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Kenya: Politics in Nation becoming nasty as Ministers insult each other at public functions

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Writes Leo Odera Omolo In Kisumu City.

The last two weeks witnessed Kenya’s politics developing into a nasty stage whereby senior cabinet minister publicly exchanging insults.

The intensive political squabbles which surrounds the Prime Minister Raila Odinga, his two arch-rivals, the deputy Prime Minister and Minister Finance and the suspended Minister for Higher Education William Ruto, who is also ODM MP for Eldoret North.

The harsh tone and the degree of insults have caused panic among the peace loving citizen of a country, which is still smarting from the post-election violence of 2008 that had erupted following the disputed presidential election results.

The deputy prime minister Uhuru Muigai Kenyatta, who is also the finance minister was the first to fire the salvo, when he derogatorily referred to his boss the Prime Minister Raila Amolo Odinga in his Kikuyu vernacular as “Kamundi kahi” {uncircumcised and a sub-human.

The remarks came in the background of intensive wrangling within the shaky coalition government headed by the two principals, President Mwai Kibaki and the Prime Minister Raila Odinga following the presidential appointment of the new Chief Justice, the Attorney Genera, the Director of the Public Prosecution and the Controller of the Budget.

Odinga had rejected the appointment saying he was not consulted as required by the constitution, particularly under the National Accord and Integration constitution on which the coalition government involving two major political parties, namely PNU and ODM is formed.

The appointment had splinted the coalition right in the middle with the MPs supporting Kibaki who stood firm that he had done the appointment in line with his constitutional mandate and in consultation with Mr Odinga as required by the constitution.

Uhuru Kenyatta is a member of KANU, one of the collection parties which formed the PNU, a party whose parliamentary strength has in the recent past been strengthen by the defections of Kalenjin MPs allied to William Ruto from the Rift Valley region. The issue was tabled in Parliament and the Speaker of the House Kenneth Otiato Marende together with a High Court Judge Mr. Justice Masinga had ruled the appointment unconstitutional because the persons appointed had not gone through the Judicial Service Commission for vetting before their names were submitted to the final appointing authority who is the President.

President Kibaki remained defiance ignoring all the voices of reasons from the Law Society of Kenya, the outgoing Chief Justice Evans Gicheru, the outgoing Attorney General Amos Wako, NGOs civil societies and representative of foreign mission in the country, UK and the US Mission have a lot of influence on Kenya’s day to day politics and their voices carries a lot of weight.

The warring politicians namely the Prime Minister Raila Odinga, the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance Uhuru Muigai Kenyatta and the suspended Higher Education Minister William Ruto, have all their eyes on the presidential seat come the year 2012.

Saying that enough is enough the Prime Minister Raila Odinga ast week hit back with such a thunderous effect, which hi his rivals the hardest and below the belts.

While addressing a huge crowd of people who n had gathered at the Machakos Bus Terminal, which is located right in the middle of the cap[ital, Nairobi, Odinga referred t his political opponents as people who are unfit to lead the country describing them as “drunkards, bhang smoking and thieves.

In an indirect criticism and without mentioning names, Odinga said his detractors could not be trusted to run a government. He said some of the individual love drinking alcohol, smoking bhang and stealing.

“Some people wake up to look for alcohol, while others wake up to smoke bhang as other seek what to steal here and there, they spent hours in courts defending criminal cases related to thieving one after the other.

“Should people who move from one courtroom to another to defend theft cases be in leadership of in jail? He asked amid the thunderous call “Jail Jail” from the charged crowd.

He Prime Minister dismissed the issue of circumcision as a yardstick for leadership qualities.

Turning into Swahili proverb, he said, “Siri ya mwanaume ajuaye ni bibi” Mwanaume ana haja gani chandoni ya mwanaume mwanzake, sio yey ni shoga? loosely translating in English that the secret of circumcision only the wife knows. What business does another man trying to dig up, unless he is a gay?

The Prime Minister also dismissed the so-called Kikuyu, Kalenjin and Kamba political tribal alliance, which is loosely referred to as “KKK”. He said the proponents of such alliance as taking the risk of isolating the Kikuyu, Kalenjin and the Kambas from the rest of Kenya’s 42 tribes.

