First-quarter spending on information technology goods and services was worse than Forrester Research predicted at the beginning of the year. But it will grow no worse. We’ve hit bottom. Finally. According to Forrester, anyway.
Neither Sun nor IBM will confirm that the two companies are even in talks, but the two will reportedly announce their merger on Monday–not today as previously thought. And after the deal, then what? Massive layoffs, most likely.
Cisco has finally crossed the Rubicon. Long a partner to the big server makers, the networking equipment giant today became a competitor, announcing an aggressive push into the server market. No longer content to peddle switches and routers alone, Cisco is now selling a full-blown data center solution.
Enterprise technology spending grew seven percent in 2007, according to a new report from Forrester Research. It grew 4.1 percent in 2008. And it was expected to grow 6.1 percent in 2009. But with information technology departments steeling themselves against the economic downturn, that’s no longer the case. In 2009, spending will grow not 6.1 percent, but 1.6 percent.
Wonderful news. The recession’s impact on the tech sector will not be nearly as pronounced as its predecessor’s, which turned Webvan’s refrigerated Freightliner trucks into hipster moving vans and made the Pets.com mascot piddle itself into oblivion like a submissive puppy. That’s the word from Forrester Research CEO George Colony, who believes the current downturn will be far kinder to tech than the one that heralded The Great Dark Time of 2001-2003.
Not that there’s reason to expect anything different, but online retail sales are expected to slow for the first time ever this holiday season, thanks to the lousy economy. That’s the word from Forrester Research, which expects holiday shoppers to spend $44 billion online this year.
American Airlines rolled out its take on cloud computing today, becoming the first airline in the U.S. to offer full in-flight broadband access. Dubbed “GoGo” and provided by AirCell, the service is available for a flat $12.95 fee on flights between New York and San Francisco, New York and Los Angeles, and New York and Miami.
Like great civilizations, great companies are not conquered from without until they have destroyed themselves from within. And Yahoo appears to be well on its way to doing just that. Shares in the company slid still deeper into the mud today as the market reflected on the uneventful conclusion of the company’s merger talks with Microsoft and its decision to–well, let’s face it–become a reseller of Google ads.
Good thing Forrester doesn’t run Apple, because if it did the company would be well on its way to insolvency. In an astonishingly unimaginative report called “The Future of Apple Inc.,” Forrester attempts to divine the products Apple will be peddling 5 years from now.
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.
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