Verizon may launch its own digital video service by the middle of 2015, the company's CEO Lowell McAdam said in an investor conference according to reports from The Wall Street Journal and Reuters.
The Internet service provider is nearing agreements with major content companies, and McAdam told the Journal he's been having regular meetings with top executives from CBS, ABC, NBC, FOX, Dreamworks, and digital startups like Awesomeness TV.
Verizon's service sounds like it would essentially be a direct competitor to Netflix. The advantage, however, is that Verizon's offering would also be able to stream some live channels including content from major broadcasters and sporting events.
The reports come months after Verizon purchased Intel's media division in January, a sector of the company that focused on developing cloud TV products and services. It's possible that Verizon could be using these assets to develop its own viable alternative to cable. Intel was supposed to launch an internet TV service called OnCue last year, but the project was scrapped. Verizon bought the technology instead.
"I think over-the-top video is right around the corner," McAdam's said according to the Journal. "We've got the assets in place, and I don't feel like we need an awful lot more."
The news also comes as other tech companies are scrambling to come up with their own cord-cutting alternatives to cable. On Wednesday, for example, Sony signed a deal with Viacom that gives the company access to channels such as Comedy Central, Nickelodeon, and MTV for its own upcoming service, as Forbes reported.
McAdam also acknowledged that consumers are interested in more flexible options when streaming video on mobile devices. Consumers would rather pick and choose their favorite channels and shows than sift through hundreds of options.
Statistics have shown that services like Netflix and Hulu are already pulling some households away from cable television. According to a survey from Experian Marketing Services from earlier this year, households with a Netflix or Hulu subscription were nearly three times as likely not to have a cable subscription than the average household.
If Verizon does unveil its own Internet-based streaming service, it could move us one step closer to a future without traditional cable.
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In a slap against cloud-computing rival Amazon, HP just bought a company called Eucalyptus Systems.
Terms were not disclosed but this is a significant buy for a bunch of reasons.
First it gives HP a nice tool to nab Amazon cloud customers.
Eucalyptus makes software for something called "private" cloud computing. That's where companies use cloud-computing technology in their own data centers to help them use their computers and networks more efficiently.
Eucalyptus makes private cloud software that mimics Amazon's cloud. You could build a mini-Amazon in your own data center then easily move apps and data between your own data center and Amazon's cloud, tapping into Amazon whenever you needed extra computing power. (A concept is known in as "hybrid" computing in the tech industry.)
Until Amazon's huge contract with the CIA, Amazon didn't offer any private cloud tech. And that deal was for a specially constructed data center that will cost up to $600 million. Everyone else gets the software from an Amazon partner like Eucalyptus. For instance security software company F-Secure just signed up with Eucalyptus to do a hybrid Amazon cloud.
By buying this company, HP gains technology that will help it build private clouds that work with Amazon. And it gets a chance to persuade those enterprises to move to its own cloud.
In May, HP announced that it would be investing $1 billion in that cloud business, a new unit called Helion run by Martin Fink. Fink wears three hats for HP. He runs this cloud business, is chief technology officer, and is director of HP Labs.
As part of this acquisition, HP will make Eucalyptus CEO Marten Mickos the manager of that cloud business, reporting directly to Whitman.
Mickos is a big name in the open-source world. Prior to Eucalyptus he ran a scrappy database startup called mySQL and built it into a business that sold to Sun Microsystems for $1 billion in 2008. mySQL is now part of Oracle.
This deal also signifies that Whitman is ready to start shopping again. Since she took over as CEO, HP has made only a couple small acquisitions.
She hasn't felt free to shop. HP is going through a multi-year turnaround to trim debt and grow revenue again, including a massive layoff of 45,000 to 50,0o0 people.
But in May HP reported -- For more information read the original article here.
HTC is working on a smartwatch slated for launch early next year, according to a CNET report.
That watch will likely rely on a sleek design to draw consumers. HTC had considered skipping the smartwatch altogether, thinking the market had become too crowded already, according to the report.
Their about-face signals a strong entry into the smartwatch market.
HTC had originally planned to release a smartwatch at the end of this year, according to some rumors. Its entry into the market will likely debut alongside their next smartphone, sometime during the first quarter of 2015.
HTC is one of the few Android phone makers that makes beautiful products too. Critics have showered the company's One line of phones with praise since the first one launched in 2013.
SEE ALSO: The iPhone 6 Has Samsung Backed Into A Corner
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