What happens if more three tribes isolated themselves where do the 29 others go? He asked.

Ruto, a man currently facing many court cases at home fir various criminal offences allegedly committed is expected by Kenyan to be more cautiously in his word to avoid other possible expensive litigation cases of defamation of characters.

He has recently alleged that the ICC cases at the Hague were the work of his enemies who wanted him jailed so that they can stand a better chance of winning the presidency. He has also dismissed the senior ICC investigators as having colluded with his local enemies to have him fixed at the Hague.

Both Ruto and Kenyatta and four others who included the Head of the Public Service Francis Muthaura, the former Minister for Industrialization Henry Kosgey, an FM radio station head of program Mr Sang and the former Commissioner of Police Major Genera l Huseein Ali had their names mentioned by the ICC prosecutor Moreno Ocampo.

And while speaking in Nyeri Uhuru Kenyatta hit back at Mr Odinga when he chronicled hw the Prime Minister was once in 1982 implicated in the abortive military coup against the retired President Daniel Arap Moi, how he had rocked the Ford party and later Narc Kenya. He is also credited for having destroyed KANU before the 2002 general election and was a man shopping for chaos all the time in his leadership history.

Ruto on his part at another function in the Rift alley asked my Odinga to explain how his family had acquired the Kisumu Molasses Plant and its land and that a court cases filed by several complainants had been shelved by Mr Odinga

Observers and political pundits in Kenya, however, are not amused by all these huuhaa and hullabaloos. They are linking the wrangling not only to the Kibaki succession, but as an attempt by those mentioned by the ICC in The Hague to thwart the impending ICC trials at The Hague.

There is a lot of panicking by those who lives are at stake and who are likely to face trial in the Hague. But these insults on the part of leaders does not augur well and they have become the talks of the evening by level minded Kenyans who are questioning the integrity of the protagonists

Ends

KENYA: MORE TECHNOCRATS ENTER INTO THE BATTLE FOR THE HOMA-BAY GOVERNOR POSITION

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MORE TECHNOCRATS ENTER INTO THE BATTLE FOR THE HOMA-BAY GOVERNOR POSITION AS THE JOB SEEMED TO BE MUCH MORE ATTRACTIVE TO HIGH PROFILE POLITICAL ELITE.

Reports Leo Odera Omolo In Homa-Bay Town.

The newly created Homa-Bay County in greater Southern Nyanza is likely to be the nerve center and major political battle ground in the forthcoming general election schedule for 2012.

This is one of the regional Counties create for the Luo-Nyanza under the constitutional dispensation in what is now defunct Nyanza Province.

From far flank of Mfangano and other smaller fishing island on Lake Victoria, Homa-Bay County stretches to Kabondo Division bordering both Nyakach, Belgut,Nyamira,Kitutu Chache and parts of Bonchari constituency in Kisii on the mainland. But also borders Kisumu Town, Kisumu Rural, Rarieda,Bondo and Budalangi across the Nyanza Gulf {Kivirondo Gulf}. And has the longest borderline with the neighboring Uganda on Lake Victoria.

Rural parliamentary constituencies that forms parts of the Homa-Bay County include Kasipul-Kabondo and Karachuonyo in the east and northern flank, while it also covered Rangwe and Ndhiwa in the middle in what is used to be referred to as “Milambo” and on the lowland region it covers Mbita and Gwassi constituencies. Its major inhabitants are mainly Luos and Abasuba, but relatively with other residents of diverse ethnic backgrounds such as Luhyia and Kisiis.

Economically, this region has the potentiality of turning out to be the richest only if its vast resources were to be exploited to the maximum. It has a lot of minerals underneath such as cement and reported deposit of uranium and gold. It is also the major source of fishing and fish trade, which is racks in million of shillings in both local and foreign currencies.

Agriculturally, apart from Ndhiwa and Kasipul-Kabondo, is slackest and in most places the arable and fertile land is still lying fallow. And in addition to fishing industry, the farmers in Kabondo are presently minting millions from the selling of sweet potatoes and pineapples as well as bananas, tea and coffee.

