That’s the question that dozens of people have been speculating on and asking me about this morning. Swiss American Securities, a division of Credit Suisse is saying that it has learned that Apple will no longer use Akamai. They see Apple dumping Akamai for a Google-based content distribution network and expect Apple to announce that next week at Macworld.

I don’t have any details on this "rumor" either way, but I highly doubt it and don’t believe the information. Apple has spent many years working with Akamai to get the iTunes service down to a science and Akamai has a large infrastructure in place specifically for delivering live QuickTime content. I don’t see Google building out a QuickTime infrastructure and supporting the kind of delivery Apple needs. I know many will say they are Google, they can build anything they want. Yes, they can, to a degree. But what would Google get from delivering Apple’s content? How does this tie into Google’s core advertising business? And what does Apple get from this? Maybe a lower price but it would have to be more than that for Apple to move CDN providers.

I just don’t buy it. I don’t see any value that Google or Apple would get from doing this. Now Apple could work with Google on some video initiatives and partner on things for the iPhone, Apple TV and what not, that would not surprise anyone. But replacing Akamai for Google for all of its content delivery, I don’t see the rationale.

There was an Apple RFP out in the market a few months back for some CDN business, but it was not for all of their content, was not a large deal and from what I understand, Apple pretty recently re-signed with Akamai.

UPDATE: Drawing is now closed. Tom Russo was selected as the winner using a random number picker website.

I have a brand new TiVo Series 2 DVR that TiVo sent me that I no longer need as I have upgraded to Verizon’s FiOS TV service with their DVR. The unit records 80 hours and is brand new, with remote, but not with the original box or manual. No service is included, you will need to pay the monthly TiVo service fee.

To qualify to win the unit, all you have to do is leave one comment on this post with a working
e-mail address. I will pick one user a week from today using a random number picker website and
ship it out to the winner at no cost.

If any company is interested in getting exposure for their video
related product on my blog and is willing to give away the product, contact me.
I will post pictures of the product, link to the company website and
either write a product review or link to other reviews on the web. It’s
great exposure on a blog that does over 300,000 page views a month.

Over the past few years, the Streaming Media East and West shows have been growing nicely for us on all fronts and in particular the conference side of the business. We now produce three major shows each year in NY, CA and London. Combined, these shows average over 300 speakers and 75+ sessions that I have to develop programming for.

I am looking to hire someone who is interested in helping me plan and shape the conference agenda for the NY and CA shows and be a co-chair of the show. This is a highly visibility position which will put you in front of a lot of industry people, get you major exposure and give you first-hand experience in what it takes to produce a major conference. You will also have an opportunity to help educate and shape the industry based on the agenda you help develop.

The work involves helping to plan and write session topics, organize and outline the major subjects that need to be covered, invite and confirm speakers, work with moderators and helping with online marketing and promotion. It’s the type of job ideal for someone who wants more exposure in the industry, has industry contacts, knows what the hot topics are and is not afraid of speaking in front of an audience. I am looking for someone who loves this industry as much as I do and takes pride in wanting to help educate and grow the industry for everyone’s benefit.

This is a part-time opportunity and can be done remotely. The majority of the work is done within a month’s time frame and then there is a lot of follow up work for a few months until the show. It’s mostly lots of e-mails and some phone calls.

If you are interested, please reach out to me and let me know in detail what your expertise is. Please keep in mind, this is the type of job that you have to love to do in order to program a really great conference. You don’t need to eat, sleep and breathe online video as much as I do, but you really have to be into it or else it shows in the program.

I am constantly asked by people how I got my name out there, how I branded myself and what it took to get involved in so many facets of the online video industry. This is a great opportunity for the right person to start to brand themselves if you are organized, write well, have the pulse of the industry and are good at doing smart marketing and promotion. If that is you, please contact me.

I’ve gotten a hold of the filing and all of the documents associated with the Level 3 patent infringement suit against Limelight Networks as it pertains to Limelight’s CDN offering. (Download Suit)

The filing talks to four CDN specific Level 3 patents including 6,185,598 – 6,473,405 – 6,654,807 – 7,054,935 some of which were originally granted to Sandpiper Networks back in 1998. After quickly reading through all of the documents two major things come to light.

