Dell says Windows 7 price is possible barrier

Windows 7 pricing is potentially an obstacle to Windows 7 adoption for some users, though in just about every other aspect the operating system is beating Vista, according to a Dell marketing executive.

"If there's one thing that may influence adoption, make things slower or cause customers to pause, it's that generally the ASPs (average selling price) of the operating systems are higher than they were for Vista and XP," Darrel Ward, director of product management for Dell's business client product group, said in a phone interview, referring to the various versions of the Windows 7 operating system that are expected to appear.

Ward continued. "In tough economic times, I think it's naive to believe that you can increase your prices on average and then still see a strong swell than if you held prices flat or even lowered them. I can tell you that the licensing tiers at retail are more expensive than they were for Vista."

In the business market, Windows 7 Professional is expected to be more expensive than Windows Vista Business, the version that Professional is replacing, he said.

Some schools and smaller businesses may not be early adopters due to price. "Schools and government agencies may not be able to afford (the additional cost). Some of the smaller businesses may not be able to enjoy the software as soon as they'd like," Ward said.

Pricing aside, Ward said momentum behind Windows 7 is big compared with Vista. "When Vista came out we didn't have the motivation to do the types of services that we're doing now. We didn't have the clear customer demand for such services," he said. "We do have a visible number of customers, large and small, who are actually waiting for Windows 7 and who have already put plans in place to target the transition to Windows 7, they're asking Dell for help. That demand and this opportunity is stronger than it has been in the past," Ward said.

And Dell is already getting its service organization in gear for Windows 7. "Our professional service organization is beginning to structure service offerings specifically designed to help customers migrate their images, their applications, and their management infrastructure, security capabilities and so forth."

More than half of Dell's business customers are still using Windows XP and these customers will eventually have to upgrade, according to Ward. "XP cannot live forever," he said.

Windows 7 XP mode is something Dell supports. "It's one of the things that Microsoft is doing that we think is helpful. Putting an instance of XP virtual machine in the higher end SKUs (models). This is another alternative for compatibility. We'll fully support that in our product and consulting services." he said.

Driver readiness is good, with some exceptions. "Driver readiness--it looks pretty healthy compared to the past. (There are) some things that haven't been worked out. The WHQL (Windows Hardware Quality Lab) drivers for AMT VPRO is a little behind," he said, referring to Intel's Active Management Technology, which allows remote access to PCs for security, maintenance, and management.

Generally, however, Windows 7 is much further along than Vista was at this stage, he said. "But if you look at the ecosystem enabling for Windows 7, it is much further along that it was at the same time for Vista," he said.

Fuente: http://news.cnet.com/8301-13924_3-10242555-64.html?tag=newsEditorsPicksArea.0

45.7 million Wii Sports, 22.9 million Wii Plays sold

Nintendo reveals new stats for 27 first-party platinum sellers; Nintendogs hits 22.2 million, New Super Mario Bros. 18.4 million, Wii Fit 18.2 million, Mario Kart Wii 15.4 million.

Nintendo may be facing weakening demand in its home market, but its products continue to enjoy substantial demand in other regions across the globe. Yesterday, that demand came into focus when the publisher reported a 9.9 percent rise in its fiscal year earnings, to ¥1.83 trillion ($18.5 billion). A resounding clamor for software on both of Nintendo's best-selling platforms helped fuel that growth, with 197 million DS and 204 million Wii games sold during the period.

Today, Nintendo provided an update on sales figures for its first-party-published games, revealing that it now has 27 games that have broached the million-unit mark. First among those best-sellers remains Wii Sports, which is sold as a stand-alone in Japan but comes packed in with Nintendo's console in North America. The sports minigame compilation has now sold 45.7 million units since its November 2006 launch, easily outpacing Wii Remote pack-in Wii Play's 22.9 million units.

DS software sales offer a bit of a closer race in the best-selling game category. Nintendogs remains ahead of the pack, having now sold 22.2 million units through the publisher's fiscal year. However, New Super Mario Bros. and the original Brain Age aren't far off the animal-training simulator's heals, with the former having sold 18.4 million units and the latter at 17.4 million units. All three games have previously been the subject of hardware bundles.

A full list of Nintendo's million-unit sellers can be found below.

Nintendo Wii
Wii Sports - 45.7 million
Wii Play - 22.9 million
Wii Fit - 18.2 million
Mario Kart Wii - 15.4 million
Smash Bros. Brawl - 8.4 million
Super Mario Galaxy - 8 million
Mario Party 8 - 6.7 million
Link's Crossbow Training - 3.8 million
Animal Crossing: City Folk - 3.4 million
Wii Music - 2.6 million
Mario Super Sluggers - 1.3 million

Nintendo DS
Nintendogs - 22.2 million
New Super Mario Bros. - 18.4 million
Brain Age: Train Your Brain in Minutes a Day - 17.4 million
Pokemon Diamond/Pearl - 16.8 million
Mario Kart DS - 14.6 million
Brain Age 2: More Training in Minutes a Day - 13.7 million
Animal Crossing: Wild World - 10 million
Super Mario 64 DS - 7.5 million
Mario Party DS - 5.8 million
Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time/Darkness - 4.5 million
Pokemon Platinum - 3.7 million
Kirby Super Star Ultra - 2.3 million
Pokemon Ranger: Shadows of Almia - 2 million
Rhythm Heaven - 1.9 million
Personal Trainer: Cooking - 1.8 million
Professor Layton and the Curious Village - 1.6 million*

Fuente: http://www.gamespot.com/news/6209412.html?tag=latestheadlines;title;1

What Will Fix the Venture Capital Crisis?

