Nintendo seems to have bucked the recession. The Japanese videogame manufacturer has doubled November sales of the Wii in the U.S. from a year ago, according to NPD’s latest release on gaming sales.
There was talk of monopoly in Silicon Valley Friday morning as news of Microsoft’s $45 billion offer for Yahoo spread at Internet speed via email, instant message and mobile phone. But the huge irony in Microsoft’s bid for Yahoo is seen by many here as just what is needed to fend off another monopolist in the making: Google. “We would prefer to see a healthy Microsoft and Yahoo,” says Geoff Yang, a venture capitalist with Redpoint Ventures and an early investor in Internet-based companies. “But I am starting to get worried about Google’s dominance, and in the absence of three healthy companies, I’ll take two. Competition is good for us, the industry and customers.”
The First Law of Technology says we invariably overestimate the short-term impact of new technologies while underestimating their longer-term effects. The invention of printing in the 15th century had an extraordinary short-term impact: Though scholars argue about the precise number, within 40 years of the first Gutenberg Bible, between 8 million and 24 million books, representing 30,000 titles, had been printed and published. To those around at the time, it seemed like a pretty big deal.
The Consumer Electronics Show is increasingly about media and content, so it’s no surprise that online advertising companies were setting up parties in the parking lot outside the Las Vegas Convention Center. AOL and Microsoft have white tents and Yahoo has a purple one. But the biggest search giant is missing. While Google is not attending CES as an official exhibitor this year, don’t be fooled. It may not have invested in its own booth (it did two years ago when co-founder Larry Page gave a keynote speech), but the company has brought an army of Googlers to Vegas and booked a number of hotel suites on the Strip to conduct its meetings.
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