Technology Industry Archive

An Apple netbook makes sense from so many perspectives that it’s impossible to believe this isn’t the direction Apple is taking. Netbooks are smaller, lighter and inexpensive versions of laptop notebooks, a trick that is achieved by substituting cloud-based computing for most computing tasks commonly done locally by laptops and desktops. Only a year ago they were considered good for...

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Over the last half year, the people search crowd have been slugging it out, if our experience at BNET is any indication. Back in October, we had a chat with Spock.com co-founder Jay Bhatti, at the company’s request, the emphasis being its growing nature. Then during the winter, Yasni.com founder Steffen Rühl wanted a conversation, also to discuss the company’s growth — or, as...

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Business intelligence applications, software that is supposed to make sense of data in disparate databases and then spit out the answer to every question about your business, is trying once again to redefine itself. The business intelligence (BI) industry reminds me of a baseball player who broke into the major leagues with star potential, but ends up being shipped, along with his potential,...

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It is probably obvious to say that the touch screen market is growing, given Apple’s success, Microsoft’s Windows support for the devices, and various device and PC manufacturers like HP either having rolled out products or planning them. But market analyst firm DisplaySearch has a forecast suggesting a market size of $9 billion by 2015. Apparently there are over 170 vendors who...

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After looking through the evidence suggesting that Apple might be creating a portable gaming device, or combination media and game player, I started wondering what Microsoft might be up to. IT turns out that there’s evidence in patent applications and granted patents of a potential integrated game console/set-top box as well as hints of mobile gaming, including a portable gaming console....

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Google has been a high profile target in the public eye. It has faced growing antitrust issues, and there has even been evidence that some growing perceptions of Google could damage the company’s brand. The practical evidence of the pressure is showing in the form of an advertised position for a communications manager for public policy in Mountain View and another one in Washington, D.C....

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HP’s quarterly earnings report seemed to catch observers off-balance, as illustrated by the divergent coverage given by the Financial Times and BusinessWeek, both of which know their way around an earnings report. The FT chose to accentuate the positive, noting that HP beat earnings projections, while BW harped on CEO Mark Hurd’s “tepid sales forecast.” But one thing no...

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Apparently the Microsoft price ads are taking a heavy toll on Apple in perceived brand value, according to research done by BrandIndex, an ongoing consumer perception analysis done by market research firm YouGov. The perceptions of 18- to 34-year-olds has shifted significantly when it comes to PCs versus Macs. But in the long run, how much will that really matter to Apple? The value ratings...

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Intel’s new operating system, designed for cloud-computing devices like smartphones and netbooks, is a potentially fatal stab wound to Microsoft’s operating system empire. This is a critical juncture for Microsoft, which is trying to catch up with competitors like Salesforce.com, Google, VMware and other vendors delivering applications and processing power over the Internet, without...

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My colleague, Michael Hickins, has an interesting view of Apple’s future as tied to the iPhone’s use in business. I’d agree without hesitation that Apple needs more than just consumer acceptance for the iPhone to make it a dependable long-term company strategy. But the company has a major hurdle: gaining the IT department’s trust and acceptance. That may seem a silly...

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