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It has become axiomatic that the difference between consumer and business technology is blurring, and nowhere is this more evident than in the area of handheld devices. This confluence of consumer and business markets has also accelerated dramatically; it took dog years in Internet time for insta...
The other day, Microsoft apparently wanted to make clear that an iPhone version of Office might be in the works, a logical off-shoot of Web-based versions. That might seem an attempt to stave off concern that smartphone operating systems could siphon away important revenue sources from the giant. Bu...
Verizon, Comcast, AT&T and other large wireless carriers and cable companies are behind lobbying efforts in state legislatures around the country to prohibit local governments from using federal stimulus money to build and manage their own broadband networks, critics contend. So far, they seem t...
Just a week ago we saw the layoff numbers reported by Challenger, Gray & Christmas that showed a big jump in high tech for January and February. Now that we have complete data for the first quarter, there is some good news: the rate of layoffs is slowing. But the number of jobs lost still eclipses last year, and new high tech job creation isn't coming close to catching up.
Cisco, known primarily as a networking equipment vendor, is hoping to establish an early beachhead in "unified communications," a market it believes will grow to $34 billion, with a flurry of new products for desktops, conference rooms and data centers it introduced today at the VoiceCon conference....
IBM's Open Cloud Manifesto, an attempt to create technical standards for Web-based computer services, has been received with a great deal of suspicion in some circles, and with good reason. While IBM is trying to project itself as the grown-up in the discussion, many observers see the manifesto as o...
Apple sued over abilities to use iPhone as e-book reader and for users to browse content and download it to an iPhone; Tom Tom joins patent coalition as tool in litigation with Microsoft; NVIDIA countersues Intel over technology sharing agreement, and Charter Communications files for bankruptcy.
Back in February, I wrote about an Accenture study finding that telecom carriers were out of touch with customers and losing money as a result. The consulting firm also did a much broader study and -- surprise, surprise -- high tech firms are often having their enterprise lunch handed to them -- by themselves.
SAP is fighting its own legacy and is, in some ways, running away from its strengths as it tries to increase revenues during difficult economic times. SAP's legacy is mixed. Known for selling enterprise resource planning (ERP) software, comprehensive, industry-specific suites that produce reports...
Dell, HP, Lenovo and other hardware vendors could be looking at the end of their PC businesses within four years, as enterprises start implementing a more network-based approach to delivering computing power and applications. The threat comes from a technology known as hosted virtual desktops, ba...
Smell the hint of smoke in the air? It actually started when Microsoft announced that a full multi-touch interface would be built into Windows 7. But it's now getting thick as the company posted a fuller description of the new interface, which includes not only single-touch, but multi-touch features. Providing the other half of the friction is Apple's recently-granted broad patent on multi-touch UI technology. But although Apple has indicated its readiness to enforce the patent, facing off against Microsoft could prove the business equivalent of shooting yourself in the foot with a howitzer. Particularly when Microsoft has a multi-touch patent application that predates any of Apple's filings.
Microsoft is stuck with an intractable issue that no amount of rationalization will remedy. Through a series of ill-considered acquisitions in the early years of this decade, the company finds itself stuck with four software products that essentially perform the same functions, but which it can't wh...
When outsourcing consultancy Challenger, Gray & Christmas released its figures on job cuts in January and February, the numbers were depressing, with the two months figure almost double the same period in 2008 and close to the number of job cuts in the first six months of last year. But the picture is much worse for high tech, with layoffs in January and February almost quadruple those in the full first quarter of 2008 and far in excess of the portion of the economy that the sector represents.
The next item on the list for Salesforce.com is marketing automation, an executive told me yesterday. The company currently makes on-demand software that lets salespeople manage leads, and recently set its sights on call center technology, as I reported yesterday. But while Salesforce sees huge g...
If your name isn't Google or Yahoo, being a search vendor is something like being a pro wrestler in the 1960s, with fervent but tiny crowds following you to dilapidated arenas in third-tier cities. Devotees of enterprise search insist that the technology will pay for itself, but the vendors are hard...
