Got a preview of ThinkPad X300 today, which Lenovo is pitching against the thinnest - and most talked about - notebook on the planet, Apple's MacBook Air (right).

Having now had a fleeting hands-on look at both, I offer the following mini head-to-head:

Features
Lenovo squeezes in what Apple leaves out. The X300 includes a DVD burner 3 USB ports and gigabit Ethernet. On the wireless front, the X300 combines wi-fi (the Air's only native means of connecting to anything, bar a single USB port and Micro-DVI) with a welter of trendy new options: Wi-Max, GPS and 3G Wireless (which should work out of the box on Vodafone's network; we haven't had the chance to test it yet), plus extras like a fingerprint reader.
Winner: X300

Form factor
Despite their tiny frames, both the Air and the X300 feature a roomy 13.3-inch widescreen, and full-width keyboard.But the Air is slightly thinner, and marginally lighter in its default configuration (though if you swap its optical drive for a half-size battery, it becomes just lighter than Air at 1.3kg vs 1.36kg). Still, fat is relative in this new sub-sub-notebook class. As my scientific analysis shows (left) the X300, closed, is still only the depth of a 50 cent coin at its thickest point.
Winner: Air

Sex appeal
The X300 is handsome, featuring the ThinkPad's trademark charcol black with dashes of red. But the Air is yet another design classic from Planet Jobs, with its tapered edges making it look much slimmer than the Air, even though the real-life difference is marginal.
Winner: Air

Battery
The first head-to-head battery test I've seen - by Walter Mossberg at The Wall Street Journal - gives the nod to the Air, with both notebooks in their default configurations. But inflexibility is the Air's downfall. While the Air's single battery is famously sealed in, the X300 offers a second clip-on battery, plus its DVD drive can be swapped out to accomodate a third. That's enough juice to power anyone's day.
Winner: X300

Planet-friendliness
Being tiny, neither of these puppies use much electricity, and both get high Energy Star ratings for power efficiency.
But in terms of an EPEAT rating, which measures stuff like green manufacturing processes (such as leaving mercury out of the equation) and promises to recycle, the Air gets a Silver rating, while the X300 gets a Gold.
Winner: X300

Input
The Air's touchpad supports the "pinch" and other multi-touch gestures popularised by the iPhone and iPod Touch. And you also get an ambient-light sensor that automatically adjusts the brightness of the keyboard and screen. But like other ThinkPads, the X300 gives you both touchpad and touchpoint - which personally I've always found more precise.
Winner: tie

Screen
The X300 has a sharper native resolution (1440x900) than the MacBook Air; its backlit LED LCD display was readable in a presentation held directly in the midday sun; can be bent 180 degrees to lie flat, and seems pretty tough. The Lenovo-ans were happy for me to pick it up by the edge of the screen and swing it around.
But importantly given these two notebooks are duelling to be the planet's most ultraportable portable, the X300's screen stands taller than the Air's. Although it's native resolution is only 1280 x 800 (acutally as about as sharp as I want to go and what I use on my 15-inch notebook, least icons and text get too tiny), the Air's shorter screen, which actually hangs off the back of its case - is more airplane tray-table friendly.
And, like all MacBooks, its picture is crisp and georgous.
Winner: Air

OS
Hey, we're not called PC World for nothing. Air's Leopard is cute, and secure, and its back-up software is very 2001: A Space Odyssey. But we prefer to live in the wider world opened by the X300's Windows Vista. Of course, the likes of Bootcamp now let you run Windows on a Mac and, for the really pervese, Hackintosh will put the MacOS on a PC. But for best performance, keep things native.
Winner: X300

Hardware grunt
Although slimmer, the Air wins the clock cycle war, being available in 1.6GHz and 1.8GHz versions to the X300's 1.2GHz. The X300 is powered by Intel's Core 2 Duo SL7100 LV low-voltage chip, operating at 1.2GHz. Like the Core 2 Duo processor specially developed for Apple's MacBook Air, Intel shrunk the SL7100 LV processor to make it 60% smaller than standard-sized processors belonging toits Merom family.
The X300 ships with 2GB of RAM, expandable to 4GB while the Air's 2GB is - like its hard drive and battery, sealed in. But 2GB is good, and I've never upgraded memory on a laptop. It's too expensive.

