FastCompany has a story about the huge commercial success of the US Major League Baseball video website. I nearly skipped reading it as I am not a baseball fan and also did not think that video distribution on the web is such a great story to read about. But we had recently the pleasure to look into sports video online distribution as well for a new assignment, so I was primed to read this article. I am glad I did as it unveiled some very interesting news for me. While the US Baseball association is not supposed to be one that by nature links itself to high-tech due to the game itself and also the fact that more middle age and older people like the sport, with this video site they are at the cutting edge. Now here the story in numbers:

• started the project in 2000 with $75 million investment from 30 clubs (each club
  put in the equivalent of a yearly salary of one middle infield player)
• 2005 revenue: $236 million, 2007 revenue: $450 million
• they now also run the video sites (provide hosting and services) for other US sports organizations such as U.S. Figure Skating Association, Major League Soccer. The videos of an NCCA basketball tournament were shown online through them as well, which drew 17million viewers
• the money comes from a yearly subscription fee of $89, which is cheaper than the yearly cable TV subscription

Who cares what I said yesterday? Who was giving in in the negotiations? History shows that it was never Steve Jobs...

The iPhone is coming to 10 Vodafone markets, as Engadget found out:

Australia, the Czech Republic, Egypt, Greece, Italy, India, Portugal, New Zealand, South Africa and Turkey.

Update: Heise Online thinks that Apple has actually changed its exclusive revenue-sharing business model for Vodafone and ohers.

There are rumors in the German magazine Der Spiegel that T Mobile is looking to acquire Sprint in the US, making use of the low USD and the slow US economy. Of course, they also say that no negotiations have started yet. I think this is either a totally wrong news or one more piece of unprofessional business behavior on T-Mobile's side that let this leak out to the public. In the latter case I am quite sure that talks have started already or maybe Sprint leaked it to raise the bid.

Comments in the blog scene are so far rare. This one from Engadget, I can entirely relate to:

"...formal negotiations haven't even begun yet, but if you thought the integration between Sprint and Nextel was messy, just watch what happens when you bring a third carrier into the mix -- and did we mention the infrastructure would be GSM with AWS, PCS CDMA, and iDEN, all competing for spectrum and handset allocation? Good luck guys."

Engadget of course forgot to mention WiMAX!

The last acquisition T- Mobile did in the US dragged their stock down to where it is now, making the former "Volks Aktie" (people stock) more of a junk paper than a solid investment. Recent history has shown that Germans are terrible in acquiring, integrating and running US companies. I don't see this as any different here at all IF it should indeed happen.

The popular US blog Engadget seems to be in a clinch with T-Mobile USA. Engadget had reported that T-Mobile is to launch its new 3G network services in the US with voice only and made quite some fun about them. Based on this comment here it seems the reason why Engadget dislikes T-Mobile is a different one. It is wise to not believe everything you read in blogs... I was wondering only who wrote this comment knowing all these details, a T-Mobile hired PR agency or a T-Mobile employee? I still liked the buggy picture they used in the original blog post and thought that's funny! If it was a "professional" guy associated with T-Mobile then he/she did not think the same way and actually missed an opportunity to use fun to correct things...

"Engadget, you suck.

You were DEAD WRONG about T-Mobile 3G because you weren't doing your job. You looked at a leaked internal memo to CALL CENTER employees and determined that it was a reliable source of information.

This was the DAY BEFORE the official launch. You could have contacted T-Mobile for clarification. You could have WAITED 24 hours to see.

Now, after you were PROVEN WRONG, you try to weasel things. It's not "kind of" with data. T-Mobile has UMTS data, just like many of us predicted.

There are no data cards fore T-Mobile's 3G network; nor are there even any currently available UMTS Band IV devices with HSDPA. T-Mobile's official stance isn't at all inconsistent considering this.

T-Mobile is very late to the 3G party. You like pissing on them because they sent you a legal threat - a threat that they most likely NEEDED to send you to protect their trademark.

Funny how when Apple made a similar threat you were supportive.

You are not a bunch of gossiping kids. You are a serious blog. I expect you to get the facts right."