The Peek Bites The Dust

Can’t believe a service/device predicated solely around the worst thing in the world, email, would fail to catch on. 

Next they’ll be telling us the Tax Time! board game wasn’t a big hit this holiday season. 

"Think Loss."

Speaking of profit problems, Sony lost $2 billion on revenue of $23.37 billion last quarter. For the full year, the losses are going to be more like $3 billion. Ouch.

The upside is that they just got a new CEO, Kazuo Hirai. Maybe he can come in and do the “Think Profit” moves. Sony needs it. Badly. 

“Think Profit.”
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“Think Profit.”

Fathoming Facebook

Amidst my snark, there are a few high level things about Facebook’s numbers that I find interesting.

First:

Second:

Third:

Fourth:

I certainly don’t love everything about Facebook, but there’s no denying that it’s an impressive company — one of the most impressive ever built. You have to respect the fact that they have no fear when it comes to completely changing their product on the fly. Most companies would not have the balls to do half of what Facebook has done over the past few years from a position of power. That alone is why I’ve been bullish on Facebook for a long time. 

Obviously, the entire Internet is creaming itself over S-1 filing right now. But I actually don’t think it’s unjustified. When you consider the Google numbers listed above, it’s exciting to think that we’re entering a new era of growth and prosperity for technology companies. It’s exciting not just for Facebook, but for everyone in this space.

The cynics will say these good times won’t last. And they’ll ultimately be right because well, nothing lasts forever. But as the Internet and technology in general continues to be intertwined into the lives of every person on this planet, I can’t help but think this is all just the start of something that we can’t even fathom right now. 

Longform for iPad

Great new app by the Longform guys. They auto-stock and auto-curate longer form articles from various publications for you to read on your iPad (optionally using Readability to remove the clutter). 

I’m a big fan of services like Instapaper and Read It Later, but I recognize that plenty of people don’t want to take the time to go out and find their own content to read later (though those services have their own way of surfacing curated content as well). This is a nice alternative that fulfills Longform’s mission of surfacing comprehensive journalism. And, of course, it works with Instapaper and Read It Later too. 

The app is $4.99 in the App Store. 

Zuckerberg's S-1 Letter

The most interesting part:

By helping people form these connections, we hope to rewire the way people spread and consume information. We think the world’s information infrastructure should resemble the social graph — a network built from the bottom up or peer-to-peer, rather than the monolithic, top-down structure that has existed to date. We also believe that giving people control over what they share is a fundamental principle of this rewiring.

Which reads suspiciously like: “Dear Google, suck it.”

From Cupertino With Love

No clue if this 1.3 megapixel-equipped iPod nano is real or not (though it has a certain legit quality to it). But the idea of a super-stealth spy cam appeals to me. Embassies worldwide will be put on alert for the new iPod nano. 

The Bing Backup Plan

Microsoft is going on the offensive. And they’re not just targeting Google Search, they’re targeting Gmail, Google Docs, and Chrome as well with their “Putting People First” ad campaign. 

Given Google’s stumbles, Microsoft’s timing is right. But these battles ultimately are ultimately still about the products themselves. It’s not enough to say you’re better, you have to actually be better to make users switch. And in the case of something like search, you have to be so much better that it’s noticeable beyond a doubt.

Despite what Microsoft may think and say, Bing isn’t there yet. And I’m not sure they’ll ever get by conventional means. But they do have a very real opportunity right now — not by getting better, but by Google getting worse. Which sounds absurd, but it’s happening.  

For their part, Google is attempting to counter these ads with their own ads. Which, unlike the Microsoft ads, are not a good idea. If you’re trying convince me that your privacy and data changes aren’t bad, the absolute last thing I’m going to believe is a paid advertisement.

BGR Kills Comments Too

Continuing the trend, BGR has decided to shut down comments as well — at least temporarily until they can come up with a better option. 

Ever notice how everyone is always in search of the “better option”? At some point we’re probably all going to have to recognize that the actual problem is a part of human nature.

