It took Apple and AT&T 74 days to sell the first million iPhones back in 2007. This year it took just three. No wonder AT&T is crowing about first-day sales. In an all-hands memo to employees this week, the carrier, which sold “hundreds of thousands” of iPhones during its pre-order process, said first-day sales of the 3GS were off the charts. The memo, after the jump.
“We will enter Asia with the iPhone in 2008…we will one day enter China, we’re not saying when.” Apple COO Tim Cook said that back in March of 2008, and it’s a good thing he declined to offer a more specific timeline. Because here we are, well over a year later, and Apple still hasn’t managed to officially launch the iPhone to China. But it’s getting closer.
Well, look at that. Floundering though it is, AMD has managed some gains in the semiconductor market. According to IDC, the company’s share of the chip market hit 22.3 percent during the first quarter of 2009, an increase of 4.6 percent over the fourth quarter of 2008. Meanwhile, Intel’s share fell to 77.3 percent, a decline of 4.7 percent.
The ax is indeed swinging at Big Blue. Following reports that it is preparing to cut thousands of jobs in its global services unit, IBM said Thursday it has begun notifying employees of what it likes to euphemistically refer to as “resource actions.” IBM refused to disclose the number of employees affected, but
Lee Conrad, spokesman for a union group called Alliance@IBM, said at least 1,674 in the company’s Application Services unit will lose their jobs.
Well, there’s one thing on the rise amid this declining economy: job cuts.
The technology industry was supposed to cut 180,000 jobs in 2008; instead it cut 186,955–up 74.2 percent from the 107,295 job cuts recorded in 2007. That’s the dismal word from recruitment outfit Challenger, Gray & Christmas, which helpfully notes that this is the largest industry workforce reduction since 2003, when tech suffered 228,325 layoffs.
With IBM quietly contributing another 2,800 or so employees to the next Bureau of Labor Statistics Unemployment report, this seems like a fine time to pay respects to those who’ve gone before them. And there are many. In the past six months, thousands of workers have been right-sized and offboarded. Rebalanced and rationalized. “Smartsized.” Sacked. A quick scan of the carnage.
Earlier this year Motorola said it would sack 1,500 employees during the fourth quarter of 2008. Apparently, that was a mistake. What it meant to say was that it planned to sack 1,900 employees during the fourth quarter of 2008, as evidenced today by the company’s announcement that it will lay off 400 more employees than originally expected this year.
If Motorola were a Greek tragedy, we’d be at that point in the narrative where the company is just about to blind itself out of grief–with a pair of RAZRs, of course. Two reports issued today show an already grim scenario for Motorola growing markedly worse.
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.
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.
Includes “Pigs in a Polka,” “Rabbit of Seville” and, of course, “What’s Opera, Doc?”
Take the famous ballads and duets of West Side Story, insert a dozen mentions of famous social media sites like twitter and facebook, and this is what you get.
An iPod mini rebuilt with a wooden case
Star Wars meets Magnum, P.I.
Music videos recreated with new lyrics based on what’s actually happening in them. Daydream Believer and Total Eclipse of the Heart are particularly good.
In response to numerous e-mails, I have no idea what planet the giant alien creature is from. Judging from its enormous gills, I’d have to guess it’s from a watery planet. Reminder: please let me know if you plan to be in the office on Memorial Day so I can request HVAC for your floor.
For those of you who mock the wolf shirt beware. There is an old Navajo story about a young man who made fun of another man for wearing a wolf trio shirt. Legend has it that in his sleep, the wolves on the other man’s shirt came to life and tore his body to shreds. They never found any part of that man’s body. The Wolf is something to be respected and feared, not treated like a novelty.
Hands down the most inexplicably bizarre game for Wii I’ve ever seen
Yo mama is so attractive she could be on the cover of Prevention.
The inspiration for this project was to determine who could generate the worst flatulence measurable in a personally unbiased manner.
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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