Everyone agrees that the venture capital industry is in crisis. The question is how to fix it.

The drought in acquisitions and initial public offerings of venture-backed companies means diminishing returns for investors and fewer new jobs.

At the National Venture Capital Association’s annual meeting in Boston last week, the group presented a four-step plan to address the problem. At Harvard Business School, a group of professors offered their own ideas.

The N.V.C.A. plan calls first for the return of small investment banks and accounting firms. These helped small tech companies go public until the dot-com bubble burst and then they disappeared. In order for start-ups to start going public again, the big banks and accounting firms must partner will smaller ones to reinvigorate them, the N.V.C.A. said.

The second feature of the plan deals with new forms of exits, such as SecondMarket and other exchanges where start-ups can sell shares on the private market. The third thing it seeks is tax benefits, such as a more competitive capital gains tax rate for I.P.O. investors and tax incentives for clean tech companies. Finally, it wants regulations such as Sarbanes-Oxley and financial statement requirements to be eased for tiny companies trying to go public.

“It can’t be fixed with a stroke of the pen, but without fixing this problem, literally innovation will be at bay in this country, precisely at the time competition is increasing from abroad,” said Paul Maeder, a general partner at Highland Capital Partners.

At Harvard, two professors of venture capital and entrepreneurship had their own ideas.

Josh Lerner teaches a class on venture capital and will publish a book this fall called “Boulevard of Broken Dreams” on how public efforts to spur entrepreneurship and venture capital have, so far, failed.

He said the venture capital industry needs to focus on three other ideas to fix its problems.

First is patent policy. Patent litigation costs so much and takes so long that it is burdening small tech companies, he said.

Instead, he suggests a patent policy similar to that in Europe. There, he said, inventors can challenge patents with the patent office before patents are approved. In the United States, on the other hand, most patents are granted quickly and protesters have to go to court to fight them.

When there are patent trials, they should not be jury trials, he said, even though that has become increasingly common in the last two decades. Patent disputes are so technically and legally complicated that it is difficult for a jury to fairly decide the case in a short period of time, and they are almost always sympathetic to the patent holder.

The second change Mr. Lerner suggests is using federal funds to support start-ups, not just big, struggling companies.

“In our efforts to rescue failing giants, we are spending all this money keeping buggy whips afloat,” he said. “It seems a little crazy to say we’re going to invest all this money in sunset industries, not emerging companies.”

Third, the United States needs to do a better job keeping foreign-born scientists and entrepreneurs in the United States. He said it was inevitable that as countries like China and India became wealthier, they would also develop intellectual institutions and begin retaining their smartest people.

Lee Fleming, who teaches entrepreneurship to students from the business school as well as other programs like engineering, has another suggestion. American universities should more openly and generously disseminate technological ideas developed on their campuses, he said.

Only about one in a thousand technologies end up being blockbusters, yet universities in the United States negotiate as if they all are, he said. Entrepreneurs can sign a contract for intellectual property from some foreign universities in half an hour, while a similar agreement can take two years in the United States, he said. That contradicts universities’ mission to disseminate knowledge, he said.

“When universities start seeing tech transfer offices as profit centers, it can very quickly turn into counterproductive policies,” he said.

Fuente: http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/05/04/what-will-fix-the-venture-capital-crisis/

In China, Knockoff Cellphones Are a Hit

SHENZHEN, China — The phone’s sleek lines and touch-screen keyboard are unmistakably familiar. So is the logo on the back. But a sales clerk at a sprawling electronic goods market in this Chinese coastal city admits what is clear upon closer inspection: this is not the Apple iPhone; this is the Hi-Phone

Multimedia

An advertisement for a fake iPhone that is being sold in China.

The New York Times

“But it’s just as good,” the clerk says.

Nearby, dozens of other vendors are selling counterfeit Nokia, Motorola and Samsung phones — as well as cheap look-alikes that make no bones about being knockoffs.

“Five years ago, there were no counterfeit phones,” says Xiong Ting, a sales manager at Triquint Semiconductor, a maker of mobile phone parts, while visiting Shenzhen. “You needed a design house. You needed software guys. You needed hardware design. But now, a company with five guys can do it. Within 100 miles of here, you can find all your suppliers.”

Technological advances have allowed hundreds of small Chinese companies, some with as few as 10 employees, to churn out what are known here as shanzhai, or black market, cellphones, often for as little as $20 apiece.

And just as Chinese companies are trying to move up the value chain of manufacturing, from producing toys and garments to making computers and electric cars, so too are counterfeiters. After years of making fake luxury bags and cheap DVDs, they are capturing market share from the world’s biggest mobile phone makers.

Although shanzhai phones have only been around a few years, they already account for more than 20 percent of sales in China, which is the world’s biggest mobile phone market, according to the research firm Gartner.

