May 13th, 2008
Does Larry Ellison have the best SaaS strategy?
Software as a service sounds deceptively simple: Host an application, charge folks monthly and customers come running because they don’t have to implement software. The reality: SaaS is rocket science and few do it truly well.
This perception vs. reality SaaS gap bonked me over the head at the SAP Sapphire conference last week. Much of SAP’s talk about its SaaS suite–Business ByDesign focused on automation on the backend, delivering multiple instances and basic blocking and tackling in the background. Phil Wainewright has his four horsemen of SaaS–Salesforce.com, Omniture, Concure and Taleo. NetSuite is gunning for SAP in SaaS ERP suites. And VCs are dumping dollars on SaaS companies.
Bottom line: SaaS isn’t easy. So if you’re a big company like Oracle, which will have to deliver its apps via SaaS at some point–what’s your plan?
For Oracle CEO Larry Ellison the plan goes like this: Invest a little in NetSuite and Salesforce. Hang back and let these SaaS pure plays figure it all out. And then pounce. That’s the takeaway from Dan Farber’s interview with Ellison.
Dan reports:
Ellison said that SAP’s problems indicate how difficult it is to develop on-demand software. Ellison invested early on in two of the current on-demand software leaders, NetSuite and Salesforce.com. He is the majority stakeholder in NetSuite and owns a few percent of salesforce.com, both of which are public companies.
Ellison doesn’t appear to be in a hurry to cash out or bring them into Oracle’s orbit. It’s been 10 years since NetSuite and Salesforce.com were founded, and there isn’t a standalone billion-dollar on-demand software company, he told me.
The problem: The SaaS profit model doesn’t get Ellison all that excited because the growth is slow. The SaaS trajectory is more like open-source software–initial hype and then a gradual build. Once SaaS becomes big enough Ellison will pounce.
Given how difficult SaaS can be Ellison’s plan sounds pretty good.
May 13th, 2008
HP seals EDS deal; Services No. 2 behind IBM; Can Hurd run EDS better?
Updated: Hewlett-Packard CEO Mark Hurd said Tuesday he plans to use a familiar playbook to integrate Electronic Data Systems: Leverage scale, squeeze costs — and underpromise and overdeliver.
“We’re running the playbook we know how to run very well,” said Hurd, on a conference call with analysts. “We know how to get significant leverage out of our scale. We spent double-digit thousands of hours on the due diligence and planning. This thing (EDS) is very attractive. We didn’t bake in a lot of revenue synergies, but they are there.”
On Tuesday, HP officially announced that it is buying Electronic Data 
Systems for $25 a share, or about $12.8 billion (Techmeme). HP put an enterprise value of $13.9 billion on the deal, which will more than double HP’s services revenue.
Hurd’s bet: That he can run EDS–a company that has had flattish revenue growth since 2000–better. When questioned about EDS execution, Hurd noted that the company had done a lot of heavy lifting on its long-term restructuring. “If we do get the cost synergies done–and we will–we think this thing has tremendous opportunity,” said Hurd, who indicated that HP will get its synergies and deliver revenue growth with EDS.
Overall, Wall Street analysts were skeptical about the EDS purchase. What was truly stunning is that analysts weren’t budging from their skepticism given that Hurd is a Wall Street favorite. Analysts asked Hurd why HP didn’t acquire a smaller offshore player.
- The deal is expected to close in the second half of 2008.
- HP will create a new business group called EDS, an HP company. EDS will remain in Plano, Texas and be lead by current EDS CEO Ronald Rittenmeyer, who will report to Mark Hurd.
- HP will be the second largest IT services provider.
- HP said the transaction will be accretive to fiscal 2009 non-GAAP earnings and accretive to 2010 GAAP earnings. “Significant synergies are expected as a result of the combination,” the company said.
- HP will pay for EDS with cash and new debt.
Also see: HP’s bid for EDS: Opportunity costs loom
“We will be a strong business partner,” said Hurd, who on a conference call said the deal is important strategically and financially. Hurd also said he was confident that HP could execute on the integration of EDS and deliver savings and efficiencies.