Winner: Air

Storage
You've got to love the 64GB "solid state" (that is, Flash memory) hard drives featured on both the high-end version of the Air and the X300. PC World tests have shown they boot and run Windows faster than trad hard disk drives. They're also physically smaller, use less power and, since there are no moving parts, run silent and have a lower MTF (mean time before failure; an Intel engineer present at Lenovo's Auckland X300 launch said the MTF stat was good, but noted that most hard disk drives have a rated MTF of 100,000 hours. It's a pity then that out there in the messy, real world, hard disk drive manufacturers won't back themselves with a warranty of more than one year - 8736 hours, fact fans, assuming you compute 24/7).
The downside: flash memory is very, very expensive, and it in commercial usage it currently maxes out at 64GB. That's barely adequate, and puny compared to the 500GB+ hard disk drive found on other top-shelf notebooks. I'm falling out of love.
The Air also comes in an 80GB hard disk drive option but, it's not upgradable. Personally I'd find it difficult to buy any laptop with less than 250GB, let alone at this heady price-point. Lenovo says that if you want a subnotebook with bigger drive options, check out its ThinkPad X61.
Winner: Neither

Price
Neither is a notebook any road warrior would want to buy on their own ticket. In its 64GB solid state drive iteration, the Air comes in at a lofty $5139 (the 80GB hard drive model, which also steps-down to a 1.6GHz processor, is $2999). And on top of that most will want to throw in an external DVD drive ($150, an ethernet jack that plugs into the Air's sole USB port ($80) and a 500GB external hard drive ($498). Lenovo are pretty pleased that the X300 has come in "cheaper" at $4725. But at these sorts of prices, both models will remain show ponies, selling few units in these parts.
Winner: Neither

Disaster-friendliness
As not always the most coordinated user, I was glad to see the X300 has not only sported a spill-resistant keyboard, but two super-sized holes on its undercarriage (one is highlighted in my pic above) which quite literally drain the spilled liquid out the bottom. Also, while, to me, the case didn't feel especially tough, it is made of carbon and glass-fibre reinforced plastic which, Lenovo says, is three times stronger tha the magnesium used in most laptops, plus 60% lighter. Apparently it's the stuff used in the Airbus 380.
The Air feels tough enough, but the fact there's no latch to hold the screen shut makes me hope the hinge would stay strong over its lifetime. And although the way the screen hangs off the back of the case helps make it conviently less tall, I also have visions of hooking it on stuff.
Winner: X300

Final score
Air: 4
X300: 5

Posted by Chris Keall at 11:05 AM | Permalink | Comments ( 18 )

I know a lot of our readers like pop science stories, which often cross-over with IT. Our stablemate Computerworld has run a quite a few good ones lately, including IBM storing data on an atom - making way for computers the size of a speck of dust, the Meccano computer at MOTAT that was used in the World War II dam-busters raids, and local developments in areas like RFIDs, nanotech and quantum computing.

Now the Computerworld team has started a science blog, called Half Life, which will cover sci-tech stories, plus provide links to the coolest, craziest and, it seems (close your eyes, kids), most salacious snippets from around the net. Check out the first installment here.

High technology fans should also check out April NZ PC World, on newsstands March 25, which will carry a special feature on the next 25 years of tech, from neural computing brain implants to notebook batteries that last more than an hour (I know that last one sounds a bit far-fetched).

Posted by Chris Keall at 9:25 AM | Permalink | Comments ( 0 )

Last night I decided to switch from DVD Unlimited to Fatso. DVD Unlimited has always been good on service. As soon as I mail back a couple of rentals, two more immediately appear in the post.

But, like my DVD rental home-before-last (Movieshack) it's failed to feature several Hollywood releases that are only marginally out of the mainstream - if indeed No Country for Old Men can be labelled as such, now that it's won an Oscar on top of its critical acclaim. Country is already on reserve at Fatso. The same goes for The Darjeeling Limited, and other films in the vaguely-alternative Rialto oeuvre, plus UK fare like The Queen. (This is on top of a frustration I've experienced with all the DVD rental outfits: for flexibility, you have to maintain, via their websites, a list of 20 or so films you want to see, ranked the order you want to see them. But more often than not, they cut from the bottom of the deck.)