They are also being illegally exported to Russia, India, the Middle East, Europe, even the United States. “The shanzhai phone market is expanding crazily,” says Wang Jiping, a senior analyst at IDC, which tracks technology trends. “They copy Apple, Nokia, whatever they like, and they respond to the market swiftly.”

Alarmed by the rapid growth of counterfeits and no-name knockoffs, global brands are pressing the Chinese government to crack down on their proliferation, and are warning consumers about potential health hazards, like cheap batteries that can explode.

Nokia, the world’s biggest cellphone maker, says it is working with Beijing to fight counterfeiting. Motorola says much the same. Apple Inc. declined to comment.

Even Chinese mobile phone producers are losing market share to underground companies, which have a built-in cost advantage because they evade taxes, regulatory fees and safety checks.

“We’re being severely hurt by shanzhai phones,” says Chen Zhao, a sales director at Konka, a Chinese cellphone maker. “Legal cellphone makers should pay 17 percent of their revenue as value-added tax, but shanzhai makers, of course, won’t pay it.”

So far, however, China has done little to stop the proliferation of fake mobile phones, which are even advertised on late-night television infomercials with pitches like “one-fifth the price, but the same function and look,” or patriotic appeals like “Buy shanzhai to show your love of our country.”

Last month, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology did warn consumers about the hazards of shanzhai phones, saying “their radiation usually exceeds the limit.” China’s consumer protection agency says faulty mobile phones were the No. 1 consumer complaint last year.

A few weeks ago, a 45-year-old man in south China was severely burned after his cellphone exploded in his shirt pocket, according to state-run news media.

But that hasn’t seemed to affect sales of black market phones, which typically sell at retail for $100 to $150. In the spirit of what is called “shanzhai” — which suggests rebels or bandits and which applies to counterfeit products of all kinds — many consumers are willing to take a risk on a cheap item that looks stylish.

“I saw iPhone pictures on the Web; it’s so cool. But it costs over $500 — too expensive,” says Yang Guibin, 30, an office worker from Chongqing. “So I decided to buy a shanzhai iPhone. I bought it in a digital market here; it looked exactly like the iPhone.”

Some experts say they believe the shanzhai phenomena is about being creative, Chinese style.

“Chinese grass-roots companies are actually very innovative,” says Yu Zhou, a professor at Vassar College. “It’s not so much technology as how they form supply chains and how rapidly they react to new trends.”

While the phones may look like famous brands, companies actually add special features like bigger screens, dual-mode SIM cards (which allow two phone numbers) and even a telescopic lens attachment for the phone’s camera.

Since it is the SIM card that makes a phone run in China, as in most places other than the United States, all you have to do is insert a valid SIM card into a shanzhai phone and it works.

All this innovation comes from an industry that only took off in 2005, after Mediatek, a semiconductor design company from Taiwan, helped significantly reduce the cost and complexity of producing a mobile phone.

Using what experts call a turnkey solution, Mediatek developed a circuit board that could inexpensively integrate the functions of multiple chips, offering start-ups a platform to produce a low-cost mobile phone.

The industry got another boost in 2007, when regulators said companies no longer needed a license to manufacture a cellphone.

That set off a scramble by entrepreneurs in this electronics manufacturing center. Counterfeiting and off-brand knockoffs flourished. Tiny companies would buy a Mediatek chip loaded with software, source other components and ask a factory to assemble them.

Marketing strategies were simple: steal. Designs and brand names were copied identically or simply mimicked. (Sumsung for Samsung or Nckia for Nokia.)

Tapping into the supply chains of big brands is easy, producers say. “It’s really common for factories to do a night shift for other companies,” says Zhang Haizhen, who recently ran a shanzhai company here. “No one will refuse an order if it is over 5,000 mobile phones.”

The people who make fake iPhones admit it’s a shady business.

“We are a kind of illegal producer,” says Zhang Feiyang, whose company, Yuanyang, makes an iPhone clone. “In Shenzhen there are many small mills, hidden. Basically, we can make any type of cellphone.”

The competition is already forcing global brands to lower prices, analysts say. And new Chinese brands are emerging, like Meizu, a would-be Apple that has opened stylish stores here.

“Our phone is even better than the iPhone,” says Liu Zeyu, a Meizu salesman in Shenzhen. “Our goal is to create a phone that makes Chinese proud.”

Fuente: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/28/technology/28cell.html?_r=1&ref=technology

Video game sales hit the wall in March

New March sales data from NPD Group reveals that video game sales are finally being hit (and hit hard) by the recession. Despite a strong showing through February, March sales across the board dropped by 15 percent to 18 percent year over year from 2008 to 2009.

As reported on Gamespot.com:

Although unnerving on their own, NPD's March numbers also signaled a more alarming trend. When taken into account, the month's numbers caused 2009's first-quarter game sales to go from solid growth to a near flat line. For the January-March period, the U.S. game industry generated $4.25 billion, barely up from the $4.24 billion that it generated during the same period in 2008.

So, is it time to panic? Probably not. There has been a dearth of new hit titles and the Nintendo Wii and Nintendo DS (arguably both less expensive in terms of console and games) are the dominant platforms. Analysts have also suggested that with such a meteoric rise over the last year, the market was due for correction.