HP and EDS executives played up the complementary nature of the two businesses (click for full slide):
Other key points from the conference call:
- Opsware will play a big role automating EDS and HP operations. EDS had been Opsware’s biggest customer.
- Rittenmeyer said the deal will push EDS’ zero outage initiative to a “new level”.
- There is very little overlap between the two companies, said Hurd.
- “EDS had a strong applications outsourcing business and frankly we didn’t,” said Hurd.
- Analysts were skeptical about HP’s opportunity costs related to the EDS deal.
- Analysts questioned the value of EDS and noted that many of its employees were based in the U.S. Rittenmeyer challenged that assessment and noted that many EDS customers are in federal, state and local government and can’t use offshore resources.
- HP didn’t discuss layoffs after the EDS deal, but Hurd said operating profits could be improved. That’s a hint that there may be some workforce restructuring ahead.
To allay any concerns about the EDS deal, HP upped its second quarter outlook and fiscal 2008 guidance (statement). The company said second quarter earnings were 80 cents a share and 87 cents excluding items. Revenue for the second quarter was $28.3 billion, up from $25.5 billion a year ago. Wall Street was expecting earnings of 84 cents a share, according to Thomson Financial.
For the third quarter, HP projected revenue between $27.3 billion and $27.4 billion with non-GAAP earnings between 82 cents a share and 83 cents a share. GAAP earnings will be 76 cents a share to 77 cents a share. Wall Street was expecting third quarter earnings of 82 cents a share.
HP projected fiscal 2008 revenue between $114.2 billion and $114.4 billion with earnings of $3.30 to $3.34, up from its previous range of $3.26 a share to $3.30. Non-GAAP earnings are projected to be $3.54 a share to $3.58, up from its $3.50 to $3.54 range. Wall Street was expecting $3.52 a share.
While EDS boosts HP’s services business dramatically, the company still has some holes to fill. This chart tells the tale:
Next up for HP may be a few business process outsourcing acquisitions.
May 13th, 2008
Microsoft delivers Office for Mac SP1; Will bring back VBA
Microsoft on Tuesday said that it is releasing Service Pack 1 for Office for Mac and outlined a future roadmap that brings back Visual Basic for Applications (VBA).
The software giant outlined the changes in a statement touting that Office 2008 for Mac is “selling faster than any previous version of Office for Mac in the past 19 years.”
According to the company Office 2008 for Mac SP1 includes:
- Better Excel compatibility for file exchanges between Windows and Mac and improved workbook printing;
- Entourage enhancements to Calendar and Exchange Server support;
- Improved formatting for Word and printing accuracy;
- PowerPoint improvements and the ability to use AppleScript to create custom scripts.
As for VBA, Microsoft said that it is bringing VBA-language support back to the next version of Office for Mac. Microsoft said:
“Sharing information with customers as early as possible continues to be a priority for the Mac BU to allow customers to plan for their software needs. Although the Mac BU increased support in Office 2008 with alternate scripting tools such as Automator and AppleScriptThe team recognizes that VBA-language support is important to a select group of customers who rely on sharing macros across platforms.”
May 13th, 2008
HP’s bid for EDS: Opportunity costs loom
The debate around Hewlett-Packard’s purchase of Electronic Data Systems follows three primary questions. Is the EDS acquisition another Compaq–a deal that will take years to pay off? Is EDS the right acquisition for HP? Are there other places where HP should spend its money?
HP on Tuesday officially acquired EDS for $25 a share, or roughly $12.8 billion. EDS will become HP’s services unit.
Also see: Can Hurd run EDS better?
On Monday HP confirmed that it is in talks with EDS and the general consensus is that the deal makes strategic sense, but enthusiasm is muted (Techmeme). Dennis Howlett outlines the various reactions to the EDS deal. Dennis’ take: HP CEO Mark Hurd will make EDS more efficient and jettison management. Tom Foremski says that HP will still need a high-end consultant business and should make more software deals to address middleware. Om Malik says maybe EDS is part of HP’s grand plan to be a cloud computing giant. And Vinnie Mirchandani notes that EDS is focused on infrastructure outsourcing like HP so it’s a scale play. However, business process outsourcing is still a missing element for HP.
