Gregarius » BetaNews.Com » janvier 22, 2013

BetaNews.Com (5 non lus)

Google Q4 2012 by the numbers -- $14.42B revenue, $8.62 EPS

Publié: janvier 22, 2013, 10:08pm CET par Joe Wilcox

Today, I formally begin covering Google earnings, as I have done for Microsoft (a decade) and Apple (about six years). This first report won't be as thorough as the others, as I get my head around the financials, which share little in common with APPL and MSFT other than money. Today's earnings announcement is refreshing respite from third quarter's, when an incomplete press release pushed out early and while the market was open.

For calendar fourth quarter, revenue rose 36 percent to $14.42 billion, year over year; net revenue, excluding Traffic Acquisition Costs, was $9.83 billion, up from $8.13 billion. Net income climbed to $2.89 billion up from $2.71 billion. That's $8.62 earnings per share, including costs associated with discontinued operations. Operating income was $3.39 billion, down from $3.51 billion year over year.

Average analyst consensus was $12.36 billion revenue and $10.52 earnings per share, for the quarter. Revenue estimates ranged from $11.74 billion to $12.72 billion, with estimated year-over-year growth of 52 percent.

Advertising accounted for 94 percent of Google revenue, down from 96 percent a year earlier.

For the year, Google revenue reached $50.18 billion, up 32 percent from $37.9 billion. Motorola contributed $4.14 billion. Net income: $10.74 billion or $32.81 earnings per share. Average analyst consensus was $41.41 billion revenue and $39.73 EPS.

Following the announcement, and while the earnings call was still underway, Google shares rose nearly 5 percent in after-hours trading. Shares closed at $702.87 but traded at $736.75 at 5:32 PM EST. At 6:18 PM, increase topped 5 percent, with Google trading at $738.39.

CEO Speaks

"We ended 2012 with a strong quarter", Google CEO Larry Page says. "Revenues were up 36-percent year-on-year, and 8-percent quarter-on-quarter. And we hit $50 billion in revenues for the first time last year -- not a bad achievement in just a decade and a half. In today’s multi-screen world we face tremendous opportunities as a technology company focused on user benefit. It’s an incredibly exciting time to be at Google".

Page's voice sounded surprisingly weak during today's earnings conference call. But this isn't new. He boasts about the pace of innovation, which he claims is as great now as the dawn of the PC era. While bragging about new devices, he offers no explanation for Nexus 4 product shortages or explanation why "Nexus 7 continues to define the 7-inch tablet category".

The chief executive praises his company's work on the major competing mobile platform: "Google Maps for iOS was downloaded over 10 million times in the first 48 hours. In fact, six Google apps were included in Apple’s App Store Best Free Apps of 2012: including YouTube, Chrome, Google Search and Gmail".

"We're still in the early stages of that", Page says in response to a question about Knowledge Graph, which launched a quarter ago in seven languages. "We provide much better answers for people, which really grows the business". Analysts are interested in Google's push to offer answers over links, and how the approach changes the dynamics of the search business and how the company plans to monetize it.

Page is enthusiastic about Google Now. "Wouldn't it be great for the earnings call, if we answered all your questions without asking them".

Another analyst asked about the monetization of Google Maps. Page describes the service as "critical to search. To understand those queries, we have to understand where things are in the real world". So from that perspective, Google Maps already generates revenue, he says, by supporting search. Related to Maps, Page highlights Voice search as another valuable ancillary technology that indirectly generates revenue: "The importance of that is mobile, which is finding things".

Page describes the $249 Chromebook as the "holiday highlight. I love mine. It’s super easy to use, and it almost maintains itself. Open a Chrome tab on your phone, and everything syncs on your laptop with no extra effort required".

He boasts that "2012 was an amazing year for Google and he is "incredibly optimistic" about the year ahead.

Financial Highlights

TAC. Google's financials include Traffic Acquisition Costs -- that's revenue shared with partners. For Q4: $3.08 billion, compared to $2.45 billion a year earlier. TAC was one-quarter and 24 percent, respectively.

Paid Clicks increased 24 percent year over year and 9 percent sequentially.

Cost-Per-Click fell 6 percent yearly but increased 2 percent quarterly.

International: $6.9 billion outside the United States, accounting for 54 percent of revenues -- that's up 1 percent by year and quarter.

Motorola Mobile revenues reached $1.51 billion, or 11 percent for consolidated Google results.