US VIDEO GAMES INDUSTRY - MARCH 2009
Software: $792.83M (-17 percent)
Hardware: $455.55M (-18 percent)
Accessories: $185.67M (-15 percent)
Total Games: $1.43B (-17 percent)

Fuente: http://news.cnet.com/8301-13846_3-10222874-62.html?tag=newsLatestHeadlinesArea.0

Time Warner’s Unlimited Download Plan: $150 a Month

Time Warner Cable has modestly softened its plan to test usage limits for its broadband data customers. Landel Hobbs, the company’s chief operating officer, has just published a post with the new price tiers for a test of the plan it will conduct in four cities.

The company increased the capacity of the plans it had tested earlier in Texas. They had ranged from 5 to 40 gigabytes of uploading and downloading a month. Now those plans run from 10 to 60 gigabytes a month at prices that range between about $25 and $65 a month, depending on the area.

The company introduced a new plan with 100 gigabytes, for $75. Any more than that costs $1 a gigabyte. But there is a $75 cap on the extra fee, meaning unlimited use is capped at $150 a month.

By comparison, Comcast’s basic broadband offering costs $43 a month and has a cap of 250 gigabytes. Verizon’s cheapest broadband package with its FiOS service costs $45 a month and has no download limit.

In the wake of no small amount of protest, Time Warner made a few other changes that are meant to accommodate consumers. It won’t impose any overuse charge for two billing cycles, so customers can adjust their plans or their Internet use. It is also introducing a new $15-a-month plan, suitable for light e-mailers, with a top speed of 768 kilobits per second and a 1 gigabyte monthly cap.

Perhaps the most interesting tidbit in the announcement is the price that Time Warner set for its coming super-high-speed service, which uses technology known as Docsis 3. It will offer service with 50-megabit-per-second download speeds and 5 Mbps upload speeds for $99 per month. That is cheaper than Comcast, which charges $139 a month for the same speeds where it offers them. The post did not specify the download limit, if any, for that plan.

It is not clear that this is going to mollify critics of Time Warner’s plans. In his post, Mr. Hobbs justified the change this way:

Here at Time Warner Cable, consumption among our high-speed Internet subscribers is increasing by about 40% a year. As a facilities-based provider, we’ve built a network that must be maintained and upgraded. We have increasing variable costs and we have to continue to invest in the network itself.

This view of costs is not shared by many experts in Internet technology. Dave Burstein, the editor of DSL Prime, wrote in an e-mail message Thursday afternoon that the cost of running broadband networks is falling quite rapidly.

Fuente: http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/04/09/time-warners-unlimited-bandwidth-plan-150-a-month/

THQ declares $220 million in spending cuts

The day after its latest layoffs, the publisher declares success in company-wide belt-tightening plan for its new fiscal year.

Yesterday, THQ began its fiscal year 2010. Today, the publisher tod ay said plans to steady a lilting ship for the coming year have be en successfu l, as the company has completed plans to cut projected spending for the year by $220 million.

THQ is counting on games like Darksiders to help turn things around this year.

Trimming expenditures by that much takes a lot more than creative accounting, as nearly a quarter of THQ's global workforce found out. Last November, the publisher shut down five of its internal studios and laid off employees at two more. The cuts continued last month with layoffs at Volition, followed by news that subsidiaries Heavy Iron and Incinerator Studios would be spun off into their own companies.

The publisher also said another of its internal developers, Big Huge Games, will be shuttered if a buyer can't be found in the near term. While the lights remain on at Big Huge, THQ confirmed that there were layoffs at the studio earlier this week. In addition to the personnel moves, THQ said it would change its focus to quality over quantity, and halved the number of games it would market to the traditional hardcore market each year.

"We have executed on our previously announced business realignment actions," THQ president and CEO Brian Farrell said in a statement. "Our goal is to return to profitability and generate positive cash flow in fiscal 2010, and to position THQ for long-term sustainable and profitable growth."

For this year, THQ's big bets include Red Faction: Guerrilla, Ultimate Fighting Championship, and Darksiders: Wrath of War. Looking beyond fiscal 2010, the publisher's plan includes continued emphasis on its owned intellectual properties, including more games in the Red Faction, Saints Row, and Darksiders franchises.

Fuente: http://www.gamespot.com/news/6207294.html?om_act=convert&om_clk=newstop&tag=newstop;story;13

Google Plans to Lay Off 200 Workers

By Miguel Helft

Erin Siegal/Reuters Google headquarters in Mountain View, Calif.

Google said Thursday that it would cut about 200 employees from its sales and marketing organization, the third and most significant round of layoffs at the company this year.

Google, which announced the layoffs in a blog post, said that the cuts would reduce overlap between different groups and speed up decision making.

Omid Kordestani, Google’s senior vice president for global sales and business development, said the cuts were meant to address mistakes the company had made during its phase of rapid growth. “In some areas we’ve created overlapping organizations which not only duplicate effort but also complicate the decision-making process,” Mr. Kordestani wrote on Google’s corporate blog. “That makes our teams less effective and efficient than they should be. In addition, we over-invested in some areas in preparation for the growth trends we were experiencing at the time.”