And it's not just a case of DVD Unlimited preferring low-brow over middle brow. At times even straight popcorn fare hasn't made the selection, forcing me back to the horrors of Blockbuster where, overly-acclimatised to the languid return cycles of mail services, I racked up a $28 fine for returning In Her Shoes three days late.

I'm not sure if it's a case of someone at DVD Unlimited having undiscerning taste, or simply that its owner - Sky TV - likes to hold a few goodies for its broadcast wing. Regardless, I'm out.

DVD Unlimited won't miss me. Long term, it's in the box seat, as only Sky TV has the capital and infrastructure (an IPTV upgrade of its decoder is in the works) to relatively easily transition to an internet download model (see our recent stories on iTunes' new movie download service in the US, and Netflix' potential streaming service for Sony PlayStation3 owners).

Posted by Chris Keall at 4:24 PM | Permalink | Comments ( 0 )

Now the high def DVD war is over, let's survey some of the casualties. Not corporate bods at Toshiba lining up for ritual slaughter, but the poor consumers who became collateral damage. One on TradeMe is trying to off-load his Toshiba HD-A30 HD-DVD Player , with a reserve price of $900 (including 27 movies - enough to last an HD-DVD lifetime?). Bids so far: zero. Another has a Toshiba HD-DVD XA2 player listed with a starting price of $500. Bids: zip.

A third punter has succeeded in offloading his Xbox 360 HD-DVD, albeit with a less ambitious reserve price of $1 (the top bid as I type: $1).

He's definitely not going to do as well as this lucky TradeMe member, who listed his Xbox 360 HD-DVD player just before the news broke about Toshiba abandoning its fight with Sony's rival Blu-ray format. He's collected at least $255 for his door stop (which now doubly deserves that title, as rumours swirl that HD-DVD's fair-weather friend, Microsoft is now readying a Blu-ray player for its game console).

So: it's easy to have some sport over HD-DVD's demise.

But neither should Sony be smug. It doesn't immediately follow that Blu-ray players will quickly spread through Kiwi living rooms. That won't happen until Blu-ray drives:
1. Drop at least 75% in price.
2. All come in a recordable option, coupled with a hard drive. Just forget about DRM. People simply don't have the hardware capacity to copy huge, huge HD video files, let alone up or download them. People who'll settle for low-rez alternatives are already happily trading them on the Torrents.
3. Are backed by many more HD movies, at the same price as standard DVDs.

If you're interested in high def DVD, check out NZ PC World April, on newsstands March 25, which will survey what Blu-ray product is being released here in the wake of HD-DVD's demise. The only way is up.

Posted by Chris Keall at 10:01 AM | Permalink | Comments ( 0 )

April PC World's Consumer Watch column will focus on parallel importing: why the pricing's so hot, and your rights if something goes wrong. If you've had a good or bad experience with a parallel imported product, let us know in the comments section below and I'll fwd your words to Geoff.

"Oh my God, you're not wearing any pants"
Last night my wife forced me to watch an episode of Trinny and Susannah Undress the Nation, recorded from Friday. The theme of the episode was men's fashion. Already being a sharply-dressed editor, I was starting to nod off when suddenly former NZ PC World writer David Pomeroy appeared onscreen, featuring as one of six men being made-over. Long-time readers will recall a cherubic author of our "Cyberspace Cadet" and "Shareware" columns back in the 90s (including one of PC World's best articles ever, "My secret life as a woman on internet relay chat", in which I managed to convince Dave, of reasonably traditional views, to try a virtual life on the other side of the fence, with revelatory and humorous results. Sadly it's not archived online).

Now, there's actually a whole lot less Pomeroy to behold, with our ex-scribe having recently lost "5 stone" (nearly 32kg, youngsters), and he was actually acquitting himself quite well until Trinny went to tuck a shirt into his jeans only to scream, "Oh my God, you're not wearing any pants".

Posted by Chris Keall at 9:42 AM | Permalink | Comments ( 0 )

We've claimed many things for pcworld.co.nz, but Lord knows we could never call it quick.