In Ndhiwa district a combined farming for both domestic and cash crop is visible and would soon be much more improved when the Sukari Sugar Factory, which is currently under the construction at Paw Otange in Kanyidoto area of Ndhiwa goes into full throat production within the next two year. This is because Ndhiwa and part of Rangwe produces a lot of sugar cane, which are crushed at the Awendo-based SONYSUGAR, but a lot of it goes up to waste due to inadequate means of transportation and also high cost of transporting the row cane overland for more than 50 kilometer consumes a lot in transport cost,

Ndhiwa of late has become the bastion of massive food grains production. This is due to good rainfall through the year, especially in the Riana Valley, which stretches from Nyakoe in Kitutu Chache down to Kamagambo-Kamwango and Gem location down to Riana and Pala Division in the larger Kabuoch and traverses over River Kuja winding up in Paw Otange after covering areas like Ndhiwa Mirogi and Rapedhi.

And of late, the resident of Kochia in Rangwe have resorted into massive production of pineapples almost superseding the crops growers in Kasipul-Kabondo. This particular region produces the top quality of pineapple, which are now finding its way to major markets like Kisumu, Nairobi,Nakuru and even Mombasa. Its pineapples are so popular with major hotels in the City and this is likely to turn the area around economically in the near future.

On tourism, Homa-Bay County has the most attractive sceneries apart from its Ruma National Game Park at Lambwe Valley, which is the home to nearly all species of wild animal including the rare roan antelope, but minus four of the “Big Five”, namely Elephant, Buffaloes, Rhinos, Lion and Leopard. Only one of the big cats is there in plenty, the Leopard.

Other scenery of attraction including Bur Agulu in Central Kasipul,birds sanctuary in the same area, and the vocanic Lake Simbi Nyaima in Central Karachuonyo.

But a lot would be waiting for the tourists in the lowland region covering Mfangano, Rusinga

,Ngondhe and Takawiri Islands on Lake Victoria. The pre-historic Nyamgondho Wuod Ombare, shrine which is located close to Nyandiwa Trading Centre in Gwassi, Soklo Kipenji which is a rocky island close to Homa0Bay and Lambwe Valley and many other. The new County need only to go full blast in the campaign to attract private investors to come down and invest their money in hotels, yachting activities and even spots fishing expeditions and boating enterprises apart from the hotels on both Mfangano and Rusinga Island.

It has been explained in government papers that the central annual grant would be in the region of Kshs 3 billion per region annually. But the rest would be locally generated from internal taxes. All this funding will still be inadequate to run such a vast area like the County of Homa-Bay.

Here is where the County Governor would be required to come in hand and rescue his or her region. In such position it will need someone with not only national outlook, but similarly with the international appeal who could stand before the international financiers and get extra money for regional development activities.

The entry into the contest for the governor by the youthful brilliant, mobilize and political strategist in the name of Mr Mark Matunga from Mfangano Island is seen by the local as an ideal.

iliser and political strategist per excellence Mr Mark Matunga from Mfangano Island is seen as a blessing in disguise.

The youthful technocrat and a computer Guru is reputed for having single handedly built and constructed anal weather road on hitherto remote Mfangano Island and spent a personal fortune in getting a very powerful power generating engine on the Island ,which is now supply electricity to the schools medical centers such as dispensaries and health centers and to individuals homes. The power supply was sources at an enormous cost estimated to be the region of Kshs 1,6 billion. It will soon be connected to the national grid as their supply in the Island is in excess of the local requirements of the residents.

Mr Matunga,36 year of age is an achiever and a man to watch. He is currently an employee of the Microsoft Corporation in charge of 15 African countries in Eastern and Southern African regions, covering Kenya, Ethiopia, Sudan, Uganda, Tanzania, Zanzibar,Zambia, Mozambique, South Africa,Botswana, Malawi, Namibia,Zimbabwe,Swaziand,Lesotho and Angola.He s offering technical advice and inputs to the governments and institutes involved in ICT technology.

He has previously worked for International Training-USA, Africa Center for computing, Kenya ICT Trust Fund

An ordained clergy with Daniel Noel Ministries International –Vermont USA, this young technocrat is a symbol educational technology and development through ICT by education [e learning} in Kenya and the entire east and southern African regions.