The cuts suggest that the deepening global recession is affecting some parts of Google’s business more severely than the company anticipated just two months ago. In January, after Google laid off 100 recruiters, Eric Schmidt, the company’s chief executive, said that deeper cut were unlikely. In February, the company cut another 40 positions when it closed its radio advertising efforts.

About 100 of the eliminated positions will be in the United States and the rest overseas, said Matt Furman, a Google spokesman. Mr. Furman said the company continued to hire new workers, albeit at a slow rate. In the fourth quarter of 2008, the company grew by 99 workers, ending the year with 20,222 full-time employees. In previous years, Google had added more than 2,000 people in a single quarter.

Laid-off workers will be given time to apply for other jobs within the company.

The layoffs this year are neither the first nor the largest in Google’s history. Last April, Google cut about 300 positions over the American operations of DoubleClick, which it acquired earlier in 2008.

fuente: http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/03/26/google-plans-to-lay-off-200-workers/

Palm Posts a Loss for a 7th Quarter

Palm reported a wider third-quarter loss that fell short of analysts’ estimates.

The net loss expanded to $95 million, or 89 cents a share, from $54.7 million, or 53 cents, a year earlier, Palm said in a statement on Thursday. Excluding costs for stock-based compensation and other items, the loss of 86 cents a share missed the average 57-cent estimate of analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.

Sales in the period ended Feb. 28 fell 71 percent, to $90.6 million, from $312 million.

Palm is preparing to release its new Pre smartphone in June and hopes the model will revive plummeting sales by winning over fans of the Apple iPhone and BlackBerry, made by Research in Motion.

Palm has reported losses in the last seven quarters. The company, which introduced the pioneering Pilot device more than a decade ago, said on March 3 that sales declined because of dwindling orders for its older models. fuente: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/20/technology/companies/20palm.html?_r=1&ref=technology

SpiralFrog owes $34 million. Investors get nothing?

by Greg Sandoval

Attorneys representing defunct music service SpiralFrog have notified investors not to expect any returns. Whatever money comes from liquidating assets will go to a group that loaned the company an "amount exceeding $34 million."

In a letter dated March 17, 2009, the law firm Rattet, Pasternak & Gordon-Oliver delivered that message to an undisclosed number of SpiralFrog investors. A copy of the letter, seen by CNET News, says that the group that loaned the money was issued senior secured notes, which gives members of the group priority in any funds generated from the sale of assets.

"In that SpiralFrog's creditors will not be paid in full, there will be no distribution to shareholders," the law firm wrote.

The sum of money only includes the loans the company took to continue funding operations and doesn't include the amount that investors put in. Just where all this money went could shed light on some of the travails faced by ad-supported music services. A source close to the company told CNET on Friday that customers will see their music become inaccessible in two months.

New York-based SpiralFrog ceased operations in recent days and is one of the best-known digital music service to fail. The ad-supported service was wracked with problems even before launching in September 2007.


fuente: http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10201735-93.html?tag=newsEditorsPicksArea.0

Did Apple OK price cut on latest MacBook Air?

No, this isn't a price cut reflected on the Apple Web site. And it's not much. But if you're in the market for a high-end MacBook, every dollar counts. Besides, Apple will probably match the lower price.

At major resellers like Newegg, PC Connection (i.e., Mac Connection), and Buy.com the latest version of the high-end MacBook Air (1.86GHz, 128GB solid-state drive) is now selling for--hold your breath--$2,399 instead of the listed $2,499 on the Apple Web site. Not much. What is best described as a price snip rather than a price cut.

Listing for Apple MacBook Air (1.86GHz, 128GB SSD) on newegg.com(Credit: newegg.com)
But my question is, did Apple green-light this? Or is this simply resellers adjusting their pricing to market realities. (I would imagine that luxury laptops like the MacBook Air are not jumping off the shelves at resellers these days, considering the state of the economy.)
Whether Apple green-lighted it or not may be immaterial, however, because (some? most? all?) Apple stores have a policy that stipulates: if you find an Apple computer priced lower at a major reseller (like Mac Connection), they will price-match it up to 10 percent of the listed Apple price. (This is the policy at the Apple Store that I frequent.)
Maybe there's a trend here. Maybe Apple will even make an official price move. Makes sense, right? The economy is in a tailspin and consumers have less disposable income, so Apple caves and officially cuts prices before the scheduled introduction of new MBA models. But then again, this is Apple. It doesn't have to stoop to unscheduled price cuts--so much for that fond hope.

FUENTE: http://news.cnet.com/8301-13924_3-10191203-64.html

Yahoo's Microsoft tab totaled $79 million

Yahoo's tab in its efforts to fight off Microsoft last year ran $79 million, according to the company's filing Friday with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Yahoo spent much of that bill on outside advisers who helped it weigh Microsoft's proposals, which ranged from a total buyout bid for $33 a share to an eventual offer to acquire only Yahoo's search business. Yahoo rejected all of Microsoft's proposals.

Part of the $79 million bill was also attributed to hiring outside advisers for fighting off a proxy contest by activist shareholder Carl Icahn, who eventually settled with the company and received three seats on Yahoo's board.

A portion of the bill also went to Yahoo's outside advisers considering its controversial search agreement with Google, which ultimately ended with the companies walking away from the deal when federal antitrust regulators said it would challenge the deal.

For Yahoo, however, the true cost was much greater than just $79 million.

