Will the Eee spell disaster for the Oqo

But the biggest weakness of the Oqo is the price. Why someone would opt for the Model 02 instead of, say, the Eee PC, or now HP’s Mini-Note, confounds me. The Oqo is $1,300. The 7-inch Eee PC from Asus starts at $399 with Windows XP, and though the keys are tiny, functions more like laptop and isn’t that much bigger than the Oqo. The Mini-Note from HP comes with Vista starting at $599.

With the rise of the mini-notebook, the UMPC is essentially toast.

Speaking strictly in terms of technology, what Oqo has done to fit a full PC into such a small package is obviously impressive. But usability and having a distinct usage category are so much more important when looking for mainstream consumer success in the gadget world.

We’ve reported on the rise of the inexpensive mini-notebook, and consumers are clearly finding them compelling as a secondary machine. Plus, the Oqo–and every other UMPC–has been hobbled from the beginning by high prices and an identity crisis, so Asus, HP, and soon Acer and several others, should have little trouble swooping in to eat Oqo’s lunch in a fairly efficient and dispassionate manner.

(Credit:
Oqo)

The Chronicle also reports the company is doing $20 million in sales these days, after a lot of early hiccups, and boasts some high-profile customers, like Craigslist’s Craig Newmark. While that’s admirable, it’s certainly not going to be enough.

To be fair, the Oqo is certainly pretty–the screen is bright and clear–but it’s not very consumer friendly. It’s heavy and with the slide-out keyboard, the form factor is more smartphone than mini-notebook.

The San Francisco Chronicle
has a little feature Monday on the latest model (“latest” being relative since it actually launched in March of last year), in which it describes how the Oqo is being forced to “defend its niche” against the rise of the mini-notebook from the likes of Asus and Hewlett-Packard. The company cut the price, added
Microsoft Vista, and bumped up the storage in September. The Oqo Model 02 is now $1,300.

The Oqo was novel when the company first debuted: a small, ultra portable PC weighing 1 pound with slide-out QWERTY keyboard. But that was eight years ago.

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Massachusetts goes green to relive tech glory

The area’s chops in material science has led to the creation of a few established energy storage companies–lithium ion battery makers A123 Systems and Boston Power among them–and even a few auto-related companies, including GEO2 Technologies which makes high-tech filters to clean diesel emissions.

Modernizing the grid

Just like cracking open the telecommunications industry created a spike in innovation and new tech businesses, the energy business is slowly starting to open, if only on the edges, said Steve Kropper, founder and CEO of wind developer WindPole Ventures.

Kropper was one of about a dozen mid-career professionals who did a sort of “clean energy boot camp” last year, a fellowship organized by the New England Clean Energy Council specifically for transitioning telecom, IT, or life sciences professionals into green tech.

As in high tech, California still leads the Bay State when it comes to the number of green-tech companies. The New England Clean Energy Council counts at least 75 technology company members, compared to hundreds in California. But the Boston area has emerged as one of the country’s top green-tech “clusters,” buoyed by experienced entrepreneurs, strong academic foundations, and a supportive state government.

An energy-related company can be very similar to a software company, but a better comparison is to the data communications industry, said Paul Maeder, a venture capitalist at Highland Capital Partners, who left enterprise software to focus on green tech.

Massachusetts’ legislature passed five laws last year aimed squarely at boosting clean-energy business activity and creating jobs that can range from home solar installers to materials scientists.

During an opening ceremony for a proposed Boston Power auto battery plant last month in Auburn, Mass. not far from where shuttered Digital Equipment offices once were, Patrick crowed about receiving $25 million in U.S. Department of Energy grants for a wind blade testing center in Boston. Yet he seemed to understand that the clean-energy industry, much like the Cape Wind offshore wind project he supports, is a work in progress.

“People around the nation are taking notice of our plans,” Patrick said. “If we get clean energy right, the world will be our customer.”

