Software maker Adobe reported a strong financial finish to its 2007 fiscal year, with revenue up 23 percent for the year and 34 percent for the fourth quarter on sales of its Creative Suite 3 (CS3) and Acrobat software, the company said Monday.
For its fourth quarter ended Nov. 30, Adobe reported record revenue for a three-month period of US$911.2 million, compared with $682.2 million for the same time period last year. Revenue beat estimates from analysts polled by Thomson First Call, who were expecting the company to bring in $837 million in the quarter.
For the fiscal year ended at the same time, Adobe reported revenue of $3.16 billion, also a record for the company, compared with $2.58 billion last year. Adobe's net income for the quarter was $222.2 million, a 21 percent increase over the $183.2 million reported in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2006. For the year, net income was up 43 percent at $723.8 million, compared with $505.8 million in fiscal 2006.
Diluted earnings per share (EPS) for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2007 were $0.38, slightly above the company's own range of $0.35 to $0.37, and a 27 percent increase over diluted EPS of $0.30 for the same period last year. Diluted EPS for the year was $1.21, a 46 percent increase over EPS of $0.83 in 2006.
A strong end to fiscal 2007 is fitting for what turned out to be a banner year for the publishing and design software vendor. The company released CS3, a combination of its own graphics creation products and Web design and multimedia tools that it acquired from Macromedia. It is the first real blend of the two companies' complementary technologies in one suite.
CS3 so far has been well-received by the creative Web and production design community that has been loyal to both Adobe and the former Macromedia for years, making Adobe the leader among those customers. However, this position also inspired more competition in 2007, most notably from software giant Microsoft, which came out with its Expression suite to rival CS3, as well as new cross-browser software called Silverlight to compete with Adobe's ubiquitous Flash multimedia technology.
2007 also saw longtime Adobe CEO Bruce Chizen step down at the end of the fiscal year. He made the move as part of a planned transition and so he could pursue other career endeavors. Shantanu Narayen, former president and COO, is now chairman and CEO of the company.
Adobe on Monday also provided estimates for its first quarter of fiscal 2008, which ends in February. The company expects revenue between $855 million and $885 million and EPS between $0.34 and $0.36 for the quarter. For fiscal 2008, the company reiterated its target annual revenue growth rate of about 13 percent, which it previously announced.
Wednesday, December 19, 2007
Report: Intel-backed group to win Japan WiMax license
A consortium led by Japanese telecommunications company KDDI and backed by Intel will receive one of two WiMax licenses to be awarded soon by the Japanese government, a report said Tuesday.
The group, called Wireless Broadband Planning, and one led by rival carrier Willcom will be recommended by Japan's Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications on Friday to a panel charged with selecting the groups to win the licenses, said the Tuesday morning edition of The Nikkei newspaper. The panel is expected to follow the ministry's recommendations.
The Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications could not immediately be reached for comment.
Intel owns a 17.65 percent stake in Wireless Broadband Planning. The stake is matched by East Japan Railway and Kyocera, and all three sit behind leading shareholder KDDI, which has a 32.26 percent stake.
The WiMax services will operate in the 2.5GHz band and will be capable of providing data service at up to 20M bps (bits per second) to terminals travelling at up to 100 kilometers per hour, according to the Japanese government.
Japan's cell phone carriers have been testing WiMax for some time, and Tuesday's report, if confirmed, will mean that market leader NTT DoCoMo and number three-ranked Softbank probably will have to lease networks from KDDI or Willcom if they are to offer competing services.
KDDI is Japan's number two cellular carrier. It had 29 million subscriptions to its CDMA2000 (Code Division Multiple Access) cell phone service at the end of November this year, according to official figures. Willcom, which uses the PHS (Personal Handyphone System) technology to offer a data-centric service, had 4.6 million subscriptions.
In contrast, NTT DoCoMo had 53 million subscriptions, and Softbank had 17.4 million subscriptions. Both carriers operate WCDMA (Wideband CDMA) networks.
The group, called Wireless Broadband Planning, and one led by rival carrier Willcom will be recommended by Japan's Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications on Friday to a panel charged with selecting the groups to win the licenses, said the Tuesday morning edition of The Nikkei newspaper. The panel is expected to follow the ministry's recommendations.
The Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications could not immediately be reached for comment.
Intel owns a 17.65 percent stake in Wireless Broadband Planning. The stake is matched by East Japan Railway and Kyocera, and all three sit behind leading shareholder KDDI, which has a 32.26 percent stake.
The WiMax services will operate in the 2.5GHz band and will be capable of providing data service at up to 20M bps (bits per second) to terminals travelling at up to 100 kilometers per hour, according to the Japanese government.
Japan's cell phone carriers have been testing WiMax for some time, and Tuesday's report, if confirmed, will mean that market leader NTT DoCoMo and number three-ranked Softbank probably will have to lease networks from KDDI or Willcom if they are to offer competing services.
KDDI is Japan's number two cellular carrier. It had 29 million subscriptions to its CDMA2000 (Code Division Multiple Access) cell phone service at the end of November this year, according to official figures. Willcom, which uses the PHS (Personal Handyphone System) technology to offer a data-centric service, had 4.6 million subscriptions.
In contrast, NTT DoCoMo had 53 million subscriptions, and Softbank had 17.4 million subscriptions. Both carriers operate WCDMA (Wideband CDMA) networks.
Cognos puts BI on Nokia and Windows Mobile phones
Cognos said Monday that its Cognos 8 Go! Mobile business intelligence software now supports Windows Mobile 6 smartphones, as well as Nokia Eseries and Nseries devices running S60 3rd Edition on Symbian OS.
The software works with Cognos' core BI (business intelligence) platform and can automatically reformat reports for various types of devices.
The Canadian firm had already developed support for Research in Motion's BlackBerry smartphones.
Cognos' move to support more mobile platforms is logical, according to David O'Connell, senior analyst with Nucleus Research in Wellesley, Massachusetts.
"They're going mobile. They've been doing it for a while," O'Connell said. "Basically, the more platforms you can put BI on, the more people you have adopting it, so there's more ROI."
