And unless you read corporate press releases or work in a corporate IT shop, you probably didn’t even know Cisco made such a gadget. You didn’t miss anything, though, because the Cius is now a (very small) bit of history.

Today Cisco announced on its corporate blog that it would no longer continue to develop the Cius tablet. Cisco has basically run afoul of the growing “bring your own device” trend at corporate IT shops. And when employees bring their own tablets and smartphones, well, most of the devices have the familiar logo of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL). Apple has supported the trend by paying a lot of attention to security issues and making it easier for corporate shops to incorporate the once-troublesome devices into company wide networks.

The Cisco blog post notes that the company plans to “double-down” on its Jabber and WebEx software products.

Cisco’s shares are trading up 0.02% today at $16.42 in a 52-week range of $13.30-$21.30.

Paul Ausick

Toyota, Japan’s biggest car maker by volume, plans to sell more than 1 million subcompacts in more than 100 countries and regions, such as China, Southeast Asia, India and Brazil, by 2015.

Toyota does not have many other places to go for expansion. The European markets are nearly dead. China’s market has slowed considerably. Toyota’s sales have picked up a great deal in America, but the market has become progressively more competitive as U.S. car companies has been revived and large firms, including Volkswagen, BMW and Mercedes, have aggressively exploited the one region in which they have an ongoing chance for rising sales volume.

A New Web Browser

For some reason, Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO) wants to be in the crowded web browser arena. Its new product is called Axis. It is meant to compete with Apple’s (NASDAQ: AAPL) iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch products. But Apple already has its own Safari browser. And the industry is controlled by Microsoft’s (NASDAQ: MSFT) Internet Explorer, Google’s (NASDAQ: GOOG) Chrome, and Firefox. It is a good guess that Yahoo! wants to use Axis to move further into mobile search, but it already has lost most of that market to Google. And there is no reason for the great majority of users to switch from their preferred browser when they move from computer to portable device.

Galaxy S3’s U.S. Launch

The wildly successful Samsung Galaxy S III will be available in the United States starting on June 1. But the first wave of handsets will not be sold by carriers. Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN) will sell the new Galaxy without a wireless contract. Wireless companies underwrite the costs of smartphones because they get two-year subscriptions from customers. Amazon will sell the Galaxy S III for $800. The product will be “unlocked” so it can be used on a number of networks. There is some debate over whether its powerful processor is set to work on superfast 4G LTE networks, or if a less-powerful processor will be required to operate on those systems. The Samsung Galaxy is widely regarded as the primary competitor to the Apple iPhone 4S, so early sales in the U.S. will prove whether that perception is true.

MSNBC.com Buyout Talks

Comcast’s (NASDAQ: CMCSA) NBCUniversal operations is in talks with Microsoft to takeover the part of MSNBC.com that it does not already own. The rumor was reported in Adweek. Microsoft may not want to part with the stake. NBC could use it as a portal to increase traffic to its media sites. But Microsoft has its large MSN.com operation, which has a close relationship with MSNBC.com. As Microsoft works to drive traffic to its Bing search engine, MSNBC.com is strategically important.

Douglas A. McIntyre

EU concerns push the euro to close to a two-year low. (Reuters)

Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) will invest $40 billion into alternative energy in the next decade. (Reuters)

TV networks battle with Dish Network (NASDAQ: DISH) over a DVR that can skip ads. (Reuters)

Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) CEO Tim Cook gives up $75 million in dividends on his stock holdings. (Reuters)

Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK-B) may buy more newspapers. (Reuters)

Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) loan shares to short sellers who want to hedge Facebook’s stock. (WSJ)

U.S. bank lending falls in the first quarter, a possible sign of economic slowing. (WSJ)

Toyota (NYSE: TM) will push further into emerging markets. (WSJ)

Comcast’s (NASDAQ: CMCSA) NBCUniversal division may buyout Microsoft’s (NASDAQ: MSFT) part ownership in MSNBC.com. (WSJ)

