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Forbes reported that sales of digital music players are waning. After years of growth in this field, chances are the market digital music players is reaching saturation point. From the article:

Music player sales are also being cannibalized by surging interest in cell phones with music players, says Ross Rubin, director of consumer technology industry analysis at the NPD Group.

The situation could worsen starting June 29, when the Apple Inc. iPhone, a music playing cell phone, goes on sale.

Now, that last paragraph I must disagree with. No matter how you look at it, the iPhone is not innovative in all of its published plus points:

1. It’s not the first mobile phone with touch-screen controls
2. It’s not the first Internet-enabled mobile phone
3. And it sure as hell isn’t the first mobile phone with multimedia capabilities (read music and video playing)

I’m beginning to get irritated reading how the iPhone will supposedly change mobile phone usage forever. It won’t. All the so-called “features” of the iPhone has been readily available for ages.

I for one don’t use an iPhone; yet my Motorola SLVR L7 is not only my mobile phone, it’s also my calendar, digital camera, video recorder, Internet access device and file sharing gadget. Yes, it’s also iTunes-enabled, but why would I want to use that?

And somehow the iPhone will make digital music players a thing of the past? Yeah, right! Apple has yet to showcase anything groundbreaking since Mac II… and I don’t think the iPhone will change this fact.

For a very limited time, GoDaddy is offering .com domain registrations, renewal and transfers for only US$6.95! So hurry, head on to GoDaddy.com $6.95 .com Sale if you’re looking for a better deal for your .com domain.

I’ve been a very happy customer of GoDaddy for more than 5 years now and I’m delighted with their services… I’m sure you will too

Did you know that people spend US$1.5 billion a year on virtual goods? Online pets, avatars and virtual decos are among those things people spend their very real cash on. It’s big business! I should probably start one web service selling virtual stuff… now if only I can get a killer business idea on what to sell, how to sell it, and to whom. Here’s an interesting excerpt from the linked TechCrunch post:

Each day, thousands of transactions take place via markets such as eBay for virtual swords, currency, or clothing across a multitude of virtual world environments. For people who purchase virtual items such as swords or armor, buying these items increases the overall satisfaction she receives from spending time in this virtual world / online community / online game. For example, struggling along as a level 20 character might give her 20 units of personal satisfaction per hour, whereas progressing as a level 20 character with a very powerful sword could confer 50 units per hour. In this case, she would be willing to pay the equivalent of whatever amount generates an incremental 30 units of personal satisfaction for the sword.

KUALA LUMPUR - June 20, 2007 - SonicWALL, Inc. (NASDAQ: SNWL), a leading provider of IT security and data backup and recovery solutions, today announced that it has entered into an agreement to acquire Aventail Corporation, a Seattle-based, privately-held provider of market-leading SSL VPN remote access solutions, for approximately USD$25 million in cash. The transaction is expected to close in July, 2007 and is subject to customary conditions. SonicWALL expects that there will be no impact from the transaction to its financial performance in the second quarter of 2007 and reaffirms its revenue guidance of USD$45 - $47 million.

Read the rest of SonicWALL Inc. To Acquire Aventail Corporation »

Currently, AMD have two fabrication plants namely Fab 30 and Fab 36, located in Dresden, Germany. Operating fabs are a very costly affair and apparently they could be the next thing to go in AMD’s current cost-cutting strategy:

Speculation is building in the analyst community that AMD will attempt to further cut costs by outsourcing more—or all—of its chip making as early as 2008. One Citigroup analyst is predicting a “transformational move” that would result in AMD’s lower-end CPUs being manufactured by a third party and possibly selling off part or all of its Dresden, Germany facility. Another report from Goldman Sachs outlines the investment firm’s belief that the company will leave manufacturing completely in the hands of third parties.

I’ve been an ardent fan of AMD processors since God knows how long. The only non-AMD CPU computer I’ve used was a Compaq Presario PC given to me by my dad. Since then, all my subsequent PCs are self-assembled units powered by AMD processors.

My preference for AMD processors is mostly due to the low overall costs involved in assembling a PC on that platform. AMD processors are much cheaper than it’s comparable Intel counterparts. Motherboards for AMD processors are also generally less expensive than a similar one for Intel.

Therefore, I’m hoping that things will get better for AMD. Should anything happen to them, then Intel would surely be a near monopoly in the CPU market. Not that I have anything against Intel, it’s just that I prefer a competitive market because it drives innovation.