Google revenue (excluding Motorola) was $12.91 billion -- that's up from 22 percent from $10.58 billion a year earlier.

Google-owned sites: $8.64 billion, up 18 percent from $7.29 billion.

Google Network (e.g., partner sites): $3.44 billion, up 19 percent from $2.88 billion.

Other: $829 million, up 102 percent from $410 million.

Google did not include Motorola Home, which the search giant recently agreed to sell. Motorola revenues would have been $2.3 billion, when including Home. Broader Google total revenue would have been $15.24 billion, up 44 percent year over year and 8 percent sequentially, if including Motorola Home.

Credits: meneame comunicacions, sl (photo); Google (charts)
Milouz Market keeps free software up-to-date

Publié: janvier 22, 2013, 8:56pm CET par Mike Williams

Managing the software on your PC can sometimes feel like a full-time job, as you have to find the best applications, download and install each one, then do your best to keep them up-to-date.

If you have better things to do with your time, though, you could just install Milouz Market, which can manage a lot of this almost entirely automatically.

The program must be installed itself, unfortunately (there’s no portable option). But that’s easy enough, and on its first launch Milouz Market will then scan your PC for all its supported applications. There are only just over 50, but the list does at least have plenty of big names, including 7-Zip, Adobe Flash, Adobe Reader, avast! free antivirus, AVG Free, CCleaner, Dropbox, FFDShow, Freemake Video Converter, GIMP, Google Chrome, Java, K-Lite Codec Pack, LibreOffice, Mozilla Firefox, Mozilla Thunderbird, Opera, Picasa, Recuva, Skype, UltraVNC, VirtualBox, VLC Media Player and µTorrent.

When the scan is complete you’ll see a grid-based report, with any programs requiring an update at the very top. Simply click the Update button for as many apps as you like (or use the Update All button to select everything), and Milouz Market will download and install everything for you.

Your system is fully up-to-date? You can also use the program to find and install interesting applications. Suppose you need a photo editor, for example – you might scroll down the report, see PhotoFiltre, and wonder if it could be useful. Clicking the Help icon will display a little more information, and if it looks good, clicking Update will download and install it automatically, without you doing anything else (no browser windows to open, no files to download, no setup program to navigate -- nothing).

And if you decide later that you don’t need one of the supported applications after all, then Milouz Market can still help. Just click the Delete icon to its right and the program will be uninstalled for you.

The obvious issue here at the moment is the relative lack of supported applications. There’s enough to be useful, though, and if this is a big problem for you then the author is openly inviting suggestions for new programs which he can add to the list (send an email to market@milouz.com).

There are also some smaller issues here and there. Hitting the Delete button will remove an application without asking for confirmation, for instance, which seems a little risky. And although this is nominally an English language version, it still includes fragments of French here and there (a “Fermer” button on the Help dialog, for example): no big deal, but it looks a little sloppy.

Still, Milouz Market, is small, extremely easy to use, and the author seems to have big plans for the future (you’ll be able to maintain a list of your software on a central server, for instance). We’ll be intrigued to see where the program goes next.

Photo Credit: xc/Shutterstock
What you need to know about Microsoft's 'New Office'

Publié: janvier 22, 2013, 8:48pm CET par Derrick Wlodarz
Even though Microsoft's lips have been sealed shut on the topic, launch of Office 2013 (and the new Office 365) is imminent. Speculation is fueled by the Office 2013 available on its Home Use Program (HUP) website, something which has customarily preceded most prior Office launches. If the show is about to begin, then all of these preparatory charades are quite the indicator.

Martin Brinkman provided a wonderful in-depth preview on Office 2013 this past summer, and the great majority of what he covered is still valid in the final bits. I've personally been using a MSDN copy of Office 2013 Pro Plus since about late October and am quite pleased with the product. Ever since Microsoft dabbled with x64 capability in Office 2010, in-house developers increased memory and security aspects that 64-bit provides and the result is a smoother, safer Office experience. Microsoft posted a long Technet article on the benefits of x64 Office 2013 this last summer.

There's a surprising level of confusion out there, even among fellow IT professionals, about what the new flavors of Office entail. And rightfully so, with Microsoft making reference to Office 2013 and Office 365 interchangeably as of late -- even coining a new unified term, the "New Office". After some careful research on the web and doing some of my own digging, I've come to a pretty good understanding of where Microsoft is headed with everything Office-related. Here's the full scoop.

