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Posts Tagged ‘Mass Market’

Algae fuel contender Aurora lands $15M — but can it grow?

On the surface, biofuels derived from algae seem to be an ideal solution to wean cars and trucks off gasoline. Algae grows anywhere, produces fuel that can work in today’s vehicle tanks, and seems cheap enough. Based on these arguments, Aurora Biofuels, a startup that cultivates algae to produce biodiesel, has just landed $15 million in a third round of venture funding. But it has yet to overcome the big hurdle standing between algae and the mass market: scale.

Aurora is far from alone in the algae fuel game. Companies like Sapphire Energy, Solazyme, and Amyris Biotechnologies are sprinting toward the same goal, but each have run into the problem of how to inexpensively and feasibly scale their operations to produce the millions of gallons of fuel needed to chip away at petroleum’s dominance.

Aurora will use the new money to commercialize its fuels, but doesn’t plan to come to market until 2011 or 2012, as Earth2Tech points out. With $40 million in capital raised, it seems to have enough runway to get it there, but then what? It says it plans to build fuel-producing plants near its algae farms so that they can feed on and recycle the carbon dioxide produced. But $40 million doesn’t seem like enough to make this happen.

Aurora’s one argument for why it will win out over its competitors, is that it has bred a strain of algae capable of generating 125 times as much fuel from the same amount of pond scum. If smaller acreages are needed, it can cut its costs by as much as half, and the company will be able to offer its fuel for cheaper — as low as $55 a barrel — undercutting its rivals and becoming more cost competitive with gasoline.

But Aurora’s high-yield algae isn’t that original of an idea. Solazyme says it is engineering its own high-efficiency strains that eat sugar and don’t require sunlight — not to mention it has the backing of Chevron and the U.S. Navy.

By comparison, last year at this time, Aurora had just completed an 18-month trial of its pilot plant, and announced development of a second, demonstration-scale facility, which is still underway. That initial pilot was only intended to prove the technology, capable of churning out less than 1,000 gallons of biodiesel a year. It seems like the company has a way to go before its first gallon hits the real-world market.

Based in Alameda, Calif., Aurora raised $5 million in Jan. 2007 and $20 million in June 2008 from Noventi Ventures, Gabriel Venture Partners and Oak Investment Partners — the same firms that provided the recent round of financing.

Companies: Amyris Biotechnologies, Aurora BioFuels, Gabriel Venture Partners, Noventi Ventures, Oak INvestment Partners, Sapphire Energy, Solazyme

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Fastest site on the Web: The IRS?

Performance monitoring service Gomez has released its annual list of major websites with the best overall responsiveness as measured by Gomez over the entire year 2009. Surprise winner: IRS.gov, a site that uses images sparingly and pushes off large documents to PDF format for downloading, rather than trying to serve them as Web pages.

Gomez spokesman Frank Cioffi says the Lexington, Massachusetts consulting firm, which was acquired by Compuware last year, has learned an important stat over the past year. “It used to be that you had eight seconds to engage your customer before they hit the back button. Today, that’s down to two or three seconds,” due to the proliferation of broadband sites and the examples set by Google, YouTube and the IRS.

The chart below shows which mass-market sites fared the best over the year in Gomez’ tests. For 2010, perhaps Gomez can add a mobile performance category.

Companies: Gomez

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Layar Scores $3.4M In Funding, Global Distribution Agreement

Big day for augmented reality startup Layar today. I’m here at the Mobile Premier Awards ceremony in Barcelona, where the company just announced on stage that they have struck a global distribution deal with a major handset manufacturer.

Layar has opened up a sort of app store or augmented reality experience delivered on top of its platform.

Also, the Dutch startup is announcing that it has crossed the 1 million user mark, and that two European investors have stepped up to inject €2.5 million ($3.4 million) of capital into the venture in a series A investment. The investors are Sunstone Capital and Prime Technology Ventures.

We’ve been covering Layar and its evolving platform since it debuted last summer.