In the process, Yahoo founder and CEO Jerry Yang stepped down after enduring the brunt of shareholder anger and has since resumed his role as chief Yahoo. Sue Decker, who was Yahoo's president during the tumultuous year, lost out her bid to become the next CEO when Yahoo's board named former Autodesk chief Carol Bartz to oversee the troubled Internet company. And Yahoo saw an exodus of executives in June 2008.

FUENTE: http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10184454-93.html?tag=newsEditorsPicksArea.0

Online layoff tracker captures economy's carnage

SAN FRANCISCO - In a sour economy like this, entrepreneurs inevitably dream up new ways to turn lemons into lemonade.

At least that's the motive behind a free software program called Layoff Tracker.

Layoff Tracker can be planted on a Web site or a computer desktop to provide a running tally of the pink slips being handed out by major employers around the country. The tracker complies the numbers from news reports and company announcements.

After two weeks of testing, the application — packaged in a capsule format known as a "widget" — was being formally released Monday.

The program is designed to make it easier to monitor the massive payroll purge that has been worsening the 14-month-old recession. And it should trigger more online conversations that help the unemployed get back on their feet, said Bari Abdul, the Layoff Tracker's mastermind.

In the process, Abdul also hopes to generate more traffic and commentary on Telonu.com, a Web site that he launched two months ago to "rave, rant and rate" about employers.

"We live in a world where you can read 15 reviews before you go spend $50 in a restaurant, so it seems like you should also be able to read about places where you might go to work 40 hours each week," he said.

A Web site called Glassdoor.com also provides insights about employers, although it focuses primarily on data about wages and opinions about chief executives.

Abdul reasons that the way layoffs are handled can say a lot about an employer, so Abdul is hoping Teluno's new program encourages more people to write about their firings on the Web site.

"It's a reflection of the times," said Abdul, who has had to dump workers in previous management at McAfee Inc. and Procter & Gamble Inc. "There is a huge healing process that goes on when people realize that all these layoffs aren't really about them, but more about what went wrong at business."

FUENTE: http://tech.yahoo.com/news/ap/20090223/ap_on_hi_te/tec_techbit_layoff_tracker

Mobile banking: Safe, at least for now

Someone asked me recently whether I thought mobile banking was safe or not. I admitted that I don't do it but that doesn't really say much. Then I mumbled something incoherent and vowed to get a real answer.

After talking to a number of mobile and security experts, I've come to the conclusion that far from being less secure, mobile banking may even be more secure than logging on to your bank Web site over your PC. And the consensus is that it's probably less risky than using checks, which can be forged, and credit cards, which can be stolen or skimmed at ATM machines for clones to be made.

As Bruce Schneier, chief security technology officer at BT, summed it up: "Yes, there are going to be security issues and they will have to shake out. The question is, if something happens will the bank make it up to you?"

Apparently it will. The rules regarding liability in mobile banking are the same as they are for other methods of banking, said Jim Van Dyke, president of Javelin Strategy & Research.

"Credit card companies have zero liability policies that apply regardless of channel," he said. For instance, "Wells Fargo has a written guarantee that they will cover all your losses if it is through mobile banking."

That's good news for the brave few who have ventured into the market. Of all U.S. Internet users, 6 percent have done mobile banking in the last week, and 12 percent have done it in the last month, according to Javelin figures.

An estimated 30 million consumers in the U.S. do mobile banking, and half of all consumers think it's not secure, the research firm said in a mobile banking security standards report in December.

Despite the fact that online banking options abound in the U.S.--from AT&T, Nokia, Sprint Nextel, Visa, and the major banks--consumers have been reluctant. That could be for several reasons, my colleague Marguerite Reardon has concluded: they don't like downloading apps to their phones as is required by some banks, they are turned off by the small screen, and they can do it on their PCs more easily.

"We're not hearing of security issues in the mobile world," because the security benefits with mobile banking outweigh the disadvantages, Van Dyke said.

First, the con to mobile banking security:

Mobile devices are easy to lose: "It's more or less as safe as banking you would do from your home computer, maybe slightly more risky, similar to using a laptop at Starbucks," said Charlie Miller, a principal analyst at consultancy Independent Security Evaluators. "The biggest difference is you are carrying the thing around with you and are more likely to lose physical custody of it than a computer."

Even so, the convenience outweighs the risk, he said. "It is no riskier than calling someone using your debit card or buying on Amazon with a debit card."

Now for the pros:

Mobile banking can be done anywhere at any time: Because people can do mobile banking at any time, they are more likely to log on more frequently and thus the chances of them detecting fraud are increased, said Van Dyke.

Mobile has a diversity of platforms: In the mobile world in the U.S., there is no one dominant mobile platform that can be targeted by malicious hackers like there is with Windows in the PC market. The lack of standardization also reduces the chances that malware will be interoperable with a broad range of mobile software and get widely distributed, Van Dyke said.

No banking-related mobile viruses or malware yet: "In the mobile era, we're not seeing any such Trojans," said Roel Schouwenberg, a senior antivirus researcher for security firm Kaspersky, which has partnered with Barclays in the U.K. to offer security software to mobile customers.

Mobile banking functions are limited at this time: In general, U.S. consumers can check their account balances, transfer funds between their accounts, and see recent transactions over their mobile devices.