That latter point is important. Is HP fighting an old fight with EDS, a company that is running to keep flattish growth since 2000?
Here’s a look at the burning questions around this deal:
Is EDS another Compaq? Carly 2.0 references are being tossed around this morning since HP is making a big deal. The problem with that analogy: The Compaq deal actually worked out nicely. HP got scale, market share and squashed Dell’s direct model with a hybrid approach that Michael Dell is now trying to emulate. Sure the execution left a little to be desired and the court battle was ugly–although quite entertaining for me–but in retrospect buying Compaq was a good move. Cowen & Co. analyst Louis Miscioscia said in a research note that HP’s personal systems group is growing at an annual clip of 25 percent so the Compaq purchase “did turn out well,” but it was “many years in the making.” Another thread: Former CEO Carly Fiorina was ousted because she overpromised and underdelivered. Hurd is the master of managing expectations and is all about the execution.
Is EDS the right deal? Miscioscia raises an interesting point: EDS, like HP, is a specialist in IT infrastructure outsourcing (ITO). HP with EDS will have a lot of scale. However, IT infrastructure is yesterday’s news. “Our concern is that ITO is a mature, competitive, capital intensive business,” said Miscioscia. Simply put, HP’s purchase of EDS is a wash financially, but does have opportunity costs. HP should be buying Indian outsourcing companies like Cognizant, Satyam or a business process outsourcing giant like Accenture.
Deutsche Bank analyst Chris Whitmore has similar worries:
“Our preliminary analysis of the transaction suggests modest dilution, low returns and significant opportunity cost. This deal appears to be a cost-cutting / restructuring play (benefits from existing program largely realized) that will dilute HP’s overall growth rate and margin/return profile.”
Simply put, IBM could be the biggest winner from this deal over the next few years.
What else could HP do with its money? HP clearly needs to beef up its services business, but to compete with IBM it will also have to address software. More than 20 percent of Big Blue’s annual revenue comes from software. HP’s software business is about 3 percent of total revenue despite the acquisitions of Mercury Interactive, Opsware, SPI Dynamics, Bristol Technology and Peregrine. Those software purchases will come in handy when HP tries to automate the EDS data centers, but the gaping hole in Hurd’s portfolio is middleware. IBM has remade itself into a software and services company with high profit margins. If HP is going to do the same at some point in the future, it will need to beef up its software lineup.
May 13th, 2008
News to know: HP’s to buy EDS; AMD; XP SP3; iPhone; Spam attacks
Notable headlines:
Larry Dignan: HP bidding for EDS; Deal would ramp up services.
Dennis Howlett: HP to take out EDS: does it make sense?
AMD rejiggers management; Forms central engineering group
Adrian Kingsley-Hughes: Integrate Internet Explorer 7, Firefox 2.0 and Windows Media Player 11 with XP SP3 slipstream ISO
David Morgenstern: OpenOffice.org 3.0 Mac Beta sports new Aqua look Jason O’Grady: More hints that a 3G iPhone is imminent
Garett Rogers: Google releases Reader BETA for iPhone
Nate McFeters: McAfee’s HackerSafe: When all else fails, rebrand it
- Dancho Danchev: Major career web sites hit by spammers attack
- Richard Koman: Wiretaps up, terrorism prosecutions down
- Call for military to operate botnet
Mary Jo Foley: Microsoft issues first SP1 betas for VS 2008, .Net Framework 3.5
- Microsoft Biz Unit Chief Jeff Raikes to head Gates Foundation
- Microsoft adding 10,000 new datacenter servers a month
- Blackberry users to get Windows Live services. Techmeme
- Ryan Stewart: New version of Windows Presentation Foundation released
- Introducing the User Interface Resource Center
- One Microsoft Way: Gates: Windows 7 will “take less memory, be more efficient”
Jason Perlow: Novell to Sun: Here’s an offer you can’t refuse
Michael Krigsman: FBI: Counterfeit Cisco routers risk “IT subversion” and failure
Janice Chen: Big memory cards keep getting cheaper; get the best deals at discount stores and online
AppleInsider: AT&T now showing “iPhone Black” model in device listing
Robert Scoble: Twittering the earthquake in China
ReadWriteWeb: Google Friend Connect Tries to Strangle the Social
Dana Blankenhorn: Sourceforge missing community manager opportunity
- Vermedx diabetes system wins Texas trial
- Is Cisco vulnerable to open source?
