Broadband Developments

Intel, HP and Yahoo are joining forces for a joint research initiative according to PCWorld and TechCrunch. I thought only Google felt entitled to making announcements on forthcoming announcements. What could it be? HP and Intel makes a bit of sense given they ae hardware partners but how does Yahoo, exclusively a hardware company, fit? They promised an answer by 8am this morning. Here it is 9am and I haven’t seen anything so it’s speculation time. Here are some ideas tossed around to me and some friends:

1. A mobile device focusing on Yahoo’s mobile services - We all agree mobile is a huge evolving market but unless Yahoo comes up with a game changing killer app this is a bad idea. Even the agile giant google can’t seem to get their phone out on time. That brings up the other issue, how would it differentiate itself from smart phones and what would it use for transport?
2. Yahoo bloatware installed on all HP PCs - Okay, just like AOL back in the day but where does Intel fit in? …and this isn’t exactly a research initiative.
3. Cloud computer - Really a cloud computer is just a small step up from a dumb terminal. I’m not sure Yahoo has the resources and applications to compete with MSFT, google and all of web 2.0 in the cloud but it does make the most sense given the who’s who involved.

Update: Looks like #3 was at least partially right. Intel, HP and Yahoo have partnered to launch a cloud computing “test bed”. I’m not sure on the test bed part… Aren’t there plenty of companies doing cloud computing pretty darned well? The most interesting part is who’s not involved, meaning Google and Microsoft. They are clearly leaders in this space. Intel has very close business ties to Microsoft and HP some business and non-business ties to Google.