AT&T Can't Cover 3G iPhone Demand At SXSW

By Jack McCarthy, ChannelWeb
9:20 PM EDT Mon. Mar. 16, 2009

The South By Southwest Music Festival in Austin is getting to be a well known and well liked gathering for music, independent film and interactive technology, including its Interactive Web Awards. But the rush of 3G iPhone users at the festival quickly overwhelmed AT&T (NYSE:T)'s networks over the weekend, outraging festival goers at the "unprecedented" the tech failure.

An embarrased AT&T had to act fast to try to remedy the situation, with spokesman Seth Bloom sending this message Sunday to GigaOm:

"To accommodate unprecedented demand for mobile data and voice applications at SXSW, we are actively working this afternoon to add capacity to our cell sites serving downtown Austin. These efforts are ongoing, but we anticipate that customers should see improved network performance this evening and for the remainder of the event. We will continue to monitor network performance throughout the event, and will do everything possible to maximize network performance throughout. We apologize to customers who were inconvenienced during this surge in local network demand."

The carrier said it was acting quickly to restore capacity to its network in downtown Austin and promised to get service restored as soon as possible.

While festival goers wait for service, at least they can check out the music and films.

Is Apple Feeling The Netbook Impact?

The Channel Wire

March 16, 2009

Whether you love netbooks or love to hate them, their impact on the laptop PC market is undeniable, particularly when it comes to pricing.

Even Apple, it seems, is not entirely immune.

Research firm NPD Group released its latest sales figures, which among other things showed pricing on laptops of both the PC and Mac variety dropped in February. The average selling price of Mac laptops fell roughly 7 percent to $1,512, according to NPD.

While that pales in comparison to the gigantic dip in the average selling price of Windows-based laptops--down 22 percent to $560, where netbooks are more clearly having an impact--a drop is still a drop.

I have to believe that the combined factors of a struggling economy and the buzzworthiness of low-cost Windows-based netbooks will make it increasingly difficult for Apple to keep its laptop prices from slumping. No doubt, diehard Mac users will remain as such and will willingly plunk down the extra dough for Apple products. But for all those "independents" and all of the current PC users who might be Mac-curious, it's not so easy to justify spending $1,000 more for Apple's cool factor when netbooks are forcing laptop PC prices down, down, down.

Apple sales also are not invulnerable. NPD says unit sales of Macbook laptops dropped 7 percent in February, while Windows-based laptops, including netbooks, grew 36 percent. Even if netbooks are excluded, unit sales of Windows laptops still grew 16 percent, Reuters reported.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs has been widely quoted as saying the company doesn't know how to make a sub-$500 computer "that's not a piece of junk," which seemingly indicates that netbooks are not on Apple's horizon. Of course that hasn't stopped rumors that the company is looking to jump on the netbook bandwagon with a lighter, cheaper notebook (as opposed to the lighter, pricier MacBook Air, which starts at $1,799).

Whatever Jobs' plans, one thing seems certain: The emergence of the netbook has turned laptop pricing on its head, a trend that not even Apple can ignore.

Judge dismisses Broadcom patent lawsuit against Qualcomm, Broadcom keeps on suing

from Engadget by Donald Melanson