In a move to challenge Microsoft on the desktop, IBM has teamed up with Austrian and Polish system integrators to supply the emerging Eastern European and Russian business PC markets with "Microsoft-free" systems based on Red Hat Linux and open standards-based productivity software.
Under the deal, announced this week, IBM will work with Vienna-based VDEL and LX Polska, based in Poland, to sell systems based on what the companies call "Open Referent". The systems will be based on Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop, Lotus Notes, Lotus Sametime and Lotus Symphony.
IBM sold off its own PC arm to Lenovo in 2005, and the company insisted it isn't getting back into the PC business.
Nevertheless, Open Referent taps into a growing demand for low-cost desktop systems that aren't tied to Microsoft standards, and poses a direct challenge to Microsoft.
IBM said it is responding to demand from large businesses and government agencies in Eastern Europe and Russia, including Aeroflot, the Russian Ministry of Defence and the RusHotel hotel chain, and said Open Referent could cut their costs in half.
IBM emphasized that government agencies in particular are interested in open standards, with many governments beginning to require formats such as ODF or PDF for official documents.
"This is important because it's a secure and cost-effective Microsoft desktop alternative," said Kevin Cavanaugh, IBM vice president for Lotus Software, in a statement.
Lotus Notes will be provided for groupware, with Lotus Sametime for unified communications. Lotus Symphony is based on OpenOffice.org and uses the ISO-approved ODF family of open document formats.
The integrators are likely to use white-box PCs, with manufacturers varying from country to country, according to IBM.
Large organizations in the U.K. have been slow to adopt open source on the desktop, even more so than other Western European countries, according to open formats advocacy group OpenForum Europe. Its chief technology officer, Mike Banahan, once remarked that the U.K. is a "third world country" compared with the rest of Europe where it comes to public- and private-sector interest in open source.
OpenForum's research found that open source is blocked by many factors, including the fact that companies are often highly uncomfortable with the available technical support options.
Q Associates, a U.K. IBM reseller, told Techworld it does significant business in Linux servers but has seen minimal interest in open source desktops.
Desktop Linux integration isn't necessarily a straightforward process for a large organization, despite any cost benefits. The City of Munich, for instance, has spent several years tweaking a 14,000-desktop installation of Linux on the desktop. The effort has involved developing new software such as the GOsa network administration tool to assist in the management of the desktops.
Friday, March 7, 2008
Brothers sentenced for software piracy
Two brothers were sentenced Friday to multiyear prison terms for selling what the U.S. Department of Justice called "massive" amounts of pirated software online, the DOJ announced.
Maurice A. Robberson, 48, was sentenced to three years in prison and ordered to pay US$855,917 restitution, while his brother Thomas K. Robberson, 55, was sentenced to 30 months in prison and ordered to pay $151,488 restitution, in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia.
On Nov. 7, Maurice Robberson pled guilty to conspiracy and felony copyright infringement, while Thomas Robberson pled guilty to a single count of felony copyright infringement.
Thomas Robberson made more than $150,000 selling software with a retail value of nearly $1 million through Bestvalueshoppe.com and TheDealDepot.net, the DOJ said. Maurice Robberson grossed more than $855,000 selling software with a retail value of nearly $5.6 million through CDsalesUSA.com and AmericanSoftwareSales.com. Both men have agreed to forfeit all their proceeds from the businesses, the DOJ said.
"People who steal the intellectual property of others for their personal financial gain, while defrauding consumers who think they are buying legitimate products, will be punished for their crimes, as today's sentences prove," Assistant Attorney General Alice S. Fisher said in a statement.
Two other people who conspired with Maurice Robberson to commit copyright infringement have already been sentenced, the DOJ said. Danny Ferrer, 39, was sentenced to 72 months in prison Aug. 25, 2006, for selling more than $4 million in pirated software with a retail value of nearly $20 million on BuysUSA.com. Alton Lee Grooms, 56, who helped start some of the businesses and gained more than $150,000 in profit, was sentenced on Jan. 18, to one year and one day in prison, after he cooperated with the government's investigation.
From late 2002 to October 2005, the men sold counterfeit software from companies such as Adobe Systems, Autodesk and Macromedia at discount prices, the DOJ said. These counterfeit items were manufactured by their businesses and included labels that featured trademarks and service marks of the legitimate software companies.
After receiving complaints from software copyright holders about BuysUSA.com, an undercover U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation agent made a number of purchases of business and utility software. Law enforcement authorities found a network of sites selling pirated software, the DOJ said.
Maurice A. Robberson, 48, was sentenced to three years in prison and ordered to pay US$855,917 restitution, while his brother Thomas K. Robberson, 55, was sentenced to 30 months in prison and ordered to pay $151,488 restitution, in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia.
On Nov. 7, Maurice Robberson pled guilty to conspiracy and felony copyright infringement, while Thomas Robberson pled guilty to a single count of felony copyright infringement.
Thomas Robberson made more than $150,000 selling software with a retail value of nearly $1 million through Bestvalueshoppe.com and TheDealDepot.net, the DOJ said. Maurice Robberson grossed more than $855,000 selling software with a retail value of nearly $5.6 million through CDsalesUSA.com and AmericanSoftwareSales.com. Both men have agreed to forfeit all their proceeds from the businesses, the DOJ said.
"People who steal the intellectual property of others for their personal financial gain, while defrauding consumers who think they are buying legitimate products, will be punished for their crimes, as today's sentences prove," Assistant Attorney General Alice S. Fisher said in a statement.
Two other people who conspired with Maurice Robberson to commit copyright infringement have already been sentenced, the DOJ said. Danny Ferrer, 39, was sentenced to 72 months in prison Aug. 25, 2006, for selling more than $4 million in pirated software with a retail value of nearly $20 million on BuysUSA.com. Alton Lee Grooms, 56, who helped start some of the businesses and gained more than $150,000 in profit, was sentenced on Jan. 18, to one year and one day in prison, after he cooperated with the government's investigation.
