Here's What Intel's New CEO Needs To Do To Stop Intel's Decline (INTC)

There's no question that Intel is in a quandary. The PC business it depends on is in a free fall and the next generation of devices –– smartphones and tablets, usually use chips from Intel's competitor, ARM Holdings. Intel's new CEO, Brian Krzanich is going to need to shake things up. Krzanich was named CEO earlier this week, replacing Paul Otellini who is retiring. Krzanich was no surprise. He had been COO. But he can't simply carry on. He needs to get Intel growing again. Microsoft's Ben Thompson and Marco Arment, creator of Instapaper, each wrote thoughtful blog posts with some good advice for him: Recognize that past strengths have become so-whats: Intel designs the highest-performance chips around. That's great for PCs and servers, but not so important for mobile devices where low-power/long battery life rules. Today, anyone can license ARM chips designs, modify them and send them to a manufacturer to be produced. That's what Apple does. Intel's secret strength is its massive foundry. Intel is one of the four biggest chip manufacturers in the world, Thompson points out. That won't change any time soon because it's too expensive to build a new foundry. This could be where Intel finds new growth. Become a contract manufacturer. If Intel can get over its "not-designed-here" mentality, it can become one of the world's biggest contract manufacturers even producing custom ARM chips. Custom silicon is a $30.7 billion market, market researchers say. Intel designs and manufactures its own chips, unlike ARM. Augment, don't torpedo. This doesn't mean that Intel should stop designing its own chips and "torpedo" its "cash cows," Arment says. Selling its own designs is why Intel's gross margins, while declining, are still over 50%. It means Intel should be willing to develop a contract manufacturing business alongside its good work in new areas like chips for next-generation low-power servers, such as HP's new Moonshoot servers. In fact, Intel is already trying to become a contract manufacturer. Sources say it has even signed up Cisco as its first big customer.SEE ALSO: How To Make Your LinkedIn Profile Gorgeous With Graphics Please follow SAI: Enterprise on Twitter and Facebook.Join the conversation about this story »    

THE APPLE INVESTOR: China Smartphone Competition Heats Up With Baidu (AAPL)

