• More and more bad reviews of the new - delayed - Sony Reader ebook suggest that this product seems to not fulfil the high expectations we had. Criticism is about useability and the download store. I suggested some time ago that it will probably take Apple to make this category finally a success by offering a full user experience. Of course book reading is maybe not what the iPod crowd is doing in their leisure time so we will, unfortunately, never see this happen and have to live for some time with second class products from the named company...
• "Business is very, very good here at Google", is what its CEO Eric Schmidt told analysts and then the numbers more than proved that he is right. Doubled profits from a year ago, 70% higher revenues from a quarter ago. Yahoo on the other hand is quite in the shade, so its CEO sounded much different: "I am not satisfied with our current financial performance and we intend to improve it." Of course Yahoo is still doing great and most companies would wish to have their results, but Google is setting the tone and Yahoo and analysts compare with them.
• Another company that seems to be doing things right is Ericsson (see CEO's report). This is in spite of strongest competition from China (although we have not heard so much recently anymore from Huawei and ZTE). While their competitors are busy with mergers (Lucent/Alcatel and Nokia/Siemens) they are taking the opportunity to grow their business in all areas. Most importantly, the Marconi purchase seems to be showing positive results as recent customer wins show. The fact that they are very late to the WiMAX markets does not show - yet. Of course they also know that bringing out a new technology like WiMAX with carrier grade performance and reliability cannot be done in a rush. So it has to be seen how fast WiMAX proponents will be able to get their product testing done, in a way that they are stable and do not crash in the field when put under real world stress for the first time. Finally, its mobile phone joint venture SonyEricsson is doing well with a growing market share and successful product launches. In short the Ericsson motor is firing on all four cylinders: Mobile Networks, Fixed Line Networks, Services, and Mobile Phones.

With such annoucements usually come layoffs. But according to Ericsson they will actually employ 500 more engineers in the IP network area. The mobile infrastructure business has been shaken up a lot by the entry of the low cost, aggressive Chinese players Huawei and ZTE. Alcatel with Lucent, Siemens with Nokia and then Nortel selling its UMTS business to Alcatel were the big headlines this year, and more might be coming as others like Motorola could be forced to do something too. Motorola, for example, is working with Huawei and uses its UMTS equipment in China.

Now Ericsson still remains the number one in this industry and might enjoy this lead for quite some time to come while its immediate competitors Alcatel/Lucent and Siemens/Nokia are super busy re-organizing their new ventures. So a good time to further focus on customers and become even more efficient - both being what the Ericsson annoucement today seems to indicate.

The Ericsson press release summarizes the key changes in its (now) three business units: Networks, Global Services and Multimedia. Those three business units are what a customer might want and need: either fixed or wireless networks or often both; professional service support; and then the new IMS and IP-centric developments, grouped under Multimedia - which also makes sense since it will grow the fastest from being currently the smallest business unit, and therefore needs to be run differently. This also all makes sense from this perspective: serving existing customers with Product and Services business units and serving future customers with its Multimedia unit. Ericsson seems to be doing the right thing to keep its competitors at bay.

The expansion projects total a volume of 550 million USD for GSM radio and core networks (also using Ericsson's mobile softswitch technology). This new infrastructure will be deployed in 17 Chinese provinces and serve 200 million users once completed. China Mobile is already a long time Ericsson customer - since 1987. Not surprisingly (timing is everything in PR) the same day China Mobile also became the world's largest mobile operator (by subscribers and now also by capitalization). Vodafone, who lost the number one rank, still has higher revenues but this lead should also disappear pretty soon. Vodafone's statement reads a bit amusingly in light of the reality: "It's not about size, it's about service to customers and the value we can pass onto shareholders."

Reality
"...the group's market valuation is now 40 per cent less than the £100bn it paid for Mannesmann, its German rival, back in 2000.

Vodafone posted a pre-tax loss of £15bn last year - a record for a British company - as it was forced to write down the value of the Mannesmann acquisition."

To rub it in: imagine they had invested those £100bn into China at the time instead of into the "booming" German mobile phone market.

Here are some of the hot topics that are being talked about in the tech blog community that I came across while skimming through them with Bloglines:

• Guy Kawasaki's talent is clearly to start discussions about lists he creates. This time he got probably 80% approval for its How to kick Silicon Valley's butt.
• Of course among the coolest gadgets has to be something about the World Soccer Cup which - finally - starts today. Take a look at a Philips Remote Control with Bottle Opener.
• James Eck comments on the latest Ericsson acquisition and gives his opinions on some of their previous business decisions that did not make too much sense in retrospect. This gives a hint that large corporations in high tech are challenged with getting their day-to-day work done and at the same time making smart product decisions. I assume one major reason why we have startups in the first place.
• Spam is and will be a huge problem for everyone as Brad Feld pointed out with some recent numbers that show a huge increase. Not too long ago we were under attack as well and were just able to close the doors in time to avoid being filled up to the roof with garbage.
• The world's biggest solar power plant is being built in Portugal and will cost 58 million EUR, powering some 8,000 people. Another one that is smaller but still one of the biggest in the US, comes to the Fetzer winery north of San Francisco.
• Finally, Jurvetson looks the bird in the eye. I assume that's what VCs are used to when they entrust money to startups. His comment: "Out in the parking lot. She was not injured, just confused and dehydrated, clutching the windshield wiper." Great shot!