Nokia Starts Platform War & Sparks Online Ad Rush According to various report, Nokia's recent purchase of the rest of Symbian pust it in a strong position against both proprietary vendors such as Apple and Microsoft and the open-source Android and LiMo offerings.

Embrace Online Or Sink Without A Trace Says Google According to Google CEO Eric Schmidt, companies and even entire industries will have to shift their focus and embrace the new online reality in order not just to stay competitive, but just to survive.

Poor Ratings Tipped For New LG Scarlet TV Series COMMENT: The decision by LG to spend over $100 million dollars promoting an LCD TV called Scarlet is an interesting move. But to tease consumers into believing that there is a new TV series called Scarlet in an effort to sell a red backed LCD TV is a big risk that I doubt is going to work for the struggling Korean brand.

Comment: Is Online Content Working? Recently, the entertainment and technology media have been abuzz over the implications of the significant announcement by Apple that iTunes would now offer day and date releases of movie titles in conjunction with their regular release on DVD. The deal involves most of the major studios in Hollywood, and marks the first time that a single online or broadband-enabled source of paid movie content has had both broad studio support as well as day and date releases.

Are Vendors Engaging In Component Price Fixing? SPECIAL REPORT: Following a recent court case in the US, where a number of chip makers have been caught red-handed engaging in cartel-like activity and other unlawful collaborations, the question that immediately comes to mind is how much component price fixing really goes on?

Adobe Reputation On The Line As It Gets Big & Fat OPINION: One has to seriously question as to whether Adobe has caught the Microsoft disease with massive updates for their Creative Suite and Adobe Acrobat software. These updates which have been more than a gigabyte since the product was launched are loved by ISP?s as they get to charge business and consumers additional download fees.

AV Integrators High On Passion, Low On Business Skills According to Todd B. Adams, the CEO and founder of DIpartner, an international training and curriculum development company dedicated to educating residential integrators, custom integrators are brimming with passion but lacking in business acumen - a situation he says is retarding the future growth of the industry both here and in the US.

Why You Can Fail Occasionally COMMENT: How many of us remember our failures more than our successes? My own divorce, the time I didn't get a research grant, the last job that I was fired from (come to think of it, there were some other messy situations that I still recall), the I time I rear-ended someone on a slippery freeway. The list goes on and on. You could say that I have had a full life.

Retailers Who Ignore Online Will Perish Says Expert Retailers ignore new media and marketing channels at their peril, in an age where print and television advertising is failing to fully engage shoppers, said Alan Rutherford, CEO of Digitas Global at The World Retail Congress in Spain last week.

Visa Says Clicks And Bricks To Coexist According to new research commissioned by Visa Europe and announced at the World Retail Congress yesterday, clicks and bricks are likely to coexist and perform complementary roles for some time.

Online Sales Not Important Say AV Retailers When companies like JB HiFi start setting their sights online and Radio Rentals turns into clicks from bricks virtually overnight, one would think the era of electronic shopping has very much come of age in this country.

Jobs Changes His Mind On Subscription Music In his public pronouncements, at least, Apple's Steve Jobs has consistently pooh-pooh the idea of subscription music services. "Never say never, but customers don't seem to be interested in it," Jobs said in an interview almost a year ago. "The subscription model has failed so far. ... People want to own their music." That final declaration was widely quoted, but the more significant part of the quote may have been "never say never."

SmartHouse Connects With Media Connect COMMENT: Yesterday Phil Sim the CEO of Media Connect responded to our recent Kickstart story and my recent comment on the event. I am not going to respond to what he claimed in the story, however....

OPINION: Why Kickstart Needs A Kick Along OPINION: Following our recent story about the recent media Kickstart Forum conference in Queensland it seems that IT journalists are precious little souls who don?t like being called hacks.

Why CEDIA Needs To Take On Infocomm CEDIA like a lot of trade organisations has a huge millstone round its neck in Australia in that they are dependent on the success of the CEDIA EXPO in Surfers Paradise to fund their operations in Australia. But unfortunately the event is in the wrong City and many vendors won?t go there because of the location. So is the expansion and a move into new markets?

Why Gerry Harvey Is Wrong & JB Hi Fi Right Consumers around the world are moving to online retailing to buy consumer technology products and the move by JB Hi Fi to roll out a national online buying network will hurt arch competitor Harvey Norman whose Chairman came out swinging against the Internet this week.

COMMENT: Is It Worth Paying Extra For A Philips TV? COMMENT: When you buy a flat panel TV today, chances are that the only link with the brand on the front is the cosmetic design, the outside plastic and metal, and the occasional management processor inside the TV. A classical example is Philips which recently was forced to outsource over 70% of its TVs to Chinese manufacturers who are also making low cost LCD TVs for retail giants like Target, Wal Mart in the USA and retailers who want to stock house brands.

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