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from Rolfe Winkler:
AT&T unsuspends online sales of iPhone in NYC
AT&T's iPhone problems keep getting worse. The phones are behaving so badly in NYC that AT&T tried surreptiously to discourage sales. From Jeffrey Bartash, Dow Jones:
In a holiday-shortened week, AT&T has spawned a raft of headlines on the Internet after the company halted online sales of the iPhone in New York City, at least temporarily. The phone is still available to New Yorkers in Apple (AAPL) and AT&T stores, however....
Since reports of AT&T's online move surfaced Sunday, a number of people have tried to order the iPhone online using New York City ZIP codes. An effort by this writer to do the same showed that "there are no phones and devices that match your search criteria," according to AT&T's Web site.
Now CNBC is reporting that AT&T has resumed online sales in NYC.
AT&T is in quite a pickle. According to a great NYT article by Randall Stross published two weeks ago, the problem isn't AT&T's network, it's the iPhone's electronics.
Has Europe’s hottest site got what it takes?
LONDON, Aug 5 (Reuters) – Spotify is enjoying a fairy-tale success as Europe’s hottest Internet start-up this year, thanks to music industry support and rapid adoption by avid listeners. The trouble is that the young company appears to have no special technology or business model that will help it compete in an online market where many consumers expect music to be free. Â The company, founded by two Swedes, combines some of the best features of other music discovery sites with the aim of taking on no less a rival than Apple Inc and its iTunes media store. It has certainly caught on — despite being on the market for only 10 months, the advertising-supported service has attracted 2 million users in the UK, Sweden and other European countries.
Unlike iTunes, which sells songs or videos by the download, Spotify is one of the many services that offer consumers streaming access over the Web to a more or less unlimited library of songs. In Britain, Spotify has rocketed to become the 10th most visited music site, up from 27th a few weeks ago, according to Web measurement firm Hitwise.
It still ranks behind sites like BBC Radio 1, Last.fm, the pioneering music discovery site, and a newer rival, the ad-supported site We7.com, which is backed by musician Peter Gabriel. Spotify also has competition from social network sites like MySpace and Nokia’s Comes with Music service on phones, among many others.
Apple-Google learn Corporate Governance 1.0
LONDON, Aug 3 (Reuters) – The resignation of Google CEO Eric Schmidt from Apple’s board should come as no surprise to anyone with an inkling of what corporate governance means.
But then Silicon Valley’s idea of corporate boards has long consisted of cozy, interlocking directorships which would be considered collusion in most other industries.
Apple-Google learn corporate governance 1.0
The resignation of Google CEO Eric Schmidt from Apple’s board should come as no surprise to anyone with an inkling of what corporate governance means.
But then Silicon Valley’s idea of corporate boards has long consisted of cozy, interlocking directorships which would be considered collusion in most other industries.
The European browser elections and other tech news links
Microsoft says the best way to resolve its dispute with European Union competition regulators may be an election. The software giant spelled out late on Friday Brussels time plans for an election-style ballot to decide the question of which browser consumers use in Windows.
The forthcoming Windows 7 operating system would offer a “ballot screen” that lets consumers turn off Microsoft’s own Internet Explorer (IE) and instead use rival browsers such as Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari Google Chrome or Opera Software.
Tech results give few clues to economy: Eric Auchard
By Eric Auchard
LONDON, July 24 (Reuters) – Investors have proved all too ready to interpret positive earnings trends from Intel, IBM and Apple as signs of economic recovery and to justify a continued rally in technology stocks.
Now they are taking the wrong lessons in reverse by reading disappointing results from Microsoft Corp as evidence that a nascent rebound in the economy has stalled.
The hollow ring of tech earnings reports: Eric Auchard
By Eric Auchard
LONDON, July 17 (Reuters) – For technology investors looking for clues to how the sector is faring, Intel Corp sent a false positive signal with its upbeat quarterly report this week. Subsequent reports from IBM, Nokia and Google show how hollow any recovery for growth stocks is proving to be. Even though the growth sector has defied the broader market sell-off in recent weeks, all the signs point to weak trading in months ahead.
Nokia, the world’s largest mobile phone maker, offered a harrowing reminder of what life is like for companies exposed to the wider vicissitudes of consumer demand. It is struggling in a handset market set to decline around 10 percent this year, even though Nokia signalled the industry may be stabilising.  Â
from MediaFile:
Steve Jobs is the product; iPhones the accessories
 
New iPhones, expected next week, are likely to be overshadowed by the triumphal return of Steve Jobs as chief executive of the technology group.
No company and its products are more inseparable from its leader than Apple and Steve Jobs. His obsession with sleek design and an always hard to define "cool factor" has produced an unmatched string of hit computers, music players and, recently, phones.   Â
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The Wall