From late 2002 to October 2005, the men sold counterfeit software from companies such as Adobe Systems, Autodesk and Macromedia at discount prices, the DOJ said. These counterfeit items were manufactured by their businesses and included labels that featured trademarks and service marks of the legitimate software companies.
After receiving complaints from software copyright holders about BuysUSA.com, an undercover U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation agent made a number of purchases of business and utility software. Law enforcement authorities found a network of sites selling pirated software, the DOJ said.
Cloudbooks may include Intel's Diamondville processor
Everex is refreshing its Cloudbook line of ultraportable, Linux-based notebooks with redesigned models that may eventually include low-power Intel Diamondville processors, bigger screens and more storage.
Plans to include the Intel processor are "very tentative" and for now the company will continue to use Via Technologies' low-power processors in Cloudbook laptops, said Paul Kim, director of marketing at Everex.
Cloudbooks are based on the reference design of Via's ultramobile Nanobook laptop. The reference design calls for Via's C7-M processor, which Cloudbook uses. Priced at US$399, the Cloudbook competes with inexpensive ultraportable computers like Asus' Eee PC. It was launched last month.
The new Cloudbook models may bump storage up to 120G bytes, quadrupling the storage available on the current Cloudbook model, Kim said. The refreshed Cloudbooks may also include 8.9-inch screens and improved touchpads under the keyboard, Kim said. The current Cloudbook model has a 7-inch screen and the mousepad is placed over the keyboard.
"In regards to the refresh, a touch-sensitive screen -- with higher screen resolution -- and moving the touchpad down underneath the space bar are the big items under consideration," Kim said. The company has said it is developing a Cloudbook with a touch-screen interface that it plans to make available worldwide by the end of the year, priced at $499.
Everex also said it plans to include solid-state flash drives when those prices fall.
Everex's parent company, First International Computer, showed a Diamondville-based ultraportable PC model that could operate at up to 1.6GHz, at Cebit in Hanover, Germany, this week. The CW060 includes a 7-inch screen, wireless and wired networking and up to 120G bytes of internal storage. Another ultraportable laptop model running on a Via processor included an 8.9-inch LCD (liquid crystal display) screen.
It is normal business strategy for companies to improve products and keep multiple suppliers in the mix, said Dean McCarron, principal at Mercury Research. The possible of Diamondville in Cloudbook computers could intensify the anticipated slugfest between Intel and Via, which is releasing a competing processor code-named Isaiah later this year. "It's going to get worse as time progresses," McCarron said.
Unlike Eee PC, Cloudbook hasn't yet proven itself, so adding Intel will help hedge against any chip-supply issues and give users a suite of products to choose from, McCarron said. "This is a situation where you need to have your bases covered." McCarron said.
The proposed designs are based on feedback and have yet to be finalized as they could lead to a slight increase in Cloudbook prices, Kim said. If a new product is offered it "would most likely be added upstream into the lineup rather than replace the existing unit," Kim said. The current generation CloudBook should continue, Kim said.
The company is working on software-side improvements as well.
"We're discussing with [Linux-based] gOS to better the power management features, wireless configuration and window sizing," Kim said.
Earlier this year Everex said it hopes to enlist the open-source community to help it create touch-screen applications for the product. It said it plans to sell about 2,000 touch-screen Cloudbooks to developers at the end of March for this purpose.
Plans to include the Intel processor are "very tentative" and for now the company will continue to use Via Technologies' low-power processors in Cloudbook laptops, said Paul Kim, director of marketing at Everex.
Cloudbooks are based on the reference design of Via's ultramobile Nanobook laptop. The reference design calls for Via's C7-M processor, which Cloudbook uses. Priced at US$399, the Cloudbook competes with inexpensive ultraportable computers like Asus' Eee PC. It was launched last month.
The new Cloudbook models may bump storage up to 120G bytes, quadrupling the storage available on the current Cloudbook model, Kim said. The refreshed Cloudbooks may also include 8.9-inch screens and improved touchpads under the keyboard, Kim said. The current Cloudbook model has a 7-inch screen and the mousepad is placed over the keyboard.
"In regards to the refresh, a touch-sensitive screen -- with higher screen resolution -- and moving the touchpad down underneath the space bar are the big items under consideration," Kim said. The company has said it is developing a Cloudbook with a touch-screen interface that it plans to make available worldwide by the end of the year, priced at $499.
Everex also said it plans to include solid-state flash drives when those prices fall.
Everex's parent company, First International Computer, showed a Diamondville-based ultraportable PC model that could operate at up to 1.6GHz, at Cebit in Hanover, Germany, this week. The CW060 includes a 7-inch screen, wireless and wired networking and up to 120G bytes of internal storage. Another ultraportable laptop model running on a Via processor included an 8.9-inch LCD (liquid crystal display) screen.
It is normal business strategy for companies to improve products and keep multiple suppliers in the mix, said Dean McCarron, principal at Mercury Research. The possible of Diamondville in Cloudbook computers could intensify the anticipated slugfest between Intel and Via, which is releasing a competing processor code-named Isaiah later this year. "It's going to get worse as time progresses," McCarron said.
Unlike Eee PC, Cloudbook hasn't yet proven itself, so adding Intel will help hedge against any chip-supply issues and give users a suite of products to choose from, McCarron said. "This is a situation where you need to have your bases covered." McCarron said.
The proposed designs are based on feedback and have yet to be finalized as they could lead to a slight increase in Cloudbook prices, Kim said. If a new product is offered it "would most likely be added upstream into the lineup rather than replace the existing unit," Kim said. The current generation CloudBook should continue, Kim said.
The company is working on software-side improvements as well.
"We're discussing with [Linux-based] gOS to better the power management features, wireless configuration and window sizing," Kim said.
Earlier this year Everex said it hopes to enlist the open-source community to help it create touch-screen applications for the product. It said it plans to sell about 2,000 touch-screen Cloudbooks to developers at the end of March for this purpose.
