Globe Eats Humble Pie: Withdraws Tonino Lamborghini broadband modem from market

News site Interaksyon.com reports that Globe has withdrawn its Tonino Lamborghini HSPA+ modem from the market. Citing Globe spokesperson Yoly Crisanto, the site reports that Globe has “temporarily ceased marketing and selling the Tonino Lamborghini modem stick.”

This is in the aftermath of trademark holder Tonino Lamborghini s.r.l.’s continued objections to Globe’s use of their luxury goods trademark (used in everything from watches to boutique hotels – but not cars) in advertising that leads the public to believe it is connected with Automobili Lamborghini, maker of high performance automobiles.

“The usual Tattoo sticks are still available, just to be on the safe side with Lamborghini Italy. This should be fixed soon,” Crisanto has been reported as saying.

The Business Mirror likewise carried the story and quoted Ms. Crisanto as well.

Globe spokesman Yoly Crisanto confirmed the pullout. She said Globe temporarily ceased marketing and selling the cellular firm’s Tonino Lamborghini broadband stick which is enabled with High-Speed Packet Access-plus, or HSPA+, mobile technology “until we get the trademark issue sorted out.”

Evidently Globe is hoping for a speedy resolution of the case. But “just to be on the safe side” the reports have it  that they have halted sales to stop incurring the ire of the trademark holder.

Update: Reacting to the stories in Interaksyon and the Business Mirror, Newsbytes reports a statement from Globe corporate communications released Monday evening saying that the Tonino sticks are still available in selected Globe stores in Metro Manila.

Globe, however, said in its statement that Tattoo Tonino Lamborghini sticks are still available in selected Globe stores in Metro Manila.

“These stores are in areas with 4G coverage to date. Customers who wish to purchase the Tattoo Tonino Lamborghini sticks may visit http://www.tattoo.globe.com.ph to know the Globe store nearest them,” the statement said.

Pulling from the market sounds perfectly logical to me, but this may not be as simple as all that.

The withdrawal of Globe’s HSPA+ modem from the market, however temporary, leaves SMART Broadband’s “Rocket” modem as the sole HSPA+ broadband modem in the market.

Secondly, in its public statements, Tonino Lamborghini s.r.l. appears to be dead set on going after Globe.

Small Wonder: Philippine Telcos Discover the Asus eee

I’ve been a fan of the Asus eee PC ultra micro laptop for sometime, and like many enthusiasts I’ve succumbed to the obnoxious habit of playing the part of an eee evangelist on occasion. I must admit I’m always a sucker for small cheap gadgets, especially miniature wi-fi laptops that cost around the range of a mid-priced cellphone. (I got mine for around PHP 17,000 around November 2007).

But the eee has proven to be a trusty daily companion and a respectable enough workhouse. I have another laptop at home, a full-sized Toshiba Satellite, and there are days when that device doesn’t see the light of day, since the eee monopolizes my attention. It’s replaced the book or magazine by the bedside, and the morning newspaper is a distant memory from a bygone era – I read aggregators like Google News and Google Reader over breakfast instead.

Even in the workplace, the eee is the machine I bring to meetings to take notes with. It’s during those meetings that I have to stop what I’m doing and do my usual eee demo from the moment I open the lid and power it up. The women all ooh and ahh about how cute and tiny it is, as I play the part of a computer salesman for a few moments, enumerating the features like a real smoothie. This is fun at first, but it tends to become an annoying routine after awhile.

So I’m glad that there are moves afoot to make this machine a little more mainstream. This way, it becomes less of a novelty, and people would leave me alone so I can actually get some work done.

It just so happens that the country’s two leading telcos have discovered the Asus eee at the same time, and have taken to giving it away as a low cost laptop, or as an alternative gadget to the usual iPods and 3G phones.

SMART now offers the Asus eee as a giveaway (in lieu of a phone) with its SMART Gold postpaid subscriptions. The 2GB version of the eee is offered free with a Smart Gold Plan 1800. As an alternative, the eee is included as a bundle with a mobile phone with Plan 2500.