Anastasia Valentine, product manager for Cognos, said the firm made the new clients in response to market interest. Customer interest in Windows Mobile 6 centered in the U.S. and the Asian-Pacific region, while European customers desired support for Nokia devices, she said.
While the new products are fine-tuned for each platform, they are identical feature-wise to the BlackBerry client, according to Valentine.
Support for one of this year's hottest mobile devices, Apple's iPhone, isn't yet on Cognos' docket.
Despite the iPhone's explosive popularity, its immediate value to enterprises has been questioned. Forrester Research recently issued a report listing reasons why IT departments shouldn't support it, at least for now. Those warnings include the device's lack of support for push e-mail and its cost, Forrester said.
Valentine said Cognos isn't seeing much customer demand for iPhone support, adding that the company is also keeping an eye on Google's Android mobile development platform.
A "starter pack" for Cognos' mobile BI software, which includes a server-based license, licenses for 25 users and one year of support, costs $31,000, Valentine said.
The software works with Cognos' core BI (business intelligence) platform and can automatically reformat reports for various types of devices.
The Canadian firm had already developed support for Research in Motion's BlackBerry smartphones.
Cognos' move to support more mobile platforms is logical, according to David O'Connell, senior analyst with Nucleus Research in Wellesley, Massachusetts.
"They're going mobile. They've been doing it for a while," O'Connell said. "Basically, the more platforms you can put BI on, the more people you have adopting it, so there's more ROI."
Anastasia Valentine, product manager for Cognos, said the firm made the new clients in response to market interest. Customer interest in Windows Mobile 6 centered in the U.S. and the Asian-Pacific region, while European customers desired support for Nokia devices, she said.
While the new products are fine-tuned for each platform, they are identical feature-wise to the BlackBerry client, according to Valentine.
Support for one of this year's hottest mobile devices, Apple's iPhone, isn't yet on Cognos' docket.
Despite the iPhone's explosive popularity, its immediate value to enterprises has been questioned. Forrester Research recently issued a report listing reasons why IT departments shouldn't support it, at least for now. Those warnings include the device's lack of support for push e-mail and its cost, Forrester said.
Valentine said Cognos isn't seeing much customer demand for iPhone support, adding that the company is also keeping an eye on Google's Android mobile development platform.
A "starter pack" for Cognos' mobile BI software, which includes a server-based license, licenses for 25 users and one year of support, costs $31,000, Valentine said.
Symantec readies Norton 360 update
Symantec is just weeks away from shipping a test version of the next major update to its Norton 360 desktop security-and-backup software, with the product expected to ship by the end of March.
Norton 360 version 2.0 will include new Web security and identity-theft protection features as well as a "smart firewall" that will use behavior-based analysis techniques to identify emerging threats. These security features are already shipping with Symantec's Norton Internet Security 2008 product, but Norton 360 will have a few tweaks designed to make it easier to administer as well.
For example, the software can now be used to back up data to new types of devices such as iPods or Blu-ray drives, said Mark Kanok, a senior product manager with Symantec. "We changed up a couple of things to make it a little more accessible and give the advanced users more control," he said.
The new browser protection feature, formerly code-named Canary, blocks Web sites from installing malicious software via the browser, known as a drive-by download. These types of attacks are becoming increasingly common, security experts say.
New Firefox and Windows registry cleanup and features are also planned.
Norton 360 v.2 will also include the Symantec Online Network for Advanced Response (SONAR) technology, which identifies new forms of malware by analyzing its behavior, as well as the Norton Identity Safe software, designed to protect against phishing attacks.
Pricing for the Norton 360 v.2 will remain unchanged, at US$79.99 for a 3-PC license, Kanok said. The new beta will ship by early January, at the latest, he said.
Norton 360 version 2.0 will include new Web security and identity-theft protection features as well as a "smart firewall" that will use behavior-based analysis techniques to identify emerging threats. These security features are already shipping with Symantec's Norton Internet Security 2008 product, but Norton 360 will have a few tweaks designed to make it easier to administer as well.
For example, the software can now be used to back up data to new types of devices such as iPods or Blu-ray drives, said Mark Kanok, a senior product manager with Symantec. "We changed up a couple of things to make it a little more accessible and give the advanced users more control," he said.
The new browser protection feature, formerly code-named Canary, blocks Web sites from installing malicious software via the browser, known as a drive-by download. These types of attacks are becoming increasingly common, security experts say.
New Firefox and Windows registry cleanup and features are also planned.
Norton 360 v.2 will also include the Symantec Online Network for Advanced Response (SONAR) technology, which identifies new forms of malware by analyzing its behavior, as well as the Norton Identity Safe software, designed to protect against phishing attacks.
Pricing for the Norton 360 v.2 will remain unchanged, at US$79.99 for a 3-PC license, Kanok said. The new beta will ship by early January, at the latest, he said.
Qualcomm buys noise-reduction company
Qualcomm made a clear statement about its vision for future mobile devices on Monday by buying SoftMax, a provider of noise-reduction algorithms.
SoftMax's technology works with multiple microphones to suppress background noise, separate the speaker's voice from that noise and cancel echoes, all to make voice calls more intelligible. The battle for better sound was stepped up recently when Motorola delivered a system called CrystalTalk, with a similar aim, in its Razr2 line of phones.
The SoftMax Signal Separation technology broadens Qualcomm's toolset for devices including mobile phones, Bluetooth headsets, voice over Internet Protocol phones and notebooks, according to a company statement. It consumes less battery life, processing power and memory than alternatives, the company said. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Qualcomm was not immediately able to provide more details of its plans for SoftMax.
SoftMax already has deals with mobile operator SK Telecom and with communications chip maker Broadcom, which is embroiled in a fierce legal battle with Qualcomm over various patents. Qualcomm may have acquired SoftMax as much for its engineers and intellectual property as for its current products, said analyst Will Strauss of Forward Concepts.