- Is wireless mesh a game-changer?
TechRepublic: 10 things you should do near the end of a project
Dana Gardner: SOA Software acquires respository and governance vendor LogicLibrary
Paul Miller: Powerset shows semantic search solution
Roland Piquepaille: The physics of flocking in 3-D
David Morgenstern: PrinterSetup project for CUP. Jason O’Grady: The Mac desktop, set to music
Sprint’s inferno: Churn baby churn
- Matthew Miller: Mobile software Monday: HanDBase 4.0 and Nokia Podcasting. Image Gallery: HanDBase 4.0 and Nokia Podcasting applications (right)
Andrew Nusca: AMD announces low-power quad-core chips
Dan Kusnetzky: True Server Virtualization
Paul Murphy: The application interface problem
Fortune: Apple and Eve
ReadWriteWeb: Your Guide to the Crowdsourced Workforce
May 12th, 2008
HP bidding for EDS; Deal would ramp up services
Updated: Hewlett-Packard is in talks to acquire Electronic Data Systems in a move that would reshape the technology services and outsourcing market.
In a statement Monday, HP and EDS confirmed the talks, first reported by the Wall Street Journal:
HP said:
HP today confirmed that it is engaged in advanced discussions with Electronic Data Systems Corporation regarding a possible business combination involving the two companies.
There can be no assurances that an agreement will be reached or that a transaction will be consummated. HP does not intend to comment further until an agreement is reached or discussions are terminated.
The deal, which reportedly be valued at about $12 billion to $13 billion, would instantly transform HP into an IT services powerhouse able to rival IBM. Buying EDS would also be HP’s largest purchase under CEO Mark Hurd’s tenure. A purchase of EDS would be the largest acquisition since HP bought Compaq for $20 billion in 2002.
If HP were to acquire EDS it would add $22 billion to revenue a year. For 2007, EDS reported earnings of $716 million. More importantly, EDS would bring to HP a series of long-term IT services contracts that Hurd could use to see hardware and software. For 2007, EDS (all resources) reported total contract value of new contract signings (TCV) of $19.5 billion, down from $26.5 billion in 2006. The 2006 figure included contract renewals with General Motors and the U.S. Navy totaling $7.5 billion.
In other words, HP’s business model would look a lot like IBM’s.
Also see: HP launches data center as a service; The cloud meets outsourcing
For the fiscal year ended Oct. 31, HP had revenue of $104.3 billion, up from $91.6 billion in 2006. Net income for 2007 was $7.3 billion, up from $6.2 billion. For 2007, HP had services revenue of $16.6 billion with earnings from operations of $1.83 billion.
Here’s Citigroup analyst Richard Gardner’s take:
The deal makes strategic sense. Outsourcing’s long-term relationships with large customers create potential revenue synergies. Operating more mission-critical datacenters should also give HP an edge in new-product development. HP likely plans to apply its infrastructure consolidation/modernization, automation, and virtualization skills to EDS’ infrastructure to boost its margins.
If this deal happens, more consolidation in the services industry is likely. Unisys would likely be a target just for its government contracts. Accenture could either go shopping or also become a target. BearingPoint could be a decent takeover. Meanwhile, Indian outsourcing firms such as Wipro and Infosys could also be in play as beefed up services giants eye low-cost delivery models.
May 12th, 2008
AMD rejiggers management; Forms central engineering group
AMD on Monday named a new head of its computing solutions group and created a central engineering unit to improve execution at the chipmaker.