It’s been a long time since the Boston area could claim to be home to more than a handful of big high-tech companies. Now regional leaders are betting on green to restore cutting-edge luster to “the Hub.”

Boston-based EnerNOC, one of the few green-tech companies to go public, sells software to help utilities to dial down energy at peak times. Another example of an IT-heavy company is tiny Second Wind in Somerville, Mass., which has made a niche for itself with better methods to measure wind speed for wind farm developers.

Massachusetts governor Deval Patrick with Boston Power CEO Christina Lampe-Onnerud at a ceremony for a planned auto battery plant in Auburn, Mass.

Drawing on IT and biotech

So who are the promising green-tech companies in the Bay State?

The training, available for 25 people this year, includes seminars and lab visits,including one to the National Renewable Energy Laboratories. Kropper estimates it saved him about two years in preparing for a new career. It serves the industry, too, as many new green-tech companies lack experienced management and entrepreneurial talent.

In academia, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology is, not surprisingly, a hotbed for green-tech research and development. In addition to A123 Systems, there are a number of MIT spin-offs taking lab work to market, including solar company 1366 Technologies and Lilliputian Systems, which is making fuel cells for small electronics.

Photos: Green tech grows in Boston

But that doesn’t mean green-tech boosters such as Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick aren’t thinking big.

The challenges are considerable. A thicket of regulations and political issues around the power grid pose serious barriers to new energy technology adoption. Most green-tech companies also face the formidable financial challenge of scaling beyond prototypes and demonstration facilities. Because the capital needs for energy or water-related projects are so high, many green-tech companies need to devise business and financing models to crack through and go beyond what’s called “Valley of Death.”

Founded by experts in biotech and chemicals, Mascoma is genetically engineering microbes to make ethanol from wood chips cheaper than current methods. University of Massachusetts spin-off Qteros, which also promises a breakthrough ethanol process, last year lured the former head of BP’s biofuels business to be CEO.

“We have an opportunity to fulfill existing markets and be neighbors to where emerging markets (in transportation) are being invented,” she said. During the opening ceremony for the planned factory, she likened Massachusetts’ budding clean-energy industry to the beginning of the industrial revolution, where nearby Massachusetts mills played a starring role.

“It’s really just a question now of the companies that are emerging to take advantage of the opportunities,” said Philip Giudice, commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources. “What’s neat about clean tech is this isn’t just a few Ph.D. software guys coming up with some magical solution–it’s a whole value chain.”

“Much of what we are going to do in clean tech is going to involve selling through, with, and around utilities and they behave a lot like (telecom) carriers,” he said, noting that both test products rigorously. “It may take them a long time but once they make a decision, it can absolutely make you.”

(Credit:
New England Clean Energy Council)

(Credit:
Boston Power)

If Boston Power receives a U.S. Department of Energy domestic battery manufacturing grant, it hopes to build a factory in Massachusetts that would serve as a launching pad into the automotive market, said founder and CEO Christina Lampe-Onnerud.

The state already hosts a number of established
green-tech companies such as Evergreen Solar and Conservation Services Group, which does building energy-efficiency retrofits. Of course, no green-tech companies have replaced former tech powerhouses like Digital Equipment (acquired by Compaq, which was in turn acquired by Hewlett-Packard) or Lotus Development (now part of IBM).

A bonafide cluster. Click on the image to see an interactive map of New England clean-energy companies.

“It’s going to be the same as telecom–everything smells exactly the same,” said Kropper who was a telecom industry analyst at IDC before jumping into energy about three years ago. “The only challenge is that most people will get wacked. Eight out of 10 telecom companies failed–the same will happen in energy. Hopefully, the region will be smart in figuring which will go under and not.”

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FaveBot intelligently hunts down content you’re in

What’s neat about FaveBot is that it uses location as part of the filtering. For example, if you live in Texas and earmark a word like Web 2.0 and opt into the events category, you’ll get the heads up on when the service finds local happenings that match up with that category (e.g. SXSW). By adding more types of items on your tracking list, you can increase your chances of seeing them in the main news stream.