ICANN looks toward end of US agreement
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) is starting to look at how the organization might function after its current memorandum of understanding with the U.S. Department of Commerce expires in September 2009.
ICANN, the nonprofit group that manages the Internet domain name system, has suggested it should become independent of Commerce Department oversight when the current Joint Project Agreement (JPA) with the agency expires. The agency's memorandum of understanding with ICANN has been in place since 1998, but in recent years, representatives of some other countries have questioned why the U.S. government should have primary oversight of the organization.
ICANN has made significant improvements in accountability, transparency and other issues since the Commerce Department renewed the agreement in September 2006, said Paul Levins, ICANN's executive officer and vice president of corporate affairs. ICANN's goal after the Commerce Department agreement ends, he said, is to expand a global governance model that allows input from a broad range of Internet communities.
"What we're trying to do is ensure that the accountablities that the organization has now, the responsibilities to all the stakeholders, are locked in place forever," Levins said Friday. "We want to try to lock in the existing model over the long term."
Some people have suggested the JPA should remain in place to provide accountability. "The fact that ICANN is making progress toward meeting its responsibilities does not imply that the JPA is no longer needed," Thomas Lenard, president and senior fellow at conservative think tank iGrowthGlobal, wrote in comments about the agreement. "Indeed, it may demonstrate the value of the JPA. The JPA and the continuing tie to the Department of Commerce may account for ICANN's good performance."
Questions about ICANN's future have come up during a midterm review of the Commerce Department agreement. The public was invited to comment on the agreement and the Department of Commerce's National Telecommunications and Information Administration hosted a public hearing on the agreement in late February.
As a nonprofit, ICANN operates with "almost no oversight," Lenard added in his comments. "ICANN is a unique organization," he wrote. "It is a nonprofit corporation under California law, but unlike literally any other nonprofit, ICANN makes decisions of major economic and social consequence throughout the world."
The Center for Democracy and Technology and TechNet, a trade group representing tech senior executives, both advocated for a continued agreement with the Commerce Department.
But the expiration of the U.S. agreement would still leave ICANN with accountability, Levins said. ICANN still has a contract with the U.S. to operate the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA), and its board members are elected by several groups. The organization must follow California law governing nonprofits, Levins said, and in a "next steps" document, it has proposed a procedure for removing the board if enough of the nominating groups agree on removal.
Some other people commenting on ICANN's performance have suggested the organization hasn't made enough progress on its goals under the Commerce Department agreement. The organization hasn't done enough work on internationalized domain names "to empower local non-English speaking communities," wrote Khaled Fattal, chairman and CEO of Live Multilingual Translator, a company providing online English-to-Arabic translations. ICANN's inactivity on internationalized domain names has "seriously damaged potential good faith, trust, and belief in ICANN's competence in the eyes of the very people ICANN is seeking to appeal to today," Fattal wrote.
But many of the comments on ICANN during the midterm review were positive. "It is our opinion that ICANN is living up to its mandate and that the endeavor of transitioning ICANN into a private sector entity is taking shape," wrote Anthony Mugambi, chairman of the Kenya Network Information Centre. "Conclusion of the JPA would, however, provide the next logical step toward full transition some time in the future."
ICANN's Levins said the organization is paying attention to criticisms. ICANN "could and should always do more," he said. "Is there even a point where you can say ... security and stability are done?"
But the organization also wants to more toward being more autonomous, as has been the stated goal of the agreement with the Commerce Department, he said. ICANN will begin engaging stakeholders about how a transition should work in the coming months, he said.
"The [Internet] addressing system is so fundamental," he said. "We need to make sure that can't change and there isn't a point at which any one entity is able to change that, or can reconfigure that somewhere down the track."
ICANN, the nonprofit group that manages the Internet domain name system, has suggested it should become independent of Commerce Department oversight when the current Joint Project Agreement (JPA) with the agency expires. The agency's memorandum of understanding with ICANN has been in place since 1998, but in recent years, representatives of some other countries have questioned why the U.S. government should have primary oversight of the organization.
ICANN has made significant improvements in accountability, transparency and other issues since the Commerce Department renewed the agreement in September 2006, said Paul Levins, ICANN's executive officer and vice president of corporate affairs. ICANN's goal after the Commerce Department agreement ends, he said, is to expand a global governance model that allows input from a broad range of Internet communities.
"What we're trying to do is ensure that the accountablities that the organization has now, the responsibilities to all the stakeholders, are locked in place forever," Levins said Friday. "We want to try to lock in the existing model over the long term."
Some people have suggested the JPA should remain in place to provide accountability. "The fact that ICANN is making progress toward meeting its responsibilities does not imply that the JPA is no longer needed," Thomas Lenard, president and senior fellow at conservative think tank iGrowthGlobal, wrote in comments about the agreement. "Indeed, it may demonstrate the value of the JPA. The JPA and the continuing tie to the Department of Commerce may account for ICANN's good performance."
Questions about ICANN's future have come up during a midterm review of the Commerce Department agreement. The public was invited to comment on the agreement and the Department of Commerce's National Telecommunications and Information Administration hosted a public hearing on the agreement in late February.
As a nonprofit, ICANN operates with "almost no oversight," Lenard added in his comments. "ICANN is a unique organization," he wrote. "It is a nonprofit corporation under California law, but unlike literally any other nonprofit, ICANN makes decisions of major economic and social consequence throughout the world."
The Center for Democracy and Technology and TechNet, a trade group representing tech senior executives, both advocated for a continued agreement with the Commerce Department.
But the expiration of the U.S. agreement would still leave ICANN with accountability, Levins said. ICANN still has a contract with the U.S. to operate the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA), and its board members are elected by several groups. The organization must follow California law governing nonprofits, Levins said, and in a "next steps" document, it has proposed a procedure for removing the board if enough of the nominating groups agree on removal.