Now web designer Cindy Park and our IT team have reworked the site so editorial loads ahead of ads.

It was a tricky task that ate up a lot of last week, with the rejigged arrangement going live on Friday.

Enjoy the fruits of their labour. I certainly am. As well as being Editor, I'm a reader of the site's forums and other content. And as punter I say: Great effort, guys. PC World and Press F1 are now much, much snappier to load.

Posted by Chris Keall at 8:24 AM | Permalink | Comments ( 1 )

UPDATE: Telecom just supplied a URL to a PDF that lists all exchanges that have been upgraded to ADSL2+. Click here to see it. I've also added some interesting comments from another St Heliers reader at the end of this post.

On February 8 I brought you a sadly rare case: a reader gobsmacked not by the usual broadband glug, but a sudden jump in his broadband speed (read about it here, including a number of interesting reader comments).

A Telecom spokesperson just came back with this reply:

It is likely this customer has benefited from one of the larger network upgrades Telecom has undertaken in recent years; the roll-out of ADSL2+. The St Heliers Bay exchange was upgraded late last year, so it is likely that the combination of the customer's Broadband plan, their distance from the exchange and the use of an ADSL2+ modem would have resulted in this noticeable jump in the speed of their DSL connection.

UPDATE 2: Just got an email from Alex Taylor, which I thought I'd post in full:

As a regular reader the "Flying in St Heliers" has proved timely.

I am an IT professional based in Mission Bay, and in the last week my IHUG broadband connection has gone form a typical 2500k download speed to around 5000k consistently.
I am very happy with this.

Unfortunately, the VPN Client I use to connect to a major client has ceased
working in exactly the same timeframe, and having endured multiple reinstalls & setup checks I am 99% sure it is an exchange problem as my laptop hits the VPN perfectly from some other sites.

IHUG as my ISP have referred me to DLINK who made my router, who think it is probably a network problem, so here we go again.

It smells a lot like a particular port or protocol is being choked at this exchange, and your coverage of the speed increase -which prompted my owntests, has me suspicious that this may be a factor.

Any recommendation on escaping from this conundrum? The other parties areall pointing at each other but I have critical work to complete for my client that is being obstructed.

Any suggestions greatly appreciated!

Posted by Chris Keall at 6:07 PM | Permalink | Comments ( 3 )

As well-rounded adults, PC World readers have interests outside computing. I'm talking about sci-fi, of course, and it was good to see more than 3000 impressions on Press F1 over Christmas on a thread debating the genre's best films of all time.

Now comes news that A-list sci-fi/fantasy author Neil Gaiman is going to give away one of his books. To celebrate the 7th birthday of his blog this week, you can vote for which of his eight books you think would best-suit a newcomer to his work (which includes Stardust, recently made into a movie). His publisher, HarperCollins (also publisher of Download by Chris Keall, fact fans, half a world away in a Whitcoulls bargain bin), will post the winning novel online gratis.

Of course, like Radiohead's recent pay-what-you-like for our music InRainbows stunt, the giveaway will yield much valuable publicity (read about the band' initial s sales here).

In my case, it's working. After much raving from staff writer Jan (who pointed out the giveaway) I'm going to buy Gaiman's signature book, American Gods - even though it's currently leading the vote and likely to be free online within days.

It'll be a good way to fill the time until Matter, by Iain M Banks, is released later this month. Banks is - if you didn't already know - the greatest sci-fi writer of all time, taking the type of complex anti-heroes who populate his critically-acclaimed yet increasingly lazy "straight" fiction (from The Wasp Factory to last year's The Steep Approach to Garbadale) and placing them in his "Culture" universe that soars above anything ever imagined by Clarke, Baxter or Hamilton. It's sophisticated, grown-up, dark, funny, violent and wildy imaginative. Start with The Algebraist.

Yahoo doth protest too much
I can see why studenty Yahoo founder and CEO Jerry Yang has rejected Microsoft's initial bid. There is more money there if he pays his cards right (although he's sitting on the neccessary cash mountain for this 50/50 cash-stock deal, Microsoft's Kiwi ex-pat CFO, Chris Liddell, says he's willing to take on debt for the first time in his company's history). And, more importantly, he feels the need for some amount of posturing before his "cool" company agrees to be consumed by "corporate" Microsoft.