Each set of keywords can be dialed in by what type of content you're looking for. Each set also has its own RSS feed.

I’ve looked at a few other services that do similar things but just for news (see Fav.or.it and Tiinker). There’s also Persai, a machine learning search tool put together by the guys from Uncov that does a more advanced version of this by putting several keywords together into packages for you and learning what content to serve you based on what you like and dislike. In either case the difference between human recommended content and machine is starkly different, and worth giving a go if you’re on the hunt for new content to enjoy.

Besides the river of information that’s all mixed up, each keyword you’re tracking has its own RSS feed. These can simply be subscribed to in Google Reader or whatever RSS catcher you happen to be using if you feel like skipping the site entirely. Each item also has its own permalink so you can share it with friends in the same place as your other items from that feed, although my guess is that people will simply link back to where the content was originally found.

FaveBot is a service that keeps an eye on whatever keywords you give it to pull up related items from the Web. If you’re familiar with Google Alerts, the idea is similar. In Favebot’s case, you can take any keyword or set of keywords and apply it to the types of content you’re looking to keep an eye on, be it photos, videos, blog posts, or podcasts. There are nine categories in all, and the system is designed to serve it up like a river of news with the most recent items appearing on the top.

Speaking of which, the sources are from all over, but there’s a blacklist curated by humans. This is an attempt to keep some of the spammy sources from pervading your news stream. The service also recommends you combine three or more keywords together (unlike I did in the screenshot above) to avoid getting irrelevant results. Putting in “Webware” as a keyword in all of the categories brought in a good grouping of related content, although as warned, some items ended up being less focused.

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Widgetbox launches portable widget directory for i

The new iPhone widgets directory (left) gives you a listing of tiny Web apps to run on your iPhone. When it comes time to 'install' them, you simply add them as a bookmark on your iPhone's home screen.

One of Apple’s biggest blunders in creating its own directory of iPhone Web apps was to make the site suited for desktop users instead of people on the portable handset.

(Credit:
CNET Networks)

The directory interface is completely iPhone-friendly, and to go alongside it there’s a simple how-to guide to turning bits of Web content into widgets that can be added to the directory just by tagging your work with “iPhone.” Users without any sort of Web development experience will be able to make their own iPhone widget apps using Widgetbox’s widget-building wizard, which I’m assuming will get iPhone-centric size presets.

You can navigate to iPhone.Widgetbox.com on your iPhone or
iPod Touch to go to the directory. You can also check out the developer specs to make iPhone/iPod touch-friendly Widgetbox widgets here.

The one thing I found underwhelming with most of the example iPhone widgets is that they look just like they do in the directory instead of taking up the entire screen. They also come with Widgetbox branding and links back to the directory–two things which are bound to take crucial seconds to load while on an EDGE connection. However, it’s still a lot better than having to load the entire Web page, which in the case of BART’s QuickPlanner tool (which serves up travel times for local Bay Area trains) means a nearly three-fold load time decrease from loading BART’s home page.

While the company has since made it easy for people to bookmark Web apps onto their home screens by adding a quick link from inside of
Safari Mobile, the “official” directory of Web apps continues to be unapproachable for iPhone users unless they’re on a speedy Wi-Fi connection. Widget directory Widgetbox has come up with its own solution and launched a directory of
iPhone-friendly widgets that can be installed on the home screen as mini widgetized Web apps.

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Air France gets mixed reaction to in-flight callin

The results of Air France’s in-flight cell phone study are coming in, and The New York Times is reporting that the feedback isn’t good. Poor sound quality, long waits for a connection, and shaky signals appear to be the norm. But even worse, only six passengers at a time can get a signal in order to avoid interfering with the aircraft’s equipment.

