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In the spectrum of consumer products there are smart phones and laptops and nothing in between.  Some think it should be that way. In late May, the creative minds at struggling hand-held maker Palm boldly declared otherwise. 

Believing there was a sizable market opportunity for a “tween” device, the company unveiled a prototype “Mobile Companion” device called Foleo.  Endowed with a 10 inch widescreen and a full keyboard, it was intended to be used in conjunction with a smartphone, like a feature-packed peripheral.  With pricing around $500, it would ship, they said, by mid September. That’s now changed.

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For a superstitious company, taking the same office space formerly used by YouTube isn’t a bad omen.  Yesterday, Bluepulse, a provider of mobile social networking services from Australia stepped onto that four leaf clover and also announced it had closed a $6m financing. 

The company, which was founded in 2002 in Australia launched a beta version of its services last year in December.  They are now global.  Their social networking features are functional on most Internet enabled cell phones provided a customer has an appropriate data plan.

To date the company has reported more than 2million downloads of their application. In usage, they are generating more than a 100 million monthly page views.

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With talk about convergence, Microsoft comes up a lot. They’re into gaming (Xbox), all things computers (Windows etc.), music (Zune and Windows Media Player) and they want to get more involved in the living room (Media Center) and other environments (Surface).  One area that wouldn’t have struck me for a top ten list of their target markets is my car, but turns out that is a destination already on Microsoft’s road map.

GPS or operating system related software technology would be the first guesses for where and what they’re focusing on, and that’s half right.  Entertainment, however, is also a big part.   Microsoft already has a Window’s Automotive Platform and they’re aiming to use it to integrate and control entertainment devices.  The launch was notable enough, even, to be the subject of a Bill Gates  keynote speech.  Now a new patent aims to expand the vision.

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With the iPhone, AT&T may be in bed with Apple for the next five years but that doesn’t mean they can’t have other partners to make music with.  Yesterday, in a joint press release, AT&T and number two digital music retailer, eMusic, announced a new over-the-air (Internet to Mobile) music service for AT&T cellular customers (iPhones, not included).

The service allows AT&T wireless customers to access, preview and buy songs from eMusic directly through their handsets.  In going “over the air,” the offering diverges from AT&T’s earlier music download service deals (with Napster and Yahoo) that allowed customers to buy music online and download it to music playing phones. It also gives them a product to compete with offerings from other wireless providers.

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With all the talk about the iPhone, it was almost easy to forget Apple’s product portfolio is one of the treasure chests of industry.  They make great returns on the entire iPod line.  They do a robust business with iTunes.  And of course, there’s the computer line which has a devoted, loyal fan base and a solid profit margin.

Today after the close of market, to the legions of Apple fans, and hungry investors anxious for a benchmark to measure performance of technology and consumer products, Apple announced their earnings for their fiscal third quarter.  The numbers were strong, and buried in the guidance there were hints of new products to come.

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In 1999, going against the days trends, two Stanford undergraduate engineering students took aim at cell phone technology instead of focusing on the Internet.   With money from family, and a lot of persistence, they started a company called Aliph. 

Over the next five years, Alex Asseily and Hosain Rahman hired sound engineering experts and engineers and toiled in an effort to build a better mobile headset. The original plan was to license the technology they developed but along the way plans shifted.   In 2004 Aliph released their Jawbone headsets to critical acclaim.

The headset, which has been optimized by DARPA to improve communication clarity in hostile conditions, brings together a combination of sensors that recognize speech from ambient noise.  Using highly directional microphones and a bevy of signal processing technology, along with a chipset from Cambridge Silicon Radio, the earpieces aim to improve the inconsistent sound quality common to mobile headsets; and by most tests, they achieve their goal.    The Jawbone also has a novel feature: not only does it tune out background noise; it also adjusts the speaker volume relative to the environment. So next time a Harley rumbles past you on the highway, you may not miss an important part of your call.

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It’s been said that “statistics are like bikinis.  What they reveal is suggestive, but what they conceal is vital.”  Similarly, Arthur Conan Doyle’s famed Sherlock Holmes once spouted off that it’s “a capital mistake to theorize before one has data.”

These days there’s usual more data than there is time to process it, and much might leave even Sherlock scratching his head, still some of the raw data can be revealing.  Over the past few weeks, Metue has published two collections of raw statistics (Click for Part one and Part two). Here’s part three of the three part series showcasing a sampling of recent media statistics that to lend themselves to insights into the crossed, intersecting world of media, entertainment and technology.

(Editors Note: In future weeks, a dedicated page may be added to Metue to house more of this kind of information. Stay tuned. Several site additions are in development or under consideration ):

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