Can Apple Save the Digital Home?The 2001 debut of the iPod could have been a failure for Apple. Consumers had been staying away from digital music players in droves, frightened by a combination of unfamiliar technology, confusing interfaces, and the fact that none of their friends had or wanted one. But we all know how that tale ended: Apple’s easy-to-use gadget has changed mass-music listening and become a must-have item. Now the company could be poised to do the same thing for the digital home.

Real Estate’s Web Wake-up

It sounds like spin, but web-based brokers ZipRealty and Redfin—as well as property information and service providers like Zillow and Inman—say they’ll not only survive the upcoming U.S. real estate downturn, but actually profit from it. Indeed, when the National Association of Realtors announced that existing home sales fell 11.2 percent in July from July 2005, online players put a happy gloss on the news. Everything changes, it seems, when real estate becomes a buyer’s market. “Eighty percent of our business comes from buyers,” explains Pat Lashinsky, senior vice president of new product development at online real estate service ZipRealty

Google on the Ropes in ChinaResults of a survey on the China Internet search engine market share conducted by Beijing-based China IntelliConsulting were announced Wednesday, painting a grim picture for Google’s prospects in China. Mountain View, California-based Google has lost significant share in the three largest Chinese markets of Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou, while Beijing-based Baidu has gained substantial ground and a commanding market share lead.

Microsoft Search Goes LiveMicrosoft on Tuesday took the training wheels off of Windows Live Search, a streamlined search engine that has replaced MSN Search, its struggling predecessor. Microsoft has lagged well behind both Google and Yahoo in the critical computer search market. Google attracted more than 49 percent of searches done in July, according to Nielsen//NetRatings. Yahoo was second with almost 24 percent of search queries, while MSN trailed the field with just 9.6 percent of the total number of searches. The Live Search interface borrows heavily from Google Search in its minimalist design. It offers a personalized option along with news, RSS (really simple syndication) feeds, and blogs. It also offers improved imagery, customization, and mobile integration.

IBM Not Waiting for PS3

Sony’s PlayStation 3 console may be off to a late start in the latest round of the console wars. But the company cranking out Sony’s silicon is finding plenty of uses for the PlayStation 3’s cell processor in the here and now. IBM’s latest use for the chip is in blade servers based on the processor, which began shipping today. Dubbed BladeCenter QS20, IBM is pitching the new server to customers running heavy-duty graphics (see IBM Touts Speedy Server). Last week, IBM said it was building a supercomputer based on Cell as well as AMD chips, possibly overcoming the speed and cooling limits of current supercomputing architecture (see A PS3-based Supercomputer?).

Contact the writer:Editorial@RedHerring.com

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