Amazon Feels The Profit Squeeze

Just to follow up, Amazon has released their numbers. As expected, net income doesn’t look great — $177 million, down 58 percent year over year. But at least it’s not a loss (which Amazon had warned it might be).

That $177 million is on sales of $17.4 billion. Crazy. That’s what low margins — and selling hardware at a loss — will do to you.

Speaking of 177, that’s also the percentage that Amazon says Kindle sales increased during the holiday period when compared to the previous year — which means basically nothing since Amazon refused to release actual numbers last year. And they still refuse to this year.

Looking forward, Amazon expects profit to be anywhere from $100 million — to a $200 million loss next quarter. Ouch.

To be fair, unlike my earlier statement, Amazon did make more money in the entire quarter than Apple did in one day last quarter, but just barely: $177 million versus around $145 million.

But that’s an average. I’m sure during some of the busy shopping days, Apple actually did make more money in one day than Amazon did for the entire quarter.

Amazon’s profit for all of 2011 was $631 million. As a reminder, Apple made $13.06 billion in profit last quarter. Perhaps not a fair apples-to-apples comparison, but not exactly apples-to-oranges either.

A Tale Of Two Catalysts

Amazon will announce their earnings later today. As I outlined in October, the results this past quarter will highlight the difference between Apple and Amazon.

Writes Tricia Duryee:

Here’s one data point: For the holiday period, Apple’s gross margin was an impressive 44.7 percent, up from 38.5 percent a year earlier. Meanwhile, analysts are estimating that Amazon’s operating margin will fall to 1.3 percent from 3.6 percent last year.

44.7 percent versus 1.3 percent. 

What does that mean? It means that even though Amazon should report record revenues, their profit will likely be depressed — probably badly depressed. Why? Well, first and foremost, most of the goods they sell have low margins. But even the goods that should have high margins — hardware — have low margins. 

Or worse. Take the Kindle Fire — Amazon’s most popular product (though don’t bother asking how many they actually sold) — it’s sold at a loss. 

Like Apple, Amazon has built an amazing business that has revolutionized more than one industry. But context is important. Right now, Apple probably makes more profit in a day than Amazon does in a quarter. 

Update: The numbers are out.

Put this way, it sounds so simple. And actually, it should be this simple. Unfortunately, this discounts the fact that Hollywood is run by people with their heads up their asses. Like this guy. It’s a fucked up nightmare of politics and greed. It’s amazing that anything good comes out of the system at all — it’s a testament to the true creative talent behind the films themselves.  You can bet that Apple, Amazon, Google, Microsoft, and all the rest have tried to talk Hollywood into the system above. They’ve probably been doing it for a decade, if not longer. Instead, we get bullshit like UltraViolet — a giant middle finger to consumers.
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Put this way, it sounds so simple. And actually, it should be this simple.

Unfortunately, this discounts the fact that Hollywood is run by people with their heads up their asses. Like this guy. It’s a fucked up nightmare of politics and greed. It’s amazing that anything good comes out of the system at all — it’s a testament to the true creative talent behind the films themselves. 

You can bet that Apple, Amazon, Google, Microsoft, and all the rest have tried to talk Hollywood into the system above. They’ve probably been doing it for a decade, if not longer. Instead, we get bullshit like UltraViolet — a giant middle finger to consumers.

Apple Updates Final Cut Pro X

After all the hoopla, it sounds like these are all great updates, as Jim Dalrymple details. Enough to appease the old Final Cut Pro diehards? We’ll see.

This will help:

There is also good news from Final Cut Pro developers. Intelligent Assistance is releasing a new app today called 7toX that will allow users to import Final Cut Pro 7 projects into Final Cut Pro X. The app uses Final Cut’s XML to achieve the import. The app will be on the Mac App Store and costs $9.99.

Responding to Feedback, Microsoft Makes Changes to Windows 8 File Management

That’s fine. But the real question is: how on Earth did anyone working at Microsoft look at something like this nonsense and think it was fine in the first place?

The fact that they needed this feedback is actually the most troubling thing here.

The symphony of my life.