Under Apple's Financial FY09 Q2 Covers: Net Sales Slipping

One of the strengths of Apple has been the ability of its brand to command premium pricing, whether in computers, MP3 players, or cell handsets. That has lead to a level of profitability that is the envy of its competitors. But there are signs of countervailing pressure that is forcing Apple to make less and less on the bulk of its products, bringing to question whether the company retains the same qualitative allure to a broader public as it displayed among the faithful. In a continuing period feature, we look into the details of a company's SEC filings for trends and insight.

• Apr 26, 2009

Too Soon to Write Off Microsoft

My colleague Michael Hickins seems ready to consign Microsoft to the dust heap. He's certainly right that the last quarter was grim and that Microsoft has some serious problems, including the long over reliance on Windows and Office as its cash cows. But it's easy to over react to the latest earning...

• Apr 26, 2009

Microsoft: The Decline Begins

Microsoft disclosed that sales fell 6 percent during its third fiscal quarter ending March 31, its first ever year-over-year quarterly sales drop, and the start of an inexorable demise. Rome didn't decline in a day, and neither will Microsoft, but the graffiti is on the wall. Microsoft CFO Chris ...

• Apr 24, 2009

iPhone Baby Shaker Just What Apple Ordered

I'm afraid my colleague Erik Sherman is all wet where the Baby Shaker app is concerned -- and so are the alarmists claiming that the now-withdrawn app would have encouraged people to shake actual babies. The iPhone application -- which featured a crude image of a baby that emitted squalling sounds u...

• Apr 23, 2009

Baby Shaking App and Apple's Bad Designing [UPDATED]

Apple has a reputation for some of the best design in the world. But for this company, beauty is often only case and UI deep. When it comes to designing a good reputation for the vast majority beyond the fanboy demographic, management continues an uncanny knack for shooting itself in the foot with a howitzer.

• Apr 23, 2009

Q&A with Qwest CTO Pieter Poll

Cloud computing, wireless versus wired, Internet bandwidth availability: many issues face the telecommunications industry. I had a chat with Qwest's CTO, Pieter Poll, to get his company's view of them.

• Apr 23, 2009

Do Facebook and Twitter Ad Network Make Sense?

According to Silicon Alley Insider, Facebook is looking at possibly building an online ad network based on Facebook Connect, though not for at least the next six months. And there's suspicion that Twitter could do the same. But then, how much good will it do them? In the short term, the online ad o...

• Apr 22, 2009

Cisco's Ambitions Swamped By Consolidation Wave?

Cisco could be thrown of course in its ambition to become the single supplier in the data center because of a coming wave of consolidation in the networking industry, the first sign of which is Broadcom's bid for networking component vendor Emulex. Cisco's strategy is dependent on being able to c...

• Apr 22, 2009

Informatica Next On Oracle's Shopping List?

Informatica, which makes technology intended to help companies manage and deduplicate data held in various technology systems, would be a logical next acquisition target for Oracle, as would a number of other niche vendors in the same space, like Initiate Systems and Siperian. Informatica, however, ...

• Apr 21, 2009

Cloud Computing Facing Stormy Weather

If you've been around the high tech industry for ten years or longer, you'll know the signs of technofad. Vendor representatives exhibit hysteria. Pundits declare the technofad to be the savior of corporate computing. Virtually every product, down to paperclips, is recast as a tool critical to the success of the technofad -- and of society in general, for that matter. As inevitable as natural law comes the eventual realization that the technofad, while possibly useful, is simply another variation on technology whose full realization is years in the future. And, as industry players make big financial and reputational bets, that's exactly where cloud computing is sitting.

• Apr 21, 2009

Tech Law: AOL v. Yahoo, NetApp Pays Big, More

AOL asks court to toss Yahoo patent suit; EU sues UK over data privacy; NetApp to pay $128 million to settle charges of fraud against the GSA; the Department of Justice wants to extend antitrust oversight of Microsoft; FBI spyware; and a man convicted of selling counterfeit software on eBay.

• Apr 20, 2009

Adobe Flashing Past Microsoft In The Home

Adobe introduced a new version of its Flash Web video playing technology for televisions and other home entertainment devices. Anup Murarka, director of technology strategy for the platform business unit at Adobe, told me new TV models with some Flash-enabling technology would be hitting the U.S. ma...

• Apr 20, 2009

Oracle And Sun A Marriage Of Heaven And Hell

Oracle's acquisition of Sun Microsystems, should the deal close as expected, would be the conjoining of "two technology titans," in the words of Scott McNealy, chairman of Sun. It is also the marriage of two companies with reputations that couldn't be more divergent: Sun is seen as an idealistic com...

• Apr 20, 2009

Oracle to Buy Sun, Quakes to Shake Datacenters Everywhere

Oracle has announced a deal to buy Sun Microsystems for a total of $7.4 billion, or $5.6 billion net of the latter's cash and debt. The acquisition will change the landscape of enterprise computing, putting Oracle into total competition with long-standing business partners, who may still be locked by circumstances into working with the database giant.

• Apr 20, 2009

Symantec Said Buying Conficker-Killer

Symantec is going to announce the acquisition of Mi5 Networks, a niche vendor in the the Internet security space this week, according to 451Group analyst Brenon Daly. Mi5, named after the famed British intelligence service, sells appliances that help organizations protect their networks and, ...

• Apr 20, 2009

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