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Just this week, I was applauding Twitter for rejecting an offer from Facebook. One reason I noted was that Twitter's SMS text feature makes alerts from twittering (tweeting?) news outlets such as ZDNet even more valuable. Now, that feature seems headed for the history books as wireless carriers im...
Societe Generale analyst Richard Nguyen hit SAP with a sell rating on Wednesday citing increased odds of a fourth quarter profit warning and signs that customers are pushing back on the software company's attempt to upsell them following a maintenance price increase. Nguyen's reportâ€"he down...
Here's a novel idea for delivering cheaper cell phone service: stop sending customers bills each month that waste so much money and paper and instead, shoot them a quick notice via -- what else? -- text message. Someone should have thought of that a long time ago, but Pocket Communications gets ...
There were a few pieces of news in the last few days about Microsoft, ranging from competing with Google for a Verizon deal and Steve Ballmer having to testify in the Vista Capable lawsuit to a new name for Windows Live Search. Although they seem like separate stories, they aren't because there is one underlying thread: Microsoft's disastrous plodding when it comes to practical branding.
Google cuts back workforce and holiday party; Microsoft and Google in bidding war for Verizon ad deal; Amazon won't ship its Kindle 2.0 until next year; iSuppli downgrades estimate on 2009 PC shipments; Best Buy actually to cut MacBook prices below list; and Apple may be working on a netbook.
IBM on Monday unveiled a series of cloud computing services including business consulting to determine return on investment, design and implementation and security architecture. Big Blue noted that its services will focus on public, private and hybrid cloud computing set-ups. While the move is...
A startup on Tuesday will launch in an attempt to fix the current patent mess and defend against so-called patent trolls. The startupâ€"RPX Corp.â€"is a so-called defensive patent aggregator. RPXâ€"short for Rational Patentâ€"aims to reduce the costs associated with non-practicing entities (NPEs)...
Apple faces e-discovery problem in Psystar action as it does not have a corporate email policy; John Garcia, who was reponsbile for the CDMA business at Sprint, is gone; two engineers get jail time for foreign espeionage; a gaming PR representative admits to trying to game the review system; and some companies are buildling appliations and protocols based on incorrect assumptions.
When Lindsay Blakely dug through Apple's fiscal year 2008 (October through September) 10-K and found the company's actual advertising expenditures, that got me wondering what else might be in the hundred and one pages. Let's start with the actual number of product units that Apple sold...
I thought that adding an occasional round-up of high tech legal machinations might be interesting to readers. If you think it's worthwhile, or not, email or comment and let me know. Spansion sues Samsung -- Memory chip maker Spansion, a Fujitsu and AMD joint venture, has decided to ramp up its lega...
Verizon employees viewed an old cell phone account for Barak Obama, though supposedly didn't read emails or listen to voice mails; AT&T is funding a privacy policy group to influence government; MTN Group goes to China to find $10 cell phone for African market; and Nokia to partner with China Mobile.
Microsoft has hired a database academic to help scale SQL Server, and it's boosting the number of tunes Zune subscribers can keep to bump sales; gaming company Midway has had massive problems, largely due to its technology choices; Yahoo brings "glue pages" to U.S.; Israel's tech sector is hurting; and Canon's rebate processing firm goes bankrupt.
T-Mobile launches full Internet web browsing with Yahoo search and third-party app store; Nokia puts IBM's Lotus Notes email on handsets; Ireland leads world in cell phone and texting usage, though last year China, Russia, Brazil, and India collectively added 216 million new subscriptions; Volvo makes HD radio a standard; and KPN and Reggefiber plan on rolling out fiber-to-the-home throughout virtually all of the Netherlands.
Microsoft's Steve Ballmer nixes the idea of buying Yahoo, though he's still interested in the search business; eBay subsidiary PayPal is offering consumer credit for purchases during the holidays; Google and Procter & Gamble swap employees; CA tries selling mainframe software in new formats; Google gives up on virtual worlds while Sony introduces its entry; and BestBuy feels the pain of a credit downgrade.
Ascendant Consulting works with such clients as Kodak and ITT Industries on better focusing business efforts. Managing Director David Fields is currently working on a book about how top CEOs have turned major problems into winning situations. We chatted about what companies can do to fortify their positions and decision-making.