Back in the United States, the FCC is sticking with its ban on cell phone use, and last week a bill introduced into the House of Representatives bill proposed outlawing it outright. This is one area in the cell phone world where I’m quite happy for the United States to lag behind Europe.

It's all up in the air.

(Credit:
Philippe Noret/AirTeamimages)

According to the newspaper, one passenger had to wait a few minutes for the signal to pass between the antenna in the plane, a satellite, and the receiver on the ground. And even when he got a connection, the poor volume and voice quality prompted his caller to compare the conversation to “talking to a small robot.” On a flight between Paris and Vienna, passengers had to try a few times to call the ground, while calls made from the ground to the air tended to go to voice mail, the paper said. Also, BlackBerry users were not able to send and receive e-mail.

Though I’m sure the kinks will be worked out, so far it sounds not worth the trouble, particularly considering the galling $4.72 (3 euros) per-minute charge. But Air France isn’t the only airline toying with cell phone use while aloft. Qantas allows only texting on certain aircraft, and Ryanair said it is mulling in-flight calls as well. Emirates said it has already allowed voice calls on some flights and that it will expand the service to other aircraft in its fleet. Like the Air France system, the in-flight calls use a satellite system to connect with the ground. Existing cell phone towers can’t reach 39,000 feet.

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FAQ What does the iPhone SDK mean

Will jailbreak still work?
The jailbreaking community will probably have to examine the new software update and revise its methods, but it will probably put in the effort to do so, because Apple does not plan to allow an official software application that would unlock the iPhone from its designated networks.

How will development for the iPhone work?
Anyone can download the SDK and develop an application, but you have to join Apple’s iPhone Developer Program, and Apple is only accepting a “limited” number of applications at the moment. The application development process will be very similar to how applications are developed for
Mac OS X.

News.com Poll Day job for the iPhone
With Apple’s updates, will you now use the iPhone for work?

What is the iPhone SDK?
The iPhone SDK is a software development kit that will allow third parties to create applications that can run directly on the iPhone and the
iPod Touch. The kit is significant because Apple can’t possibly anticipate, nor produce, all the applications that people might want to use on an iPhone. And some of those applications will convince people who weren’t sure about the iPhone to buy it.

Have any applications already been developed for the iPhone?
Over a thousand Web applications are listed on Apple’s Web site. And perhaps hundreds of unofficial applications have been created using so-called “jailbreaking” software. But the applications demonstrated today are the first official third-party applications shown by Apple.

Apple gave an advanced copy of the software development kit to developers from various companies to see what they could build in a few weeks. Apple showed off several of the resulting applications during Steve Jobs’ speech on Thursday. Those applications appear to be conceptual models for now, as the companies will probably go back and take more time before releasing final versions.

They include Touch FX, which adds Photo Booth-style effects to a photo using your finger on the iPhone touch screen; Touch Fighter, the first official game for the iPhone; a mobile version of Electronic Arts’ video game Spore; a Salesforce.com management application; an iPhone version of AOL instant messenger; a medical records app from Epocrates; and an iPhone version of Sega’s video game Super Monkey Ball.

Can developers work on a PC?
No, the SDK will only work on Macs.

Can developers distribute their own iPhone apps?
No, the only way to develop official applications for the iPhone and iPod Touch is to go through Apple’s process.

What will this mean for Apple and the iPhone?
Apple will now be able to pitch the iPhone against the BlackBerry, the leading smartphone in North America, by emphasizing the new business features. And the new applications could provide potential customers with all sorts of new reasons to buy an iPhone.

What new business features were introduced?
Apple has licensed Microsoft’s ActiveSync protocol, which will allow the iPhone to wirelessly sync corporate e-mails, contacts, and calendar information quickly and safely with their corporate servers. The upcoming software release will also introduce Cisco’s IPSec VPN for secure connections and the 802.1x security standard for improved Wi-Fi security.

