Nokia’s workforce is deteriorating nearly as fast as its share of the mobile phone market. This morning, the company–which sacked 1,700 employees in March and another 450 in April–said it will cut 330 more jobs in its research and development group.
The European Union’s formal objection to Oracle’s proposed acquisition of Sun has evidently transformed the database giant’s intransigence into grudging agreeability. The EU has extended the deadline for approval of the $7.4 billion merger to Jan. 27 from Jan. 19 at Oracle’s request.
Apple has reportedly decided to postpone the launch of its rumored tablet/slate until the second half of 2010. That’s the latest rumor from the occasionally reliable Digitimes, which claims that the device’s original March 2010 debut target became untenable after some component changes. The report, should it prove true, will no doubt be a disappointment to overanxious tabletites awaiting the mysterious device’s arrival, but really, that’s immaterial to Apple.
Google’s Sundar Pichai, vice president of product management and Matthew Papakipos, engineering director for Google Chrome OS–joined by founder Sergey Brin–discuss how they plan to bring the OS to the market, then answer some questions from the audience.
Direct from Google headquarters, Vice President of Product Management Sundar Pichai explains that the company’s forthcoming Chrome OS could signal the end of desktop apps as we know them.
Speaking at Microsoft’s Worldwide Partner Conference in New Orleans this past July, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said of Google’s forthcoming Chrome OS, “Who knows what this thing is?” Today, he found out. The operating system, a direct challenge to Microsoft Windows, was on display at a media gathering at the company’s HQ this morning, and in the words of Sundar Pichai, Google’s vice president of product management, it is intended to make computing a “delightful” experience.
The official price of Palm’s new Pixi smartphone is $99.95, but Wal-Mart is now offering the handset for $24.99 with a two-year contract, as is Amazon. That’s a 75 percent price cut. Staggering, considering the Pixi arrived at market just four days ago.
Since 2008, AT&T’s network in and around San Francisco has experienced an increase in 3G data traffic of 2,000 percent. If you find this metric as astonishing as I do, consider this: The increase in Bay Area data traffic is actually below the national average–significantly below. According to AT&T CTO John Donovan, 3G data traffic on the company’s wireless network has risen nearly 5,000 percent nationally in the past 12 quarters.
Given its recent string of lousy financial reports, its weak platform strategy and declining share of the the global handset market, I suppose it was only a matter of time before Sony Ericsson began sacking employees again. And it did just that this morning, announcing plans to shutter its Research Triangle Park facility in North Carolina, as well as offices in Miami, India and Sweden.
Bay Area iPhone users, relief is on the way. AT&T has almost completed a $65 million upgrade to its network in the region. The carrier has upgraded close to 850 cell sites in an effort to better handle the massive surge in data traffic it has seen in and around San Francisco since the debut of iPhone. And make no mistake: The surge has been massive.
Verizon, though it refuses to divulge sales numbers for Motorola’s new Droid handset, says it has been “very pleased” with demand for the device so far. And no wonder: According to Mark McKechnie of Broadpoint AmTech, Verizon is on track to sell 600,000 Droids during the fourth quarter of 2009.
For Palm, 2010 will be a year of channel expansion, with its new webOS handsets coming to more carriers. Top among them, Verizon, which has been rumored to be getting a device “like the Palm Pre” since Palm launched it. In a research note to investors today, Kaufman Bros. analyst Shaw Wu says a Palm smartphone from Verizon is pretty much inevitable.
Reporting disappointing second-quarter earnings a few weeks back, Sony warned that the Christmas shopping period would likely be a weak one. “We are quite cautious in foreseeing end-of-year sales,” Sony CFO Nobuyuki Oneda said at the time.
John Paczkowski has been poking fun at the tech industry and the personalities that drive it since 1997. From 1999 to 2007, he wrote the award-winning tech news Web log Good Morning Silicon Valley for the San Jose Mercury News, Silicon Valley's daily newspaper. Read more »
Here is a statement of my ethics and coverage policies. It is more than most of you want to know, but, in the age of suspicion of the media, I am laying it all out.
12:58 AM: Breakfast: Two schools of fish from Tokyo Bay. Calories: 782,000. How I was feeling when I ate this: confused, irradiated, hating my size.
11:37 AM: Exercise: “Taxi Stomp” (alternating legs, for 30 blocks). Calories burned: 148,900,183.
1983. The Beatles announce their first tour in thirteen years, but likewise announce that Michael Jackson will be going on tour with them as a one gigantic mega-concert event.
Best video mashup ever.
A Facebook Memorial
Wow.
Worth it for the Rickrolling photo alone.
Excellent.
Flughumor!
… you vacuous, toffee-nosed, malodorous perverts
Stephen Fry and zoologist Mark Carwardine meet the kakapo — a fat, flightless and very randy rare parrot.
D is unlike any other executive conference. Since its debut in 2003, D has brought to life the energy and excitement of the digital revolution in an unscripted, upfront and unparalleled way. Read more »
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