Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) Apps currently constitutes less than 1% of the $643 Trefis price estimate for Google’s stock. Google competes with Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) and others in the web-based productivity software market.

Google Apps includes e-mail, calendar, word processing, spreadsheet and collaboration programs. Although the Google Apps user base has grown in the last few years, the overwhelming majority of users don’t pay for the service. We estimate that only 6% of Google Apps users are actually paid users, while the rest use the free version.

By David Sterman

Executives at Time Warner Cable (NYSE: TWC), Comcast (Nasdaq: CMCSA) and privately-held Cox Communications have taken their customers for granted for far too long. Even as consumer income has barely kept up with inflation in recent years, cable bills soar ever higher. Here in upstate New York, Time Warner gets $130 from me every month so I can get high-speed Internet access, a DVR and far more channels than I ever bother to watch. I have long vowed to cut the cord, as soon as it was practical.

Networking gear maker Cisco Systems (CSCO) has offered $5 billion for the Internet telephony company Skype, TechCrunch, a leading Silicon Valley blog, reported recently. The deal, if successful, would derail a planned initial public offering from Skype and redraw the battle lines in the lucrative market of video communications. Skype is reportedly looking for a valuation of $5 billion.

Google (GOOG) was also rumored to have considered making a bid for Skype, but antitrust concerns prevented the search giant from making an actual offer, the blog reported. Ironically, Google added a free phone-calling service to its Gmail email service last week, a move that was seen as putting the company in direct competition with Skype.

Skype’s attraction lies not only in its video-conferencing capabilities but also its huge worldwide subscriber base. Skype has a registered user base of 560 million, but most of its revenue is generated from nearly 8 million users who pay for its inexpensive computer to landline and mobile phone calling services. Keeping that in mind, it will be interesting to see how Cisco justifies a $5 billion price tag for a company which had revenues of $406 million in the first half of the year and a GAAP profit of $13 million. eBay (EBAY) sold Skype to a group of private investors, led by Silver Lake Partners, for about $1.9 billion.

When Wired Magazine published its controversial “Web is Dead” cover story a few weeks ago, many were quick to dismiss it as sensationalist. This was undoubtedly based on a misunderstanding. The Internet per se was not pronounced dead by the article, but rather websites as a dominant delivery mechanism for Internet content. And dead was probably not a word to be taken literally, but maybe an adjective like vulnerable comes closer to the mark. In fairness to the critics, had the article’s title been rendered in the future tense, the statement would have seemed more like a prophecy than a pronouncement, and this may have been easier to accept. Regardless, watching Steve Jobs Wednesday afternoon unveil his lineup of new products, all of which are based on or supported by apps rather than web destinations, the Wired article begins to hit eerily home.

Of all the products and features unveiled by Apple (AAPL) yesterday afternoon, the one that may turn out to be the biggest news is Ping. Not to take away from the elegance of new iPod models, or the sleekness of the new Apple TV device, but neither of these offerings is ground-breaking for Apple. If anything, such a comment speaks to the high expectations that the company has established in the marketplace and the high standard to which we now hold it. And although Apple TV must still prove itself after an initial false start (while other alternatives have since begun to offer more or less similar consumer possibilities), there is good reason to believe that Apple TV will make an impact. Given the company’s trademark brilliance at product launches, updates, relaunches, redesigns – notwithstanding a so-called “antennagate” hiccup that nobody now even remembers – Apple TV could well become the standard that the iPod, iPhone, and iPad have already become.

There is one thing that Apple’s (AAPL) Ping has that both Facebook and Twitter lack...an established precedent of e-commerce. If you sing in a band would you rather have followers on Twitter or on iTunes? Obviously you want them on iTunes because that ‘buy now’ button is ever present. If you host a television show do you want followers on Twitter or on iTunes? That $.99 TV show is only one click away. Facebook and Twitter are both great in their own way but the whole making money part of it has yet to be figured out.

The appealing thing about Ping is that the platform is built around media, it isn’t built around you. Many people are uncomfortable giving up too much personal information to Facebook and yet they still have a desire to interact on the Internet. Ping gives them that opportunity without having to give up privacy. Apple might be on to something big with Ping.

By Leena Rao

Target (TGT) just announced that it would be the first brick and mortar retail store to sell Facebook Credits gift cards. The cards will be available at Target stores across the country beginning Sept. 5.

By Brenon Daly

As if the IPO process wasn’t already hard enough, candidates looking to go public have found a new obstacle: Google (GOOG). For the second time in less than a year, the search giant has swung its considerable market heft against a would-be public company – likely trimming hundreds of millions of dollars in market cap from the IPO aspirants. That from a company with the informal motto of "Don’t be evil."

Redbox is a division of Coinstar (CSTR) that offers movie rentals via DVD kiosks. Redbook recently announced plans to launch an online streaming service in competition with Netflix (NFLX), which is well established in the streaming video market.

Can Redbox challenge Netflix with its online move? In the short term, probably not. Redbook could theoretically become a serious competitor to Netflix by adding a streaming option to its popular $1 a day DVD rental service. But Redbook lags far beyond Netflix in terms of its movie library and device penetration. Our analysis follows below.

Like many privately held companies, Facebook has always been very tight-lipped about its financial performance, only telling us that it went cash flow positive for the first time in September 2009, and that its user-base recently eclipsed 500 million subscribers. Yet, this doesn’t stop scores of Silicon Valley analysts from speculating on the company’s finances by evaluating the various trends in advertising revenue and user growth. Nor does it stop big investors from taking sizable stakes in the company in the hopes of getting handsome returns on a future IPO that some suspect could happen as early as 2012.

Based on a recent study released by eMarketer, Facebook is expected to bring in roughly $1.3 billion in revenue in 2010, nearly doubling the $665 million the research firm estimates it recorded in 2009. Yet, despite Facebook’s enormous revenue growth, it currently only brings in a meager $0.56 per 1,000 page impressions compared to the industry average of $2.43. Furthermore, according to current estimates provided by Second Shares, Facebook makes only about $2.60 per user on an annual basis, which is significantly lower than the $18 made by Google (GOOG) or the $12 made by Aol (AOL).