Nokia Should Dump U.S. Smartphone Business, Sell Netbooks Instead
The Nokia N900 is more a computer with cell phone capabilities than a smartphone.
Technology
Yahoo's Bartz: When Things Are Bleak, Build a Monument
There are times that ego can drive greatness in a company because someone at the helm simply can't stand to be second best. And then there is the corporate ego that leads into pretty silly undertakings -- like Yahoo's CEO Carol Bartz planning a massive new campus.
Microsoft, Apple, Others Smack Themselves with Sunk Costs, Bad Decisions
Just as it killed off its Money product this last summer, Microsoft is now putting the axe to Office Accounting. It only took, what, four years for this to happen? That's certainly better than the decade for Money. But it's far better than some decisions to keep marching because of all a company has...
Pay for Content Is Not Suicide, It's Experimentation
In the last couple of weeks, a number of media companies have all declared their readiness to make people pay for what they get. The wagging fingers predicting dire consequences don't seem to get the business issues in play, because they treat every decision as though it had life-or-death finality. But it doesn't, because this is business as it should be: experimental and practical.
Google's Wave Concept More Important Than The Product
Many people, including my colleague Michael Hickins, have been writing about the importance of Google's Wave to the company and to businesses. But I'd disagree. It's not the product itself, which is being hit with decidedly mixed reviews during the beta test, that is important so much as the concept that the software represents.
Salesforce CEO Shares Strategy
Salesforce.com CEO Marc Benioff's new book tells all about the company's birth and strategy.
Sony PS3 Biz Up Some, but Division (and Others) Still Gloomy
For doom and gloom, see Sony's quarterly results. Outside of PlayStation 3 unit sales (fueled by new cheaper model) and financial services, this is a company that currently excels in shrinking revenue and expanding losses.
Android 2.0 and the Death of Consumer Electronics
The year was 2009; the month, October. News came of the end of the last specialized consumer electronics device. The GPS, which had seemed destined to continue its existence, passed on at the announcement of the Google Maps navigation feature on Android 2.0. OK, a bit exaggerated, but not by much. T...
Why Faster Chips Won't Help Juniper Catch Cisco
Juniper introduced a new chipset, router and network management platform in the hopes of overcoming Cisco's dominance in the IP-based switching market.
Tech Law: AT&T Sues Over Alleged Price Fixing, ChoicePoint Fined in Data Breach, More
AT&T sues Samsung, LG Display, and AU Optronics for alleged price fixing in LCD panels; a judge dismissed Power.com's suit against Facebook; Google tries navigating EU copyright rules; ChoicePoint hit with $275,000 fine for data breach; and FCC moves ahead on net neturality, but with less unanimity than might initially be thought.
Streaming Profits for Netflix from Sony PlayStation 3 Deal
Netflix will make its video streaming service available to Sony PlayStation 3 owners next month. Given its existing Internet distribution deals for a variety of other devices, this latest arrangement should help the company lower operating costs and overall churn rates in coming quarters.
Amazon Must Move Beyond Retail
Every now and then I read an article so fundamentally smart that I want to hold people's heads down to get them to see it. One today is by Martin Peers of the Wall Street Journal, in which he observes how a good portion of Amazon's financial success depends on putting off paying its bills. And while he is right that eventually vendors won't put up with it, the company is still largely in retail, which is dependent on that delay between money in and money out. That's why Amazon has been working so hard to break out of the category, and why it must -- because time is running out.
SAP Kept Afloat by Customers Need for Support
I often think that the preoccupation with corporate earnings can even outshine their revenue issues. However, you can never do better than the amount of money you can bring in, and for SAP, the signs are not promising, particularly as its weakest area, software sales, is the one that makes all the o...
FCC Considering Spectrum Swap Between Broadcasters, Carriers
The FCC may facilitate a spectrum swap between TV broadcasters and wireless infrastructure vendors as a way of alleviating a looming scarcity of broadband wireless spectrum.
Windows 7 Upgrade Causing 'Endless Boot Loop'
Windows 7 is sticking customers upgrading from Vista in an "endless boot loop" that is paralyzing their computers.
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Americans vote in battle for Senate and House control— live updates
Here's what Americans are voting on in today's elections
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