WiFi is fairly spotty here at the venue, unfortunately, so we’ll get into the specifics of the platform play at a later stage. For now, here’s this bit straight from the press release:

The Layar platform allows brands, game developers, publishers and producers to engage with customers through the creation of rich immersive real world experiences. Already 375 layers have been published, with over 1200 layers in development. More than 2000 organizations in 70 countries are benefiting from the unique capabilities of the Layar platform, developing great content.

As of mid March 2010, all Layar producers and publishers will be able to generate a return from their investment in AR. They can offer both free and paid content through the Layar platform. Layar will facilitate global mobile payment processing and distribution in all currencies. Producers can fully focus on content – without having to worry about mass market distribution, developing for multiple mobile platforms, or financial administration.

Layar didn’t specify which global handset manufacturer they have reached an agreement with, but they say it is one of the top 3, and that the deal will enable tens of millions of people to experience Layar AR content on their mobile phones in 2010.

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ST-Ericsson Helps Handset Manufacturers Make Low-Cost Android Smartphones

ST-Ericsson, a 50/50 joint venture by STMicroelectronics and Ericsson, this morning announced its latest HSDPA platform built on the Linux OS. Dubbed U6715, the platform aims to aid handset manufacturers produce smartphones powered by Android – or other Linux-based operating systems – with a wholesale price of less than €100 ($138).

ST-Ericsson says it anticipates manufacturers to launch the first commercial products based on its U6715 chip platform in the first half of 2010.

The company claims the platform can support all the essentials of the smartphone experience, including navigation, web browsing, video streaming, email, WiFi, a five megapixel camera, a touch screen and more. A multimedia engine integrated into the hardware architecture of the U6715 frees most of the platform’s microprocessor subsystem to run applications.

At the same time, ST-Ericsson says the U6715 platform allows manufacturers to significantly drive down the cost of device production and thus make highly capable smartphones less of a niche play and more of a mass-market product.

The U6715 platform comes with an HSPA modem capable of delivering downlink speeds of up to 7.2 Mbps, and the company also boasts about its power efficiency. Equipped with a 1000mA battery, smartphones based on the platform are said to be capable of playing music for up to 40 hours and provide a talk time of up to 7 hours on a 3G network on a single battery charge.

More details are available in this document (PDF).

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Somy X5: basically a Sony Ericsson Pureness for a tenth the price

Here’s the thing about Sony Ericsson’s Xperia Pureness: once you get past the translucent display, there’s not much to it. Seriously — it doesn’t have 3G, a camera, hunks of precious metal, or even a fancy name to flaunt like Vertu, Dior, or Versace; it’s just a low-end phone from a mass-market manufacturer that can’t do much other than make calls. We suppose that’s why it was so easy for a Shenzhen KIRFer to pop out this near-perfect duplicate of the Pureness — the Somy X5 — in no time. Heck, it’s even got support for two SIMs, or exactly twice as many as you’ll find on the $1,000 genuine article — which, if you’re keeping track, is over twelve times the bargain-basement sticker on the Somy here at RMB 550 ($81). Anyhow, looks like it’s back to that search for a faithful Aura replica, eh?

Somy X5: basically a Sony Ericsson Pureness for a tenth the price originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 01 Feb 2010 16:06:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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feature: Here’s to the crazy ones: a decade of Mac OS X reviews

The latter half of the 1990s was a dark time for the company then known as Apple Computer, Inc. Windows 95 had dashed any remaining hopes of mass-market desktop dominance for Apple. The big profits of the earlier part of the decade had given way to some huge annual losses. The future of the entire company was in doubt.

Like injured animals, corporations are adept at hiding the true magnitude of their injuries. As grim as things appeared from the outside, few Apple enthusiasts knew at the time just how close the company came to fiscal ruin. But the software picture was always crystal-clear—clear, and terrifying.

