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Wednesday, June 08, 2011

CHART OF THE DAY: Apple Just Pre-Announced Its Best Ever Quarter Of iPad Sales And Nobody Cares (AAPL)

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/apple-ipad-sales-2011-6

Buried in Apple's big WWDC keynote yesterday was the revelation that the company is on track to sell 8 million iPads for the 2011 June quarter.

That would be Apple's best quarter of iPad sales yet and a 74% jump over what it did just last quarter. It would also beat analyst estimates for iPad units which were around 6.5 million-7 million.

And yet, no one seems to care. Apple's stock is actually down 1% for the day. Maybe investors are spooked by seeing a rail thin Steve Jobs, or they're disappointed about the lack of a new iPhone.

chart of the day ipad sales

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Tuesday, June 07, 2011

eWise Raises $14 Million For Online Payments Technology

Source: http://techcrunch.com/2011/06/07/ewise-raises-14-million-for-online-payments-technology/

Online payments company eWise has raised $14 million in new funding led by Wellington Partners with Balderton Capital, TTV Capital,, and Patagorang participating in the round. This brings eWise’s total funding to over $26 million.

eWise develops a payments technology, called Secure Vault Payment, that allows users to automatically deduct a payment from their bank account without disclosing their personal information to online businesses. Payments are processed via a login and password to the bank’s site.

eWise expects that this payments technology could reach 400 million uses within 5 years. Clients include Citibank and First Direct (part of HSBC) in the UK, Ping An in China, Westpac in Australia and USBank in the U.S. The company plans to use the funding to expand further to the U.S. as well as for the development of a new mobile payments technology.

CrunchBase Information

eWise

Information provided by CrunchBase

Social Lending Marketplace Prosper Raises $17.2M From Eric Schmidt, DFJ, Others

Source: http://techcrunch.com/2011/06/07/social-lending-marketplace-prosper-raises-17-2m-from-eric-schmidt-dfj-others/

Prosper.com, a social lending marketplace that connects borrowers with individual and institutional investors, this morning announced that it has raised $17.2 million in funding from new investors Draper Fisher Jurvetson and Crosslink Capital.

Existing investors Accel Partners, CompuCredit, Omidyar Network, Eric Schmidt’s TomorrowVentures and Volition Capital also participated in the round.

Prosper also announced that Tim Draper, founder and managing director of DFJ, and Jerome Contro, general partner and COO of Crosslink Capital, will join the company’s board of directors.

According to its website, Prosper’s peer-to-peer lending marketplace currently boasts more than 1,080,000 members and over $236,000,000 in funded loans.

Prosper has raised close to $75 million to date. Its closest competitor, Lending Club, has secured $52.7 million in venture capital.

CrunchBase Information

Prosper

Information provided by CrunchBase

Juniper: NFC Payments To Reach $50 Billion Worldwide By 2014

Source: http://techcrunch.com/2011/06/07/juniper-nfc-payments-to-reach-50-billion-worldwide-by-2014/

We know Google has made a big bet on near field communications (NFC) as a payments system with the launch of Google Wallet, but does the technology have the potential to be the future of how money is transacted? Juniper Research seems to think so. The company is releasing a new report that forecasts that global NFC mobile contactless payment transactions will reach nearly $50 billion worldwide by 2014.

Juniper says that NFC is steadily gaining traction, and because of the latest rollout of the technology both in the U.S. and outside the U.S., 2011 and 2012 are expected to be “banner years for NFC service rollouts.”

For background, NFC enables people to make transactions, exchange digital content and connect electronic devices with a simple touch. As we’ve seen with Google, Android phones such as the Nexus S are being built with NFC chips, making your cell phone a mobile wallet. It’s unclear if Apple will add NFC technology to the iPhone 5.

Of course, NFC has gained traction in international markets before the U.S. Orange Mobile is using the technology, and Starbucks is set to sign on to use the technology to enable payments in the U.K.

Juniper says that in the next 18 months, we will see implementations of the technology in up to 20 countries. In fact, Juniper is forecasting that North America and Western Europe together will exceed the Far East region in under three years based on transaction value. North America and Western Europe will account for 50% of NFC payments market by value in 2014.

As we’ve written in the past, there are a number of barriers that could prevent NFC technology from becoming a mainstream technology, so it’s not a sure thing that NFC will reach the sort of scale that Juniper is forecasting.

Photo via MacRumors

Tesla Model S is almost production-ready, does photo shoot to prove it

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/06/07/tesla-model-s-is-almost-production-ready-does-photo-shoot-to/

You're looking at an unlikely picture: two Tesla EVs on the same street. The Silicon Valley carmaker is hoping to become more mainstream, however, when it releases its Model S sedan next year to complement the exuberantly expensive Roadster 2.5. Tesla has just released photos of the latest, nearly production-ready build of the Model S to whet our appetites. The shots reveal a couple of sleek cosmetic changes to the front bumper and body panels, but mainly we're just happy to see the S rolling on schedule. Oh yes, and there's another glimpse of the 17-inch infotainment console, which Auto Evolution now reports will be accompanied by built-in 3G. Sounds dandy, but that $57,400 starting price had better include a data plan. Man, who are we kidding?

[Thanks, Lucian]