Among the moving parts:
- Randy Allen was promoted to lead the computing solutions group at AMD, which focuses on the company’s consumer and commercial processors. Allen had been responsible for AMD’s server and workstation business and had been in charge of microprocessor engineering. He replaces Mario Rivas, who was responsible for the Barcelona launch (see Tom Krazit’s take).
- Chekib Akrout joins AMD from Freescale to help lead a new central engineering unit. Akrout was in charge of design technology at Freescale and had developed chips for IBM. Jeff VerHeul, corporate vice president of design engineering, will be co-leader of the group along with Akrout.
- Allen Sockwell becomes chief talent officer replacing Michel Cadieux.
According to AMD chief operating officer Dirk Meyer, the moves are designed to “enhance our execution” and focus the company.
May 12th, 2008
Novell to Sun: Here’s an offer you can’t refuse
Last week, I blogged about the possible future of a unified UNIX GPLv3 operating system “mother distro” comprising the merged source code of the Solaris and Linux kernels (and presumably, the source code of other vendors as well) and related GNU stack with associated tools and applications.
While a number of seemingly insurmountable political and ideological hurdles need to be overcome in order for this to happen, many who are close to the industry and who are responsible for “thought leadership” believe that this will in fact be the inevitable outcome, over time. Aside from getting Sun to GPLv3 its Solaris code and getting Linus to rev the license from GPLv2 to GPLv3, there is the matter of the ownership of the AT&T UNIX System V intellectual property — which is currently being settled in the courts in the form of SCO vs. Novell.
On August 10, 2007, the United States District Court of Utah ruled that Novell owns the UNIX copyrights. It should be noted that at one point, SCO wanted to buy the actual UNIX IP from Novell, but did not have the cash on hand to do so at the time. Most legal experts believe that it is not possible for SCO to own the UNIX IP without owning the copyrights — so it is simply a matter of time before putting the entire issue to rest and SCO goes down in the annals of information technology history as the company that litigated its way into oblivion.
And then what happens?
Click on the “Read the rest of this entry” link below for more.
May 12th, 2008
Sprint’s inferno: Churn baby churn
Sprint Nextel said Monday that it has lost more than 1 million customers in the last year.
Sprint, which has been busy of late with a WiMax joint venture with Clearwire and alleged takeover overtures from Deutsche Telekom, provided a healthy dose of its financial reality with its first quarter results.
But the real issue is churn, which was 2.45 percent in the fourth quarter, up from 2.3 percent from a year ago. Meanwhile, average revenue per customer was $56, down from $59 a year ago.
Here’s the overview (click for full version):
“The prepaid swing to a subscriber loss is troubling in its timing and magnitude, one quarter earlier than we thought and twice as large. ARPU was also very weak,” said Soleil Securities Group analyst Gregory Lundberg in a research note.
Technically, Sprint’s financials were better than expected–for whatever that’s worth. The company reported an adjusted profit of 4 cents a share in the first quarter, compared to 18 cents a share a year ago. Wall Street was expecting a profit of 2 cents a share on an adjusted basis.
That’s just about where the good news ends.
Sprint reported a first quarter net loss of $505 million, or 18 cents a share, on revenue of $9.33 billion, down 8 percent from a year ago. The biggest reason for the decline was the exodus of wireless customers. Sprint’s total wireless subscribers fell 1.09 million in the quarter.
In a statement, Sprint CEO Dan Hesse said:
“As expected, our wireless business delivered weak financial results. While the business will continue to face challenges in the short term, we are making progress in methodically attacking the sources of our performance issues. In the first quarter, we implemented a new, more focused brand campaign, we executed on our plans to take costs out of the business, and we made progress on the larger organizational and strategic decisions that we believe will lead to improved profitability in the long term. We continue to place the highest priority on reducing churn by improving the customer experience.”
The problem: Once you dig a customer service hole it takes years to get out.
As for churn, Sprint is guessing that the number of subscriber declines has peaked, but whether the company is right “will depend on how aggressive Sprint is on lowering prices,” said Oppenheimer analyst Timothy Horan.