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AAPL Off With Markets  The market is off on continued global economy fears as eurozone industrial production fell and markets in China sold off. Shares of AAPL are off in early trading as investors worry about estimates for the quarter. Upcoming events include Tim Cook's keynote at the D10 Conference on May 29 and Apple's developer conference (WWDC) is slated to start June 11. Investors remain focused on iPhone penetration globally and the anticipated launch of the next generation iPhone in the fall; iPad adoption; market share growth of the Mac business as well as the upcoming refresh; the introduction of the anticipated Apple TV set; and platforms such as Siri, iAd and iBooks. Shares of Apple trade at 9.0x Enterprise Value / Trailing Twelve Months Free Cash Flow (including long-term marketable securities). Apple Rumored To Buy German TV Manufacturer (Apple Insider)Apple is said to be negotiating to acquire Loewe AG, a manufacturer and distributor of televisions, audio components and integrated entertainment systems (check out all the gadgets), with a final decision expected to be announced by the end of this week. According to sources, Loewe "has been advised by its financial advisor to accept the offer and a final decision is scheduled to be announced internally before 18 May 2012." It's not immediately clear what Apple would gain from this acquisition. They aren't one to buy into hardware, although this TV is slick! Anyone know Loewe's product line well enough to have ideas? Google Needs iOS More Than It Needs Android (SlashGear)Google has a problem, and it’s all about commitment and addiction. The update release of Google+ for iPhone has Android lovers up in arms. Google should prioritize Android users. After all, they’re the ones who support the search giant by buying an Android device in the first place. The blunt truth is that Google needs to convince Apple users to use Google + more than it does those of Android. Intel Making Chips Apple "Can't Ignore" (Forbes)Intel outlined its plan to catch up in the smartphone processor business at its annual investor day last week. "Our job is to ensure our silicon is so compelling, in terms off running the Mac better or being a better iPad device, that as they make those decisions they can’t ignore us," said Intel CEP Paul Otellini. Intel’s secret weapon: a massive corps of software engineers. The company helped Apple shift from PowerPC processors to Intel’s processors for the Mac. I'm sure Intel would be happy to help Apple make a similar shift in its smartphone and tablet businesses. If the price and performance is right, they could do it. Apple Second On Forbes Fastest-Growing Tech Companies List (Forbes)Forbes put together its list of America’s 25 Fastest-Growing Tech Companies. They combed more than 5,000 publicly traded technology companies, with sales growth of at least 10% for the past three fiscal years and over the latest 12 months. Companies also had to have three-to-five-year estimated earnings-per-share growth rates greater than 10%. Apple came in second, an astonishing feat for a company of its size. Its sales growth over the last three years has averaged 43%, and the company actually appears to be accelerating. Analysts Are Starting To Panic About Apple's Quarter (Business Insider)Didn't this happen last quarter too? On the heels of Credit Suisse's estimate reduction, analysts are starting to panic. Apple might be due for a big estimate cut. Katy Huberty at Morgan Stanley didn't lower her expectations, but she did address the issue and her estimates are already well below consensus. Apple has only guided this far below expectations once since June 2009. And that was for the September quarter of last year when Apple correctly predicted consumers would buy fewer iPhones as they waited for the next release. Baidu Set To Launch New Smartphone On Baidu Cloud (Reuters)Baidu is set to launch a new smartphone partnership this week, that will see the smartphone use an upgraded version of its mobile operating system. It will be similar to Baidu's partnership with Dell in which the two launched a smartphone running on Baidu's Yi platform. The new smartphones will run an upgraded version of Baidu Yi called Baidu Cloud. "We have a few partnerships coming up and will announce it in a week," according to Wang Jing, Baidu's vice president of engineering and head of mobile. That will put Baidu head to head with iOS and Android. Please follow SAI on Twitter and Facebook.Join the conversation about this story »

Here's Where Google Gets All Of Its Rock Star Talent (GOOG)

We already know where most of the talent leaving Google ends up — but where's it coming from? We did a search on LinkedIn for Google, using the "past company" and "current company" filters. From there, we tracked down where all Google is getting most of its talent. Google is one of the best technology companies, with some of the most enviable perks in the world. It's not surprising someone would leave one of these companies to join Google.A big chunk of Google's current talent came from Sun Microsystems.

Former Sun Microsystems employees: 1,340 Sun Microsystems is one of the most storied firms in Silicon Valley's history. It employed some of the smartest people in the world. It's no surprise that some of them have found their way to Google after jumping from one company to the next. Apple's juggernaut status is a big appeal to Google.

Former Apple employees: 1,345 Surprise! Apple, the most valuable company in the world. It would definitely have Google's attention. Google is trying to fight Apple on multiple fronts — particularly with smartphones and tablets. One strategy is to disassemble your competitor by pulling talent. Still, it's not as much talent as one of Google's largest competitors. Google got more than a thousand employees from Intel.

Former Intel employees: 1,367 Intel is a big-time chip manufacturer, and the hardware chops would appeal to a company like Google trying to develop its own phones. In the meantime, having employees that specialize in chips helps Google more adequately integrate its software with different kinds of hardware. See the rest of the story at Business Insider Please follow SAI on Twitter and Facebook.See Also:Here's Where All That Talent Leaving Apple Ends UpApparently, Facebook's Office Internet Connection BlowsMicrosoft And Nokia Really Screwed Up The Launch Of Their Super Important Phone

Now Intel Wants To Become Your Cable TV Provider (INTC)

