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Unlike Demand for Dell Stock, Demand for Dell Products Has Stabilized

John Paczkowski — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 23:27:40 +0000

Things are starting to look up for Dell–well, as much as they can for a company so beaten into submission by the econalypse. The company said Monday that demand for its products appears to have stabilized and that it expects to report “a slight sequential revenue increase” for its second fiscal quarter, which ends July 31. “We continue to believe that customers are deferring IT purchases, and that we will see demand return to more typical levels at some point,” CFO Brian Gladden said in a statement.

Welcome news, right? Sadly for Dell (DELL), it was tempered by the revelation that the company’s gross margins will fall short of Wall Street expectations. And investors weren’t too happy to hear about that, sending Dell’s shares down more than three percent in late trading. The announcement comes a day before the company’s scheduled meeting with financial analysts and four days before its annual shareholders gathering.

Latest Seagate Layoffs Offer Improved Capacity, Performance

John Paczkowski — Wed, 13 May 2009 15:18:01 +0000

Seagate is defragging its workforce again. The hard drive manufacturer said Wednesday that it plans to sack another 1,100 employees–2.5 percent of its workforce. With the econalypse driving down orders for personal computers and, by extension, Seagate’s storage products, the company has had little choice but to resort to measures like these as it works to return to profitability. Earlier this year, it laid off nearly 3,000 workers and suspended its quarterly dividend. But clearly, that wasn’t enough. Seagate says this latest round of layoffs will save it $125 million annually and help it become “cash-flow and earnings positive” within its 2010 fiscal year.

Chapter 11, in Which SGI Sells Itself to Rackable

John Paczkowski — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 17:00:20 +0000

“Lately Silicon Graphics Inc. has had the kind of upward momentum associated with the hit movies produced with its whizzy high-powered work stations, like ‘Terminator 2: Judgment Day’ and ‘Jurassic Park.’ After the company outperformed Wall Street’s earnings estimates last week and the stock jumped 15 percent, analysts scrambled to upgrade ratings and future earnings forecasts.”

– Silicon Graphics’ Hot Run Goes On, New York Times, 1994

Time was, there was a Silicon Graphics (SGIC) workstation on every desk in computationally-intense industries like chemistry and film production. No longer. Cheap Linux boxes have rendered them obsolete and SGI, the company, along with them. This morning, SGI, which recently endured a brace of layoffs, filed for bankruptcy protection for a second time and sold itself to Rackable Systems, which makes server and storage products for midsize and large data centers, for $25 million in cash.

“We have been working very hard to strengthen our company, and today, we’ve taken another big step in that direction,” SGI CEO Robert Ewald said in a statement that would make even the most exuberant of SGI-optimists wince. “This transaction represents a compelling opportunity for Silicon Graphics’ customers, partners and employees, who can all benefit from the emerging stronger company with better technologies, products and markets [sic] reach.”

A sad ending for SGI, which really reinvented computer graphics and made quite a name for itself in the high-performance computing space back in the day.

The Mac: 25 Years After 1984

John Paczkowski — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 23:00:06 +0000

[ See post to watch video ]

Amazon Remembers Forgets Barcode Scanner

John Paczkowski — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 18:07:11 +0000

There’s a new beachhead in Amazon’s campaign to commandeer sales from competing retailers: Apple’s (AAPL) iPhone. This morning the retailer uncrated Amazon Mobile, an iPhone/iPod Touch application that allows users to browse its wares and those of associated retailers like Target (TGT) and Macy’s (M). The app supports Amazon’s standard features–customer reviews, “1-Click Shopping” and whatnot–as well as an intriguing new one. Called Amazon Remembers, it allows users to search for products they’d like to purchase by photographing real-world products. Testing Amazon Remembers this morning, I snapped a picture of the Sonos Controller on my desk and, sure enough, about 10 minutes later Amazon (AMZN) let me know that it does offer that product for sale.

A neat little feature, although why anyone would actively use it is beyond me. Text searches on Amazon Mobile–and Amazon’s iPhone-optimized site–are both easier and far, far faster. Why bother with the cumbersome “snap photo-submit photo-wait for Amazon to identify product in photo and its availability and price”?

What this application is clearly lacking and, frankly, just begging for, is a barcode scanner and real-time price comparison function. That would make it a killer app, indeed. And Snappr has proven barcode scanning on the iPhone is possible. The device just needs an improved camera for it to work….

Palm in Need of a Handout

John Paczkowski — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 19:00:21 +0000

[ See post to watch video ]

New IBM Servers to Power Economic Recovery?

John Paczkowski — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 18:26:52 +0000

Thank God for IBM. The technology bellwether gave battered investors a chance to catch their breath Thursday after it said it expects to report a 20 percent increase in net income for its third quarter and, remarkably, claimed its profit outlook for the full year remains on track.

“Our results demonstrate that the combination of a steady base of recurring revenue and profits, investments for growth in emerging markets, a range of products and services that deliver value to clients, and a strong and flexible financial foundation, give IBM a competitive edge in good times and tough times,” CEO Sam Palmisano said in a statement. “We remain confident in our full-year outlook.”

In spite of Q3 sales that missed analysts’ estimates by about $1 billion. Anyway …

An anomalous bit of good news in an otherwise ghastly financial landscape. Seems IBM somehow managed to avoid that “sudden and unexpected drop in business activity” that slaughtered SAP earlier this week. Shares in IBM (IBM), which have dropped 21 percent in the past month alone, rose a bit on the news.