Despite Sprint’s wireless problems, the company ended the quarter with 52.8 million total subscribers, which could get another wireless carrier such as Deutsche Telekom’s T-Mobile bigger in a hurry.
For now, Sprint is signaling more pain ahead. It expects “continued downward pressure” across all of its key financial metrics, but expects them to stabilize by the end of 2008. On the churn front, Sprint said:
“In the second quarter of 2008, we expect to report an improved post-paid customer churn rate and net post-paid subscriber losses to improve marginally from the first quarter.”
May 12th, 2008
Google kicks off its Facebook ground war
Updated: Google on Monday outlined its Google Friend Connect, a service that promises to insert social features into any application and any site.
Sound familiar? It is. MySpace has its friend connect service and Facebook has its version.
Add it up and you have a good old fashioned ground war over this question: Is social networking a feature or a destination site? For Facebook, the answer so far is that latter–of course it would love you to carry it around to other sites. Simply put, everyone wants to be the suitcase that carries your social graph.
On a conference call, David Glazer, director of engineering at Google, acknowledged that the newfound open standards surrounding social networks is good for the Web and Google. “Social activity has been limited, bottled up by a handful of sites,” said Glazer.
Websites that are not social networks may still want to be social — and now they can be, easily. With Google Friend Connect, any website owner can add a snippet of code to his or her site and get social features up and running immediately without programming — picking and choosing from built-in functionality like user registration, invitations, members gallery, message posting, and reviews, as well as third-party applications built by the OpenSocial developer community.
Visitors to any site using Google Friend Connect will be able to see, invite, and interact with new friends, or, using secure authorization APIs, with existing friends from social sites on the web, including Facebook, Google Talk, hi5, orkut, Plaxo, and more.
The tug of war is over control and the ground war is just beginning. Who controls these friend repositories? Even in an age of open data there will be aggregation winners. If Google’s OpenSocial gang disperses these networks then Facebook has issues. If Facebook succeeds with its walled garden approach, it stays a winner. Google’s plan: Adopt social standards and APIs from everywhere to let folks connect. The potential for Google: Be the friend aggregator.
Lump in ad revenue and it’s highly likely that Google will get a few sites to go along with Google Friend Connect.
I asked Glazer if Friend Connect is a response to Facebook Connect and MySpace.com’s Data Availability. “People will speculate a lot in that direction. We didn’t create this code in the three days (since Facebook and MySpace made their announcements).”
Unlike Facebook and MySpace, Google lacks a dominant, centralized social-networking hub. Friend Connect works the edges of the Internet, applying an open and distributed approach, and bringing a social dimension to the 99-plus percent of sites that aren’t socially enabled.
And let’s not forget Yahoo. Last month, Yahoo launched its Open Strategy with plans to infuse social networking throughout its sites. The message: Social networking is a feature not a destination.
Time will tell who is right.
May 12th, 2008
On polite police
The Register is reporting on a pilot program in the UK under which police officers will have video cameras sticking out of their helmets. The goal is to encourage good behavior on the part of suspects (and, I suppose, on the part of police officers).
So What?
I’ve long thought that ubiquitous video cameras will breed new levels of politeness in the citizenry, but it recently hit me that there’s going to be another area where we’ll see a significant impact: Bars.
That’s right. Imagine a bar around midnight a few years from now, full of drunken patrons each with a miniature cell phone-connected lens implanted (cyclops-like) in his or her forehead. Why use such a thing? To deter crime, to recall names, to capture precious moments–whatever. We’ll all have them and they’ll be on most of the time.
What’s wrong with the bar scene described above? Simple: You’d have to be crazy to be drunk in front of those cameras. Slurred speech, lewd jokes, and everything else that goes with a late night on the town…the mind boggles. People won’t want their drunken antics taped and posted on Facebook. I mean, talk about your career-limiting moves and forget about getting elected.