Some other people commenting on ICANN's performance have suggested the organization hasn't made enough progress on its goals under the Commerce Department agreement. The organization hasn't done enough work on internationalized domain names "to empower local non-English speaking communities," wrote Khaled Fattal, chairman and CEO of Live Multilingual Translator, a company providing online English-to-Arabic translations. ICANN's inactivity on internationalized domain names has "seriously damaged potential good faith, trust, and belief in ICANN's competence in the eyes of the very people ICANN is seeking to appeal to today," Fattal wrote.
But many of the comments on ICANN during the midterm review were positive. "It is our opinion that ICANN is living up to its mandate and that the endeavor of transitioning ICANN into a private sector entity is taking shape," wrote Anthony Mugambi, chairman of the Kenya Network Information Centre. "Conclusion of the JPA would, however, provide the next logical step toward full transition some time in the future."
ICANN's Levins said the organization is paying attention to criticisms. ICANN "could and should always do more," he said. "Is there even a point where you can say ... security and stability are done?"
But the organization also wants to more toward being more autonomous, as has been the stated goal of the agreement with the Commerce Department, he said. ICANN will begin engaging stakeholders about how a transition should work in the coming months, he said.
"The [Internet] addressing system is so fundamental," he said. "We need to make sure that can't change and there isn't a point at which any one entity is able to change that, or can reconfigure that somewhere down the track."
Analysts: Google must upgrade hosted apps to appeal to IT
Google Inc. must provide stronger data models along with role-based access and records management archiving capabilities before most IT managers will take its Google Apps hosted application suite seriously, analysts said this week.
The search tool maker's hosted offerings are getting a closer look by IT managers looking to compare them with Microsoft's Online Services hosted offering, which was unveiled last September.
"I think Google has underestimated the complexity of the enterprise space," said Guy Creese, an analyst at Midvale, Utah-based Burton Group. "So far they basically have [delivered] consumer products and slapped an enterprise name on them. They talk a lot about usability, but they fall down" due to the lack of an enterprise data model.
In an interview with Computerworld this week at the AIIM Conference in Boston, Matthew Glotzbach, director of Product Management for Enterprise at Google, noted that 500,000 organizations are using Google Apps, though he also acknowledged that large organizations are so far hesitant to join in.
"One challenge we've had is building that enterprise credibility," conceded Glotzbach, who added that the company expects the consumer and business versions of Google apps to maintain "90% consistency" going forward.
Creese said Google must further differentiate the versions, noting that several new features must be added to meet the needs of large IT operations. Some of those include data archiving tools to augment records management searches, email distribution list functionalities and role-based management tools.
"Somebody worried about a soccer schedule is not worried about records management -- and they don't have a distribution list," Creese noted about the difference between consumer and business users. "It's all of this underlying way of managing the business that [Google] is missing."
Matt Cain, an analyst at vice-president at Stamford, Conn.-based Gartner Inc., added that Google Apps likely won't be seriously considered by enterprises until the company can show it can support reporting, audit trails, and service-level agreements of large-scale commercial users.
"[Google] has everything else, but that's what we need to see. They need to prove it," remarked Cain. "There's a lot of skepticism and let's wait and see," among corporate users.
Nonetheless, he expects Google and Microsoft to be the primary providers of hosted applications to corporate users when Gartner expects the market to take off between 2010 and 2012.
Google first launched the Google Apps offering in 2006 as a free service and began charging in 2007 with the introduction of a Premier Edition. Last week Google further beefed up the service by adding the Google Sites wiki service to the service's Google Docs, Gmail, Google Calendar and Talk applications.
Microsoft this week countered the addition of Google Sites - an obvious competitor of Microsoft SharePoint - by unveiling beta versions of hosted Exchange and SharePoint server products. The hosted Microsoft offerings will be generally available by the end of 2008, the company said.
Cain said the software company will trail Google Apps' capabilities until it adds Microsoft Office applications to the hosted suite.
"If you look at the way the industry is playing out and the way Google is going, I would have to imagine that the lights are burning long and bright over in Redmond working on hosted versions of Office," Cain said.
The search tool maker's hosted offerings are getting a closer look by IT managers looking to compare them with Microsoft's Online Services hosted offering, which was unveiled last September.
"I think Google has underestimated the complexity of the enterprise space," said Guy Creese, an analyst at Midvale, Utah-based Burton Group. "So far they basically have [delivered] consumer products and slapped an enterprise name on them. They talk a lot about usability, but they fall down" due to the lack of an enterprise data model.
In an interview with Computerworld this week at the AIIM Conference in Boston, Matthew Glotzbach, director of Product Management for Enterprise at Google, noted that 500,000 organizations are using Google Apps, though he also acknowledged that large organizations are so far hesitant to join in.
"One challenge we've had is building that enterprise credibility," conceded Glotzbach, who added that the company expects the consumer and business versions of Google apps to maintain "90% consistency" going forward.
Creese said Google must further differentiate the versions, noting that several new features must be added to meet the needs of large IT operations. Some of those include data archiving tools to augment records management searches, email distribution list functionalities and role-based management tools.
"Somebody worried about a soccer schedule is not worried about records management -- and they don't have a distribution list," Creese noted about the difference between consumer and business users. "It's all of this underlying way of managing the business that [Google] is missing."
Matt Cain, an analyst at vice-president at Stamford, Conn.-based Gartner Inc., added that Google Apps likely won't be seriously considered by enterprises until the company can show it can support reporting, audit trails, and service-level agreements of large-scale commercial users.
"[Google] has everything else, but that's what we need to see. They need to prove it," remarked Cain. "There's a lot of skepticism and let's wait and see," among corporate users.
Nonetheless, he expects Google and Microsoft to be the primary providers of hosted applications to corporate users when Gartner expects the market to take off between 2010 and 2012.
Google first launched the Google Apps offering in 2006 as a free service and began charging in 2007 with the introduction of a Premier Edition. Last week Google further beefed up the service by adding the Google Sites wiki service to the service's Google Docs, Gmail, Google Calendar and Talk applications.