Japanese power companies invest in U.S. shale gas to help replace nuclear power. (WSJ)

Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO) releases an Internet browser call Axis, which will compete with Google’s (NASDAQ: GOOG) product. (WSJ)

Spain is concerned about a run on its banks. (NYT)

Large European institutional funds begin to sell euro assets. (FT)

Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti says most leaders in the region back regionwide bonds. (Bloomberg)

Douglas A. McIntyre

Wireless companies underwrite the costs of smartphones because they get two year subscriptions from customers. Amazon will sell the Galaxy S 3 for $800. The product will be “unlocked” so it can be used on a number of networks.

There is some debate over whether its powerful processor is set to work on super-fast 4G LTE networks, of if a less powerful processor will be required to operate on those systems. The Samsung Galaxy is widely regarded as the primary competitor to the Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) iPhone 4S, so early sales in the US will prove whether that perception is true.

Douglas A. McIntyre

But, Apple already has its own Safari browser. And, the industry is controlled by Microsoft’s (NASDAQ: MSFT) Internet Explorer, Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) Chrome, and Firefox. It is a good guess that Yahoo! wants to use Axis to move further into mobile search, but it has already lost most of that market to Google.

As has been true on PCs, there is no reason for the great majority of users to switch from their preferred browser when they move from computer to portable device

Douglas A. McIntyre

In an 8K, the firm said:

The amendments provide that if the Company pays an ordinary cash dividend on its common stock, each award will be credited with an amount equal to the per-share cash dividend paid by the Company, multiplied by the total number of restricted stock units subject to the award that are outstanding immediately prior to the record date for such dividend.

At the end of the filing was this note:

At Mr. Cook’s request, none of his restricted stock units will participate in dividend equivalents. Assuming a quarterly dividend of $2.65 per share over the vesting periods of his 1.125 million outstanding restricted stock units, Mr. Cook will forego approximately $75 million in dividend equivalent value.

Cook is not stupid, so he must be generous. Or he wants the company’s employees and investors to think that he, like everyone else in management, is only worth so much.

Douglas A. McIntyre

The top mobile phone advertising platform was the iPhone, with 15% of the market, followed by RIM’s Blackberry Curve with 4.4% and Motorola’s Droid Razr with 4%. When combined with advertising served to tablets, Apple grabbed about 28% of impressions, followed by Samsung with 18%.

As a group, smartphones took 73% of all advertising in the first quarter, up from 62% in the same period a year ago. Tablets, however, took 20% of impressions, up from 15% last year, and now claim nearly 3x the ad impressions for feature phones.

The data comes from a survey by Millennial Media Inc. (NYSE: MM), a mobile ad network that competes with Apple’s iAds and Google’s AdMob.

Millennial also note that of the top 10 devices that display ads, 3 were tablets. A year ago only Apple’s iPad made the top 20. The two additions this year were Samsung’s Galaxy Tab and Amazon’s Kindle Fire.

As tablets attract more buyers, it’s reasonable to expect that their share of the ad market will grow. Recent research from Nielsen indicates that tablets get 24% of all Worldwide Web ad clicks, compared with just 11% for phones. Tablets are more like desktop and laptop computers and users may click on ads because of the more familiar size of the screen. The small screens on smartphones are not as easy to use to find things quickly — and that’s the appeal of smartphones and smartphone apps — to find exactly what a user wants with the least amount of fuss.

This is good news for Apple, of course, and not-so-good news for Google, which pays a hefty price in traffic acquisition costs to maintain its position as the default search engine on OEM smartphones, including iPhones. By one estimate Apple gets 50%-60% of the revenue from a Google search on iOS, whether from an iPhone or an iPad. Google probably does not have to part with quite as much revenue for devices from other makers, but a cut of about 40% would match Google’s reported traffic acquisition costs. Google needs to find a way to hold onto more of its search revenue because its mobile ad network simply can’t make up the lost cash flow.