Similarly, Qualcomm acquired wireless broadband vendor Flarion last year just for its team and OFDMA (orthogonal frequency-division multiplex access) technology, Strauss said. That company's intellectual property is expected to be valuable as OFDMA technologies including WiMax and LTE (Long-Term Evolution) become widely adopted. In addition, it would have been hard to simply recruit top-notch talent in a field as obscure as noise reduction, Strauss said. Qualcomm is probably looking both to integrate SoftMax's algorithms in its own single-chip systems for devices and to license them to other hardware vendors, Strauss said.
Privately held SoftMax is based in Qualcomm's hometown of San Diego and was founded in 1998 by scientists from The Salk Institute and from the University of California at San Diego, where Qualcomm founder Irwin Jacobs is a former professor and endowed the Jacobs School of Engineering in 1997.
SoftMax's technology works with multiple microphones to suppress background noise, separate the speaker's voice from that noise and cancel echoes, all to make voice calls more intelligible. The battle for better sound was stepped up recently when Motorola delivered a system called CrystalTalk, with a similar aim, in its Razr2 line of phones.
The SoftMax Signal Separation technology broadens Qualcomm's toolset for devices including mobile phones, Bluetooth headsets, voice over Internet Protocol phones and notebooks, according to a company statement. It consumes less battery life, processing power and memory than alternatives, the company said. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Qualcomm was not immediately able to provide more details of its plans for SoftMax.
SoftMax already has deals with mobile operator SK Telecom and with communications chip maker Broadcom, which is embroiled in a fierce legal battle with Qualcomm over various patents. Qualcomm may have acquired SoftMax as much for its engineers and intellectual property as for its current products, said analyst Will Strauss of Forward Concepts.
Similarly, Qualcomm acquired wireless broadband vendor Flarion last year just for its team and OFDMA (orthogonal frequency-division multiplex access) technology, Strauss said. That company's intellectual property is expected to be valuable as OFDMA technologies including WiMax and LTE (Long-Term Evolution) become widely adopted. In addition, it would have been hard to simply recruit top-notch talent in a field as obscure as noise reduction, Strauss said. Qualcomm is probably looking both to integrate SoftMax's algorithms in its own single-chip systems for devices and to license them to other hardware vendors, Strauss said.
Privately held SoftMax is based in Qualcomm's hometown of San Diego and was founded in 1998 by scientists from The Salk Institute and from the University of California at San Diego, where Qualcomm founder Irwin Jacobs is a former professor and endowed the Jacobs School of Engineering in 1997.
FTC settles with Web-based seller of phone records
The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has settled a complaint with a Web-based company it accused of selling people's telephone records without permission, the agency said Monday.
The settlement with CEO Group, doing business as Check Em Out, bars the company and its operator Scott Joseph from marketing or selling phone records, and it requires the company to give up US$25,000 of its profits from selling phone records. Selling phone records to third parties is illegal under federal law, the FTC had charged.
The FTC in May 2006 filed complaints in U.S. court against five Web-based companies that obtained and sold confidential phone records to third parties. In addition to the settlement with CEO Group, the FTC has settled two other cases and obtained a default judgment against a fourth company. The complaint against the fifth company is still active.
The FTC's complaints came after complaints from privacy groups and members of the U.S. Congress about pretexting, when someone obtains a telephone customers' records without permission under false pretexts. In many cases, companies offering phone records over the Internet were calling telephone carriers and pretending to be the targeted customer. In September 2006, Hewlett-Packard revealed it had been spying on some of its board members and journalists in an attempt to uncover the source of boardroom leaks, and HP officials later said their investigators had used pretexting to obtain phone records.
The Telecommunications Act of 1996 prohibits customers' phone records from being disclosed unless "upon affirmative written request by the customer." The FTC charged the five Web-based companies of engaging in unfair business practices.
The settlement with CEO Group prohibits it from obtaining, marketing or selling consumer phone records or other consumer personal information except where allowed by law, the FTC said in a news release. The settlement, approved by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, includes a judgment of $222,381, the amount the company earned by selling phone records, but the defendants said they were able to pay only $25,000. If the court finds that the defendants misrepresented their finances, the entire amount will be due, the FTC said.
The settlement with CEO Group, doing business as Check Em Out, bars the company and its operator Scott Joseph from marketing or selling phone records, and it requires the company to give up US$25,000 of its profits from selling phone records. Selling phone records to third parties is illegal under federal law, the FTC had charged.
The FTC in May 2006 filed complaints in U.S. court against five Web-based companies that obtained and sold confidential phone records to third parties. In addition to the settlement with CEO Group, the FTC has settled two other cases and obtained a default judgment against a fourth company. The complaint against the fifth company is still active.
The FTC's complaints came after complaints from privacy groups and members of the U.S. Congress about pretexting, when someone obtains a telephone customers' records without permission under false pretexts. In many cases, companies offering phone records over the Internet were calling telephone carriers and pretending to be the targeted customer. In September 2006, Hewlett-Packard revealed it had been spying on some of its board members and journalists in an attempt to uncover the source of boardroom leaks, and HP officials later said their investigators had used pretexting to obtain phone records.
The Telecommunications Act of 1996 prohibits customers' phone records from being disclosed unless "upon affirmative written request by the customer." The FTC charged the five Web-based companies of engaging in unfair business practices.
The settlement with CEO Group prohibits it from obtaining, marketing or selling consumer phone records or other consumer personal information except where allowed by law, the FTC said in a news release. The settlement, approved by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, includes a judgment of $222,381, the amount the company earned by selling phone records, but the defendants said they were able to pay only $25,000. If the court finds that the defendants misrepresented their finances, the entire amount will be due, the FTC said.
Filing reveals that Cognos went to IBM first
Cognos executives first approached IBM in the months leading up to IBM's pending $5 billion deal to buy the company, not the other way around, according to a document Cognos submitted Friday to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
The filing was prepared for Cognos shareholders in advance of the Jan. 14 vote on the sale.
The details it provides of the negotiations between IBM and the company stand in contrast to past statements made by Rob Ashe, the Canadian business-intelligence software maker's CEO, who at one time stressed the company's game plan was to become the top independent BI vendor in the market.
But clearly, those ambitions weakened as the space saw a dramatic consolidation in 2007, with SAP AG scooping up Business Objects and Oracle buying Hyperion.