Microsoft this week countered the addition of Google Sites - an obvious competitor of Microsoft SharePoint - by unveiling beta versions of hosted Exchange and SharePoint server products. The hosted Microsoft offerings will be generally available by the end of 2008, the company said.
Cain said the software company will trail Google Apps' capabilities until it adds Microsoft Office applications to the hosted suite.
"If you look at the way the industry is playing out and the way Google is going, I would have to imagine that the lights are burning long and bright over in Redmond working on hosted versions of Office," Cain said.
Intel prepares for EU antitrust hearing on Tuesday
Intel is preparing to defend some of its questionable business dealings with PC makers at an antitrust hearing with European regulators and competitors next week. Questions about its dealings with retailers will have to wait for another day.
The meeting on Tuesday and Wednesday will focus on charges made last July by the European Commission, Europe's top antitrust authority, accusing the world's biggest maker of computer chips of handing out "substantial rebates" to computer manufacturers if they bought most of their x86 processors from Intel.
The Commission also accused the company of paying computer makers for scrapping or delaying the launch of machines fitted with AMD chips, and of selling its chips for server computers at below cost to large customers such as governments and universities.
Intel has argued that it is competing hard but fair in a very competitive industry.
However, these charges may just be the foundation on which the Commission intends to build a much bigger case.
Last month the regulator made surprise visits -- often referred to as dawn raids - to Intel's offices in Munich, Germany, and to the offices of Europe's largest electrical and electronic goods retailers, Media Markt in Germany, Italy, Hungary and Poland; DSG International in the U.K., and PPR in France.
The Commission said it conducted the raids because it suspects Intel and the retailers of violating laws banning restrictive business practices, or of abusing Intel's dominant position in the computer chip market.
Concerns about Intel's relationship with the leading electronics retailers date back a number of years, but the Commission only opened an investigation in 2006 after it received a complaint from AMD, Intel's only significant rival.
The Commission said at that time that it suspected Intel of pressuring Media Markt not to stock PCs fitted with AMD chips. Media Markt is a German chain of over 460 stores spread across 11 countries in the E.U., and is a vital distribution channel for the computer industry.
The raids earlier this year shift the focus onto Media Markt and the other big retail groups. "Media Markt is in as much hot water as Intel now," said AMD spokesman Jens Drew.
The Commission's latest search for evidence of antitrust abuse has been interpreted by people close to Intel as a fishing expedition, revealing a weakness in the regulator's efforts to expand the antitrust case to the retail sector.
Drew, not surprisingly, doesn't see it like that. Just as it did in the antitrust case against Microsoft, the Commission is treading very carefully and building a solid case that it can defend in an inevitable court appeal, he said.
Indeed, the landmark 2004 antitrust case against Microsoft started as two separate investigations, which were then merged into one giant case that not only made the software giant pay $2.6 billion in fines (at current exchange rates), but also forced it to change its business practices in Europe and around the world.
However, next week's hearing will focus purely on Intel's business practices relating to PC manufacturers. And if it remains solely about this, and doesn't expand to include Intel's behavior in the retail trade, "the worst case is to write a check," Intel chief executive Paul Otellini said in an interview published in Business Week magazine last October.
If the Commission finds Intel guilty it can fine the company up to 10 percent of its worldwide sales -- roughly $3.2 billion. But as with Microsoft, Intel will be more worried about the changes it will have to make to its business model than any fines it may incur.
The meeting on Tuesday and Wednesday will focus on charges made last July by the European Commission, Europe's top antitrust authority, accusing the world's biggest maker of computer chips of handing out "substantial rebates" to computer manufacturers if they bought most of their x86 processors from Intel.
The Commission also accused the company of paying computer makers for scrapping or delaying the launch of machines fitted with AMD chips, and of selling its chips for server computers at below cost to large customers such as governments and universities.
Intel has argued that it is competing hard but fair in a very competitive industry.
However, these charges may just be the foundation on which the Commission intends to build a much bigger case.
Last month the regulator made surprise visits -- often referred to as dawn raids - to Intel's offices in Munich, Germany, and to the offices of Europe's largest electrical and electronic goods retailers, Media Markt in Germany, Italy, Hungary and Poland; DSG International in the U.K., and PPR in France.
The Commission said it conducted the raids because it suspects Intel and the retailers of violating laws banning restrictive business practices, or of abusing Intel's dominant position in the computer chip market.
Concerns about Intel's relationship with the leading electronics retailers date back a number of years, but the Commission only opened an investigation in 2006 after it received a complaint from AMD, Intel's only significant rival.
The Commission said at that time that it suspected Intel of pressuring Media Markt not to stock PCs fitted with AMD chips. Media Markt is a German chain of over 460 stores spread across 11 countries in the E.U., and is a vital distribution channel for the computer industry.
The raids earlier this year shift the focus onto Media Markt and the other big retail groups. "Media Markt is in as much hot water as Intel now," said AMD spokesman Jens Drew.
The Commission's latest search for evidence of antitrust abuse has been interpreted by people close to Intel as a fishing expedition, revealing a weakness in the regulator's efforts to expand the antitrust case to the retail sector.
Drew, not surprisingly, doesn't see it like that. Just as it did in the antitrust case against Microsoft, the Commission is treading very carefully and building a solid case that it can defend in an inevitable court appeal, he said.
Indeed, the landmark 2004 antitrust case against Microsoft started as two separate investigations, which were then merged into one giant case that not only made the software giant pay $2.6 billion in fines (at current exchange rates), but also forced it to change its business practices in Europe and around the world.
However, next week's hearing will focus purely on Intel's business practices relating to PC manufacturers. And if it remains solely about this, and doesn't expand to include Intel's behavior in the retail trade, "the worst case is to write a check," Intel chief executive Paul Otellini said in an interview published in Business Week magazine last October.