How much does it cost?
The iPhone SDK beta can be downloaded for free today. Developers will be required to join the iPhone developer program, which allows developers to test their code, get tech support, and distribute their applications. That will cost $99 a year. A separate developer’s program for developers that want to build in-house corporate applications will cost $299 a year. Apple will charge for the update to the iPod Touch as a result of the accouting treatment used for that product but hasn’t said yet how much that will cost.

Yes
No

Applications will be distributed through Apple’s newly announced App Store, which will be built in to the iPhone but is also accessible through iTunes. Apple plans on personally approving every application destined for the iPhone.

As expected, Apple Thursday unveiled a software development kit for its
iPhone. The SDK dramatically expands what business users and consumers can do with their mobile devices.

When will it be available?
A beta version is scheduled to be released Thursday. The official iPhone SDK and the update for the iPod Touch will ship in June 2008. Certain types of enterprise developers will apparently have access to the official SDK prior to its formal release, although details are sketchy on exactly how that will work.

View results

How will Apple address security?
Developers will have to electronically sign their applications to participate in the program, allowing Apple to track them down if a malicious application makes it through the gauntlet of Apple’s approval process. Since the App Store is the only place where applications can be obtained, Apple can shut off the App Store if a malicious application is in the wild.

The applications are wirelessly downloaded to the iPhone over either EDGE or Wi-Fi. Developers name the price of their applications themselves and get 70 percent of the revenue from sales of their apps; Apple gets 30 percent. Free applications will be listed for free on the App Store and iTunes.

Where’s the 3G model?
Apple said it wasn’t addressing any hardware questions during today’s event. Analysts expect one by midyear.

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Enphase Energy to bring ‘microinverters’ to solar

Start-up Enphase Energy on Tuesday announced that it has landed $6.5 million in funding with the bulk of the money coming from Third Point Ventures.

But there are a number of technical hurdles to microinverters, according to a presentation given by inverter maker Xantrex (click here for PDF). Those challenges include excessive heating, efficiency, and the ability to service inverters, according to Xantrex.

He declined to specify how much efficiency the microinverter design brings, but he said the move to microinverters is a “fundamental, basic” shift across the solar industry.

The company makes a system that uses a microinverter, an electronics device that converts direct current from solar panels to grid-ready alternating current on each individual panel.

The result of the setup is a more productive and reliable solar installation, according to President and CEO Paul Nahi.

Each panel can also relay information on its performance to Enphase Energy’s Web site, which customers can view from a browser. The company plans to release the system, aimed at both businesses and consumers, in the second quarter of this year.

The idea of a solar panel that can generate alternating current has been around for a long time.

Typically, solar panels have a single inverter to convert DC to AC. A microinverter is more efficient, so each panel will harvest more energy, said Nahi. And having information on the performance of each individual panel will give the owner or manager of the array better information for troubleshooting problems, he said.

Is it time for a “small revolution” in the world of renewable energy electronics?

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Critics Homeland Security unprepared for cyberthr

However, he also said the initiative has produced some useful results.

Officials from other countries often ask, “‘Who should we come to talk to in the United States about your overarching strategy?’” Raduege said. “There was never one place I could recommend they go, no one individual with an entire national strategy perspective.”

Rep. Bill Pascrell of New Jersey, D-N.J., said it was time to “name names” of who was responsible for the department’s problems.

The federal government is already working to establish working relationships with the private sector to improve cybersecurity, but the next administration will have to consider whether to consider all sectors of equal importance, Powner said. The three most critical sectors to work with, Lewis said, are the finance, electricity, and telecom industries.

WASHINGTON–When politicians got together six years ago and decided to glue together a medley of federal agencies to create the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, one of the justifications was a better focus on cybersecurity.

Lewis pleaded with politicians to remain focused on the topic. “Congress has to be involved with this,” Lewis said, “to support building the infrastructure that will keep us secure.”

“We’re not prepared” to handle cyberthreats, Powner said.