In fact, Cognos talked with potential suitors as far back as the middle of last year, according to the filing. The vendor said a firm it identified only as "Company X" approached it about a possible acquisition on July 19, 2006, but those discussions eventually broke down, according to the filing, which does not reveal Company X's price-per-share offer.
Negotiations ceased on Nov. 20, 2006, and Cognos subsequently reached out to IBM in December 2006 to gauge its interest, according to the filing. "While our board of directors had not determined that a sale of Cognos was the most desirable outcome, it believed that IBM's interest was of relevance in considering any strategic alternative in the event that Company X or other potential acquirers approached us," it states.
Company X attempted to restart talks with Cognos on Dec. 6 but refused to raise its offer, according to the filing.
Ashe then met on Jan. 8 with Ambuj Goyal, general manager of IBM's information management division, and Steve Mills, senior vice president and group executive, IBM Software Group.
Cognos entered a confidentiality agreement with IBM on Jan. 31, and executives from the two companies met a second time on Feb. 2.
Talks continued throughout the year, but revolved around partnership opportunities until Sept. 21, when Goyal and David Johnson, IBM's vice president of corporate development, called Ashe "on an unsolicited basis, and expressed IBM's interest in acquiring Cognos," the filing states.
The two firms spent the next several weeks haggling over a price for Cognos. IBM's initial offer was $50 to $52 per common share in cash, but Cognos deemed it insufficient, according to the filing
Following a series of back-and-forth negotiations, IBM raised its price to $57. Cognos did not accept, but said it would proceed based on a $58-per-share offer, the filing states.
IBM agreed, and the firms eventually signed the deal on Nov. 11.
A Cognos spokeswoman said Monday that the company would not comment on the filing. Shares of the company were trading at about $57 midday.
The filing was prepared for Cognos shareholders in advance of the Jan. 14 vote on the sale.
The details it provides of the negotiations between IBM and the company stand in contrast to past statements made by Rob Ashe, the Canadian business-intelligence software maker's CEO, who at one time stressed the company's game plan was to become the top independent BI vendor in the market.
But clearly, those ambitions weakened as the space saw a dramatic consolidation in 2007, with SAP AG scooping up Business Objects and Oracle buying Hyperion.
In fact, Cognos talked with potential suitors as far back as the middle of last year, according to the filing. The vendor said a firm it identified only as "Company X" approached it about a possible acquisition on July 19, 2006, but those discussions eventually broke down, according to the filing, which does not reveal Company X's price-per-share offer.
Negotiations ceased on Nov. 20, 2006, and Cognos subsequently reached out to IBM in December 2006 to gauge its interest, according to the filing. "While our board of directors had not determined that a sale of Cognos was the most desirable outcome, it believed that IBM's interest was of relevance in considering any strategic alternative in the event that Company X or other potential acquirers approached us," it states.
Company X attempted to restart talks with Cognos on Dec. 6 but refused to raise its offer, according to the filing.
Ashe then met on Jan. 8 with Ambuj Goyal, general manager of IBM's information management division, and Steve Mills, senior vice president and group executive, IBM Software Group.
Cognos entered a confidentiality agreement with IBM on Jan. 31, and executives from the two companies met a second time on Feb. 2.
Talks continued throughout the year, but revolved around partnership opportunities until Sept. 21, when Goyal and David Johnson, IBM's vice president of corporate development, called Ashe "on an unsolicited basis, and expressed IBM's interest in acquiring Cognos," the filing states.
The two firms spent the next several weeks haggling over a price for Cognos. IBM's initial offer was $50 to $52 per common share in cash, but Cognos deemed it insufficient, according to the filing
Following a series of back-and-forth negotiations, IBM raised its price to $57. Cognos did not accept, but said it would proceed based on a $58-per-share offer, the filing states.
IBM agreed, and the firms eventually signed the deal on Nov. 11.
A Cognos spokeswoman said Monday that the company would not comment on the filing. Shares of the company were trading at about $57 midday.
U.S. teens wish for an iPhone Christmas
iPhones are the most popular mobiles on the Christmas wish lists of 13 to 25-year-olds in the U.S.
New research into the shopping habits of the so-called 'Generation Y' demographic reveals that Apple is making waves across the sector, with computers from the company (and also HP) making it onto the "must-have" lists of the sample group.
Consumer electronics manufacturers seem set to benefit from increased spending on the part of Gen-Y consumers, 34 percent of whom say they plan to spend more than US$300 on such devices this Christmas.
Video game consoles, computers and MP3 players are the most-desired gifts across 54 percent of the sample group, with desktop and laptop computers from Apple and HP also holding their own in the gift space vanguard.
The statistics drawn from the survey of 1,175 Gen-Y consumers are a "bellwether for up-and-coming consumer trends", said Murtaza Hussain, chief executive officer at Peanut Labs. "Their choices this holiday season will not only affect their direct spend, but also directly influence the overall family holiday spend. These results should prove intriguing for companies like Apple, HP, Nintendo or Amazon, which top Gen-Y's list this year."
New research into the shopping habits of the so-called 'Generation Y' demographic reveals that Apple is making waves across the sector, with computers from the company (and also HP) making it onto the "must-have" lists of the sample group.
Consumer electronics manufacturers seem set to benefit from increased spending on the part of Gen-Y consumers, 34 percent of whom say they plan to spend more than US$300 on such devices this Christmas.
Video game consoles, computers and MP3 players are the most-desired gifts across 54 percent of the sample group, with desktop and laptop computers from Apple and HP also holding their own in the gift space vanguard.
The statistics drawn from the survey of 1,175 Gen-Y consumers are a "bellwether for up-and-coming consumer trends", said Murtaza Hussain, chief executive officer at Peanut Labs. "Their choices this holiday season will not only affect their direct spend, but also directly influence the overall family holiday spend. These results should prove intriguing for companies like Apple, HP, Nintendo or Amazon, which top Gen-Y's list this year."
U.S. teens wish for an iPhone Christmas
iPhones are the most popular mobiles on the Christmas wish lists of 13 to 25-year-olds in the U.S.
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New research into the shopping habits of the so-called 'Generation Y' demographic reveals that Apple is making waves across the sector, with computers from the company (and also HP) making it onto the "must-have" lists of the sample group.