(Reuters) - Intel Corp's talks to buy content from media companies for its new TV service are advancing, and the chipmaker is offering to pay as much as 75 percent more than traditional cable rates, people familiar with the talks said. But Intel has yet to close any programming deals, said the sources, who requested anonymity because they were not authorized to comment. CBS, News Corp and Viacom have reached agreements with Intel on certain details over how their content would be distributed on the service the chipmaker plans to begin later this year, one person familiar with the situation said. Comcast's NBC Universal is continuing its talks with Intel but its negotiations are not as advanced others companies, said another source familiar with the matter. Intel has moved substantially on subscriber fees it is willing to pay since the negotiations began, one source said. It has also suggested preventing viewers from skipping commercials on the first run of a show, said another source. Representatives for Viacom, NBC, CBS, News Corp, Disney's ABC and Time Warner declined to comment. Media companies typically give better prices to operators with more viewers, such as large cable companies, and charge higher prices to smaller or newer entrants. Since Intel's TV service has yet to start, and therefore has no viewers, it can expect to pay a premium, all the sources said. SNL Kagan, a research firm that measures and publishes the average subscriber fees cable and satellite TV operators pay for television networks, recorded last year's highest fees were $5.15 per subscriber per month and were charged by Disney's ESPN. While it was not clear exactly what amounts Intel had originally offered for specific channels, sources said the tech company was basing its 50 to 75 percent premium on listed average SNL Kagan subscriber fees. Intel needs deals with the top five or six U.S. media companies to secure most of the popular TV channels, according to one source. Intel said in February that it planned to compete with Apple, Amazon and Google and provide a set-top box and service that would offer live and on-demand programming. Erik Huggers, the head of Intel Media, has said he plans to offer customers smaller bundles of content than those currently being offered by cable and satellite operators. While Intel has not said how much it plans to charge for its TV service, Huggers has billed it as a premium product, rather than a cut-rate option for consumers hoping to save money by canceling their cable subscriptions. Higher prices for consumers would give Intel breathing room to pay more to media companies without sacrificing its own margins. Intel spokesman Jon Carvill said the chipmaker still plans to launch its TV service this year, but declined to give details of negotiations with media companies. Having missed the mobile revolution and fallen behind in making chips for smartphones and tablets, Intel senior executives are eager to be on the leading edge of future consumer technologies. Intel sees the living room as a potential battleground, where its advanced chips, used in set-top boxes and to power "cloud" data centers, can give it an advantage and help set the standard for other home entertainment products. (Reporting by Ron Grover in Los Angeles,; Liana B. Baker in New York and Noel Randewich in San Francisco; Editing by Leslie Gevirtz) Copyright (2013) Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions SEE ALSO: 12 Weird Facts About The Countries That Have The Most Smartphones Please follow SAI on Twitter and Facebook.Join the conversation about this story »    

10 Things You Need To Know This Morning (AAPL, SSNLF, INTC, FB, GOOG)

Welcome to 2013! Apple is already testing the iPhone 6 and iOS 7, according to a third-party developer logs. Yesterday marked the 30th birthday of the modern Internet. Apple is going to start sourcing its A6X chips from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing instead of Samsung. The fiscal cliff tax hikes for "rich" Americans don't affect venture capitalists. Intel wants to sell a set-top box that unbundles cable channels, but it's running into delays. Cable companies are getting left behind when it comes to offer consumers high Internet speeds. Employers in California and Illinois can no longer ask workers for their Facebook passwords. The Next Web says its magazine gets one Android download for every 80 iOS downloads. Sina Weibo, which is sort of a Chinese Twitter, saw 729,571 messages per minute during New Year's Eve. This is the perfect bookmarklet for tweeters. Please follow SAI on Twitter and Facebook.Join the conversation about this story »

More Details On Intel's Secret Plan To Beat Apple With Its Own TV Service (INTC, AAPL)

