ABL TECHNOLOGY ONLINE  
JULY 13, 2010
Visit ABL.org

Alpha Media's Film Wins Awards
"AUGUST 15th,” a short film by Alpha Media, where Jim Meyers is CEO, just won both the Audience Award and Best Actress Award at Japan’s Short Shorts Film Festival 2010, the largest short film festival in the world. Past awards for "AUGUST 15th" include: Winner-2008 Sundance Film Festival-Honorable Mention; Best International Film, 2009 London Film Festival; as well as being an Official Selection at both the 2008 Cannes and Los Angeles Film Festivals.

Apriso Updates FlexNet; Hosts Networking Events
Apriso Corporation, where Chris Brecher is COO, has released FlexNet version 9.5, its business process management solution. Significant enhancements include improved role separation, advanced blueprinting and prototyping capabilities.  Meanwhile, Apriso is presenting a series of Community Day events to bring customers from around the world together to network, learn best practices and share experiences. The first was June 30, in Paris; the next will be September 22 in Detroit; with future events planned for São Paulo and Tokyo.

ATEN Products Named Best
Two products from ATEN, where Sampson Yang is CEO, have won 2010 Best Products and Services Awards from Network Products Guide, an IT research and advisory guide. They are ATEN's 40-port KN4140v, a KVM switch with built-in remote access functionality, and CL5800N, a compact, PS/2/USB console with an integrated 19” LCD monitor.  Meanwhile, ATEN has introduced new 32-port CAT5 Matrix KVM switches that offer high-quality video sessions for secure real-time control of an IT manager's entire data center device portfolio.

Eckert & Ziegler Treats First Brain Cancer Case
Eckert & Ziegler Isotope Products Inc., where Frank Yeager is CEO, announced that it has utilized its brachytherapy product, IsoSeed, for the treatment of a brain tumor patient from Helsinki University Central Hospital in Finland. The radioactive, miniaturized seeds have previously been used for the treatment of early-stage prostate cancer.

Microsemi Announces New Products
Microsemi Corporation, where Jim Peterson and Russ Garcia are senior executives, has released a compact, cost-effective four-port Power-over-Ethernet midspan designed to power a wide range of network devices in low-density applications.  Also, Microsemi expanded its CoolMOS product line with eight new high-voltage superjunction MOSFETs designed for highest efficiency and power density.

Sprint Launches 4G in California, New York
Sprint, where Matt Carter is President of Sprint 4G, has launched its first 4G service in California - in Merced and Visalia - and in New York - in Rochester and Syracuse, as well as in Eugene, OR; Tri-Cities and Yakima, WA; Richmond, VA; Salt Lake City, UT; and St. Louis, MO.  Meanwhile, Sprint has introduced its second 4G-capable handset, the Samsung Epic 4G, a Galaxy S smartphone.  Also, Sprint has just earned a 2010 Gartner and 1to1 Media CRM Excellence Award in the category of customer experience.

WiseWindow Provides Advanced Web Measurement
WiseWindow, where Marshall Toplansky is President, is providing the “measurement engine” for the new BoxOffice.com WebWatch, which provides the film industry’s first in-depth analysis of millions of daily opinions expressed online about movies and translates those opinions into useful public data posted on the BoxOffice.com website and a range of more in-depth reports provided to subscribing film industry members.

INSIGHTS FOR ADAPTIVE BUSINESS LEADERS

Murthy Says: Counter Outsourcing with Innovation
TimeWarper CEO Subbu Murthy recently blogged on "The Other Side of Outsourcing," in which he concludes that "the way for America to forge ahead is innovation" and cites a California company with an innovative product whose biggest markets are in China and India.

Berkus Blogs on: CEO Coaches & Advisors
In "An Experienced Coach has Seen Your Movie Before," Member Dave Berkus suggests, "One great source for coaches is among fellow members of a CEO roundtable organization... I’ve personally been involved with the ABL Organization for well over 20 years and share problems and solutions with a monthly roundtable of smart CEOs from companies of all sizes."

UPCOMING EVENTS & ROUND TABLES

8/5 - Orange County Round Table
8/6 - San Gabriel Valley Round Table
8/13 - West Los Angeles Round Table

Global Mobile Connections Surpass 5 Billion
The number of global mobile connections surpassed the 5 billion mark last week, according to new Wireless Intelligence data, coming just 18 months after the 4B mark was reached at the end of 2008. The 6B milestone will be achieved in the first half of 2012, Wireless Intelligence predicts. (WirelessIntelligence.com, 7/9/10)  Meanwhile, the Pew Research Center recently conducted another installment in its Internet and American Life Project, which found that 40% of cell owners now access the Web, IM services or their e-mail accounts from their mobiles, an 8% increase from a year ago. Also, 76% of cell owners now use their gadgets to take pictures (up from 66% in 2009), 34% for gaming (up from 27%), 34% for recording videos (up from 19%), and 33% for listening to music (up from 21%). 95% of 18- to 29-year-old cell owners engage in text discussions, 93% take mobile pictures, and 65% access the Internet with their gadgets. (switched.com, 7/8/10)

Few Fliers Using In-Flight Internet
Some analysts estimate that less than 10% of airline passengers who could use Wi-Fi Internet service in-flight actually are doing so, and even that estimate may be inflated by heavy dependence on coupons and short-term introductory periods when the service is free, says consultant Michael Planey. The biggest issue for travelers, Planey says, is price. Gogo, the biggest Wi-Fi service provider in the air, charges $4.95 to connect to the Internet on flights of up to 90 minutes; $9.95 for flights up to three hours; and $12.95 on longer flights. It also has a monthly rate of $34.95 for use on all carriers it provides service to. Trade journal Business Travel News recently surveyed corporate travel managers and found that about a third of the companies that responded reimburse their corporate travelers for in-flight Wi-Fi expenses. Wi-Fi access has been available for about 18 months on about 950 mainline commercial jets - less than a third of the U.S. fleet. By year’s end, nearly 2,000 U.S. planes will be equipped. (USA Today, 7/6/10)

VCs Invest ~$1.6B in SoCal in Q2
Venture capitalists invested around $1.6 billion in Southern California in 2Q10, up from around $1.4B invested in 1Q10 and $1B in 2Q09, according to analysis by socalTECH.com. Deal totals were significantly boosted in 2Q10 by activity across Biopharmaceuticals ($247.2M), Energy ($190.2M) and Medical Devices ($128.1M). (socaltech.com TechNews, 7/7/10)

IPOs Triple in Q210
U.S. IPO activity nearly tripled in the second quarter, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers, with 39 IPOs raising $5.1 billion for the three months ending June, compared with 12 IPOs raising $1.6B in Q2 of 2009. The total number of IPO deals is now 66 in the first six months of the year, raising $9.2B on the markets, compared with 14 deals and $2.3B in 2009. Of those deals, the most raised was for Energy, at $1.3B, with four IPOs. The most number of deals came from the Technology sector, with 11 IPOs raising $778.4M. (socaltech.com TechNews, 7/6/10)