Consumer electronics manufacturers seem set to benefit from increased spending on the part of Gen-Y consumers, 34 percent of whom say they plan to spend more than US$300 on such devices this Christmas.
Video game consoles, computers and MP3 players are the most-desired gifts across 54 percent of the sample group, with desktop and laptop computers from Apple and HP also holding their own in the gift space vanguard.
The statistics drawn from the survey of 1,175 Gen-Y consumers are a "bellwether for up-and-coming consumer trends", said Murtaza Hussain, chief executive officer at Peanut Labs. "Their choices this holiday season will not only affect their direct spend, but also directly influence the overall family holiday spend. These results should prove intriguing for companies like Apple, HP, Nintendo or Amazon, which top Gen-Y's list this year."
<A TARGET="_new" HREF="http://ad.doubleclick.net/click%3Bh=v8/362d/3/0/%2a/p%3B130643729%3B0-0%3B0%3B18158584%3B4252-336/280%3B22315834/22333723/1%3B%3B%7Esscs%3D%3fhttp://www.computerworld.com/action/member.do?command=registerNewsletters&source=housead"><IMG SRC="http://m1.2mdn.net/743328/newslttr_sky_v2.gif" BORDER=0></A>
On this topic
10 reasons IT should not support the Apple iPhone
NTT DoCoMo updates kid-friendly cell phone
Delay, repairs, even success hit Palm's profit
Wireless# Certification Official Study Guide
Get practical tips, IT news, how-tos, and the best in tech humor.
New research into the shopping habits of the so-called 'Generation Y' demographic reveals that Apple is making waves across the sector, with computers from the company (and also HP) making it onto the "must-have" lists of the sample group.
Consumer electronics manufacturers seem set to benefit from increased spending on the part of Gen-Y consumers, 34 percent of whom say they plan to spend more than US$300 on such devices this Christmas.
Video game consoles, computers and MP3 players are the most-desired gifts across 54 percent of the sample group, with desktop and laptop computers from Apple and HP also holding their own in the gift space vanguard.
The statistics drawn from the survey of 1,175 Gen-Y consumers are a "bellwether for up-and-coming consumer trends", said Murtaza Hussain, chief executive officer at Peanut Labs. "Their choices this holiday season will not only affect their direct spend, but also directly influence the overall family holiday spend. These results should prove intriguing for companies like Apple, HP, Nintendo or Amazon, which top Gen-Y's list this year."
IBM expects $1 billion in India revenue this year
IBM expects to make about US$1 billion in revenue from India this year, as the company's hardware and services businesses in the local market soar.
IBM made $700 million in revenue from India last year, a company spokesman said Monday. In the first three quarters of this year it posted revenue growth of 39 percent over the previous year. "At the current growth rates, we expect revenue of $1 billion for the year," the spokesman said.
Unlike Indian outsourcers, who have mainly focused on more lucrative contracts abroad, multinational services companies like IBM have focused on the growing Indian outsourcing market.
India's contribution to IBM's revenue is higher if the revenue from services delivered to customers in other countries are also included. These are higher than domestic revenue and growing faster, the IBM spokesman said. These revenues are typically included in the financial figures for the country in which the services were contracted, however.
India is a key hub for the global delivery of services by IBM, as the company takes advantage of the country's large pool of skilled labor.
Reports, including in The Wall Street Journal, quoted an IBM official in the U.S. as saying that the company has increased its staff in India to 73,000 this year. The IBM India spokesman was unable to confirm this figure, but he said the company had 53,000 staff in India at the end of last year.
Although IBM does not break down the number of staff it has in offshore software development and services in India, most of the new additions are likely to have been made in its Indian outsourcing operations, with the rest in sales and marketing.
The expansion in India comes even as staff availability there has gotten tighter and salaries are on the increase. India is still attractive to foreign companies to set up software development and services subsidiaries or outsource work, as salaries are still competitive and the talent pool is large, said Siddharth Pai, a partner at outsourcing consultancy firm Technology Partners International Inc (TPI) in Houston, in an interview last month.
IBM made $700 million in revenue from India last year, a company spokesman said Monday. In the first three quarters of this year it posted revenue growth of 39 percent over the previous year. "At the current growth rates, we expect revenue of $1 billion for the year," the spokesman said.
Unlike Indian outsourcers, who have mainly focused on more lucrative contracts abroad, multinational services companies like IBM have focused on the growing Indian outsourcing market.
India's contribution to IBM's revenue is higher if the revenue from services delivered to customers in other countries are also included. These are higher than domestic revenue and growing faster, the IBM spokesman said. These revenues are typically included in the financial figures for the country in which the services were contracted, however.
India is a key hub for the global delivery of services by IBM, as the company takes advantage of the country's large pool of skilled labor.
Reports, including in The Wall Street Journal, quoted an IBM official in the U.S. as saying that the company has increased its staff in India to 73,000 this year. The IBM India spokesman was unable to confirm this figure, but he said the company had 53,000 staff in India at the end of last year.
Although IBM does not break down the number of staff it has in offshore software development and services in India, most of the new additions are likely to have been made in its Indian outsourcing operations, with the rest in sales and marketing.
The expansion in India comes even as staff availability there has gotten tighter and salaries are on the increase. India is still attractive to foreign companies to set up software development and services subsidiaries or outsource work, as salaries are still competitive and the talent pool is large, said Siddharth Pai, a partner at outsourcing consultancy firm Technology Partners International Inc (TPI) in Houston, in an interview last month.
Toshiba shows first HD DVD-RW laptop
Toshiba will begin selling later this week the first laptop computer to feature a rewritable HD DVD optical disc drive, the company said on Monday.
The PC will be in its Qosmio multimedia laptop range and is firmly aimed at users who want to enjoy high-definition video on their PCs. There are two digital HDTV tuners so that one station can be recorded while watching another and the laptop comes with 400G bytes of hard-disk drive recording space. The 17-inch widescreen display has a resolution of 1,920 pixels by 1,200 pixels so is suitable for watching HDTV in full resolution.
