Alvarion 2010 report

Alvarion just released their 2010 report:

Highlights:

• Q4 decrease – revenues and shipments
• 2010 shipments “increase” of 0.4% – let’s call this “flat”
• 2010 revenues down 16.3%

Management comment:

“We continue to see attractive, profitable business in the 4G RAN market, albeit on a smaller scale than we previously expected”

2011 Guidance is not provided

I wish all the best to Alvarion, but they keep bleeding money while future is not promising.

WiMAX is not being deployed as it was supposed to; Can’t see Alvarion competing in the LTE market against the Giants.

Damage Control 101 – Blow out of proportions

I may be speculating here, but the Iran Virus story and media coverage made me think.

Facts:

1. Siemens SCADA systems around the world were hit by Stuxnet virus.
2. Some of the systems are in Iran
3. From BBC report: “Stuxnet was first detected in June by a security firm based in Belarus, but may have been circulating since 2009.”
4. “Siemens was neither involved in the reconstruction of Bushehr or any nuclear plant construction in Iran, nor delivered any software or control system,” he said. “Siemens left the country nearly 30 years ago.”
5. “Siemens said that it was only aware of 15 infections that had made their way on to control systems in factories, mostly in Germany.”

Yet the Media speculates:

• “The sophisticated super virus Stuxnet” - Deutche Welle
• “One of the most sophisticated pieces of malware ever detected was probably targeting “high value” infrastructure in Iran, experts have told the BBC.”
• “Stuxnet’s complexity suggests it could only have been written by a “nation state”, some researchers have claimed”
• “The fact that we see so many more infections in Iran than anywhere else in the world makes us think this threat was targeted at Iran and that there was something in Iran that was of very, very high value to whomever wrote it,” Liam O’Murchu of security firm Symantec, who has tracked the worm since it was first detected, told BBC News.

Facts seem to contradict the speculation, but the story becomes more interesting, doesn’t it?

However, Mr O’Murchu and others, such as security expert Bruce Schneier, have said that there was currently not enough evidence to draw conclusions about what its intended target was or who had written it.

And now my speculation:

As Siemens are obviously do not actively involve themselves in the PR and reports of  “some researchers have claimed”, it looks like Symantec are doing all they can do to blow this story out of proportions. This is not a story of “Symantec software failed to identify and stop a malware”, but “Symantec cannot possibly identify and stop such a sophisticated Super Virus written by a Nation State”.

Tags: Iran, Nuclear, Symantec, Virus

HMV Shibuya Closed

That’s it. HMV Shibuya closed. Report from Yomiuri

HMV Shibuya to close

HMV Shibuya posted a sign notifying customers  that the shop will close in August.

In the past few months HMV already gave up the top floor for a guitar shop, but the end came faster than expected.

Original Link to tweetPhoto

SUN R.I.P.

Two images from yesterday’s Tokyo Bar Camp

Open Network Lab with HootSuite

Open Network Lab is a new incubation lab for Internet based Startups.

I joined last week’s meeting with Ryan Holmes, HootSuite CEO and Japanese Shinnichi Fujikawa, founder of Movatwi.

Open Network Lab goal is to encourage innovation and Internet based Start-Ups, which may explain the 40 minutes long panel on “How Engineers can start Companies”.

HootSuite recently launched a Japanese version of their service,with the aid of Digital Garage which is heavily invested in the Twitter phenomena and related tools/services.

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4006/4650441303_46d0d1c8cd.jpg

To me it seems Open Network Lab is the right tool for the current economic and social situation in Japan. In the past few months I have met many Engineers, Innovators excited to start their own companies, but fail in two things:

• How to market their services to the mass market
• How to go Global

Cisco Quits WiMAX

Cisco has finally announced their pull out from the WiMAX business . Hardly surprising, as in the past two yeas, since Navini Networks acquisition, Cisco were not very successful with this new Wireless business.

Not sure if it was because the technology didn’t fit Cisco business, or just failure to execute. But, I can’t remember even one meaningful deployment from Navini (Cisco) .

The reason I am writing this post is to remind everyone that Alvarion was supposedly the first runner for Cisco’s WiMAX ambitions, when in the last minute (well, this is what newspapers preferred to portray), Navini was acquired. I am sure many people in Alvarion are happy today that it turned out this way.

Tags: Cisco

UQ WiMAX Repeaters

On the same day UQ WiMAX announced the installation of the 5000th base station , they also announced the availability of WiMAX Repeaters.

As any other wireless technology the biggest issue is Coverage. Or rather, how to provide the best coverage with lower costs. A repeater is a good solution to extend a cell (when more bandwidth is not needed).

A PDF from UQ [JP] shows 3 different repeaters and usage. Graphics are quite bad , but I’ll ignore it this time.

Tags: UQ WiMAX

UQ WiMAX-5000 Base Station installed

UQ WiMAX announced today [JP] installing the 5000th WiMAX Base Station.

Very impressive, but it will be more interesting to read about UQ making money than spending.

Last year’s report indicated 27,000 users , which can’t really justify installing 5000 base stations.

Tags: UQ WiMAX

Some Kindle Books Are Not Available in Japan

I love my Kindle.

I read more, especially on business trips. I do all I can to carry less when I travel, so carrying a book always seems to me like a burden. With Kindle, I could eliminate the problem. Fixed (rather small) size and weight and can carry many books.

Yesterday, I was surprised to find that not all Kindle Books are available to me, since my kindle is associated to  my Japanese address. I am thinking very hard, but still can’t find a reason.

If I can purchase the book (Hardcover) from Amazon and ship it to Japan, how come I can’t buy the Kindle version and receive it over a Wireless connection?

Tags: Amazon, Kindle