Verizon Planning Netflix Competitor For 2012 Debut

Cable TV and internet giant Verizon is planning a streaming media service similar to Netflix, according to a Reuters report. The service is in the planning stages and people close to the matter, but apparently not that close, described it to Reuters variously as limited in scope, focused on movies, and focused on children’s programming. While it can’t be all three, it probably will feature on-demand movies and premium show streams, presumably delivered with that signature Verizon style.

Details are in fact few, except that Verizon is talking with content producers at the moment and is possibly going to jump on the Epix library of movies currently licensed to Netflix but soon to be available to others. And it would be offered in places that are not served by their FiOS service. Beyond that, it’s more or less all speculation.

The natural question is, of course, what exactly can Verizon offer that could possibly tempt users away from Netflix or other streaming options? I don’t want to condemn a service that hasn’t even been born yet, but Verizon isn’t exactly a popular consumer brand, at least for this kind of thing. Want signal in remote areas? Everyone will tell you “Verizon.” Want to stream a movie? Not many would make that connection.

There’s also the consideration that Reed Hastings calls to attention: the fact that both Netflix and their most feared competitor, HBO Go, spend over a billion every year on content. And as he points out, HBO is licensing more and Netflix is producing more. They’re becoming vertically integrated content delivery companies. Verizon is a series of pipes — efficient pipes, to be sure, but they’re in an awkward position from which to start. The last thing most consumers remember from them content-wise is the abysmal VCast.

If anything it will probably resemble Comcast’s on-demand Xfinity service, which works fine but isn’t winning any beauty contests (or content contests). It has some content that you can access through it, and you can access that content. Nothing wrong with that. But I doubt anyone would say it has Netflix in its sights. And to be honest, I don’t think Verizon has Netflix in its sights either, as Reuters characterizes the service: they just can’t afford to be left behind and honestly want to test the water.

The plan is currently to roll out in 2012, but that is as specific as the sources could get, apparently. By that time, it must be noted, there will likely be some serious changes in the streaming TV world, and Netflix might have even gotten its groove back. More options is always better, but let’s hope Verizon’s effort is more than half baked.

$99 Chinese Tablet Is MIPS-Based, Runs Android 4.0

You could be forgiven for overlooking the Ainovo Novo7, a 7-inch Chinese Android tablet, as likely just another me-too device to be sold in electronics districts next to fake iPhones and bulk cables. And in a way, that’s what it is: at $100, it can’t possibly be as well-built as the iPad or newer Galaxy Tabs, and the size and design aren’t going to impress anyone. But it’s got two things going for it: Ice Cream Sandwich and MIPS.

Naturally to many people neither of those terms signify much of anything. Most people only care whether it runs Netflix and Angry Birds. But both these features point at an interesting breakage between the China and US markets, one that will only widen with time.

First, there is Ice Cream Sandwich, with which our readers are probably already familiar. With a number of new features, performance improvements, and so on, it’s the next generation of Android and the hope is that it will help to unify the disparate platforms stuck at this or that previous version. It’s making its debut on the Galaxy Nexus, which is shipping as I write this. Yet it made its real debut in China on a clone device last week, and now it’s on another, perhaps more interesting one.

There will be a flood of ICS devices soon, sure, but it’s really indicative of how totally disconnected the Chinese and US markets are, to say nothing of the European, Australian, Indian, Korean, and so on. It’s humorous that while the immense machinery of the US marketing machine is warming up, preparing to ship, and running prime-time ads, there are devices available for purchase outright for a few bills on the street in China. And these aren’t pirate devices: the Novo7 is the real thing, with access to Google services, though Market access is restricted in China. Andy Rubin even praised the device as a “big win.”

Part of why Rubin called out the device was its MIPS architecture. Without getting too technical, suffice it to say that MIPS is an alternative to x86 (which we find on our computers) and ARM (which we find in our phones and tablets) architectures. Why should that matter? Because China wants it to matter.

Back in March we heard about China’s Loongson processor series, which is totally homegrown in an effort to avoid reliance on western-owned technologies. The Loongsons use a MIPS architecture as well, and it’s likely that China’s government is heavily subsidizing this research and companies that produce MIPS chips in order to further cut the cords that tie China to the west. Indeed, Ingenic, the manufacturer of the chip inside the Novo7, is Chinese (not a big surprise) and specializes in MIPS architecture.

These China-specific devices are going to be more difficult to internationalize, but cheaper to produce and sell locally. It’s sort of protectionism via R&D. This is only the beginning, though, as MIPS architecture is still a ways behind ARM and Intel in efficiency and speed. But seeing a tablet like this really does drive home the differences between our countries which may shape the consumer electronics trade for decades to come.