UI War Brewing: Microsoft Multi-Touch Patent App Predates Apple's

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.

• Mar 26, 2009

Microsoft 'Rationalizing' Overlapping Products

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...

• Mar 25, 2009

Tech Layoffs on Big Q1 Upswing, Far Outpacing Average

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.

• Mar 25, 2009

Marketing Automation Next For Salesforce.com

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...

• Mar 24, 2009

Search Vendors Desperately Seeking Relevance

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...

• Mar 24, 2009

Tech Law: Intel May Pull AMD License, Discovery Sues Amazon, More

Intel threatens to pull AMD patent cross-licensing agreement; Nintendo beats patent challenge over analog joysticks; Discovery sues Amazon.com for alleged patent infringement by Kindle; Apple sends cease and desist letter to small company over trademark application; Psystar thumbs nose and releases another Mac clone model; and the SEC dropped its suit against McAfee's former general counsel for alleged illegal stock option backdating.

• Mar 24, 2009

BNET's Erik Sherman Hosting Webcast Today

I've been asked by InformationWeek to put together and host a webcast called Escaping the Rock and Hard Place: Surviving & Thriving in a Time of Turmoil and Tight Budgets. It happens today at 2pm Eastern, 11am Pacific. It's for CIOs and other in-house technical executives. There's no charge.

• Mar 24, 2009

Service Cloud Looms Over Call Center Software

Gaul may have been divided into three parts, but Salesforce.com sees the call center market as divided in two. However, it may not have territory to itself for long. Alex Dayon, senior vice president of the service & support business at Salesforce.com, told me the company sees the same dearth...

• Mar 23, 2009

Tech Firms Should Buy Media Companies Now

Last week, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer gave a one word answer, no, to the question of whether his company would buy the New York Times. The answer was as definitive as you can get, but might be as wrong-headed as many other decisions that management there has made over the last few years. But let's ...

• Mar 23, 2009

Salesforce.com Sees Its Next $1B Market

Salesforce.com, the $1 billion vanguard of the software-as-a-service (SaaS) industry, is betting its next $1 billion in revenues will come from disrupting the call center industry. The company that declared death to on-premise software with SFA, its flagship on-demand customer relationship manage...

• Mar 24, 2009

Mixed Results in Tafas v. Doll Appeal Over New Patent Rules

The industry has been closely monitoring the Tafas v. Doll (formerly Tafas v. Dudas) lawsuit over whether the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office would be able to make rule changes that would significantly limit patent applications. Today, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) announced its ruling, and the net result won't leave any of the interested parties in unqualified cheer. That is because a split court agreed that the USPTO had the necessary authority to impose the rules, but that one was in conflict with existing patent law and that a lower court needed to review whether the drafting and review process had been proper.

• Mar 20, 2009

SAP, Oracle Scrambling For GRC Dollars

SAP and Oracle both announced new components for their growing governance, risk and compliance (GRC) technology suit in the past 10 days. GRC applications are typically sold to public and large privately held companies, especially those operating in heavily-regulated industries, and are intended ...

• Mar 20, 2009

Informatica Shaping Up As Likely Acquisition Target

Consolidation isn't just something that happens to physical things like data centers. It's also a phenomenon affecting financial services and other industries that are among the biggest consumers of IT products and services. Ivan Chong, general manager of Informatica's data quality business unit,...

• Mar 19, 2009

Ready for the M&A Gold Rush, But Will It Be Fool's Gold?

When the rumor that IBM would acquire Sun hit yesterday's Wall Street Journal, you just know that many tech execs got a glint in their eye. Either they were at a big company that would have to protect its interests in the market or they worked at a small company that might be desperate for a way out of the cash burn rate death spiral. Whether or not IBM and Sun actually hit the altar is immaterial. A new wave of M&A mania is likely to start. But most of it is going to be desperation and futility.

• Mar 19, 2009

HP, Cisco And IBM: Winner Takes The Data Center

IBM, said to be in talks to acquire Sun Microsystems, is showing that it will not be left behind in the battle for control of the data center, which is fast becoming the center of the IT universe. And it's becoming equally clear that the Armageddon in the data center will be winner-take-all. ...

• Mar 19, 2009

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