News and analysis to 30th
July 2008
IBM – New tricks
There’s
still life in the old dog yet. In its early days IBM was a hell raiser with its
aggressive approach to dominating the market, primarily through shifting
mainframe computers. Since then it has reinvented itself as a more refined
services player and to some extent should be in the ‘cuddly uncle’ phase of its
evolution. But oh no. Big Blue is on the rampage
again. Its recent acquisition of Platform Solutions appears to be a direct
attempt to extend its dominance of the mainframe market. This has been picked
up by the Computer and Communications Industry Association (CCIA) who have
expressed concern over this move. Possibly IBM’s exit from the PC market place was
to make way for selling mainframes into the home?!
Good news – 1
Apple
has reported a 31% increase in net income to $1.07bn for the third quarter
2008, on revenue up 38% to $7.46bn. The growth was primarily attributed to
strong Mac PC and iPhone sales. Revenues grew
strongly across all regions. Given the high mark up Apple puts on its products,
this result runs counter to the broader ‘recessionary trend’.
Good news – 2
India-based
IT services company Infosys Technologies has reported
a 16% increase in net income to $306m for its first quarter, on revenue up 24%
at $1.16bn. Its CEO S Gopalakrishnan stated:
"Although the global economic environment continues to remain uncertain
and could impact IT spending in the short term, we see several opportunities
for growth as customers relentlessly focus on improving efficiency." In
many respects this is good news in that organisations are now making the link
between IT and business efficiency. However I believe that the smarter
organisations are those that continue to invest in IT with competitive advantage
in mind, regardless of economic climate
Search war continues
Microsoft
has voiced concern to the US Senate anti-trust committee over the Google-Yahoo search advertising deal. In a perfect world
for the software giant, Yahoo would now be entering Microsoft’s event horizon.
Unfortunately the worst case scenario has unfolded and Yahoo has run into the
arms of Google via a strategic advertising deal.
Microsoft is doing all it can to reverse this including using Yahoo’s activist
investor Carl Icahn to ‘influence’ the management
team. This saga has some way to run yet. The future of (online) advertising
will be shaped by the outcome.
Google - Copywrong
Google inherited more than just a server or two full of
videos when it acquired YouTube. In amongst the paperwork
was some strong legal assertions from media
conglomerate Viacom seeking at least $1bn of damages for posting its video
content and thus making it freely available to YouTube
users. In a recent ruling, Google has to hand over
data relating to the viewing habits of YouTube
visitors. More recently it was agreed that user details would be kept
anonymous. Google employees are exempt from this so
that Viacom can prove they were aware of illegal uploading.
Cuil web site?
A
bunch of Google engineers have broken away to develop
an alternative Google. It goes by the name of Cuil (pronounced ‘cool’ and is Gaelic for knowledge). The
concept is impressive in that the ranking criteria is
based on context rather than just popularity. So in essence Cuil
actually reads each page to determine its relevance. I decided to give it a
test drive by searching on my name. I was initially disappointed to discover
there were no associated entries (possibly I am just not relevant?). My second
approach threw up over 40,000 hits which I felt was a little too generous.
However my main concern was that the first entry had me as a contributor to CEO
magazine (true) with a picture of what looks like a very polished and
intelligent CEO (not true). They may need to revisit the algorithm before they
lock horns with their former employer.