He says he is an ambassador and a strong advocate of peace and unity in Kenya, freedom and justice, especially for the disadvantaged member of the society. He is an astute strategist and mobilizes.par excellence.

However Mr Matunga with his colorful background, will square and battle it with the men with equally illustrious administrative and political background such as Eng.Okoth Okundi former Range MP, former Marie Stoppie Clinics country director Cyprian Otieno Awiti, businessman Opiata Ogada, the incumbent Rangwe MP Martin Otieno Ogindo,

It is an area where the battle for the County governor sea has attracted many political heavy weights making it to look like the battle of the giant.

ends

leooderaomolo@yahoo.com

KENYA: BEWARE OF STRAW TELEVISION POLS.

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Dear Sir/Madam,

A number of television anchors from reputable media houses used “news polls” to consistently predict that the opponents of the proposed constitution would win the August plebiscite. The leadership of the No Team buoyed up by predictions of their success by the hitherto straw vote of the TV polls, rubbished as doctored the findings conducted by professional pollsters that indicated otherwise. Yet on the referendum day, the actual referendum results confounded both TV pollsters and the leadership of the naysayers. Proponents of the proposed constitution won with an unprecedented landslide margin.

This development has prompted many people to question whether it is proper for any Tom, Dick and Harry to purport to predict the outcome of an election based on a few text messages send by viewers either in support or against the proposed constitution.

Pundits fear that given the average or low literacy levels of many people, they are likely to believe such findings as gospel truth. The losers are likely to interpret an unfavorable outcome as arising out of an election malpractice, hence the risk of polarization. Just to put the scenario into proper perspective, a friend of mine bluntly told me that polls (TV) had forecasted a very big win for the naysayers and that any other outcome would be unacceptable. As I look back at the just concluded referendum, I shudder at what would have transpired had the referendum outcome been closely contested.

Unbeknown to many people, polling is a painstaking exercise that takes days or even months. This means that it can only be carried out by professionally trained pollsters. But even for trained pollsters, it still takes years of hard practice for them to release credible poll findings. It involves sampling, sampling units that must be representative, administration of a carefully thought out questionnaire, and interpretation of the data generated among many other professional requirements. It is not a matter of just receiving text messages and phone calls from viewers and hastily drawing conclusion.

In any case, less than ten per cent of the Kenyan households have access to phones. Fewer even have television sets; hence participants in such a TV poll cannot be a true representative of the electorate. Furthermore, such findings suffer from credibility since they lack external validity and can thus not be generalized beyond the limited scope of the TV poll itself.

TOME FRANCIS,
BUMULA.
http://twitter.com/tomefrancis

Kenya: Bishop predicts huge victory for ‘NO’ team

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from odhiambo okecth

Religious leaders have predicted a 64% win for the NO camp in the August 4th referendum.

Addressings a poorly attended rally at Mumbi grounds in Murang’a Town…..Daily Nation page 5 Thursday July 22.

These people keep amazing me. How can they predict such a win in a poorly attended rally? But again, we need such comedians in all our market places….

Peace and blessings as we vote YES on 4th August 2010.

Oto
Green

Kenya: Chapter 7 and 8

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From: odhiambo okecth

Chapter 7 deals with Representation of the people and clear attempts have been put in place to help solve electoral disputes. We have lived with a system that enables such disputes to drag for ever.

Again, clear attempts have been put in place to reign on political parties. What we have obtaining currently are fiefdoms run as political parties. We will need to vote YES to endorse this brake from the past.

Chapter 8 deals with Legislation and it establishes Parliament and gives us the role of parliament. For the first time, electoral dates will not be used as secret weapons. At articles 101, you better read for yourself;
Election of members of Parliament
101. (1) A general election of members of Parliament shall be held on the second
Tuesday in August in every fifth year.

There are several gains in these 2 Chapters and you know this. Kwani wewe unataka utafuniwe kila kitu? Tafuna mwenyewe na tuendeleee hivyo hivyo. Ama?

And The Prince has told me he has his issues with this document, but he will be voting YES. Check the next article about my meeting for breakfast with The Prince.

