Just one month after GM emerged from bankruptcy, the automaker has made some big news. We speculated about what the company will announce during today’s presentation by CEO Fritz Henderson as well as what’s behind the 230 marketing campaign. Turns out we were half right – here’s the scoop!
- The biggest news to emerge from the announcement is that the catchy “230″ marketing campaign that has been in play for the past week is related to the Volt: the EPA has released a new set of practices for determining a fuel economy standard for cars like the Volt (extended-range EV). Under the new methodology, the Volt will achieve a combined fuel economy rating of 230 mpg! That makes the Volt the first vehicle ever to pull of a triple digit fuel economy rating. Electrically-speaking, the Volt will consumer 25 kW/hour per 100 miles.
- Henderson also announced the new GM FastLane blog, which the automaker will use to collect customer feedback on new designs. During the course of the next two years, GM will be launching 25 new models between its four remaining brands (Chevrolet, Buick, GMC, Cadillac).
As soon as the webcast is finished, the media will be shown previews of the rumored new Cadillac XTS and small ATS sedans. The ATS will slot under the current CTS and will be aimed squarely at the BMW 3-series, with rear-and all-wheel drive. The XTS is the replacement for the outgoing large Caddy DTS and will be built atop the same platform (Epsilon II) that underpins the awesome new Buick LaCrosse.
These are very exciting announcements in the automotive world! As such, they should at least tickle the fancy of some non-gear heads. Stay tuned for pictures of the new models!
Posted in
Automotive,
GM,
Industry News
This was to be expected: Google CEO Eric Schmidt has resigned from Apple’s board today, citing a conflict of interest. Apple CEO Steve Jobs said that “Unfortunately, as Google enters more of Apple’s core businesses, with Android and now Chrome OS, Eric’s effectiveness as an Apple board member will be significantly diminished, since he will have to recuse himself from even larger portions of our meetings due to potential conflicts of interest.”
For quite some time, Apple and Google have been serving the same markets:
- Web-based email, calendaring, and contact lists: Apple’s MobileMe and Google’s Gmail/Calendar/Contacts
- Cellular phones: Apple’s iPhone and Google’s Android
- Browsers: Apple Safari, Google Chrome
- Productivity applications: Apple’s iWork online and Google’s Docs
- Most recently, Google has announced that it will enter the desktop OS space with Chrome OS, which would compete head-on with the Mac OS
When initial whispers regarding the effectiveness of Mr. Schmidt on Apple’s board began to spread, many analysts pointed out that even though the two companies compete in many spaces, they have different business models for the aforementioned products: Apple charges a premium price while Google either gives its products and services away for free or doesn’t charge an OEM a fee for a license (in the case of Android and Chrome OS). As I’ve stated on our daily bit podcast before, this argument holds no merit: different business models or not, most consumers will end up purchasing only one of the above products/services – either an iPhone or a Google Android-based device. That is, unless the consumer has unlimited amounts of resources (read: money) – in which case the simple rules of economics no longer apply. The same goes for the rest of the markets in which the two companies have overlapping products/services. Now that any conflicts of interest are out of the way, I see the two companies becoming more competitive, especially in the following areas:
- Mobility: enhanced multitouch support on Google Android-based devices should more closely compete with the iPhone
- Productivity: Apple’s iWork online suite being made available as a standalone product to directly compete with Google Docs
- Operating Systems: Google’s Chrome OS not withholding any punches versus Mac OS X
Yet one has to wonder what words were exchanged between Jobs and Schmidt when Apple booted all Google Voice-related apps from its App Store last week. Would that alone have been a reason for Schmidt to step down as Apple board member? Most likely, not. But it must have played a role in his overall decision. Full press release after the break, if you’re interested: Read more »
Posted in
Apple,
Business,
Decisions,
Eric Schmidt,
Ethics,
Featured,
Google,
Industry News,
People,
Steve Jobs
This post is a part of the Yahoo! gets Microsoftified series – where we cover the facts, points of view, and details of the Microsoft-Yahoo! deal. To see all posts of the series, click here. More posts are coming soon!
This morning, Yahoo and Microsoft announced a 10-year search deal that will see the two companies join forces to take on Google. Basically, Microsoft’s technology will power Yahoo’s search results, while Yahoo will be charged with selling ads for both companies’ search sites. Here are the facts:
Basics:
- Yahoo is outsourcing search on its web properties to Microsoft
- Microsoft is providing the technology (Bing), while Yahoo will deliver the worldwide sales force for both companies’ premium search advertisers
- Ad sales will be handled by Microsoft’s AdCenter sales tool
- Microsoft is getting the reach (scale) that Yahoo has with its web properties while Yahoo is getting superior technology and the ability to save by not having a dedicated search team
- The companies will share resources and combine engineering efforts
- Combined, the two companies make up 30% of the search market, compared to Google – which still controls more than twice that amount
- The deal is for a time period of 10 years Read more »
Posted in
Bing,
Business,
Decisions,
Featured,
Industry News,
Microsoft,
Search,
Yahoo!
Late last week, Google announced that its Latitude location-aware service is now available on the iPhone. Latitude is a location-aware mobile app, similar to services offered by Loopt and brightkite.
Latitude has been available for Android, Windows Mobile, Blackberry (most models with color screens), and Symbian S60 devices for five months, making the iPhone/iPod Touch the latest mobile device compatible with the service. Unlike on all the other major mobile platforms that have a standalone Latitude app, iPhone users must run the service inside the Safari browser. As such, it has received criticism of being crippled and worthless. Read more »
Posted in
Apple,
Decisions,
Featured,
Industry News,
Policy,
iPhone
Project Trident is a new scientific tool kit by Microsoft that aims to revolutionize the way academia deals with the increasing onslaught of experiment data. In the past, as well as today, a scientist would design an experiment, collect the data, analyze the data using some sort of programming, and review the results. The big hang up in all of this was the programming involved to bring the experiment to life: a programmer was brought in to make one-off programs for a specific experiment. Any changes to the experiment would require the programmer to make revisions. If another scientist wanted to perform the experiment elsewhere, there would be another programmer involved to write the experiment code. This became an ever-increasing problem of inefficiencies and wasted time. Microsoft to the rescue. Read more »
Posted in
Industry News,
Microsoft,
Science,
Software,
Solution
Amazon’s seemingly unshakable stranglehold on the eBook industry may have just met its match. According to a B&N Press Release offered up yesterday, the “nation’s largest bookseller” has launched the Barnes and Noble eBookstore. The new book store will enable “customers to buy eBooks and read them on a wide range of platforms including 
the iPhone and iPod touch (opens iTunes), BlackBerry smartphones, as well as most Windows and Mac computers. In addition, Barnes & Noble announced that it will be the exclusive eBook store on “the forthcoming and much anticipated Plastic Logic eReader device,” which will compete head-on with Amazon’d Kindle. Barnes and Noble will meet Amazon’s per book price of $9.99 as well as offer access to over 700,000 titles, “making it the world’s largest selection of eBooks available in one place.” B&N also revealed that it plans to expand that library to over 1 million titles. Read more »
Posted in
Blogging,
Business,
Industry News,
PR