Harry Raduege, chairman of the Deloitte Center for Network Innovation, said another reason to make cybersecurity a priority for the White House is to better coordinate international efforts.

The witnesses at the hearing concurred the DHS has been too secretive.

Lewis was testifying at a hearing of the House Homeland Security’s subcommittee on emerging threats, cybersecurity, and science and technology. Lewis appeared on behalf of CSIS’s Commission on Cybersecurity for the 44th Presidency, a group made up of 40 cybersecurity and government experts. They’re expected to release a final report in November with recommendations for the next administration.

Since 2005, the GAO has been reporting on DHS’ cybersecurity efforts and has made 30 recommendations to the department, yet the department “still has not fully satisfied any of them,” said David Powner, the GAO’s director of information management issues.

Pascrell complained that the administration has been too secretive about the National Cyber Security Initiative.

“The Senate tried for months to get the information public, and the White House refused,” he said.

That was then. Now, Homeland Security is weathering a deluge of criticism of its lackluster cybersecurity efforts on grounds that they have proven to be inefficient, bureaucratic, and not even able to do a decent job of monitoring federal computer networks.

“We’ve made a little progress,” he said.

“Robert Jamison, the undersecretary, gave himself a solid C in cybersecurity the last time he came before the full committee,” Pascrell said. “When was getting a C a good mark?”

People representing both the Obama and McCain campaigns are on the CSIS commission, Lewis said, and both campaigns have recognized the need for greater cybersecurity.

A new administration, a new start
Lewis said that a cybersecurity strategy “should be one of the first documents the new administration issues.”

Naming names
The GAO reports were released just one day after DHS Deputy Secretary Paul Schneider and a group of other federal officials who work on cybersecurity sought to address the many unanswered questions about the governemnt’s secretive National Cyber Security Initiative.

“The department will gather and focus all our efforts to face the challenge of cyberterrorism,” President Bush said when signing the 500-or-so-page bill into law in November 2002. “This department will be charged with encouraging research on new technologies that can detect these threats in time to prevent an attack.”

Subcommittee Chairman Rep. James Langevin, D-R.I., announced at the hearing the creation of a House Cybersecurity Caucus, a forum for House members from various committees to discuss cybersecurity. The new caucus will begin work in January 2009.

“We’ve asked to brief them on our recommendations, and we believe in the next month or so we’ll have that opportunity,” he said.

“There really is no one in charge right now at DHS, and that’s why they have struggled,” said Paul Kurtz, a partner and COO for Good Harbor Consulting, who testified Tuesday. “You have several people with their hands on the steering wheel.”

While it may be the norm for a new administration to completely revamp such a program, “we can’t afford” to have that progress set back, Lewis said. “It’d be a lot easier to avoid that fumble if it wasn’t top secret.”

The GAO’s new reports include descriptions of the department’s failure to fully address 15 key cyberanalysis and warning attributes related to activities such as monitoring government networks for unusual activity. For instance, warnings sent to federal offices regarding threats were neither consistently actionable nor timely, the GAO reported.

This week, it even led to what would have been unthinkable a year or two ago–a suggestion that Homeland Security can no longer be trusted with its cybersecurity mission and it should be handed to another federal agency.

“Existing partnerships are not meeting the needs of public or private sector,” Lewis said. “The first need is to rebuild trust.”

Schneider made it clear at a forum on Monday that Robert Jamison, the DHS undersecretary for national protection and programs, is leading the department’s cybersecurity efforts. However, witnesses and congressmen at Tuesday’s hearing said there was a lack of leadership in the DHS.

Adding to the public criticism of Homeland Security were two new reports published by the Government Accountability Office (No. 1 and No. 2) detailing the department’s shortcomings.

CNET’s Declan McCullagh contributed to this report

“While DHS has improved, oversight for cybersecurity must move elsewhere,” James Lewis, a director and senior fellow at the hawkish Center for Strategic and International Studies, said Tuesday. “The conclusion we reached is only the White House has the authority and oversight for cybersecurity. This is now a serious national security problem and should be treated as such.”