Office 2013 = Office 365 = "New Office"

Office 2013 is all-but-confirmed for a January 29 launch under three different-but-related product names. You may see reference to any of these monikers, depending on which route you're heading with your Office upgrade path. Thanks to Microsoft watcher Mary Jo Foley, we now have a pretty crisp picture of where all these editions fall into line.

The key distinction between the editions here lies, first and foremost, in whether you plan on going the cloud-based subscription route, or if you are going the boxed copy route. The more traditional physical copies of Office 2013 follow a similar pattern of previous releases, especially if you are familiar with Office 2010's flavors. For $140 you will be able to pick up the Home & Student edition; Home & Business will run $219; and Professional will cost $400 (not shown below). Office 2013 Standard and Pro Plus are available through the educational and Software Assurance channels only, meaning you won't be able to purchase these in any store.

Microsoft truly believes, however, that the cloud subscription route (Office 365) is where the public wants to go. I'm personally a boxed-copy kind of guy, so the subscription model is a tough sell, but I can't predict what others will think of this. Adobe paved the way for the pay-as-you-go model when they took Creative Suite to the cloud earlier last year, and Microsoft has followed suit with Office.

Looking at the matrix above, you'll notice how aggressive Microsoft is with the monthly price tags, especially at the Office 365 Home Premium and University levels. Home Premium is probably the juiciest option of all, allowing for up to 5 devices to be used on a single subscription for under $9 per month. This edition of Office 365 is the one Microsoft hopes to lure people over to who are used to the boxed Home & Student edition, that has offered multi-user installation rights since version 2003. Microsoft has nixed this nicety in Office Home & Student 2013, presumably to bait home users to switch over.

Another item that confuses some folks: which editions of Office 365 will most resemble the traditional O365 offerings aimed at businesses. More specifically, the Office 365 flavors that feature Exchange Online, Lync Online, etc. Through various outlets, it has been confirmed that the Small Business Premium level and higher will be the ones that contain downloadable Office 2013 copies alongside Microsoft's hosted Exchange Online, Lync Online, and the other business-centric items companies care about.

These new business focused subscription levels will fit alongside Microsoft's current Office 365 lineup, which has price points for every comfort level. I'm personally curious to see where Microsoft takes the new Small Business Premium offering, since I ratted out the current Small Business (P1) Plan pretty heavily in a previous op/ed on Office 365. One of my biggest gripes about the current P1 offering is its lack of 24/7 phone support for customers, even though the Email Only plan (which costs $2 less per month) does get full phone support treatment. Hopefully, Microsoft listened to the complaints about this discrepancy and will make some changes come later this month.

Current Office 365 Customers get Hit with Improvements as Well

One of the nice parts about the upcoming unified Office 2013/Office 365 launch: Microsoft is going to extend quite a few improvements to its current Office 365 customer base as well. Not to be left behind, they are going to be notified via their web portals about a looming "refresh" that will introduce quite a few new features and enhancements. Seeing as I've already moved some of my FireLogic customers to Office 365, this will definitely be a pleasant surprise.

Some of the biggest things hitting O365 during the next refresh cycle include:
- All Office 365 customers with access to Web Apps currently will be getting their newest iterations as they become available. The initial (current) versions of the Office Web Apps were admittedly a bit weak and Microsoft has both polished their look and upped their feature sets quite heavily.
- Lync Web App will be getting HD video capability and group-chat multi-user simultaneous conferencing capability. The current version of Lync Web App is pretty poor, so this will be a welcome improvement on all levels.
- Subscribers with access to downloadable Office copies will get their links updated to Office 2013, as Microsoft will be retire Office 2010 download links. Keep in mind that Office 2013 requires Windows 7 or 8 (sorry Vista users).
- The first ones to get access to the "new" features above will be Exchange Online-only customers, followed by E-level customers. The rest of the editions will follow suit afterward. The entire upgrade of the existing Office 365 network will be done by November 2013, Redmond claims.
The new landscape of what Office 365 looks like is starting to become more clear, as the lines blur with what Microsoft considers solely "traditional Office software" in the way we used to know it. Soon the "New Office" will be just that: a fresh, bold direction for a flagship product that has withstood the test of time. When Microsoft proclaimed it was "All In" with the cloud a few years back, now we can safely say it wasn't joking around.