If the Commission finds Intel guilty it can fine the company up to 10 percent of its worldwide sales -- roughly $3.2 billion. But as with Microsoft, Intel will be more worried about the changes it will have to make to its business model than any fines it may incur.
Silverlight for iPhone next? Not quite, says Ballmer
Could Silverlight be the next Microsoft technology to work on the iPhone? Don't bet on it anytime soon, said Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer.
Speaking in Las Vegas at the MIX 08 conference on Thursday, Ballmer said Microsoft wants to get its Silverlight technology, which allows developers to build and deliver multimedia applications on the Web, "everywhere," and that putting it on the iPhone is certainly "interesting."
"I can't say there has been extensive discussion" with Apple CEO Steve Jobs about it, Ballmer said.
He said he was concerned about Apple's plan, unveiled Thursday, to let developers sell applications for the iPhone on iTunes and take a 30 percent cut of revenues. Ballmer suggested that Apple might charge Microsoft similarly to get Silverlight on the iPhone, though there is so far no evidence to support this belief.
"It sure seems like they're trying to charge a whole lot more money for it," he said. "Maybe Apple isn't welcoming open and royalty-free runtimes on it."
Ballmer's comments about the iPhone were made in response to an audience question during a keynote address at Microsoft's third annual conference for Web developers. The question was framed by news not only about iPhone applications, but also because on Thursday, Apple revealed it has licensed Microsoft's ActiveSync technology for the iPhone. ActiveSync allows e-mail to be pushed directly to mobile devices from Microsoft's Exchange Server.
Microsoft also this week revealed plans to build the first Silverlight mobile runtime with Nokia. The Finland-based mobile handset provider plans to deliver a Silverlight runtime on its Series 60 smartphones by the end of the year, and its Series 40 phones thereafter.
Microsoft unveiled Silverlight last year to compete with Adobe's Flash multimedia runtime and player; however, Microsoft has optimized Silverlight for high-definition video content in particular. The company said this week that Silverlight is logging about 1.5 million downloads per day, which includes downloads spurred by Microsoft running Silverlight on its own Web sites and for company Webcasts.
Speaking in Las Vegas at the MIX 08 conference on Thursday, Ballmer said Microsoft wants to get its Silverlight technology, which allows developers to build and deliver multimedia applications on the Web, "everywhere," and that putting it on the iPhone is certainly "interesting."
"I can't say there has been extensive discussion" with Apple CEO Steve Jobs about it, Ballmer said.
He said he was concerned about Apple's plan, unveiled Thursday, to let developers sell applications for the iPhone on iTunes and take a 30 percent cut of revenues. Ballmer suggested that Apple might charge Microsoft similarly to get Silverlight on the iPhone, though there is so far no evidence to support this belief.
"It sure seems like they're trying to charge a whole lot more money for it," he said. "Maybe Apple isn't welcoming open and royalty-free runtimes on it."
Ballmer's comments about the iPhone were made in response to an audience question during a keynote address at Microsoft's third annual conference for Web developers. The question was framed by news not only about iPhone applications, but also because on Thursday, Apple revealed it has licensed Microsoft's ActiveSync technology for the iPhone. ActiveSync allows e-mail to be pushed directly to mobile devices from Microsoft's Exchange Server.
Microsoft also this week revealed plans to build the first Silverlight mobile runtime with Nokia. The Finland-based mobile handset provider plans to deliver a Silverlight runtime on its Series 60 smartphones by the end of the year, and its Series 40 phones thereafter.
Microsoft unveiled Silverlight last year to compete with Adobe's Flash multimedia runtime and player; however, Microsoft has optimized Silverlight for high-definition video content in particular. The company said this week that Silverlight is logging about 1.5 million downloads per day, which includes downloads spurred by Microsoft running Silverlight on its own Web sites and for company Webcasts.
Samsung, Adidas take on iPod, Nike
Samsung Electronics and Adidas have joined the race against Apple and Nike to offer people a device that plays music and keeps track of workouts.
Samsung's miCoach music-mobile phone even lives up to its name by encouraging people as they run, telling them to "speed up" if they aren't keeping pace, and giving them updates on their heart rate, time left in their run, and more.
The system includes a heart-rate monitor, a sensor to attach to a pair of running shoes and a Web workout journal to help people design and keep track of fitness programs.
With miCoach, Samsung and Adidas enter the fray against Apple and Nike, which started offering the Nike+iPod sports kit in the U.S. in July, 2006, also aimed at people with active lifestyles.
The Nike+iPod system also keeps track of workouts, telling runners the distance traveled, calories burned and other information via earphones, as well as on the iPod display screen.
The main differences between the two systems are that the Samsung model is also a mobile phone, while the Apple one is just a music player. Any runner can stop their music and workout by pressing a button on the miCoach, then answer a phone call. But the device has far less music storage capacity than the iPod. The miCoach comes with 1G byte of storage space, while the iPod Nano comes in 4G byte and 8G byte capacities.
The cost of the two systems is also different. Samsung/Adidas buyers will pay around €400 (US$612) for the deluxe kit with the miCoach mobile phone, heart monitor, shoe sensor and more. That compares to a US$328 gift pack offered by Nike for the Nike+iPod system, which includes an 8G byte iPod Nano, a $100 Nike shoe gift card, a 30-minute iTunes card and the Nike+ Sports kit.
One key detail for avid runners is that the Samsung/Adidas system does not tie a user to a specific brand of shoe like the Nike+iPod system does. The sensor sold with the Samsung/Adidas system fits on the laces of a runner's shoes, while the sensor in the Nike+iPod system is built into the shoe.
The miCoach will be available first in Germany, then the rest of Europe by the end of March, according to Sophia Kim, a Samsung representative. At least two different kits will be sold through Samsung and Adidas stores and mobile phone retail outlets. The basic kit, which includes the miCoach mobile phone and arm band, will cost around €200, while the deluxe kit, which also includes the shoe-sensor, heart monitor and more, will cost about €400.