Paul Ausick

DT lost $39 billion when federal officials killed a deal for AT&T (NYSE: T) to buy T-Mobile. The German company stepped away with a $4 billion break-up fee. That is not nearly enough to maintain and build the infrastructure T-Mobile needs to compete in new 4G technology. T-Mobile also has nothing close to the marketing money AT&T and Verizon Wireless have. Neither does T-Mobile have the Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) iPhone — the greatest customer magnet in the industry.

DT has access to capital to pump billions of dollars into T-Mobile, but it will not. T-Mobile has only 35 million subscribers. Fourth place in the market is not attractive, especially when even the third place company — Sprint-Nextel (NYSE: S) — is struggling with losses and subscriber attrition. AT&T and Verizon (NYSE: VZ) are too big and have too much market share to be challenged. And the wireless subscriber level in the U.S. is nearly 300 million. In other words, without a growing pie, the battle is over market share.

There is often speculation that Sprint and T-Mobile might combine. Yet, two weak companies cannot make a strong one. Sprint is also saddled with debt, and the infrastructures of the firms are not compatible.

T-Mobile has been orphaned by its own parent, and no company will risk picking it up.

Douglas A. McIntyre

Dell blamed “alternative mobile computing devices” for its poor earnings and poorer forecast. Dell reported a 4% fall in revenue to $14.4 billion, as well as a profit of $0.43 a share. The consensus forecast among analysts who follow Dell was $14.9 billion in revenue and $0.46 a share in profit. Results for the company’s notebook operations were particularly weak. After the announcement, Dell’s shares fell like a stone.

Dell has had the tools to enter the tablet PC and smartphone businesses. The company still makes money and has almost $14 billion in cash. Its enterprise server sales remain healthy. Dell has no excuse for allowing the cutting edge of computing to pass it by.

It is reasonable to blame Michael Dell because he has controlled the company since the start. He could not possibly have missed the surge in the sales of smartphones by Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL), and later Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) Android-powered devices, or the iPad. Dell has not made a substantial push into either market. The risks would have been big, both in terms of investment and reputation. Yet, it was a risk worth taking, based solely on the alternative, which was to be left behind.

It is already too late for Dell to enter the rapidly emerging markets of smartphones and tablets. The market shares of Apple, Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN) and Samsung are already too large. Another dozen companies are fighting for the tiny amount of business that remains.

Fixing Dell may be a long shot, but it certainly has no chance to happen with Michael Dell as its CEO.

Douglas A. McIntyre

Besides competing with smaller national rivals like RadioShack Corp. (NYSE: RSH) and GameStop Corp. (NYSE: GME), Best Buy has to slug it out with retailers Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN), Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE: WMT), and direct sellers like Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL).

And while Best Buy touts its increases in sales of mobile phones and other portable devices, it also notes:

Areas of comparable store sales growth in the Domestic segment included tablets and mobile phones within the Computing & Mobile Phones revenue category, eReaders within the Consumer Electronics revenue category and Appliances. These increases were more than offset by comparable store sales declines primarily in notebooks within the Computing and Mobile Phones revenue category, gaming within the Entertainment revenue category, and digital imaging and televisions within the Consumer Electronics revenue category. The Domestic segment online channel revenue grew 20 percent compared to the prior-year period.

Selling more cheaper devices does not make up for lost sales in pricier items, unless a retailer can sell an enormous number. Best Buy can’t do that because there’s simply too much competition from wireless carriers, other retailers, and direct sales.

The company reiterated its full-year adjusted EPS guidance of $3.50-$3.80, in-line with the consensus estimate of $3.59. But weak international sales and declining same-store sales mean that Best Buy will be forced to close more stores, which will hurt revenues and ultimately profits unless the company can really figure out a way to boost its online sales. The outlook is probably not as rosy as the company would like us to think.

Shares are up about 1.6% in the pre-market, but were up as much as 6% at one point. Current price is $18.43 in a 52-week range of $17.53-$32.85. The 52-week low was set yesterday.

Paul Ausick