No longer an issue of hardware:

Stacked up side by side the Nexus One has better hardware than the iPhone but that is a meaningless fact as Apple can ultimately upgrade iPhone’s hardware for future releases. Differentiating phones by upgrading hardware as the unique differentiator is a strategy doomed to failure similarly to what is happening with desktop computers. Image and price will take a bigger part in the decision making process. Over time, and maybe it has already begun, consumers are worrying less about hardware and more about features and image.

Nuance Communications bought SpinVox for $102.5M which was a combined $66M in cash and $36.5M in stock. This purchase was a steep decrease from the rumored $150M Nuance was considering, and an especially low amount when compared to the roughly $200M already invested in the company.

So it seems Twitter has gone holiday shopping by buying Mixer Labs, the developer of GeoAPI.

I highly recommend watching this video but if you want the lessons learned and advice given in shorter format, please read on.

Fenwick & West’s recent survey of venture capital investing leaves room for optimism as the 4th quarter of 2009 is already underway. The survey tracks numerous points of venture capital spending and is able highlight percentage changes from quarter to quarter. Although precise explanations for statistical changes are hard to pinpoint, generalizations can be made.

Chegg.com, the Netflix of the textbook rental industry, raised an unprecedented $57M in a recent round of fundraising. The exorbitant amount bucks the trend of depreciated investing and valuations by venture capitalists in a struggling economy hinting at a possible resurgence of confidence and investing.