the buzz log

Billionaire investor Sam Zell said he "made a mistake" buying the Tribune Co. and that the "future of the newspaper industry is at risk today." Sumner Redstone, a broadcast billionaire whose father sold papers in Boston, said that while he would never die, newspapers would. Warren Buffett, who aired his doubts about the newspaper industry back in 1992, confirmed lately that his holding company wouldn't invest in the foolscap biz "at any price."

As if the litter of dead or wounded newspapers weren't enough, the stinging dismissal from the billionaire boys' club is wounding indeed. The only thing missing is Donald Trump claiming his hair would outlast newspapers and be a source of renewable energy to boot.

Of course, they're not attacking the message so much as the anachronistic medium: Plenty of eyeballs still read the news, but there hasn't been a good way to figure out how to keep the news going without starving journalists. There have been no shortage of answers (or failed solutions). Now, a bigger, buffer Kindle DX from Amazon ($489 retail, summer release) has spurred hopeful speculation that this will be the really cool device to encourage people to read (and pay) for information.

That school of thought is sort of equivalent to the iPod-as-savior model...although the music industry's not doing that well. Blogs like ReadWriteWeb and Crunch Gear have shot down the Kindle-as-newspaper-platform model almost as fast as traditional media can float the idea. And indeed, the New York Times threw out the proposal of Amazon as "electronic life preserver to old-media companies," only to trample it the very next day. Of course, the NYT company almost closed down a major newspaper itself, which just encourages not-so-idle billionaire chatter.

The Kindle, still without color or video, might have to find a savior itself. Wired reports not one but two threats: Plastic Logic's lightweight, letter-sized touchscreen sheet due out in 2010 and, even worse, rumors of Apple building a tablet-sized iPhone. So far, infamous technophobes Redstone and Buffett haven't spoken on that topic yet. But they probably know—they read newspapers every day.

Filed under: Tech, Apple Computer, Business, Books, Media, Newspapers, iPhone

Steve Jobs knows a thing or two about marketing. The man could stand next to a rack of invisible clothes, and people would still ohh and ahh. Fortunately, Apple's founder and CEO skipped the iPantsuit and announced a new iPhone instead.

For techies, the big news is that this version will have 3G support, which allows for faster web surfing and downloads. For those who don't know a 3G from a TV, the new price was the main attraction. Whereas the original iPhone initially retailed for $599, the new one will start at $199. Sounds good, but as Buzz visitors are learning, it's wise to read the fine print.

Several articles point out that while the physical phone is much cheaper, data plans are now more expensive. According to the Machinest, the iPhone's exclusive service provider, AT&T, will raise its monthly rates by about $10 a month.

Still, with the lower price point, many folks are sure to hop on Apple's bandwagon. Searches on "iphone," "iphone 2.0," and "iphone price" dialed up big gains. But cost-conscious queries on "iphone data plans," "iphone monthly costs," and "prices for iphone plans" were also significant. Are folks wising up to bigger fees? Maybe so, but queries like "buy iphone now" indicate many of Jobs' minions are more than willing to pay up.

Filed under: Apple Computer, Steve Jobs, iPhone

Our ears are still ringing from the prerelease hype for the Apple iPhone. Wall Street's senses must have been muddled, too. Even before the revolutionary phone was on shelves, analysts put a shine on their crystal balls, divining that Apple would sell anywhere from hundreds of thousands to a cool million of the products in its first few days on the streets. Yet after iPhone carrier AT&T announced a "disappointing" 146,000 activations in its first weekend, Wall Street wanted to hang up the phone on Apple.

Now that the hype and hot air have come down to earth, we see that sales were in line with what Apple predicted, and notably outperformed initial sales of Apple's other success, the iPod. The buzz on Apple's phone came in crystal clear as well. In its first 30 days on the street, the "iphone" query maintained a strong position in the top 100 searches, and even ticked up a precocious 8%.

Of course, there were a few other relevant searches in the iPhone's first month, including "iphone problems" (+4,652%), "unlock iphone" (+6,208%), and "iphone sucks" (+470%). All of which dials in on the fact that a product and a company's value are defined well beyond Wall street's jibber-jabber.

Filed under: Apple Computer, Gadgets, iPhone