The HD DVD-R/RW drive can be used to transfer recorded TV shows or content from a high-definition video camera to disc for archiving. The drive also supports the new HD Rec format that allows for recording HD content on conventional DVD discs. With the price of blank HD DVD media still relatively high, the ability to use cheap DVD media could be a welcome feature for users. However, the capacity of DVD discs is lower so only about 24 minutes of video can be stored on a single-layer DVD.
The PC is based on a 2.2GHz Core 2 Duo processor and there's a NVidia GeForce 8600 graphics processor. Other features include a harman/kardon 4-speaker sound system, 2G bytes of memory and 802.11 a/b/g wireless LAN.
As to be expected from a multimedia PC with such a large screen, the Qosmio G40 is a heavy laptop. It weighs about 4.8 kilograms, so isn't the most portable machine in the world, but likely consumers will be people who live in small apartments and who want a PC, TV and video recorder all-in-one to save space.
The machine will cost around ¥400,000 (US$3,500) and it will go on sale in Japan only on Friday. Toshiba didn't announce overseas launch plans. Previous models of Qosmio PC have been put on sales overseas after the Japan launch.
The PC will be in its Qosmio multimedia laptop range and is firmly aimed at users who want to enjoy high-definition video on their PCs. There are two digital HDTV tuners so that one station can be recorded while watching another and the laptop comes with 400G bytes of hard-disk drive recording space. The 17-inch widescreen display has a resolution of 1,920 pixels by 1,200 pixels so is suitable for watching HDTV in full resolution.
The HD DVD-R/RW drive can be used to transfer recorded TV shows or content from a high-definition video camera to disc for archiving. The drive also supports the new HD Rec format that allows for recording HD content on conventional DVD discs. With the price of blank HD DVD media still relatively high, the ability to use cheap DVD media could be a welcome feature for users. However, the capacity of DVD discs is lower so only about 24 minutes of video can be stored on a single-layer DVD.
The PC is based on a 2.2GHz Core 2 Duo processor and there's a NVidia GeForce 8600 graphics processor. Other features include a harman/kardon 4-speaker sound system, 2G bytes of memory and 802.11 a/b/g wireless LAN.
As to be expected from a multimedia PC with such a large screen, the Qosmio G40 is a heavy laptop. It weighs about 4.8 kilograms, so isn't the most portable machine in the world, but likely consumers will be people who live in small apartments and who want a PC, TV and video recorder all-in-one to save space.
The machine will cost around ¥400,000 (US$3,500) and it will go on sale in Japan only on Friday. Toshiba didn't announce overseas launch plans. Previous models of Qosmio PC have been put on sales overseas after the Japan launch.
New company encourages phone applications
A Mountain View, California, company is launching a platform designed to let developers create telephony applications they can embed in Web pages and existing Web-based services.
Ribbit's back-end technology includes a software switch that essentially connects Internet-based voice communication services with mobile phones, landline phones and text messages. On top of that connection is the Ribbit API (application programming interface) that lets developers build applications that unify the wide variety of communication methods.
Developers can build applications that include functions such as recording, sending and receiving voicemail, and making and receiving calls. The applications can be built using Flash, embedded into any Web site, and integrated into existing Web-based services. The platform supports many existing Web-based calling services, such as Skype, GoogleTalk and MSN.
Developers can charge end-users for the applications, and Ribbit can handle the billing for them. There are several ways developers can offer and charge for their products, and in some cases Ribbit will share revenue with developers.
Ribbit showed off one application a developer has created that embeds phone capabilities into Salesforce.com. By keying a code into a mobile phone, users essentially replace their current voicemail with Ribbit for Salesforce. Then users can listen to or see text transcripts of their mobile voicemail messages within Salesforce. They can send the messages to colleagues and tag them for easy sorting later.
Users can also make and receive phone calls through their Salesforce page. Such calls are automatically logged in their Salesforce application.
Ribbit for Salesforce will cost US$25 per user per month for end-users. It is currently in a private beta with more than 90 companies, and should be widely available in February, Ribbit said.
Salute America's Heroes, a veterans' association, has built essentially a call center application that lets veterans who work for the group make and receive phone calls while at home through a browser. The capability is integrated into a Web site that also hosts tools they use while making the calls. The capability allows the association to take on the cost of the calls rather than reimbursing workers for the use of their home phones.
Ribbit designed its own softswitch, which runs on Linux blades and has been certified in an Alcatel-Lucent lab to meet the capabilities and reliability that telecommunications providers typically require, said Ted Griggs, CEO and co-founder of Ribbit. Ribbit's network operations center is hosted by a third party in Virginia, and the company is working on opening one on the West Coast to offer geographic redundancies. It can add capacity simply by adding more servers.
Another, more consumer-oriented application is available to try on the Ribbit developers page. The AIR iPhone is essentially a software-based voice over IP phone that looks just like Apple's iPhone. Users can make and receive calls to mobile and fixed-line phones, including from the contact list in the phone, on their computers.
Ribbit hasn't quite yet configured its offering in terms of pricing for such consumer applications, but expects to in the first quarter of next year. In the case of the AIR iPhone, Ribbit would share revenue from end-users with the developer.
Ribbit says that more than 650 developers are working on new applications, although on Friday only two were listed on the developers site. "Dozens" are near release, a few additional applications should be available on Monday, and many more should be available in the early months of next year, Ribbit said.
Ribbit opened its offering to developers in August but plans to officially launch the company, along with details about how its technology and business model work, on Monday.
Ribbit's back-end technology includes a software switch that essentially connects Internet-based voice communication services with mobile phones, landline phones and text messages. On top of that connection is the Ribbit API (application programming interface) that lets developers build applications that unify the wide variety of communication methods.
Developers can build applications that include functions such as recording, sending and receiving voicemail, and making and receiving calls. The applications can be built using Flash, embedded into any Web site, and integrated into existing Web-based services. The platform supports many existing Web-based calling services, such as Skype, GoogleTalk and MSN.
Developers can charge end-users for the applications, and Ribbit can handle the billing for them. There are several ways developers can offer and charge for their products, and in some cases Ribbit will share revenue with developers.