Peace and blessings as we approach 4th August to vote YES.
Oto,
Just met with the Prince

PRODUCTS THAT DIDN’T SURVIVE IN THE LAST DECADE

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PRODUCTS THAT DIDN’T SURVIVE IN THE LAST DECADE
Yona Fares Maro
Sun, Dec 20, 2009

Several of the best-funded and most-publicized tech launches of the last ten years have ended in failure. Many large technology companies which had significant market share and product advantages in large industries lost those advantages.

I looked at both start-ups and products introduced by companies that did not survive to create a list of the most colossal tech failures of the last decade. To make the list, a product had to be widely recognized and widely available to customers. It had to be aimed at a large global market. It had to be technologically equal to or superior to its competition. It had to be a product or new company that had the possibility of bringing in billions of dollars in revenue based on the sales of similar or competing products. Finally, it had to clearly miss the mark of living up to the potential that its creators expected, and that the public and press were lead to believe was possible.

1) Microsoft (MSFT) Vista was released worldwide on January 30, 2007. It was the most recent generation of the flagship product of the world’s largest software company. Vista was created to improve the security of the most widely used PC operating system in the world. The securities features were not much better than the previous versions of Windows based on most reviews of the software. Vista was also not compatible with a number of older PCs which limited the number of users who were likely to upgrade from the earlier version of Windows, known as XP. Many analysts claim that Vista also ran more slowly on PCs than XP. All of these factors prevented Vista from being viewed as clearly better than its predecessors. According to research site Net Applications, as of last month Vista’s global share of PC operating systems was less than 24%. Windows XP had 62% of the market and Apple’s (AAPL) OS X product had over 9%. When Vista was launched, PC Magazine said, “Call it a nice-to-have product rather than a must-have.” Microsoft recently announced its first quarterly revenue drop in 23 years. The day of the earnings release CNNMoney observed, “Microsoft’s Vista operating system, which was released in early 2007, never took off like the company had hoped. Sales in the division that produces Vista fell 16% in the previous quarter. User satisfaction has been underwhelming, and IT departments have largely opted to stick with Vista’s predecessor, Windows XP.” The company is rushing Vista’s replacement, Windows 7, to market and hopes to have it out by the end of the year.

2) Gateway was founded in 1985 and was one of the most successful PC companies in the US. Its sales quadrupled in 1990. By 2004, it was No. 3 in US market share behind Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) and Dell (DELL) and had 25% of the retail PC business. But, by 2007 Gateway was in such poor shape that Acer was able to buy it for $710 million. Gateway’s failure has been blamed on several things, primarily its reluctance to enter the laptop business. Its share of the desktop business was strong through the early part of the decade, but it did not shift to portable computers as fast as its major competitors did. Gateway was also slow in entering the business of selling PCs to enterprises, a formula which drove most of the growth at Dell for many years. Gateway tried to diversify by moving into consumer electronics, but the profits were poor and this decision only hurt the firm’s margins. GigaOm wrote when Gateway was sold, “The $710 million price tag is quite a comedown from the mid-1990s, when Gateway and Dell (DELL) were spoken of in the same breath and commanded mega-billion dollars in market capitalization.”

3) HD DVD was one of two formats for high definition DVDs. The other format was Blu-ray. HD DVD specifications were put in place in 2002. Negotiations among consumer electronics companies to have only one product for playing high definition discs ended when there was no consensus about royalties. HD DVD was primarily funded and marketed by Toshiba and NEC and was first released as a consumer product in 2006. When HD DVD was first launched, it had a sales lead over Blu-ray. Industry analysts say that Toshiba lost almost $1 billion supporting the format before abandoning it in 2008. There are a number of reasons that the HD-DVD format lost out to Blu-ray, which was championed by Sony (SNE). The most commonly cited explanation is that Sony did a better job convincing major film studios to release high definition editions of movies for Blu-ray. Sony may have had an advantage because it owns one of the largest studios. Analysts believe that when Sony got Warner Brothers to adopt Blu-ray exclusively, it won the battle against HD DVD. Toshiba had several explanations for the failure of its product. One of those that it mentioned most often was that the digital video download business hurt sales of physical DVD players. That argument does not carry much weight because downloads should have hurt Blu-ray just as much. The final blow to HD DVD was probably when Wal-Mart (WMT) decided to stop offering the format in favor of Blu-ray. There has been no compelling analysis as to why Blu-ray survived and HD DVD did not. One thing is certain. Sony was willing to continue to spend money even though the future of high definition disks was not assured, and that risk is not over. Blu-ray is still not a staple in most consumer entertainment systems.

