We’re Talking Tech

Another week, another Talking Tech podcast with Mark Evans, Kevin Restivo and Duncan Stewart. The tech landscape was dominated this week by an alliance between NBC Universal and News Corp. that will apparently be a challenger to YouTube. (Mike Arrington has a lengthy analysis that suggests YouTube has littleto worry about – at least in the short-term). Duncan and Stewart both believe that while the to-be-named joint venture’s prospects uncertain, its creation is yet another attack on the YouTube empire. Duncan adds he’s intrigued by the fact no one has jumped on the legal bandwagon after Viacom’s copyright infringement lawsuit was recently filed.

Of particular interest to Duncan are Motorola’s financial troubles, which could the mobile device market is quickly becoming a low-margin, low-profit commodity. After all, if you can buy a Razr – the coolest phone in the world not so long ago – for US$49, the margins can’t be that healthy, right? For us Canadian commentators, the obvious question is whether the Blackberry will also fall victim to the commodity trend. The answer – for now – is probably not because most Blackberrry purchases are businesses willing to pay for its reliability and security.

Finally, we take a look at why Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer called Google’s growth plans “insane”. Does Ballmer have a point given Google’s habit of tossing out new services that failed to gain much, if any, traction. Or his statement simply a reflection of Microsoft’s growing concern about Google’s inevitable march into the office productivity market – and perhaps the browser and OS markets?