He should get over himself.

Sure Google has its free meals cooked by millionaire chefs, and various cartoon frills on its campuses. But no regulatory body will let Google become Yahoo's white knight. And anyway, a few HR tricks aside (free dinner! And I only had to work whe whole evening for it!), Google is a machine. It's The Borg. It doesn't care whether Yang wears blue jeans or not. If he doesn't ally with Microsoft, to get at least some fraction of scale in their war on their mutal enemy, he'll get crushed.

Below is the full text of Yang's email to staff today:

Subject: our board's decision

yahoos

as you'll see from the news release we issued today, our board of directors has reviewed microsoft's unsolicited proposal with yahoo!'s management, financial and legal advisors. after a careful evaluation, the board has unanimously concluded that the proposal is not in the best interests of yahoo! and our stockholders. of course, the board of directors is continuously evaluating all of its strategic options in the context of the rapidly evolving industry environment and we remain committed to pursuing initiatives that maximize value for stockholders.

we believe microsoft's proposal substantially undervalues yahoo!—including our highly recognizable global brand, large worldwide audience, significant recent investments in advertising platforms, future growth prospects, our ability to generate free cash flow and our earnings potential as well as substantial unconsolidated investments (like alibaba and yahoo! japan).

you deserve the credit for the tremendously valuable business we have built. all of us in management, as well as the members of the board, deeply appreciate and respect what you have done and continue to do in order to maintain and enhance yahoo!'s leadership position in the online world.

we have been very deliberate about the steps we are taking to position yahoo!. we are putting in place the pieces we need to accelerate growth by becoming a leading starting point for users and the must buy for advertisers. the global online advertising market is projected to grow from $45 billion in 2007 to $75 billion in 2010, and our more focused strategies position us to capture an even larger share of this market. we are moving to take advantage of this unique window of time in the growth of the online advertising market to build market share and to create value for stockholders.

several key assets form a solid foundation as we execute this strategy.

first, our global brand is a tremendous base from which to build leadership as the starting point for internet use: yahoo! is one of the most recognizable and admired brands in the world. we have some 500 million users (1 out of every 2 internet users worldwide). in the u.s., we are #1 in personalized home pages, mail, music, news, sports, shopping and travel. yahoo! also is #1 in time spent on our sites, an increasingly important metric for marketers.

second, our substantial operating cash flow, which we expect to grow in the double digits in 2009, gives us the financial flexibility to execute our plans.

third, we have made important investments in our core computing infrastructure that provides us greater scalability and increases the rate of iteration on core technologies like algorithmic search as much as tenfold. and of course, you're familiar with our investments in enhanced search technology through panama.

these assets—the brand, the audience, the financial strength, and the technology—position us to capitalize on this pivotal moment for yahoo! and the online marketplace. of course, our most important resource is you: the thousands of creative, passionate and committed yahoos who are executing our strategies to deliver value for users, advertisers, publishers—and stockholders.

as you know, we have taken significant steps to refocus our business on our starting point—must buy strategies. and we're making headway.

starting points: our goal is to grow visits to key yahoo! starting points and properties, by approximately 15% per year over the next several years. and we're on the move: we are the most visited site in the u.s., and the number of u.s. users grew strongly in the double-digits in 2007 on our yahoo.com home page alone. as our open platform takes shape it will significantly accelerate that growth.

mobile, as an area of focus, is the biggest emerging starting point in the world. with twice as many mobile users as personal computer users and projections for substantial advertising growth in mobile, we have an important competitive edge as the number one mobile destination in the u.s. and we are building a superior mobile experience for yahoo! users to further capitalize on this opportunity.

must buy: at the same time, we will increasingly make online advertising easier and more effective for marketers, opening up new ways for them to address consumers. our right media exchange, acquired last year, is more open and easy to use, simplifying transactions for buyers and sellers of online ad inventory. another 2007 acquisition, blue lithium, brings us best in class performance marketing. while we've historically tracked the success of our ad business by focusing on metrics related to our owned and operated sites, our goal is to increase the percentage of the total online advertising demand we touch—to 20% of our addressable market over the next several years, from an estimated 15% in 2007.