But back to the police. Sometimes, being polite is not tenable. Under those circumstances, it’ll be tempting to turn off your camera (if that’s technically possible) in order to avoid later criticism. I don’t think that’ll fly: A gap in the record won’t go down well with juries or the press. So cameras may keep the UK police polite whether it’s tenable or not. And our own cameras will keep would-be muggers polite, as well (I guess that’s the way to look at it). Which is nice…but not much compensation for having to drink alone.
May 12th, 2008
Powerset’s search: Does it deliver?
Powerset has rolled out its semantic search engine and has managed to get a ton of attention. The larger question for me: Does it deliver? And where does Powerset make the most sense?
Powerset on Monday introduced its natural language search for Wikipedia content (Techmeme). This effort is really a proof of concept–a strong one–to indicate what is possible if the Web were to go semantic. Powerset has raised $12.5 million in Series A funding and as Dan Farber notes will need more money if it’s going to index the Web.
Also see: Paul Miller: Powerset shows semantic search solution
It is possible that Powerset will represent a big shift to semantic search but for those of us that just want results we’re not there yet. In fact, Powerset’s best application–assuming Microsoft doesn’t buy it as Dan advocates–is within the corporate world. Powerset extracts phrases and adds context around it to deliver results. This could come in handy in a company looking for memos from three years ago about negotiations for a licensing deal that wasn’t finalized.
The problem with any corporate focus for Powerset: Enterprise search players abound. And on the semantic Web side Sidearian already has some traction. But that’s a discussion for another day. Keep in mind that comparing Powerset to something like Google isn’t necessarily a fair fight since one indexes the Web and the other just Wikipedia. However, you do get a feel for things. Here’s an overview (gallery):
May 12th, 2008
More on RIM’s moat: Launches BlackBerry Bold; App developer fund
Business people can be hip too. That appears to be the message from Research in Motion and its motives behind its new BlackBerry Bold smartphone. There’s definitely a hint of some iPhone envy here, but the device isn’t a direct competitor.
From the statement (Matthew Miller’s take, Techmeme):
Crafted from premium materials, inside and out, that radiate elegance with a dramatic presence, the BlackBerry Bold is designed to give business professionals and power users unprecedented functionality and performance in an intuitive BlackBerry smartphone. It is the first BlackBerry smartphone to support tri-band HSDPA high-speed networks around the world and comes with integrated GPS and Wi-Fi, as well as a rich set of multimedia capabilities. From its lustrous black exterior, satin chrome finished frame and stylish leather-like backplate, to its stunning display, sophisticated user interface and newly designed full-QWERTY keyboard, the BlackBerry Bold smartphone is a symbol of accomplishment and aspiration.
Accomplishment? Aspiration? What happened to that corporate workhorse pitch and all of those security features?
Also see: RIM’s Balsillie: ‘Not religious’ about form factors; B2B the company’s core
The Bold is clearly targeting the corporate type that wants to look a little trendy. The Bold is “business-grade” but is also targeted at the prosumer. As Jim Balsillie said last week you can’t move corporate devices without the consumer channel.
“Apple is obviously leveraging its B2C play, but we’ve found in wireless that B2B (smartphones) sell through B2C channels. You need B2C to sell B2B. And you have to have both. We view it as a channel play through carriers. Ninety percent of the work you do in B2B works for B2C.”
RIM clearly tips its hat to the iPhone with the Bold. It notes that it has a stunning display, desktop-style Web pages (quickly becoming prerequisite these days), multimedia features and hooks into WiFi and GPS. Details were scant about pricing other than the Bold will be available this summer.
Another key front for RIM is applications. RIM doesn’t do its own apps. While that fact theoretically can make RIM a good partner for software companies like SAP it also leaves the company at the mercy of developers. If they don’t show, RIM can fall behind. To that end, RIM is launching a $150 million venture capital fund with Thomson Reuters and RBC. The BlackBerry Partners Fund is “agnostic to both stage and balance sheet” and “will not restrict the development of mobile applications and services to any single mobile platform or any specific industry segment.”