Prices have not been officially set yet, Kim said, nor has a time frame to enter North America or Asia.
The miCoach mobile phone is a slim, 14.5-millimeter thick slider handset with a 2-inch LCD (liquid crystal display) screen with a textured back to offer better grip. It comes in seven colors, including pink, red, dark gray, sapphire and silver. The handset includes a 2-megapixel camera and can connect to a computer via a USB (universal serial bus) connection or wirelessly with Bluetooth.
Adidas designed the monitoring systems for the miCoach package, as well as the Web-based coaching and training system, Kim said. The two companies are working together on sales and marketing.
Samsung's miCoach music-mobile phone even lives up to its name by encouraging people as they run, telling them to "speed up" if they aren't keeping pace, and giving them updates on their heart rate, time left in their run, and more.
The system includes a heart-rate monitor, a sensor to attach to a pair of running shoes and a Web workout journal to help people design and keep track of fitness programs.
With miCoach, Samsung and Adidas enter the fray against Apple and Nike, which started offering the Nike+iPod sports kit in the U.S. in July, 2006, also aimed at people with active lifestyles.
The Nike+iPod system also keeps track of workouts, telling runners the distance traveled, calories burned and other information via earphones, as well as on the iPod display screen.
The main differences between the two systems are that the Samsung model is also a mobile phone, while the Apple one is just a music player. Any runner can stop their music and workout by pressing a button on the miCoach, then answer a phone call. But the device has far less music storage capacity than the iPod. The miCoach comes with 1G byte of storage space, while the iPod Nano comes in 4G byte and 8G byte capacities.
The cost of the two systems is also different. Samsung/Adidas buyers will pay around €400 (US$612) for the deluxe kit with the miCoach mobile phone, heart monitor, shoe sensor and more. That compares to a US$328 gift pack offered by Nike for the Nike+iPod system, which includes an 8G byte iPod Nano, a $100 Nike shoe gift card, a 30-minute iTunes card and the Nike+ Sports kit.
One key detail for avid runners is that the Samsung/Adidas system does not tie a user to a specific brand of shoe like the Nike+iPod system does. The sensor sold with the Samsung/Adidas system fits on the laces of a runner's shoes, while the sensor in the Nike+iPod system is built into the shoe.
The miCoach will be available first in Germany, then the rest of Europe by the end of March, according to Sophia Kim, a Samsung representative. At least two different kits will be sold through Samsung and Adidas stores and mobile phone retail outlets. The basic kit, which includes the miCoach mobile phone and arm band, will cost around €200, while the deluxe kit, which also includes the shoe-sensor, heart monitor and more, will cost about €400.
Prices have not been officially set yet, Kim said, nor has a time frame to enter North America or Asia.
The miCoach mobile phone is a slim, 14.5-millimeter thick slider handset with a 2-inch LCD (liquid crystal display) screen with a textured back to offer better grip. It comes in seven colors, including pink, red, dark gray, sapphire and silver. The handset includes a 2-megapixel camera and can connect to a computer via a USB (universal serial bus) connection or wirelessly with Bluetooth.
Adidas designed the monitoring systems for the miCoach package, as well as the Web-based coaching and training system, Kim said. The two companies are working together on sales and marketing.
Ballmer grilled on Yahoo deal in quirky Q&A
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer couldn't avoid being trampled by the elephant in the room -- the company's bid to acquire Yahoo -- during a quirky keynote question-and-answer session at the company's MIX 08 conference Thursday
The first question out of interviewer Guy Kawasaki's mouth during the hour-long interview was "what's the deal" with Microsoft's quest to purchase the struggling Internet and online advertising company? Kawasaki was appointed by Microsoft to grill Ballmer at the conference.
"We've made an offer," Ballmer said. "We've made an offer and it's out there, baby."
Ballmer reiterated Microsoft's stance that the company needs Yahoo to compete effectively against Google in online advertising, calling Microsoft the "little engine that could" against the wildly more successful search giant. He said search is the "killer app" for online advertising, and that advertising and the Internet -- already a "big thing" -- is poised to be the next "super-big thing."
"We've worked really hard to make it clear we have real commitment, real aspirations and real tenacity about being a really serious player in the world of search and advertising," Ballmer said.
Microsoft on Feb. 1 made an offer to purchase Yahoo for US$44.6 billion, which Yahoo's board has rejected. Microsoft is rumored to be mounting a proxy fight for the Internet company, but will not comment officially about the status of the deal.
Kawasaki, a former Apple fellow and Mac evangelist who now splits his time as a venture capitalist, author and public speaker, minced no words in his public inquisition of Ballmer. Wielding a new MacBook Air laptop computer, he baited Ballmer about a host of topics, including Google, problems with Windows Vista and competition with his own former company. He also complimented the attitudes of employees at what he calls the "new Microsoft" for being less arrogant and far easier to work with than people he encountered at Apple.
During his questioning, Kawasaki called Google the "G-word" and teased Ballmer when he wouldn't say the company's name in answer to a question about it. Proving his mettle as a good sport, Ballmer chided Kawasaki for not saying Google's name either, then countered, "I can say the name: Google, Google, Google."
Though Ballmer did touch on some serious topics during Thursday's keynote, the interview had many light -- and sometimes downright bizarre -- moments, as the two men attempted to keep a professional tone during a very unconventional interview.
At one point Kawasaki asked Ballmer if he considers Apple a "little Chihuahua you kick away," to which Ballmer replied by barking in imitation of a little dog. He then acknowledged that Apple has done a good job of chipping away at Windows market share, and that Microsoft is an underdog competitor in the media-player market against the iPod.
Kawasaki also showed off his ultra-thin MacBook Air, and Ballmer offered to have a "bake-off" between his Toshiba notebook and the Air. He also took the Air from Kawasaki and mimed falling to the ground because it was so heavy.
