Apple's iPad2
Can Amazon’s new tablet computer, reportedly a souped up version of its popular Kindle e-reader, compete with Apple’s iPad? Thus far, would-be tablet competitors have not fared well against Apple brand power and the iPad.
Motorola, Acer, and Blackberry maker Research in Motion all tried to grab a piece of the tasty looking tablet computer market, but their efforts failed to make a real dent in Apple’s iPad share. Motorola did manage to see off its TouchPads, the most recent entry in the market, at fire sale prices of $99 each (and may make more available next month).
But the New York Times says a competitor is on the verge of introducing “the best-placed challenger of all: Amazon.com.” Quoting analysts, the Times says the Amazon tablet will undercut Apple’s price by about half and sell for around $250. It will have a 7 inch touch screen, with a bigger screen model coming in a year.
The Amazon device, while possibly not quite as powerful as an iPad, will handle the uses most people want from a tablet computer, easy access to email and the Web, and to Amazon’s vast store of books, music, and videos. It is the only Apple rival with the later advantage.
Whether it is a serious iPad competitor or not, it will certainly give Barnes & Noble’s color Nook some grief in the marketplace. B&N is striving to switch to digital before it ends up in the same place as its competitor, Borders, which will soon be completely gone.
One analyst quoted by the Times expects the Amazon tablets to sell as many as five million devices initially.
TechMediaNetwork nabs $33M financing to broaden reach
-TechMediaNetwork Inc. a technology media company that produces news and reviews in the technology and science verticals, today announced a $33 million Series B financing from ABS Capital Partners, a leading growth equity investor. Existing investors Village Ventures and Highway 12 Ventures also participated in the round.
TMN will use the funds to increase its acquisition program, further expand its growing news organization, enhance its monetization strategies and increase the distribution of its content. As a result of the financing, ABS Capital General Partner Ralph Terkowitz and Principal Paul Mariani will join TMN’s board of directors.
“Both organically and through complementary acquisitions, we are constantly looking to strengthen and broaden our expansion in the technology news market,” said Jerry Ropelato, CEO and founder of TechMediaNetwork. “The increased reach and influence of our network will continue to deliver more value to our readers, affiliates and advertising partners.”
TechMediaNetwork delivers technology news and product reviews across its 16 different web properties, featuring such flagship sites as LAPTOP, SPACE.com, TopTenREVIEWS and TechNewsDaily. TMN connects consumers, small publishers, advertisers and ecommerce vendors through a network of trusted information, revenue opportunities and audience reach. T
The Company has syndication partners, including Yahoo!, MSNBC.com and the websites of Fox News and CBS News, and advertisers such as American Express, AT&T, Canon, General Motors, HP, Kodak, Sony, Symantec, Toyota and Warner Bros.
Tumblr cranks the wheel on $85M funding
Tumblr, the blogging platform that soared from 2 billion page views a month earlier this year to $13 billion now, and boasts 30 million blogs generating 40 million posts a day, has raised a massive $85 million funding.
Led by Greylock Partners and Insight Venture Partners, the round included The Chernin Group, Sir Richard Branson, Spark Capital, Union Square Ventures and Sequoia Capital.
WordPress, by comparison, supplies the platform for more than 59 million websites.
Tumblr also surpasses both Wikipedia and Twitter in pageviews and does about half as many as AOL and Craigslist, according to TechCrunch.
More than 299 million people view more than 2.5 billion pages each month on WordPress.com, according to the site’s own statistics page.
Do you know why Tumblr generates so many pageviews? It’s because they make it easy to connect to other blogs and bloggers and scroll rapidly through page after page of posts. I sometimes look at 100 pages in half an hour. — Allan Maurer