Want your Boxed Copy of Office? It will cost You (a Bit) Extra

If there's one way to stick it to those who prefer to get their software the old school way, it's to tack on an artificial price premium. Not only that, but Microsoft is killing off one of the finer points with purchasing the boxed edition of Office (Home & Student edition, specifically) in that every flavor will have a single user install limit. Seeing that Home & Student 2013 costs a few more bucks than 2010, it's more than a little upsetting.

It's fairly clear that Microsoft's reasoning behind the price premiums is to slowly carrot-and-stick users onto its Office 365 plans. Joe Wilcox does a good job in outlining the new price points for the boxed editions of 2013, and the results won't win over any fans who were planning on upgrading via DVD. License to license: 180 percent increase between Office Home and Student 2010 and 2013 versions and 76 percent for Home and Business. Looked a differently, Microsoft nearly trebles Office Home and Student 2013 for anyone wanting three licenses.

Was it a good idea on Microsoft's part to raise these prices so sharply? Yes and no. If you believe in the manifest destiny of Microsoft's Office 365 cloud path, then yes, winning over users via a price war may be the ticket. However, even among my own customer base, there are many users who refuse to pay for a subscription on a piece of software that has always been known for its boxed copy releases. Changing that attitude among those potentially upgrading will be a difficult sell.

SkyDrive is on a Bold Crash Course with Google Drive, Dropbox

Perhaps one of the most under-the-radar aspects of the recent Microsoft wave of updates is the continual push to get SkyDrive adoption on the up and up. To a certain extent it's working quite well. My Google Apps customers have been loving Google Drive since it came out in mid 2012, but SkyDrive's "me-too" approach to the online storage market is a welcome competitive strategy. In my own informal testing, it's a solid alternative to Google Drive, and for already-heavy Office users, it may be a no-brainer.

It's nice to know that Skydrive now offers 7GB of free storage space (topping Google Drive, which only has 5GB free), which is pretty commendable, seeing as the popular Dropbox only offers a measly 2GB. Office 365 Home Premium users get an even sweeter deal, however, because Microsoft tosses in a bonus 20GB of SkyDrive space per user. The storage is completely stackable on the free 7GB already available, bringing you to a whopping 27GB at no extra cost. I have my reservations about moving to a subscription-based model for my Office needs, but this may be the freebie that brings me over the top.

And unrelated to SkyDrive, Microsoft announced 60 free Skype minutes per month on Office 365 Home Premium subscriptions. If you happen to be one of those folks who increasingly use Skype as a phone replacement, this could be of good value to you as well.

Will Microsoft's push to unify Office and Office 365 be a Winning Strategy?

It's anyone's guess if the cloud model for Office is the right way to go. On the outset, yes, the pricing is darn attractive and the fringe benefits you get scream value, especially over that of the boxed editions. But tossing freebies and likable pricing at users won't change the fact that there is a perception gap that Microsoft has to hurdle. No matter which way you slice it, Office started its life as a boxed product and there is a sizable user base that will likely never see it any different way.

I'm going to give Microsoft the benefit of the doubt on this experiment. The critics claimed that Exchange users would never take their email to the cloud; yet Office 365 got its rise to glory by tearing down the notion of on-premise servers. If Microsoft has its way, perhaps more of its core software base will move into a subscription model, paving the way for a fresh new era at Microsoft. Perhaps this could be the start of Microsoft reinventing itself and getting us prepared for a future of paying monthly for the software we need.

Is this necessarily such a bad approach? While I'm personally an old-school guy when it comes to my software, I think if the price is right and the terms are customer-centric, then the cloud can actually be a good thing. As users we are already accustomed to paying monthly for our cell service and internet service, so adding Office rights to that mix may not be so crazy after all.
Surface Pro goes on sale February 9th

Publié: janvier 22, 2013, 8:27pm CET par Alan Buckingham

Nearly three months ago, Microsoft debuted the Surface RT tablet alongside its brand new operating system, Windows 8. Things have not been all-rosy since that fateful day in late October, and rumors of both failure and success run rampant. But all the while the company kept what is, perhaps, its trump card in hand -- the Surface Pro.

This is the tablet that Microsoft expects to be the big player, the one that will win over business users. Now we finally have some details about what to expect.

First and foremost the device will be released on February 9th, which is a bit later than much of the speculation had pointed to. The tablet-hybrid will also pack some serious power -- an Intel i5 processor and either 64GB or 128GB SSD. However, these details, along with more, have already been published.