4) Vonage (VG) was the grandfather of voice-over-IP (VoIP). It is now hardly a footnote in the growth of the industry which is currently dominated by products from cable companies and free services, primarily from Skype, which had 405 million registered users at the end of 2008 and produced $551 million in revenue. eBay (EBAY), Skype’s parent, plans to take the VoIP company public next year. In the first quarter of this year, Vonage did little better than breakeven on revenue of $224 million, which was flat compared with the same period a year earlier. The predecessor company to Vonage began operating in 2000. The company faced early legal challenges, but cleared a hurdle when a federal judge ruled that it could not be regulated as a traditional telecom company. Using venture capital, Vonage aggressively marketed its services as an inexpensive alternative to standard dial up phones. The firm was successful enough that it raised $531 million through an IPO in May 2006. The offering price was $17. By December, it was trading at $1 a share due to pressure from cable competitors and poor earnings. Vonage also faced lawsuits over some of its intellectual property. Settlements cost the company tens of millions of dollars. Vonage is no longer growing. In contrast, cable giant Comcast (CMCSA) now has 6.8 million VoIP customers and added almost 300,000 in the last quarter.

5) YouTube is the largest video sharing site in the world. According to comScore, 99.7 million viewers watched 5.9 billion videos on YouTube.com in the US during March 2009. In November 2006, Google (GOOG) bought YouTube for $1.65 billion. There is a fairly good chance that the search company will never get a return on that investment. YouTube has not come up with a model to make money by either selling advertising or charging for premium content, even though it has an a enormous audience and library of content. Most of the video content placed on YouTube is of such low quality that marketers are reluctant to marry it with their messages. Google has said, in regulatory filings, that YouTube revenue is “not material.” Forbes estimated that the site’s 2008 sales were $200 million. Bear Stearns put YouTube’s 2008 domestic revenue at $90 million. Recently, Credit Suisse estimated that YouTube will lose $470 million this year primarily due to the costs of the storage and bandwidth required to run the website. The same analyst said that YouTube will bring in $240 million this year, but that is only up 20% from 2008. If this analysis is even close to correct, YouTube would have to triple its revenue to breakeven. The New York TimesYour browser may not support display of this image. recently wrote that “while YouTube, along with other new media properties like MySpace, Facebook and Twitter, is seen as leading the challenge against traditional media companies, the company itself is struggling to profit from its digital popularity.” YouTube is big, but that has not made it a success.

6) Sirius XM (SIRI) satellite radio was supposed to be one of the most successful consumer electronics devices of all time. A subscriber would be able to listen to more than 100 stations coast-to-coast in either a moving vehicle, or using a portable version of the device. Initially, the service planned to run no commercials. One of the two companies that would eventually be the merged Sirius XM was XM Satellite Radio which launched its service in September 2001. At the end of the year, the company had almost 28,000 subscribers, a figure that jumped to about 350,000 by the end of the 2002 and 5.9 million by the end of 2005. Over this period, the company accumulated hundreds of millions of dollars of debt in order to cover capital expenses, operating deficits, and sales and marketing costs. Analysts expected the company to be extremely profitable once it reached subscriber levels of more than 10 million. The business was growing so quickly that this goal seemed a foregone conclusion. Rival Sirius launched its service in July 2002. Over the next five years, it would have fewer subscribers than XM but would grow nearly as fast. Sirius also took on tremendous amounts of debt to support its operations. As both companies ran low on money, they announced a merger on February 17, 2007. The FCC reviewed the request for thirteen months while the companies were bleeding cash. Subscriber growth had slowed, most likely because of new and more popular consumer electronics devices like the Apple iPod and multimedia cellular handsets. Shares in Sirius, which had traded at $63 in 2000, dropped to $.05 earlier this year. In the first quarter of 2009, the number of subscribers for the combined service declined by 400,000 from the previous quarter to 18.6 million. Neither Sirius nor XM ever made a dime.

