Technology Industry Archive

Steve Jobs absence from Macworld’s keynote this year is being taken as a sign. What signal Apple is actually sending is debatable, but some analysts are taking a strong hint that the company is ready to transition leadership. Apple said Tuesday that it will end its relationship with Macworld after this year and product marketing chief Phil Shiller will do the keynote (Techmeme). The company...

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I had already scratched CES off of my January calendar but was starting to book meetings for MacWorld, leaving time open for the Steve Jobs keynote speech, of course. But now that Jobs is sending in a second-stringer for the big spotlight event, I’m starting to wonder if I should even bother to show up for the trade show. I suspect there won’t be any real news there, seeing how the best...

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November PC sales slowed in November, but haven’t fallen off a cliff due to strong notebook and netbook unit growth, according to NPD data. NPD has released its PC sell-through stats and November unit growth was 6 percent from a year ago compared to 10 percent in October. While that growth isn’t a home run it’s not Armageddon. Meanwhile, worries about Apple’s November results may be...

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[UPDATED]  When an industry is feeling an economic pinch, you can feel it in the advertising. Yes, the amount of ad spending drops, as has been obvious in reports from those who track it. But the quality of the advertising itself begins to change, as companies try to close the business they need and fear won’t appear. The signs are all over high tech at the moment, as all manner of...

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Technology continues to be a powerful force for transforming business, when used wisely and correctly. Here is a list of the top 10 visionaries and executives who made the biggest contributions for the year. 10. Bill Gates, Microsoft At the end of June, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates stepped down from his full-time job at the world’s largest software company (he remains chairman and still...

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Apple, AT&T look for dismissal — Both Apple and AT&T are asking a New York court to dismiss one of the lawsuits over iPhone 3G problems, saying that the user agreement specifies arbitration for handset complaints. This is one of several iPhone lawsuits in progress, and you have to wonder if claims of misrepresentation are the same as complaints about handsets. [Source:...

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AT&T said Friday that it has closed its Wayport acquisition, which allows it to build out its Wi-Fi network. In addition, the telecom giant said that it “is nearing completion” of its project to convert Starbucks locations to AT&T’s Wi-Fi service. With Wayport, AT&T will have roughly 20,000 domestic hot-spots (statement). AT&T said last month it would acquire Wayport for...

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Alcatel-Lucent on Friday unveiled its latest restructuring plan complete with layoffs and a rip off of Cisco’s spiel about Web 2.0 technologies. The news out of Alcatel-Lucent was boilerplate stuff these days–it will be news when a company actually hires someone. Alcatel-Lucent sees the market for telecom equipment and deployment services to fall 8 percent to 12 percent in 2009 and the...

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Demos call FCC dysfunctional — Democrats in the House took 110 pages of report to strongly slam the FCC in general, calling it dysfunctional, and chairman Kevin Martin in particular as someone who played games with information to advance his own agenda. Guess that means no spot on the Congressional holiday card list. [Source: Washington Post] Sony Ericcson, Vodafone, and ARM back Android...

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More details are coming out about spending on Cyber Monday. Although the event took place over a week ago, the numbers are interesting if for no other reason than they suggest how consumers are shopping and buying. Know how people make decisions, and you are closer to understanding what they might want from you. But it turns out that the sources of information aren’t necessarily something...

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