“There’s no reason to classify (the cyber initiative),” Lewis said.

Pascrell pointed out that Marie O’Neill Sciarrone, a special assistant to the president, spoke at Monday’s forum regarding federal cybersecurity efforts–but the event, hosted by the Information Technology Association of America, cost $50 for government employees to attend.

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‘Daily Show,’ ‘Colbert Report,’ and more for your

The Colbert Report
The Daily Show with Jon Stewart

Friday, June 6: USA Network

(Credit:
Microsoft)

Battlestar Galactica Classics
Destination Truth
Ghost Hunters International
Ghost Hunters
Who Wants to Be a Superhero

Wednesday, May 28: Comedy Central

Zune Marketplace video store update schedule:

Dr. Steve-O
In Plain Sight
Law & Order: Criminal Intent
Monk
Psych
The Starter Wife

Tuesday, June 3: Sci Fi Channel

Friday Night Lights
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
Law & Order
Life
Lipstick Jungle
Saturday Night Live

Early this month, Microsoft announced the availability of TV shows in the Zune Marketplace. The initial launch included more the 800 episodes from networks such as MTV and NBC. Now, the
Zune catalog is set to increase by 50 percent, with Microsoft adding more than 400 episodes from 19 shows over the next week and a half. In addition to the programs listed below, new shows from Bravo will be added in the near future.

Friday, May 30: NBC Universal

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Nortel cuts jobs as losses widen

Nortel is in a tight spot. The company is facing slowing demand for its traditional telephony gear. Chief Executive Officer Mike Zafirovski, who took the top spot at the company in 2005, has been trying to grow Nortel by focusing on new technologies. But it’s clear the company is struggling. Part of the problem is its balance sheet. But another big problem is that the company literally missed the boat in the 3G wireless equipment market, and as a result has only small market share here in that segment.

Nonetheless, Mark Sue, an analyst with RBC Capital Markets, says it could be a long time before Nortel is able to turn things around.

Recently there have been rumblings that Nortel is in talks with Motorola to combine their wireless infrastructure businesses. This could be good for both of the companies. Together they would be in a much better position to address current GSM network builds in Europe and other parts of the world where that wireless technology standard is used widely. And at the same time they could better address markets like the U.S. and South Korea, where mobile operators use CDMA technology.

The company’s stock plunged some 13 percent on Wednesday to $9.96 after the company reported that its fourth-quarter earnings declined about 3.7 percent to $3.2 billion. The company reported a loss for the fourth quarter of $884 million compared to a loss of $80 million in the fourth quarter of 2006. The higher losses were due to a tax-related charge, the company said.

To help curb spending and get the company back on track, Nortel said, it would cut 2,100 jobs. It also plans to relocate about 1,000 workers to places where wages are not as high. At the end of 2007, Nortel said it employed about 32,500 workers. The job cuts should save the company about $300 million a year, but the company said it will also take a onetime charge for the plan of about $275 million.

“Nortel’s revamped management team is doing the best that they can in our assessment,” he said in a research note on Wednesday. “Unfortunately, the prior management team at Nortel left the company with a very damaged balance sheet. And with limited resources and little currency to afford a major strategic rethink, the company may have to resort to a year of basic blocking and tackling.”

Telecommunications equipment maker Nortel Networks said it will cut more jobs as the company’s losses widen.

The company recognizes its shortcomings and has been focusing on the next generation of wireless technology, namely by developing gear using the WiMax technology. Nortel has also said it’s committed to supplying products for the competing 4G wireless technology called LTE (Long Term Evolution). But network builds using these technologies are still in their early days. In terms of WiMax, Sprint Nextel is the only major carrier in the U.S. to commit to using the technology. And its own financial troubles have called into question whether or not the network will actually get built.

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