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― THE FRIDAY LETTER ―
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for friends and subscribers)
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| http://www.gilder.com/ | Issue 253.0/June 30, 2006
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HEADLINES:
▪ The Week / Hands
Off the Net
▪ Friday Feature / His
Space
▪ Friday Blogger Bonus / Qualcomm: No Reason to Worry
▪ Readings /
|
A N N O U N C I N G : The
Gildertech Blog |
The Week / Hands Off the Net
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Brian Anderson (6/28/06): It’s a good thing that Congress seems to
recognize—for now—that regulating the Internet is an acute danger to free
political speech in America . . .
In truth, however, mandated net neutrality is completely unnecessary. For the
telecoms to become site-obstructing bullies would be an odd business model,
explains tech guru George Gilder of the Discovery Institute. “The providers
have no incentive to kick anybody out,” he says. “They want to get as much
content as possible on their conduit. That’s what attracts customers.” This is
why bloggers shouldn’t fear that differentiated service will prove an enemy of
openness.
Competition
will give providers a positive incentive to stay honest. Say Verizon wants to
charge Amazon oodles to join the fast lane, and Amazon refuses. Verizon could
boot Amazon off its network in retaliation. But zillions of Amazon fans would
jump ship to another supplier. “The market works these things out, as it
should,” advises regulatory theorist Peter Huber. But meanwhile, many Internet
giants like Amazon and Google are backing neutrality, because they don’t want
to pay any more for bandwidth, which—to match fast lane rivals—they’ll have to
in a non-neutral regime . . .
Read
Brian Anderson’s complete article:
http://www.city-journal.org/html/eon2006-06-28ba.html
|
Gilder/Forbes TELECOSM Conference world's leading technology and
communications companies. |
Friday Feature / His Space
‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾
Spencer Reiss, Wired magazine: Perched on the edge of a bright white power sofa on the
supernaturally quiet eighth floor of the News Corporation’s global headquarters,
the last thing Rupert Murdoch looks like is a fire-eyed revolutionary. Starched
cuffs. Courtly manner. A month past his 75th birthday. But then he starts
talking. “To find something comparable, you have to go back 500 years to the
printing press, the birth of mass media – which, incidentally, is what really
destroyed the old world of kings and aristocracies. Technology is shifting
power away from the editors, the publishers, the establishment, the media
elite. Now it’s the people who are taking control.” And he’s smiling.
Hold
on a minute. Rupert Murdoch is the media elite. His Sixth Avenue office, lined
with shelves devoted to dead-tree properties like London’s The Sun
and muted video monitors tuned to news channels including News Corp.’s Fox and
rival CNN, sits squarely within jaywalking distance of NBC, CBS, Time Warner,
McGraw-Hill, and Viacom. But these days, midtown Manhattan’s valley of old
media dinosaurs is besieged by a Cambrian explosion of digitally empowered
life-forms: podcasters, bloggers, burners, P2P buccaneers, mashup artists,
phonecam paparazzi. Viewers are vanishing, shareholders are in revolt,
advertisers are Googling for the exit.
Twilight of the moguls, right? Not for the T. rex of mass culture. “We’re
looking at the ultimate opportunity,” Murdoch says. “The Internet is media’s
golden age.”
Of course, someone juggling $60 billion worth of TV studios, printing presses,
and broadcast satellites would say that. But Murdoch has been putting his money
where his mouth is – and it is his money: His family controls almost a third of
News Corp.’s voting shares. Over the past year, he has spent nearly $1.5
billion on new-breed Internet companies, including online communities devoted
to gaming, sports, and movies, plus a startling eruption of youthful energy
known as MySpace. And he has put his lieutenants on notice: The days of
top-down, force-fed, one-size-fits-all media are over. The new imperative is to
deliver precisely what audiences want, when and where they want it.
How or even whether News Corp. can survive this cold dawn is an open question –
Wall Street certainly has its doubts. But the man who built the world’s only
truly global media company has a classically entrepreneurial answer. “We’ll
figure it out,” he says, flashing his cat-that-ate-the-canary grin . . .
Note: The author, Spencer Reiss, is a former Gilder Friday Letter editor
and creator. Read the complete article: http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/14.07/murdoch.html
Related Reading:
Cocktails with Rupurt:
http://www.forbes.com/home/columnists/2006/06/14/james-brady-on-media-cx_jb_0615rupert.html
People Power:
http://wired.com/wired/archive/14.07/people.html
________________________________________
Friday Blogger Bonus / Qualcomm: No Reason to Worry
‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾
Don
Clark, WSJ.com (6/23/06): Paul Jacobs, Qualcomm Inc.'s chief executive officer, doesn't see much
reason for its investors to worry about Nokia Corp. -- at least in the short
term.
The San Diego-based company's stock was buffeted this
week by issues involving the Finnish cellphone giant. Nokia said it expects to
"ramp down" its research and development of CDMA products by 2007,
and cancel plans to form a new company with Sanyo Electric Co. to make CDMA
devices. Qualcomm pioneered CDMA, which stands for code division multiple
access, and dominates sales of CDMA chips and licenses patents based on the
technology.
Mr.
Jacobs, in an interview, said Nokia's decision reflects that company's
conclusions about being able to make money in CDMA products -- not the health
of demand for such phones.
"The growth numbers look good," Mr. Jacobs said. "It's hard to
argue with a market that has 300 million subscribers in it."
With
plenty of other handset makers to sell chips and license patents to, Mr. Jacobs
doesn't see an impact on its own sales or earnings from Nokia's move.
Read Don
Clark’s complete article:
http://users1.wsj.com/lmda/do/checkLogin?mg=wsj-users1&url=http%3A%2F%2Fonline.wsj.com%2Farticle%2FSB115110081567989351.html
George Gilder (6/24/06): Qualcomm's (QCOM) greatest strength is
that its intellectual property is incorporated in chip designs with worldbeating
integration and elegance and elaborated in ingenious software (BREW). QCOM is
the world's leading fabless chip company and leading wireless software
impressario. Qualcomm is the entrepreneurial spearhead of its own intellectual
property portfolio, constantly proving the superiority of its own inventions.
For example, Qualcomm's response to India's protests of excessive royalties for
low-end handsets is to develop cheap low-end chips that deliver streamlined
CDMA technology for the Third World.
Excerpted from a post to the www.Gildertech.com
subscriber message board. To read George Gilder’s complete post and other
posts by Gilder and the Gilder Teachnology Report editors and
subscribers, visit www.Gildertech.com
and log on with your subscriber ID.
|
FRIDAY LETTER BOOK OF THE MONTH Trapped: When Acting Ethically is Against the Law, by John Hasnas |
Readings /
‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾
Are
Conservatives a Bunch of Tax-cut Nuts?
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=ZWQ4YzY5MWIxYjBhMjQwOTJkNzA4YzAxYjA3ZTdiMmQ=
Hedge Funds And
Analysts: Insuring Disclosure To Control Manipulative Short Selling
http://www.aei.org/publications/pubID.24605,filter.all/pub_detail.asp
His
Space
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/14.07/murdoch.html
Do
Tax Cuts Pay For Themselves?
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=Mzg0M2QwZDFhODRmZDllMjEwODc2N2M1MWQzYzRiYzc=
Surprise
Drop In Oil?
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=ZGE4M2RlMDM1MmI0OGM1M2ViMGQ4MWUyYzc2YmEyZWU=
Which
Inflation Target?
http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=6446
Who
Killed The Electric Car?
http://www.tcsdaily.com/article.aspx?id=062906B
Nanosys
Draws Micron Into Intel NAND Research
http://www.eet.com/news/latest/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=189602692
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