Ribbit showed off one application a developer has created that embeds phone capabilities into Salesforce.com. By keying a code into a mobile phone, users essentially replace their current voicemail with Ribbit for Salesforce. Then users can listen to or see text transcripts of their mobile voicemail messages within Salesforce. They can send the messages to colleagues and tag them for easy sorting later.
Users can also make and receive phone calls through their Salesforce page. Such calls are automatically logged in their Salesforce application.
Ribbit for Salesforce will cost US$25 per user per month for end-users. It is currently in a private beta with more than 90 companies, and should be widely available in February, Ribbit said.
Salute America's Heroes, a veterans' association, has built essentially a call center application that lets veterans who work for the group make and receive phone calls while at home through a browser. The capability is integrated into a Web site that also hosts tools they use while making the calls. The capability allows the association to take on the cost of the calls rather than reimbursing workers for the use of their home phones.
Ribbit designed its own softswitch, which runs on Linux blades and has been certified in an Alcatel-Lucent lab to meet the capabilities and reliability that telecommunications providers typically require, said Ted Griggs, CEO and co-founder of Ribbit. Ribbit's network operations center is hosted by a third party in Virginia, and the company is working on opening one on the West Coast to offer geographic redundancies. It can add capacity simply by adding more servers.
Another, more consumer-oriented application is available to try on the Ribbit developers page. The AIR iPhone is essentially a software-based voice over IP phone that looks just like Apple's iPhone. Users can make and receive calls to mobile and fixed-line phones, including from the contact list in the phone, on their computers.
Ribbit hasn't quite yet configured its offering in terms of pricing for such consumer applications, but expects to in the first quarter of next year. In the case of the AIR iPhone, Ribbit would share revenue from end-users with the developer.
Ribbit says that more than 650 developers are working on new applications, although on Friday only two were listed on the developers site. "Dozens" are near release, a few additional applications should be available on Monday, and many more should be available in the early months of next year, Ribbit said.
Ribbit opened its offering to developers in August but plans to officially launch the company, along with details about how its technology and business model work, on Monday.
Software tracks messages sent to and from BlackBerrys
Gwava, the developer of security software, plans to introduce on Monday a new product that lets enterprises easily track and find text messages and phone calls that BlackBerry users send and receive.
The software should appeal to enterprises that need to comply with regulations that require them to track employee communications. Key to the Retain for BlackBerry Enterprise Server is that it doesn't require any client software. That means an IT administrator can manage it fully from the back end.
The BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES), which companies use to let workers send and receive corporate e-mail on their BlackBerry devices, already logs data about SMS (Short Message Service) text messages and e-mails sent and received. However, users must view the data in a giant Excel spreadsheet where each row is one transaction, said Mitch Lauer, director of business development for Gwava. "It's extremely difficult to utilize," he said.
"Our software goes into the BES and makes sense of all these logs," he said. Retain shifts the data to a SQL database. IT administrators can then manipulate the data using a viewer that can be accessed on multiple workstations.
On the viewer, an administrator sees a list of BlackBerry users and can view their history of e-mails, text messages and phone calls. The list of e-mail and text messages includes the actual messages as well as who sent and received them. The phone call list includes the phone number of the person who called or was called and the length of the call.
Enterprises using BlackBerry phones can already easily audit e-mail messages because they run through a separate e-mail server, such as Microsoft Exchange. But tracking text messages is harder, and Retain lets administrators see e-mail, text messages and voice logs in a single view.
The software also tracks Pin messages, which are text messages that BlackBerry users can send to each other in a slightly different way than text messages offered by mobile operators.
IT administrators can also view data such as the top ten users of phone calls in chart form. To further analyze or investigate an issue, an administrator can also export the information into Excel.
Retain for BlackBerry can also send alerts to administrators when specified keywords appear in user text messages.
Gwava envisions many reasons that an enterprise might want to use the software, including to comply with regulations such as the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act or Sarbanes-Oxley Act, to investigate human-resources issues such as sexual harassment, or to pursue legal problems such as intellectual property leaks, Lauer said.
While similar offerings exist, Retain for BlackBerry has an advantage because it doesn't require any software for the BlackBerry phones, Lauer said. That makes it easier for IT administrators to manage, and also means that the capability is transparent to end-users. "The biggest value proposition, besides the amount of work for IT to deploy the software, is that the device user can't alter or delete a phone call or SMS or Pin message at the device level," he said.
Retain for BlackBerry costs 40 percent as much as an enterprise pays for its BES server, so users can take advantage of discounts that they may have realized when buying their BES, such as volume processing.
The software should appeal to enterprises that need to comply with regulations that require them to track employee communications. Key to the Retain for BlackBerry Enterprise Server is that it doesn't require any client software. That means an IT administrator can manage it fully from the back end.
The BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES), which companies use to let workers send and receive corporate e-mail on their BlackBerry devices, already logs data about SMS (Short Message Service) text messages and e-mails sent and received. However, users must view the data in a giant Excel spreadsheet where each row is one transaction, said Mitch Lauer, director of business development for Gwava. "It's extremely difficult to utilize," he said.
"Our software goes into the BES and makes sense of all these logs," he said. Retain shifts the data to a SQL database. IT administrators can then manipulate the data using a viewer that can be accessed on multiple workstations.
On the viewer, an administrator sees a list of BlackBerry users and can view their history of e-mails, text messages and phone calls. The list of e-mail and text messages includes the actual messages as well as who sent and received them. The phone call list includes the phone number of the person who called or was called and the length of the call.
Enterprises using BlackBerry phones can already easily audit e-mail messages because they run through a separate e-mail server, such as Microsoft Exchange. But tracking text messages is harder, and Retain lets administrators see e-mail, text messages and voice logs in a single view.
The software also tracks Pin messages, which are text messages that BlackBerry users can send to each other in a slightly different way than text messages offered by mobile operators.
IT administrators can also view data such as the top ten users of phone calls in chart form. To further analyze or investigate an issue, an administrator can also export the information into Excel.
Retain for BlackBerry can also send alerts to administrators when specified keywords appear in user text messages.