The first is that the filing states that Level 3 sent Limelight a letter in February of 2007 informing Limelight of various patents owned by Level 3 that pertain to content delivery. Level 3 believes that after Limelight received knowledge of these Level 3 patents that Limelight did not re-design its CDN offering to avoid the claims of the Level 3 patents. While I don’t expect Limelight to be able to talk about the suit publicly, the fact that Limelight had knowledge of the patents for nearly all of 2007 and didn’t feel the need to license the patents from Level 3, that would leave one to think that Limelight feels it is not infringing on the patents or feels strongly that the patents will not hold up in court. UPDATE: On Monday Dec. 31st, Limelight issued a statement saying they "believe that these allegations are without merit, and intends to defend itself vigorously."

The second thing to note in the filing is that Level 3 says it is suffering damages in "an amount not yet determined" and as of the filing, Level 3 is not asking for any specific amount in damages.

For those who I know are going to ask, I don’t expect this suit to stop any potential customers from using Limelight networks. The CDN space has seen many patent suits over the past 10 years and typically, customers don’t have any real concern as nearly all of the major CDNs have gone through patent suits at one time or another.

Note: While I have worked as a consultant and expert witness on various patent suits pertaining to IP based video, I am not working on this case and have never worked on any lawsuit involving any content delivery network.

This morning, Google indexed a filing from December 17th from Level 3 Communications who filed a patent infringement suit against Limelight Networks (Case number 2:2007cv00589) in the District Court of Virgina. I have not been able to get a copy of the filing as of yet but I was able to speak to Level 3 about the filing this morning.

While Level 3 is not giving out many details of the suit, as is common in these cases, they were able to confirm that the patent(s) in question were acquired by Level 3 from SAVVIS as part of the sale of SAVVIS’s CDN assets. Level 3 would not say how many patents are in question or give out patent numbers at this time, but they did say that the infringement relates specifically to content distribution. They would not say what kind of content distribution, video, static, applications etc… but were willing to say that the patent(s) in question have never been previously asserted in any patent infringement case.

Level 3 has over 850 worldwide patents and patent applications in their portfolio and did say that when they decided to get into the CDN business that they viewed having patents pertaining to the product as being a key factor that would help determine their long term success. At this time, Level 3 would not comment on any other networks who might be infringing on their patents or speculate on additional infringement cases.

I’ve put in a request to Limelight Networks and will update the post if I hear from them this weekend. I also expect to have a copy of the filing shortly and am looking to see what records exist that talk about the SAVVIS patents, which really comes from the Cable and Wireless patents that SAVVIS acquired.

UPDATE: Guillaume Courouge was selected as the winner using a random number picker website.

The nice folks over at MediaGate sent one of their MG-350HD Wireless HD Media Players for me to review, but with the holidays and other deadlines I am under, I won’t have a chance to do a product review anytime soon. I did however find a really positive product review on the unit over at HomeTheaterBlog.com

Since I won’t be able to review the unit, they have nicely said I can give it away to a reader of my blog. All you have to do is leave one comment on this post with a working e-mail address. I will pick one user at random a week from today and ship it out to the winner at no cost.  

If any company is interested in getting exposure for their video related product on my blog and is willing to give away the product, contact me. I will post pictures of the product, link to the company website and either write a product review or link to other reviews on the web. It’s great exposure on a blog that does over 300,000 page views a month.

Hot on the heels of EdgeCast announcing it had raised $6 million dollars, content delivery provider CDNetworks announced late yesterday that it had raised $96.5 million in private placement. For CDNetworks, this funding now gives them the ability to make a serious push in the U.S. market for content delivery of video and static content. The funding announcement also coincides with the launch of a new company website.

To date, CDNetworks primary business has solely been in Asia but over the past few months they have been out in the U.S. market selling services and ramping up their sales team. From the pricing I have seen in RFPs, they are not the low cost leader in the space and they are not, I repeat, not undercutting Limelight and others on price just to win market share. I think all CDN providers understand by now that they can’t give this stuff away just to win market share and expect to stay in business. The pricing "war" that so many analysts are "speculating" on is completely overblown in the market. Just because a new provider enters the market does not mean they are selling on price.