"You're getting information that is not transactional," said Nick Holland, a senior analyst at consultancy Aite Group. "In most instances, if someone found your phone and logged into your mobile banking account, the worst they could do is pay your electricity bill."

However, things will change as more transaction functions are enabled on mobile devices, the experts said. For instance, point-to-point transactions and cross-border money transfers are on the horizon, according to Holland.

"There will be more risk as payments move over to mobile devices because criminals will put more focus there and you will get spoofing attempts," said Van Dyke.

The ability to use your cell phone to buy things will undoubtedly put a dent in the credit card business, but it will also give mobile carriers additional revenue to make up for voice business they are losing to things like Skype and text messaging, said Jan Volzke, head of global marketing for McAfee Mobile.

"There is no reason people have to pull out a plastic card with a magnetic strip, technology developed 30 years ago, to buy a latte," he said. "Just hold the phone next to a cashier, it goes beep and there you go."

Other countries are already offering mobile transactions. For example, NTT Docomo in Japan, which uses McAfee security software to monitor for malicious activity on its mobile phones, initially started allowing consumers to use their phones to pay for public transport, and then added payments for things like ice cream and eventually banking, according to Volzke.

In the U.S., banks are more cautious. Payments and banking are the biggest security concern for mobile device manufacturers, according to a Mobile Security Report McAfee is set to release on Monday.

At the same time, the manufacturers aren't installing additional security protection on the vast majority of the devices and won't allow consumers to install security software like they can with computers, said Volzke.

To safeguard against security risks, mobile users should use their device PIN codes, download mobile apps only from their financial institution, switch Bluetooth off when not in use, and avoid lending their phone to strangers to minimize the chance of someone downloading a malicious app onto the device.

All in all, "mobile banking is secure and there's not really any cause for concern," said Holland of Aite Group.

FUENTE: http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-10164244-83.html?tag=newsLeadStoriesArea.1

Cisco’s Boss Sees Recovery Despite Poor Sales Outlook

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. — Cisco Systems faces a precipitous decline in sales of its networking equipment, but John T. Chambers, the chief executive, is issuing one of the more optimistic forecasts from Silicon Valley — that the United States economy will recover this year.

According to Mr. Chambers, most of Cisco’s customers expect the economic downturn to linger well into 2010, while a smaller number expect the downturn to ease late this year.

In an interview after announcing the company’s second-quarter results Wednesday, Mr. Chambers said be believed things might get worse before they get better, but agreed with customers who foresaw better times sometime this year.

“The reason I am more optimistic than others is because you have $1.6 trillion coming in from governments around the world, with the U.S. accounting for about half of that,” Mr. Chambers said.

Like many major high-tech companies, Cisco, the largest maker of networking equipment, faces declining corporate spending. Growth in orders fell 9 percent in November, 11 percent in December and 20 percent in January. These declines prompted Cisco, based in San Jose, Calif., to forecast Wednesday that revenue for the current quarter will plummet as much as 20 percent compared with the $9.8 billion reported in the same period last year.

Cisco’s bleak assessment of corporate spending on technology could prove especially worrisome for investors. The company’s second quarter closed on Jan. 24, giving Wall Street the most up-to-date glimpse into customers’ spending patterns of any major technology company.

In addition, only 20 percent of Cisco’s sales come from regularly repeating deals, so Cisco must fight for 80 percent of its sales every quarter. This gives it better insight into current fluctuations in customer demand than many companies have.

Mr. Chambers’s optimism stems from the large amounts of government spending both here and abroad on infrastructure projects, including things like better broadband technology, health care and education, that should drive equipment sales. Mr. Chambers credited governments in the United States and abroad with relatively efficient action in enacting new infrastructure programs.

“The central banks around the world are working very aggressively to get that money into the marketplace,” he said.

During the conference call, Mr. Chambers, who says he is a Republican, also complimented the new president. “President Obama is off to a great start,” said Mr. Chambers. “I think his economic team is world class.”

Cisco plans to increase its investment in sales programs aimed at customers in America, China and India, viewing those countries as the first to increase their spending. It will then mount a second sales effort in Mexico, Brazil, Saudi Arabia and Russia, expecting business in those regions to pick up next.

Despite such optimism, Cisco must deal with some harsh immediate realities.

The company’s second-quarter net income tumbled 27 percent to $1.5 billion, or 32 cents a share, which compares with net income of $2.1 billion, or 38 cents a share, reported in the same period last year. Cisco beat the consensus forecast from analysts polled by Thomson Reuters of 30 cents. Revenue in the second quarter fell to $9.1 billion, or a drop of 7.5 percent from the $9.8 billion recorded a year earlier.

Seeking to save about $1 billion in costs this year, Cisco is considering laying off 1,500 to 2,000 of its 67,300 workers. Mr. Chambers hesitated to characterize this as a “broad-scale layoff,” which he defined as cutting at least 10 percent of a company’s work force. However, he added, larger layoffs remained a possibility if conditions worsened.

During the second quarter, Cisco amassed $3.2 billion in cash — one of the highest amounts in company history — leaving it with $29.5 billion. The majority of that cash remains overseas. Cisco could use its cash hoard to continue acquiring companies, placing an immediate emphasis on bolstering its consumer electronics business.