There will also be an accessory market (isn't there always)? Those include three new Touch Cover Limited Editions in red, magenta and cyan, plus an optional Wedge Touch mouse. Covers will retail for $129 while the mouse will set you back a mere $69.

In addition to the Surface Pro, the company also unveiled a new model of the Surface RT -- 64GB without keyboard cover for $599.

Surface Pro itself lists for $899 for the 64GB model. No pre-order is yet available, and the 128GB model is not yet accessible from the site. Microsoft did confirm that both models will come with a "Surface pen with Palm Block technology, designed specifically to work with Surface to let customers edit, collaborate and get things done".

There is no word yet on when pre-orders will go live, but it would seem likely that it would do so fairly soon. The Surface RT is currently available at Microsoft stores, both brick and mortar, as well as the internet store and also at Best Buy and Staples. The Surface Pro will join that party in all of these locations as well.

Finally the company also announced new markets for its tablet family. Those include Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland.

So, what do you think? Will Surface Pro make you a believer in Windows 8 and tablets? Can it win over business? There are more questions than answers at this point.
My 5 really big, unbelievable tech predictions for 2013

Publié: janvier 22, 2013, 7:25pm CET par Joe Wilcox

Most analysts, journalists and pundits use the new year to rattle off lists of what might be. Well, my inside sources were on vacation over the holidays and then at the Consumer Electronics Show. This week I finally hooked up with them and can finally make some safe bets on what's ahead. The delay gives me one-month edge on everyone else -- 11 to be right.

You will be shocked by this 2013 will-be list. BetaNews uses nothing but the finest sources, culled through constant pestering, home phone calls and secret online and parking garage meetings. With that, I present the Big 5.

1. Apple will release a new iPhone. I know, I know, some people predict 2014, since the newest model is only about four months in market. But my Deep Throat-like source assures me there will be a new Apple handset this year. He (or perhaps she) is a real paranoid dude. We chatted via IRC, and I extracted this information painfully. The name, too. iPhone 6. Who would have guessed that?

2. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer will fire somebody. Yes, Steven Sinofsky's boot-in-the-ass was shocking enough. But my source says Ballmer will hack the head of someone really big. So watch for it. You have been warned. I'm told mid-level blogger or higher.

3. Google will give away free stuff during developer conference. After last year's fiasco, where Google I/O attendees got Nexus Q only for the product to go into limbo, many predicted no goodies this year. But my sources deep inside the Googleplex assure me that developers will get something. I had a hangout with these insiders last week, and somehow they used fake names on a service that doesn't allow them. Oh, what a crafty lot they are, which makes their leak all the more credible.

4. Apple will sell 50 million of something. Given all the recent rumors about Apple cutting iPhone display production by half and the stock sinking more than 30 percent in just four months, this one is harder to believe. Surely all those insiders selling Apple shares have got the dope on sales problems. But my Deep Throat source is emphatic about this tip being true.

5. The next big Samsung smartphone will be the Galaxy S IV. Well, that puts to rest rumors Samsung would keep Galaxy S III naming -- or adopt a derivative. The rumored thinking in South Korea: Ride the successful name to tens of millions more sales. But, alas, there won't be Galaxy S III II, after all. (I think Galaxy S3 two looks much better or Galaxy S III 2. Hey, this is the company with product Galaxy Tab 10.1 2.)

Editor's Note: You do know that nothing above is serious, right? This post attempts to make a point about rampant tech rumor stories and how ridiculous most of them are. Many rumor stories are obvious, like conjecture that is anonymously sourced. Too many others source another blog using unnamed source -- typically one. It's one thing to cull credible sources and something altogether different to source some blog's rumor post.

Using a single source is often careless. Referring to another blog or news source as single source is reckless. Reporting news based on a single, anonymous source is negligence. Good journalists should be mindful of their sourcing, particularly those sources who aren’t identified. One rampant problem: The increasing number of unnamed single-sourced blog posts or news stories that seemingly countless other blogs link to. Gossip and rumor run amok masked as news.

Let me be clear: Just because everybody says something is true doesn’t make it that way. Many rumor stories turn out to be partially or wholly wrong. It’s my observation that most rumor posts remain uncorrected when later proved false.

I sometimes write baiting headlines or provocative stories, but I, like my colleagues, stick to a principle: Write what you know to be true. What you know to be true can change for breaking stories, as more information becomes credibly available. But we refrain from rumor stories, which you will see sometimes here. They're quite rare, actually.

Photo Credit: ollyy/Shutterstock