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Bob’s Byte

Portable Connectivity: SD Memory Card’s Faster Role

05 August 2011 Bob Snyder Bob’s Byte

Portable Connectivity: SD Memory Card’s Faster Role

In this last decade, the undisputed leader in consumer electronics has been Apple...people stood in lines just to buy Apple’s i-products, their much-coveted inventory has been sold out often, and their subcontractors regularly ran out of components trying to meet demand. Nothing has been hotter in CE than sizzling Apple, right?

So here’s a question for you. Do you think you would you have done better 10 years ago by accepting 5 euro for each iPad sold (25 million as of June 2011), each iPhone sold (100 million as of March 2011) and each iPod sold (300 million at Jan. 2011)—or by accepting 1 euro for each SD memory card shipped?

Yes, that’s right...the SD memory card...that humble, under-estimated memory card that goes inside mobile phones, media players, computers, televisions, personal navigation devices, digital cameras and many other consumer electronics gadgets.

You probably guessed right if you read the title of this article: the SD memory card is one of the consumer electronics industry’s most successful innovations with an estimated 2.5 billion SD memory cards shipped in its 10-year history.

During those 10 years as Apple polished its fame, SD memory card went quietly about its business. Life is not fair and nor is business... the SD memory card will probably never receive the public acclaim that Apple elicits. Yet inside the CE business, this unsung product hero has outsold Apple’s biggest hits by 5:1.

During the past 10 years, the SD Association has seen an estimated 8000-plus consumer electronics models manufactured by more than 400 brands worldwide rely on SD standards. More than 1000 members give the SD memory card an ecosystem that boosts the removable media market leader to nearly 80% market share today.

And it all started with a first SD memory cards that offered an impressive (at that time) 8MB of storage capacity in the size of a postage stamp.

If that one sales record of 2.5 billion sold was all to be said, SD would still go down in CE history as one of our greatest products...but-- like Apple—the SD Association has had to adopt continuous innovation to succeed.

AMD & The Ride of the Headless Horseman

27 July 2011 Bob Snyder Bob’s Byte

AMD posts Q2 profits that beat Wall Street’s expectations and sent its shares soaring more than 16%

That was despite a drop in revenue.

So what's the lesson here?

AMD has been without a CEO since January, when Dirk Meyer was forced out on January 10th. Maybe AMD is pioneering a new management model, much in the same way Belgium is leading the new political model by showing countries really can do just as well without a government (and those highly-paid heads).

Meyer had been making an annual salary of $950,000, plus a "target" annual bonus of $1.9 million (says Veritas Executive Compensation Consultants LLC). Now that drops to the bottom line. And the effective AMD managers keep Fusion going without interference from the top. Imagine how much less politics when no egos to stroke, no political agenda at play.

The Day Today: IPv6 Day

08 June 2011 Bob Snyder Bob’s Byte

Meet IPv6 and the Broken Web.

Like most stories, the story of how IP will break down in 2012 is more complicated than the simple explanation put forward.

When we deplete available IPv4 addresses this year, to continue growth, the internet must switch to the new standard, IPv6. This seems to rival climate change in the public's ability to absorb and react to this fact.

But IPv4 depletion denial is only the simple affliction. Now the industry recognizes a second syndrome that will strike down several Continue reading...

What Intel Thinks about Netbooks, Tablets & What's-Its-Name

11 May 2011 Bob Snyder Bob’s Byte

Wow...we are in bad shape when even Intel can't find a proper name for a new category of device. These are the folks that supposedly pay six-figures for monikers for chips that once had names like T781ZXCS103.

That's right: we're supposed to officially call the latest trend "Hybrid Device." And the new hybrid is just one part of the market that Intel calls "Mobility" along with the other better-known suspects, Netbooks and Tablets.

Notebooks are not mentioned here because this is Intel's new Netbook & Tablet division that's trying to wrestle to the ground the high-flying tablet market that caught the industry by surprise. Well, not exactly "surprise.." There must be a different word for when the industry gets all excited about a concept (in 1999) and it seems to hit with a dud instead of a bang, but then years later (2010) it pops up as a great idea. How about "recidiviprise" or at least "reocurprise?"

Forget notebooks for the minute...many of the consumers have anyways. Let's look at the Mobility world through Intel eyes...

The Munich Hall Theory of CeBIT Goes Down

21 April 2011 Bob Snyder Bob’s Byte

The Munich Hall Theory of CeBIT Goes Down

These are hallowed halls, these walls of the Munich Beer Hall. CeBIT's most famous place of distraction, the "Hangover Hall" behind Hall 3.

It's one experience that most CeBIT newbies carry home...along with the hangover and an appreciation of Bavarian culture (acquired, of course, via northern Hannover).

During the heyday of CeBIT, the robust woman who owns the Munich hall, her hands sporting diamonds on every finger, once explained to me she made 2 million euros per night during the show.

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