our newspaper consortium, is a great example. it has grown to more than 600 newspapers, up from just 264 just seven months ago. combined with ebay, comcast, at&t and others, we are creating a valuable, unique network of premium sites to serve our advertisers.

our key strategies will be enhanced by our adoption of platforms that welcome third party developers and encourage new applications that will enrich the user experience.

finally, beyond our core strategies, there's the added benefit of our substantial, unconsolidated investments in china and japan: we have major positions in yahoo! japan, the leader in its market and alibaba, which is strongly positioned in china, a market with enormous growth potential.

we have accomplished a great deal in a very short time. yahoo! is a faster-moving, better organized, more nimble company well on its way to transforming the experiences of its users, advertisers, publishers and developers.

i hope you are as proud as i am of the yahoo! we have built and we continue to build. thanks for your hard work.

jerry

Posted by Chris Keall at 6:43 AM | Permalink | Comments ( 5 )

Apple staff just emailed to confirm PC World Towers has a wireless network. Presumably this is because they're brining in a MacBook Air at 2pm - and while the Air has many attractive points, being well stylish and the world's thinnest notebook, it ain't got no ethernet jack. (Or USB ports. And the battery is sealed in.) Well ... we don't have any wi-fi, as the brass cheerfully ignored our recommendation when kitting out new building and its conference room. Hope it demos well offline ...

By the way, you should be able to see the MacBook Air on our staff writer Jan Birkeland's next slot on Breakfast's next gadget slot (which runs every Wednesday at 8.15am; our stablemate Computerworld has also joined Breakfast, with a Tuesday 8.15am slot. If you miss either, go to tvnz.co.nz and type in the keyword Breakfast for to watch the archived video).

Incidentally, TVNZ has just removed all DRM from tvnzondemand.co.nz, as predicted on this blog a few weeks back. A free ad-based system will replace the migraine-inducing, audience reducing, $2 and $4 "points" system to pay for clips. The ad-supported streaming content already available is far outstripping pay downloads in popularity.

Posted by Chris Keall at 12:22 PM | Permalink | Comments ( 1 )

When I got a call from a reader about his DSL connection yesterday, I steeled myself for the usual tirade about Third World bandwidth. But - shock, horror - Brian Eardley-Wilmott - an Orcon customer living 2km from Telecom's Glendowie exchange - was phoning to report a sudden, dramatic increase in speed.

Brian - boss guy at Computer Forensics NZ - called after an unexpected jump in download speed to more than 10,384Kbit/sec (that is 10Mbit/s) at times, and up to 855Kbit/sec for uploads. That's for servers in Auckland and Wellington. Hitting sites in Sydney and San Jose, there was only a slight reduction (see speedtest.net screen shot above).

Says Brian:

"I live in St Heliers, reportedly ~ 2Km from the Glendowie exchange, ISP Orcon, max up/down plan, domestic wireless LAN, crappy 4 year old laptop.
Impressive huh?
I know it's fashionable to beat up Telecom, but credit where credit's due."

[UPDATE] Here's a snip from my "Chris Keall's Broadband Diary" column in Dec 07/Jan 08 PC World, which addresses a couple of the reader comments below. I did email Orcon CEO Scott Bartlett on Friday afternoon, but he simply replied "It will be interesting to see what Telecom says on Monday":

Local loop unbundling continues at a snail’s pace. As I write, only five suburban phone exchanges have been unbundled (that is, Xtra’s competitors can shift in their own gear so they’re offering their own service rather than retailing Telecom’s). All are in Auckland: Ponsonby (where ihug and Orcon became the first turf invaders), Ellerslie, Mt Albert, Glenfield and Browns Bay.

That’s a rate of just over one a month, and don’t look for much acceleration. There are 650 exchanges in New Zealand, and the Commerce Commission only requires our favourite telco to unbundled 15 a quarter. As Consumer pointed out in its November issue, that means some of us could be waiting a stunning 10 years.

Meanwhile, new Telecom CEO Doc Reynolds says he never met with his predecessor Theresa Gattung. But ironically, his first public pronouncement closely mirrored Theresa’s line on ADSL2+: an open-ended promise to roll it out, at places and times yet to be named. Reynolds did say this $1.4 billion project would take four years, and eventually reach everyone.

