Round-up: Wolfram Alpha drops its $50 app price, Hulu profitable

Here’s the latest action:
Wolfram Alpha gets the message: The quirky computational search engine dropped the price of its mobile web app to $1.99 from $49.99. They also launched a mobile web page and are promising a refund to buyers who came in at the app’s original unusually high price. Barak Berkowitz, the company’s newly-minted managing director who came from Six Apart, said the move was to “democratize” access to the app.

Distimo launches free analytics tool for comparing app performance across platforms: Where is your app selling best? Android? iPhone? Distimo launched a tool today that lets developers track their daily download and revenue figures across different app stores. You can compare how your app is doing against competitive ones. It monitors unlimited numbers of applications and handles foreign exchange conversions for major currencies.
Hulu is apparently profitable: Jason Kilar, the company’s chief executive, told The New York Times to video site has been profitable for two quarters while its public relations department made sure to trumpet its $100 million in revenues, I suppose this is a good thing. But then again, considering that it doesn’t factor in all the very expensive production costs for its premium content, maybe not. Plus, Hulu’s future is unclear given that Comcast is set to become a partial owner of the site through its NBC Universal purchase and has a competitive vision and offering through TV Everywhere.
IBM tries to court startups through new Global Entrepreneur Initiative: IBM is trying to make some room for itself in the world of early-stage companies. It’s launching a program that will let young companies access its software portfolio through a cloud computing environment. Selected companies will get to work alongside IBM researchers and tap project managers and mentors for advice through the program.
Tags: computational search, mobile analytics, online video
Companies: Distimo, Hulu, IBM, Wolfram Alpha
People: Jason Kilar