May 12th, 2008
News to know: Facebook; OpenOffice; Firefox; RIM
Notable headlines:
Paula Rooney: Firefox 3 RC1 code complete, due in late May
Joe McKendrick: Is anyone ready to process a trillion events per day?
Tom Foremski: Informatica is on the block say senior sources
Michael Krigsman: Hosted software development: an emerging market [interview and podcast]
Kara Swisher/BoomTown: Facebook’s CTO D’Angelo to Leave
Jason O’Grady: All USB ports aren’t created equal David Morgenstern: Freeze Frame 2.0 becomes Bokeh 1.0
Christopher Dawson: Is the time right for iPhones in Ed Tech?
Adrian Kingsley-Hughes: Climate Counts tells climate-conscious buyers to avoid Apple Ed Bott: Why do Macs need so much fixing?
Roland Piquepaille: A sailing robot to cross the Atlantic
Phil Wainewright: VCs put big sums into SaaS
Dawson: Will Microsoft kill Linux on ULPCs?
Kingsley-Hughes: First look at OpenOffice.org 3.0 beta. Gallery (right)
Mary Jo Foley: Microsoft not pulling XP SP3 again (so far).
Dan Farber: Is Microsoft stalking Powerset’s search technology?
Matthew Miller: RIM officially announces the BlackBerry Bold and a $150 million development fund
Larry Dignan: Wall Street: Too much sway over the tech sector?
- Anshu Sharma: Run by Wall St? Cause or Company?
San Francisco Chronicle: Yahoo working to stand alone after Microsoft deal’s demise
NYT: Stolen Laptop Helps Turn Tables on Suspects
Richard Koman: U.S. sold 3,500 fake networking parts
Garett Rogers: Gmail can be used as “Spam Bazooka” Tom Foremski: Why MSFT must make an acquisition in online media
Rik Fairlie: Network Magic simplifies tasks for home users
Photos: Top 10 reviews of the week (right)
Richard Koman: Another net neutrality bill, in a Comcast-charged atmosphere
Garett Rogers: Google accepting donations to aid Myanmar relief effort
TechCrunch: The iFund Has Competition: $150 Million Blackberry Fund To Be Announced Soon
VentureBeat: Reports of the 3G iPhone’s imminent release may be slightly exaggeratedO’Grady: Psystar: Just how loud is it? (updated 2x)
Dana Blankenhorn: Google’s open source problem is Affero
Gallery: Satellite images of killer cyclone (right)
Dennis Howlett: A conversation with Charles Phillips, president Oracle
TechRepublic: Setting up a remote hot site
- Problems with XP SP3 highlight the need to beware of updates
- Xirrus explains why IT can now afford to ‘ditch the switch’
Is Microsoft the answer to Africa’s health woes?
- Africans tie mobile data to health care improvements
- The Obama Party and the Googlization of politics
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May 11th, 2008
They died for Reddi-Wip?
Jon Edwards often manages what appears impossible. He has recovered precious data from computers wrecked in floods and fires and dumped in lakes. Now Edwards may have set a new standard: He found information on a melted disk drive that fell from the sky when space shuttle Columbia disintegrated in 2003.
“When we got it, it was two hunks of metal stuck together. We couldn’t even tell it was a hard drive. It was burned and the edges were melted,” said Edwards, an engineer at Kroll Ontrack Inc., outside Minneapolis. “It looked pretty bad at first glance, but we always give it a shot.”
Associated Press: Data from Columbia disk drives survived the shuttle accident
and the fruits of the data recovery, you ask?
Let’s do a little science experiment. If you have a can of whipped cream in the fridge, go get it out. Spray a generous dollop into a spoon and watch carefully.
Notice anything interesting? The whipped cream just did something rather puzzling. First it flowed smoothly out of the nozzle like a liquid would, and then, a moment later, it perched rigidly in the spoon as if it were solid. What made it change?
Whipped cream performs this rapid changing act because of a phenomenon called “shear thinning.” When part of the foam is forced to slide or “shear” past the rest of the foam, the foam “thins.” It becomes less like honey and more like water, allowing it to flow easily until the shearing stops.