Intel is close to announcing its plan to revolutionize TV, though it's not planning a CES announcement, Janko Roettgers at GigaOm reports. Roettgers anticipates Intel announcing something in February. And what is that something? Plans for a new TV platform. Intel has a small stealth team working on a TV service led by Erik Huggers, who led the BBC's iPlayer. Huggers is joined by a team of people that have worked at Apple, Jawbone, and elsewhere outside of Intel. The group is called "Intel Media," and there's talk that Intel could spin it out has its own company. Intel is planning to release a set top box. It also wants to be able to deliver TV content to tablets and smartphones. To do all of this it needs to hammer out deals with cable and content companies. In a separate report at Forbes, Kelly Clay says Intel is going to offer the option to unbundle channels so people can only order what they want. Roettgers is skeptical Intel can actually pull this off. Roettgers says Intel has invested $100 million in this project, and it could end up investing a lot more. Intel is trying to find its next growth engine and it seems to think TV could be it. It has a design team in London working on building a new user interface. All of this is set against the backdrop of Apple reportedly trying to do something with TV. Intel, like many others, wants to get something to market before Apple. Intel thinks the current version of Apple TV is busted. It thinks the idea that people have to choose apps or video on demand in the Apple TV is flawed. They want content to be coming at users, like normal TV. Roettgers says the feeling inside Intel is that it should be more like Pandora, and less like Spotify. Read the full report here > Please follow SAI on Twitter and Facebook.Join the conversation about this story »

Here's How Apple Is Invading The Enterprise (AAPL, GOOG, MSFT, RIMM)

Apple continues to push deeper into the enterprise market, especially with its portable gadgets, the iPhone and iPad. On the company's earnings call yesterday, Apple revealed:

More than 80% of Fortune 500 companies are deploying or piloting the iPhone, up from 60% before Apple shipped the iPhone 4 this past summer.

More than 65% of Fortune 100 companies are already deploying or piloting the iPad, which only went on sale on April.

Interest from business came "much to my surprise," Apple CEO Steve Jobs said. "We haven't pushed it real hard in business, and it's being grabbed out of our hands."

What's the iPad being used for in the enterprise? Not as much of a laptop or desktop PC replacement as a new, different device, it seems. Jobs said, "I talk to people everyday in all kinds of businesses that are using iPads, all the way from Boards of Directors that are shipping iPads around instead of board books, down to nurses and doctors in hospitals and other large and small businesses." This goes along with some of the examples we've seen in the wild, such as using the iPad as a check-in kiosk at a restaurant or party. Bigger picture, Apple has two trends working in its favor as it goes up against Microsoft, RIM, and eventually Google in the corporate world:

A shift toward mobility, where Apple is way ahead of the curve with its iPhone and iPad, especially their ability to run custom business apps.

A shift toward corporations letting employees pick which computers they use, which benefits the Mac. (The new MacBook Air, expected to be announced tomorrow, could be a hit for business travelers.)

These trends should continue, which should be good news for Apple, and bad for Microsoft and RIM. Enterprise probably won't ever become the majority of Apple's business, but it should be a nice growth driver. Read: 10 Ways People Are Using The iPad To Create Content, Not Just Consume ItJoin the conversation about this story »See Also:10 Apple TV Apps We Can't Wait To Use10 Ways People Are Using The iPad To Create Content, Not Just Consume ItHere's How Apple's iPad Is Invading The Business World

Intel Said Nothing About Smartphones Or Tablets At CES (INTC)

Sometimes it's more revealing what companies don't say. At its press conference at the Consumer Electronics Show today, Intel talked a lot about Sandy Bridge, its new line of PC chips with on-board graphics processors, which will offer better graphics performance, as well as Intel Insider--a built-in copy protection so movie companies will become more willing to stream high-definition movies to the PC. What was missing? Any talk of Intel's effort to build a bigger presence in smartphones and tablets, most of which are powered by chips designed by Intel rival ARM. That's revealing, given that the company recently formed a special group devoted to improving Intel's presence in these areas. Intel exec Mooly Eden claimed that despite all the hype about tablets and smartphones, a Consumer Electronics Survey showed that more users wanted a new PC for Christmas. Perhaps, but sounds a bit like wishful thinking. Intel also promised that the company would have more to say about its smartphone strategy at the Mobile World Congress in February. But what about tablets, the hottest item at CES this year? Nada, according to this transcript from CNET. That doesn't bode well for the hardware half of the old Wintel duopoly.Join the conversation about this story »See Also:Is Intel Already Distancing Itself From Google TV?Intel Steps Up Urgency On Tablet Battle While Microsoft WaitsIntel Understands What The iPad Means – Does Microsoft?

