as well as Web tools including Yahoo Shopping, infringe patents granted as far back as 2001.
Xerox seeks compensation for past infringement and asked the court to halt the companies from further using the technology.
Xerox’s patents cover such technology as a system for generating queries for information related to a document, and methods for integrating information from documents and other data, Xerox said in a court filing.
A Yahoo spokeswoman said the company does not believe it is infringing the patents, and that it plans to fight the case.
Google Senior Litigation Counsel Catherine Lacavera said in an emailed statement that the claims are entirely without merit and that the company will “defend against them vigorously.”
The case is Xerox Corp v. Google Inc et al, U.S. District Court, District of Delaware, No. 10-00136.
(Reporting by Franklin Paul and Alexei Oreskovic; Editing by Richard Chang and Maureen Bavdek)
Gate judges use their mobile devices while waiting for the race to continue during the first training run for the men's Downhill race at the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics in Whistler, British Columbia, February 10, 2010. REUTERS/Wolfgang Rattay
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Nintendo will bring its latest dual-screen handheld video game system to the United States at the end of March, the company said on Wednesday.
The Nintendo DSi XL will go on sale in the U.S. on March 28 for $189.99. The device features larger screens than the DS models currently on the market.
The DSi XL is already available in Japan.
Nintendo, maker of the Wii, is the leading vendor of both home and handheld video game consoles in the U.S. According to industry tracker NPD, Nintendo sold around 420,000 DS units in January.
Rival Sony sold around 100,000 units of its PSP hand-held device in the month.
(Reporting by Gabriel Madway, editing by Gerald E. McCormick)
LONDON (Reuters) – More than three-quarters of scientists in China use the search engine Google as a primary research tool and say their work would be significantly hampered if they were to lose it, a survey showed on Wednesday.
Google’s future in the country is uncertain following a row with Beijing, but Chinese scientists asked by the Nature journal how much they rely on Google said it was vital for finding academic papers, information about discoveries or other research programs and finding scholarly literature.
“Research without Google would be like life without electricity,” one Chinese scientist said in the survey, which asked more than 700 scientists for their views.
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By Manuela D’Alessandro
MILAN (Reuters) – A Milan court convicted three Google Inc executives on Wednesday for violating the privacy of an Italian boy with autism by letting a video of him being bullied be posted on the site in 2006.
Google, which will appeal the six-month suspended jail terms in Italy, also heard that European Union antitrust regulators were looking into complaints about it from three online firms.
Google said it was confident it would avoid formal investigation by the European Commission.
It said the Milan verdict “poses a crucial question for the freedom on which the internet is built” as none of its employees had anything to do with the video.
“They didn’t upload it, they didn’t film it, they didn’t review it and yet they have been found guilty,” said Google’s senior communications manager, Bill Echikson, in Milan.
The court convicted senior vice-president and chief legal officer David Drummond, former Google Italy board member George De Los Reyes and global privacy counsel Peter Fleischer. Senior product marketing manager Arvind Desikan was acquitted.
The executives, none of whom are based in Italy, do not face actual imprisonment as the sentences were suspended, while an appeals process in Italy can take many years.
They were not in Italy for the hearing. Drummond is based in California, Fleischer in Paris and Desikan in London, while De Los Reyes has since retired, Echikson told Reuters.
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