There was more truth than braggadocio to Acer President Gianfranco Lanci’s claim earlier today that his company would soon overtake Dell as the second-largest PC maker in the world. Because according to new reports from Gartner and IDC both, Acer is indeed the No. 2 producer of PCs in the world.
Gartner analyst Ken Dulaney says Google’s Android OS will claim 14 percent of the global smart-phone market by 2012, putting it ahead of Apple’s iPhone but behind Symbian, which currently runs on about half of all smart phones. While this might seem optimistic, it’s not entirely unreasonable given the distribution deals Google has been lining up. Yesterday, the search giant announced a deal to bring Android-based devices to Verizon Wireless. Now comes word that Dell is building an Android handset for AT&T.
The majority of Windows Mobile users have no idea what operating system is running on their phones, a recent survey from the CFI Group found. Microsoft is hoping to change that with the release of Windows Mobile 6.5 and the opening of Windows Mobile Marketplace, its long-awaited answer to Apple’s iTunes App Store.
It’s merger mania in the tech industry. First Dell buys Perot Systems for $3.9 billion. Then Xerox purchases Affiliated Computer Services for $6.4 billion. Now Cisco is acquiring Tandberg for nearly $3 billion in cash.
Domestic Mac shipments for the second quarter of 2009 rose to 1.422 million, a 2.5 percent year-over-year increase. Or, they fell to 1.2 million, a decline of 12.4 percent. All depends on whom you believe, Gartner or IDC.
It was more than a decade ago that Microsoft’s Outlook email client first became accessible over the Web. Now the rest of the company’s flagship Office suite is following suit. At the opening of its Worldwide Partner Conference in New Orleans this morning, Microsoft announced a “technical preview” of Office 2010 and revealed that some of its key applications–Word, Excel and PowerPoint–will be available over the Web in 2010. For free.
After a bit of reflection, the Street is beginning to have its say about Google’s new Chrome operating system, and the consensus seems to be that while Chrome is obviously the company’s most direct assault on Windows to date, it’s not likely to be all that disruptive to the ubiquitous OS. “It’s not good news for Microsoft,” said FBR Capital Markets analyst David Hilal. “The real question right now is how bad can it be?”
The first half of 2009 has been brutal time for the IT sector. With consumers hesitant to buy and enterprise slashing IT budgets, world-wide information technology spending this year will decline six percent. That’s the word from Gartner, which back in March was claiming the decline would be just 3.8 percent.
World-wide PC shipments will be lousy in 2009, but not quite as lousy as previously thought. Gartner says they’ll fall six percent for the year, which is an improvement over the 6.6 percent drop it forecast last month and the 9.2 percent decline it projected back in March.
No surpises here. The econalypse has sent IT managers scrambling to redraft their already diminished 2009 budgets. About 42 percent of chief information officers have cut their budgets to grapple with the souring economy, according to a new survey by Gartner.
Global mobile handset sales fell at a record pace in the first quarter of 2009. And they’re likely to do so once again in the second. With the exception of smart phones, which are apparently doing quite well despite the recession.
One of the simplest ways to create a shortage, and the buying frenzy that typically accompanies it, is to announce that there will be one. And this is precisely what Sprint CEO Dan Hesse did for the Palm Pre Tuesday. Speaking at J.P. Morgan’s Global Technology, Media and Telecom Conference shortly after Sprint announced the handset’s street date, Hesse said he anticipates that supplies will be limited, at least initially.
PC vendors hoping for a sooner-than-expected recovery later this year best prepare themselves for disappointment. No quick recovery is likely, according to J.P. Morgan analyst Mark Moskowitz, who says the PC market will remain in a shambles throughout 2009.
The market today continues to have its say on Sun’s rejection of IBM’s acquisition offer. The consensus: IBM threw Sun a rope and the company used it to make a noose. Shares of Sun–which fell nearly 27 percent Monday following the collapse this weekend of merger talks with IBM–are slipping again today on fears that the company has bollixed up what may have been its only chance at salvation.
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.
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.
Spectacular in the bellowing Russian sailor sense of the word …
“If you spell something wrong on your insurance claim, do you really deserve surgery? I don’t think so …”
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