Defending Air's absence of a DVD drive when Ballmer said it was missing "half the features," Kawasaki said, "DVDs are so passe," to which the grinning CEO retorted: "Tell that to your kids on a long flight, pal!" The remark inspired Kawasaki to inform Ballmer, "I'm never going to invite you back to MIX."
After Kawasaki had his way with Ballmer, audience members had their chance to question the executive. Several of them also asked about Yahoo, including how Microsoft might split up its own infrastructure and Yahoo's -- particularly investments Yahoo has made in building its platform on PHP (Hypertext Preprocessor), an open-source scripting technology for building dynamic Web content.
Ballmer said Microsoft would likely use services and hardware infrastructure from both companies, including Microsoft's services that use its own ASP.NET programming language."We will be a PHP shop as much as an ASP.NET shop if we own Yahoo," he said.
He added that Microsoft has taken pains to make sure applications coded in PHP run well on its recently released Windows Server 2008 platform, though he said that Microsoft has no plans to replace all of Yahoo's infrastructure with Windows Server if it takes over the company.
However, not all services from both companies are likely to survive. "We shouldn’t have two of everything. It won’t makes sense to have two search services, two advertising services, two mail services," Ballmer said. "Some will undoubtedly come from the Microsoft side, some will come from the Yahoo side."
Ballmer even did a brief reprise of his famous "Developers" rant -- immortalized in a YouTube video showing the sweaty Ballmer repeatedly chanting the word "developers" on stage while pumping his fist during a keynote address -- when an audience member asked if he would "show some love" for Web developers.
"I've been in [public relations] mode this whole time, and you want me to get up right now and show some love?" Ballmer bellowed, rising from his chair. He moved to the edge of the stage, stood up to his full height before the audience and hollered, "Web developers, Web developers, Web developers, Web developers!" before returning to his chair and previously restrained demeanor.
The first question out of interviewer Guy Kawasaki's mouth during the hour-long interview was "what's the deal" with Microsoft's quest to purchase the struggling Internet and online advertising company? Kawasaki was appointed by Microsoft to grill Ballmer at the conference.
"We've made an offer," Ballmer said. "We've made an offer and it's out there, baby."
Ballmer reiterated Microsoft's stance that the company needs Yahoo to compete effectively against Google in online advertising, calling Microsoft the "little engine that could" against the wildly more successful search giant. He said search is the "killer app" for online advertising, and that advertising and the Internet -- already a "big thing" -- is poised to be the next "super-big thing."
"We've worked really hard to make it clear we have real commitment, real aspirations and real tenacity about being a really serious player in the world of search and advertising," Ballmer said.
Microsoft on Feb. 1 made an offer to purchase Yahoo for US$44.6 billion, which Yahoo's board has rejected. Microsoft is rumored to be mounting a proxy fight for the Internet company, but will not comment officially about the status of the deal.
Kawasaki, a former Apple fellow and Mac evangelist who now splits his time as a venture capitalist, author and public speaker, minced no words in his public inquisition of Ballmer. Wielding a new MacBook Air laptop computer, he baited Ballmer about a host of topics, including Google, problems with Windows Vista and competition with his own former company. He also complimented the attitudes of employees at what he calls the "new Microsoft" for being less arrogant and far easier to work with than people he encountered at Apple.
During his questioning, Kawasaki called Google the "G-word" and teased Ballmer when he wouldn't say the company's name in answer to a question about it. Proving his mettle as a good sport, Ballmer chided Kawasaki for not saying Google's name either, then countered, "I can say the name: Google, Google, Google."
Though Ballmer did touch on some serious topics during Thursday's keynote, the interview had many light -- and sometimes downright bizarre -- moments, as the two men attempted to keep a professional tone during a very unconventional interview.
At one point Kawasaki asked Ballmer if he considers Apple a "little Chihuahua you kick away," to which Ballmer replied by barking in imitation of a little dog. He then acknowledged that Apple has done a good job of chipping away at Windows market share, and that Microsoft is an underdog competitor in the media-player market against the iPod.
Kawasaki also showed off his ultra-thin MacBook Air, and Ballmer offered to have a "bake-off" between his Toshiba notebook and the Air. He also took the Air from Kawasaki and mimed falling to the ground because it was so heavy.
Defending Air's absence of a DVD drive when Ballmer said it was missing "half the features," Kawasaki said, "DVDs are so passe," to which the grinning CEO retorted: "Tell that to your kids on a long flight, pal!" The remark inspired Kawasaki to inform Ballmer, "I'm never going to invite you back to MIX."
After Kawasaki had his way with Ballmer, audience members had their chance to question the executive. Several of them also asked about Yahoo, including how Microsoft might split up its own infrastructure and Yahoo's -- particularly investments Yahoo has made in building its platform on PHP (Hypertext Preprocessor), an open-source scripting technology for building dynamic Web content.
Ballmer said Microsoft would likely use services and hardware infrastructure from both companies, including Microsoft's services that use its own ASP.NET programming language."We will be a PHP shop as much as an ASP.NET shop if we own Yahoo," he said.
He added that Microsoft has taken pains to make sure applications coded in PHP run well on its recently released Windows Server 2008 platform, though he said that Microsoft has no plans to replace all of Yahoo's infrastructure with Windows Server if it takes over the company.
However, not all services from both companies are likely to survive. "We shouldn’t have two of everything. It won’t makes sense to have two search services, two advertising services, two mail services," Ballmer said. "Some will undoubtedly come from the Microsoft side, some will come from the Yahoo side."
Ballmer even did a brief reprise of his famous "Developers" rant -- immortalized in a YouTube video showing the sweaty Ballmer repeatedly chanting the word "developers" on stage while pumping his fist during a keynote address -- when an audience member asked if he would "show some love" for Web developers.
"I've been in [public relations] mode this whole time, and you want me to get up right now and show some love?" Ballmer bellowed, rising from his chair. He moved to the edge of the stage, stood up to his full height before the audience and hollered, "Web developers, Web developers, Web developers, Web developers!" before returning to his chair and previously restrained demeanor.
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