Posted by Chris Keall at 3:52 PM | Permalink | Comments ( 8 )

Threatened, moi? One David Drummond, Google's Senior VP of Corporate Development and Chief Legal Officer, has lashed out his company's official blog against Microsoft's proposed $US44 billion hook-up with Yahoo:

"Microsoft's hostile bid for Yahoo! raises troubling questions. This is about more than simply one company taking over another. It's about preserving the underlying principles of the Internet: openness and innovation.

Could Microsoft now attempt to exert the same sort of inappropriate and illegal influence over the Internet that it did with the PC? While the Internet rewards competitive innovation, Microsoft has frequently sought to establish proprietary monopolies -- and then leverage its dominance into new, adjacent markets."

He goes on:

Microsoft plus Yahoo! equals an overwhelming share of instant messaging and web email accounts. And between them, the two companies operate the two most heavily trafficked portals on the Internet. Could a combination of the two take advantage of a PC software monopoly to unfairly limit the ability of consumers to freely access competitors' email, IM, and web-based services?

Read angry Drummond's full post here.

A Microsoft press statement from Microsoft General Counsel Brad Smith quickly refuted the post:

"The combination of Microsoft and Yahoo will create a more competitive marketplace by establishing a compelling number two competitor for Internet search and online advertising ... The alternative scenarios only lead to less competition on the Internet."

And he went on, in an unusually humble note for Microsoft, which finds itself cast - oh the irony etc - in role of monopoly buster:

"Today, Google is the dominant search engine and advertising company on the Web. Google has amassed about 75% of paid search revenues world-wide and its share continues to grow. According to published reports, Google currently has more than 65% search query share in the U.S. and more than 85% in Europe," he said. "Microsoft and Yahoo on the other hand have roughly 30% combined in the U.S. and approximately 10% combined in Europe."

With so many barbs traded within 24 hours of the deal's announcement, it looks like we're in for an entertaining ride.

And if things get legal - which is to say political (just ask Microsoft, which saw the Dept of Justice's antitrust crusade melt away when Bush II came to power) - Google is ready. A typically exhaustive but fascinating New Yorker essay chronicles how Google's efforts to lobby the US govt got off to a shaky start, but have now been aggressively expanded. Check it out here.

Posted by Chris Keall at 11:25 AM | Permalink | Comments ( 0 )

New Zealand's portal wars have been torturous to watch over the past year - and in YahooXtra's case, at times torturous to visit. First Microsoft, a one-time shareholder in Xtra's parent Telecom, parted ways with our favourite telco. Xtra rushed into bed with Yahoo ... and, well, you know how well the YahooXtra Bubble launch went as management of email and other services was abruptly shunted across the Tasman. Meanwhile, MSN.co.nz is a mere link farm compared to other Microsoft portals around the world.

Now, Microsoft has offered to buy Yahoo for $US44 billion. It's a deal that's likely to through. It's a very good price; Yahoo needs a hand; and no regulator could block it at a time when search ad revenue is king (Google's projected revenue this year, $US16 billion, will be more than the top four US TV networks combined) but Microsoft (14%) and Yahoo (18%) badly trail Google (56%) in search share, according to Nielsen. That matters at a time when Microsoft sees the market for online advertising doubling from $US40 billion in 2007 to $US80 billion in 2008.

And if it does indeed go through, it'll necessitate another round of shenanigans as YahooXtra and MSN.co.nz again fragment then realign (MSNYahoo!??) for a third time. However things shake out, it's unlikely that NZ and Aussie media partners will be at the front of the wrestling giants' minds, as Rob O'Neill points out over at Computerworld.

The only sure thing is that it's more good news for nzherald.co.nz and stuff.co.nz, which in the absence of the usual serious portal competition from Yahoo and MSN, have become the nation's default portals. As Fairfax Digital's outgoing head Bernard Hickey noted at the Digital Summit, in world terms it's very unusual for newspaper sites like his Stuff to dominate, but they'll take it.

Posted by Chris Keall at 10:48 AM | Permalink | Comments ( 2 )