Technology Industry Archive

There’s no doubt that Facebook is developing a Web payment platform to rival those of Google, Amazon and eBay (PayPal). But Facebook may also be looking to crack one of the biggest nuts in the online payment world, which is mobile. Facebook spokesperson Kathleen Loughlin confirmed reports that the social networking site has hired Prashant Fuloria, a former Google employee who worked on...

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Cisco is striving to redefine itself as a vendor connecting inner and outer clouds, thus reasserting its relevance in the context of a fluid Web-driven IT world increasingly dominated by the likes of Google, Salesforce, Oracle and IBM. It also hopes to parlay its legacy of infrastructure expertise into a reassuring presence, particularly for veteran IT administrators struggling to balance their...

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My colleague Michael Hickins and I have disagreed at times over whether companies like Google or Apple. My skepticism has never been one of simply product function or cost, but rather an issue of what it takes to provide what an enterprise IT customer looks for. Bernard Lunn at ReadWriteWeb has an interesting discussion of this in the context of enterprise customers often demanding on-premise...

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Nokia is rumored to be planning to introduce a netbook in 2010 running on Google’s Android operating system. I wonder how that would sit with Intel, with whom Nokia just got in bed. Do they have an open marriage? Phil Goldstein fingers Lazard Capital Markets analyst Daniel Amir as the source of this rumor and notes that while “the handset maker has been rumored for months to be...

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The U.S. Supreme Court made some important tech news today by refusing to hear two cases: one about a next generation digital video recorder, and another important patent case. First, the Court refused to hear Cable News Network Inc. v. CSC Holdings Inc.. CSC, the parent company of Cablevision Systems Corp., had planned to release a second generation DVR. Its customers will be able to record,...

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Wireless network operators have an unprecedented opportunity to jump off their churn and burn treadmill and create valuable and lasting relationships with end users, handset makers and application vendors and, if they really play their cards right, could even wean themselves off the handset subsidy habit that is further debilitating their businesses. Here’s what they need to do: create...

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Here is a parable about Google that its executives seem to have forgotten: There once was a Web site so good that although all it ever did was send people away, they kept coming back, over and over and over again. Only to be sent away again. In fact, the only reason people keep coming back to this site is because it does such a great job of sending them away. This site has been so successful at...

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A look at highlights of the past week in the high tech legal world: courts, regulation, and lawsuits. Dell found in contempt — A Louisiana state judge has found Dell in contempt over the company’s production of documents in a civil lawsuit. [Source: AP] IBM doesn’t stop Dell hire — IBM lost its bid for an injunction to prevent Dell from hiring one of its former top...

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You hear a lot of comparison between companies. Google will beat Microsoft, or Microsoft will devastate Google. Twitter will become the New Google, or the New Facebook, or the New Media. Yahoo will become the New Yahoo. You get the idea. But there are two things that become obvious when you think a moment. One is that all these companies are juggling for a future business landscape dominated by...

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According to iSuppli, the new Mac Mini is a heck of a lot more expensive to make than is usual for Apple. A $599 machine yields just over $200 in margin. For many companies, that would be slick. For Apple, with its legacy of high margin business, this is the financial equivalent of an earthquake. And it’s yet the latest piece of evidence suggesting that on the computer front, and probably...

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