Technology Industry Archive

IBM is making a concerted push to cash in on as many stimulus dollars coming from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act as possible, offering services to health care, energy and other industries liable to garner funding, as well as government agencies administering those funds. IBM is opening five new offices to provide data analysis that could be used by potential recipients of stimulus...

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Verizon and Microsoft are in talks for a new iPhone rival, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal. By seeking to emulate their rivals, both companies are tacitly admitting to having lost significant share in their respective markets. The device, code-named Pink by Microsoft, would transform the staid, business-oriented Windows Mobile operating system into a more consumer-friendly user...

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My colleague Michael Hickins has an interesting post about profitability of major video sharing sites. The more I read and considered his reporting and conversation with YouTube, the more questions I found myself facing. With all the speculation of how well YouTube or Hulu might be doing, there are complexities that could well mask what the owners of the companies are actually getting from...

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There’s a general assumption that YouTube is losing Google gobs of money, fueled in great part by the much-bandied idea that YouTube is generating ad revenue on just 3 percent of the content on its site. This may be far from the case; AdAge recently speculated that YouTube is now monetizing as much as 9 percent of its content, but Google spokesman Chris Dale told me the number is...

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A look at highlights of the past week in the high tech legal world. Apple loses patent suit — OPTi won a judgment of $19 million from Apple for the latter having “willfully” violated three claims of a patent. [Source: AppleInsider] Judge agrees to extend Microsoft oversight — It’s another 18 months of oversight for Microsoft, said the judge in charge of the...

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One of the strengths of Apple has been the ability of its brand to command premium pricing, whether in computers, MP3 players, or cell handsets. That has lead to a level of profitability that is the envy of its competitors. But there are signs of countervailing pressure that is forcing Apple to make less and less on the bulk of its products, bringing to question whether the company retains the...

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My colleague Michael Hickins seems ready to consign Microsoft to the dust heap. He’s certainly right that the last quarter was grim and that Microsoft has some serious problems, including the long over reliance on Windows and Office as its cash cows. But it’s easy to over react to the latest earnings announcement, and I think that an announcement of Microsoft’s decline is...

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Microsoft disclosed that sales fell 6 percent during its third fiscal quarter ending March 31, its first ever year-over-year quarterly sales drop, and the start of an inexorable demise. Rome didn’t decline in a day, and neither will Microsoft, but the graffiti is on the wall. Microsoft CFO Chris Liddell sounded funereal during yesterday’s earnings call, citing the toughest economic...

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I’m afraid my colleague Erik Sherman is all wet where the Baby Shaker app is concerned — and so are the alarmists claiming that the now-withdrawn app would have encouraged people to shake actual babies. The iPhone application — which featured a crude image of a baby that emitted squalling sounds until the user shook the phone, at which point the caricatured baby’s eyes...

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Apple has a reputation for some of the best design in the world. But for this company, beauty is often only case and UI deep. When it comes to designing a good reputation for the vast majority beyond the fanboy demographic, management continues an uncanny knack for shooting itself in the foot with a howitzer. The latest astounding blunder was Apple’s vetting and setting loose an iPhone...

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