Yang's Era at Yahoo Ends With a Loss

Analysts asked the question time and again after Ms. Bartz delivered Yahoo's financial results to Wall Street for the fisrt time since becoming chief executive earlier this month.

Time and again, Ms. Bartz said she had not yet made up her mind. If anything, Ms. Bartz suggested that breaking off the search business would not be easy and that any decision would not come soon.

Ms. Bartz

"It is my job to make sure that as a company we look at anthing that makes sense long term for the company and creates shareholder value," Ms. Bartz said in a conference call with analyst on Tuesday. "So yes, everything is on the table."

But she added: "This is not a company that needs to be pulled apart and left for the chickens."

While Ms. Bartz delivered Yahoo's mixed financial results, the fourth quarter was the end of Jerry Yang's turbulent 18-month tenure as chief executive.

Yahoo swung to a loss durinf the quarter, as sales declined slightly because of weakness in the online display ad business. The company also recorded number of one-time charges. But cost-cutting efforts, including sizable layoffs, helped Yahoo had made three months earlier.

"Delvering on profitability expectations is a real achievement is in the environment," Ms Bartz said.

Yahoo reported a net loss of $303 million, or 22 cents a share, compared with a profit of $206 million, or 15 cents a share, a year ago. Yahoo said it incurred $108 million in charges related to severance of employees and $488 million in write-downs of some of its European assets.

After adjusting for those and other charges, Yahoo said it had a profit of $238 million, or 17 cents a share, up from 13 cnents a share a year ago, and above the 12 cents a share expected by analysts.

Yahoo said that its revenue of $1.8 billion was down about 1 percent from $1.83 billion a year ago. Net revenue, which excluedes comissions Yahoo pas to advertising partners, was $1.37 billion, down from $1.4 billion a year ago, and in line with analysts' estimates.

Some investors were bracing for worse, and Yahoo's shares rose about 5 percent in after-hours trading, after the company's report, to $11.93. Yahoo shares closed the regular trading session at $11.34, up to 17 cents.

"They didn't bleed as much as the very bearish side feared," said Martin Pyykkonen, an analyst with Wunderlich Securities. "I don't think this is a quick fix and the economy is going to add headwinds to that."

Yahoo's results reflected the continued shift by marketers toward forms of advertising that deliver inmediate and measurable results. Search advertising, which marketers use to attract costumers to their sites, grew about 11 percent, while display advertising declined about 2 percent.

Those results suggest that other online publishers that rely heavily on displays ads, including AOL, are likely to suffer as well.

Last week, Google reported that its net revenue jumped 25 percent in the fourth quarter.

fuente: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/28/technology/companies/28yahoo.html?_r=1&em

Microsoft steps up browser battle

Microsoft has stepped up the battle to win back users with the latest release of its Internet Explorer browser.

The US software giant says IE 8 is faster. easier to use and more secure than its competitors.

"We have made IE 8 the best browser for the way people really do use the web", said Microsoft's Amy Barzdukas.

"Microsoft needs to say these things because it continues to lose market share to Firefox, Chrome and Safari," said Gartner analyst Neil MacDonald.

Recent figures have shown that Microsoft's dominance in this space has been chipped away by competitors.

At the end of last year, data from Net Applications showed the software giant's market share dropped below 70% for the first time in eight years to 68%.

Meanwhile Mozilla broke the 20% barrier for the first time in its history with 21% of users using its browser Firefox.

fuente: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7852340.stm

With earnings call, Apple heads back to business

January 20th, 2009

By Tom Krazit

The sales performance of Apple's new MacBooks, such as this MacBook Air, will be one of the key factora in Apple's fist-quarter results.

(Credit: James Martin/CNET News)

After a week spent worrying about the health of CEO Steve Jobs, Apple will look forward to getting back to business Wednesday when it reports its fisical first-quarter earnings.

The last three months were not kind to computer and consumer electronics companies, but Apple is expected to have weathered the storm better than others. Analysts are predicting the company will report revenue and earnings per share at the high end of the guidance it provided in October, with expectations of $9.76 billion in revenue and earnings per share of $1.38.

The three-month period between October and December is usually one of Apple's best quarters of the calendar year, but this was anything but a typical holiday season. Overall retail sales fell 2.7 percent in December as compared with November, as the full emotional impact of the late-2008 stock market swoon took hold.

We got a bit of an earnings preview last week, when IDC and Gartner reported their PC market share estimates for the fourth calendar quarter. Apple's Mac shipment growth slowed from the strong pace it set throughout 2008, but the company is still growing faster than the market itself. Measured against a U.S. PC market that fell 3.5 percent compared with last ear, Apple's shipments grew 7.5 percent. That suggests that Apple is still enjoying momentum in its Mac division, which no doubt got a boost from the inroduction of new notebooks in October.

Still, the economic climate is having some sort of impact on the Mac, which is almost exactly what analysts felt would happen ging into this quarter. Most analysts seem to be expecting Apple to have sold around 2.6 million Macs during the quarter, representing decent year-over-year growth at around 13 percent but slower than Apple had been reporting over the last several quarters.

fuente: http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-10145449-37.html?tag=newsEditorsPicksArea.0