Comcast Doesn't Plan To Charge Bandwidth Hogs Extra... Yet (CMCSA, AAPL, NFLX)

Comcast president Neil Smit said today that the cable giant doesn't have plans to start charging its broadband subscribers by how much bandwidth they use per month. Not yet, at least. But come on, of COURSE Comcast isn't going to make the massive announcement at an investor conference, and spook its customers. However, you can bet that if Comcast isn't the first major U.S. broadband company to get rid of all-you-can-eat Internet access, it will eventually. Charging for broadband based on consumption is the holy grail for Internet providers -- it would almost certainly increase the amount that customers spend, on average -- and Comcast would never let its competitors get a financial leg up. Especially because that's how Comcast is going to stop Netflix! Charging for Internet access based on consumption would deter people from watching more high-bandwidth Internet video on iTunes or Netflix, which represents the biggest threat to Comcast's legacy cable TV business. Perhaps the real reason it isn't going to start charging based on consumption yet is that the average Comcast customer isn't consuming much bandwidth in the first place. Smit said the average Comcast user consumes 2 to 4 GB of bandwidth per month -- which is barely 2 or 3 iTunes-sized movies per month. Related: If Net Neutrality Is Coming, So Is The End Of All-You-Can-Eat Internet AccessJoin the conversation about this story »See Also:If Net Neutrality Is Coming, So Is The End Of All-You-Can-Eat Internet Access10 Apple TV Apps We Can't Wait To UseApple TV Is #13 Best-Selling Gadget At Amazon, Google TV Is #430

Apple Thinks Intel's New Lightweight Processors Suck

This week, Apple completely refreshed its MacBook Air line with two screen sizes and a bunch of new features. Some of us are downright giddy about them. But almost the only thing that hasn't been refreshed by Apple has been the Airs' CPU, or core processor. The new MacBook Airs still use the same Intel Core 2 Duos from the last generation, which is odd given that the line is refreshed in every other respect. And this especially considering the fact that Intel, Apple's CPU supplier, has put a lot of weight behind its new line of Arrandale processors, which are precisely intended for the kind of lightweight, netbook type of computers like the new MacBook Airs. Not to put too much of a fine point on it, but the only logical explanation for this is that Apple thinks Intel's Arrandale sucks. Apple has its own line of lightweight, power-sipping, integrated chips, the A4, which it uses on the iPad. But new versions that could power a full Mac probably aren't ready yet. So Apple has to come out with  MacBook Airs that are new in every respect except for CPUs that Ars Technica calls "geriatric." This is seriously bad news for Intel not just because Apple snubbed them, but because the future of the chip industry and of Intel lies in those small, lightweight processors. Right now Intel makes powerhouse chips for PCs where it can reap high margins through vertical integration and sheer technological superiority. But all of the growth is in small, lightweight chips for small, lightweight devices like smartphones and tablets, where margins are thinner and the focus is more on power consumption than raw performance. In this market, Intel is nowhere and is getting its lunch eaten by ARM Holdings. Intel is trying very hard to push into this market with new lines of chips, but so far it's having only limited success. Apple's snub doesn't help.Join the conversation about this story »See Also: The Most Important Tech Company You've Never Heard Of: ARM HoldingsApple's New MacBook Air -- Everything You Need To KnowLEAKED: Intel's Mobile Platform Product Roadmap