7) Microsoft’s (MSFT) Zune was launched in November 2006. The world’s largest software company believed that it could compete with the Apple (AAPL) iPod, which had been in the market since 2001 and dominated the multimedia player and music download business around the world. Apple had sold well over 100 million iPods, when the Zune was launched. Microsoft was able to get the four largest music labels to sign licensing agreements with the company. Sales were dreadful during the first several months after the launch. Bloomberg Television said that between the launch date and mid-2007 only 1.2 million Zune players were sold. In May 2008, Microsoft said that it had sold two million players since its launch. The Wall Street Journal reported that revenue from the Zune player was $85 million during the 2008 holiday season compared to $185 million in the same period in 2007. Apple’s iPod revenue during the last quarter of 2008 was $3.37 billion. Microsoft, which had access to as much hardware development expertise as any company in the world and the capital to support a massive marketing budget for new products failed completely in its attempt to get a large part of the iPod market.

8) Palm (PALM) produced both a portable wireless device and an operating system for portable hardware devices and desktops. Palm launched its Palm Pilot hardware device in 1996 as a personal organizer. In 1999, it released its Palm V. The Palm Treo smartphone was developed by Handspring which Palm acquired. In the quarter that ended in September 2005, Palm sold 470,000 Treo units, up 160% from the same quarter the year before. At that point, three companies dominated the smartphone market: Palm, Research-In-Motion, maker of the Blackberry, and cell phone giant Nokia (NOK). By the September 2007 quarter, Treo sales had only moved up to 689,000, but sales of the Blackberry hit almost 3.2 million and the newly launched Apple (AAPL) iPhone sold more than a million units during the same period after it debuted on June 29 of that year. Palm, one of the earliest makers of smartphones, was unable to follow up its success in the personal organizer business. Analysts pointed to the fact that the company was slow to realize that consumers wanted wireless voice and data from the same device. According to ZDNet, “Palm just couldn’t find the formula for over-the-air synchronization with Microsoft Outlook, which business users demand and RIM nailed with its BlackBerry device.” Palm also suffered from multiple product delays. The company will launch the next versions of its hardware, the Pre, later this year. Palm’s stock traded for $669 late in 2000. Today, the shares trade for $11. Shares in Apple and RIMM are up between 200% and 300% over the same period. Palm could not translate its lead in one form of consumer electronics device to another.

9) Iridium, the global satellite phone company backed by Motorola (MOT), filed for bankruptcy in 1999, after the company had spent $5 billion to build and launch its infrastructure of satellites to provide worldwide wireless phone service. At the time, it was one of the 20 largest bankruptcies in US history. To work properly, the system needed 66 satellites. The creation of this enormous system forced the company to default on $1.5 billion of debt. The service had been such a failure that it only had 10,000 subscribers. This was, in part, due to technical difficulties with Iridium’s first handsets. According to a Dartmouth Tuck Business School case study on the history of Iridium in 1998, the company forecast that it would have 500,000 subscribers by the following year. But, the service was expensive for customers, and the cellular phone business had started to take hold as its infrastructure was built out in most of the large developed countries. An Iridium handset cost $3,000 and talk time was as much as $5 a minute. Cellular service was not as broadly available, but it was far less expensive.Technology difficulties also made the service unpopular. Because Iridium’s technology depended on line-of-sight between the phone antenna and the orbiting satellite, subscribers were unable to use the phone inside moving cars, inside buildings, and in many urban areas.

10) The Segway two-wheel personal transportation vehicle was launched in 2002. When the product was launched, the head of Segway said it “will be to the car what the car was to the horse and buggy”. Famous venture capitalist John Doerr said that Segway sales might hit $1 billion as fast as any company in history. The company spent about $100 million developing the product. Segway did not understand that its price point, well above $3,000 for most models and $7,000 for some, was too high to draw a mass consumer base. The other major unforeseen problem is that the Segway was classified as a road vehicle in some countries requiring licensing, while it was illegal to use on roads in other nations. From 2001 to the end of 2007, the company only sold 30,000 units of its two-wheeled scooter.