Gwava envisions many reasons that an enterprise might want to use the software, including to comply with regulations such as the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act or Sarbanes-Oxley Act, to investigate human-resources issues such as sexual harassment, or to pursue legal problems such as intellectual property leaks, Lauer said.
While similar offerings exist, Retain for BlackBerry has an advantage because it doesn't require any software for the BlackBerry phones, Lauer said. That makes it easier for IT administrators to manage, and also means that the capability is transparent to end-users. "The biggest value proposition, besides the amount of work for IT to deploy the software, is that the device user can't alter or delete a phone call or SMS or Pin message at the device level," he said.
Retain for BlackBerry costs 40 percent as much as an enterprise pays for its BES server, so users can take advantage of discounts that they may have realized when buying their BES, such as volume processing.
Unix admin tried to axe power grid
A California man pleaded guilty Friday to charges that he shut down the data center responsible for managing the state's electrical supply.
Lonnie Denison, 33, is now facing as much as five years in prison and a US$250,000 fine after admitting to breaking a glass cover and hitting the emergency "off" switch at the California Independent System Operator (Cal-ISO) data center in Folsom, California, on April 15. By doing so, he shut off the power in the data center. He was formerly a contract Unix system administrator at the center.
Cal-ISO is the nonprofit organization that manages California's power. By knocking these systems offline, Denison effectively cut the state off from the energy market, leaving California vulnerable to blackout conditions. No blackouts occurred, however, because the data center went down at 11:23 p.m. on a Sunday -- a time when electricity demand is typically at a lull. "If this deliberate shut-off had occurred in the morning ... things would have been far more severe," wrote Matthew Amant, the California Highway Patrol officer assigned to investigate the incident, in an affidavit.
It's not clear why Denison would have wanted to flip the switch on California's power, but according to U.S. attorneys, he was in a dispute with co-workers and just minutes before the incident had discovered that his computer privileges had been revoked.
Prosecutors allege that he followed up the power outage by sending an e-mail bomb threat the next day to an unnamed Cal-ISO employee, saying, "Hey, at one point I respected you ... you have a new kid. So this is only because of him. Get out before the timer expires. Not long now. Take care."
Following this threat, Cal-ISO evacuated about 500 employees from all three of its Folsom campus buildings, transferring control of the grid to a second control center.
That same day Denison spoke with a friend, admitting that he had tried to "shut off the power grid," according to a statement from the U.S. Department of Justice.
The Sunday night incident knocked the data center down for about two hours, but it took 20 computer technicians about seven hours to fully restore the system. The total cost of the outage is estimated at $14,000.
Denison, of Sacramento, California, is set to be sentenced on Feb. 29, 2008, in federal court.
Lonnie Denison, 33, is now facing as much as five years in prison and a US$250,000 fine after admitting to breaking a glass cover and hitting the emergency "off" switch at the California Independent System Operator (Cal-ISO) data center in Folsom, California, on April 15. By doing so, he shut off the power in the data center. He was formerly a contract Unix system administrator at the center.
Cal-ISO is the nonprofit organization that manages California's power. By knocking these systems offline, Denison effectively cut the state off from the energy market, leaving California vulnerable to blackout conditions. No blackouts occurred, however, because the data center went down at 11:23 p.m. on a Sunday -- a time when electricity demand is typically at a lull. "If this deliberate shut-off had occurred in the morning ... things would have been far more severe," wrote Matthew Amant, the California Highway Patrol officer assigned to investigate the incident, in an affidavit.
It's not clear why Denison would have wanted to flip the switch on California's power, but according to U.S. attorneys, he was in a dispute with co-workers and just minutes before the incident had discovered that his computer privileges had been revoked.
Prosecutors allege that he followed up the power outage by sending an e-mail bomb threat the next day to an unnamed Cal-ISO employee, saying, "Hey, at one point I respected you ... you have a new kid. So this is only because of him. Get out before the timer expires. Not long now. Take care."
Following this threat, Cal-ISO evacuated about 500 employees from all three of its Folsom campus buildings, transferring control of the grid to a second control center.
That same day Denison spoke with a friend, admitting that he had tried to "shut off the power grid," according to a statement from the U.S. Department of Justice.
The Sunday night incident knocked the data center down for about two hours, but it took 20 computer technicians about seven hours to fully restore the system. The total cost of the outage is estimated at $14,000.
Denison, of Sacramento, California, is set to be sentenced on Feb. 29, 2008, in federal court.
IBM partners with ACI Worldwide on e-payment tools
IBM said Monday that it is partnering with ACI Worldwide, an electronic payment software vendor, to create a payments system based on service oriented architecture (SOA) principles.
ACI's software will be combined with IBM's System z mainframe, DB2 database, WebSphere middleware, Tivoli IT management software and Crypto-chip technology, according to an IBM statement. ACI also intends to host its software in IBM's data centers, for customers who desire an on-demand payments system.
IBM said the combination of ACI's technology and its own will result in an SOA foundation that allows payment information to be shared throughout enterprises, many of which see a tangle of legacy systems strewn across their IT environments.
The partnership will first result in a version of ACI's BASE24-eps online payments software optimized for System z; a wholesale payments product aimed at the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA), and real-time fraud detection technology. Later, the companies will focus on smart card management, dispute management, online banking and a payment hub implementing IBM's Payments Framework, they said.
ACI's customers include more than 110 of the world's top 500 banks, according to IBM.
ACI's software will be combined with IBM's System z mainframe, DB2 database, WebSphere middleware, Tivoli IT management software and Crypto-chip technology, according to an IBM statement. ACI also intends to host its software in IBM's data centers, for customers who desire an on-demand payments system.
IBM said the combination of ACI's technology and its own will result in an SOA foundation that allows payment information to be shared throughout enterprises, many of which see a tangle of legacy systems strewn across their IT environments.
The partnership will first result in a version of ACI's BASE24-eps online payments software optimized for System z; a wholesale payments product aimed at the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA), and real-time fraud detection technology. Later, the companies will focus on smart card management, dispute management, online banking and a payment hub implementing IBM's Payments Framework, they said.
ACI's customers include more than 110 of the world's top 500 banks, according to IBM.
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