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Apple: Time to Drop Anti-PC Sarcasm from TV Ads

I always looked forward to seeing new “I’m a Mac – I’m a PC” ads on television. As a long-time Mac fan and a marketing pro, I really admired these spots. They were smart and edgy, yet friendly. They were fun. They differentiated Macs from PCs. From a marketing perspective, they were appropriate to Apple’s David fighting Microsoft’s Goliath. And they worked really well, perhaps better than any other mass-market technology product ads.

Now I wince every time I see a new one, hoping its smug attitude and condescending tone doesn’t go too far.

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This guest post was written by Frank Cioffi.

I also relished how Apple’s spots unhinged Microsoft, prompting the Goliath to produce its own, usually inept, TV ads that broke a major rule of marketing: never appear reactive to a smaller competitor. Microsoft’s PC ads and the flurry of Ballmer-isms that accompanied them, all on the heels of the Windows Vista catastrophe, actually seemed to reinforce Apple’s point.

But what has worked for Apple over the last three years doesn’t seem to work as well now. Call it a psychographic observation, but the theme is getting tired, and the emotional impact of the ads has shifted. The superior, mocking tone of the ads sometimes goes too far, especially now as the new Windows 7 is being well received. Don’t get me wrong. I’m a born-and-raised New Yorker. I like sarcasm. But for me, edgy has gone over the edge in some of these ads.

Do we Mac users tend to feel superior? Of course. We know we enjoy the world’s most elegant operating system. But when a Mac evangelist like me starts feeling mildly apologetic about these spots and empathizing with the PC guy, something is amiss.

Does Apple’s research show that prospective Mac customers, their intended audience, still like these ads? I assume so. But perhaps Microsoft’s jab at Apple in its TV ads earlier this year (the one in which PC buyer Lauren says, “Maybe I’m not cool enough” to be a Mac person) was accurate, signaling that Apple’s approach borders on arrogance, especially as it gains ever greater market share.

While Mac’s market share still pales in comparison to Windows, Apple is no longer a David. With its omnipresent retail stores, the iconic iPod and the runaway popularity of the iPhone, Apple is a real and perceived leader. It has a market cap of over $170 billion and more cash than Cisco or Microsoft. Its TV ads, its recent mishandling of App Store developer issues and criticism from prominent tech journalists show that the Apple perception machine is showing cracks. The company is starting to appear arrogant.

To its credit, Apple’s iPhone television ads are clean and crisp, relaying useful features and the latest apps. And not all of the Mac-PC ads are disdainful. The recent one with actor Robert Loggia as PC’s coach is fun. But the spot portraying a top-of-the-line PC model as a semi-sleazy sales guy? That’s when I cringe. The new spots reacting to Windows 7? Not so bad, but they still rely too much on criticizing Microsoft. There’s a difference between conveying product superiority and having a superior attitude.

For this Mac fan, these ads are past their peak. They were great fun for a while. But it’s time to shift the tone or move on. Certainly Apple’s creative teams can come up with a follow-up act that is informative, entertaining and edgy, without sounding smug. Otherwise, Apple runs the risk of (gasp!) emulating Microsoft.

Guest author: Frank Cioffi is editor and publisher of Apple Investor News, the Apple-only news aggregator and part of the Tech Investor News network..

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Entelligence: Seven on 7

This was a big week for Microsoft, as Steve Ballmer took the stage in New York and formally introduced Windows 7 to the world. It was almost a little anti-climactic: the OS has been finished and shipped to OEMs for months, while developers and pretty much any enthusiast who wanted a copy has one by now. Still, this is the week that Microsoft takes the message and OS to the mass market and the PC holiday sales system formally kicks off. I’ve held back from writing about the OS for the most part, but here’s seven things about Windows 7 — three features that I think are over-hyped and four things that make 7 something worth purchasing, either as an upgrade or as part of a new PC.

Continue reading Entelligence: Seven on 7

Filed under: Software

Entelligence: Seven on 7 originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 24 Oct 2009 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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